Techniscope

Techniscope was the Technicolor 35mm, non- film format used to record and distribute Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. These were the only two Doctor Who stories recorded in the format, which was somewhat popular in Europe in the 1960s. The technique was used to capture an aspect ratio it 2.33 to negatives, meaning that it could easily be stretched to cinema "standard widescreen" of 2.39 afterwards for distribution by a more standard film stock. By contrast, BBC Wales Doctor Who was filmed at a 1.78 aspect ratio until 2017 — meaning that the two Dalek movies are noticeably wider widescreen than the modern, high-definition television series.

Within the film industry, Techniscope is viewed as an economising measure. It is particularly associated with low-budget Italian films of the 1960s. This is because it achieved twice as many frames in the same length of film as, for instance, the more standard stock, by halving the size of each image. This in turn means that the positive print must be blown up by a factor of two. Natural image degradation therefore occurs, which is usually noticeable to even untrained eyes if they are given the opportunity to compare images in quick succession.

Nevertheless, the cost savings were considerable enough to have made many European filmmakers take notice of Techniscope. Certainly, the lower quality Techniscope wouldn't have mattered much to contemporary British Doctor Who fans, who were used to seeing William Hartnell in variable, terrestrially-broadcast black-and-white. The choice might have been more noticeable to the American audience, who had by 1965 become accustomed to 's more impressive and s.