Dr. Who and the Daleks (Gordon Flemyng, 1965)
Speculation over the fate of the BBC's flagship sci-fi series Doctor Who (1963 - 2025) has been rife recently. Rather than offer my own uninformed opinion to the mix, like everybody else, what better way to side-step it all by revisiting Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)? The first feature film outing of the renowned space and time traveller.
Adapted from Terry Nation's 'The Daleks', the second ever story in the long running series, the titular doctor (Peter Cushing) inadvertently travels to a mysterious distant planet with his TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) ship. The Doctor is joined by his three companions; his two grand daughters, the prepubescent Susan (Roberta Tovey) the beehived Barbara (Jennie Linden), and Barbara's comical boyfriend, Ian (Roy Castle). Die-hard Whovians will no doubt already be seething just reading all this, as Susan is the only real relation of the Doctor in the television series, and the other two characters, are her school teachers. The Doctor also happens to be human in this film. Nerds are on on Def Con One just reading that.
This isn't going to be a run down pointing out all the differences between the televised serial and the abridged film adaptation, otherwise we'll be here all day. It's merely to make aware various elements were either changed or omitted from the televised seven part serial, which was almost three hours long in total, to work with the confines of an eighty-three minute feature film. The screenplay was written by American film writer and producer Milton Subotsky, the creative mastermind of the legendary film company Amicus Productions. While ageing Whovians might be disgruntled with all the inaccuracies inherent in the film adaptation and driven to leaving bitter reviews on IMDb, Subotsky's production does triumphantly showcase the fun aspects of a Doctor Who adventure; something tragically forgotten today.
The plot to Dr. Who and the Daleks is a little reminiscent to H.G. Wells's dystopian science fiction novella The Time Machine. Both concern a time travel adventure set millennia after a post-apocalypse involving two contrasting races. One being the monstrously cruel oppressor; the other being docile, peace-loving hippies. Caught in between both societies, is the Doctor and his companions. The film shows our characters trying to make sense of the planet and the situation. It then shifts into our cast helping to tip the balance. Thus, the Thals, the hippie-like pacifists, described by film critic Kim Newman as "The gayest tribe in the universe", are Wells's Elois. The pepper pot, space Nazis known as the Daleks being comparable to the grotesque Morlocks.
Dr. Who and the Daleks' biggest highlight is its superb production. The film is a visual treat to the eye. The petrified forest under a turquoise light evokes Mario Bava gothic horror vibes. Adorned on the walls of the Dalek city is metallic coloured foil and various lava lamps in the background. They intersperse the omnipresent salmon pink and silver grey rooms and hallways of the city. The Doctor's very own transport, the TARDIS, is a big contrast to the one featured in the television series, as it resembles a mad professor's laboratory with wires hanging everywhere compared to the pristine and clinical one found in the show during this era.
The real success is the beefed up design of the Daleks. The iconic sink plunger is absent on some of the film Daleks, and replaced with a metallic claw. Their bumper trim is much thicker, and the light bulbs on their metallic domes are much larger. The metal armoured casings which house the mutants aliens are in various different colour ranges; reflecting the different ranks in the Dalek hierarchy. The leader is possibly the coolest of the lot with its black and gold casing. It's no surprise that the Daleks would be the obvious enemies involved in the Doctor's first film outing, and not the last either.
Peter Cushing's portrayal of the Doctor might not be canonical to diehard Whovians, but his performance is top notch, regardless. If anything, playing a cantankerous, elderly inventor on an adventure through space and time, is far more believable and entertaining than some of the actual legitimate incarnations of the character in the series. Cushing obviously borrows from William Hartnell's performances of the Doctor, which was the first incarnation of the character at the time. However, Cushing is obviously more animated as the grey haired grand father, as he was still in his early fifties. Cushing would deliver more of the same dotty old grand dad eccentricities in the sequel Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) and the unrelated At the Earth's Core (1976), both of which also Amicus films produced by Subotsky.
Tonally, the film is inconsistent, which, along with its '60s production design, makes it a surreal viewing experience at times. This is due to Dr. Who and the Daleks containing a rather serious plot concerning the very existence of the Thals being critical, but the film offsets it with some light entertainment comedy scattered here and there. It's bizarre seeing Roy Castle performing a Norman Wisdom style slapstick routine trying to open an automatic door, while in another scene, the chilling screams of a Thal can be heard while being devoured by a bog monster. Perhaps the most horrifying sight, is the mutated hand of a Dalek emerging from underneath a plastic shower curtain which was comically used in killing it. But I suppose these tonal shifts make sense, as the youngest grand daughter, Susan is depicted as a child in the film as opposed to her TV incarnation, thus the dread in the series is more subdued. The light hearted tone also balanced out the bleakness of its post-apocalyptic setting aids.
6 comments:
It's canon to me and I prefer it to the TV version.
Yes, me too. Although, I do think the TV version is darker than the film, and the Thals look less campy.
RTD should have made Cushing's Doctor canon like he did with Richard E Grant's in that 'Rogue' episode.
I concur.
I wish they'd done a couple of other Hartnell era stories with Cushing as the Doctor. The Time Meddler and The Tenth Planet to be specific.
Both great stories to adapt. How great would the Mondasian Cybermen have been in an Amicus film with Cushing in it? They would have looked incredible in Technicolour.
Wonder if Amicus were considering The Daleks' Master Plan as the third film.
It has been a long time since I have seen the Peter Cushing starring Dr. Who films. As I recall, Cushing's performance was fine, though I felt abandoning the BBC series' Time Lord identity for him was a bit hard to take. This was probably done to simplify the plot of a stand-alone feature film and also to make it more accessible to foreign audiences that were not familiar with the TV series.
Got to say that I really like SHOCK WAVES. It is a minimalist horror film that relies on its remote setting and cast of in-way-over-their-heads characters to generate its tension. Peter Cushing's small role is certainly a highlight.
Cushing's portrayal of the Doctor is very much inspired by Hartnell's performance of the character on TV. Therefore, it comes across as being faithful to the character. Not being a Time Lord, is an obvious miss-step, intentional or not, but neither was the Meta-Crisis Doctor, and he's considered canon. Even Paul McGann's Doctor was revealed as being half-human in the 1996 TV movie.
I really ought to revisit Shock Waves, but I found it very dull when I last watched it. I did like the look of the zombie-Nazis with their bug-eye goggles, though.
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