Galaxy 4 has now been released on DVD and Blu-ray in animated form. It's the first full Hartnell story to get this treatment. Previously only missing episodes were animated, in order to complete stories for which most of the material existed in the archives (the final part of The Tenth Planet, and the Episodes 4 and 5 of The Reign of Terror). Those loose episodes were in matching black & white, but as this is an entire story being animated, we get the option of viewing it in colour or monochrome.
Naturally, if you want to watch it with the surviving third episode - Airlock - then you would opt for the black & white version, which here takes up space on Disc One.
I chose to watch the colour version on Disc Two today, simply for a change, as I've watched Airlock and a previous reconstruction (on The Aztecs Special Edition DVD) in black & white quite a few times already.
They've gone for an orange / red palette for the planet - both the surface and the sky, which seems appropriate as the planet we're on is doomed to blow up in two days (or two dawns, to use the local vernacular).
The outer space shots of planets look rather gaudy and cartoonish, and therefore a bit tacky.
The Drahvins have been given blue uniforms, despite the eye-witness evidence of them being green when this was made. If they changed the colour because Vicki is wearing a green dress, then wouldn't it have been simpler to change that?
I'm not sure why they had to have a green TARDIS console. The one used in studio was green - but only because this would look white on black & white TV.
We don't have any telesnaps from this story, but we do have that third episode - so here we can see where they've made the biggest changes. The Rill spaceship is absolutely massive - the shape and size of a Gizan pyramid. The external area where the Rills are drilling appears to be constructed from transparent lattice work, and you can see the planet's surface beyond. The animated spaceship is a more solid affair - the Doctor and Vicki travelling along a number of corridors before they get to the place where the Rills are lurking. The Rills are kept back even more than in the broadcast version, only being seen fully in the fourth instalment.
Another change is to the first episode, where we get to see the spaceship battle which only gets talked about on the original broadcast.
One issue I continue to have with these recent 2D animations is the arms. There seems to be an impulse by the directors to have characters' arms constantly waving about. Things aren't helped by them being given particularly long arms to begin with. At least things aren't anywhere near as bad as the abomination that is Part Three of The Web of Fear.
My only other criticism of this animation is a big one - the likeness of the First Doctor. I don't think this looks like William Hartnell at all. (Please note that the cover image, as above, is better than the one used throughout the animation, which is rather poor).
With only the audio available until now, even with that earlier reconstruction, the ending of the story has always been a bit of an anti-climax. Presumably this was the case originally - the end of the planet probably just being a white-out. Here we actually get to see the destruction of the Drahvins in a volcanic inferno.
The story includes the cliff-hanger link to the following week's Mission to the Unknown. As this was technically the fifth episode of this production block it's a shame they couldn't have included it here. Perhaps it's been kept back for the Season 3 Blu-ray box-set.
The two main extras are a pair of documentaries. The first is a 'Making-of...' (38 minutes). This is a bit of a hybrid of a straightforward talking heads doc, with a Toby-Hadoke-spends-the-day-with-Peter-Purves-at-his-16th-Century-mansion piece. It's entertaining as well as informative (did you know that the Chumblies were actually beige in colour?). Purves never liked the story, and he doesn't really change his mind about it here - though he does appreciate it a little more. One of the nicest bits was when various interviewees gave their reactions to Chumblie sound effects - including their creator, Brian Hodgson. Whilst Purves disliked the story, Maureen O'Brien rather liked it thanks to the little robots.
One aspect of this documentary I particularly liked was its inclusion of Mervyn Pinfield's son, talking about his father. (Pinfield started directing this then fell ill, so Derek Martinus took over). Pinfield's role in the origins of Doctor Who is too often overlooked.
The second documentary (20 minutes) concerns the finding of the third episode ten years ago. This focussed on Airlock to begin with, then opened up into a more general look at how missing material has been rediscovered.
To the best of my knowledge, the next animated story to be released will be The Abominable Snowmen. Here's hoping that after this they will return to the Hartnell years for the next release. There's a lot missing from Season 3.
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