The Terry Nation Estate REALLY needed a top up on their bank balance in the mid 60s it seems. With Terry seemingly doing EVERYTHING within his power short of ACTUAL deals with the devil (though that cant be scientifically ruled out) to try and get his creation, ‘The Daleks’, onto as many screens and into as many homes as possible.

in 1965 Nation sold the rights to the story elements of the first ‘Dalek’ serial to AARU films and the results were a strange hodge podge supercut of the key beats of the original BBC story, along with a load of random ‘lore’ that fundamentally seemed to misunderstand why people liked ‘Doctor Who’ in the first place.

Well! 12 months later they were back again! adapting the 1964 serial ‘The Daleks Invasion of Earth’ to the big screen with Peter Cushing returning as the DEFINITELY 100% human ‘Dr. Who’ along with his grandaughter ‘Suzy’, ‘Barbara’ his *other* daughter and…Ians paycheque must have bounced because he aint in this one. Instead; we have lovable Burnard Cribbins playing a local Bobby (policeman) called ‘Tom’…Who…isnt based on anything from the BBC series…they just wanted someone to act goofy.

Now, I do feel context is key here, as I think not only will it explain why this film wasnt *quite* as successful as it could have been, but also why I take grief with it in some ways.

So the film, as mentioned, is an adaptation of a serial from 1964. By 1966, ‘Doctor Who’ still wasnt *quite* as established in ‘lore’ as it would go on to be (the core foundations of the show wernt really, properly fleshed out until a five year gap occured between VERY late 1969 and early 1975. Where basically the show everyone knows and loves today took shape. In 1966; Time lords? Gallifrey? Regeneration? all still either non existent or very much in its infancy.

And yet, Where the show was in 1964, and where it was at the point that this film came out in 1966 couldnt have been MORE starkley different if it tried. 1964 ‘Who’ had William Hartnell at the healm, he was an irrasible, but ultimatley lovable grumpy grandfather figure, with a little bit of a ‘Daffy Duck’ twinkle in his eye at times for good measure. The show was still running 6 part serials as the standard, and they relished the opportunity to slow burn stories for as long as the budget could carry them. The companions were a little better established, and the format was just about taking shape. But the only solid confirmations by this point were that ‘The Doctor’ and susan were aliens whod decided to see the world via a time travel spaceship after fleeing from their own people for some unmentioned reason.

Why do I clarify this? Because by the time THIS film came out, the BBC version of the show was unrecognisable to what had come before it.

Doctor who was in the middle of a ‘brief’ pause as one of the shows biggest ‘lore’ moments had just happened (Regeneration) Patrick Troughton was now known as the face of the show, and in the previous 2 years we’d gone from 4-6 part stories (emphasis on 6 parts) that were either educational attempts at historicals, or alien planets that used a studio the size of a bedroom. to 4-6 part stories (emphasis on 4 parts) that were significantly lighter in tone (Daleks Masterplan omitted) faster paced, and striving to be more modern and to appeal to the mid 60s ‘kids of today’ rather than the early 60s ‘Kids being made to watch what their parents *think* is good for them’.

Television had moved on considerably in those 2 years, the culture had moved on significantly in those 2 years. When Troughtons era formally began in November 1966 the last of the ‘true’ historicals would go out, and from then on in it was fantasy and whimsy right the way up to the 70s…and I mention that because, amongst the many MANY reasons the show refreshed in 1966 WAS that the show had found itself in a bit of a rutt, where audiences thought the programme was a bit *too* uptight and needed to let its hair down a bit. Its the 60s MAAAAN (and…all that)

Its because of that, why ‘Invasion Earth 2150 ad’ is such a strange end product for the time. Because right as the public were banging the table for change, out pops one of THE most early 1960s style doctor who adventures you could ask for, with little more changed to it than a few more pratt falls and large chunks of wandering about cut out. Its a bit like answering the question ‘How do we make this show fresh again?’ with ‘Do the old stuff, but quicker.’

And thats basically all this is. an old story, dusted off, with an hour chopped out of it and some of the dialogue/characters rotated to make up for their absence in this film adaptation, or to remove any references to the doctor being an alien.

A good example? In the BBC serial theres a moment where the first doctor, Ian and a human survivor of the Dalek occupation are put into a cell with a logic test, the doctor solves it immediately (the humans had no idea) and the Daleks use this as an opportunity to PROVE the doctor is of a higher intelligence and suitable to become something of a stratagist.

In this film, Dr. Who, Tom and a human survivor of the Dalek occupation are put into a cell. And the doctor uses a comb to break the magnetic lock on the cell door, at which point the Daleks swoop in, announce that THAT was a logic test and send the whole gang off to become ‘Robomen’ (the Daleks ‘on the ground’ human converted slave drivers)

Its oversimplification to the point of daftness, and its prominent pretty much throughout the whole thing. Also the statement ‘The Daleks Swoop in’ could be used on any and every single page of the script for this thing. I think the only piece of feedback the production team took to heart was that in ‘Doctor Who and the Daleks’ the Daleks didnt turn up for a while (because they dont in the actual serial for 2 or so episodes) and so they decide to crash the daleks into every single scene in this thing, sometimes MULTIPLE times.

I cant particularly fault the direction, the scenes they do recreate from the original BBC serial look 100% better, grander and more detailed than the original broadcast version (they had a budget and a set space bigger than a shoebox though…So I cant exactly say its a fair comparison) But the majority of the movie itself is decent enough, super colourful and a clear line of thought has been put into exactly how this should look and feel. It would have been easy to just recreate how things looked from the TV version, but here it does have a grander and richer vibe to it, that I personally quite liked.

Cast direction is a bit of a flop on the other hand, with most of the cast looking lost when on set, and in some cases the ‘set’ itself is just a black curtain…Which doestn exactly give them a lot to work with in terms of hitting marks and utilising props.

Nevertheless, the cast do muddle on and there is some genuinely well handled moments here, though, most of them appear to be from Bernard Cribbins who was renowned for being a fairly solid physical performer.

The script itself, being an adaptation kind of lives and dies by that. and I do think they cut this thing a little too close to the bone, its supposed to show a dystopia. But all it really is, is a load of upbeat british folks wandering around a couple semi demolished buildings…Not exactly ‘end of the world’ vibes…Also; they decided for some reason to tone down certain KEY characters here. Susan (who…well basically this is her story! its the one where she leaves, finds love and starts trying to rebuild the planet) is snookered here. Suzy is 6 years old. So obviously love and philanthropy on a dystopic world is out. But rather than try to make her fit the plot, they take the kid (who was VERY vocal and precotious in the first film) and basically just, write her away here. She has VERY little dialogue and spends most of the film wandering around various bunkers and woodland until she’s reunited with Cushing.

But even more strangely, The Doctor himself is abscent for a decent chunk of the movie, and when he does turn up, he has minimal lines and largely just re-emphisises the plot as it stands. Its bizzare. This is a DOCTOR WHO movie, and DOCTOR WHO has barely anything really to do with it.

They seem to struggle a bit with tone, they want it dystopic, but not *too* dystopic. They want comedy, but not *TOO*much comedy, they want to remain faithful to Terry Nations vision. But this is a Gramaphone of a story in a ‘CD’ world. its…a square peg in a round hole honestly. I dont HATE it, but its weird to see why anyone would bother doing THIS, NOW.

The cine is fine, compositions about as good as it gets for these low budget runs. I adore the use of colour here and the Daleks shell colours are all utterly delightful honestly. its vivid and creative, maybe a *bit* safer than the first outing. But ultimately still solid enough.

The performances are largely sitting on Bernard Cribbins and Peter Cushing (whenever he ACTUALLY gets a chance to DO something) I also have to give a special shout out to ‘Philip Maddoc’ one of the few TV doctor who actors to somehow land a part in these films. And my favourite ‘person who gets blown up in a shed, when he thinks the daleks cant blow up sheds.’ delightful.

Also; on the soundtrack front, we’re still doing big band orchestral pieces, and this one sounds even MORE like some kind of strange ‘Showa’ era TOHO production. It…wasnt for me, and felt quite dated for the time it came out…but hey ho!…

Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD was a sequel noone really asked for, and that reflected in the box office. A third film adapting ‘The Daleks Masterplan’ was kicked around for years befor eventually being abandoned in 1970. and LORD knows what THAT would have looked like. To me? I kind of just put this film in a compartment of my brain that acknowledges it exists….But doesnt really know why. I dont hate it, but I certainly dont love it. It has its moments, but whenever the credits roll Im always just left with ‘why?’

I’d say if you like your low budget, cheesy 60s sci fi stuff, this is absolutely a curio not to be missed. But doctor who fans may see this more as an oddity than anything ACTUALLY worth their time, and I personally will probably leave it a bit before revisiting this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/daleks-invasion-earth-2150-ad/