Way back in the sixties, Doctor Who hit the big screen with a double-whammy of Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. - we see if they hold up in the 21st century...
Doctor Who has been around now for nearly sixty years, and in that time the show has gone through many changes, all while keeping to its main premise of an alien travelling around the universe, lending a hand, and battling enemies in their time and space craft shaped like a 1960s police telephone box. Fifteen actors have now taken on the role of the Doctor in the main TV series, with the sixteenth (Ncuti Gatwa) taking over at some point after October 2022. However, there is an often-forgotten incarnation who starred in two Dalek movies in the mid-1960s.
Hammer horror icon Peter Cushing starred as ‘Doctor Who’ in Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. in 1965 and 1966 respectively. Both movies were based on the TV serials The Daleks (1963) and The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) starring William Hartnell as the lead; however, the movie adaptations strayed from the original series in a couple of key areas. Firstly, Cushing’s Doctor wasn’t an alien, but appeared to be a human scientist who invented the TARDIS, and secondly, the character of Barbara (Jennie Linden) was changed from being a schoolteacher to the Doctor’s granddaughter alongside Susan (often referred to as Suzie) - who was much younger than in the TV series. Barbara would only appear in the first movie and was swapped out for the Doctor’s niece, Louise, in Daleks' Invasion of Earth… a character that did not appear in the TV serial.
The TARDIS crew were joined by Ian Chesterton, played by Roy Castle, the love interest of Barbara in the movie instead of just a school colleague as in the TV serial.
As good as Peter Cushing is as an actor, you can’t help but yearn for William Hartnell’s wonderfully gruff and other-worldly Doctor
The movies themselves are interesting time capsules into an era when Doctor Who was in its first peak of popularity. “Dalekmania” was in full swing and the Daleks are undoubtedly the stars of the show in both movies, upstaging Cushing’s Doctor. Dr. Who and the Daleks does an admirable job of bringing Terry Nation’s story to the big screen with fantastic big screen effects and wonderful technicolour Daleks (something the TV series wouldn’t have until 1972’s Day of the Daleks). However, the story itself does suffer from rushed pacing and it is obvious that director Gordon Flemying wanted to get to the Daleks as soon as possible. Viewers who were not familiar with the TV versions, which of course would have had only one showing on TV at the time, would probably had a hard time getting to know the characters as they do seem to be just cardboard cut-outs for the Daleks to attack. They certainly weren’t given the time that the TV series had for the audience to become invested.
This is one of the major problems with Dr. Who and the Daleks; as good as Peter Cushing is as an actor, you can’t help but yearn for William Hartnell’s wonderfully gruff and other-worldly Doctor, along with the far more likeable William Russell and Jacqueline Hill as Ian and Barbara. This movie is all about the Daleks and they do look beautiful - however, they also lose a lot of their bite in this adaptation with their fire extinguisher weapon replacing the TV version’s ray gun.
The sequel movie, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., is a step-up character wise, with the ever-dependable Bernard Cribbins as PC Tom Campbell with Andrew Keir as Wyler both giving enjoyable performances. Yet we are given little chance to get to know the new female lead, Louise, played by Jill Curzon, other than Dr. Who introducing her as “my niece Louise”.
Both movies are interesting relics of a period in Doctor Who history when most of the lore of the TV series was still to be written
The second film has more light-hearted moments, with most of the comedy coming from Cribbins, including a genuinely funny scene where he is trying fit in with a platoon of robo-men.
There does, however, seem to be a downturn in production value in this outing. The matte paintings which were used to great effect in the first film seem to have been drawn by a first-year art student. There are moments where it is all too clear that Peter Cushing’s wig is coming unstuck at the sides, and we all can see that the robo-men’s food is just Dolly Mixtures. There doesn’t seem to have been any attempt to create a futuristic London, as in 2150 folks are still driving around in 1950s trucks. In addition, the movie adaption loses a lot of the bleak futurism of the TV version; for example, with the spine-chilling IT IS FORBIDDEN TO DUMP BODIES INTO THE RIVER poster used in the original series.
In conclusion, both movies are interesting relics of a period in Doctor Who history when most of the lore of the TV series was still to be written and the Daleks were the breakout stars. Yet, apart from the gorgeous technicolour Daleks, the big screen adaptions pale in comparison to the original TV stories. I will say, though, that the 4K upgrade is lovely and it is well worth your time to go and see the films in a cinema if you have the opportunity - just go home afterward and watch the William Hartnell originals to get the true feel of these classic stories.
Did you know? To stir up publicity for the film, Tuesday 25 May 1965 saw a squad of Daleks descend on the Cannes Film Festival. Amongst the startled attendees to encounter them was John Lennon.
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