Doctor Who: Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

We're still in our alternate universe with Peter Cushing as Dr. Who. After the great success at the box office of Dr. Who and the Daleks (it was in the top ten films in the UK that year), the producers were eager to cash in and produce a second movie with the intention of producing a movie every year if it proved successful as well. Thus was born Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., a re-interpretation of the second Dalek serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

Only Dr. Who and Susan were retained from the first film. The parts of Ian and Barbara were replaced by constable Tom Campbell and Dr. Who's neice Louise. The constable witnesses the robbery of a jewelry store and goes to the nearest Police Box which is really the T.A.R.D.I.S. and opens it just as Dr. Who cuts out the magnetic locks. The constable collapses shortly after entering the ship. Dr. Who looks at the scanner and sees that things are getting a little wild outside, so he takes off only to materialize in 2150 AD where London is a burnt out husk. What follows is a fairly straightforward adaption of the serial to the big screen other than a few cast/character changes even down to the iconic scenes of a Dalek coming out of the Thames and a Dalek saucer flying over London.

As in the original serial, the movie featured a lot of location filming. To me, this movie was less dated than the first one and was quite enjoyable. It also featured two actors who would later appear in the series proper: Philip Madoc (who played several roles on the series including the War Lord in The War Games and Doctor Solon in The Brain of Morbius) and Bernard Cribbins (Donna Noble's grandfather in the revived series). The only thing that dates it a bit is the fight music (i.e. when they storm the Dalek ship)... it reminds me a bit of the music in the 60's Batman series. :)

In the original serial, the Doctor left Susan behind after she fell in love with one of the rebels. That obviously wouldn't work in this film since Susan is a little girl in these movies. That necessitated a few plot changes. The most notable change was putting different sets of characters in the same situations (i.e. Barbara and a female rebel in the serial were replaced by a male rebel and Susan in certain sequences). The "intelligence test" in the cells was a bit different and the ultimate defeat of the Daleks was completely different from the serial... in fact, I thought it was a bit silly looking in the movie: the bomb falls down a shaft, is diverted by a couple of board and slides down another shaft at an angle. The original serial had Ian block the shaft entirely with boards.

Most of the major differences were just scale-wise. The model shot of the Dalek ship flying over London was more impressive than the shaky model shot in the serial (which can be replaced by CGI using an option on the DVD). The wires were visible in a couple of cases in the movie, but impressive, none-the-less. ;) The set of the exterior of the Dalek ship was more impressive, the chase sequence with a rebel escaping from the ship to be killed by the Daleks was more action-packed, etc. The Daleks were once again fitted with smoke projectors instead of ray guns... proving once and for all that second-hand smoke can kill... or would that be second-plunger smoke... ;)

As I said, a very enjoyable and impressive adaptation, but for some reason or other, it didn't do as well at the box office as the first film, so it was destined to be the last Dalek feature film. :( I purchased a DVD box set that included excellent transfers of both films and, on a bonus disc, a direct to video documentary of the making of the films called Dalekmania which was made in 1995, the 30th anniversary of the first film. In it, they interview several of the cast members and crew about making the films. They also included a few interview clips with Terry Nation. Surprisingly Bernard Cribbins wasn't on there. The interview segments are interspersed with scenes of a mother taking her two children to the theather and them getting transported to the world of the films. All of the theater staff in these segments is played by none other than Micheal Wisher (Davros) in one of his final roles. :) While the theater segments were a bit silly, overall the documentary was very good and consistent with the type of behind the scenes material you'd find on a movie DVD.

Now that we've explored the alternate universe, it's time to move back to the real universe and start the Patrick Troughton stories... with more Daleks... in The Power of the Daleks... sadly lost. :(

It's going to be several days before my next post as I watch the serial and deal with the loss of my mother. :( Stay tuned, though. I'll be back in a few days. :)

Doctor Who: Dr. Who and the Daleks

With this post, we jump a time track into an alternate universe... one where Peter Cushing plays the kindly Dr. Who and has just invented a time and space machine called T.A.R.D.I.S. This is the world of Dr. Who and the Daleks, the first of two feature films featuring the Doctor and the Daleks.

My first impression of this film beginning with the opening title and carrying on into the opening scenes is "groovy!" :) This film is most definitely a product of the 1960's. Despite having a bigger budget, to me, this film shows its age much more than the serial on which it is based. Its look is very reminescent of 1960's James Bond films and other films of its era.

I didn't listen to the commentary track, but I did check out all of the other special features on this disc. There is a pretty good "History of Doctor Who" and a good biography of Peter Cushing that are both screens of text you have to read through and flip with the remote. The history was written in 2001 just before the Doctor returned to our screens. There is also a trailer and an image gallery that contains movie posters and production stills. Pretty standard fare for a budget DVD release.

Now, on to the film itself... The title character is actually called "Dr. Who" not "The Doctor," Susan is much younger than on the TV series (about 10?) and unless I misheard, Dr. Who calls her Susie most of the time. Barbara and Ian are not schoolteachers like in the series, but Barbara is also Dr. Who's granddaughter (late teens/early 20's?) and Ian is her bumbling buffoon of a boyfriend. Peter Cushing plays the Dr. Who similar to the Hartnell interpretation except without all the "Hmm"s and perhaps less grumpy. :)

Ian shows up to see Barbara just as Dr. Who has completed the last piece of his time machine T.A.R.D.I.S. (note the distinct abbreviation used in this film although it stands for the same thing) and while he is waiting for Barbara to come down, much comic mischief enuses regarding some chocolates that Ian brough for Barbara. Dr. Who wants to show Ian the time machine, so they go out to the garden where there's a Police Box. Ian goes inside, is astounded that it's bigger on the inside than the outside, then proceeds to bumble around circumnavigating the outside of the ship to make sure he wasn't dreaming. Once they go inside, Dr. Who places the last piece into place, then Barbara comes in, goes to kiss Ian, and knocks him into the lever that activates it... more comic mischief...

This is how they wind up on Skaro, although I don't think the planet's name was ever mentioned. Once they get there, the rest of the story pretty well follows the serial it was based on, The Daleks: they explore a bit, go back to the ship and attempt to take off only to find the fluid link is busted (due to the Doctor's sabotage), explore the Dalek city, get captured by the Daleks, escape from the Daleks to befriend the Thals, then storm the Dalek city and defeat the Daleks' plan to release more radiation into the air to EXTERMINATE the Thals. Once the T.A.R.D.I.S. leaves Skaro, they are supposedly bound for home, but wind up in some other place and time... some things don't change... ;)

Speaking of the Thals, the movie version reminds me of the Eloi from the 1960 film The Time Machine (guess that's appropriate). Perhaps that was Terry Nation's original intention and the original serial didn't pull it off as well. It's been a while since I watched the original serial in its entirety, but I read the novelisation of this story a couple of months ago: Doctor Who and the Daleks (originally entitled Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks). I also went back to the original serial to compare a couple of scenes to see which did a better job.

The scene where they cross the swamp near the lake and find a back way into the Dalek city was, to me, one of the big differences. In the book, it seemed much more perilous than in either the serial or the movie. I got the impression from the book that this was a large lake and the creatures in it were huge. The movie gave a slight sense of that when it shows them climbing the mountain with a matte painting of a lake vista behind them, in contrast, the serial didn't show them climbing at all. The lake creatures really weren't shown in the movie although the serials did some miniature work, which while done on a television budget, gives a better sense of danger than the movie. In the book, there is a scene where they injure one of the lake creatures and its fellows come and fight over the body of the fallen creature. This was missing from both versions.

I also got the impression that the pipes they followed into the mountain were huge pipelines. In the movie, they were small when they sighted them underwater, and a little larger on the mountain. In the serial, they only showed a model shot of largish pipes running into the mountain (in a composited shot) and completely skipped the party climbing the mountain, jumping straight to them being in the caves. I also thought the scene in the serial where they jumped the chasm was more intense than the movie version.

Speaking of differences, I thought the Dalek speech was a little inconsistent... At. Times. They. Were. Pausing. Between. Every. Word, while at others, they spoke almost conversationally. The major pauses reminded me a bit of the speech in Day of the Daleks. :) The Daleks props were slightly larger in this film and some had their sucker arms replaced by pinchers. They also shot smoke instead of ray guns. People were all in a tizzy when the Daleks turned into "Skittles" in the Matt Smith story Victory of the Daleks, but they obviously haven't seen the colored Daleks in this movie. :)

Speaking of the Dalek props, they actually made their debut in the serial The Chase which aired just before this movie was released when the TV production team hired them from the completed film. The Chase was not one of my favorite serials, but when it aired just before the movie, it helped promote the film. The other major differences are that the Doctor was portrayed (although not explicitly) as a human in the movie (although it's only hinted that he's an alien early on in the series) and he invents the T.A.R.D.I.S. in the movie (again something that's implied early on in the series, but later changes to him stealing the TARDIS from the Time Lords). There's no console or central column, or any indication that there's anything other than a single room in the ship. The trip to Skaro was almost instantaneous, and there's no explanation for why the ship looks like a Police Box. :)

I thought it was an interesting re-interpretation of Terry Nation's original script. Perhaps it might have been a gateway for someone not already into the show at that time. :)

Next time... We venture again with Dr. Who. This time to 2150 Earth for a Dalek invasion in Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Blog miscellany

I've heard from a number of people that they've had trouble posting comments, so I've changed the comment setting from the default to allow posts without signing in (Google account, Blogger account, OpenID, etc.). Hopefully this won't generate a lot of spam posts. Also, I'm going to be out of town for the next couple of days, but I have a couple of blog posts queued up so that I can just hit publish when I have an Internet connection. :)

I have completed watching all the William Hartnell episodes and will be posting comments on the following stories over the next couple of days:

26. The Savages (Friday)
28. The Smugglers (Saturday)
29. The Tenth Planet (Sunday)

After that, I plan to take a break from the serials before starting the Troughton episodes and watch the feature films starring Peter Cushing as an alternate First Doctor (who is actually named "Dr. Who") in re-imaginings of the first two Dalek serials:

• Dr. Who and the Daleks (released between seasons 2 and 3 and is a retelling of the serial The Daleks)
• Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (released between seasons 3 and 4 and is a retelling of the serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

I started watching the first one a couple of years ago, but got interrupted and never finished it. I will probably also watch the documentary Dalekmania and add my comments as part of the second film.

Hopefully you are enjoying reading my meanderings as much as I'm enjoying watching the serials and posting these comments. Leave me some comments to let me know you're out there. :)