Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: doctor who, The War Games

Doctor Who: The War Games Colour Edit Will Include Regeneration Scene

Doctor Who: The War Games will get a 90-minute colorized re-edit that also includes the Second Doctor regenerating into the Third Doctor.

Published Sat, 14 Dec 2024 07:38:06 -0600

by Adi Tantimedh

Last updated Sat, 14 Dec 2024 12:44:23 -0600

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Another classic era story from Doctor Who is getting colourised and a re-edit for modern audiences. This year, it's "The War Games," the Second Doctor's (Patrick Troughton) final adventure, and the final story to be filmed in black and white. The Doctor, Jamie (Frazier Hines), and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) have to fight The War Chief (Philip Madoc), a renegade Time Lord bent on conquering the universe by abducting armies from across time and brainwashing into fighting endless war games with live rounds. The original serial ran for ten weeks and totaled four hours in runtime. Current series producer Phil Collinson has been in charge of the colourisation and re-edit, and promises not only a pacier 90-minute cut on top of the colourisation, but it will feature new footage that was never seen before.

Doctor Who: The War Games Colour Re-Edit Will Feature New Footage — "Doctor Who: The War Games": BBC

Showrunner Russell T. Davies had said, "From the day I arrived back on Doctor Who, this was the plan. To colourise old stories and bring them back to life. And on Doctor Who Day itself, it's great to announce this, celebrating the show's wonderful heritage with an all-time classic. It looks so vivid and new – and for fans of black-and-white, the story in its original form will stay on BBC iPlayer, so everyone wins!"

"We always wanted to do a Patrick Troughton story after The Daleks," Collinson told the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. "And of course, the fact that this is a complete story helped with the decision, but also, with these later black-and-white episodes, you really notice the quality of the original footage. It's a lot crisper than the earlier ones, so that follows with the colourized film too. When you watch this, it will stand up really well against any of the colour episodes from the 1970s."

Unearthing Doctor Who New Footage

"We thought we were picture locked back in January," says Benjamin Cook, who worked in re-edit. "But then, at the end of September, the Radio Free Skaro podcast did an interview with Chris Hayden, the original film editor on The War Games back in the 1960s. And he mentioned that he had some film footage in his garage that he had edited for his showreel back when he was applying for work in America. Chris very kindly sent the footage over from Canada. It's been restored so fast, and it's beautiful quality – there are a few seconds of footage that have never been seen before. It's a missing footage discovery of sorts. It was perfect timing because if we had heard about it a couple of weeks later, it would have been too late to do anything in time for the transmission date."

Rich Tipple noted, "This was an unbelievable turn-up. It just adds to this experience and people are going to see The War Games on TV in a way they've never seen it before."

The new edit will also feature a new regeneration scene where the Second Doctor turns into the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee). This is surprising, considering Pertwee's first season wasn't filmed or broadcast for a year, so is it a new scene created via CGI? We'll just have to wait and see.

"The War Games" was a landmark story in Doctor Who since it was the first ever appearance of the Doctor's people, the Time Lords, and his home planet Gallifrey, though it would not be named for years. It started the ball rolling for the series' lore for decades to come. Author Diana Gabaldon was reportedly inspired by watching this serial to write her novels and naming her male lead "Jamie" after the Second Doctor's companion, so you could say Outlander is another "Doctor Who without the Doctor" series.

Doctor Who: The War Games, the coloured re-edit, will be broadcast on BBC4 and the iPlayer in the UK on December 23rd, and a Blu-Ray release will be announced later.

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