I reviewed this story last year but that was for the recon. With the release of the first fully animated story (given that there are no existing episodes) I thought I would revisit this one.
As I covered the plot back then, I won't focus on that or any major aspects of the story unless they have bearing on how things are presented with the new animation. At the very least, the animation does give a better focus on what is going on. In the recon, like most recons, you would get a jump cut between freeze frames to signify who was speaking and you would just have to remember. In the animation, you can actually see three or four different characters standing around and they can all just talk and you still get an easy bead on who is talking. That is a major plus, especially since you can also get extra direction, such as when the Doctor is talking with the governor but staring at Bragen.
The most important thing to note about the animation is that if you go in expecting the animation seen in Episode Four of The Tenth Planet or Episodes One and Three of The Moonbase, you will be disappointed. Those episodes used a very realistic animation style much more akin to anime. But those stories were only animating one or two episodes where this one is doing all six. They also had real video to watch and study movement and facial expressions. Power of the Daleks has none of those and I think that lack of reference is why the animation is more simple and a bit timid.
The animation is not South Park simple but it is not particularly fluid either. The movement of the individuals is akin to the paper puppets you can get with a brad at each joint to give it rotational movement. There is also some facial expression but most of it is focused on the eyes with their movement and dilation being the primary means of expression. That works very well with a character like Lesterson who did demonstrate a lot of emotion with his eyes, even visible in the telesnaps. It works a bit less with the Doctor who would be much more subtle with his whole face giving clues rather than just his eyes.
It still works but it takes a little getting used to. It doesn't help that Episode One has to resolve so much from the regeneration that you don't get settled into the story until you are in to Episode Two. At that point, the story begins to kick in and you start to loose yourself. This is where the animation works over a telesnap in that it draws you in easier. I watched this on BBC America which builds in commercials and I could tell I was really getting into the story because I was so irritated when it would suddenly break for ads. It was like losing the moment and then trying to find it again.
The sound of the story was a bit hit or miss. The large scale scenes involving multiple actors had inconsistent sound as you would expect from a stage. The animation doesn't quite do the depth of the stage justice as it allows the picture to focus tightly on a character which can be jarring if you hear them in a distant, echo-y manner. But the small scenes with one or more characters does fairly well and the tight animation works well, allowing you to focus on the emotion of the scene. I had also forgotten just how good the background noise/music is for providing atmosphere. The use of a musical saw to provide dark atmosphere when the Daleks are plotting and moving in the shadows works so well and when you don't have to focus on deciphering the pictures to get the mood of the scene, it makes the story flow so much better.
One additional experience that I had that enhanced the story for me was that this was the first time I watched a Doctor Who story with someone. My seven-year old son watched this with me and he seemed to really enjoy it. He's been tentative about watching Doctor Who with me because I make no bones about how many of the monsters are designed to be scary. I particularly enjoyed freaking both him and his ten-year old sister out a bit last year when I told them about the Vashta Nerada. That was fun in a twisted way but it also has made them significantly less interested in watching the show with me, despite their enjoyment of other science fiction. But my son did decide to watch this with me, especially when I told him it was animated, making in more like Batman (the excellent early 90's version). It also added a level of unreality for him that made it more manageable, despite the genuine fear that could come about from the Daleks.
The biggest improvement for me was that it much better defined the nature of the battle in Episode Six. The recon that was available to me when I watched it before did a very poor job of conveying the battle, who and how many people were being gunned down by the Daleks. It also gave a better definition of how the Doctor tricked the Daleks into effectively destroying themselves by getting them to destroy the electrical controls and surging power through their whole system. Episode Six alone was worth the animation.
In the end, the animation provided clarity and helped express the story easier for the uninitiated so it was definitely worth it for those aspects alone. However, the animation wasn't so fluid as to make you forget that this is a live action show. The animation is a marginal improvement on recons but not up to being a true substitute for the real episodes. As much as I enjoyed it, I would still keep my original score and I think only the discovery of the whole thing could bump it up to full marks.
Overall personal score (animated): 4.5 out of 5
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