Dr. Who And The Daleks Film Review

 

Doctor Who has been a British institution for decades now however while it did get popular from 2005 onwards the height of it's popularity was easily in the sixties. This is due to the fact that that's when The Doctor first met his most deadly does the Daleks in a serial that is easily one of the best ones that classic Doctor Who has ever produced and with both the show and the Daleks being popular it only made sense that they would leap to big screen and in 1965 that's exactly what we got with a retelling on the Daleks first ever serial and so then join me as I review the film that marked the first time that the Daleks really were first seen in colour with the film in question being called simply just "Dr. Who And The Daleks" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when a human scientist called Dr. Who and his alleys find themselves on a distant world they find themselves being held prisoner by the Daleks who will stop at noting to destroy them once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad as this films plots is quite literally a one to one retelling of the original serials plot with nothing really new added to it which does make this film kind of not worth watching as all it is is just a shorter version of six or seven episode serial and that's really it but in saying that tho this films plot does enough of it's own thing that it does make it interesting to see it's take on the original material as while the plot of the serial is left unchanged which is something that does make alot of sense as it was this serial that helped to make the Daleks and and the show really popular in the first place and therefor copying it does make some form of sense at the same time tho it would have worked just as well if the makers of this film came up with there own plot as that would help to make the plot of this film stand out on it's own instead of just being nothing more then a shorter version of a great story with this films plot being just as strong as it was in the original serial which again is something that's to be expected as it's just copying the original plot it still would have worked if there were new elements added to this films plot to help to make it standout on it's own with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Peter Cushing as Dr. Who , Roy Castle as Ian Chesterton and Jennie Linden as Barbara. Also starring in this film is Roberta Tovey as Susan , Barrie Ingham as Alydon , Michael Coles as Ganatus , Yvonne Antrobus as Dyoni , Geoffrey Toone as Temmosus , John Bown as Antodus , Mark Petersen as Elyon , Peter Hawkins as the voice of the Dalek and Thunderbirds star David Graham as the voice of the Daleks.

Now then interms if what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With alot of this films actors turning in some really good performances which is something that is kind of surprising as while Peter Cushing was a big named actor he was the only big name actor to star in the film with all of the rest of the films actors being either very little known actors or unknown actors and therefor it would have been quite foolish of anyone expect good or even great acting from this films actors and yet that's exactly what we get as all of this films actors go give us some really good performances and while he will never bet able to top what William Hartnell did with the character in the same story Peter Cushing does make for a decent Doctor in his own with with the best actor in this film being Roberta Tovey as Susan as she is just so good in this film and really could have made as an actor if she really wanted to with it being clear as day that both she and Peter Cushing had some really great chemistry together in this film something which does make all of their scenes together alot more fun to watch with her making this version of Susan all the more likable then what she really could have been as by all rights this takes on the character should have been a really annoying character and yet thanks to her performance she comes of as being a really likable character with the acting that's in this very film really being helped by the fact that the script for this film being really good so much so that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film. 

As is something that's to be expected the makers of this film do make quite alot of changes when it comes to the films main characters. As all of the main characters are vastly different from how they are in the main show with Ian going from being this heroic character who is actually quite smart and brave to being the films comedic relief with Barbera going from being a school teacher with Ian to not only now being his girlfriend but also being Dr. Who's second granddaughter and Susan is now a little kid who is insanely smart instead of being a teenager with the biggest change not only going to Susan but also to Dr. Who himself as he's gone from being an alien time traveler who is always the smartest person in the room to along with Susan being a human scientist who's actual name is Dr. Who and while Dr. Who , Susan and Barbera are still basically the same characters despite the changes made to their characters it's Ian who gets the worst of it as him now being the groups comedic relief now makes it harder to buy into hm as a character when he does do something heroic like only just escaping the Daleks in the Dalek City or daring all of the Daleks to shoot at him during the films climax as nothing up until that point in time had presented that as something that this take on the character would do where as in the original serial Ian was a bit of an action hero who would take action first and ask questions later and therefor when he did those heroic things it made sense for his character whereas here it's something that oddly feels out of character and was only included because of the fact that the original serial had him doing these things.

As was stated at the very start of this review this film was the first time that not only the Daleks but also the serial of the same name was presented in colour. Which does make it weird that several decades later the BBC would then air a colorized and shorter version of the original story which makes no sense as that version of the story only cuts out the things that were cut in this film and that's it which made it a pointless thing to do as while it does present a coloured version of the story that is actually canon to the main show people still have this film either on there shelves or online that they very easily could have watched  with the only reason to watch The Daleks In Colour being the fact that that version of the serial had new effects and new voice over lines for the Daleks and that's really it and while it was nice to see that version of the story get an official canon colorization it still made it pointless to do due to the fact that this film more then beat them to it in the first place with this being something that makes you wonder why the BBC just don't add these Dalek films to BBC IPlayer under the Whoniverse section as then they could have had to colorized versions of two very well Dalek stories both of which are much more shorter then the original serials that they based off of and while OK granted it might be a rights issues that's preventing them from adding these two Dalek films to BBC IPlayer it still makes it weird that they willingly made a colorized version of the very first ever daleks story despite the fact that there's already a film that did the exact same thing as this now makes The Daleks In Colour really pointless.

Again much like with The Daleks In Colour this film does cut down alot of the things from the original serial. Some of which is for the better like alot of the stuff in the cave is cut down quite alot so it moves alot more better in those scenes and some of which is just weird like they cut out the famous POV shot when Barbera first sees a Dalek something which it could be argued does make sense as then they get the chance to do that big widescreen reveal of all of the Daleks in colour for the first time with that being something that just wouldn't be possible if they included that POV shot but at the same time tho the people that would have been going to this film in the first place would have been going because of the fact that they've seen this story on the TV and are already giant fans of Doctor Who and they would therefor already know what the Daleks already look like and would therefor want to see the shot that got alot of them scared in the first place and while that big reveal of the Daleks is a very nice shot it doesn't really add anything to the plot of the film outside of giving us a pretty cool reveal for the main villains of the film and heck even alot of the stuff at the Thals camp is either cut down a little bit or just straight up cut out entirely which means that scenes that should have had some more time given them like the Doctor trying to convince the Thals to help and fight the Daleks now instead happens in a matter of moments when all that does is make the story move by at a faster pace and rob the Thals of getting any kind of character development as they have no reason to trust this man and his friends as there basically strangers to them and yet because of the fact that the plot of the film demands it they suddenly trust him and join in and help in the fight against the Daleks no questions asked.

Speaking of the Daleks they are actually the most unchanged characters in the film as they are exactly how they were in the original serial. With them being more then willing to let the doctor and his friends die when Susan goes to get them the pills to cure there radiation sickness with them even being quite manipulative as well as they force Susan to leave a letter to the Thals convincing them to come to the city all so the Daleks can easily and quickly kill them all off and be the only ones living on this planet which is something that does make them quite scary as villains as it does show you just how far that they are willing to go in order to achieve their main goal which in this film is to kill all of the Thals which yes granted does seem pretty small in scale compared to all of the other plans that these characters would later go on to have but given that this was there first outing technically it does make sense that they would start with something small and while the Daleks in this film are really well handled with all of them having these really bright colours with the makers of the film really taking as full advantage of the fact that this film is in colour by giving the Daleks these colours that really do pop on the film where the characters are let down tho is in the fact that they don't really get to do all that much that's actually threatening which granted is more of an issue with the original serial then it is this film but given that this film was taking liberties with the source material and it's characters there's really no excuse that the makers of this film couldn't have shown the Daleks doing something to either the main characters or the Thals that makes them more threatening as a villains as while they are quite scary still they're not as scary as they perhaps could have been.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and nineteen minuets and fifteen seconds. Which to be fair to this film is a pretty solid running time for this film to has as this is a film that really does have the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time however tho in saying that this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely tho as even tho this film gets it plot from a serial it's not really that well developed as the film is more focused in trying to replicate the net bit from the serial then it is in trying to make it's plot as well developed as it really could have been and as a result of this is the fact that this films plot isn't as good as it really could have been where as the original serials plot was one that was really well developed because of the fact that makers of the show took the time that they needed to tell it's story where as here the makers of the film are trying to cram a seven episode story into one film and because of that the plot can't be that well developed as alot of made the plot of the original so good came in the smaller character moments alot of which are cut out in this film version of the story and while the films characters are as well developed as there ever going to be thy do still suffer because of the fact that this films take on the characters is so radically different from the original serial and yet the story is the exact same with the makers of the film not giving the characters the screen time that they really do need to become fully developed characters but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. With the makers of this film really taking as full advantage of the fact that this film has a much more bigger budget then what Doctor Who ever had at that point in time by showing us all of the Daleks attacking our heroes on screen together which is something that really make this film worth seeing even if the fact that the Dalek weapons whilst they are better then how the show did them still look pretty cheap as there basically just fire extinguishers and that's really it with the best action scene in the whole entire film being when he Thals and the Doctor and his allies all attack the main Dalek City at the same time as we not only get to see just how deadly the daleks are with them taking out several Thals but we also get to see how smart our heroes can be by having them use everything that they've learned about the Daleks and use it against them like by sticking something underneath them to basically stop them from doing anything to even having them turn the Daleks to face each other and having them fire on each other which is a really smart thing to do all of this culminates with Ian taking out all of the remaining Daleks at once by having them all fire on this machine which was to fire a giant bomb that will wipe out the Thals all of which results in a really exciting and action packed scene that is easily better then all of the films action scenes in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall out of the two Dalek films that got released this one is quite easily the best one as it's a film that really does know how to be a good film and while the second film has the more epic plot to it it's the fact that this film kept things so simple that made it better and that made it the more entertaining film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all o the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Amazon . Co . Uk , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.