BBC Studios, out now

The final story of the Second Doctor edited, colorised and rescored…

The home entertainment version of this new version of The War Games benefits from a slightly longer running time – 96 minutes against the broadcast 90 – and although it doesn’t seem much, it’s been well-used, feeling as if the story has that tiny bit more space to breathe. (The release also includes the three original discs from The War Games’ DVD from many years ago, so if you want to revel in the whole of Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke’s tale, you can.)

There are certain elements to it that will either bring a smile to your face or will annoy – Mark Ayres incorporates Dudley Simpson’s score (not just from The War Games) as well as a couple of themes that might strongly suggest a link between one of the characters and another who first appeared a couple of years later. (It might be noted that the character’s co-creator specifically refuted this idea in the second of the New Adventures…) The aliens’ base turns up a few times as a new model shot, and it’s well worth a look at the concept art section on the Blu-ray to see a rather more industrial version that was proposed during the creation of this new edition. The other extras include an informative interview, as well as the cleaned up black and white 16mm footage that was found and incorporated. There’s the option of a Dolby Atmos mix, which adds further depth, and a commentary that I won’t spoil!

There’s a moment where, should you wish, you can interpolate the Second Doctor being taken off to work for the CIA (think of how Time Crash ties to Voyage of the Damned) and/or be dumped to live in a hotel on Earth to get used to the idea, but this provides yet another take on that unseen regeneration, with some genuine Pertwee mixed with some less-than-convincing CGI. It’s a nice little idea that gives a chance for a tad more colorised footage, but if you want to stop when Troughton is whirling away, no one can stop you.

It’ll be interesting to see if we get another of these colorised, re-edited adventures – after all, the Collections team have given us new versions of various stories, notably the Season 25 tales. The obvious stories – The Tenth Planet, say – aren’t fully available, although it might be fun to get a pacier version of The Seeds of Death…

Verdict: Light years better than The Daleks in Colour, this is a fast paced take that stands up to a second viewing. 8/10

Paul Simpson