BBC Studios, out September 14

The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrive near a gas refinery – but why can the Doctor hear an ominous heartbeat coming from within one of the pipelines?

People of my generation (those born around the time that Doctor Who began on television – in the 1960s, that is) often have strong memories of watching Fury from the Deep, and certainly I recall the foam engulfing the control room. Even non-Who fans who saw the original remember “one on an oil rig”. It’s one of the missing serials from Patrick Troughton’s era that fans really hope may turn up at some point – but the odds have to be falling as each day passes. One of the many mid-70s fanzines did a comic strip version of at least the first episode; the script was turned into a novel by its original author Victor Pemberton; and we had two different audio versions – an edited one with Tom Baker narrating, and the full version with Frazer Hines filling in the gaps. During my time at DreamWatch we were offered pictures from the location filming; around the same time came the discovery of the censored clips from Australia.

And now we have a chance to relive it in two different forms on the latest BBC Studios release – the animation (in colour or black and white) and a version with the telesnaps (available with or without Frazer’s narration). The telesnaps are a great way of reliving the original and Derek Handley’s done a grand job, but it’s the new animation that is likely to gain the most attention.

The first thing to note is that it’s a very different style to that we’ve had in recent releases – which, as producer and director Gary Russell has noted, reflects the many different styles of TV Doctor Who (and also hearkens back to the many different types we’ve had in the past where the odd episode has been animated). It feels more fluid and the movement of characters more natural (bar the odd scene where the background doesn’t recede as characters approach the camera). The backgrounds are stunning – I’d have most of them as desktop pictures any time – and there’s a very filmic feel to it all. The main characters are clearly derived from the extant images of the cast, with Victor Maddern in particular capturing his many facial gymnastics, and Mr Oak and Mr Quill as scary as before.

Those extant images – mainly the telesnaps, but also as shown on disc 3, the behind the scenes shots – are the basis for this animation, but the team at Big Finish Creative haven’t felt constrained to reproduce the original production shot for shot. In the documentary about the show’s creation, Margot Hayhoe notes it felt like a feature film; this animated version has that scope. The control room is bigger, the area below larger and spookier; the supporting characters are more diverse, and there’s a lovely tribute to Paul Condon in later episodes. The comedy sequence at the start of episode 6 is now something much more dramatic but that plays to the strength of animation rather than multiple different facial contortions of the Doctor and co.in the helicopter.

Mark Ayres has worked his usual magic on the soundtrack, with the original version accompanied by  a new 5.1 mix (also downmixed into stereo), while Toby Hadoke marshals various different forces for the commentaries that are all well worth a listen. There’s subtitles and production notes on each episode – and I’m delighted that the colour and black and white versions have identical sound and subtitle options.

The extras are led by a terrific documentary from Chris Chapman and team – I suspect it’s a candidate for another RTS Award – which includes some fantastic footage from the still-standing “oil rigs” as well as incorporating archive pieces from Pemberton, Debbie Watling and Hugh David. All the surviving footage is presented in various ways, and the pictures from behind the scenes and there’s a short documentary by Paul Vanezis on the creation of the animation. There’s also Victor Pemberton’s original radio serial, The Slide.

But the critical question is: does Fury from the Deep stand up over 50 years later as a Doctor Who story? The answer is an unequivocal yes, and the Big Finish Creative team have given us a fascinating version of it.

Verdict: One of the missing classic (in both senses) Doctor Who tales brought to life well and accompanied by an excellent set of extras. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order Fury from the Deep from Amazon.co.uk