Galaxy 4, the mostly-missing serial starring William Hartnell as the First Doctor, will be released as a fully-animated recreation in November.

Only the third episode of the four-part adventure released in 1965, Air Lock, and clips from the first episode, Four Hundred Dawns, are known to exist. An animated recreation by Big Finish Creative is possible with fan-made audio recordings of all four episodes.

The serial stars William Hartnell as the Doctor, Peter Purves as Steven, Maureen O’Brien as Vicki and Stephanie Bidmead as Maaga.

The Doctor and his travel companions, Vicki and Steven land the TARDIS on a planet which is on the verge of total annihilation, as it drifts too close to the three suns it orbits. Trapped on the planet with them are the Drahvins, a race of warrior women, and the Reptillian Rills.

The Drahvins want to steal the Rills spaceship to escape the planet’s death throes, and enlist the Doctor’s help, which he is forced to give when Maaga, the cunning Drahvin leader, keeps Vicki and Steven as hostage. Even though the Doctor is determined to broker a peace deal between the two sides, Maaga doesn’t trust him, or the Rills…

“After a gap of many years, it’s very exciting to bring the era of the First Doctor back into the animation world,” says executive producer Gary Russell. “Galaxy 4 is one of the most pulpy adventures of 1960s Doctor Who. It’s been a real honour to work on this alternative version, which hopefully reflects the Technicolor thrills that sci-fi movies of the 60s had, but which Doctor Who’s monochrome TV limitations couldn’t yet achieve.”

The new two-disc release will present the animated Galaxy 4 in both colour and black-and-white versions. The discs will also include:

• A remastered version of the surviving third episode, Air Lock
• Remastered surviving clips from episode one, Four Hundred Dawns
• Reconstructions of episodes one, two and four using photos and other imagery
• Audio commentaries
• A making-of documentary
• Finding Galaxy 4 documentary
• Photo gallery
• Subtitled production notes

Galaxy 4 will be available 15 November, 2021 on DVD, Blu-Ray and as a limited edition Steelbook from Amazon, HMV, Zavvi and Rarewaves in the UK, from Amazon in the US and from JB and Sanity in Australia.