Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)

Harry -
Not sure how I feel about this one. It was big and shiny and noisy, but I found myself checking the clock through most of it. That is, when the over-the-top musical score wasn't drowning out my own thoughts.


Sarah -
Sorry, I couldn't hear you over that groovy score.

I have to admit that I started nodding off about 20 minutes in. It's, well, a little dull whenever there isn't a red dalek on screen to distract one.


Harry -
I do love a Red Dalek.


Sarah -
I take back everything I said about this Susan being better. She causes just as much trouble as the other one -- crashing beams to the ground and all.


Harry -
You've hit upon the problem with these films. It's a bunch of slightly (or entirely new) characters doing familiar things (or things that are entirely new). The result is a loud, colourful mish-mashed jackalope of a thing.

Anyway, let's get to the good stuff:

PC Tom Campbell, what a joy. Bernard Cribbins plays an everyman caught up in the bizarro world of Doctor Who. And instead of playing it as a buffoon as was "Ian" in the previous film, he manages to lend some weight to the role. He's not just stumbling into things for laughs, he's stumbling into things whilst trying to survive a dire situation. I found a difference, anyway.


Sarah -
Who knew Wilf was holding out on us? Much better than the bumbling so-called Ian – and, as a bonus, quite dishy!


Harry -
The Gold Dalek. Wowwwww! (insert various drooling / bouncing / humping smileys here)


Sarah -
You need one for your collection.


Harry -
One performance that really stood out was Philip Madoc as the back-stabbing collaborator, Brockley. I love the way he speaks, and we have much to look forward to from him in real Who to come!


Sarah -
So much towards which we can look forward. He brought more to his role than most of the rest of the cast put together.


Harry -
That, unfortunately, sums up the good for me.


Sarah -
You were generous, My Dear.


Harry -
The bad, let's just get to it:

The music score was overwhelmingly intrusive. Too loud, too abrupt to shift gears in mid-scene, and generally annoying.


Sarah -
I’m sure I missed entire scenes of action because I couldn’t concentrate with all that racket going on. You know what I missed? That long, wacky chase around London. It would have at least worked with the clamorous music.


Harry -
The Doctor's niece? Louise?? What???


Sarah -
Apparently, the Who family tree has many branches.


Harry -
Generally, the story raced along without developing any of the characters we are familiar with. The newly created characters were barely given anything to do. Overall, it was loud and colourful, but I just didn't like this!

My biggest disappointment here was the attempt to re-create one of the most iconic moments in Who to that point (and we all knew it was coming): the emergence of a Dalek from the Thames. Instead of a slow reveal, this Dalek practically waterskiied out of the water, barely giving the Doctor any time to register a reaction. Augh. I'm just glad this is over and we can get back to the real goods.


Sarah -
Talk about a wasted opportunity! Actually, that describes most of this movie, so let’s move along. There’s nothing for us here!


Harry -
I miss the old Who!

Lasting image: the funky dual-rotation Dalek spaceship

Favourite moment: The end credits (bit harsh?)

Best line: Bernard Cribbins assigning himself an OBE, 45 years before it actually happened!

5/10


Sarah -
Lasting image: Cribbins on the bench with the Robomen

Favourite moment: The Robomen-fix-themselves-a-spot-of-tea scene was awkwardly amusing

Best line: Bernard Cribbins’ OBE line made me giggle!

4/10

 

Our proper marathon returns with Story #17 - The Time Meddler...

Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)

Sarah -
I have to admit I wasn't entirely confident about our decision to take a break from the series to watch the non-canonical Peter Cushing films, but I'm glad we did. I've always meant to get around to watching them, and this was the perfect opportunity.


Harry -
If our Rob and Toby could do it, so can we. The last time I watched this film was over 15 years ago, on a VHS, still living in my parents' house (yoiks!).


Sarah -
It's not entirely successful, but this bizarro alternate Doctor Who universe is definitely colorful! I was slightly hypnotized by the end of the credit sequence, but managed to regain myself for the beginning of the story.


Harry -
"Alternate Universe" describes this Who to a tee. It's a familiar story, with familiar characters, but so strangely different. The opening credits were like something from a Blake Edwards movie.


Sarah -
Things that don't work:

The Doctor is human? What's the point of that? Also, his name is actually Dr. Who -- like the Whos down in Whoville? And he does so little; the character isn't very well-defined...or even interesting.

Barbara seems to be there just to hang around and look good. Whatever.

The character of "Ian" is a complete doofus. I wanted the Daleks to exterminate him as soon as possible.

The Thals may have been a tad dull in the series, but they did suggest a certain level of dishiness that just doesn't work in color. They looked like a traveling clown circus instead of pacifist survivors.


Harry -
Making the Doctor a human immediately erases so much of the mystique that enveloped the TV character. Here, he's just an absent-minded professor type, progenitor of a family of brainiacs it seems. I do like that baby blue scarf tho.

I didn't take to any of the other characters, to be honest. Barbara (the Doctor's other granddaughter!) was a stock character to put it kindly. Susan was spunky and brave, but lacking any kind of warmth or humour. Ian... good grief. A ridiculous clutz? Awful, just awful.

Ooh yeah, were those Thals campy or what? They were painted halfway to an all-git-out drag party.


Sarah -
Things that work:

Susan. I really liked this Susan! She's what I initially expected Susan Foreman to be -- smart, spunky, resourceful. Instead, we got a season of screaming, falling, and generally annoying behavior. The decision to make Susan an actual child, rather than a young adult referred to as a child, was a good one. No one would have made it off the Planet Skaro without her! Excellent work by Roberta Tovey. She owed this movie for me.


Harry -
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.


Sarah -
I was trying desperately to be positive about something!

The Daleks. I admit, it's hard to go wrong with Daleks -- unless you create a Dalek-human hybrid, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anywho, Daleks in screaming color = awesome! As cheesy as it was, I liked the long Dalek exposition conversations. They were straight out of a Scooby Doo cartoon, but long Dalek conversations are cool.


Harry -
Oh those Daleks. Full colour, shiny, candy-like Daleks. I loved them! Giant toys ready to whip the children of 60s Britain into a frenzy of want! Do you remember the one and only thing I zeroed in on at our first convention together?


Sarah -
How could I forget!


Harry -
Apart from that, my personal stars of this movie were the Three Gratuitous Lava Lamps -- each a different colour, and with no apparent function but to "groovify" the Daleks' awesome control room.


Sarah -
The lava lamps were undoubtedly the highlight of the entire film. Could Daleks possibly be cooler?


Harry -
Now I want some lava lamps.  Maybe three! 

I do have to hand it to the producers for upping the scale of Doctor Who. Big, bright sets, like nothing we've seen before. I did like that aspect of the movie. The brief scene that showed the Dalek rally - their own little "Nuremburg" moment - really grabbed me. Something about that many Daleks all massed together, it was another thing we've never seen on the TV show to this point.

Can't say much else about this, other than reiterating the weirdness of it all.

Lasting image - Black Dalek and Red Dalek scheming away.

Favourite moment - The couple of times when Peter Cushing winked at one of his friends. Those were the moments when he briefly made the character his own, and not just an echo of William Hartnell.

Best line - honestly, nothing really jumped out here, maybe because we've heard so much of it before. If anything, Cushing's affected accent kept grabbing my attention.

Oh, and I wouldn't have minded this Ian getting exterminated either. Awful!

6 / 10


Sarah -
Lasting image - Lava Lamps!!!!!

Favourite moment - The Dalek scheming.

Best line - I got nothing here.

5 / 10

Our marathon continues with the second Peter Cushing movie: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D....

Story #16 - The Chase (1965)

Harry -
Well, there they go. The Doctor's accidental companions, and the two hippest public school teachers we'll ever know.


Sarah -
How I’ll miss them! Before we started this little project, I’d only seen a handful of Barbara and Ian stories and hadn’t developed any strong feelings about them. Now I’m heartbroken to see them go. Barbara, especially, has rocketed to the top of my list of favorite companions. What a gal! I wish she’d been my history teacher.


Harry -
I had forgotten how torn up the Doctor was over the departure of Ian and Barbara. His coping blanket of anger was amazing!


Sarah -
The Doctor’s response to be completely in character. I nearly started crying when he softened it with, “I shall miss them. Yes, I shall miss them, silly old fusspots.”

Sorry, who’s the silly old fusspot, Doctor?


Harry -
Right off the bat, our Toby has made his dislike of this story quite clear, and I can't disagree. If we were watching this back in 1965 for the first time, not knowing how much longer the show would continue airing, I'd argue that this was where Doctor Who jumped the proverbial shark.

"The Chase" is self-reverential to the point of dross. The Daleks are rolled out to re-enact some familiar scenes, the TARDIS crew lounge around like vacationers, and why bother travelling anymore when they can dial-up all of history on the Space-Time Visualiser? A sudden stagnation has set in.

When they finally stepped outside, Vicki's words are most alarming. She says "Are we going to explore now, then?" as if the concept has become so hum-drum that she greets it with indifference.

What the hell has happened to Doctor Who?


Sarah -
Now it’s your turn to be Toby! I’m going to be on Team Rob for this one and point out that, while The Chase clearly has its problems, there are more than enough excellent moments to make up for it.


Harry -
I thank your Rob for pulling me back from the abyss, and reminding me that, yes, there was much in this crazy romp of a story to enjoy (knowing that this was not a shark-jumping moment, and the show would in fact continue for over two decades).


Sarah -
How about that groovy title sequence – like something out of a Peter Sellers movie! The incidental music is positively spectacular. Dudley Simpson outdid himself!


Harry -
The music was very stand-out here, very fun 60s groove.


Sarah -
I appreciate a story that gets right to the point – Daleks and lots of them! How exciting to be the “greatest enemies” of the Daleks. That’s a bit of an achievement, isn’t it?


Harry -
The Thals didn't give them much competition up to that point.


Sarah -
Good point.

I loved Ian reading Monsters from Outer Space. ( The Doctor: “Do you mind if I dispatch you from your cowboys and Indians?” *giggle*) The historical flashbacks. Getting in a spot of sunbathing when one finds oneself on a new and mysterious planet. A never-ending shot of each and every Dalek leaving the control room. Glad we didn’t miss a moment of that!


Harry -
Looking back, you could argue that the first episode was padding, which sometimes comes in later in a story. But still, that fully-clothed sunbathing scene was so quintessentially English. I'm sure the Doctor averted his eyes from Barbara the entire time, staring straight into the sun if need be!


Sarah -
And, don’t forget Ian and Vicki scolding each other while fleeing monsters in the tunnels. Or, Vicki’s general loopiness during the entire first half of the story. I don’t know what was going on there, but she made me giggle.

The accent on the Empire State Building guide was brilliant and worth the price of admission. What a relief the Daleks didn’t vaporize that poor Alabaman! (Who, by the by, bears a striking resemblance to that Steven bloke they meet later in the story.)


Harry -
Morton Dill! The only person to scoff in the face of the Daleks, and survive!


Sarah -
Go Crimson Tide!


Harry -
That has to be one of my all-time favourite DW moments. I am not exaggerating to say that I replayed it a half-dozen times, roaring and wheezing with laughter.


Sarah -
It was Brilliant!!! Unfortunately, the Mary Celeste scene wasn’t as fun, as Barbara, once again, finds herself lusted after by a lout. The Dalek going overboard definitely saved the save the scene. Then it’s off to the house or horrors, or is it the dark recesses of the mind. Who knows, let’s just lose Vicki and move on.


Harry -
Another moment I found riotously funny was when the Doctor chided Ian for being jittery in the house of horrors -- then silently turned tail and fled when Frankenstein's monster awoke, while Ian stood frozen in shock.

Again, the show may not have survived if it relied on daffy comedy each week, but all this zaniness makes "The Chase" really unique among Dalek stories.


Sarah -
It was daffy – but ever so much fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.


Harry -
Had I been 10 years old watching this for the first time, the Daleks-Mechonoids battle would have been an epic for the ages, cartoony explosions notwithstanding! Wow! The Daleks facing off against another race of oddly shaped robot monsters. I don't think we see something like this again until the David Tennant era.


Sarah -
Mechonoids are cool!


Harry -
And then, having fled the burning city (and all-but-hurling poor Vicki from the roof!), our heroes fashion their escape amidst the chaos.

Harkening back to the start of our review, the Doctor's flustered anger was very touching. He clearly didn't want to say goodbye.


Sarah -
I understand, I didn’t want to say goodbye either. It’s been a great time, Barbara and Ian, and I shall miss you terribly and hope you have wonderful lives together!


Harry -
I'm sure they lived a long and happy life together, reminiscing about the funny old man and his police box, wondering if it was all a drug-induced hallucination, and spending the rest of their teaching careers warning students about the risks of party drugs. Farewell, Ian and Barbara!


Sarah -
Lasting image: The final romp through London montage. I nearly sobbed through the whole thing.

Favorite moment: Poor Barbara being told by the faux Doctor that Ian is dead and then the gallant Ian rushing to her defense when he turns out to be very much alive!

Best line: “We’ll pick them off one by one.” One last bit of bloodthirstyness from My Barbara!

Rating: 8/10


Harry -
Lasting image - Ian and the Doctor getting the bleep scared out of them by Frankenstein's monster.

Favourite moment - Daleks vs Mechonoids!

Best line - "You're from Earth." "No ma'am, I'm from Alabama."

Rating - 8/10

Our marathon continues with the first Peter Cushing movie: Dr. Who and the Daleks...