Colour coordinating the return of the Doctor
- Publication: The Stage and Television Today
- Date: 1992-11-12
- Author:
- Page: 20
- Language: English
FANS of BBC 1's 'missing presumed dead' science fiction drama serial Dr Who who plague this column with their incessant campaign to have the show revived can take consolation. Auntie is still showing some interest in the programme, as demonstrated by its willingness to fork out for four seventies stones to be restored for broadcast.
In the early seventies it was common practice in the BBC's film library to make two copies of its master tapes - one on colour video, and one on black and white 16mm film. The colour copies were later wiped by Auntie, who did not realise what a little goldmine Dr Who would be in years to come.
More recently, attempts have been made to recover some of the lost episodes with extensive searches made both here and overseas, with remarkable results; missing tapes of sixties story The Tomb Of The Cybermen were issued on video earlier this year and shot to the top of the charts.
Now the Beeb has used the latest technology to 'colourise' 23 episodes from the seventies starring Jon Pertwee, by electronically combining the existing black and white film footage with recently unearthed home videos made by an American viewer.
BBC graphic designer Ralph Montagu, who worked on the restoration with archive programme unit executive producer John Whiston and Rank-Cintel video tape systems designer James Russell, comments: "The end result does look a bit strange to the expert eye, but we think it is acceptable for transmission."
Their achievement is considerable. One 20-second scene took two hours to rebuild, with Montagu and Russell spending more than 40 hours on the first story to be completed in this exercise, the five-part adventure from 1971, The Daemons, which is scheduled for broadcast later this month on BBC2.
Restoration on further stories has now begun, co-funded by the film and VT library, programme sales and home video departments, with a second story, The Terror Of The Autons, due to be screened at the National Film Theatre next month.
All of which should cheer up Dr Who fans everywhere - who may be even more heartened to learn of BBC I controller Jonathan Powell's decision to quit his post by the end of next year. Powell is the reportedly the man who has resisted reviving the programme - so 1994 could be the year the TARDIS rematerialises ...
• Dr Who: The Daemons can be seen from Friday November 20 at 7.15pm on BBC2; The Terror Of The Autons will be shown at the NFT on Saturday December 12 at 6.20pm (details on 071-928 3232).
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- APA 6th ed.: (1992-11-12). Colour coordinating the return of the Doctor. The Stage and Television Today p. 20.
- MLA 7th ed.: "Colour coordinating the return of the Doctor." The Stage and Television Today [add city] 1992-11-12, 20. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Colour coordinating the return of the Doctor." The Stage and Television Today, edition, sec., 1992-11-12
- Turabian: "Colour coordinating the return of the Doctor." The Stage and Television Today, 1992-11-12, section, 20 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Colour coordinating the return of the Doctor | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Colour_coordinating_the_return_of_the_Doctor | work=The Stage and Television Today | pages=20 | date=1992-11-12 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=19 September 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Colour coordinating the return of the Doctor | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Colour_coordinating_the_return_of_the_Doctor | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=19 September 2025}}</ref>
