DR WHO AND THE DALEKS

UK, 1965, 82 minutes, Colour.
Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jenny Linden, Roberta Tovey, Barrie Ingham, Geoffrey Toone.
Directed by Gordon Flemyng.

Doctor Who and the Daleks was the first cinema spin-off from the very popular television program, Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell – who was Doctor Who for ten years, followed by such actors as Tom Baker.

Doctor Who was seen from 1963 on British television – in black and white. This was the first time to see the Daleks and Doctor Who in colour.

Peter Cushing is a very genial, semi-bumbling grandfather as Doctor Who. Comedian and musician Roy Castle is rather irritating as the bumbling Ian. Jennie Linden (Women in Love) is Barbara and Roberta Tovey is particularly strong as the forthright Susan. Barrie Ingham and Geoffrey Toone are the leaders of the Thal, the race put down by the mechanical Daleks.

Doctor Who’s time-travelling machine owes a great deal to H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine – as well as plot developments with the Daleks and the Thal. His machine is TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space). When his granddaughter’s bumbling friend bumps the machine, it goes into a future and a different planet. The Daleks are machines who have destroyed the planet and exiled the semi-human Thals. The Daleks imprison Doctor Who and his entourage but they escape, join the Thals, and help them to overcome the Daleks.

The themes were very popular in the 1960s and there was a sequel, Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 AD.

1.The popularity of Doctor Who in the 1960s? The television program in black and white? The plots and characters? The transferral to the big screen and colour?

2.The production values, the elaborate sets and their colour, the present and the flat? The time machine and its interior? The technology? The petrified forest on the planet, the home of the Daleks? The visualising of the Daleks? Their voices? The Thals? The musical score?

3.Doctor Who, a genial old man, his invention of Tardis? His relationship with Barbara and Susan? Ian’s arrival, bumbling, setting off the time machine?

4.The time machine travel, going to the distant planet? The effect of the petrified forest? The exploration? Doctor Who and his scientific curiosity? Susan and hers? The frightening encounters? The invisible Thal? The encounter with the Daleks? Their being imprisoned? Ian and his continued awkwardness? Barbara and her support?

5.The Daleks, their shape, movement, voices, colour? The antagonism towards the Thals, wanting to get the medicines from Doctor Who? The Thals leaving them at the door? The hostility, imprisonment?

6.Susan, adventurous, going back to the machine, getting the medicines? Doctor Who and his pretending to need mercury so that he could investigate further?

7.The group using their wits, outwitting the Daleks? The escape, Ian within the container? The problems with the lift? Their escape and going to the Thal?

8.The Thal, their appearance, their being oppressed, in need of food? Susan and her being captured, forced to write the letter to trap the Thals?

9.Doctor Who, the Thals and reassuring them? The help to get the time machine leaving, their needing the Thals’ help?

10.The Thals, their leader, the complete pacifism? Doctor Who and his ruse in pretending to take the girl and the aggression by the Thal? Persuading them to attack?

11.The detail of the attack on the Daleks’ fortress, climbing the walls, infiltrating? The confrontation and victory?

12.The Thals and their new life, Doctor Who and the return – and the irony of their landing in the Roman empire?