Dalek's Invasion Earth 2150AD

Up The Wooden Hill
 

Dalek's Invasion
Earth 2150AD
UK 1966
Directed by Gordon Flemyng
AARU/Amicus/Studio Canal
UHD/Blu Ray Zone B Dual Edition Steelbook

Warning: Slight spoilers going up the
wooden hill to Bedfordshire.

I think it’s testament to the fact that Dalekmania certainly held the UK in thrall in the mid-1960s, when even the main protagonist of the show on which it was based, Doctor Who, is not even mentioned in the title of this follow up to the previous year’s movie Doctor Who And The Daleks (reviewed here). Based on the late 1964 Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (reviewed here), Dalek’s Invasion Earth 2150AD makes the usual changes to accommodate many of those established in the first film but also changes the main acting line up a little too... as well as, somewhat annoyingly, relocating the action from the year 2164 and moving it forward to the titular date.

In essence it’s the same plot, with the Doctor, as played by Peter Cushing as an Earth scientist and still introducing himself as Dr. Who, arriving in future London... only to find out it’s been conquered by Daleks who are using some of their captured humans, reprogrammed as zombie-like slaves called Robomen. They are used to enforce the work of many others being used as slave labour in their mysterious mining project in Bedfordshire, where they are drilling through to the Earth’s core to explode it with a bomb in order to be able to drive the planet around to wherever they want.  The Doctor and his companions all get separated three ways and eventually reunite in Bedfordshire, where they cripple the Daleks plan and destroy them all... as you know they are obviously going to.

It’s a pretty strong film, it has to be said. Perhaps not quite as colourful as the first (with it’s alien, green and red hued landscapes) but still quite bright and cheery, especially where the Daleks are concerned. Let’s look at the cast first.

Well, we have actor Ray Brooks here, who was of course a big sensation at the time for playing in the movie version of The Knack... And How To Get It (reviewed by me here). So much so that he’s even mentioned as “The boy from The Knack” in the trailer for this movie. Then there’s the somewhat gruff, brilliant presence of future Professor Quatermass actor Andrew Keir as Wyler. He is the grumpy resistance fighter who befriends young Susan when she is separated from the others. Susan herself is once again played, in the most charming fashion, by young Roberta Tovey... the only actor to return from the first film, alongside Peter Cushing. There are also appearances from Philip Madoc, Sheila Steafel and Eileen Way. If the Daleks and their Robomen slaves are a satire of the ‘what if’ possibility of the Nazi’s invading the UK, these three are brilliant as the even more evil, human turncoats who betray their own kind to their enemies.

And in terms of the rest of the crew of the TARDIS, asides from Cushing and Tovey... well, Barbara and Ian have been jettisoned (although their TV equivalents were certainly in the original TV broadcast story). Instead we have Lousie, played by Jill Curzon and, in the role of policeman Tom Campbell, the late great Bernard Cribbins, beginning his long relationship with Doctor Who which would only continue in the next century, when he starred a number of times opposite David Tennant’s Doctor (and possibly one other if they do what I think they are going to do for the 2023 anniversary episodes later in the year).*

Actually, Cribbins’ character has the best introduction of a new companion ever, created just for the film. There’s a sinister pre-credits sequence where a driver of a getaway car awaits his friends who are robbing a jewellery store, as a piano version of Bach’s Toccata And Fugue in D Minor turns into a jazzier tune. He spot’s Cribbins walking the beat and bashes him over the head as an explosion goes off in the jewellery store. The robbers escape with the driver and the damaged policeman runs after them, throwing his truncheon at them and blowing into his whistle. He then spots a police box and rushes over to use the telephone but, of course, when he opens the door, he’s confronted with the inside of the TARDIS with the Doctor, Louise and Susan staring back at him, before promptly feinting from the blow to the head. The Doctor decides the scene of the crime is too dangerous for him in his weakened state so they take him with them to explore the year 2150AD... roll credits and the beginning of the adventure.

Okay, so you are gong to notice a lot of posters in this movie, both in the 20th and 22nd Century AD (the same posters, in fact), promoting Sugar Puffs, who had a tie in promotion with the movie. An early and very intrusive spot of product placement, it has to be said. Something even more noticeable (although it always kind of was) are the strings holding up the quite beautifully designed Dalek mothership... and I think this beautiful Blu Ray transfer of the film is the first time I’ve realised that the shots of the full scale ship in close up with the actors coming in and out is actually a partial matte painting.

The Robomen are quite good looking in terms of costume and, I can only assume these must have been something of an influence, either subconsciously or not, on the creation of one of the UK’s greatest comic strip characters over a decade later, Judge Dredd. They even have their own leitmotif in Bill McGuffie’s much punchier and exciting score (the more sombre score for the first film was by Malcolm Lockyer). A score which even goes into the broadly comical for Bernard Cribbin’s slapstick ‘fitting in with the synchronised movements of the Robomen’ sequence, which was presumably put in to lighten the mood of what is, for a family film, quite a dark and doom laden storyline.

The Daleks themselves are not reused from the first movie (although five of them were actually borrowed from the late 1965 London stage play The Curse Of The Daleks). They’ve been rebuilt and are not quite as gloriously haphazard in their colour schemes this time... although still quite bright and good looking. Also, the massive oversight from the first film, the non-use of the Dalek’s famous one word catch phrase “Exterminate!” is finally used in this film. Over and over again... whether you want them to say it or not. There are, alas, a lot of shots, especially effects shots, where the Daleks look completely immobile and unmanned, which doesn’t do anything to enhance their reputation as the most dangerous creatures in the universe, it has to be said.

One final thing to look out for is the stuntman shot by Daleks who takes a fall off a ruined building and hurts his ankle, which was left in and why he looks in such pain when he stands up for his death moment. The stuntman in question was off to hospital and back in time later that day to finish off his scene, you’ll be glad to know.

And that’s me done with Dalek’s Invasion Of Earth 2150AD. I can never make up my mind, whenever I watch them, which of the two Peter Cushing as Dr. Who films I like the most but, yeah, they are still both great films and definitely great ones to watch as an archive of some of the more beautiful looking films of the 1960s, for sure. Great stuff.

*Yep, this has now been confirmed since I wrote this review.