StudioCanal, out now

Peter Cushing’s first outing as Dr. Who given a complete makeover.

The history of the Peter Cushing movies is well known and has been rehearsed many times in recent weeks; in brief, this is a cinematic retelling of the first story, known to most as The Daleks, with the seven television episodes reworked into an 85 minute feature film, starring Cushing as a very human Doctor, with his granddaughters Barbara and Susan and the former’s boyfriend, Ian. At the time it was the first opportunity for fans to see the Daleks in colour, and for all that they weren’t quite the Daleks that they knew from TV – fire extinguishers as weapons, rather than the guns the TV metal mutants used; a weird way of talking (caused because the correlation between flashing lights and dialogue wasn’t understood initially) – for young audiences, this is what they wanted!

The new StudioCanal restoration is simply incredible – there are aspects of the image I’d simply not spotted before (and I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve seen the two movies, either on the big screen or TV) and the colours don’t so much leap out as grab you by the eyeballs and drag you in! Mark Ayres’ restoration of the soundtrack makes everything crystal clear, and there’s an attention to detail across the board that is commendable.

The price for the collector’s edition isn’t cheap but you get a lot for your money – as well as art cards, posters of the new artwork, a booklet of new writing (not available for review), and an excerpt from Titan’s forthcoming history of the films, there’s a new feature about the making, as well as the restoration. There’s a choice of two commentaries – Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey’s has the benefit of their personal memories, the one from Kim Newman, Robert Shearman and Mark Gatiss provides perspective and some fun moments. Older material includes the Dalekmania documentary and an interview with Gareth Owen.

Verdict: A stunning presentation of the movie. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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