The First Doctor’s final adventure The Tenth Planet is to have its lost fourth episode animated for DVD release, the BBC's official doctorwho.tv site has confirmed.

Teased yesterday at the Gallifrey One convention by Dan Hall, commissioning editor of the classic Doctor Who DVD range, The Tenth Planet sees both the introduction of the menacing, dead-eyed Cybermen, and the departure of The First Doctor, William Hartnell. The final episode has been missing from the BBC Archives since the mid-1970s, and will be reconstructed using the same Thetamation process used to recreate The Reign of Terror episodes 4 and 5.

Dan Hall said:

"It’s a real thrill to be bringing such an iconic Doctor Who episode back to life. Without the events established in The Tenth Planet episode 4, there would be no Doctor Who as we know it!"

The release date is currently scheduled for Late 2013.

View a clip of Episode One, below:

[Source: doctorwho.tv]

 Day Thirty-Nine: A Change of Identity (The Reign of Terror, Episode Three)

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Nine: A Change of Identity (The Reign of Terror, Episode Three)

Dear diary,

There's something of a conception of the First Doctor as being a bit of a fuddy-duddy. He's often thought of as a bit of a bumbling, kindly grandfather figure, who's not quite the Doctor, but fills the same role. It's not helped by the regular occurrence of 'Billy Fluffs', either.

Here, though, the First Doctor is absolutely fantastic. The way he handles himself in the clothes shop, and the way he them presents himself to the jailer, it's an image of a man who's in full control. It's easy enough, when looking at these scenes, to imagine the 'old man' stuff is little more than an act - a way to disguise a devilishly intelligent man, who knows how to manipulate the situation to get what he wants.

Of course, it all seems to have backfired come the final scene, in which the ring that the Doctor has bartered away comes back to haunt him.

It's also nice to see the series starting to make use of its new ability to shoot in TV Centre itself. Though a few episodes I've already been through were made there, this is the first time, really, that the full implications of this can be seen on the screen. An early scene of a busy French street, into which the Doctor enters is fantastic - it's grander than I'm used to seeing on the show, and really does help to make this story feel bigger than usual.

The shots of William Russell's scenes, still shot on film (he was, presumably, still in Spain!) continue to look like something from a production other than Doctor Who. In this episode, he makes an escape from his prison cell, and the more I watch it, the more I lament that fact that more of the show doesn't look like this. The film really does give these scenes a rich texture that's sadly lacking in other places. Mind you, they still remind me of early Eastern European cinema!

I'd not considered it when writing yesterday's entry, but a lot of that feel may come from the director himself. I'd forgotten that Henric Hirsch had directed the story, and was from Hungary. There could well be intention behind the style, rather than it simply being a side-effect of shooting these scenes early on. It's almost a shame that we'll be loosing this style.

Oh, and all right. I didn't want to mention it too much yesterday, but let's be honest; Susan is rubbish in this story, isn't she? I'm wondering, now, if this may be where my entire dislike for Susan had come from. All the way through this marathon, I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I've taken to her - but here…!

All she's done so far is whine and moan… here, she nearly ruins their only chance of escape by complaining instead about her headache and her bad back and how tired she is… I'm hoping this is all leading somewhere, or there's no reason to be kicking up such a fuss! If she'd not been on holiday back during The Aztecs, I'd think they were getting ready to pack her off on one now!

Tomorrow is going to be interesting; I'll finally reach one of the new animated episodes! I've been excited to see them for quite some time, so I'm sure it's going to be a sleepless night, tonight. It's like Christmas Eve - I'm waiting for Santa to come!

Next Episode: The Tyrant of France

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Eight: Guests of Madame Guillotine (The Reign of Terror, Episode Two)

Dear diary,

All the regulars have managed a bit of a break for a trip to Spain, now, then! I'm surprised that I've never noticed it before, but the last four stories have each seen time taken off by one of our regulars. I think watching in order like this makes things more apparent, as does the shift between videotape and film. There was a time that I'd never really noticed the shift, but now I spend more time watching archive telly than modern stuff (I don't even own a television!), I've become more accustomed to it.

The absence of William Russell from the story is done in a slightly odd way; it's a mixture of the 'cutting right out of the story' that we had in The Keys of Marinus and The Sensorites with a bit of the 'only there for pre-filmed inserts' seen in The Aztecs. I say this because Ian still appears in his cell, and during a brief shot early on, but there's some bizarre attempts to hide him in other scenes.

One particularly noticeable one starts with Ian having just been chucked in the cell, and not responding to Susan's calls. I'm a bit surprised they didn't at least play in a recording of William Russell reassuring her or something!

I think it's also quite noticeable simply because of how different the Ian bits of the story look. The fact that they're shot on film, combined with what seems to be an unusually high exposure rate make them look like Russian cinema of the 1920s (my specialist subject at degree level. That came in useful…). It's never more noticeable than when we cut to a reaction of Ian while they're trying to appeal - you almost expect it to cut away to a caption!

All of this sounds like I'm complaining, which I'm not, really. This has been another episode I've enjoyed, although I'm not overly sure that a lot has happened. In many ways, this feels like the second half of an Episode One - everyone is being moved into the right position, and the strands of the story are being introduced. On the one hand, we have Ian being given a mission to seek out James Stirling. Susan and Barbara are being carted off to meet the Guillotine (setting up, I'm sure, a daring escape for tomorrow's episode!), and the Doctor is making his way to Paris.

With the Doctor's part in the story, we're given the series' very first location footage - and it's really quite good! The shots linger on a bit, perhaps; there's one show of the Doctor crossing a cornfield that seems to hold on just to say 'look! It's not a painted backdrop! He can keep walking!', but they're all really effective. The locations chosen are great, and it's pretty easy to picture them as being in France. It helps that the weather seems to have stayed nice for the day!

A lot gets made of the scene in An Unearthly Child, where the Doctor considers using a rock to smash a caveman's skull. It's often cited as an example of the Doctor's callousness at the very start of the series. I even talked about it for this very blog about a month ago (and concluded that, actually, it's not as bad as people make it out to be).

Why, then, does no one mention this episode? The Doctor - in an attempt to escape from a captor and get back on with his mission - tricks him into bending down… then whacks him with a shovel! You could argue that he just knocks him flat on the back, but that doesn't seem to be the implication from the way its been directed. Crikey! This is by far the most violent we've seen the Doctor so far. I'm baffled that it doesn't get brought up more often!

Oh, and I don't want to dwell on it, but blimey, Susan must be driving Barbara mental.

Next Episode: A Change of Identity

Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...

Day Thirty-Seven: A Land of Fear (The Reign of Terror, Episode One)

Dear diary,

I love it when this marathon throws up odd little coincidences. The first recon I watched - for Marco Polo - came on the same day that I saw The Hobbit in its 48fps version. Coming home from that to a tele snap recon that was less than 48 frames per minute? Bit of a culture shock.

Today, I've embarked on The Reign of Terror having spent my afternoon in a cinema watching Les Miserables . It's a full on French Revolution Day for me! Thankfully, having spent two-and-a-half hours trying to stay awake in the cinema (the misses loved it, though, so that's something…), I've really rather enjoyed this.

I should say, before I discuss the episode itself, that I've been purposely avoiding the Reign of Terror DVD for quite some time, now. I started thinking about this marathon several months ago, before we had any preview clips, and so I've avoided them ever since. It's been a tricky ten days or so since the DVD turned up, because I can hear the newly animated episodes calling to me… Still, it's only another few days, and I'm sure I'll appreciate them more by watching them in context like this.

I didn't mention it yesterday, but the cliffhanger comes rather out of nowhere, doesn't it? I've just spent a while praising how far the Doctor has come as a character over the course of this first series, and how much he's bonded with Ian and Barbara, and then one slightly mis-stepped sentence, and the Doctor's throwing them off the ship!

It still feels a bit odd here, when he sets them down and tells them to be off. I'm not sure if it's all going to come round by the end of the story, with him announcing that he doesn't really want them to go (Ian muses early on that he's not really that disappointed that they're off on another adventure together), but for now it feels more than a little jarring. It seems like the Doctor has gone right back to his old self again. Still, i I like the idea that the faults we've witnessed with the TARDIS are quite recent, as is the Police Box look, and that the Doctor isn't used to not having control over his ship yet.

And then we're off! The first time I saw Reign of Terror (many years ago, on a poor quality VHS) I knew that it was the first time the series had done any location work - and I thought it was these opening scenes in the woodland! Looking at it now, on a freshly spruced-up DVD, and having spent just over a month looking at the show's sets, it's quite clear that this bit is only a studio, but it's still looking pretty good.

I was also a bit surprised to work out that this is the first child we've seen in the series since the kids at Coal Hill right back in the first episode. Coming at it from the Matt Smith era, where lots of stories revolve around children, it seems quite bizarre! I'm guessing from his panicked look towards the end of the episode that he'll be back to help the Doctor out during Episode Two.

The cliffhanger here is pretty good, and certainly better than the last episode's. Ian, Barbara, and Susan getting carted off to Paris while the Doctor remains stuck in a burning farmhouse is very typical of Season One - splitting the team up ready to get the adventure going - but it works well enough. I'm also quite keen on the model of the burning farmhouse; The effect of the roof caving in is particularly well done.

All in all, it's a good start to the story, as I've come to expect from historical stories. I'm looking forward to following it on…

Next Episode: Guests of Madame Guillotine

Manufacturer: BBC Worldwide Consumer Products

Written By: Dennis Spooner

RRP: £20.42

Release Date: 28th January 2013

Reviewed By: Dale Who for Doctor Who Online

Review Posted: 13th January 2013

When The Doctor lands the TARDIS back on Earth with the express intention of putting Barbara and Ian off the Ship, the original crew find themselves caught up in the tail end of the infamously bloody and grisly French Revolution. In 1794 Paris, crawling with ne'er-do-wells, jumped up "citizens" and people who'd sell their own grandmother, the time travellers must not only reach the safety of the TARDIS once more, they must avoid losing their own heads to the guillotine. Separated from each other, stranded in a different time, and heading for the chop, things are looking bleak for the team...

Episodes Four and Five of The Reign of Terror are missing from the archive; however using the same ingenuity previously shown in The Invasion release with Patrick Troughton, the missing episodes have been animated, and then matched to the extant soundtrack to complete the story for release. The animated instalments may not have the polish of the Cosgrove Hall episodes from the Troughton release, but the work here is top notch, intricately detailed, and doesn't detract at all from the story being told. The artwork for the characters and sets is beautiful - and showcased later in the DVD.

So without any further ado, let's Carry On...

Don't Lose Your Head - The de rigeur "making of" featurette. Carol Ann Ford, still with that mischievous twinkle in her eye, and William Russell lead the talking heads discussing green directors, walking to France, buckets to catch rain in, and the curse of Lime Grove studios.

The documentary touches on some less than happy subjects - such as nervous breakdowns on set - and it's sadly here where the featurette gets bogged down and somewhat less than glowing in review. Thankfully, however, eventually it all has a happy ending; mostly down to TV Centre, and people recovering from illness. An honest look back, warts and all, as it were.

Robespierre's Domain Set Tour - An animated extra, no less!  It's basically a look around the set design of the Prison from the story, set to lots of really annoyingly echo and reverbed sound bites.

It's all beautifully done, and very short; and if you can tune out the mucked-around-with sound, a stunning, brief look at what's basically some lovely artwork.

Commentary - Toby Hadoke chairs the discussion once more; in attendance are Tim Combe (Production Assistant), Carol Ann Ford (Susan), and various guest cast members take the third seat in each episode. Toby and guests have a lot more issues when it comes to talking about the animated episodes; they hadn't been done when the commentary was recorded, so full marks to them from trooping bravely onwards! Lots of gentle behind the scenes nattering with nothing new or earth-shattering to impart, but it's nice to hear anecdotes from people who filmed this story nearly fifty years ago, and are still happy to talk about the time they spent on Doctor Who.

Photo Gallery/Animation Gallery - Yup, there's two of 'em! The first is the usual stills gallery of publicity and behind the scenes shots; with some rather nice candid snaps in there. The second gallery however is much more interesting, showing the design schematics for animating the main cast members - and they look superb. From William Hartnell and his walking stick and ring, to an incredible shot of Barbara going from photo to artwork, this is a little gem of a library.

Info Text - Four episodes only of the fun facts and trivial tales this time. From the historic first time the full sized TARDIS prop had been filmed landing onwards, the usual array of information and career information on the stars meanders happily on until we reach the end of episode three, at which point it states it will return in episode six. There's no info text for the two animated episodes at all.

Coming Soon Trailer - It's another special edition release: Tom Baker's second story gets another look in, as The Ark In Space gets a makeover edition. It's Time Lord versus Wirrn, and an amazing story to boot. One thing though: if the adult Wirrn have six legs, why do they all shuffle/hop about on their bum?

With the usual Subtitles and Audio Navigation available, and the PDF Radio Times clippings should you view the DVD on your computer, The Reign Of Terror is a wonderful treat for fans who never thought they'd see this story released. The quality and sound are optimal as always, and the animation is sublime. The extras  aren't huge in quantity, but are certainly of outstanding quality. A real treat of a DVD, with a strong story, Hartnell on perfect form, and a rare quality historical piece that all too quickly vanished from Doctor Who.

+  Compare Prices for this product on CompareTheDalek.com!

BBC Consumer Products have sent DWO the cover and details for the Doctor Who DVD release of The Reign Of Terror.

The Reign Of Terror
Featuring: The 1st Doctor

The TARDIS materialises not far from Paris in 1794 - one of the bloodiest years following the French Revolution of 1789.

The travellers become involved with an escape chain rescuing prisoners from the guillotine and get caught up in the machinations of an English undercover spy, James Stirling - alias Lemaitre, governor of the Conciergerie Prison.

With many of the episodes missing footage but having found audio, Reign of Terror has been lovingly restored using striking animation.

Special Features:

•  Audio Commentary
•  Don't Lose Your Head
•  Set Tour 
•  Photo Gallery
•  Animation Gallery
•  PDF materials: Radio Times Listings
•  Production Note Subtitles 
•  Digitally remastered picture and sound quality

+  The Reign Of Terror is released on 28th January 2013, priced £20.42.

+  Compare Prices for this product on CompareTheDalek.com.

[Source: BBC Consumer Products]

2|Entertain have confirmed via their @classicdw Twitter feed, that the missing episodes for the upcoming The Reign of Terror DVD release will be animated.

The news will be hugely welcomed from fans who have petitioned and indeed championed for further animated, missing episodes, since the popular release of The Invasion DVD in 2006. Big Finish's Thetamation have been confirmed as the animation parters.

2|Entertain's Commissioning Editor, Dan Hall, also uploaded an early test graphic [pictured right], representing how the animation will look.

It is yet to be confirmed whether any more missing episodes will be animated for other forthcoming releases.

+  Post 2|Entertain's Commissioning Editor, Dan Hall, a question in the DWO Forums.

+ Find all your favourite Doctor Who titles today at LOVEFiLM. LOVEFiLM is the home of home dvd rental and streaming movies. Sign up today and recieve a 2 week free trial.

[Source: 2|Entertain]

DWO can exclusively reveal that The 6th Doctor adventure; Vengeance on Varos will be released on DVD in 2012.

2|Entertain Classic Doctor Who Commissioning Editor, Dan Hall spoke to DWO regarding the release and had the following to say:

"We have been surprised and delighted by the fan campaigns that have championed for a Special Edition release of Vengeance on Varos, and due to the good old fashioned display of fan power that Doctor Who is famous for, 2|Entertain have listened and can confirm a fast commission for the release in 2012."

The Vengeance on Varos Special Edition DVD was originally slated to be part of the Revisitations 2 box-set, but was later replaced in favour of The Seeds of Death. 2|Entertain have kindly supplied us with a draft copy of the original proposed box-art that would have included the story (pictured).

Earlier today, 2|Entertain also confirmed the Late 2012 release of The 1st Doctor adventure; The Reign of Terror via their Twitter feed.

[Source: 2|Entertain]