The Dalek Collection

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Site added: 29 December 2004 · Last updated: 12 July 2007

The re-release of the 1960s ‘Doctor Who and the Daleks’ and ‘Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD’ on DVD. Essential.

Doctor Who and the Daleks is the big screen version of the first Dalek story, The Daleks, with Peter Cushing as Doctor Who (unlike in the television series, the Doctor introduces himself as ‘Doctor Who’ and is clearly human) and Roberta Tovey as a much younger Susan.

Ian accidently sends the TARDIS (the lastest invention of the Doctor’s in this version of the story) to the planet Skaro, where he, the Doctor, Susan and Barbara encounter the Daleks, who are prisoners in there city after a terrible war has make Skaro too radioactive for them to venture outside. The Daleks plot to obtain medicine from their enemies, the peaceful Thals, which will enable them to resist the radiation – after which they plan to destroy the Thals leaving them as the masters of Skaro.

This film remake has its merits – the main one being that it is shot in colour and the reworked Daleks are spendid. Peter Cushing puts in an excellent performance as the Doctor, who, in this film, is downgraded from gruff and selfish eccentric alien runaway to stereotype dotty professor. Roberta Tovey, just 11, plays a younger Susan well and Roy Castle provides comic relief as Ian, sad a departure from the strengths of the character in the TV series. Jennie Linden plays Barbara, now not a school teacher but another granddaughter to the Doctor.

The film does not have the dramatic strength of the TV series, nor are the different versions of the characters an improvement – but it is an enjoyable watch in its own right and an essential film for Dalek fans.

The screenplay with written by Milton Subotsky from the TV script by Terry Nation. The film was made in 1965 and directed by Gordon Flemyng – it is 82 minutes long.

The successful first film was followed up by the sequel, Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 AD, in 1966.

The TARDIS and its crew arrive on Earth in the year 2150 – where the Daleks have enslaved the human race and are forcing them to work as slaves, drilling a hole to the centre of the Earth. They plan to remove the Earth’s magnetic core and then pilot the Earth as a spaceship to the vicinity of Skaro, where they can plunder it for its minerals.

Again, the film fails to recreate the drama of the original, but does provide a far better spectacle. The Daleks’ flying saucer is a great improvement, for example. However, the decision to film on a set rather than in London (as some segments of the original was) takes away some of the menace of the invasion. In most other respects, the film is a strong improvement on the first film.

Peter Cushing and Roberta Tovey return as Doctor Who and his granddaughter Susan, this time joiuned by Louise (played by Jill Curzon), the Doctor’s neice. Bernard Cribbins steps in as the comic relief playing hapless policeman Tom Campbell.

Again, the film is a shadow of the television version in all but spectacle, but remains an excellent film in its own right.

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