Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD
Encyclopedia
Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966) is the second of two films based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who
. It was the sequel to Dr. Who and the Daleks
(1965), and starred Peter Cushing
in his return to the role of the eccentric inventor and time traveller "Dr. Who
". It also featured Bernard Cribbins
and Andrew Keir
. It was filmed in Technicolor
and in widescreen format.
The script is based on the television serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth
, although like the first film (which was also based on a serial in the original series) there are many structural differences. For example, in the television series, the Doctor is an alien who is simply called "the Doctor
", while in the two films he is human and "Who" is his actual surname.
A third Dalek film, to be based on the serial The Chase
, was planned but never produced due to this film's underperformance at the box office.
), a London Special Constable
, is on patrol near a jewellery store. Men are burgling
the shop and Tom is struck down by their getaway driver before he can stop them. Running to what appears to be a police box
to call for backup, Tom enters TARDIS
, a time machine
inhabited by its creator, Dr. Who
(Peter Cushing
), along with his niece Louise (Jill Curzon
) and his granddaughter Susan
(Roberta Tovey
).
The Doctor moves TARDIS forward to the year 2150, where they find that London is now an empty landscape of demolished buildings. The Dalek
s, one-time adversaries of the Doctor
, have invaded Earth and ravaged entire continents, while humanity's remnants have formed underground resistance movements. Some captured humans have been turned into brainwashed slaves called Robomen, but the majority have been taken to the Dalek mining complex in Bedfordshire
, where the aliens' excavations extend to the core
of the Earth.
Louise and Susan are taken in by a group of rebels based in the London Underground
, led by Wyler (Andrew Keir
), David (Ray Brooks), and the wheelchair-bound Dortmun (Godfrey Quigley
). Meanwhile, Tom and the Doctor are captured by a squad of Robomen and taken onboard a Dalek spaceship
, where they are placed in a cell with a man called Craddock (Kenneth Watson
). The Doctor realises that the door is sealed by magnetism
and breaks the connection with a plastic comb
, but he is unaware that the escape is merely an "intelligence test" devised by the Daleks to determine who should be robotised. However, while the Doctor, Tom and Craddock are undergoing the conversion procedure, the rebels launch an attack with hand-held bomb
s. During the battle, the Doctor flees with David while Tom and Louise, who is knocked unconscious by one of the bombs, stow away in a deserted part of the ship. The Daleks escape and take off for the Bedford mine with few prisoner losses.
Wyler, having lost most of his team, returns to the rebel hideout, where Dortmun and Susan are waiting. The group commandeer a van to rendezvous with any remaining survivors in Watford
, but Dortmun is killed by a Dalek patrol and Wyler and Susan are forced to abandon the vehicle before it is destroyed. Deciding that the Doctor would avoid the Daleks in Watford, Wyler and Susan set off for the Bedford mine. David and the Doctor are also heading for the same destination, but are confronted by Brockley (Philip Madoc
), an unscrupulous smuggler, who seizes their rifle
in exchange for a promise to get them safely into the complex.
The spaceship touches down at the mine. Tom and Louise exit the craft through a disposal chute and take refuge in a tool shed. Meanwhile, Wyler and Susan shelter at a hut owned by a pair of spinsters (Eileen Way
and Sheila Steafel
) who repair slave workers' clothes in return for freedom and food. However, the women betray them to the Daleks out of desperation.
In the morning David and the Doctor are brought into the mine by Brockley, where they are reunited with Tom and Louise. One of the miners, Conway (Keith Marsh), reveals that the Daleks are planning to drop a bomb into their mineshaft to punch out the Earth's core, which will be replaced with a giant motor enabling the aliens to pilot Earth to their home world of Skaro
. However, the Doctor learns that the old shaft leads to a convergence point between the North
and South Magnetic Pole
s and deduces that, if the bomb were deflected down this path, the explosion's magnetic energy would be powerful enough to suck the metal Daleks into the core of the Earth.
As Tom and Conway work to alter the bomb's trajectory, the Doctor orders David and Louise to create a diversion while he chooses to remain in the tool shed. Brockley offers to help the Doctor and escorts him outside – where the scientist is unsurprised to discover a detachment of Daleks waiting to take him away. The treacherous Brockley then tries to escape himself, but the Daleks destroy the tool shed with him inside.
In the mineshaft, Tom and Conway run into Craddock who is now a Roboman. While fighting, Conway and Craddock fall to their deaths down the shaft. Tom removes the timbers boarding up the entrance to the old shaft and then rushes back up to ground level.
Sent to the Dalek command centre for extermination, the Doctor discovers Wyler and Susan. In the control room the inventor seizes an opportunity to distract the Daleks and commandeers the Robomen's command circuit, ordering them to turn against their masters. As the Robomen fight the Daleks the Doctor escapes with Wyler and Susan, while the slave workers flee from the mine. The Daleks defeat the Robomen's revolt and release their bomb into the shaft, unaware that Tom has successfully altered the route; the device is deflected into the disused shaft and detonates at the pole convergence. The Daleks, overwhelmed by the magnetism, are pulled into the Earth's core and destroyed. Meanwhile the spaceship, having just taken off, is brought crashing down onto the complex in a massive explosion.
Later the Doctor, Tom, Louise and Susan return to the past. The Doctor materialises TARDIS a few seconds before the jewellery store raid, giving Tom enough time to knock out the burglars before they can get away with their loot. The Doctor, Louise and Susan wave Tom goodbye as he drives off to the police station with the unconscious criminals.
comedy The Knack …and How to Get It.
Bernard Cribbins
appeared as a recurring character in the 2007 Christmas Special
and the 2008 series of the Doctor Who television series as Wilfred Mott
, a patriotic newspaper salesman who is the grandfather of the companion Donna Noble
. The penultimate episode of the 2008 series, The Stolen Earth
, sees Wilfred meeting the Daleks as they once again invade Earth. Cribbins has thus appeared in two Dalek-related stories separated by a 42-year gap. Cribbins again appears in the 2009 Christmas/New Years specials The End of Time
where Wilfred Mott plays an important role in the Doctor's regeneration.
Philip Madoc
later appeared in four Doctor Who television serials, including The Brain of Morbius
.
Three Daleks lead the campaign to defeat and control Earth. A gold Dalek appears to be in overall command of the operation. It is destroyed when the Dalek spacecraft crashes into the mining facility. A black Dalek controls the Bedfordshire mining operation and bomb detonation. It is killed when the magnetic field sucks it down the bomb shaft. A red Dalek is shown commanding the Dalek spaceship and operations to capture human slaves, robotise prisoners and wipe-out any resistance. It is dispatched when it falls from the upper platform of the control room and is sucked into the bomb shaft, snapping its eyestalk on the way down.
in England on 31 January 1966, and was completed on 22 March, eleven days behind schedule. The shoot was complicated by the illness of Peter Cushing which required some rewriting to reduce his on-screen appearances, and there were a number of accidents on set. For example, a Dalek prop caught fire during shooting of the rebel attack on the spaceship, while stuntman Eddie Powell
, playing a human prisoner called Thompson, broke his ankle during a scene in which his character is killed by the Daleks after trying to escape from them. Furthermore, Andrew Keir hurt his wrist when punching through the windscreen of the van during the sequence in which Wyler and Susan escape London.
The breakfast cereal
Sugar Puffs
sponsored the film. In exchange for its funding, the company was allowed to run a special competition on its cereal packets (with a Dalek prop as the prize) and feature the Daleks in its television advertisement
s. In an example of product placement
, Sugar Puffs signs and products can also be seen at certain points in the film.
Over £50,000 was spent on the film's promotion. It premiere
d in London on 22 July 1966.
In 1995 a documentary, Dalekmania
, about the two Dalek films was released; it has interesting material about the productions, spin-offs, and publicity.
newspaper in the United Kingdom, in a piece published on 21 July 1966 and credited only to "Our Film Critic". "The second cinematic excursion of the Daleks shows little advance on the first," opened the review. "The filming of all this is technically elementary... and the cast, headed by the long-suffering, much ill-used Peter Cushing, seem able, unsurprisingly, to drum up no conviction whatever in anything they are called to do. Grown-ups may enjoy it, but most children have more sense." In Sydney, Australia, it was only screened for a week or two in one of the less mainstream cinemas during the school holidays.
on 18 November 1966 as Show 305 of the Movietime series. It was produced by Tony Luke.
, a largely Gerry Anderson
oriented colour comic magazine, featured a one page Dalek comic strip where the artist Ron Turner
based the Dalek design on that used in the films. The covers had frequent photographic appearances of the colour film version Daleks, plus articles, bits of news, and stray references, especially to the film Doctor Who and the Daleks. A few of the TV 21 Dalek strips were reprinted in the Dalek Annuals for 1977 and 1978, and in the 1980s a number of the early serials drawn by artist Richard Jennings
, were reprinted in black and white in Doctor Who Weekly as The Dalek Tapes. Later, the Ron Turner strips were reprinted in colour on the back page of Doctor Who Monthly and in 1996 all sixteen serials were reprinted in a full colour omnibus edition - The Dalek Chronicles - published by Marvel Comics UK.
Many fans of the BBC Doctor Who programme hold the films in poor regard, one result being that they have not been the subject of fan research to the same extent as Dalek appearances on television. They were the first colour and wide screen appearances of the Daleks, however, featuring impressive sets and the use of a large number of Dalek props in many scenes. Consequently colour stills from the films were often used when photographs were required for Dalek merchandise related to the TV series, so the films might be considered as a small milestone for the wider Who and Dalek phenomenon.
The BBC-TV serials featuring Daleks were rarely repeated after initial transmission. The films are significant, therefore, in that soon after their theatrical release was completed they became available to rent, for public and domestic screening, from film hire companies. Consequently they were virtually the only Dalek-related stories in a live-action visual media, which could be watched and studied on a repeated basis in the decade or so before the advent of home video tapes, and later DVDs.
The Dalek design seen in the revived TV series from 2005 onwards have taken several cues from the Daleks seen in the two feature films, including a large fender and dome lights.
A lengthy article appeared in Doctor Who Monthly in 1984, with production information, photographs and interviews, making this almost the only substantial source of material on the two films until the documentary Dalekmania in 1995 and the Doctor Who Magazine
Summer Special - The Sixties Dalek Movies, also from 1995, articles credited to Marcus Hearn.
Both films, plus the Dalekmania documentary, were released on 20 November 2001 as a three-disc DVD boxset (Region 1). As the set was released by Continental Distributing and not the BBC, movie poster-like covers were used for all three boxes instead of the Classic Series style and logo used by the Corporation. In response, several fans have created alternative covers for download that mirror the official BBC covers used in various regions.
A two-disc DVD boxset was released in the UK in 2006 containing both films, plus the Dalekmania documentary. The Italian and French language versions of the film shown in the Dalekmania documentary where not included.
Music from this film has been released on Dr. Who & the Daleks
by Silva Screen Records.
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. It was the sequel to Dr. Who and the Daleks
Dr. Who and the Daleks
Dr. Who and the Daleks was the first of two Doctor Who films made in the 1960s. It was followed by Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D....
(1965), and starred Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
in his return to the role of the eccentric inventor and time traveller "Dr. Who
Dr. Who (Dalek films)
Dr. Who is a character based on the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Although based upon the character of the Doctor from the television series, the character is fundamentally different, most notably in being human....
". It also featured Bernard Cribbins
Bernard Cribbins
Bernard Cribbins, OBE is an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over half a century who came to prominence in films in the 1960s, has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid 1950s, and as of 2010 is still an active...
and Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s...
. It was filmed in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
and in widescreen format.
The script is based on the television serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from November 21 to December 26, 1964....
, although like the first film (which was also based on a serial in the original series) there are many structural differences. For example, in the television series, the Doctor is an alien who is simply called "the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
", while in the two films he is human and "Who" is his actual surname.
A third Dalek film, to be based on the serial The Chase
The Chase (Doctor Who)
The Chase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965. The story is set on multiple locations including the Mary Celeste, the Empire State Building, and the planet Aridius...
, was planned but never produced due to this film's underperformance at the box office.
Plot
Tom Campbell (Bernard CribbinsBernard Cribbins
Bernard Cribbins, OBE is an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over half a century who came to prominence in films in the 1960s, has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid 1950s, and as of 2010 is still an active...
), a London Special Constable
Special Constabulary
The Special Constabulary is the part-time volunteer section of a statutory police force in the United Kingdom or some Crown dependencies. Its officers are known as Special Constables or informally as Specials.Every United Kingdom territorial police force has a special constabulary except the...
, is on patrol near a jewellery store. Men are burgling
Burglary
Burglary is a crime, the essence of which is illicit entry into a building for the purposes of committing an offense. Usually that offense will be theft, but most jurisdictions specify others which fall within the ambit of burglary...
the shop and Tom is struck down by their getaway driver before he can stop them. Running to what appears to be a police box
Police box
A police box is a British telephone kiosk or callbox located in a public place for the use of members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police...
to call for backup, Tom enters TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
, a time machine
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
inhabited by its creator, Dr. Who
Dr. Who (Dalek films)
Dr. Who is a character based on the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Although based upon the character of the Doctor from the television series, the character is fundamentally different, most notably in being human....
(Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
), along with his niece Louise (Jill Curzon
Jill Curzon
Jill Curzon is a British actress most famous for her film and television appearances during the 1960s.Her television appearances include The Champions , Adam Adamant Lives! , The Saint , Hugh and I and Disneyland...
) and his granddaughter Susan
Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter and original companion of the First Doctor, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season...
(Roberta Tovey
Roberta Tovey
Roberta Tovey is an English actress and singer who has appeared in many films and television programmes. One of her better-known roles was that of Susan, the granddaughter of Dr. Who in the 1960s films Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD...
).
The Doctor moves TARDIS forward to the year 2150, where they find that London is now an empty landscape of demolished buildings. The Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
s, one-time adversaries of the Doctor
Dr. Who and the Daleks
Dr. Who and the Daleks was the first of two Doctor Who films made in the 1960s. It was followed by Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D....
, have invaded Earth and ravaged entire continents, while humanity's remnants have formed underground resistance movements. Some captured humans have been turned into brainwashed slaves called Robomen, but the majority have been taken to the Dalek mining complex in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
, where the aliens' excavations extend to the core
Inner core
The inner core of the Earth, its innermost hottest part as detected by seismological studies, is a primarily solid ball about in radius, or about 70% that of the Moon...
of the Earth.
Louise and Susan are taken in by a group of rebels based in the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
, led by Wyler (Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir
Andrew Keir was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s...
), David (Ray Brooks), and the wheelchair-bound Dortmun (Godfrey Quigley
Godfrey Quigley
Godfrey Quigley was an Irish stage, film and television actor.Quigley was born in Jerusalem where his father served as an officer in the British Army...
). Meanwhile, Tom and the Doctor are captured by a squad of Robomen and taken onboard a Dalek spaceship
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
, where they are placed in a cell with a man called Craddock (Kenneth Watson
Kenneth Watson
Kenneth Watson was a British television actor. He is best known for playing Brian Blair in Take the High Road in the 1980s but he also played Ralph Lancaster in Coronation Street from 14 May 1975-13 February 1980. He was booked to play a farmer in Doctor Who: The Time Monster but was replaced by...
). The Doctor realises that the door is sealed by magnetism
Magnetism
Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...
and breaks the connection with a plastic comb
Comb
A comb is a toothed device used in hair care for straightening and cleaning hair or other fibres. Combs are among the oldest tools found by archaeologists...
, but he is unaware that the escape is merely an "intelligence test" devised by the Daleks to determine who should be robotised. However, while the Doctor, Tom and Craddock are undergoing the conversion procedure, the rebels launch an attack with hand-held bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
s. During the battle, the Doctor flees with David while Tom and Louise, who is knocked unconscious by one of the bombs, stow away in a deserted part of the ship. The Daleks escape and take off for the Bedford mine with few prisoner losses.
Wyler, having lost most of his team, returns to the rebel hideout, where Dortmun and Susan are waiting. The group commandeer a van to rendezvous with any remaining survivors in Watford
Watford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...
, but Dortmun is killed by a Dalek patrol and Wyler and Susan are forced to abandon the vehicle before it is destroyed. Deciding that the Doctor would avoid the Daleks in Watford, Wyler and Susan set off for the Bedford mine. David and the Doctor are also heading for the same destination, but are confronted by Brockley (Philip Madoc
Philip Madoc
Philip Madoc is a Welsh actor who has had many television and film roles.One prominent role was the title character in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George...
), an unscrupulous smuggler, who seizes their rifle
Rifle
A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...
in exchange for a promise to get them safely into the complex.
The spaceship touches down at the mine. Tom and Louise exit the craft through a disposal chute and take refuge in a tool shed. Meanwhile, Wyler and Susan shelter at a hut owned by a pair of spinsters (Eileen Way
Eileen Way
Eileen Way was an English actress who appeared in many film and television roles in a career dating back to the 1930s....
and Sheila Steafel
Sheila Steafel
Sheila Steafel is a South African-born actress who has lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom.Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, appeared in many classic television series, including: The Frost Report, Z-Cars, Sykes, The Kenny Everett Television Show, Minder, The Ghosts of Motley Hall,...
) who repair slave workers' clothes in return for freedom and food. However, the women betray them to the Daleks out of desperation.
In the morning David and the Doctor are brought into the mine by Brockley, where they are reunited with Tom and Louise. One of the miners, Conway (Keith Marsh), reveals that the Daleks are planning to drop a bomb into their mineshaft to punch out the Earth's core, which will be replaced with a giant motor enabling the aliens to pilot Earth to their home world of Skaro
Skaro
Skaro is a fictional planet from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who created by the writer Terry Nation as the home planet of the Daleks and, at times, the centre of the Dalek Empire....
. However, the Doctor learns that the old shaft leads to a convergence point between the North
North Magnetic Pole
The Earth's North Magnetic Pole is the point on the surface of the Northern Hemisphere at which the Earth's magnetic field points vertically downwards . Though geographically in the north, it is, by the direction of the magnetic field lines, physically the south pole of the Earth's magnetic field...
and South Magnetic Pole
South Magnetic Pole
The Earth's South Magnetic Pole is the wandering point on the Earth's surface where the geomagnetic field lines are directed vertically upwards...
s and deduces that, if the bomb were deflected down this path, the explosion's magnetic energy would be powerful enough to suck the metal Daleks into the core of the Earth.
As Tom and Conway work to alter the bomb's trajectory, the Doctor orders David and Louise to create a diversion while he chooses to remain in the tool shed. Brockley offers to help the Doctor and escorts him outside – where the scientist is unsurprised to discover a detachment of Daleks waiting to take him away. The treacherous Brockley then tries to escape himself, but the Daleks destroy the tool shed with him inside.
In the mineshaft, Tom and Conway run into Craddock who is now a Roboman. While fighting, Conway and Craddock fall to their deaths down the shaft. Tom removes the timbers boarding up the entrance to the old shaft and then rushes back up to ground level.
Sent to the Dalek command centre for extermination, the Doctor discovers Wyler and Susan. In the control room the inventor seizes an opportunity to distract the Daleks and commandeers the Robomen's command circuit, ordering them to turn against their masters. As the Robomen fight the Daleks the Doctor escapes with Wyler and Susan, while the slave workers flee from the mine. The Daleks defeat the Robomen's revolt and release their bomb into the shaft, unaware that Tom has successfully altered the route; the device is deflected into the disused shaft and detonates at the pole convergence. The Daleks, overwhelmed by the magnetism, are pulled into the Earth's core and destroyed. Meanwhile the spaceship, having just taken off, is brought crashing down onto the complex in a massive explosion.
Later the Doctor, Tom, Louise and Susan return to the past. The Doctor materialises TARDIS a few seconds before the jewellery store raid, giving Tom enough time to knock out the burglars before they can get away with their loot. The Doctor, Louise and Susan wave Tom goodbye as he drives off to the police station with the unconscious criminals.
Cast
- Peter CushingPeter CushingPeter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
... Dr. WhoDr. Who (Dalek films)Dr. Who is a character based on the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Although based upon the character of the Doctor from the television series, the character is fundamentally different, most notably in being human.... - Bernard CribbinsBernard CribbinsBernard Cribbins, OBE is an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over half a century who came to prominence in films in the 1960s, has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid 1950s, and as of 2010 is still an active...
... Tom Campbell - Ray Brooks ... David
- Andrew KeirAndrew KeirAndrew Keir was a Scottish actor, who rose to prominence featuring in a number of films from Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and particularly in the theatre, in a professional career that lasted from the 1940s to the 1990s...
... Wyler - Jill CurzonJill CurzonJill Curzon is a British actress most famous for her film and television appearances during the 1960s.Her television appearances include The Champions , Adam Adamant Lives! , The Saint , Hugh and I and Disneyland...
... Louise - Roberta ToveyRoberta ToveyRoberta Tovey is an English actress and singer who has appeared in many films and television programmes. One of her better-known roles was that of Susan, the granddaughter of Dr. Who in the 1960s films Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD...
... SusanSusan ForemanSusan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter and original companion of the First Doctor, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season... - Roger AvonRoger AvonRoger Avon was a British film and television actor.Some of his television appearances include Hancock's Half Hour, Dad's Army, When the Boat Comes In, Department S, Doctor Who, serials , Randall and Hopkirk , Our Friends in the North and Blackadder the Third...
... Wells - Geoffrey Cheshire ... Roboman
- Keith Marsh ... Conway
- Philip MadocPhilip MadocPhilip Madoc is a Welsh actor who has had many television and film roles.One prominent role was the title character in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George...
... Brockley - Steve Peters ... Lead Roboman
- Eddie PowellEddie PowellEddie Powell was a British stuntman.Powell performed stuntwork in several films for Hammer Studios, serving as a regular stunt double for Christopher Lee. His credits during this time included portraying Dracula in Dracula: Prince of Darkness and the Mummy in The Mummy's Shroud...
... Thompson - Godfrey QuigleyGodfrey QuigleyGodfrey Quigley was an Irish stage, film and television actor.Quigley was born in Jerusalem where his father served as an officer in the British Army...
... Dortmun - Peter Reynolds ... Man on Bicycle
- Bernard SpearBernard SpearBernard Spear was an English actor.He was born to a Polish father and Russian mother.Spears starred in the BAFTA TV Award-winning television play Bar Mitzvah Boy, and also appeared in the films Bedazzled and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...
... Man with Carrier bag - Sheila SteafelSheila SteafelSheila Steafel is a South African-born actress who has lived all her adult life in the United Kingdom.Steafel, who was born in Johannesburg, appeared in many classic television series, including: The Frost Report, Z-Cars, Sykes, The Kenny Everett Television Show, Minder, The Ghosts of Motley Hall,...
... Young Woman - Eileen WayEileen WayEileen Way was an English actress who appeared in many film and television roles in a career dating back to the 1930s....
... Old Woman - Kenneth WatsonKenneth WatsonKenneth Watson was a British television actor. He is best known for playing Brian Blair in Take the High Road in the 1980s but he also played Ralph Lancaster in Coronation Street from 14 May 1975-13 February 1980. He was booked to play a farmer in Doctor Who: The Time Monster but was replaced by...
... Craddock - John Wreford ... Robber
- Robert JewellRobert JewellRobert Jewell was an English actor who mostly worked as a Dalek or other robot operator on Doctor Who in the late sixties, also playing a cameo as Bing Crosby in the serial The Daleks' Master Plan. He later emigrated to Australia and played small recurring roles in Prisoner during the eighties....
... Lead Dalek Operator - Peter HawkinsPeter HawkinsPeter John Hawkins was an English actor and voice artist.- Career :Born in London and a native of Brixton, Hawkins' long association with British children's television began in 1952 when he voiced both Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men. In 1955–1956, He voiced Big Ears & Mr. Plod from The...
... Dalek Voices - David GrahamDavid Graham (actor)David Graham is a British character actor and voice artist. Born in London, after a period in the R.A.F as a Radar Mechanic he trained as an actor in New York but has worked mainly on British television series....
... Dalek Voices
Cast notes
The original trailer for the film describes actor Ray Brooks as "the boy with the knack". Brooks had recently starred in the 1965 Richard LesterRichard Lester
Richard Lester is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.-Early years and television:...
comedy The Knack …and How to Get It.
Bernard Cribbins
Bernard Cribbins
Bernard Cribbins, OBE is an English character actor, voice-over artist and musical comedian with a career spanning over half a century who came to prominence in films in the 1960s, has been in work consistently since his professional debut in the mid 1950s, and as of 2010 is still an active...
appeared as a recurring character in the 2007 Christmas Special
Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)
"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005...
and the 2008 series of the Doctor Who television series as Wilfred Mott
Wilfred Mott
Wilfred "Wilf" Mott is a recurring fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Bernard Cribbins. He is the maternal grandfather of the Tenth Doctor's companion Donna Noble, and father of character Sylvia Noble...
, a patriotic newspaper salesman who is the grandfather of the companion Donna Noble
Donna Noble
Donna Noble is a fictional character played by Catherine Tate in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A secretary from Chiswick, London, she is a companion of the Tenth Doctor, appearing in one scene at the end of the final episode of the 2006 series,...
. The penultimate episode of the 2008 series, The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
, sees Wilfred meeting the Daleks as they once again invade Earth. Cribbins has thus appeared in two Dalek-related stories separated by a 42-year gap. Cribbins again appears in the 2009 Christmas/New Years specials The End of Time
The End of Time
The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe, also sold with the alternate subtitle The Next Revolution in Physics, is a 1999 science book in which the author Julian Barbour argues that time exists merely as an illusion.-Auto-biography:The book begins by describing how...
where Wilfred Mott plays an important role in the Doctor's regeneration.
Philip Madoc
Philip Madoc
Philip Madoc is a Welsh actor who has had many television and film roles.One prominent role was the title character in the BBC Wales drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George...
later appeared in four Doctor Who television serials, including The Brain of Morbius
The Brain of Morbius
The Brain of Morbius is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1976...
.
Daleks
- See also: Dalek variants in films
Three Daleks lead the campaign to defeat and control Earth. A gold Dalek appears to be in overall command of the operation. It is destroyed when the Dalek spacecraft crashes into the mining facility. A black Dalek controls the Bedfordshire mining operation and bomb detonation. It is killed when the magnetic field sucks it down the bomb shaft. A red Dalek is shown commanding the Dalek spaceship and operations to capture human slaves, robotise prisoners and wipe-out any resistance. It is dispatched when it falls from the upper platform of the control room and is sucked into the bomb shaft, snapping its eyestalk on the way down.
Production
Filming commenced at Shepperton StudiosShepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios is a film studio in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931 since when many notable films have been made there...
in England on 31 January 1966, and was completed on 22 March, eleven days behind schedule. The shoot was complicated by the illness of Peter Cushing which required some rewriting to reduce his on-screen appearances, and there were a number of accidents on set. For example, a Dalek prop caught fire during shooting of the rebel attack on the spaceship, while stuntman Eddie Powell
Eddie Powell
Eddie Powell was a British stuntman.Powell performed stuntwork in several films for Hammer Studios, serving as a regular stunt double for Christopher Lee. His credits during this time included portraying Dracula in Dracula: Prince of Darkness and the Mummy in The Mummy's Shroud...
, playing a human prisoner called Thompson, broke his ankle during a scene in which his character is killed by the Daleks after trying to escape from them. Furthermore, Andrew Keir hurt his wrist when punching through the windscreen of the van during the sequence in which Wyler and Susan escape London.
The breakfast cereal
Breakfast cereal
A breakfast cereal is a food made from processed grains that is often, but not always, eaten with the first meal of the day. It is often eaten cold, usually mixed with milk , water, or yogurt, and sometimes fruit but sometimes eaten dry. Some cereals, such as oatmeal, may be served hot as porridge...
Sugar Puffs
Sugar Puffs
Sugar Puffs are a honey-flavoured breakfast cereal made from sugar-coated wheat sold in the United Kingdom. For many years it was made by the Quaker Oats Company but in 2006 it was sold to Big Bear t/a Honey Monster Foods, based in Leicester...
sponsored the film. In exchange for its funding, the company was allowed to run a special competition on its cereal packets (with a Dalek prop as the prize) and feature the Daleks in its television advertisement
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
s. In an example of product placement
Product placement
Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the...
, Sugar Puffs signs and products can also be seen at certain points in the film.
Over £50,000 was spent on the film's promotion. It premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
d in London on 22 July 1966.
In 1995 a documentary, Dalekmania
Dalekmania
Dalekmania is a 1995 direct-to-video documentary released in the United Kingdom. "Dalekmania" is the name given to the craze or "mania" among children in the United Kingdom in the 1960s for all things associated with writer Terry Nation's creations, the Daleks, who were then regularly appearing in...
, about the two Dalek films was released; it has interesting material about the productions, spin-offs, and publicity.
Reception
The film was given a negative review in The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper in the United Kingdom, in a piece published on 21 July 1966 and credited only to "Our Film Critic". "The second cinematic excursion of the Daleks shows little advance on the first," opened the review. "The filming of all this is technically elementary... and the cast, headed by the long-suffering, much ill-used Peter Cushing, seem able, unsurprisingly, to drum up no conviction whatever in anything they are called to do. Grown-ups may enjoy it, but most children have more sense." In Sydney, Australia, it was only screened for a week or two in one of the less mainstream cinemas during the school holidays.
Radio adaptation
The soundtrack of the film was adapted and presented by Gordon Gow for radio broadcast on the BBC Light ProgrammeBBC Light Programme
The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...
on 18 November 1966 as Show 305 of the Movietime series. It was produced by Tony Luke.
Products and later coverage
From 1965-1967, TV Century 21TV Century 21
TV Century 21, also known as TV 21, was a weekly British children's comic of the 1960s and early 1970s. It promoted the many television science-fiction puppet series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Century 21 Productions...
, a largely Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
oriented colour comic magazine, featured a one page Dalek comic strip where the artist Ron Turner
Ron Turner (artist)
Ron Turner was a British illustrator and comic book artist.- Early life and career :Ron Turner became interested in science fiction at an early age, with numerous works across several media: the novels of H.G...
based the Dalek design on that used in the films. The covers had frequent photographic appearances of the colour film version Daleks, plus articles, bits of news, and stray references, especially to the film Doctor Who and the Daleks. A few of the TV 21 Dalek strips were reprinted in the Dalek Annuals for 1977 and 1978, and in the 1980s a number of the early serials drawn by artist Richard Jennings
Richard Jennings (comics)
-Biography:Richard E. Jennings was born in Hampstead, England on 20 May 1921. In 1937 he won a free place to the Central School of Arts, London. After 2 years his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, during which he served in the Air/Sea Rescue service of the Royal Air...
, were reprinted in black and white in Doctor Who Weekly as The Dalek Tapes. Later, the Ron Turner strips were reprinted in colour on the back page of Doctor Who Monthly and in 1996 all sixteen serials were reprinted in a full colour omnibus edition - The Dalek Chronicles - published by Marvel Comics UK.
Many fans of the BBC Doctor Who programme hold the films in poor regard, one result being that they have not been the subject of fan research to the same extent as Dalek appearances on television. They were the first colour and wide screen appearances of the Daleks, however, featuring impressive sets and the use of a large number of Dalek props in many scenes. Consequently colour stills from the films were often used when photographs were required for Dalek merchandise related to the TV series, so the films might be considered as a small milestone for the wider Who and Dalek phenomenon.
The BBC-TV serials featuring Daleks were rarely repeated after initial transmission. The films are significant, therefore, in that soon after their theatrical release was completed they became available to rent, for public and domestic screening, from film hire companies. Consequently they were virtually the only Dalek-related stories in a live-action visual media, which could be watched and studied on a repeated basis in the decade or so before the advent of home video tapes, and later DVDs.
The Dalek design seen in the revived TV series from 2005 onwards have taken several cues from the Daleks seen in the two feature films, including a large fender and dome lights.
A lengthy article appeared in Doctor Who Monthly in 1984, with production information, photographs and interviews, making this almost the only substantial source of material on the two films until the documentary Dalekmania in 1995 and the Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
Summer Special - The Sixties Dalek Movies, also from 1995, articles credited to Marcus Hearn.
Both films, plus the Dalekmania documentary, were released on 20 November 2001 as a three-disc DVD boxset (Region 1). As the set was released by Continental Distributing and not the BBC, movie poster-like covers were used for all three boxes instead of the Classic Series style and logo used by the Corporation. In response, several fans have created alternative covers for download that mirror the official BBC covers used in various regions.
A two-disc DVD boxset was released in the UK in 2006 containing both films, plus the Dalekmania documentary. The Italian and French language versions of the film shown in the Dalekmania documentary where not included.
Music from this film has been released on Dr. Who & the Daleks
Dr. Who & the Daleks (soundtrack)
Dr. Who & the Daleks is a soundtrack album of music from the two Dalek films based on the BBC television series Doctor Who. It includes music from Dr...
by Silva Screen Records.