Good new for fans of classic Doctor Who

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In 1967, the BBC set about junking its Doctor Who archive: a moment sci-fi fans wish they could travel back in time to prevent. There are 108 vintage episodes missing, but since 1978 a number have been rediscovered as 16mm black-and-white films. The BBC shot many of these series in colour, but made monochrome copies for countries such as Australia, where many TV companies were still broadcasting in greyscale. The reels had sat in archives since. Now, the Doctor Who Restoration Team, an independent group contracted by the BBC, is using a new technique to regenerate The Doctor in colour.

Their method is a refined version of that trialled on the 2009 Planet of the Daleks rerelease; it is now being deployed on a seven-part 1970 Jon Pertwee adventure, The Ambassadors of Death. "It seemed almost impossible," says Steve Roberts, 45, the team's supervisor and a BBC senior engineer. "But when they made the black-and-white recordings, they didn't filter off the colour carrier [encoded as a 'chroma dot' pattern in each frame], which for the last few decades has been nothing more than an annoyance." Team member Richard Russell used the signal to reverse-engineer raw colour pictures that could be retouched frame by frame. "It's very, very labour intensive -- several hundred man hours' work every episode," says Roberts. Luckily, a new "quadrant editor" is helping them to produce better source material upfront, so they hope to deliver the Ambassadors episodes to the BBC within weeks.

Roberts got into this work through Who fandom -- but has it ruined the show for him? "Yeah... We were always fans. We used to pull these stories out to watch just for enjoyment. Now I'm like, 'I'll watch something else.'"

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Oh, and Nambo? They simply could not do it with the first two Doctor's stories. The reason why this works is because it is a black and white film recording of a colour story. They have a very good documentary on the DVD for Planet of the Daleks explaining how they managed to restore the colour.

Actually, I like the early episodes in Black and White, gives them a sense of errie atmosphere.
When we used to watch these back in the 60s, television wasnt anything like as clear as it is now, most programmes envolved somebody moving the ariel around to try and get a better picture, even then it was like looking through a net curtain.
Thing is, like reading a book, your imagination filled in the details, the cheap and dodgy sets the BBC used, didnt look at all bad, because you couldnt see the details, so you assummed as a child, they where really filming on some alien planet.

Jon Pertwee though!, thats when Dr Who became silly, with his circus clowns car and that stupid robot dog thing, we all stopped watching it then.

You're referring to K9? Jon Pertwee had left by that point. K9's first appearance was in "The Invisible Enemy", some way into Tom Baker's run.

Sorry, but Doctor Who + Aspergers...

Ah yes, guess it got sillier as time went by, like I said, I had stopped watching it by then.

Same thing happened with Lost in Space, a brilliant space adventure with some clever story lines, by the third series it had degenerated into a total farce.
Its a shame there are more simple people in the world than intelligent ones, the television companies have to go with the ratings, so everything gets dumbed down for the masses.
I love Joss Wealdon, but both his most excellant "Firefly", which is about the best TV Ive ever seen, and "Dollhouse" have both been cancelled prematurely, because they wernt pulling in the ratings.
Yet look how popular mindless rubbish like the X-Factor does!

Yes, Firefly did go before it's time.

That is true, but it is also true that Firefly was done before, and better in some respects, as Blake's 7.

That is true, but it is also true that Firefly was done before, and better in some respects, as Blake's 7.

Would be good if they where doing that with the first two Doctors.
Jon Pertwee though!, thats when Dr Who became silly, with his circus clowns car and that stupid robot dog thing, we all stopped watching it then.

Ah yes, guess it got sillier as time went by, like I said, I had stopped watching it by then.

Same thing happened with Lost in Space, a brilliant space adventure with some clever story lines, by the third series it had degenerated into a total farce.
Its a shame there are more simple people in the world than intelligent ones, the television companies have to go with the ratings, so everything gets dumbed down for the masses.
I love Joss Wealdon, but both his most excellant "Firefly", which is about the best TV Ive ever seen, and "Dollhouse" have both been cancelled prematurely, because they wernt pulling in the ratings.
Yet look how popular mindless rubbish like the X-Factor does!

It is my understanding the Blakes 7 was a Space Opera, whereas Firefly was a Space Western, the too genres are quite different.

True, but the cast and crew of Blake's 7 have often stated that they were strongly inspired by Westerns.