Exactly ^^that. There is no debate, just opinions and ideas and reactions to a new take on an old story and the old story is still there unaltered. It's fun to share and read opinions from the audience on all of this. Even of greater interest, this isn't Star Wars where the original copies were long since cut up and replaced with bits added, although the "Demastered 4K" apparently found some long-discarded prints (just not the negs or interpositives, of which both would of course be of higher raw quality... or to my current understanding, anyway... )
No idea why it’s massively cut down. That’s disappointing. But Classic Who is heavily padded like a soap, so maybe it will still be good.
Watching it right now, and the new music is REALLY jarring, but I enjoy it. But, I thought this was gonna be presented in widescreen?
Turns out that was just for the promotional photos they released. In retrospect CGI-ing in set extensions in multiple scenes would have been crazy expensive,
Such a tease that was, but you're right. You know, without judging the pacing of the story, I think we're still ways away from actually accomplishing much with this. We need to seperate the audio ala Beatles/Peter Jackson style, removing the audio layers and updating them in proper surround sound with new music, OR better-sounding version of the existing score. THEN, maybe a few years away, AI-ing an actual upscale of the footage. As is, its stiill fairly impressive in the version (with some very notable exceptions, but alas), but I don't really like the recolouring they did for the other clips they showed at the end of this.
How is there new music? Your subsequent post implies that they don't have separate dialogue and music tracks they can isolate. So is it just in addition to the old music, filling in parts that didn't have music originally?
Which moron decided to cut the bit where they pull the camera from the wall? They’ve cut the reason why can’’t hear them when they’re planning the attack.
Obviously the new music is now existant in positions where there existed now such score. And my point was about audio clarity and fidelity, not necessarily about the voices and sound effects not being there as they were.
On the plus side, they're not using the Cushing movie as a template as even that retained the camera yank scene. From what I've been reading, there are a ton of surprising changes, not always for the good but for now I'm relaying what they're claiming as I've heard or seen nothing yet and may still ultimately enjoy it when I finally do get to see it: Spoiler: For those who want to be surprised either way, don't read the list of changes within From the new incidental music (which is otherwise generally well-received) is poorly mixed - which makes sense since a lot of 21st century Who and even (but far rarer, oddly) the occasional 20th century show that was made with more primitive equipment still goofed up with the mixing and the result was you couldn't hear any dialogue and no amount of music is going to help in that regard... "Dals" is replaced with "Kaleds" because some want continuity The cloister bell can now be heard (same reason, but fans of the 80s/90s could handle the lack of noise but inclusion of Fault Locator and other items) Some cuts apparently have new footage to render more seamless the condensed story? Dalek laser beams are added (not much of a surprise) New theme tune (Why, because it's really that inaccessible for modern audiences? ) Oddly, not much new has been said about the quality of the colorization and nobody has confirmed if they matted it to 16:9 as I doubt they'd reposition every camera angle change to ensure needed visual items remain on screen instead of being lopped off in the way most dilettante matting is slapped on. But comparing released photos to known original color shots from 1963 where for those I'd believe people when they say "this feels like 1963" (because those were), the hues are more reminiscent of the 1980s with neon blue, lemon yellow, and magenta tones... That said, color DOES add a new lease on life and I'll remain happily ambivalent about the dichotomy, blah blah blah... Ultimately, I'm fairly more certain this is being cut for saving on colorization time and cost and for no other reason, since anyone who became familiar with the show from 1981-onward who then gets to the Hartnell era via repeats or PBS or home video or who cares for the first time is probably smart enough to realize the day and age in which it was made without the need of needing such extravagant work added to it, and parents and others will be there to answer questions and so on.
Of which is a lot of space as the 60s often used fairly simple single-track stings and generally not overlaid atop dialogue, but generally after. I'll admit, the lack of music propping up a show was a mild shock when watching 1963 WHO in 1986. People accustomed to 2005 would definitely be shocked in now having to listen to chartacters instead of a 90000-piece orchestra complete with 20000-person chorus making banshee noises. But he McCoy era is when music started to be pumped in, to the point that music score CDs were getting to be close to the full length of the representative story coming out onto VHS and a lot of us noticed at that time as well that the show was becoming more reliant on the music... (didn't say we disliked it, just noting the paradigm shift...) IMHO, the clarity of the audio on the DVD was pretty good. Hardly inaudible. If it's that way now, then they did something during the editing or mixing processes. Just reading up. Thanks for the info! Glad it's not in widescreen, as lazily plopping on matte bars can lead to heads being chopped off or visual cues in items on screen now being invisible, and nobody is going to edit every camera change to reposition ideally what does fit in 16:9 as opposed to 4:3. Sorry that the music was off-putting. Is it just the tone of the new music that doesn't fit? The volume blotting out the spoken dialogue? Both? Other? Yeah, one photo (their huddling around the console with computer bank on the side) was definitely a promotional pic. Possibly a proof of concept. Adding in a ton of CGI on every little nook and corner would probably cost more than the colorization itself...
Gotta say the Thals are 100% gayer in colour. These cut-out trousers are pretty daring for 1963. William Theiss would have been proud.
Anyone know if this will be made available in the US, and where? I looked it up, and all I could find were sites saying to get something called a VPN so you could watch the BBC region-free. Meanwhile, I gather they also released a new edit of An Adventure in Space and Time today, which puts Ncuti Gatwa in Matt Smith's place at the end, but which apparently had to cut out the recreations of "An Unearthly Child" because of Anthony Coburn's son denying the BBC the rights to the original.
Someone (and yeah, I'm sure many such someones will spring into action) should (and yes, they will) release a fan-edit that basically takes the 2013 AAiSaT and replaces the Matt Smith bit with the Ncuti Gatwa one.
The blu-ray is on pre-release on amazon.co.uk and other UK sites. As more reviews come in on youtube, it'll get easier to piece together what's going on. So far, it's been mixed - despite people talking about the quality of the colorizing the least, and that's mildly disconcerting if that's the least of peoples' likes/dislikes. But both supporters and detractors of the omnibus cut do agree on one thing: The resultant edit feels like an attempt to make a classic era story feel like the mid-2000s era. Someone did upload the revised theme. If they're telling the truth then it might be removed from Youtube. What's presented is okay, the colorizing isn't much but isn't bad, but for the updated music they just tacked on some extra wobbles and unimpressive whoosh noises to the original. It does take away from the haunting ethereal nature of the original, but on the plus side it's not what I was expecting.
I was thinking more in terms of streaming, ideally on Disney+ or something I already have access to. If I were going to spend money on The Daleks, I'd want it to be the complete, original version. Frankly I find the idea of colorizing it and cutting it down to cater to modern tastes rather crass, but I'm curious enough to want to see the result just once.
The pr for the dvd says it will include the colour version and the original 7 parter. Presume the bluray will be the same.
Just a reminder, the colourisations, Tales from the TARDIS, the documentaries and behind the scenes shows are all fully paid for by the BBC license fee. So anyone else who wanted to show them will have to negotiate new deals to do so.
I'm glad they're keeping the 7-episode original uncut. It's great that we have that choice of both editions, not all franchises are as lucky. I've seen some colorized snippets appear and while the new use of color alone is actually pretty great, more detailed in some ways and still comes across as "featureless" - the very word that writer Terry Nation wanted. But the new music applied surprisingly takes away from the ethereal and otherworldly feel and suspense and replaces it with something that's not quite the likes of Modern Who, not quite the likes of that song "I Want to spend Christmas with a Dalek"*, but whatever it is, it does get too loud - in terms of volume and needless bombast. Some will love it, others won't, it's as simple as that. I'll only argue against the few who will exclaim "This is just what it would have been like in 1963 if they had the means to do it!", which isn't quite the case the moment you look at (a) making-of photos showing the real colors used (never mind why the colors were chosen) and (b) other tv shows, music, and even big-budget films made at the time. Things simply weren't hyperama back then, by their choice. And maybe (c) since the day-glo color choices seem more reminiscent of the 1980s at times. Never mind they're also retroactively also applying the tone of the 1965 big movie onto something made almost two years earlier, "the chicken and the egg" though Star Trek TNG did that better. * Here it is!
I mostly enjoyed it. I think it eas edited down too much and some scene changes were a bit jarring. Don't think it needed the flashbacks to earlier in the episode. It had a bit of a fever dream quality to it I liked. William Hartnell looked much younger in the colourised version and the TARDIS interior looked good. I look forward to the next colourisation.
Thanks for a great review! When the blu-ray comes out, I will put on my horsey blinders and pretend that I've never seen the original TV story before. The only thing that will be truly difficult* may be if they're consistently doing camera angle changes every 1~2 seconds for a faux action feel... * for me, YMMV and for any number of aspects, which is inevitable for anybody