Rrrright time for a Doctor Who post, this one is about one of the classic stories from the original series, back in the olden days when the First Doctor, William Hartnell appeared on our screens. I've been watching quite a few of Bill's old stories on Netflix and I've found them to be a mixed bag, some are entertaining while others are a bit drawn out and boring. But I've chosen a really good one to review here, and that's The Dalek Invasion of Earth from 1964, so here's more on the plot (Spoilers, as Professor Song might say!).
The story begins with the Doctor, and his companions (the original cast) Ian (William Russell), Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Susan (Carole Ann Ford) who land in the TARDIS in what appears to be London. The crew, particularly Ian and Barbara, assume they have been brought back home to their own time (as they were originally high school teachers at Susan's local school, back in the 1960s). However on assessing their surroundings in a local dock, everything appears to be in ruins, and the city looks to be deserted, which suggests to the Doctor that they are not back in the 1960s. The Doctor and Ian investigate an old abandoned building and find a dead body in a cardboard box as well as a calendar which shows the year to be 2164 (200 years ahead of the original broadcast time of the show!). Meanwhile Susan and Barbara are taken by a couple of refugees to an abandoned underground station and meet up with a resistance group lead by a wheelchair bound scientist, Dortmun (Alan Judd), among them also are Tyler (Bernard Kay), David (Peter Fraser) and Jenny (Ann Davies). Susan and Barbara are told by the group that the daleks invaded Earth years ago and the population have been either killed or taken slaves. The Doctor and Ian in the meantime try to evade their captors, men who wear helmets with electrodes and a radio dish attached to them and speak in a robotic fashion, by making a run for the river, only to turn and find a dalek, which makes its way out of the river toward them. Its soon revealed that the daleks are using the men as their slaves, and have "robotised" them by using the helmets they wear, hence their name, robomen. The Doctor and Ian are taken on board a saucer, where they meet another resistance fighter, Craddock (Michael Goldie), and with his help they escape their cell, only to be recaptured. The Doctor is taken to be robotised, but at this point the resistance stage an assault on the saucer, in which the Doctor is rescued by one of the fighters, but most of the group are killed by the daleks in the attack. The Doctor is soon reunited with Susan, who by this time has started to form a romantic attachment to one of the resistance group, David, and they decide to head for the mines in Bedfordshire, where the daleks have got a slave workforce working for their own ends. At this time Ian has already made his way to Bedford, travelling incognito on the dalek saucer, meanwhile Barbara and Jenny have been taken captive by the daleks at their control centre. The daleks soon reveal that the purpose of their invasion lies in the mines in Bedfordshire, as they want drill out the core of the Earth and replace it with a propulsion device so they can pilot the planet anywhere in the universe, which could result in dire consequences, which the Doctor and his companions must try to prevent.
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is without a doubt one of the landmarks in the history of the show for a few reasons, for one, it was the first time in the show that the production team made extensive use of exterior film locations, as prior to this the stories were all recorded on stage in the television studios (well The Reign of Terror, the last story of the first season, was actually the first story to use location filming, albeit briefly). And another reason was because for the first time we saw one of the regular characters of the show depart, and this was to be Carole Ann Ford's last story in the series (well at least until The Five Doctors that is). This change also made quite an impression on the show and it was also a very important one, as the writers and production team obviously knew that at some point the program would have to move in a different direction.
But as for the story itself, its a very good one, and even after nearly 50 years, it has stood the test of time quite well. The story overall has quite a grim foreboding tone, and its well kept throughout, and you could almost think the story has a Quartermass feel to it, as things get pretty apocalyptic and heavy in feel. Not that the story isn't entertaining as it certainly is, and the return of the daleks was a great delight for children everywhere back then. And that was one of the benefits of the old format of the show, where each episode was given an individual name, as with a title like "World's End" (episode 1) you would never have guessed it would have daleks in it, so when you see them appear at the end, its a good surprise. The daleks themselves are quite impressive in this story, as with their improved mobility (as shown by the disks attached to the back of their casings, and in the first dalek story on Skaro, they could only move on metal floors by use of static electricity) they make for an even more sinister enemy. However maybe one negative point about them is their voices are decidedly mixed in quality, as they too often overuse the staccato effect, and the pace of their speech is very plodded. But this was an early story so you can make allowances for that, as it wasn't really until the 1970s where the dalek voices would improve (courtesy of Michael Wisher and Roy Skelton).
Performance wise things were always quite strong back in the early days of the show, particularly all four of the regulars are excellent here. Bill Hartnell by this time had really grown into playing the part of the Doctor, as he went from being a rather mean and miserly son-so in the very early stories, to becoming a charming, cantankerous, well meaning old fella, and you did get a real sense of melancholy in his final scene with Susan. Although one thing I always spotted about Hartnell's performance, was that he kept fluffing his lines, and there are plenty of moments where he does it here! But it was later revealed that this was in part due to the condition he suffered, arteriosclerosis (the hardening of the arteries) which he sadly later succumbed to in April of 1975. William Russell (who is still alive by the way!) is a solid and reliable an actor here as he always was in the show, and here his Ian Chesterton is still as good as ever. Jacqueline Hill also as Barbara is very good, and she always played her part with a great sense of strength, creativity and level-headedness. And of course we have Carole Ann Ford, who puts in her final performance as Susan here, and she does a fine job as she has ever done, and her last scene with the Doctor, who tells her that she should stay with David is quite poignant and beautifully played. I also quite like her scene with David, as they roll around as he playfully waves a big fish in her face!
The supporting cast are also very good too, particularly Bernard Kay, who plays the hardened resistance fighter, Tyler, who finds it difficult to bond with people, especially given the traumatic circumstances he has faced. Peter Fraser does a fine job as Susan's love interest, David Campbell, and shows that he can provide all the things that are missing from Susan's life, a chance for a life with one person, in one time. Other actors such as Graham Rigby as Larry, are given headroom for their characters as well, and he also gives a fine performance here, playing a man who is looking for his brother, only to find that he has been turned into a roboman. The scene where Larry reaches out and tries to plead with his brother, and grabs his brother's charged helmet, only to electrocute himself, is quite dramatic, and that faint recognition from his dying brother afterwards is well done.
The story however isn't without its faults, and as a six parter, you get there is an awful lot of padding in the story, and it moves along at quite a plodding pace at times, and it feels like it takes an eternity to shift itself into gear. This also isn't helped by the fact that the robomen themselves, move at such a slow pace, and they move so slow, no one would really have any problem running away from them! The plot itself if you think about it, is pretty silly too, I mean why do the daleks want to dig out the core of the planet, so they can pilot it around the universe. It just doesn't make sense to me. Is it so they can populate it with more daleks? Or is it so they can gather up more slave labour for their own nefarious ends??? Its just not clear what the writer Terry Nation intended to do with the Earth in the story, once the Daleks had it. It would have made more sense purely to just conquer the planet, erase all life and that's it.
Direction wise, Richard Martin (who funnily enough directed the show!) overall does a good job in keeping the story going, even though he allows for quite a few dips in pace. And one of the biggest problems he brings to the story is his staging of the studio scenes with lots of extras in them, as certain scene have a cluttered look to them, and the staging of some of the fight scenes are a bit clumsy (particularly the fight scene with the robomen in the sewer). Martin's use of the location filming however is really good, and the scene where Barbara, Jenny and Dortmun try to avoid being seen by the daleks as they move over Westminster bridge is very memorable, as is the scene where the dalek pops up out the water at the end of the first episode. And a brief note about the music by Francis Chagrin, which is a pretty minimal sparse score, written for percussion and an old synthesizer organ, but it is very effective and perfectly balances the tone of the story.
So for me The Dalek Invasion of Earth is one of the First Doctor's most impressive stories, as well as setting a landmark for the then future of the show in showing the importance of shaking up the format, by allowing for the departure of older characters in the show to make way for newer ones to come in.
A-n-d t-h-a-t i-s- t-h-a-t!
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