Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

For my birthday, I received ‘The War Games in Colour’ on DVD, which I’m very pleased to have. I have shared my thoughts on the colourisation of ‘The War Games’ back in December 2024 when it came out on BBC Four. So, I don’t need to share them again here.

Mind you, there is something I want to get off my chest about the DVD and Blu-ray releases of ‘The War Games in Colour’. You see, when the colourisation of this ‘Doctor Who’ story got released on DVD and Blu-ray back in April, it was released on a 4-disc set.

Now, if you’re wondering why the story was released on 4 discs, it’s because the DVD producers decided to share the colourisation and the original black-and-white 10-part story in one set. Meaning the last three discs of the 4-disc set are the original 2009 DVDs.

Disc 1 is a brand-new disc containing the colourisation whilst Discs 2 to 4 are simply reissued versions of the 2009 DVD discs containing the original 10-parter, with ‘Episodes One to Five’ on Disc 2, ‘Episodes Six to Ten’ on Disc 3 and the bonus features on Disc 4. 😐

I suppose it has been a while since ‘The War Games’ was released on a 3-disc set in 2009, but surely the DVD menus could have been updated to match the brand-new disc containing the colourisation. Not looking like what they were when first released in 2009.

I don’t have ‘The Daleks in Colour’ on DVD nor Blu-ray, but I imagine it’s the same with the colourisation on Disc 1 and the original DVD disc from ‘The Beginnings’ DVD box set acting as Disc 2. It does happen to be a 2-disc set, according to its own Amazon page. 😀

According to the DVD cover of ‘The War Games in Colour’, it contains six extra minutes of colourised material. Not that I would have noticed that since I’ve only seen ‘The War Games in Colour’ once on TV, and the DVD release feels just the same as what was on TV.

There are some brand-new special features to check out on ‘The War Games in Colour’ DVD disc, including extended model shots (I had no idea some of the exterior shots were models and not CGI), a Radio Free Skaro interview with original film editor Chris Hayden, newly discovered 16mm film, a photo gallery, concept art, colour palettes and the trailer.

There’s an audio commentary on ‘The War Games’ colourisation with Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, executive producer Russell T. Davies, editor Benjamin Cook, head of colourisation team Rich Tripple and composer/sound designer Mark Ayres. I’ve not listened to all of the audio commentary, but it was very fascinating to hear Frazer and Wendy interact with RTD.

After checking out ‘The War Games’ colourisation on its own DVD disc, I decided to check out the original 10-part story in the DVD set. I must say, it still holds up well to this day. The episodes are very compelling to watch and there isn’t so much music to distract you.

I do consider ‘The War Games in Colour’ to be superior to ‘The Daleks in Colour’, especially with its being 90 minutes instead of 75 minutes. But the original black-and-white 10-part story will always be special, especially with compelling story and characters.

It does come down to preference and I do prefer the longer versions of stories like the original versions of ‘The Daleks’ and ‘The War Games’. Just as much as I prefer the original versions of ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Planet of Fire’ compared to the Special Edition versions.

I do prefer the 1995 Special Edition version of ‘The Five Doctors’ more than the original 1983 TV version and 40th anniversary edition version, and I prefer the extended edits and Special Edition versions of ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ and some of Sylvester McCoy’s stories.

In my opinion, the extended versions of stories are better, considering they have more story and character development compared to truncated versions. If ‘The War Games’ colourisation was a colourised version of the 10-part story, I would’ve been happy with it.

Sadly, that didn’t happen, which is a shame. I’m glad I’ve revisited ‘The War Games’ recently in its 90-minute colourisation and the original 10-part story, especially for my birthday. There’s no doubt ‘The War Games’ is a compelling story in Patrick Troughton’s era.

I’m hoping I’ll get to see someone like Wendy Padbury again to share my thoughts on the story, both in its colourisation form and its original 10-part story. Wendy is due to appear at ‘Stars of Time Comic Con’ in Weston-super-Mare in August 2025. Hopefully, I’ll see her soon.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂