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Doctor Who & The Daleks

Doctor Who & The Daleks

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Talking trash cans will rule the earth!!
Review: Slo-o-o-o-o-o-owwwww moving, mildly campy feature film adapted from the beloved BBC-TV show. Peter Cushing takes a turn as the semi-dotty Doctor, and the Daleks are appropriately awkward and mechanical. You're better off getting your giggles from the original television episodes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: First Cushing film is entertaining 60's sci-fi.
Review: The first Dr. Who movie tie-in, a remake of the second story in the TV series, is a worthy step in trying to duplicate the TV series to the big screen. It was in colour, it had some well known names (Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Barrie Ingham), and with a bigger budget.

Peter Cushing's the typical absent-minded professor, and a gentle fellow, compared to the irascible William Hartnell.
In contrast with Carole Anne Ford's portrayal, Roberta Tovey's Susan is more a person of action, brave, someone with more initiative. She's the one who snatches the box of phials, beating an indecisive Ian to the punch, and she also walks out of the Daleks' cell in order to retrieve those phials. Not bad for someone in her pre-teens.

The twin dynamics here are interesting as well. Susan shares her grandfather's spirit of adventure, while Ian and Barbara are the cowardly lions. As a result, Cushing and Tovey work together superbly and are the more watchable pair of the quartet.

Roy Castle's Ian is a far cry from William Russell's. Ian here is a clumsy clod, nearly sitting on the chocolates he brings Barbara, who's his girlfriend in this story, and also hopelessly stupid. The scene of him trying to get a pair of doors open in the Dalek city makes one think how hapless he is. And talk about being a coward! When the Thal party he is with says they must climb up a mountain, he exclaims, "Climb?" before quickly recovering with, "I was only thinking about Barbara." Sure you were, sissy!

The interior of the Dalek city is impressive, with bright yellow-orange colours. And they must have had some Earth influence--there are lava lamps visible when Susan writes her letter to Alydon.

This was more of a challenge, condensing a 175 minute serial (7 25-minute episodes) down to a mere 78 minutes! True, the grimness of the story was toned down and it was a bit cutesy, but the core material came through, i.e. the trip to the city for more mercury, the travellers planning their escape from the Dalek cell, the Doctor convincing the Thals to help them, and the trip across the chasm.

Not bad, and it produced a sequel that outdid this one.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: First Cushing film is entertaining 60's sci-fi.
Review: The first Dr. Who movie tie-in, a remake of the second story in the TV series, is a worthy step in trying to duplicate the TV series to the big screen. It was in colour, it had some well known names (Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Barrie Ingham), and with a bigger budget.

Peter Cushing's the typical absent-minded professor, and a gentle fellow, compared to the irascible William Hartnell.
In contrast with Carole Anne Ford's portrayal, Roberta Tovey's Susan is more a person of action, brave, someone with more initiative. She's the one who snatches the box of phials, beating an indecisive Ian to the punch, and she also walks out of the Daleks' cell in order to retrieve those phials. Not bad for someone in her pre-teens.

The twin dynamics here are interesting as well. Susan shares her grandfather's spirit of adventure, while Ian and Barbara are the cowardly lions. As a result, Cushing and Tovey work together superbly and are the more watchable pair of the quartet.

Roy Castle's Ian is a far cry from William Russell's. Ian here is a clumsy clod, nearly sitting on the chocolates he brings Barbara, who's his girlfriend in this story, and also hopelessly stupid. The scene of him trying to get a pair of doors open in the Dalek city makes one think how hapless he is. And talk about being a coward! When the Thal party he is with says they must climb up a mountain, he exclaims, "Climb?" before quickly recovering with, "I was only thinking about Barbara." Sure you were, sissy!

The interior of the Dalek city is impressive, with bright yellow-orange colours. And they must have had some Earth influence--there are lava lamps visible when Susan writes her letter to Alydon.

This was more of a challenge, condensing a 175 minute serial (7 25-minute episodes) down to a mere 78 minutes! True, the grimness of the story was toned down and it was a bit cutesy, but the core material came through, i.e. the trip to the city for more mercury, the travellers planning their escape from the Dalek cell, the Doctor convincing the Thals to help them, and the trip across the chasm.

Not bad, and it produced a sequel that outdid this one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Groan!!
Review: There were only two movies made in the Sixties based on the televison show, and I'm quite thankful for that. Nothing against the late Peter Cushing, but these movies butcher Doctor Who facts so badly it makes it intensely painful for anyone that follows the show to watch. Three things that annoy me 1.)It is not called Tardis, it's called THE TARDIS. 2.)The Doctor did not invent it, he stole it. 3.)And most importantly...He doesn't go by Doctor Who, He is just known as the Doctor! What makes it even worse is Terry Nation who wrote this film also wrote for the actual series. Some of the special effects were actually quite brilliant(despite the Daleks shooting what looks like fire extinguisher foam). But these changes to the script make it unbearable to watch My advice to those who were idiots like me and actually bought it, only watch it when you're really drunk and with five of your friends.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No redeeming value
Review: This is based directly on a Doctor Who episode, only with different characters. The beginning is the worst. The not so mysterious Doctor from Earth invented the TARDIS himself!!! My advice to everyone out there, buy the original in black and white with William Hartnell.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Daleks and the Doctor on a bigger screen
Review: This was the first of the two big-screen adaptions of Dr. Who - with bigger and better special effects than on the show, though taking a different course as to the Dr.'s character. On the show, the Doctor is an alien - a member of an advanced race of humanoids who live extremely long lives, can regenerate their bodies under circumstances that would kill normal muggles like us, and have mastered the science of space-time travel. Carousing through the cosmos, the Doctor's ship is incredibly huge on the inside (actually limitless) but on the outside can look like an object of any size - in the Doctor's case, a London Police call box. Frequent travels brought the Doctor into conflict with the Daleks - machines housing horribly (and never seen) natives of the planet Skaro who descended from the mutated survivors of a global thermo-nuclear war. The most popular of the Doctor's TV-foes, the Daleks were the natural choice to share his leap to the big screen.

While the Daleks' story is unchanged for the film (cold conquerors of a dying world), and though this flick otherwise follows the plot of the serial in which the Daleks were introduced, the flick otherwise changes the Doctor's story. Now, instead of being a time-lord, the Doctor is a curmudgeonly human inventor (named "Doctor Who" - the characters who are his granddaughters are never mentioned by that name) who manages to construct a crude space-time machine which is bigger inside than out, and just happens to look like a Police call box on the outside. Accidentally sending the time/space ship on its way - the Doctor and crew (his two granddaughters and the older one's date) - vanish from Earth and wind up on a blasted alien world. The Doctor tricks his passengers into going out exploring - he's too much of an adventurer to pass the alien world up. When a huge (and seemingly abandoned) city looms nearby, he goes to investigate, hoping - he tells the others - to find extra mercury for a critical fluid link. Instead, when the city proves to be home to nasty sounding Daleks, they are all captured. The Doctor is then forced to learn the nature of these mechanized creatures and find a way to escape and link up with the Thals - green-skinned descendants of the Daleks' ancient enemies. Though the Thals are stubbornly peaceful, you know that the Doctor will lead them to rise up against the Daleks.

This was a great flick - not quite faithful to Who-lore, but confident in its own way. Cushing is an unforgettable Who, though he could have done with the TV incarnation's more hard edged (here he's a kindly old guy with a child's sense of adventure). Being a human inventor raises some questions, but none that get in the way of the fun, and anyway sticking to the TV-show's premise of the Doctor's being a time-lord would complicate things (the story would have to explain his origin AND the Daleks') The Daleks, on the other hand, are faithfully translated to the big-screen - their huge city, their screeching voices and their fascist-style cruelty fit them to a tee (if anything, the movie Daleks are even louder here) The flick ends on a climactic battle that won't dissappoint.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Daleks and the Doctor on a bigger screen
Review: This was the first of the two big-screen adaptions of Dr. Who - with bigger and better special effects than on the show, though taking a different course as to the Dr.'s character. On the show, the Doctor is an alien - a member of an advanced race of humanoids who live extremely long lives, can regenerate their bodies under circumstances that would kill normal muggles like us, and have mastered the science of space-time travel. Carousing through the cosmos, the Doctor's ship is incredibly huge on the inside (actually limitless) but on the outside can look like an object of any size - in the Doctor's case, a London Police call box. Frequent travels brought the Doctor into conflict with the Daleks - machines housing horribly (and never seen) natives of the planet Skaro who descended from the mutated survivors of a global thermo-nuclear war. The most popular of the Doctor's TV-foes, the Daleks were the natural choice to share his leap to the big screen.

While the Daleks' story is unchanged for the film (cold conquerors of a dying world), and though this flick otherwise follows the plot of the serial in which the Daleks were introduced, the flick otherwise changes the Doctor's story. Now, instead of being a time-lord, the Doctor is a curmudgeonly human inventor (named "Doctor Who" - the characters who are his granddaughters are never mentioned by that name) who manages to construct a crude space-time machine which is bigger inside than out, and just happens to look like a Police call box on the outside. Accidentally sending the time/space ship on its way - the Doctor and crew (his two granddaughters and the older one's date) - vanish from Earth and wind up on a blasted alien world. The Doctor tricks his passengers into going out exploring - he's too much of an adventurer to pass the alien world up. When a huge (and seemingly abandoned) city looms nearby, he goes to investigate, hoping - he tells the others - to find extra mercury for a critical fluid link. Instead, when the city proves to be home to nasty sounding Daleks, they are all captured. The Doctor is then forced to learn the nature of these mechanized creatures and find a way to escape and link up with the Thals - green-skinned descendants of the Daleks' ancient enemies. Though the Thals are stubbornly peaceful, you know that the Doctor will lead them to rise up against the Daleks.

This was a great flick - not quite faithful to Who-lore, but confident in its own way. Cushing is an unforgettable Who, though he could have done with the TV incarnation's more hard edged (here he's a kindly old guy with a child's sense of adventure). Being a human inventor raises some questions, but none that get in the way of the fun, and anyway sticking to the TV-show's premise of the Doctor's being a time-lord would complicate things (the story would have to explain his origin AND the Daleks') The Daleks, on the other hand, are faithfully translated to the big-screen - their huge city, their screeching voices and their fascist-style cruelty fit them to a tee (if anything, the movie Daleks are even louder here) The flick ends on a climactic battle that won't dissappoint.


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