Apparently (this is the spoiler bit!) the DVD of Genesis of the Daleks has got a colourised section of The Daleks' Masterplan on it - Brian Cant being attacked by Toni Arthur, sorry - I mean the Daleks!

Now I'm not one to jump to conclusions - well, yes I am! - but why would they do this? The RT have been telling us for years now how expensive it is to colourise material where there is no colour copy and yet they spend time and money on adding colour to something which was originally in black and white.

Could it be that this was a test run for a complete episode? Has technology moved on to the point where it is now feasible to do a whole episode from scratch? Does this mean that Planet of the Daleks or Invasion of the Dinosaurs might not be as far away as we thought?

As I say, this is probably me putting two and two together to come up with forty-two but it makes you think!

Wow! That would be interesting to see if it turns out to be true. I guess though I am a purist and would rather see the old episodes as intended in their natural b/w state. They do a magnificent job restoring the old eps so for me no additional tinkering is required.

Not sure I would want to see Invasion of the Dinosaurs again Stuart..once was enough!

b/w was the norm then though. There was no artistic reason why '60s Who was filmed in b/w as opposed to colour. It' just how it was back then, as opposed to being "as intended".

Call me a Philistine, but I'll take colour over b/w any day. That said, if the original b/w versions of "Macra Terror" or "Fury From The Deep" were to turn up, I'd be very happy!

Sounds perfectly feasible to me, Stuart. Let's hope so!

Alas I think I was getting excited over nothing. Over at the RT forum, the guy who did it said it took about a couple of months of his spare time. He seems to have a means of only having to recolour 80 frames and the computer can map the colours onto the intermediate frames.

Sounds good but since he doesn't do it full time, I think a complete episode is still a long way off.

Sounds like this could be the start of something, though.

If he programmes in the recolouring for the 80 frames, then adds a routine to adjust the shades for lighting effects etc., a lot of the process could be automated.

I'd certainly like a look at how he managed to do it.

You can see more of his work here.

Heads up to you Stuart!

Just had a quick look and I am impressed with what I have seen! Looks great!

I'm impressed!

Thanks for the link, Stuart.

Yes I'm quite impressed too. I'm looking forward to seeing this at full resolution on a "proper telly" when the DVD comes out.