I started watching Doctor Who during season 5, but got scared during Fury from the Deep and stopped again for a while. I was three at the time. The significance of this is that I missed the last appearance of the Daleks in the show, at the end of season 4, and its repeat just after season 5 finished. And this really was supposed to be their final appearance, too, because Terry Nation was taking them away to work on a spin-off show. The plan never came to pass; and after a five year gap they returned to the BBC in Day of the Daleks, which I watched on original broadcast. In between (I think), I got to see Dr Who and the Daleks. Released in 1965, with Dalekmania running rampant, I watched this technicolor production much later on a small black and white TV. I already knew the story a bit because a series of (again black and white) photos had been published in the pages of The Dalek World, a treasured book that I read and re-read until it finally disintegrated. I therefore had no idea that it wasn't a black and white film (unlike Fireball XL5, which I remember watching in colour even though it was actually made in black and white). I loved it, and when I got to see the sequel soon after I loved that one even more. Now I'm watching it again in colour, as an adult, having finally seen the Hartnell version.
Film is a surprisingly different medium from 60s serial TV, with different needs and constraints. You don't have as much space for character introduction and development; you've got less time for events to unfold; and you can assume even less about what the audience already knows. On the other hand, you have a bigger budget and don't have to worry about cliffhangers, recaps, or the pacing being messed about by week-long gaps. You're also making it for a bigger screen with better sound and for a different audience, all of which may or may not be advantageous.
This film has to do some work at the start to introduce Dr Who and his companions. This section does double duty, also setting the tone, which is broad comedy - and right away we have to throw out the idea that this is a straight adaptation. Anybody watching it for that is doomed to disappointment.
The Doctor is a doddering old inventor, Ian a pratfalling klutz, Barbara - well, there's nothing much to this Barbara, who seems to be here mostly so that we can admire her hairdo. These are cartoon characters who wouldn't look out of place in the days of Hollywood silent comedies. Only Susy breaks the pattern. She's obviously meant to be The Plucky Kid, but Roberta Tovey's performance - playing it straight, and so giving some weight to the comedy - makes her stand out. Apparently one of Peter Cushing's conditions for returning in a sequel was that they got Tovey on board too. The good thing about this, watching it as a child, was that the child identification figure was essentially the focus...
...At least among the humans. The real focus, of course, is on the Daleks. And don't they look good! This is how I remember Daleks (although my memory added slats) - bright, primary colours, but the "proper" shape (unlike Steven Moffatt's bustle-wearing reinvention) - and there really are lots of them rather than a few supported by cardboard cutouts.
This is where the motion-picture budget really helps. The pull-back shot to reveal the massed Daleks is great, and it works just as well revealing the petrified jungle after Tardis arrives and in the shots of massed Thals outside the city. "Massed" is a good word to reuse; everything about this feels BIG. It's what makes the cartoon characters work, and what Gordon Flemying directs best. His smaller-scale and character shots are nowhere near as good as Barry and Martin's usual efforts (though he never sinks to the depths of The Expedition or The Rescue either), and away from the set-piece "money shots" it feels a little flat. Fortunately the film concentrates on the spectacle that it does best.
Not that they always make full use of the budget. The city corridors are, quite frankly, rubbish compared to the originals, and the entrance to the swamp is less effective too. I'm not even going to mention the Romans at the end. Still, these are outweighed by scenes like the final battle, which is much better choreographed and so more exciting, and by details like the dry-ice Dalek guns and claws (on some, so we get a mix of the familiar and the original intended look). The sound is much better, too, and we even get repeated themes which remind me of the new series. Though the theme music doesn't really do it for me like the TV version, and the Dalek voices are. Too. Full. Of. Pauses.
That's a lot said about the production and I do want to include a little about the writing. The film has roughly half the time of the TV serial to tell its story, and they decided to keep pretty much the same plot. Not needing recaps helps, of course, and the pace is a bit faster throughout; but they still needed to cut some stuff, and this was mostly the quieter, character moments. It's noticeable how much Barbara suffers from this. In the original she doesn't actively contribute much to the action but it's not obvious because she's heavily involved in the interactions between characters, so she still has a part to play in the story - and all of this is completely cut from the film. It's no wonder she comes across as window-dressing when apart from slapping some goo on a Dalek eyestalk and finding a door switch her main contribution is to keep Ian's testosterone levels up.
The other script changes are to do with tone. Going along with the simplified characters and broader comedy we have fewer scares and less "bad stuff" happening - for instance, Antodus surviving his fall. And this is because the film isn't about the people, really. Temmosus' death was all we needed to cement the feeling of danger; another (and particularly one not directly caused by the Daleks) would have just been a distraction from the main thrust of the film, which is spectacle - and in particular the threat of the Daleks.
Rating:
Mine: 6/10.
DWM Mighty 200: 62.91%, not included but just behind 144th.
2010 Gallifrey Base Non-Dynamic Rankings: 5.99, 149th out of 211.
As you can tell, I find the movie a bit of a mixed bag. Nostalgia gives it a boost, but it still only reaches the averaged episodic score for the TV version.
Next Time:
Back on track with The Edge of Destruction.
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