Dr. Who And The Daleks

Coloured Chiaru-Skaro

Dr. Who And The Daleks
UK 1965
Directed by Gordon Flemyng
AARU/Amicus/Studio Canal
UHD/Blu Ray Zone B Dual Edition Steelbook

Dalekmania.

That’s what it was which gripped the nation back in the early to late 1960s. The Doctor Who TV series was pretty much saved by the monstrous Daleks, brought in for the second story (I think it started as the fifth episode of the show). For reasons too long to go into for my blog (but you can read all of this background stuff elsewhere), show runner Verity Lambert kinda snuck the monsters in, almost against the wishes of her boss Sydney Newman and, because of these creatures, the show was suddenly transformed from having a lukewarm reception to being an overnight smash, with kids in playgrounds everywhere the next day sticking their arms out in front of them and yelling “Exterminate!”, the Dalek catchphrase (I’ll come back to that in a minute).

Now, ‘serious’ Doctor Who fans always seemed to have a problem with the two AARU produced movies over the years and, while it’s not hard to see why in terms of the obvious differences, I was aghast to find, via one of the new extras on this super restored transfer of the film, that this kind of attitude still prevailed in some quarters to this day. I mean, yeah the films are different but... really?

I’ve loved the 1960s movie adaptations (for that’s what they were... adaptations) since seeing them for the first time as a kid in the 1970s (in pan and scan on a black and white telly). And, despite being a consciously constant watcher of the show from Jon Pertwee’s opening episode in 1970 to the present day, I’ve always had a soft spot for these widescreen creations. They’re big and colourful, so much so that, to me, they absolutely epitomise (along with certain other films such as Modesty Blaise, reviewed here and Blow Up) just what 1960s cinema is all about. Dr. Who And The Daleks is an incredibly beautiful looking film on every level but, as I said, there are a lot of differences to the show.

Okay, so for starters, the title is a dead give away. The film is a remake of the first serialised Dalek story... um... The Daleks... which was part of the show Doctor Who. And that’s the way it was always spelled... Doctor... not Dr like in the film version (well... actually... the William Hartnell version of the character was sometimes billed under that character name but, the opening titles were always the longer form). Also, the Doctor in this version, played to absolute perfection by Peter Cushing, is not an alien like his television counterpart in the story, William Hartnell. Nor is he playing him as the grumpy and somewhat intimidating old man in the way that Hartnell brought the character to life. Instead, the absent minded professor like Dr. Who is an eccentric Earth scientist and inventor and he’s quite a lovable character. Even when he repeats the folly of putting his friends in deadly jeopardy by deliberately sabotaging the TARDIS (invented by him in the movie... not stolen by him as in the show), he still comes out of it as though he’s done nothing. Worst of all, though, he’s actually referred to twice in the movie as Dr. Who and not, as he is in almost every episode of the series (apart from some troublesome continuity riddled episodes), The Doctor.

Then we have his companions Ian and Barbara. Unlike in the TV show where they are Susan’s inquisitive school teachers, here they are boyfriend and girlfriend and, well, Barbara is obviously part of the family so, she must also be the Doctor’s daughter. In the movie they are played nicely by Roy Castle (as the comic relief man, relishing his flamboyant manner and slapstick comedy moments) and Jennie Linden, portrayed as a very strong female character with a lot of intelligence to her, it has to be said.

And, of course, there’s Susan. Like the TV show, she’s the Doctor’s granddaughter but, unlike the TV show, she’s not a teenager. There was no need for her to be, really, since the other characters had been changed so much from their original conception... instead she’s played by 12 year old Roberta Tovey, playing a little younger than her actual age, by the feel of it. She’s actually fantastic in this and Peter Cushing refused to reprise his role as the Doctor in the next film unless she was still a part of it. As a result, only Cushing and Tovey returned for the sequel.

Asides from all these differences, the story follows a condensed version of the original serial, where the Doctor and his companions persuade the golden haired Thals (with enough coloured eyeshadow and dress sense to parody the hippie movement of the time) to fight for their existence against the evil Daleks. 

These were not quite the Daleks as seen in the TV show. They were of a very slightly different design (not so much that many people would notice the difference, I suspect) but, since this was the first time they’d been seen in colour, the producers (unlike the TV show who stuck to drab greys and beige for a very long time) decided to make multi-coloured Daleks in Reds, Blues, Silvers, Golds and Blacks. Even their sensors (yeah, that’s balls to you) which went up the bottom of their armour were sometimes different colours on a single machine, alternating between silver and gold on a single Dalek in some cases. And guess what... they look absolutely fantastic here. When the TV show tried to do their own spin on that many decades later, during the Matt Smith era, the resulting designs were nowhere near as cool and vivid as the ones used in these movies. Although, these Daleks were apparently re-used in the William Hartnell Doctor Who serial The Chase, which beat the movie out of the gate on TV (review coming fairly soon). That being said, they could only still be seen in monotone on the telly so, yeah, they looked quite spectacular in the movie and I could watch these versions of them all day.

Two other curios about the movie, in terms of the audio side of things. Firstly, the iconic sound used in the show from day one, used to denote the dematerialisation and rematerialisation of the TARDIS, has been replaced by a very quick, mundane sound effect for some reason. Secondly, the Dalek’s famous, single worded catchphrase of “Exterminate!” is completely absent from this film... I was sitting there waiting to see if it came up and, for some strange reason, it didn’t (although, if memory serves, the writers and producers learned their lesson on that score in time for the second movie).

And, I’m sure there’s lots more I could say about Dr. Who And The Daleks but, honestly, there’s so much reference material out there that I would only be repeating what others have already said (and where’s the fun in that?). What I will say though is that, despite a nice, if perhaps a little lacklustre in places, musical score by Malcolm Lockyer (which holds no continuity with the TV show in any way, just does its own thing)...the film has some brilliant performances, some wonderful shot designs and an overall psychedelic atmosphere which makes this first film, in particular, one of the trippiest incarnations of Doctor Who ever. And where else would you see the Daleks using the very height of alien technology... 1960s lava lamps?  I’ll always circle back around to this film every five years or so, for another watch. Highly recommended viewing.