Rating: 
Summary: "RADIATION NIL, OXYGEN NORMAL....."
Review: "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" is one of the best "Doctor Who" adventures of all time. It has excitement, awe and wonder, terror, and humor mixed into an epic tale of conquest and survival! William Hartnell gives a fine portrayal of the Doctor, and the storytelling and acting are top-notch! The farewell to the character of Susan Foreman (the Doctor's granddaughter, played by Carole Ann Ford) makes for one emotional ending!
Sadly, the DVD extras aren't the best. The featurettes have fine interviews, but are so lengthy and boring, no one really cares what their talking about. However, the six-part serial more than makes up for it! Any "Doctor Who" fan will not wanna miss "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" on DVD!
Program Grade: A+ (5 Stars)
DVD Grade: B+ (4 Stars)
Overall Grade: A- (5 Stars)
Rating:
Summary: "RADIATION NIL, OXYGEN NORMAL....."
Review: "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" is one of the best "Doctor Who" adventures of all time. It has excitement, awe and wonder, terror, and humor mixed into an epic tale of conquest and survival! William Hartnell gives a fine portrayal of the Doctor, and the storytelling and acting are top-notch! The farewell to the character of Susan Foreman (the Doctor's granddaughter, played by Carole Ann Ford) makes for one emotional ending!
Sadly, the DVD extras aren't the best. The featurettes have fine interviews, but are so lengthy and boring, no one really cares what their talking about. However, the six-part serial more than makes up for it! Any "Doctor Who" fan will not wanna miss "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" on DVD!
Program Grade: A+ (5 Stars)
DVD Grade: B+ (4 Stars)
Overall Grade: A- (5 Stars)
Rating:
Summary: The first truly great Who series there was
Review: After the first Dalek episode, which was somewhat weak other than the novelty factor, it was refreshing to see this Dalek adventure in which the Daleks have taken over Earth and are in the process of finishing off London. Made almost 40 years before Danny Boyle killed most of London off in his remarkable "28 Days Later," this episode does the same thing in London circa the year 2152, after the Dalek invasion is nearly complete. Quite creepy to see a Trafalgar square empty of all but Dalek life. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan fall in with a group of rebels trying to survive against the Daleks and the robomen -- humans that the Daleks have turned into half human/half robotic overseers working against their own, like the Jewish capos in Nazi death camps. The Nazi similarity to the Daleks is played up fully for the first time here and the action moves all the way through. The sets are quite wonderful, and the sense of menace is strong enough to get past the rather cheesy special effects that were all the BBC could afford in the '60's. But it's easy to put that and the Daleks' obvious shortcomings aside is this great thriller in which the rebels are running out of time against the Daleks' plan and the imminent destruction of the human race.By this point in the series, the actors had matured and developed a true bond with each other. Susan gets to fall in love (in a 60's kind of way) and William Hartnell seems to have a hit a good balance between being crusty and arrogant and concerned for human welfare, in spite of his rather obnoxious habit of saying "hmmm?" after all his sentences. If only they'd have let Susan stop shrieking all the time -- I was actually hoping they'd let her get eaten by an alligator. You can't blame the actress, however -- it was several decades before the doctor's female companions finally were allowed to stop shrieking. And Susan, being a teenager, got to shriek more than most of them. There is a tendency on Amazon to review Doctor Who episodes a little more favaorably than they probably deserve, given how much we all love the series, but this one really works on so many levels. Besides being a barely saved episode and only the second one featuring the Daleks, it allowed the Daleks to function in different ways and started to give them personalities and structure. The rebels aren't one-dimensional and have various character attributes that keep them interesting. There is also a disk of fascinating extras with this one, including talks with the set designers and writers as well as various cast members on how the how was shot and what some of the difficulties were. One of my favorite Doctor Who purchases to date, and a good chance to see the original cast when they'd knitted together and gotten rid of the early kinks. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Christmas with the Dalekss
Review: An excellent six part adventure with William Hartnell. Barbara and Ian finally get their wish to return to Earth only to find that the Earth of 2164 is under foreign ownership - that of the Daleks. This story highlights the growing maturity of the show after only a year and the growing confidence of the show's makers in exploring possibilities. What could be more chilling than to see the most inhuman monsters driving around London, exterminating all before them? What fun the people driving those Daleks around must have had during shooting! Anyway, the show opens with one of the most sinister beginnings of the whole Doctor show and a little later, the sight of a Dalek emerging from the River Thames was one of the most scary things for children in the 1960s. There are many things of interest in this story. The first Doctor Who to be shot on location for instance and the idea of the neutron bomb, set to destroy people but leave the buildings intact. The sheer callousness of the Daleks is also brutally exposed in their use of human slaves to mine out the magnetic core of Earth so they cam install an engine and drive it around the universe. Hopefully they would have had to pass a driving test first. Seriously though, the programme clearly demonstrates an inhumanity in both that sense and in the further hint towards the true nature of the Daleks when one is removed so that the companions can escape from the Daleks. Inhumanity is a theme of the six episode show, in a practical sense of the Robomen and also in the way that the two women give up Barbara and her friend to the Daleks in exchange for food. The programme is also about hope and about fighting for one's beliefs. In a way this marks a new side of the Doctor - a more anti-authoritarian side. Although he fought on the side of the Thals in the first Dalek story here he becomes more of a fighter against tyranny and oppression, a fighter for freedom who foregoes weapons and prefers non-violent opposition wherever possible. This side of course becomes more prominent as 'time' goes on. This episode also marks the first departure from Doctor Who. His granddaughter Susan, played by Carole Ann Ford, falls in love with an unlikely revolutionary but does not want to leave her grandfather. In an ending reflecting the social mores of the time in England, the well meaning old man maroons her with the new man in her life, in a drawn out moment of sadness. As always with Doctor Who, the cheapo sets and effects detract a little from the story but not significantly so. I write this review a couple of days after the announcement of the death of Jonathan Nathan-Turner at an early age. Producer of three Dr. Whos - Davison, Baker C., and McCoy he will be sadly missed.
Rating: 
Summary: "What you need is a jolly good smacked bottom!"
Review: An incredibly overrated Who serial and Dalek story, only because it's the second Dalek serial and it's set on Earth. The problem with this serial is that it is very, very slow going, even for a Hartnell adventure, and the Robomen(oh, my COD!)are ploddingly slow and stupid, and how the Robomen are supposed to frighten us is a question I've been asking for years. The lack of scientific credibilty is also very annoying, the Slyther(and just what the heck is "The Waking Ally"?), uninspired acting and not enough Daleks really spoil everything. But, there is some great things, as well. The direction & execution is very halucinatory, the Daleks running around London is fun, and their renaming of monuments and other things is way cool, and Susan has a very emotional leaving scene.
Rating:
Summary: We are the masters of Earth!
Review: For anyone who bought the VHS, this dvd is nothing short of a revelation. DIOE has gone under some major clean-up work via the Doctor Who Restoration Team's wonderful new VidFIRE machine and looks almost as good as it did (and in the case of episode 5 even better than) back in 1964. It's not entirely perfect due to the age and quality of the source material, but it is impressive. A great assortment of extras rounds out the set. A must buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun!
Review: I am a obsessive sci-fi nut, but my ultimate obsessions are Dr. Who and The X-Files. "The Dalek Invasion of the Earth" is a wonderful example of Dr. Who at it's best. The Doctor(William Hartnell) is as crabby as ever, always being taken care of by his devoted granddaughter Susan and their two intrusive companions, Ian and Barbara. They arrive on Earth in the future and discover that their nemesis, The Daleks have taken over. With the help of a small group of rebels they defeat the Daleks. It is a well put together story with a tender ending.
Rating:
Summary: Fun!
Review: I am a obsessive sci-fi nut, but my ultimate obsessions are Dr. Who and The X-Files. "The Dalek Invasion of the Earth" is a wonderful example of Dr. Who at it's best. The Doctor(William Hartnell) is as crabby as ever, always being taken care of by his devoted granddaughter Susan and their two intrusive companions, Ian and Barbara. They arrive on Earth in the future and discover that their nemesis, The Daleks have taken over. With the help of a small group of rebels they defeat the Daleks. It is a well put together story with a tender ending.
Rating:
Summary: 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth' is a worthwhile purchase.
Review: I have mixed views about this production, but I feel that overall there are more positives than negatives. I very much liked the use of future-day England as the story setting. This allowed for a lot of footage to be shot outside of the television studios, which added visual interest. I particularly liked the first episode with its plot build-up in the abandoned city of London. The story also introduced a number of different characters and sub-plots throughout the six episodes, so that the action did not just center around the four regular cast. The physical modifications to the Daleks, mostly done to allow filming away from the studio also adds interest. Finally, I feel that the story has collector value, as it is the last one featuring all four original characters. Susan (Carole Ann Ford) left the series at the end of the last episode. By far the biggest disappointment for me was the lame ending. After such a long and interesting build-up, the finale was a big let-down. It was almost as though a team of amateurs had taken over the demise of the Daleks, or as if someone had removed part of the story. I saw only a few technical problems with the filming, the most prominent being the moving motor vehicles in the distance at Trafalgar Square and the shadow of a microphone boom across the Tardis in one of the final scenes. All things considered, this is still an item worth buying. I would not however pick it over the two other Hartnell Dalek stories available.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding !
Review: I just bought this dvd and was amazed ! I'm a huge Doctor Who fan but have never before seen any of the first doctor's episodes. The Dalek Invasion Of Earth was filmed in 1964 and it was incredible how well both the acting and the effects (well, quite a few of them, anyways) hold up. The Daleks are as evil as ever, with very few differences in the way they were later constructed (later versions have solar panels around their necks and a shorter base) This Doctor story has everything that makes Who one of the best sci-fi series ever; a vile, ruthless enemy, great acting, outstanding and inventive story, and wonderful character interactions ! If you love old "campy" effects, ie. Godzilla, other Japanese '60s movies, then you should get this Doctor Who story....even if you're not really a fan of the show, this story is an incredible stand alone story for fans of good, old, fun sci-fi. And the extras that are included are great. Behind the scenes interviews, an option to see the show with updated cgi effects, a commentary track....this has got to be right up there as one of the best Doctor Who dvd releases !
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