I be reviewing the theatrically movie, Dr. Who and the Daleks.
Doctor Who is one of the longest running Sci-Fi shows that's been around since 1963. It was cancelled in 1989 but it was revived in 2005(aside from a brief TV movie in 1996). It's about a mysterious man called "The Doctor" who travels in a time machine disguised as a police box as he travels place to place to save the day.
The Doctor has many enemies like the Cybermen, The Master, Weeping Angels, Ice Warriors, but his most iconic of them is the Daleks. They are basically space nazis squids sealed inside a robotic cans armed with plungers. They 1st appeared in the very 2nd story ever. Originally, one of the creators of Doctor Who didn't want "Bug-eyed Monsters" but due to scripts not being ready during production, they had to use the only available script. It be hard to imagine Doctor Who today without the Daleks, or any monsters that the series is known for.
They may look laughable nowdays but in later stories, especially in the revived series made these creatures something you should take really seriously.
Throughout the 60s, Dalekmania has swept all of Britain. Kids were inside transportation buses were shouting, "Exterminate". There were toys, music, books, comics that featured the Daleks. Their popularity led them to go from one-shot villains to reappearing in later stories.
Two movies did came out based on the Doctor's early encounters with the Daleks. They are retellings of them and they are consider non-canon.
Peter Cushing is playing Dr. Who. He is known for the Hammer Horror movies as well as playing Grand Moff Tarkin, the man who blew up Princess Leia's homeworld.
Also in this movie, he is a regular human with his two granddaughters, Susan and Barbara. Also his last name really is Dr. Who, which means both his granddaughters have that weird surname too.
Dr. Who's personality comes off as a eccentric scientist. He seems more closer to Patrick Troughton's doctor than the original William Hartnell's and this was made a full year before the 1st ever regeneration was ever seen.
I'm going to explain the 1st team in the show.
The guy is the middle is the 1st incarnation of the Doctor himself. The two adults near him are school teachers, Ian and Barbara. They were from the present day and didn't believe the Doctor had a time machine but he forcefully abduct them just to prove a point.(Which sound out of character from today's point of view). The young girl in the right is the Doctor's very own granddaughter, Susan.
The Doctor having a granddaughter is kinda a shock to most people who started on revived series or any of the Classic series when it was airing in color. The Doctor was getting younger and younger in most of his later incarnations that he doesn't look like a grandfather-like character.
Another thing is the Doctor is seen as a sexless character in in the Classic series, Revived series on the other hand...eh.
In the 2nd season, Susan fell in love with a guy and wanted to settle down, thus leaving the series. She was barely referenced afterwards after she left aside from guest appearing in 20th anniversary special, the Five Doctors.
Also Susan is the product of when the show was completely different concept all together. She left back when the Doctor was possibly a time-traveling human from the future. The Doctor being a two-hearted alien from the planet Gallifrey who can change his appearance when he is in a near-death state wasn't established till many years later.
While they are reading their books, Barbara is waiting on her boyfriend, Ian. Good gosh, I waited two long seasons for Ian and Barbara to finally became a official couple and it finally happen in a...umm non-canon adaptation.
It was heavily hinted that there something between these two but nothing became official. They left the series with them finally return to their own time and they were very happily dancing on the streets together. They finally did became official in the actual Doctor Who canon 45 whole years later when Sarah Jane mentions these characters got married.
However you will quickly dislike Ian when you see how much a doofus Ian is in this.
Soon the family opens the door, he coming crashing into the cabinet.
While they are waiting on Barbara to come to the main room, Dr. Who shows Ian around and also show his latest invention, TARDIS. There is no "The" in it which sounds weird to not hear it. I had to hit backspace on this blog alot to remind myself the lack of "The".
Looks like junkyard with everything scattered and wires hanging out.
I prefer how it looked on the TV show at the time the movie was playing.
Dr. Who gives a lame excuse why TARDIS is bigger on the inside. It's made more sense an advanced civilization from a different time have a bigger on the inside police box but not but a modern day scientist who invented this in his backyard, no just no.
While they are having their tour of the place, Barbara joins them. Ian acts like an idiot of course and hits the controls of TARDIS. This sends them to another place
I hate this version of Ian. Instead of a being the cool action man of the group, he is a bumbling fool that trips over everything for the sake of comic relief. You wondered what Barbara sees in him?
The movie did compress alot stuff. 7 episdoes into a movie that's a little over an hour. It may cut down the padding but it also gets rid of some character development.
The gang arrived at this mysterious planet. Thanks to having a movie budget, the planet Skaro looks better here than it did in the episodes that 1st featured the Daleks.
They weren't limited to small set on a black and white TV. It has this cool dark alien atmosphere.
However the series had it's own charm with it be in black and white with little to no music that helps make the mysterious dead planet spooky. You can't get the best of two worlds.
Ian doesn't wasn't to explore and Susan call him off and calls him a coward. You tell him Susan. Gee, I wish your the actually canonical Susan.
She may of been unique and special among all the companions over the years due to her family connection to the Doctor but her actual character in the show itself, well she spent most of her time screaming in terror, freaking out, and being scared stiff. Even the actress herself was unhappy how she was written.
You somehow think a regular human child be the scaredy cat instead of a alien woman that resembles a teen who has been on several adventures in time and space before hanging at a school for a few months in 1963.
Movie Susan is far more cooler. She smart and brave and willing to help the others.
The gang explored the forest a bit. Susan must of gotten her big brains from her grandfather from a very young age and easily identify the scientific name of a flower.
However if they are on a alien planet, it wouldn't make sense she knows the name.
They find a petrified dead monster in the woods and Ian of course, trips over it and breaks it many pieces.
Yeah, that monster didn't serve a purpose, the story that the movie adapted from was guilty of the same thing.
A mysterious person touch Susan's shoulder. Instead of being frighted for a good ten minutes on the ships, and bringing it up time from time, movie Susan was more annoyed and curious and told the others at least once or twice. She saw a mysterious box full of vials at TARDIS' door laying there.
The Doctor sees a metal city in the distance but the others don't want to stay for long. The time traveler personally sabotage his own machine when no one was looking and says they have to find mercury fluid link to repair the ship. So they made a trip to the mysterious city.
Yeah, this is the problem of adapting one of the very earliest stories of Doctor Who. While he is closer to Troughton, his very early Hartnell shows in this one scene. The earliest stories of William Hartnell completely clashes how the 1st Doctor is in the later stories, let alone all of Doctor Who itself. I mean he almost crushed an innocent caveman's skull, threaten to throw out his companions out of airlock, smokes a pipe, and had a one-time love-interest before the Classic series turned him into a sexless character.
This is like the earliest Batman comics in the 1930s. Mr. Do Not Kill and Hates Guns is murdering criminals in cold blood with handguns where later stories want to pretend that didn't happen.
They arrived in the city. Instead of thin small corridors from the show, we got pink shower curtains as walls.
Dalek cameras are watching you
They split up to search the city. Ian being an idiot can't get a door to open, so he sits down on a stand. Door opens for him but soon he got up, it closes. He spends a whole minute siting down, running to the door, repeat, over and over. Would it not hurt to put a rock on the thing or something?
As they are exploring, Dr. Who openly admits his sabotage to the ship. They started to notice they are feeling weak and soon learn the whole planet is radioactive.
There is some differences from the show. Most of them come in different colors(decades before the New Dalek Paradigm). 90% of them have a grabber claw instead of a plunger. Sadly this removes some of the (unintentional) funny moments like watching them pass notes or them pressing buttons.
They disable Ian's legs by spraying mist on it. I don't know how that works?
Them spraying mist is stupid. Them shooting a laser and making the TV screens go negative colors to kill or disable their enemies seem more believable.
From what I read, they can't do the laser effects on film negatives and they wanted to show something physical. They wanted to show flame throwers originally but they think it would scare the children. *Roll Eyes* Oh please, the Daleks had flame throwers in season 3.
Just to point out, the b&w episodes did their scenes in all in one take. It's like watching a stage play. However a character will fluff his lines. Hartnell was known for doing it every now and then.
Susan is sent out to retrieve the gloves drugs. She collected the drugs in TARDIS and at the door, she was greeted by a visitor.
A frozen blond Vulcan with eye makeup.
Actually it's a Thal. The storyline is that on the planet Skaro, Thals were at war with the Kaleds thousands of years ago and nuclear war happened. The war led to mutants being created. A mad scientist named Davros experimented on the mutant Kaleds and designed them to be the ultimate race as he put them in the ultimate mobile unit.
This was partly told from what the movie is adapted from. It was told in full in a 4th Doctor story, Genesis of the Daleks.
The movie at least tried to make the Thals look alien with their blueish skin and eye makeup.
In the TV show, they're simply blond aliens. I guess from 1963's point of view, you can pretend they have blueish skin since they don't reappear in color till nearly a whole decade later.
Also, I can't help but think of Raiden in the 2nd Mortal Kombat movie when I see the Thals in the TV show.
The Thal befriends Susan and tells her that he is the one who accidentally frighted her by touching her shoulder.(Would a simple hello be nice, good grief man.) He left behind the vials of anti-radiation gloves drugs to help them on this dangerous planet from eariler in story.
Susan heads back and gives the others the drugs. She tells them about the Thals while the Daleks are listening.
WOULD YOU CARE FOR SOME TEEEEAAA!!!
The Dalek offers food and water to the prisoners and asked for Susan to write a letter to the Thals. The letter reads that the Daleks want to make peace and offer food. Of course this is a lie to make a trap but our heroes don't know that.
Daleks must love to collect lava lamps. They were a recent invention at the time.
The letter went back to the Thals and they plan to meet with the Daleks but they wonder if it's a trap.
Doctor and gang come with a plan to escape. Susan who still had the pen from writing the letter disables the camera. With no one listening, they mention they can feel static on the floors and says the Daleks can't leave the city at all since they rely on the static floors. obviously they got rid of that one weakness in every other story that came after. From what I heard, these Daleks were early prototypes that were forgotten while the "real" Daleks were already in space, creating their galaxy spanning empire.
When a Dalek came inside the prison room, the gang grab their alien pudding or whatever the Daleks gave them earlier and slam it on it's eyestalk, blinding the Dalek. They push the Dalek to roll into a cape laying on the floor and the thing went disabled.
They grab the squid out of the canister and Ian hopped in. They pretended to be escorted out of the prison.
They doesn't look like a squid's hand.
The Daleks soon found out and blasted Ian.
Good riddance.
Nah, he actually survived as they escaped the city.
Daleks like to collect giant legos.
The Thals went inside the city to check if the peace offering is real. As they were entering, there is a long drawn out shot that last a few seconds. Gee, get to the point.
Then several of them gang up one of them and he got fire extinguisher to death. Such a sad fate.
The gang realized they left the mercury fluid link back at the city. They tell the pacifist race to go back to their pre-nuclear war days and be warriors and let themselves get killed, all for sake of some fluid link for people they only knew for a few days.
The show was better addressing this topic. They know they are trapped on the planet and say is it wrong to make a pacifist race get killed over some fluid. They also mention the Daleks may go over their floor weakness and kill everything, meaning the blond makeup Vulcans have to fight the Daleks for survival.
Ian forcefully takes one of the female Thals and her boyfriend punchs Ian. You go dude. However that was planned to see if the Thals have some fight within themselves. They changed their minds and decided to join.
Ian, Barbara, and a few Thals plan to sneak in the back way into the city. They pass a swamp and one of them got swallowed up by an unseen creature. Maybe it's the same thing that nearly drowned Frodo in the 2nd LOTR movie.
Ian complained about climbing up a mountain. Gee, your a wuss.
This guy fought Romans, Aztecs, survived the Reign of Terror, was knighted by King Richard I during the Crusades. How can that loser is based on this guy?
Anyways, they enter cave, jump ravine, and enter the backdoor to Dalek hideout.
The movie obviously is compressing this part of the story more so than any other part of the original Dalek story. Them sneaking around the swamp was half an episode. The gang inside the cave took entire episode itself. Also to point out, one of the random Thals survived in this adaption rather than falling to his death.
The Daleks tested the anti-radiation gloves drugs on themselves and it went haywire because it was poison to them. They decided to fire a neutron bomb on the planet to wipe out all species of the planet. Oh and they do a 100-second countdown where they shout every single second.
Yes they are using the Nazi salute with their plungers.
Well least they ain't using cardbored cutouts for all the extras.
The Doctor tries to make cakes and burns them.
Dr. Who notice one of the female Thals looking at a mirror.
For of medieval civilization, them acting like beauty models seems a bit silly.
Dr. Who comes with a plan and grabs all the mirrors they have. They go to the Dalek city and shine light with hundreds of mirrors all over the entrance of the city which mess with the tincan's sensors.
During the event, everyone's inside and battling.
They lasso a rope on this guy and easily threw him into an elevator shift. They don't seem like an invincible galaxy conquering race in this one scene.
Many of the Thals and Doctor's gang killed alot them by directing them toward each other as they were about to fire.
As the neutron bomb was about to finish the countdown. The Dalek fired on Ian. The one time he should trip over something happens as the Daleks' spray hits the master control. It gets destroyed and it stops the countdown and disables all the Daleks in the city.
All the good guys gather at TARDIS and say they're goodbyes. At least Barbara didn't kissed one of the Thals.
How dare you try to ruin the oldest ship in Doctor Who. IanXBarbaraOTP! I hope people write nasty fanfics of you random Thal whose name I'm too lazy to look up.
Yeah, I admit, they do have names but it's hard to remember them and they never show up after this episode/story/movie.
The gang board the TARDIS and traveled to their next designation.
They see Godzilla-sized Romans marching around TARDIS that are not even paying attention to a litte blue police box. Either that or the movie used footage from some swords and sandals movie and they unintentionally look big.
They quickly travel to another place.
THE END
It was interesting to see the Doctor with a different personality years before the idea of the Doctor can regenerate into a new person happen. I like they made Susan cooler but hate they made Ian into an idiot.
It does remove certain bits that dragged but sadly, removes some of the interesting dialogue and character development. Can't get the best of both worlds.
