Great news! http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/article/classic-doctor-who-to-be-animated-for-dvd-release
Yay! That picked me up after the buzzkill of learning the missing episodes of The Ice Warriors won't be (at least according to Wikipedia).
That's not confirmed yet. There was an article that repeated the already-known fact that the VHS reconstruction would be included, and the Doctor Who News Page initially took that to mean there would be only the reconstruction, no animation, but the original article doesn't explicitly say so. The news page corrected its article, but someone had already copied the assumption to Wikipedia. I've just removed it.
I'm gonna lay my cards on the table now and say that throwaway footage of Lesterson on the Planet 55 website is from a condensed reconstruction of The Power of the Daleks and will also feature on this DVD (similarly to how Marco Polo was condensed on The Beginning box set). I called it.
Onbe thing I'd like from this, though it'd probably be asking too much as it would have to be there as an alternate version and that might complicate things more than it's worth, but anyway... The 1st Doctor's last lines in the console room got dropped during recording, possibkly because they were running out of time. So long as it was only as an alternate version, it'd be fairly easy to get an impersonator to read them, and add them over the soundtrack at the relevant point. The lines, by the way, come as the Doctor's hunched over the console, just before the change, "I can't go through with it... I wil not give in." Really adds something to the whole sequence, making it seem as if the TARDIS is forcing him into a change he's scared of.
Interesting, I had heard there was dialogue but never knew what it was. It shows the character more than anything else, at the time of change: Hartnell was stubborn to the last, and didn't want to face his inevitable change. Davison on the other hand seemed relaxed and didn't fight it, knowing his time was now. Tennant just sobbed saying he didn't want to go, which kind of shows his character was just having fun and didn't want it to end.
Personally, I think it's a real pity it's not there in the transmitted version: it's the Doctor, never having changed before, being very scared of changing as he doesn't know yet if it'll really be him on the other side.
How the hell did Hartnell know about the 10th planet getting animated away back in 1964... "One day, I shall come back in animated form. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no remakes, no more than 13 regens, no one older. Just go forward in your briefs and prove to me that have not done a mistaken in mine" lol
Hartnell knwe about the regeneration limit a decade before it was established? Damn, he was quite knowledgeable indeed, hmm?
Glad to hear that they're doing this! (Though I kinda hope the VHS recon is on there too.) I had a feeling that this would be the one to get the animation treatment before any other stories, and "The Reign of Terror" being animated certainly helped bolster that hope.
I was hoping that the tenth planet comes out on dvd sometime,wonder how they will handled the regeneration?.
Put the existing clips on as extras, and do it as animation like the rest of the episode 4 reconstruction. Just possibly have a seamless branching option so you can have the animated version slip into live action for the few bits of footage that exist.
Just been announced that the Ice Warriors will also be animated. Yay! http://www.doctorwho.tv/whats-new/article/the-ice-warriors-animated-for-dvd-exclusive-first-look