We might consider today as the end of a journey that began in September 2016 when the animation of The Power of the Daleks was announced. And it’s now available as a Collector’s Edition Limited Edition steelbook, including the animated serial in black and white on DVD and Blu-ray, and a colourised version!
If you’re unfamiliar with steelbooks… where have you been?! These are sturdier copies of (generally) Blu-rays – though you can sometimes find DVDs in such cases too – typically with an artistic design wrapping around the metal. In the UK, Zavvi has made quite a name for itself by releasing select titles in steelbooks, notably Disney, Marvel, and classic sci-fi; indeed, that’s where you can a metallic copy of Spearhead from Space. Other steelbooks include Doctor Who Series 9, with art by Alice X. Zhang (exclusive to Amazon); the 1960s Dalek movies starring Peter Cushing; and the Limited Edition ‘crack in time’ Series 5.
For The Power of the Daleks, Stuart Manning (best known for his Radio Times posters, accompanying Peter Capaldi’s tenure as the Twelfth Doctor) has created a stunning wraparound piece that beautifully evokes Sixties science fiction.
In case you missed the news, The Power of the Daleks is the first missing serial to be animated in full by BBC Worldwide. The hand-drawn black and white animation is synchronised with a digitally remastered recording of the original 1966 audio… and you can now see it in colour! This four-disc steelbook is presumably the final addition to the multi-platform release, which began on the digital-only BBC Store, with a DVD following, and screenings on BBC America.
This might be the end of a journey that began in September 2016, but we’ll never stop loving The Power of the Daleks; thanks to this animation, more people than ever are able to enjoy the work of Patrick Troughton, Anneke Wills, Michael Craze, David Whitaker, Dennis Spooner, Christopher Barry, and many more.