Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Dr. Who and the Daleks ( 1965 ) 1h 22min An eccentric inventor and his companions travel in his TARDIS to the Planet Skaro and battle the evil menace of the Daleks. Director: Terry Nation (based on the B.B.C. television serial), Milton Subotsky (screenplay) Stars: Today is Peter Cushing’s 103rd Birthday!

Here Are His Ten Best Roles 26 May 2016 4:44 AM, -08:00 | WeAreMovieGeeks.com a list of 24 titles created 03 Feb 2011 a list of 31 titles created 24 Apr 2011 a list of 22 titles created 05 Sep 2013 a list of 22 titles created 20 Jul 2014 a list of 28 titles created 4 months ago Title: Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) 5.7/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. The Daleks' fiendish plot in 2150 against Earth and its people is foiled when Dr. Who and friends arrive from the 20th century and figure it out. Director: Gordon Flemyng Investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith, with the help of her adopted son, his friends, and an intelligent supercomputer, combats evil alien forces here on Earth.

Stars: Elisabeth Sladen, Daniel Anthony, Alexander Armstrong Time and Space traveling adventures of a Gallifreyan Time Lord only known as the Doctor and his companions, traveling through time and space. Stars: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee Spin off TV show based on the adventures of the robot dog companion from "Doctor Who". Stars: John Leeson, Robert Moloney, Keegan Joyce Doctor Who (TV Series 2005) Adventure | Drama | Family The further adventures of the time traveling alien adventurer and his companions. Stars: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Matt Smith Edit Storyline Based on a story from the BBC TV serial "Doctor Who". Scientist Dr. Who accidentally activates his new invention, the Tardis, a time machine disguised as a police telephone box. Dr. Who, his two grand-daughters, and Barbara's boyfriend Ian are transported through time and space to the planet Skaro, where a peaceful race of Thals are under threat of nuclear attack from the planet's other inhabitants: the robotic mutant Daleks. Written by Alexander Lum <aj_lum@postoffice.utas.edu.au> Now on the Big Screen in COLOUR!

See more » Genres: July 1966 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Doctor Who and the Daleks See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Freddie Francis was attached to direct at one time (he is thought to have assisted with some casting), whilst Ann Bell was to have played Barbara. See more » Goofs When Susan is escorted to the entrance of the city by two Daleks, the top half of one is very clearly seen to tip backwards for an instant. See more » Quotes Ian : [Stepping inside TARDIS] But, its so big in here and yet its so small from outside. How come? Susan : In electro-connective theory, space expands to accommodate the time necessary to incorporate its dimensions. You'll have to leave your series allegiance behind, but... 22 October 2005 | by mrlanceb (California) – See all my reviews First of all, I've seen several episodes of the Dr. Who series, but I don't follow it. It has its fan base and that's fine. If you are looking for a good Dalek adventure without getting into the whole Dalek "genesis," then this movie works well.

You don't have to know all about Who-ville as a prerequisite. There are some visual elements that needed more budget or something - miniature exteriors of the city, the burnt forest set, and the make-up on the humanoids don't quite make the grade. But the Daleks themselves inside their metal city are something to see (be sure to look for the lava lights). The Dalek robot mechanisms are very convincing, and they are very menacing as they roll around with their modulated voices trying to exterminate anything with two legs. The camera work is good - it looks like the director tried to add some interesting angles and follow shots when others maybe wouldn't bother. The cast plays well in their roles, and the story is simple and straight-forward. This is no "2001 A Space Odessey," but then again, you don't have to think too hard about what the ending really means. This movie will probably disappoint most loyal Dr. Who followers, but it will entertain sci-fi fans who enjoy some light fare and aren't too attached to the series. 12 of 15 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes View All Critic Reviews (1) Audience Reviews for Dr.

Who and the Daleks With a budget just barely above that of the TV show, this is a big screen, color remake of first Dalek adventure, which doesn't expand the story, while removing most of the elements that made the television show so intriguing. The Doctor is just some scientist from earth, as is his granddaughter Susan. Barbara is now also the doctor's granddaughter and Ian is her suitor. Peter Cushing does give an interesting interpretation of the the Doctor. Hard core fans of the television series may want to view this, everyone else beware. Anthony Valletta Super Reviewer In order for a Dr. Who fan to enjoy this, they must first come to terms with the fact that the Doctor is made a human with the surname of Who. He also invented the TARDIS himself. It's not that hard to ignore, as once they leave Earth, the plot is pretty much exactly what one should expect from Who. He travels into space with a number of companions and must help a peaceful race stop those damn pesky Daleks. Cushing gives a rather decent performance, being absent minded but clever at the same time. Roy Castle is overused as a mumbling fool.

He falls over when doors open, sits on things, runs into walls etc. But at least he has a slight arc as he overcomes his fears and becomes heroic. Linden is more of an excuse to have Castle come along, as she doesn't do much. Perhaps two guys and a little girl travelling in space together would have seemed too weird to some. Some of the writing is a bit rough, as it basically just wants to hurry along. When meeting his granddaughter's new boyfriend the first thing Who does is show him the time machine. Good score, decent enough effects, result in a movie that doesn't betray its television roots. With some clever writing this could easily be placed into The Doctor's timeline, but as it stands it is some cheesy sci-fi fun. Luke Baldock Super Reviewer Hmmm. It was certainly the wrong idea to make the show into a movie but I don't know if the show came from the film. However this film has soom laughable moments and is not one I recomend but it's a film that will entertain you on a weekend for sure Sarah Gaish Dr. Who and the Daleks | Blu-Ray Review | Film @ The Digital Fix Dr.

Who and the Daleks By Gary Couzens Gary Couzens Film Audio commentary, Featurette: Dalekmania!, Interview with Gareth Owen, Restoration featurette, Stills gallery, Theatrical trailer Soundtracks Subtitles English hard-of-hearing Doctor Who was only five weeks old when a sucker arm emerged from offscreen to menace Barbara W... Doctor Who was only five weeks old when a sucker arm emerged from offscreen to menace Barbara Wright in the cliffhanger to the first episode of the second serial. Enter the Daleks, and they and the Doctor have been inextricably entwined ever since, so much so that Dalek creator Terry Nation has often been wrongly credited with creating Doctor Who itself. Milton Subotsky was a British-based American, whose production company Amicus was rapidly making a name for itself, mostly for horror movies. But he always had an eye on what his arch-rival Hammer was doing. Noticing their success with films aimed at a more family audience, released during half-terms and school holidays. So he bought the rights to bring the Daleks into the cinema. At a time when all television was black and white, now Nation's creations were in colour and on a big � and wide � screen.

It was released shortly after William Hartnell's small-screen Doctor had had his third encounter with the Daleks in The Chase . Doctor Who had sold overseas from the very beginning, with Australia and Canada being two English-speaking countries which broadcast the show from early 1965. However, the USA was not one of them. (Who was not broadcast in the USA until 1972, with Jon Pertwee's stories.) However, the USA was the pre-eminent film market, so Subotsky (writing the screenplay with an uncredited David Whitaker, the show's original script editor) had to tailor the film to that audience. That meant replacing Hartnell (in any case too busy making the television show, then shown nearly all year round) with a bigger-name actor, namely Peter Cushing. Gone was Ron Grainer's memorable theme tune (then as arranged by Delia Derbyshire). And if far too much ink has been spilled and electrons disturbed trying to sort out the TV series's continuity, trying to fit this big-screen iteration in will likely cause your brain to implode, as the film introduces us to our leading characters to set up the premise for cinema viewers new to Who.

Although the name of his race and home planet were in television future, we knew from the outset that Hartnell's Doctor and his granddaughter Susan were not of this world. Not so Cushing's Doctor, who is actually called �Dr Who� something he was never (well, almost never ) addressed as on the small screen. The TV series was nominally a children's show, but the film pitches younger, and the action � with Daleks shooting what seems like fire extinguishers � played strictly within U-certificate bounds. This Susan is not a teenager (played by a twenty-three-year-old woman who was a mother at the time) but by eleven-year-old Roberta Tovey. Barbara changes from being a schoolteacher to being an older Doctor grandchild (played by Jennie Linden) and Ian becomes her boyfriend, played by Roy Castle, doing double duty as action provider and comic relief. For the first reel, Dr. Who and the Daleks is a four-hander, with Ian's clumsiness sending the four of them in the TARDIS to the Daleks' planet, full of petrified forestry and wildlife.

Then the main plot kicks in, a cut-down version of the original seven-part serial , taking up the remaining hour of the not-long running time, where the peaceful Thals, led by Alydon (Barrie Ingham) are under threat by the mutants inside metal casings, the Daleks. Gordon Flemyng, was a safe pair of hands to direct, Shooting in the Techniscope format (more of that later), he does well to disguise what was not a huge budget and fills the wide screen. This film used to be a perennial on the BBC in the Seventies, a time when no Scope film was ever shown letterboxed on British television, so Flemyng and DP John Wilcox's use of Scope is quite a revelation if you've only seen this film before panned and scanned. Flemyng keeps the film moving, despite its somewhat thin storyline. Cushing is a commanding presence, though his take on the Doctor is much more kindly and much less irascible than Hartnell's. Tovey avoids making Susan too irksomely precocious, though Castle at times overdoes the comic relief. Linden is a little bland and is overshadowed by the rest.

Yvonne Antrobus (as the Thal Dyoni) was not available to post-dub her lines, so her voice is provided by another actress, name unknown. Riding a tide of Dalekmania, Dr. Who and the Daleks did very well at the box office and spawned a sequel...but that's another disc and another review. The Disc Dr. Who and the Daleks comes to Blu-ray on a BD25 disc encoded for Region B only. The film was shot in Techniscope, a two-perforation (as opposed to the normal four) 35mm process/ Techniscope was popular in the 1960s and early 1970s, often for lower- or medium-budget films, as it provided a widescreen image without the use of expensive-to-rent anamorphic lenses and as it exposed an area half the height of a normal 35mm frame one reel of film got twice as much use. (Techniscope fell into disuse in the 1970s except for some special-effects work, though the name is sometimes used more recently as a synonym for two-perf Super 35.

Films shot in the latter process include Shame and Silver Linings Playbook.) One downside of the process, or a feature if you prefer, was increased grain, Dr. Who and the Daleks isn't hugely grainy, but the grain on this Blu-ray transfer does look filmlike. The colours do look true, with solid blacks and close shots are very detailed. Some of the longer shots look a little less detailed, though that may well be as per original. Dr. Who and the Daleks was made and released in mono, as was the case with almost every film of 1965 other than 70mm presentations. Thankfully, StudioCanal have not remixed the soundtrack into fake 5.1 and have left it as mono (LPCM 2.0). It sounds fine, with dialogue, music and sound effects clear and well balanced, as befits a professional job of work by Amicus's sound department. Also thankfully, StudioCanal have provided optional hard-of-hearing subtitles, which has not normally been their policy on English-language releases. Some of the extras are ported over from the film's DVD release from 2002.

This includes a commentary, billed as featuring Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey but in fact is moderated by Jonathan Southcote, author of The Cult Films of Peter Cushing. This is a pleasant chat, with both women clearly having clearly happy memories of the filming and of working with Peter Cushing in particular . They both remember Roy Castle taking opportunities to practise his trumpet playing and tapdancing in his dressing room at every opportunity, distracting young Tovey (and her chaperone) from her schoolwork. Flemyng struck a deal with Tovey that he would give her a shilling every time she did a shot in one take. He didn't repeat this deal for the sequel, presumably as he realised how much he would be out of pocket! This commentary is heavier on anecdote than anything else, so it may be light on the hard information some Who aficionados might wish for. �Dalekmania!� (57:30) is a documentary that dates back to 1995 and the film's VHS release.

It's presented in 4:3, upscaled to 1080p50, though film clips and some dramatised material at the beginning and end are letterboxed. (Who fans will note that the commissionaire in the opening scene is played by Michael Wisher, a regular Dalek voice on television and the first and definitive incarnation of the Daleks' creator Davros.) Roberta Tovey features here too, so inevitably this duplicates information from the commentary, though we do find out exactly how many shillings �One-Take Tovey� earned. However, we do get to hear from people who were alive then but aren't now, notably Terry Nation, who died in 1997 and has been inevitably sparsely represented on the range of Who DVDs of the television series. Stunt coordinator Eddie Powell, who died in 2000, also appears: he towers over the adult Tovey in one shot, so you can see why he used to be Christopher Lee's stunt double. Peter Cushing and Roy Castle had both passed away the previous year, and the documentary is dedicated to their memories.

(Gordon Flemyng died in 1995.) Given that it is now eighteen years old, it's unavoidably a little dated � one contributor is looking forward to seeing the Who films in colour and widescreen on video (younger viewers, ask your parents what that was). It could also have been more detailed: Raymond Cusick, recently departed as I write this, certainly deserved some attention for coming up with the design of the Daleks. Meanwhile, you do get to find out how much Dalek memorabilia went for back in the day. We also see some very faded-to-pink and battered clips from the Italian and French dubbed versions of the film, so thank the Blu-ray gods that you aren't watching something with that lack of picture quality. For some more detailed information on the film's production, we have Gareth Owen (7:41), author of The Shepperton Story, who talks to camera about the film's conception, making and release. Also on the disc is a featurette covering the restoration of Dr. Who and the Daleks (8:26), which goes into some detail about the Techniscope format the film was shot in, and shows how the picture and soundtrack has been digitally repaired.

The extras are included with a stills gallery (2:12, the only extra in 1080p24) and the theatrical trailer (3:04). Dr. Who and the Daleks Remind Me Dr. Who and the Daleks It is somehow fitting that a British TV show using time travel as a vehicle for disseminating lessons about science and history wound up running not the proposed one year but for twenty-six. Produced by the British Broadcasting Company, Doctor Who premiered in November 1963 and starred veteran actor William Hartnell as an alien Time Lord padding around the galaxy righting interstellar wrongs in a time travel/space folding craft known as a T.A.R.D.I.S. (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space), which appears from without to be a standard British police box but is paradoxically bigger on the inside. Pitched at children but with a blending of drama and humor that proved a lure for adults as well, Doctor Who was structured as a series of self-contained adventures comprised of several episodes each.

After the completion of the four-part premiere story, "An Unearthly Child," which transported the Doctor and viewers to the dawn of time and attended man's discovery of fire, the BBC was caught without a follow-up script. Although a production edict had vetoed the use of "bug-eyed monsters" on the series, the available Terry Nation teleplay "The Daleks" was rushed into production and depicted what would be the Doctor's first dust-up with the eponymous and thoroughly evil race of mutants whose hideously deformed corporealities are encased in metallic sheaths bearing more than a passing resemblance to salt and pepper shakers. With their robotic gyrations, Snap-On ordnances, and shrill metallic battle cry of "Ex-ter-min-ate!," the deucedly inhuman Daleks proved to be the perfect foils for the prickly but never less than humane Time Lord, and remain half a century after the fact as crucial to the Doctor Who mythos as Professor Moriarty was to Sherlock Holmes and The Joker to Batman.

The popularity of the seven-part "The Daleks" led to the villains being given their own comic strip; the Daleks were well on their way to becoming a national institution when they, and the Doctor, were cast in their first feature film, Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965). Produced by American expatriates Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, whose Amicus Productions had traded youth-oriented pictures for anthology horror films, Dr. Who and the Daleks took considerable liberties with the BBC series with a mind toward more global appeal for the franchise. Rather than have William Hartnell reprise his role from the small screen, Rosenberg and Subotsky cast Peter Cushing, whose international popularity was on the rise thanks to star roles in a run of Gothic horror films from Hammer Film Productions. Lost in the translation from the small screen to the big was the character's alien origins, with the Doctor rebranded as a human inventor whose surname (unlike that of his TV counterpart) really is Who. Shot at Amicus' home base of Shepperton Studios in April and May of 1965 under the direction of Gordon Flemyng, Dr.

Who and the Daleks marked the character's debut in color and widescreen. (The TV series did not default to color for another four years.) While the average episode budget of the series was in the neighborhood of $3,500, Dr. Who and the Daleks was allotted better than $250,000 with which to knock around, resulting in a production that was, however set-bound, light years ahead of the BBC original in terms of visual splendor. Subotsky's screenplay rejiggers the characterizations of the Doctor's traveling companions as well, rendering his equally-alien granddaughter Susan (Roberta Tovey) human as well and making another granddaughter of Barbara (Jennie Linden), who on TV had been a history teacher privy to Susan's true identity. The action hero of the BBC series, science teacher Ian Chesterton, is reduced in the feature to comic relief, and played to a bumbling turn by song-and-dance man Roy Castle. Despite scuttling the entire cast of the BBC's Doctor Who and playing hob with a mythos that was quickly becoming chapter-and-verse among science fiction aficionados, Dr.

Who and the Daleks was sufficiently profitable for Amicus (operating behind the aegis of a AARU and British Lion) to roll out an immediate sequel. Peter Cushing returned to star in Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), which ditched the characters of Barbara and Ian entirely (and trucked in a Whovian niece, played by Jill Curzon) for a bracingly violent parable about Nazism and local resistance. Conspicuously absent from the film's title, Dr. Who also had less screen time; felled by illness during production, Cushing had to leave some of the heavy lifting to support players Andrew Keir, Bernard Cribbins, and Ray Brooks (fresh from Richard Lester's The Knack... and How to Get It, 1965). A third Who-venture was proposed but never materialized and the character returned to his former, extraterrestrial (and, as it happened whenever the lead actor had to be recast) regenerative glory. The original Doctor Who series fell victim to low ratings in 1989, ending an impressive 26 year run.

An abortive attempt to revive the character for American audiences in 1996 via a one-shot TV movie resulted in a reappraisal of the franchise and a series reboot in 2005. By Richard Harland Smith Dr. Who: A History by Alan Kistler (Globe Pequot, 2013) Dr. Who by Jim Leach (Wayne State University Press, 2009) Terry Nation: The Man Who Invented the Daleks by Alwyn W. Turner (Aurum Press, 2013) In All Sincerity, Peter Cushing by Christopher Gullo (Xlibris Corp., 2004) Dr. Who and the Daleks Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 25 out of 25 people found the following review useful: Peter Cushing Is WHO? from los angeles 26 May 2003 One night in 1968 in Los Angeles as I remember, I went to a theater in East Los Angeles because I wanted to watch a movie called "Night of the Living Dead." In those days, two movies were shown.

The second feature was some film about an old man that traveled to another planet and battled against some metal creatures. It was low budget, much like the first feature but did have someone that I recognized, Peter Cushing. I had no idea that there was a TV Serial in England by the name of "Doctor Who." It was slow at times but an interesting concept of travel in time and space, a telephone box call the TARDIS. The metal beings were rather primitive because they had what look like a plunger on them and always wanted to kill and exterminate living beings. There was a sequel the next year but little did I know that this film would be my first experience into the world of Doctor Who. In Los Angeles, California 1977 on a local TV station, I would be able to watch that TV Serial and would remain a Dr. Who fan even after the series ended in 1989. It was this movie that started it all, just a quiet night, after watching zombies eating people. Who would know what the future would bring! Was the above review useful to you?

26 out of 30 people found the following review useful: Best suits pulp-style tastes from Lafayette, IN 16 January 2002 If, like me, you enjoy checking out the reviews *before* seeing the film, here's the premise in a nutshell: A mishap with silver-haired scientist Doctor Who's latest invention hurls the cast through space and time, landing them in the midst of an eerie alien wasteland. The Doctor's companions on this unanticipated adventure are his granddaughters Susan and Barbara, and Barbara's boyfriend Ian. Needing parts to repair their damaged time machine, the company seeks help in a nearby city, only to be captured and imprisoned by the ruthless mechanical Daleks, a race of machine-bound mutants bent on world domination. To followers of the original TV series, this plot will be as familiar as the Daleks' squawking cries of 'Exterminate,' and despite some changes to the cast (most notably the Doctor being portrayed as a human), it faithfully captures the spirit of the early programs. For viewers who've never experienced the original Who, or who don't have a taste for early pulp-style adventure sci-fi, this movie will probably be less appealing.

It's a fan flick pure and simple, expressly designed to capitalize on the wave of Dalekmania that swept Britain in the mid-1960s following the show's BBC premiere. Ironically, the film's weakest link is the Daleks themselves. The writers and producers were no doubt keen to capitalize on the popularity of the metal meanies, but it has to be said that the Daleks really don't have much of a screen presence. With their absolute lack of expression, clumsy movement, and painfully slow, mechanical, grating voices, they should never have been scripted to carry any scenes by themselves; however (alas) there are more than a few passages in the film that consist of nothing more than Dalek cross-talk acts, with one metal peppergrinder haltingly rasping its lines to another. Still, I'm one who's been spoiled by the routinely mind-blowing special effects of the 21st century; to Britons of the '60s, the stuff I find boring might have seemed menacing. Daleks aside, the most memorable aspect of the film is the eye-popping color.

The filmmakers pulled out all the stops to give the sets a wonderfully vibrant feel, liberally filling every scene with multi-hued Daleks, glowing control panels, or eerily-lit alien landscapes. This film was the first opportunity for fans to see Doctor Who in color (sorry, `colour'), and they certainly got it in spades. (The original TV series didn't drop the black-and-white format until 1970, five years later.) The film's greatest strength is its casting, with the best performance by far coming from veteran actor Peter Cushing, best known to U.S. audiences as Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars. Cushing's delivery is predictably brilliant, and helps bring conviction and flair to a script that might otherwise come off as unbearably campy. As the Doctor he's also just plain likeable - much more so in fact than his TV counterpart (played by William Hartnell) who often came off as crusty and gruff. Roberta Tovey as the young Susan also gives a marvelous performance, something that's a true rarity among kid actors.

Jennie Linden does an adequate job as Barbara, though her character has no clear role in the story and was probably just included to suggest continuity with the TV series, while Roy Castle provides some (generally successful) comic relief with his portrayal of the bumbling klutz Ian. Kudos also to Barrie Ingham (Thal leader Alydon) for actually giving a credible performance from beneath false eyelashes and a blonde wig. The bottom line? The film's a little too far removed from modern tastes to be enjoyed by the average Joe, but to Who fans and sci-fi aficionados it'll be a delight. Was the above review useful to you? 17 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Terrific Film Adaptation Of Science-Fiction TV Classic 17 May 2005 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Dr Who, a traveller in space and time, lands on a remote planet where he discovers two strange tribes; the Thals a race of beautiful humanoids living in simple ignorance in the forests, and the Daleks, a race of evil machine creatures living in a metal citadel.

The Daleks plan to destroy the Thals, whom the Doctor must help by first convincing them of the danger they are in. The BBC TV science-fiction show Dr Who is arguably the greatest British cult series of all time, and this is a smashing adaptation of Terry Nation's original serial featuring the Daleks - unforgettably monstrous, soulless, destructive, robotic fiends. The film benefits greatly from production values the TV show could only dream of - Bill Constable's sets are simply fantastic, particularly the Dalek city with its gleaming control rooms, sliding panels and trippy architecture. Unlike the serial, the movie is pitched squarely at children but is never stupid or condescending, and has all sorts of interesting themes going on; atomic mutation, space travel and (interestingly for a film made at the height of peacenik sensibilities) the inevitability of conflict. Cushing is as wonderful as always, playing the enigmatic Dr Who as a kindly, absent-minded grandfather figure. Whilst this may not be a great movie, it has action, style and charm to spare. A terrifically enjoyable sci-fi classic from the great producer team of Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg. Was the above review useful to you?

18 out of 20 people found the following review useful: Fun and lighthearted adaptation of the television series, perfect for a rainy Saturday afternoon's viewing. from Here 9 December 1998 A fun adventure film that, while it may be too dated for today's youngsters, still has a certain sparkle that is perfect fare for a rainy Saturday. While fans of the BBC series "Doctor Who" (1963), upon which the film is based, may be distracted by the film's use of creative licence (the characterizations are very different from those of their television counterparts,) if not taken too seriously, this is a quite enjoyable trek across an alien landscape and a classic battle of good vs. evil. The character of Ian is played comically by Roy Castle though he is heroic where the situation demands. Jennie Linden's Barbara is a bit different from other females of the genre as she holds her own when things get tough, rarely dissolving into screams. Roberta Tovey is delightful as Susan, and kids will love her. Peter Cushing really shines, wisely not trying too hard to emulate his television counterpart William Hartnell, and makes the character his own. All-in-all, an exciting romp.

from United Kingdom 9 April 2002 When visiting his girlfriend Barbara, Ian is given a tour of the TARDIS by Dr Who. However he accidentally activates it and sends them to an unknown planet. Keen to explore they find themselves prisoners in a city controlled by the Daleks. The Daleks seek to rule the whole planet and get rid of the peace loving natives. When Dr Who et al accidentally help the Daleks to achieve this, they have no choice but to work with the natives to stop the Daleks. Made to cash in on the huge popularity mid-sixties of both Dr Who and the Daleks, this film version has much higher values than the TV show, but doesn't mean it's better. The story is weak  like an introduction to the Doctor. It's very basic and provides little opportunity for thrills  right up until the final battle. It's not that bad, but for a film you'd expect more. The Daleks themselves are good but the film uses them badly  we see them as things trapped in a city with little power outside of their own walls. To make matters worse them seem very vulnerable and easy to beat  all you have to do is push them very hard!

They also don't `do' dialogue very well  they are used several times for long scenes where they talk to each other and explain the plot to the audience, these scenes are poor as their delivery mixed with the dialogue is terrible! Cushing makes a good doctor and is better than many of the TV incarnations. Record breaking Roy Castle is quite good as Ian, but his comedy clowning doesn't really fit in with the tone of the film. The female lead is vapid but Susan (played by Tovey) is actually pretty good. Overall this is TV standard  fans will enjoy it but anyone looking for thrills or good plotting will be disappointed. Check out Dalek Invasion Earth  that is a much better use of these tin-can bad guys. Was the above review useful to you? 14 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Old Grandfather Time Who Leads the Way. from An English Shire.

20 August 2006 Doctor Who was written by Terry Nation (1930 - 1997), amongst others, who before his inauguration into the Doctor Who franchise, and personally creating the Dalek, was already writing for television, with works as The Saint with Roger Moore and The Avengers during the 1960's. The year 1963 was to be the year that an unsuspecting British television audience would be captured and mesmerised, and for the next forty years too, by an old mysterious being from another world, another time; Dr. Who had arrived. Doctor Who: The Dead Planet, a seven-episode show for television, which first aired in 1963, was his first adventure into this concept, that was played by the original Doctor: William Hartnell (1908 - 1975). Terry Nation continued to be one of the main innovators' toward the Doctor Who legend, with writing creditability's from 1963 to 1979. His work also includes the British sci-fi Blakes 7 and The Persuaders! With Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. Dr.

Who and the Daleks is based around the 1963 episodes The Dead Planet, with a movie feel towards it and by 1960's standards a huge budget of £180,000. This was a big production; the first of it's kind for this franchise and shot in Technicolor and Technoscope, a 35mm film technique that laid each frame horizontally end-to-end instead of vertically. With the international movie star Peter Cushing O.B.E. to headline, not as a time travelling alien, the last of his breed, but an eccentric, inquisitive and inventive scientific Grandfather, known as Dr.Who, not as The Doctor as he is referred to in the television series. Dr. Who and the Daleks was the first taste of the Doctor Who name for the American market, released there during July 1966, though not too successful in the US', as here in England. This well-known television show spin off needed very little prompting, just the mass hysteria and movie publicity throughout the nation would most certainly keep these wheels of industry well oiled.

Star Wars some twelve years later would be the next huge movie franchise, but on a global stage, rather than on an English lawn as Dr. Who and the Daleks were. Successful it was indeed, with massive merchandising rights too, toys, books etc, this was the big time for the small screen; Dalekmania had landed. Dr. Who's invention of the time travelling machine T.A.R.D.I.S. (fully known as Time And Relative Dimension In Space), that he with his two young granddaughters and young male friend, played by Roy Castle (1932 - 1994) as Ian, set of to another world and time with, land on planet Skaro. Here they encounter the passive life forms of the Thals, and their struggle against the repressive and destructively evil Daleks, these living creatures that can only live inside their metal casings to survive, their aim, is for interplanetary domination, taking no prisoners along the way, to destroy, to exterminate everything that crosses their path. Dr.

Who and the Daleks can share, coincidently, similar parallels to the 1960 movie The Time Machine, with Rod Taylor as George Wells, such as the time traveller and his plight against the evil Morlocks fighting the also passive Eloi people and their uprising for survival. Dr. Who and the Daleks, remember this is 1965, is a wonderful concoction of colour and imagination, with an impressive budget to play with, there was little wasted in creativity and design, with the full use of the Shepperton Studios to their advantage, no expense was spared, the sets are stunning and the Thal costumes look very chic. This also is the first outing for the Daleks to be seen in full colour, and the differing colours of the Daleks, to signify their ranks, would, and still do, thrill and captivate their audience, particularly the children who were hiding behind their cushions while watching. Dr. Who here is a sixties nostalgia trip, with its now retro styled look and feel, feeling dated but never out dated. This is nineteen sixties science fiction at its visual best, it really is, along with its international star, the Doctor Who brand name had transcended to a higher level of escapism.

Though differing from the television series, this doppelgänger, the parallel world that is Peter Cushing's Dr.Who is at times a little flat, while we are hypnotised by the colourful Daleks and their surrounds, we are sometimes left behind in a script whose pace can reel us back not forward. Peter Cushing's Doctor is a lovable old sea dog type, of the time traveller variety, very nice to know and not at all grumpy, spiteful and rude; placid and charming is his nature here, it's the adventures that he stumbles across that make him interesting. Dr. Who and the Daleks is basically relying on the success of the television series to help cash in, then watched by millions of children each week. With its target audience already in great supply and ever hungry, as children always are, to help itself to its own fame and fortune, this helps, only for a while, until we are left with a parody, a pastiche of the real thing. Not an out and out copy, just a good movie with an interesting idea that could blossom into a beautiful friendship between makers and fans alike, I feel another movie in the air, time will tell. Was the above review useful to you?

21 out of 32 people found the following review useful: A Disappointing Reinterpretation from San Francisco Peninsula 3 February 2006 In 1963, the BBC produced an extraordinarily low-budget science fiction series. Doctor Who featured an enigmatic character known only as The Doctor, an extra-terrestrial time traveler, who flitted about time and space in his TARDIS timecraft, encountering strange lifeforms and cultures and righting wrongs wherever he went. The show was originally conceived as an "edutainment" program (before the word had been coined) with the Doctor traveling throughout Earth history and encountering major events. For this reason, the show very nearly died on the vine. But in the second serial, the Doctor travels millions of years into the future to the planet Skaro and encounters the iconic alien menace that would capture viewers' imaginations and propel the show forward for over twenty five years: The Daleks. By 1965, Doctor Who's popularity made a film adaptation inevitable. Thus was born, "Doctor Who and the Daleks," which is strongly based on the original television serial that introduced them.

The Doctor travels to the planet Skaro, a planet ravaged by radiation from an atomic war, and encounters the Thals, a peace-loving humanoid race; and the Daleks, an aggressive, horribly mutated race who must move about in mechanized armored travel vehicles that resemble large salt cellars. The Doctor befriends the Thals and helps protect them from the Daleks, who seek to exterminate them all. Since its inception, the television series has developed a fan base with a dedication rivaling that of "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" fans. As such, enthusiasts will find little that's familiar, and will immediately spot the glaring changes made to Who canon (presumably to make the film more accessible to people who didn't watch the TV series), The main character -- the extra-terrestrial Doctor -- is now a human named Doctor Who, an eccentric scientist who invented the TARDIS in his back yard. And while the TARDIS exterior still resembles an old London police box, the interior resembles nothing so much as a messy workshop. The TARDIS' horrible grinding noise when it takes off?

Gone, replaced with a flaccid electronic "thwiwiwiwiwpp!" The iconic theme music has been abandoned for a contemporary original orchestral score which fails to enthuse. Even the Dalek's chilling battle cry -- "EXTERMINATE!" -- is essentially absent. Okay, so the hard-core fans will always magnify insignificant differences into catastrophic flaws. But how might the film appeal to more ordinary people? Sadly, not very well. The chief problem is one of pacing, and it is here that the movie's biggest attraction, the Daleks, becomes its greatest handicap. Daleks speak in an electronic monotone, which means you're going to get odd pauses in the speech. Sadly, the actors chose to draw these pauses out and, in some cases, insert them between every syllable. This means that scenes featuring dialog between two or more Daleks -- and there are a fair number of them -- just drag on for seemingly ever and completely kill the pacing. A big selling point of the movie was that, for the first time, viewers would be able to see the Who universe with a bigger budget, and in color (the television series would not be shot in color until 1969).

In this respect, the film delivers 100%, with widescreen Technicolor. In fact, the film quality is so good that it reveals every detail, including just how cheap the production actually is. In short, there's not much here to appeal to newcomers (too cheesy and clumsy) or to loyal fans (gratuitous changes from canon). In the end, it's probably little more than a historical curiosity, an adjunct to the "real" show from which can be drawn dozens of other, better examples of the Doctor's travels. Was the above review useful to you? 9 out of 9 people found the following review useful: An exercise in nostalgia from United Kingdom 2 April 2008 I have fond memories of seeing this at the cinema (a treat on a friend's birthday) when it first came out. I was a big Dr Who fan anyway as a 12 year old, and this big screen colour adaptation of the 2nd Dr Who serial and first Dalek story was just what the Doctor ordered.

It never occurred to me, as a 12 year old in 1965, that the Doctor was a mere human and not a Time Lord from Gallifrey, and that was because, at the time, he was a mere human and not a Time Lord from Gallifrey on TV, too. That particular wrinkle wasn't introduced until long after the first couple of Dalek TV series and the two movies. That said, while the film brings back fond memories, and is particularly good to see in widescreen, it is very much a product of its time, and specifically targetted at its market - youngsters who were mad keen on Daleks. That market is not there any more. The movie shows its age, and doesn't stand up that well to today's demands. For all that, there's still a genuine sense of jeopardy involved, the principals play well, the production values are (for the time and the UK cinema industry) very high, and it remains good, colourful innocent fun. Was the above review useful to you? 11 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Quite a good adaption.

from Skaro, England 21 June 2001 Dr Who and the Daleks is a good little film. It is fairly typical of the British Sci-Fi movies made at this time. The plot is ok, but where the movie succeeds is with the acting and set pieces. Peter Cushing makes an excellently dotty Doctor, Roy Castle is bumbling as Ian Chesterton and Roberta Tovey does well as a young Susan. The action scenes set on Skaro are fantastic and quite chilling, and the set designs, costumes and Dalek design are all frst rate. What is a sin is that the Television theme tune is discarded for a more bouncy swinging sixties type, and the TARDIS interior is abolished for what looks like a gatecrashed science lab. The Doctor is referred to as 'Dr Who' throughout the movie and the whole thing is slightly camp. If these thing would have been ironed out this could have gone on to be come an all time classic. On a final note it is also a shame William Hartnell didn't play the Doctor in the movie, that would have been fantastic, but Peter Cushing is more than good as his replacement. Was the above review useful to you?

12 out of 15 people found the following review useful: You'll have to leave your series allegiance behind, but... from California 22 October 2005 First of all, I've seen several episodes of the Dr. Who series, but I don't follow it. It has its fan base and that's fine. If you are looking for a good Dalek adventure without getting into the whole Dalek "genesis," then this movie works well. You don't have to know all about Who-ville as a prerequisite. There are some visual elements that needed more budget or something - miniature exteriors of the city, the burnt forest set, and the make-up on the humanoids don't quite make the grade. But the Daleks themselves inside their metal city are something to see (be sure to look for the lava lights). The Dalek robot mechanisms are very convincing, and they are very menacing as they roll around with their modulated voices trying to exterminate anything with two legs. The camera work is good - it looks like the director tried to add some interesting angles and follow shots when others maybe wouldn't bother. The cast plays well in their roles, and the story is simple and straight-forward.

This is no "2001 A Space Odessey," but then again, you don't have to think too hard about what the ending really means. This movie will probably disappoint most loyal Dr. Who followers, but it will entertain sci-fi fans who enjoy some light fare and aren't too attached to the series. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 6: Classic Film: Dr. Who And The Daleks Classic Film: Dr. Who And The Daleks Monday 25th August 2014 There’s a version of the Doctor we don’t talk about. Taking the plunge – Doctor Who comes face-to-face with a load of sink plungers, otherwise known as the Daleks And no, it’s not John Hurt’s ‘War Doctor’, introduced at the end of the last series. Nor is it David Tennant’s meta-crisis human Doctor, created from his severed hand (if you don’t know, don’t ask). It is the movie Doctor, played by Peter Cushing in two big-screen re-makes of the first stories to feature The Daleks. Cushing, famous for the Hammer Horror films, was effectively an alternative version of the first Doctor, William Hartnell.

There were, however, some major differences in the plot. The first and most significant was how this Doctor was not an alien with a secret name. He was Dr Who, essentially a Mr Who that had at some stage presumably studied many years at university to earn his title. The original three companions’ names – Susan, Barbara and Ian – were kept, but instead of being one granddaughter and her two school teachers, both the girls were his granddaughters and the man was the older one’s boyfriend. See also: Film Interview: Daniel Radcliffe That man was played by Roy Castle, a few years before he’d become known to generations of kids as the presenter of Record Breakers. He accidentally sets Tardis (not the Tardis, just Tardis, and an invention of Dr Who’s) off on a trip to a planet ravaged by war. And that’s where the similarities with the original TV series start to kick in. The crew of Tardis have stumbled into the middle of a deadly conflict on a ravaged planet. The Daleks have been at war with the Thals.

And after resorting to nuclear weapons, one race has been mutated to the extent that it can only survive inside a metal war machine while the other has become a bunch of peaceful farmers. But the Daleks are determined to become the dominant species, even though they cannot leave their city because they rely on static electricity supplied through the floor. At one stage, the time travellers are even able to disable one by putting a coat down and rolling their captor over it. Even so, Daleks in colour had the potential to be terrifying in a whole new way. In the TV series, the screen would just flash whenever they fired their egg whisks, sorry, guns. But the big screen came with the money for better effects. These multi-coloured Daleks, with their new claws, were originally going to shoot fire. But that was toned down and replaced with CO2 amid concerns it would too frightening for kids. The film was intended to cash in on the 1960s craze of Dalekmania as people could not get enough of Terry Nation’s malevolent pepper pots. Yet it’s actually the Daleks that let the movie down.

Their lights were meant to flash in time with what they were saying but this was not picked up until post-production, meaning some of their lines had to be re-written so they matched. It gave them slow and grating voices that were particularly annoying in some of the scenes where they were talking among themselves. I’m being unfair, perhaps. The idea of seeing Daleks on the big screen, in colour, in the 60s would have been utterly mind blowing for any kid who had spent Saturday evenings glued to the black and white adventures of an old man who had yet to known as a Time Lord. And Cushing was a good choice as was the overhaul of the character. Likeable, friendly and human, it was easier to accept Dr Who as the hero with just a few minutes before the adventure began than it would have been to have the crotchety, sometimes aggressive and very alien Doctor played by Hartnell. Click here for more film and theatre stories On TV, Ian Chesterton was the more rugged, traditional hero that made up for the old misery at the controls of the Tardis. But on the screen, Castle played him for laughs as a bumbling and clumsy clown.

He’s thoroughly likeable for it and doesn’t invite comparisons with the telly original. This is a film for the die-hard fans, because on its own it’s far too weak to be used to convince anyone of the merits of Doctor Who. It’s limp, camp and did nothing to help the Doctor crack America, where the real money has always been. But at least someone thought to upgrade the Daleks with slightly menacing claws. Who ever conquered the universe with a sink plunger? By Daniel Wainwright Doctor Who 1965: TV Century 21 – The Daleks | planetzogblog Doctor Who 1965: TV Century 21 – The Daleks December 5, 2012 — John Nor 1965 – the year Diana Rigg joined the cast of The Avengers, as Emma Peel. This is… The Daleks in a 104-part epic.

Thoughts: Serialised as one page of TV Century 21 magazine over its first 104 weekly issues over 1965 and 1966, this, “The Daleks – by Terry Nation” was actually written by Doctor Who‘s first story editor, David Whitaker (who had overseen the first appearance of the Daleks, in Doctor Who‘s second serial). In 1965 another colourful tale of the Daleks that wasn’t Doctor Who as such was released – Dr. Who and the Daleks, the film that starred Peter Cushing as a human that had invented Tardis, rather than the TARDIS. (The Daleks were extremely popular). This blog would argue that actually it’s this other 1965 Dalek extravaganza (of TV Century 21 magazine) that has influenced the television programme Doctor Who more.

(So after 1963 An Unearthly Child and 1964 The Aztecs , this is chosen as 1965 for this history of Doctor Who.) Television stories shown, respectively, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways (2005), Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways again, The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End (2008)… Pictured: Dalek saucers, (of 1965), their 2005 counterparts looking very similar. Pictured: the Dalek Emperor of TV Century 21 magazine, which preceded the 1967 and 1988 and 2005 Dalek Emperors of the television programme, (the 1988 version obviously inspired by it). Although these panels are from 1966’s “Rogue Planet”, the globular Emperor is present in 1965 too (the panels that begin this blogpost). Pictured: the very first appearance of this 104-part epic’s “Dalek Saucer”, on the eighteenth page.

(1964’s Doctor Who The Dalek Invasion of Earth included a much less stylish Saucer – when the programme returned for the 21st Century it went with the TV Century 21 version.) This 1965 Dalek narrative is also notable for: “Genesis of Evil” (issues 1 to 3), an alternative origin for the Daleks; “Duel of the Daleks” (issues 11 to 17) in which the Emperor is against a renegade Dalek (more inspiration for Remembrance of the Daleks again); and “The Amaryll Challenge” (issues 18-24) which is simply (and gleefully) a story of the Daleks destroying a civilisation and its planet with no humanoids involved! “Eve of the War” (issues 47 to 51) begins December 1965 and is continued January 1966 – it has the television programme’s Mechanoids (from the 1965 Dalek story The Chase) making an appearance. So why has this 1965-and-1966 comics version of the Daleks been so influential?

One reason would be that it wasn’t forgotten (the episodes were kept, unlike some of the junked Dalek TV episodes of the Sixties), and it was re-issued, often in its dazzling colour, in the pages of DWM in the early Eighties: no doubt RTD was a keen reader and his love of comics is something he’s not reticent about. What of the television programme itself though, in 1965? Though it had established what the basic elements of itself, the programme, were: the Daleks (they would have two returning story-appearances in 1965), the Doctor and his TARDIS and his companions, it was this fourth element – the companions – that was most in flux. By the end of June 1965, Doctor Who had said goodbye to Ian and Barbrara (it had already said goodbye to Susan) and so all the original companions had gone. There would be rapid series of “Susan replacements” – Vicki, Katarina, and 1966’s Dodo – though 1966 which would be the year of the “glam companion” Polly, a model for the future.

Sara Kingdom (played by Jean Marsh) was the proto-glam-companion, both her and Emma Peel being modelled on The Avengers’ Cathy Gale. She made her appearance in the second Dalek TV story of 1965, The Daleks’ Master Plan. Editions: Originally published in issues 1 to 104 of TV Century 21 magazine (one page at a time), over January 1965 to January 1967. There were sixteen story-arcs, each about 6 pages long. There were then some significant reprints by Doctor Who Magazine (and “DWM” will be used to indicate the various incarnations, Doctor Who Weekly, Doctor Who Monthly). DWM 33 to 42 (1980) reprinted the first seven arcs as “The Dalek Tapes”. DWM 53 to 55 (1981) reprinted the eighth and ninth arc. DWM 56, 58 to 60 reprinted the tenth arc “Rogue Planet” (a prelude to the next arc), with one full-colour page per issue.

DWM 61 to 66, 68 (1982) reprinted the eleventh arc, “Impasse”, with one full-colour page per issue. The whole epic – reprinted in DWM 180 to 193 (and Doctor Who Classic Comics 1 to 19) and a 1994 special. Continuity notes: Could this then fit into the narrative of Doctor Who, in a way that the Cushing Dr Who films could not? (There are so many basic continuity clashes the film Dr Who and TV Doctor Who could never be reconciled as one thing.) The biggest continuity clash is that “Yarvelling” was the scientist involved with the Genesis of the Daleks rather than Davros, while the un-mutated Kaleds (or Dals or Daleks) are little blue men rather than human-looking like the Thals. However the 3-page “Genesis” story could be read as a Dalek folk-tale (with Davros lost to the mists of time) while Genesis of the Daleks remains their “proper” origin: so yes, this could fit into the narrative of Doctor Who.

(The thirteenth arc, 1966’s “Legacy of Yesteryear”, includes the blue men again which is more difficult to resolve.) Programme ethos: n/a Precursors: The saucers are in the Science Fiction cinema tradition. Sound and Vision: Art – by Richard Jennings for broadly the first half of the epic (1965), and by Ron Turner for the second half (1965), with Eric Eden on the ninth arc only. (The eight arc “Eve of the War” of December 1965 and January 1966 drawn by Jennings then Turner.) The extracts shown are all by Richard Jennings (from the fourth arc “The Amaryll Challenge”) except for the third extract (the Dalek Emperor from the tenth arc “Rogue Planet”) by Ron Turner.

Question: Who played Dr Who in the 1965 film Dr Who and the Daleks?
Answer: Peter Cushing