[Susan Foreman]

Every Change in The Daleks' Colorization in Doctor Who, Explained / CBR

"...Inevitably, turning seven episodes totaling around 175 minutes of runtime into a 75-minute feature means cutting a lot of material. Many of the cuts made to "The Daleks" are minor, with smaller moments being removed from larger scenes, sometimes with fragments of dialogue being added over the top of other shots to fill in missing information. However, larger segments have been removed as well, both to keep the story to its 75-minute time frame and to ensure it stands alone as a single feature-length story, eliminating links to the Doctor Who stories that came before and after.

One of the most noticeable edits to Doctor Who fans who are familiar with the original version of "The Daleks" occurs almost immediately. The first episode of the serial, "The Dead Planet," originally opened with the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara in the TARDIS, picking up from where the previous serial, "An Unearthly Child," left off. The colorized version instead opens on a shot of the Dalek city on Skaro, before panning down to the petrified forest, where the TARDIS lands. The TARDIS crew's initial exploration of Skaro has also been noticeably cut down, removing a scene that saw them discover a petrified metal animal, definitively indicating that they were no longer on Earth.

Other moments that were cut outright included sequences in which Ian and Barbara discussed their distrust of the Doctor. While these scenes made sense in the original context of Doctor Who's first season, as this was only Ian and Barbara's second outing in the TARDIS, they may have muddied the narrative when watching "The Daleks" as a standalone movie. A later scene in which the Daleks forced Susan to write a letter to the Thals, luring them into a trap, was also removed, rendered largely unnecessary by a scene showing the Thals reading the letter aloud. Much of the Thals' journey through Skaro's forests to reach the Dalek city was also cut, having originally taken the focus away from the Daleks and the Doctor for a large section of the serial.

Other cuts resulted in existing sequences being re-edited, often into fast-paced montages set to the adventure's revised soundtrack. Such sequences included the TARDIS team's escape from imprisonment in the Dalek city, which was transformed into something out of a Doctor Who heist movie. The sequence cuts quickly between each beat of the escape, intercuts Susan's description of the facility's layout with shots of the heroes navigating the corridors, and even adds a "ding" sound effect over Susan's sly wink to her comrades. Some of the Thals' ordeals in the forest are also now conveyed through similar montages.

As well as re-editing the existing episodes into a single feature film, the colorization of "The Daleks" added new elements to the classic Doctor Who serial. The opening scenes featured new footage of the TARDIS materializing in Skaro's forests, which originally occurred off-screen when the serial first aired. Other new footage includes newly composed establishing shots of the Dalek city on Skaro, which are featured throughout the story as a way of marking the passage of time, while also reasserting the city as the very heart of the story's central threat. With the Daleks confined to their city and the heroes repeatedly lured into it, the metal spires and futuristic buildings represent the ultimate threat that Skaro faces.

Alterations have also been made to the dialogue of "The Daleks." In some cases, this only involves moving lines around or making minor tweaks. One scene sees a Dalek make reference to their "Kaled forefathers" -- originally, this had been "Dalek forefathers," as the Daleks' ancestors would not be named Kaleds until the 1975 story, "Genesis of the Daleks." Other scenes feature the Daleks espousing entirely new dialogue, provided by the modern series' Dalek voice actor, Nicholas Briggs. One sequence sees two Daleks plot to construct a fake message from Susan, explaining away the deleted scene in which Susan was forced to write this message herself. The dialogue completely replaces a scene that saw the Daleks discuss their plans in vaguer term

The Daleks are also seen screaming classic catchphrases, such as "Exterminate!" and "My vision is impaired! I cannot see!" -- lines that would not be spoken until some years after this initial appearance of the Daleks on Doctor Who. Their battle cry is also accompanied by shots of Dalek gunsticks firing laser beams, as is seen in the modern series of Doctor Who. This serial had originally just used close-ups of the Daleks' guns with a physical mechanism extending from them to indicate when they were firing. Other updated visual effects include POV shots, utilizing the blue tint and digital markings of a Dalek's lens display. This again brings the colorized version more in line with modern Doctor Who's depictions of the Daleks.

The final modern component that has been added to "The Daleks" is the new soundtrack, composed by Mark Ayres. The new soundtrack incorporates and builds upon the serial's original score, injecting it with new life and drama. The faster cutting and altered editing of the colorized version of "The Daleks" demands a score that can keep up with the pace of the action. In the new montages of what were once slower, lengthier scenes, the modern soundtrack serves as a driving force, carrying the audience through the narrative.

Of course, the greatest change and greatest achievement of the colorized version of "The Daleks" is the colorization itself. This is not necessarily the straightforward colorization fans may have been expecting and some creative choices have surprised long-time Doctor Who fans. For instance, the original TARDIS control room's console was painted a light green and its floor blue, in order to show up better when filmed in black and white. The colorization renders the console in the white and silver hues it was always intended to have, but uses the blue of the set for the floor, injecting more color into the classic TARDIS interior set.

In many ways, "The Daleks" may have struck fans as an odd choice of serial to re-release as a colorized story. The majority of the story takes place in what appear to be gray, colorless corridors in the Daleks' city on Skaro. However, the colorization artists have looked to the original sets as one point of reference and have carefully considered every color choice that is made throughout the story. The Dalek city is now painted in silver, blue and gold, making it far more striking than it originally appeared. This colorization also appears to bring the story closer, visually, to Dr. Who and the Daleks, a movie adaptation of the story, which starred Star Wars' Peter Cushing as the Doctor.

The colorization also enhances the new POV shots from the Daleks' lenses, adds an ominous red hue to Skaro's skies, brings splendor to the exterior of the Dalek city and injects life into the forests of Skaro. At the end of the episode, the colorization artists' work gets a chance to shine with an impressive montage of clips from other classic Doctor Who stories, also now rendered in color. This may hint that future colorizations are coming to the Whoniverse, as Russell T Davies' new era of Doctor Who continues to expand beyond the main show, with future spinoffs and specials already in the works."