Have a look at this - a guy on YouTube has done some colourisations of William Hartnell. Very impressive, looks great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bRMjI18-L4&mode=related&search=

Excellent--can someone bring this to the next meeting?

It is quite impressive and according to his website - http://babel-fish.kostamojen.com/ - he did it all with Adobe Photoshop and Pinnacle Studio (Off the shelf software)

I wish I had the skill to use these software packages. Imagine if you got enough fans together over the internet who had these skills. Say 100 of them! Give them 20 seconds each of film to colourise and BAM! You would have the black and white episode from Planet of the Daleks in Colour in no time 

I suppose that there would be many issues to this, quality control for one!

I know the work though the examples on the back page of Nothing At the End of the Land #2--colourised frames from The Tenth Planet.

The colourisations look fantastic!!!!!

I'm really annoyed that my dial up connection takes so long - I really can't watch them properly, if at all!

Any chance someone with broadband can download them for us to watch at a meeting, please???

Why colourise?  Isn't part of the charm of classic TV the fact that it is in black and white?

Hey Tareth, I understand and respect your philosophical argument about charm, nostalgia etc.

Colourisation wouldn’t prevent those who enjoy watching the black and white version to watch them.

What colourisation would do is appeal to those who have always dreamt of seeing every Doctor on a level playing field, in colour. It opens the opportunity to fixing up many Pertwee stories that were originally done in colour. It gives new commercial vitality to old material for new audiences.

Imagine the kids of today hooked on the new series, another market for the BBC to exploit. A new consumer base to help buy up classic Doctor Who. This new market with their Nintendos and XBoxs would be unlikely to ever watch anything in black and white,it just wouldn’t appeal to ever diminishing attention spans. 

(A generalisation yes. There are some smart kids out there that can appreciate the finer things in life, though they seem to be fast disappearing, eating up by the McDonalds and KFC style of life.)

as long as they dont make everything green like in the old movies.

That's a good point, Jet Star--did they use points of reference or just make the colours up? There are some publicity photos from this era, some of which are in colour.

As long as the dont make william hartnell look like Richie Benaud.

I must say that I'm against colourising any of the 60s Who eps at all.

While I understand the argument for 'touching them up' for a 'modern audience' - it's the stories themselves that were the drawcard in the first place - not whether they were coloured or not.  Plus would today's generation like the pacing and storytelling technique of the 60s stories any better even if they were in colour??

I hate seeing anything colourised-  I remember seeing The Maltese Falcon in colour and was appalled, was such a shocking job.

I rather have the Who eps as they were when transmitted in the 60s - part of their charm of the time.

I agree with you Axelf, the story is the main element of any dramatic production.

We all know that even the colour era of Doctor Who, whilst having an appealing story, was plagued with poor sets, special effects etc.

That's one of the many reasons Doctor Who never got as much market penetration in the US as it deserved.

It was competing against other products such as Star Trek. Star Trek in the 1960s was as technically advanced (and in colour) as the late 1970s Doctor Who.

Now as much as I like Star Trek none of its stories ever held a candle against Doctor Who. Then why did Star Trek enjoy a larger market share? Because it was far more aesthetically pleasing.

There are Trekkies who quite happily pick up the original Trek series and watch it, they pick up 1970s + Doctor Who and watch it, come 1960s Doctor Who and there is no longer any interest.

I love watching some of the new DVDs released of the old stories with new CGI Special Effects. It helps raise the production values to the level they should have originally been. Does that mean I will throw out my old VHS copies, NO! But if the new DVDs have little to offer why buy them?

BBC Enterprises are in the business of marketing and selling products. I hope that the cost of colourisation will diminish substantially over the next few years so we can get stories released in colour on DVD. With the DVD technology currently available there would be no reason the original black and white can't also be on the same DVD.

Nothing bad can come from colourisation (unless the quality of work is extremely low)

It caters for those who are looking for something new and want Doctor Who to be on a level playing field (production wise) with other Sci-Fi from a similar era (ie Star Trek 1960s)

I thought the colourisation done by that fan was fantastic. It really brought to life the Production Teams original vision. Who would have ever thought they would have put in the effort to paint robots in colour, create beautiful costumes, and make the jungle green when it would only turn out grey on TV?

Look at it this way. There is an old beautiful building that over the past 100 years has started to decay and fall apart. Should we knock that building down because it is dangerous and decrepit? Absolutely not! Should we leave the building in a state of disrepair and out of touch with the occupants needs simply to maintain 'charm'?

Or should we restore the building to its former glory with all the modern conveniences that give it relevance to today?

Not get me wrong, I am not suggestion we re-write Shakespeare to appease some illiterates.

Colourisation will not change the storyline or language used in the production.

Neither will colourisation threaten the charm of the original product. People can still watch it in Black and White if they choose. Colourisation will simply offer another option to the consumer. 

All this said it would take a miracle for the BBC to pay to colourise one episode (ie Planet of the Daleks B&W episode) Let alone a whole story 

Some good arguments, guys!
This has been getting very deep and meaningful.

I was simply happy to see what Hartnell's era looked like as it was made - and it looked fantastic. The charm is still there, and with having colourised versions we can choose to watch the B&W or the colour versions - it's up to the consumer. It's a matter of preference and choice.
And I find it rather fun to see the classics done up like they are - I agree with Sneb, they've done a commendable job here.

........and I'd also love to see episode three of Planet of the Daleks in colour and episode 1 of Invasion of the Dinosaurs....and the whole of The Mind of Evil!!!!
(Let's hope that these colourisations encourage BBC Enterprises to fix up the B&W Pertwee episodes!)

I'll reserve judgement...the horrors of the early colourised films were indeed how badly done they were. Pink seemed to be the default colour.

Does this mean we are going to see pink bits in Dr Who.

jestear : Does this mean we are going to see pink bits in Dr Who.

The way things are going with RTD at the helm (d`ya like the Star Trek reference?) we probably will.
Seriously though, whilst watching old films that were contemporary at the time in black & white, I often wonder if the charm would remain if we could watch them not only in colour but with clarity of vision which was not available in those days.

Would Laurel & Hardy be so comical given todays production/viewing values.

One can only guess.

Well if the BBC releases colourised versions PLUS the original black and white ones, then I'll go along with it.  As long as the originals are still there to be chosen, then that's ok.

I think one of the best things about 60s Dr Who is that because of the limited budget, it forced the writers to come up with better stories (in my opinion more dynamic stories than the ones on 60s Star Trek).

Since the production team didnt have the budgetary scope needed, they fell on the story contents themselves to give the fantasy to its audience.

From what I saw of the 60s Trek (not much I admit), I found their stories to be less involving than those of Dr Who.  Certainly the actors in the 60s shows were of a better quality than their American counterparts.

Having said that, if the colourisations are well done and not as appalling as the attempts at colourisations made in the 80s, then that could be ok.

But I also go by the maxim, that the story is the thing, not what it looks like.

I agree with everything you just said.

I am a fan of the 60's Star Trek (and I have more than a passing interest in Dr Who) and I would like to say that you are comparing two totally different types of story telling.

Dr Who is a thought involving story with fantastic dialogue, the visuals are only there to give your eyes something to focus on rather than a blank screen.

Colourising it means nothing to me as I'm usually focused on something else and am just listening to the antics on the tube.

You are given a great primary character and a couple of average ancilliary characters to back him up.

But it's still basically a great story.

60's Star Trek though is all visual, flash and pop pulp.  It had some rather interesting yarns but still boiled down to a group of very good looking scantily clad specims of the human race.

To put it bluntly - tits and ray guns, what more do you want on a Friday night?

You're probably better off comparing Dr Who and Lost in Space, both of which had to make the transgression from B+W to colour.  Though clearly, Dr Who wins on content again.

I must admit and say that I'm not a huge fan of Lost In Space - too silly for my taste.  But to compare Dr Who with that, then I would definately choose Who for sure.  The stories were much better than those of Lost in Space.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that they actually did colourise the B & W eps of the first season of Lost In Space.....not that it made them any better!!