A Journey Of A Thousand Eons...: 5A. Dr. Who and The Daleks (1965)

Given the way the Daleks took over the British imagination, it’s not surprising that a big screen adaptation of ‘The Daleks’ was in the offing.  A large portion of the British film industry was supported by making big screen adaptations of television serials--while we know Hammer for its great Gothic blood-and-cleavage horror reimaginings, they made their bread and butter with a series of films adapting British sitcoms like On The Buses*--and adapting this particular story was a natural.  The film studio that got the rights was Amicus...although since it couldn’t fully finance the production, it got funding from AACU as long as AACU was the only organization credited.

And...it’s really, really a Family Film.  And it sort of proves what I said earlier about ‘The Daleks’ serial being a little understuffed.  After all, this film effectively covers the last three half-hour episodes in twenty minutes!

The script was written by American ex-pat Milton Subotsky, and it makes several changes to the fundamental concept of Dr. Who that hardcore fans might object to.  After all, there is no mention of the Doctor and Susan being Not From Around Here; the film makes him just an eccentric inventor.  But what we need to keep in mind (something my friend Dave Probert of Jacdaw Meanderings, among other podcasts, reminded me) that the bulk of what we accept as the Doctor’s backstory and mythology isn’t presented to us until the very end of the Troughton era.  Right now, all Subotsky and director Gordon Flemyng know is what they see in that first season, and it’s not much.  As such, I can forgive this change, just as I can forgive making Barbara another grandchild and making Susan markedly younger and making the Doctor more benign and making Ian....

No. 

No, I cannot accept what they did to Ian.  He becomes Barbara’s boyfriend and is a straight up goof, responsible for slapstick 'Komedy' bits--it’s his falling on a lever that’s responsible for transporting ‘TARDIS’ (there is no ‘the’ in this film, folks) to Skaro--and all of the plot points the William Russell Ian initiates in the original are either wiped out completely or re-assigned to the Doctor.  Jazz musician Roy Castle plays this version of Ian, and it’s not his fault--he’s only doing what the script has him doing, but he’s the big gaping flaw in the film.

The big selling point, as you can see from the poster, is that this was the first time we got to see Daleks in color...boy, do we.  These Daleks are blue and black and red,** and their city is a lot busier than the simple corridors of the television version.  The movie Thals get some color as well, as they seem to be greyish-purple with bright golden hair and some unfortunate green eyeliner.  There are some gorgeous matte paintings (one of Skaro at night with its moon shining down on our heroes, is stunning) that take advantage of the Technicolor film stock.  There’s so much use of color that I’m surprised that the Doctor’s costume is so....drably brown and beige and the rest of the crew are similarly unimaginatively dressed.

And speaking of the Doctor, the character is assayed by one of the most British of British actors, Peter Cushing.  For the first half, it seems like the only thing Cushing has been told to do is be infirm, but the script assigns a lot of Ian’s heroics to him, or at least directs Ian to do something like pretend to grab Dyoni (I think; Subotsky’s script doesn’t really assign the Thals things like names) so Alydon can punch his lights out.  This Doctor is something of a cypher in a way that is different from Hartnell--I got no sense of him as a person as opposed to an ever-shifting sense of enigma that Hartnell gives.

As someone who enjoyed the Garantus Crush and the Monsta sighting, I was disappointed that both were absent.  Instead of the distinctive negative effects of the television series, we get the Daleks shooting fire extinguisher foam which is underwhelming--although the one shot of the Dalek gun dissolving part of an elevator floor underneath Ian and Barbara is a great bit that’s one half special effects and one half good editing.

I’ve been told there is a ‘canon’ explanation for this and its sequel, Dalek Invasion 2150 AD (and, I guess, the never-made third film that was planned, to be based on the serial ‘The Chase.’), but I like to treat it as a curiosity.  It’s okay, but it really should just be treated as an odd side thingie that I won’t not recommend, but I don’t think it’s essential.

*--and adapting all three of then-extant Quatermass serials.
**--Those of you who hated the ‘Skittles Daleks’ of the Matt Smith episode ‘Victory of the Daleks’ have this film to blame.