Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
(1964) (DVD)
— Dr. Who Story No. 10
Science Fiction Video
Written by Terry Nation
Starring William Hartnell
ISBN: 0-7907-8093-3
Publisher: Warner Home Video / BBC Video, $34.98
In this six-part television adventure, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, we see William Hartnell as the Doctor pitted once again against his greatest foe, the Daleks. The story is black and white, from the early 60’s, but it still retains much of the original charm and storyline that it had when it was viewed years ago.
With the original cast, along with the Doctor, we see Susan (Carol Ann Ford), Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) as they arrive in London in the year 2164. Here they soon find that Daleks have taken over Earth and are using the majority of the human race, or what’s left of it, as slave workers. The Daleks are digging a huge mine in Bedfordshire for some evil purpose which in the end will destroy the human race.
The Doctor and his companions, together and at times apart, join human resistance groups in fighting the Daleks. They make their way from a river front, across London, and even over it at some point, to end up at Bedfordshire. Here, in the end, our group of adventurers end up defeating the Daleks, as we would expect them to.
The story has quite a few moments that make this video stand out from other Doctor Who stories. It has a rather decent plot, even for the early 60’s. It does show its age in some areas though, especially the special effects, which are somewhat limited. However, the plot and the acting are what carry this six-episode Doctor Who story, and put in among the top-ranking stories for this sci-fi series. Part of the reason I think this particular story goes over so well is that the plot is detailed and doesn’t resort to any silly humor that would detract from the show. About the only issue I have with this story, as with most early ones, is Carol Ann Ford’s acting. I’m not sure if its what they asked her to do, but her acting just isn’t right, and it detracts one from the main plot. Luckily, she’s not the main character in this show.
It must be noted that this is a two-DVD disc set. Disc One contains the six episodes that make up The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Along with the wonderfully restored video, which is very well done, you can activate extras to watch or listen to during the show. A commentary track, with the director and producer of this show along with Carol Ann Ford and William Russell, is somewhat interesting. I always like when the commentary actually goes with what’s being watched, and I’m glad that the commentary here is in sync with the video. It’s not always great stuff to listen to, but for the most part I found it entertaining.
Another feature to use, which I always love, is the Informational Text that shows up on the bottom of the screen during each episode. This text describes details about the story, from how some scenes were filmed to even pointing out small flaws and other interesting tidbits as you watch the show. Another thing they added to this DVD is the ability to turn on updated CGI effects. When this feature is turned on, the wobbly Daleks spaceships and a few other scenes are replaced with computer generated images. I was amazed at how seamlessly they fit these updated scenes into the original film, and how much they added to the believability of the story. The DVD production crew did a marvelous job on this feature. The best shot was of a Dalek ship blowing up a vehicle with a quite spectacular laser gun. Of course, if you want to see the original "ship on a wire" shots, you can watch those too, but I definitely prefer the few scenes they updated! I just wish they would do this with more older Doctor Who stories.
The second DVD in this set is a different story. I hate to say this, but the vast majority of extra stuff on Disc Two is not that good at all. The are several featurettes, with interviews with designers, various actors, location shots and more. However, the featurettes are boring, and I found the vast majority of the interviews a good justification for having a fast-forward button on a DVD player. There is also another Blue Peter archival featurette, which is basically a kid's show on making Daleks cakes. This was incredibly dull and I quickly bypassed it. They have a "Whatever Happened to ... Susan?" radio production, a somewhat cool rehearsal film shot, a photo gallery, and some BBC trailers, most of which were of little interest, even to a Doctor Who fan like me. The only thing that was cool on Disc Two was the 40th Anniversary tribute that runs about 3 minutes, and is basically a cool music video made up of tons of video clips from 40 years of Doctor Who. As far as I could tell, this was the same video from another Doctor Who DVD, and is even on some VHS tapes as well.
If you are a Doctor Who fan, or someone who would like a good old B-style movie, you’ll probably like The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This is beyond a doubt one of the best Doctor Who stories from the early years of the show, and it stand up very well when you consider it was made 40 years ago! About the only thing against it is the price, which is up because this is a two-disc set, with a poor "extras" second disc. For this reason alone, I would look for someplace that sells this video at a discount if you plan on buying it. Beside that, it's something to enjoy and add to your video library!
(review (c) August 2004 / David Flemming)