Dr. Who And The Daleks Film Review

When we think of Doctor Who we don't typically think of films rather we just think of the TV show and that's about it. Yet in the sixties at the height of the shows fame that's exactly what we got just not with the TV show cast and not made by the BBC as this film was made be an independent company to cash in on the fame of the Daleks with this film being an oddity within the show as when the show was first off the air from eighties to the two thousands this film was shown yearly and yet both this film and it's sequel are now nowhere to be found on BBC IPlayer and so then join me as I review the film introduces us a to human called Dr. Who with the film in question being called simply just "Dr. Who And The Daleks" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when human scientist Dr. Who , his granddaughters Susan and Barbera and Barbera bumbling boyfriend Ian accidently travel to another planet they must stop a race of beings from blowing up the planet and killing all remaining life on it. 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 really good. The fact that this films plot is as good as it is is something that's not all that shocking as it's adapted from the first ever Dalek serial which in of itself has a really good plot to it and with this film quite literally just copying and pasting that plot it does make sense that this films plot was as good as the plot of that serial. Yet this is also the problem as it is literally a copy and paste job with only a few things changed to fit in with there new versions of the characters which isn't really enough to justify this film being made in the first place and while it is for the most part as faithful of an adaptation as it was ever going to be it still would have been nice if this film did have new things added to the plot as that would make the film feel less predictable and while the fans of the latest seasons of the show and even none fans of the show will still like this films plot those that have seen the original serial will know exactly what's going to happen and sure enough it happens in the exact order that it did in the original serial 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 , Jennie Linden as Barbara and Roberta Tovey as Susan. Also starring in this film is 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 Daleks and Thunderbirds star David Graham as the voice of the Daleks.

Now then interms of 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 really good. This was something that both was and wasn't all that surprising it's surprising in the fact that alot f this films actors are very little known actors as alot of them really haven't been in anything all that big and yet at the same time it's also not that surprising as we have some really good actors whom have been in big things after this film like for example Peter Cushing is really good in this film with him being really good in this film as he does make you believe that his version of The Doctor is very childlike and when he needs to is very serious. With the best actor in this film oddly enough being Roberta Tovey as Susan as even tho she is just a kid she easily out acts every one in every single scene that she's in with her even having some truly wonderful chemistry with both Roy Castle and Peter Cushing so much so that Peter Cushing only agreed to do the second film if she was in because the two had become good friends and it is something that does shine through in the film as you do end up buying them as Grandfather and Granddaughter with Roberta Tovey even being just a joy to watch in the film with her own natural charm and chemistry really shining through in this film. With the acting that's in this film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely anything to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

With this of course being an unlicensed adaptation of a Doctor Who story there was some changes made to the story to fit the feature film format. With the most obvious one being the fact that The Doctor in this film is now a human character called Dr. Who with him and Susan inventing TARDIS which is a solid way to get around the fact that the makers of this film can't keep everything as it was in the show as this film was made without the involvement of the BBC with another being chance the fact that this film was the first Doctor Who adventure to be produced entirely in color something which would have been a big thing in 1965 and it's something that the show itself refused to do until the seventies with the Daleks being very popular at the time that this film was being made it would have been a no brainer for the audience back then to go and see a story that the know they like on the big screen but now it's color. There is a chance made in this film that doesn't work and its the fact that they changed Ian from being the action man hero character to now being the bumbling comic relief character this is something that was no doubt done due to the fact that actor Roy Castle was a comedian and an actor who while he did do none comedic films was more often then no in comedies yet the makers of this film also keep in the moments where Ian IS the action hero with them trying to have to both ways and it just creates a mess of a character as they want you to be laughing at him one moment and then the very next moment they want you to be cheering for him and while that is something that can work in better films sadly this film is not that good and it therefor just comes across as the makers of the film making a change for the sake of making a change and not because it served a purpose either for the plot of the film or even the character.

For one weird reason or another the BBC many decades later decided to produce a new version of the original Dalek serial with them colorizing it and cutting down to be just under one hour and twenty minuets. Which to me is just pointless as the whole point of this film is to do the exact same thing that The Daleks In Color was made to do and that's to introduce kids to the Daleks in a more watchable format and it is something that makes you wonder why they bothered to make this special version in the first place as while yes they do state it was because of the fact that the original serial was turning sixty years old but that doesn't mean that you basically have to copy and paste what this film did as that just makes them look petty. Heck the only upside to having these two versions of the story out there is the fact that we can now see what scenes where left in the colorized version of the episode and what scenes they did in this film and that's really it as there is no reason to go out and buy a copy of The Daleks In Color when you can just load up or buy a copy of this film and get the exact same expirence out of it it would have been different if they added in a new ending or even colorized part of the first episode which is something that they could have done but they don't therefor it makes that version of the story pointless heck they even could have filmed scenes with the Dalek props set before the events of the story as they would have been interesting to see and yet they don't, yet with this film they at the very least add a few scenes near the start of the film that explains the new versions of the characters and what there relationships are like with each other granted this was something that the makers of this film had to do in order to explain all of the changes made to the story but it's the fact that they did it in the first place that does show that they cared enough to do something like that.

This film does thankfully cut alot of the boring stuff with the Thals which is something that does make the film be alot more fun to watch. As alot of the stuff that they cut out be it at the camp or even in the cave for that matter doesn't really add anything to the films plot in the original serial and is something that is better left out of the film with this not really being anything that takes away from the overall expirence due to the fact that the films works just as well without those scenes in it which is something that is a testament to the writings of both original author Terry Nation who of course wrote the serial that this film is based off and tis films writer and producer Milton Subotsky as all of the key plot points are still kept in tact. Really the only the only thing that this film could have done without outside of the fact that Ian is the comedy relief character is the fact that they do seem to just reply the hits of the original serial with the film not really adding anything new or original to it which makes this film pointless as now we can just go back and watch the original serial and get a much more better expirence out of it as in the original serial they had to make you like the characters that your meant to like and make you loath the characters that your meant to hate whereas here it just felt like that none of that effort was being put into the film as while we have a reason to hate the Daleks we don't have a reason to like Dr. Who and friends outside of the fact that there the heroes of the film and that's it and that's that not enough to make them interesting characters with the films script not helping matters as there's nothing in the script that makes these characters all the likable.

To be blunt here the Daleks in this film are perhaps the best characters in the film as not only are they well done villains who have a clear goal in mind. They are also shown to be manipulative and as they convince Susan to get the drugs that a Thal left for her ad her friends to take to stop them from getting radiation sickness only to reveal behind her back that they plan on killing her and her friends the moment she gets back which is a clever thing to do as it right away wipes out someone who to them might not have been that major of a threat and there goal of just wanting to get out of there casing just so that they kill all of the Thals is something that does feel very true to there nature as Daleks hate anything that's different to them. With the fact that they are even willing to go as far to blow up there own home planet to reach this goal does show you that they are well and truly insane character and while this is something that would resulted in them dying it's also something that shows you that these characters are not to be messed with as they are more then willing to go to the places that the heroes are to scared to go to with there not really being anything that lets them done in this film outside of the fact that they are very easily out witted then Dr. Who and friends make there escape from the city as the Daleks would have come up with a way to make sure that they know when it's a true Dalek inside there metal casing and when it's someone else this is however something that it could also be argued is more of an issue with the original serial and is not an issue that's exclusive to this film but an issue that is exclusive to the film but doesn't feature the Daleks is the fact that this version of Dr. Who doesn't quite have that twinkle that William Hartnell's Doctor had in the same serial with this version at times coming across as being quite nasty.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and nineteen minuets and fifteen seconds. Which t be fair to this film is pretty much the exact running time that you'd expect a film like this one to have as the film doesn't really have to explain alot of things due to the fact that it's just retelling a story that alot of people would have seen just a few short years prior to this film coming out with the only thing that this film needs to explain being all explained in the opening of the film with the rest of the film then being free to tell the same story with only minor changes made and that's something that doesn't really require a long running time with this film having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet despite this advantage this film doesn't really use its running tm all that wisely as the film doesn't really take the time to fully develop its plot this is something that wasn't an issue with the serial as the serial had well over two hours total to tell its story across seven episodes with this being the one big advantage that the serial has over this film as that does mean that the serial can delve more into it's plot then this film can do as with a serial you could have had as many episodes you needed to get the story across and yet with this film you don't have that luxury with the makers of this film putting more thought and effort into making us laugh at Ian then they did into giving the plot some actual plot development. The same thing is also true for the episodes character development as none of this film characters get any kind of character development and whilst this was also true for the serial the serial had the advantage of being an episode of a TV show and therefor you could always argue that the characters really would get there development in a later episode but with this film that's not a excuse and therefor there should have been some character development given to any one of the films characters yet the makers of this film really were mire focused on making changes to the original story then they were into giving the characters some actual character development 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 tat the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Whilst there is really only the one action scene in the film you could also argue the scene where Dr. Who and fans not only break out of the Dalek city but also help out some of the Thals is an action scene in of itself with both of them being really well done make as good use of the fact that this film has a bigger budget then an episode of Classic Doctor Who ever did which is something that was put to good use just by the fact that we got some good action and lots of Daleks at the same time. With the best action in the whole entire film being the attack on the Dalek city as that's when we get to see our heroes truly take the fight to the Daleks with our heroes attack the Daleks from both the front of the city and a small ground sneaking in threw the back and while out heroes are still out matched as there are alot of Daleks to contend with they do take them all out first by outsmarting them and turning them to face each other leaving the Daleks to kill themselves and then at the end inorder to stop the bomb from going off Ian yells at the Daleks getting them to destroy there own machine thus killing them seemingly for good with this one action scene being very exciting and being a very fitting way to end this film with the rest of the films action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall out the technically three versions of the story the original serial really is still the best way to watch this story but in saying this tho this really is still a solid version of the story and really is one that alot of none Doctor Who fans really should watch if they are interested in watching the show as a whole as it's really a great way to just dip your toe into the show as whole in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really doe mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 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 Amazon . Co . Uk , Tardis . Wiki , 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.