Dr. Who and the Daleks (theatrical film)

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Dr. Who and the Daleks, based on TV: The Daleks, was the first theatrical film based on Doctor Who. It stars Peter Cushing as a human scientist named Dr. Who who invents Tardis and takes his companions on a journey to the planet Skaro, where they help the peace-loving Thals battle the evil Daleks.

Synopsis

Accidentally thrown together, Dr. Who (Peter Cushing), his granddaughters, and their friend Ian cross the universe in Who's new invention, the space and time machine known as "Tardis". When they land on the planet Skaro, the travellers meet the kind and placid Thals, who live in fear of the dreaded Daleks. Somehow, the Doctor and his party must find a way to help the Thals overcome the deadly mutants who live inside impenetrable metal casings.

Plot

The movie focuses on a character simply named The Chosen One, who is wandering from town to town searching for the man who killed his family on the night he was born, under orders from the mysterious Evil Council. His talents for the martial arts were already honed at his infancy, and only vastly improved over time, giving him capability for legendary fighting abilities. He soon drifts into another town, and consults Master Tang, a very ill and slightly deranged sifu, for further training. The master is skeptical at first, but when The Chosen One shows him his identifying mark (his tongue has a living face on it named Tonguey), Master Tang agrees to allow him to train at his dojo. He also introduces him to his two students: Wimp Lo, a young man who was trained wrong as a joke, and Ling, who Master Tang bluntly states will have feelings towards The Chosen One. The Chosen One begins training showing cartoon-like feats of strength, while Wimp Lo deems him an enemy out of jealousy. Soon The Chosen One learns that Master Pain, the man who tried to kill him as a newborn, has just arrived in town, so The Chosen One goes to find him. Master Pain draws a crowd and demonstrates his powerful skill: undergoing a rigorous beating on his genitals by his henchmen without flinching in the slightest, then throwing the henchman to the ground in one move. Having won the support of the town's mayor, Master Pain randomly changes his name to Betty. Soon after, The Chosen One hires people to beat him so he can gain power to best Betty, but this backfires and he is immediately knocked unconscious. When he wakes up, a mysterious woman with a single large breast flies down next to him and introduces herself as Whoa. Whoa warns him it is not his time to fight Betty, then after briefly performing martial arts playfully with The Chosen One, flies back off into the night sky. The next day The Chosen One sets off anyway to find Betty, coming across one of Betty's evil companions: Moo Nieu (pronounced "moon you"), a Holstein cow gifted in karate, with a large udder that can squirt milk as a weapon. They fight in a scene parodying elements from The Matrix. The fight ends with The Chosen One milking Moo Nieu until her udder is empty, leaving her incapacitated. He ventures on further and finds Betty swinging a chain around on top of a waterfall. The Chosen One meets him, states his mission of vengeance, and prepares to fight to the death. Ling's Father, Master Doe suddenly arrives and tries to stop the unprepared Chosen One, but in the process gets wounded and they both get washed over the waterfall. The Chosen One takes Ling's Father to see Master Tang; it turns out they are old friends. Unfortunately Ling's Father's wound never closes properly, thanks to Tang massaging it, and he dies that night. Out of depression, Ling reveals her feelings for The Chosen One. Later in the night, he journeys out to a field and consults the heavens for confidence. Suddenly Mu-Shu Fasa, a large sentient lion, appears in the sky and dispenses advice in a scene parodying a portion of The Lion King. He tells The Chosen One to take note of 2 different symbols, and tells him that the answer lies in the stars above. The Chosen One returns to town and finds that Betty's hostility has expanded to the entire city, and is killing anyone who he suspects may be allies to the Chosen One, including Wimp Lo. He finds Ling, Master Tang and even his Dog are dying in the long grass, only to find they are pulling through and surviving (except for Wimp Lo, who is actually dead), despite being vitally maimed. Taking Ling and his dog to safety, The Chosen One practices fighting wooden replicas of Betty, giving up at first due to the difficulty that the pyramid spikes embedded in Betty's chest impose, but soon gets some inspiration from Ling and knows that he is ready. Meanwhile Betty, believing The Chosen One to be dead, is called in by the Evil Council, and is informed his attempts to kill him have been in vain. The Chosen One formulates a plan and goes to meet Betty at the temple. They begin fighting until the Evil Council reveal themselves to be aliens from France, giving Betty supernatural powers to beat down The Chosen One. While partially unconscious, The Chosen One has visions of Whoa and Mu-Shu Fasa giving him advice. Mu-Shu instructs him to open his mouth. As soon as he does, Tonguey flies out and attacks the mother ship, causing the entire Evil Council armada to panic and retreat. The Chosen One flies up and rips the pyramid spikes from the now powerless Betty, killing him. As The Chosen One returns home with Ling, his tribulations are far from over, as presented in a trailer for a fictional sequel, Kung Pow 2: Tongue of Fury, that immediately follows the final scene. In a post-credit scene, Master Tang asks someone to help him from an eagle pecking his leg.

Cast

Crew

Story notes

  • Several of the Dalek props were purchased by the BBC and appear in TV: The Chase. As it was broadcast before the release of this film, the Dalek movie props were seen on TV before they were seen in the cinemas.
  • The Daleks were proposed to have flame throwers, but this was vetoed. The effect used for the Daleks' weapons on television could not be achieved on film negatives.
  • According to Gordon Flemyng "We used that (the fire extinguisher) because we couldn't afford to add a ray to the film and it wouldn't have been good enough to just have people fall down. We wanted something that could be seen."[1]
  • Another reason was given by Milton Subotsky "We were going to have them shooting out flames, but John Trevelyn, the censor, thought children would be frightened of flames. So we went to the other extreme and armed them with fire extinguishers."[1]
  • In the film, Tardis is referenced as such without the definite article "the", unlike the TV series which always used the phrase "the TARDIS" when referring to the ship.
  • The interior of Tardis is completely different from the TV version, with the outside windows of the ship visible, and it appears there is only a single room, the console room. The 2005 revival's version of the TARDIS interior actually borrows a few of these elements: the exterior police box door (with windows) is visible from inside, and usually only a single room is visible (though others are mentioned).
  • In Spain this movie was entitled; Dr. Who Y Los Daleks.
  • The alien-esque look of the jungles was achieved by filming all those scenes without the anamorphic lens (wide-screen lens) on the camera, giving them a strange unearthly quality.[1]

Crew notes

  • Barry Gray, best known as Gerry Anderson's staff composer for his numerous Supermarionation and SF TV series, composed the musical score for the film. As a result, this film — and its sequel — are to date the only officially authorised productions based upon Doctor Who to use theme music other than the original Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire theme. Several reference books, including The Complete Encyclopaedia of Television Programme 1947-1979, erroneously credit Gray with composing the music for the TV series, too.

Filming Locations

Production errors

  • There is a staircase next to the Daleks water supply pipe, as they can't use stairs this a production design error.
  • The Daleks' lights flash indiscriminately and do not match the voice. They also flash when they are not speaking. Director Gordon Flemyng being unfamiliar with the Daleks, didn't realise the lights on the Dalek were there to distinguish which Dalek was speaking and so they flash randomly. This caused problems when the dialogue for the Daleks was being dubbed: some of the Dalek dialogue is rather laborious as the voice artists tried to match the dialogue to the random light flashes.

Home Video releases

Super 8 releases

Video releases

  • Released in the UK on VHS and Beta in 1982 by Thorn EMI.
  • Released in the US on VHS in 1985 by Thorn EMI.
  • Re-released in UK on VHS in 1988 by Warner Home Video.
  • Re-released in US on VHS in 1989 by GoodTimes Home Video.
  • Released in Australia in 1990 by Universal.
  • Re-released in US in 1994 by Lumiere.
  • Re-released in UK in 1996 by Warner Home Video.

DVD releases

Region 4 Australian DVD release, 2001
  • Released in Australia in 2001 by Universal / Studio Canal as a double release with Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. and 1995 Dalekmania documentary in the 'Doctor Who and the Daleks..'. boxset. Note: the print of Dr Who and the Daleks on this Disc set features a different edit, from the generally accepted print, during the battle scene at the end of the movie and is a zoomed version of the VHS master. Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD is a correct anamorphic print but has a sound glitch about 10 seconds in and has the prologue and opening titles switched around.
  • Released in US in 2001 by Anchor Bay as a single disc and with Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD and 1995 Dalekmania documentary in 'The Doctor Who Movie Collection' boxset.
  • Released in UK in 2002 by Studio Canal/Warner as a double release with Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.. and 1995 Dalekmania documentary in 'The Dr Who movie collection' boxset and the 'Dr Who - The Motion Pictures' (Gold Edition) boxset. Note:The first pressing of the 'Dr Who and the Daleks' disc in this set had a sound problem which caused all music and effects to sound glassy and "echoed" and so it was re-pressed by Warner, this also had a problem as the disc now froze on chapter 16, this was corrected for the 3rd pressing, this version and the Gold Edition boxset version have no problems.
  • Released in the UK in 2006 by Studio Canal/Optimum as a double release with Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD and 1995 Dalekmania documentary in the 'Doctor Who:The Dalek Collection' boxset.

Blu-ray releases

  • A digitally restored version of the film was released in the UK on Blu-ray in May 2013.
  • It was also released on Blu-ray alongside Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. in a limited edition collector's set.
  • Dr. Who & the Daleks UK Blu-ray cover.jpg

    Dr. Who & the Daleks
    Blu-ray UK cover

  • Doctor Who Digitally Restored Limited Collector's Edition Dr. Who & the Daleks & Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. 2 Blu-ray Set.jpg

    Doctor Who Digitally Restored Limited Collector's Edition Dr. Who & the Daleks & Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. 2 Blu-ray Set

Novelisations

No novelisation based upon the film script was ever published, however the original teleplay, The Daleks, was adapted as Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks by David Whitaker, published by Frederick Muller in late 1964. Later, when the book was republished by Target Books, it was retitled Doctor Who and the Daleks.

A panel of the comic strip.

Comic book adaptation

Dr. Who and the Daleks was adapted as an American comic book by Dell Publishing in 1966 (the year the film was released in the US). The comic book featured artwork by Dick Giordano and was the first US comic book appearance of anything connected to the Doctor Who franchise. It was reprinted in the UK by Marvel Comics UK in Doctor Who Classic Comics issue 9.'

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Howe, David J., Stammers, Mark, Walker, Stephen James, 1992, Doctor Who: The Sixties, Doctor Who Books, an imprint of Virgin Publishing Ltd, London, p.130, p.129
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