So a kind of terrible thing happened to me this year: I became a Doctor Who fan.
And yes, I already know what you’re thinking. “What’s so terrible about that? Doctor Who is a great show! Big blue box, epic and emotionally satisfying adventures across time and space, Weeping Angels, that weirdly sexy big headed man with the bowtie…”
All of which is true, yes. But I’m not talking ‘NuWho’, as it’s known in certain circles.
I’m talking “Classic” Doctor Who. The old school shit. Where celery was a stylish accessory, most alien worlds looked suspiciously like rock quarries, and the polarity of neutron flows was reversed with alarming regularity.
Also, there were Jelly Babies. Delicious, delicious Jelly Babies…
My curiosity was been piqued last year during the 50th anniversary, where I dipped my toes in the water by watching exactly half of the 10th anniversary special “The Three Doctors” and (inexplicably) all of “Vengeance On Varos.” And then… my curiosity had been resolved. I kind of moved on with my life.
But a seed was planted.
And so, one full year later, when I learned that a large portion of the original series was available through my Hulu Plus subscription, I decided to venture in full steam. I started with the Fifth Doctor’s initial adventure, “Castrovalva” (opting, in true Doctor fashion, to travel sideways through the show’s history).
And if this overly detailed, name-droppy preamble hasn’t made it clear, I’ve become a bit obsessed.
Which you would have to be, if you start off with Adric and Tegan and keep going…
(See? This is exactly the kind of useless insider reference that you start making when you fall down the rabbit hole. Pray for me…)
More than anything, I’m awed by the sheer narrative chutzpah of the series. It’s a show that evolved in such a way that just about every single part of it is replaceable. They’re not beholden to one format, one location, one time period…they’re not even limited to the same actor playing the same protagonist! It’s a show that has full authority to totally reinvent itself as needed, which is exactly why in one form or another, it’s managed to last over fifty years.
And there’s no better proof of its utility and adaptability than Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.
To put it as simply as possible, the theatrical release Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. is a loose adaptation of “The Dalek Invasion Of Earth,” a Doctor Who serial from their second season which featured the return of the Daleks, the alien archenemies of the Doctor. Released in July of ’66, a week after the end of the third season of the series, the movie is a sequel to Dr. Who And The Daleks, which was in turn a loose adaptation of “The Daleks,” the first season serial that served as their first appearance, and which the “Dalek Invasion Of Earth” is a sequel to.
(I assume that all made perfect sense. If it didn’t, tough. We’re moving on…)
Happily, the story itself is far easier to parse. Police officer Tom Campbell, attempting to call for backup during a robbery, enters the TARDIS and finds himself whisked off to future London, where he helps the good Doctor and some determined rebels foil a plot by the Daleks that is…scientifically implausible, to put it mildly.
Watching this, even as a recent convert, was a strange experience. It’s got a lot of the signifiers of the series at the time, but it’s all…off somehow. Streamlined, for starters. But also bigger, way more action-y, and (it has to be said) somewhat dumber, too.
Basically, it’s a modern day Hollywood blockbuster, roughly half a century ahead of its time…
See, here is the thing about Classic Doctor Who: I said I love it because of its inherent structural malleability and narrative freedoms, but that’s the pretentious git’s way of looking at it. What keeps me (and all the other fans) coming back is a far simpler idea: they tell really good stories. Smart, imaginative stories that overcome their extremely obvious budgetary limitations by being witty, challenging, and endlessly inventive.
Having not seen the serial this film was based on, I can’t speak to its quality, but it’s hard to imagine it being very much like this. Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. is action packed in a way the show wouldn’t dare to dream. But it’s also pretty much completely empty headed.
Which is not to say that it’s bad. No, the big dumb blockbuster tag cuts both ways. Because, lest we forget, big dumb blockbusters, when properly done, can be a whole lot of fun.
And so this is. It somehow manages the weird feat of being ahead of its time AND charmingly retro. In its details, it’s highly reminiscent of the alien invasion B-movies Hollywood was churning out in the 50s, but done on a far more impressive budget.
Which is to say, things explode. A lot.
There’s a scope and scale here that’s impressive. This doesn’t feel like a spinoff of a television show, or some kind of cheap cash-in. It feels like a proper movie.
And it moves, too! A man travels to the future, an invasion is thwarted, the bad guys are sent packing and the requisite happy ending is achieved in less than 90 minutes, which is a lesson in economy that modern filmmakers might be well-served to study.
The relentless pace does have an unfortunate side effect, however, in that it flattens out the characters. While everybody is at least decent, very few of the actors are given the space to carve out a particularly memorable performance. As Tom Campbell, Bernard Cribbins is a decent enough square-jawed hero-type, but hasn’t yet gained the gravitas that he’ll show some forty years later when (SUPERNERD TRIVIA ALERT) he appears as the lovable Wilfred Mott on ‘NuWho’. And Godfrey Quigley adds some nicely modulated gruffness as the wheelchair-bound rebel Dortmund. But Andrew Keir as the rebel leader Wyler is bland as bland can be; and Jill Curzon as Dr. Who’s niece is given basically nothing to do at all.
I mean, when you can’t even make Peter Cushing anything more than adequate, something has gone at least a little wrong…
Wait, did I not mention that Peter Cushing plays the Doctor (specifically called ‘Dr. Who’ in the movie, not an alien but a human inventor, and rocking one dope-ass scarf)?
To be fair, Cushing is playing a variation on William Hartnell’s Doctor, who was generally a side character in his own series in the first place. But he’s also playing a sanded down version of that more prickly (and interesting) character. Cushing is fine, of course (when has he ever been anything less?) but it’s not exactly the hidden gem of a performance I had imagined when I first heard “Peter Cushing plays Doctor Who.”
And so somehow, despite the presence of Peter Cushing, the best performance goes to Brockley, the conniving black marketeer played by Philip Madoc, who went on to have quite the involved history with Doctor Who, playing multiple characters on the show over the next few decades. And from this performance, it’s easy to see why: he’s just so much fun as this matter-or-fact scumbag…
(And just as a side note: with its minor allusions to black marketeering and an effective scene involving sympathetic collaborators, there are some interesting themes at play here; even a dumbed down roller coaster version of Doctor Who traffics in ideas.)
But in the end, it all comes down to the Daleks.
I mean, not for nothing is the title Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (and yes: it’s a sublime joy for me to keep typing out that full title. You take your pleasures where you can…) and not…something involving Dr. Who himself. The Daleks are the show here, converting their enemies into Robo-Men slaves (who all look like they’re auditioning to be in a Devo cover band) and plotting a sinister scheme so gloriously ridiculous that I’m not even going to tell you what it is because you’ll think I’m making one of my famous “Victor-Type Jokes.”
And it’s defeated in an equally suspect manner, science-wise, which is just icing on the cake…
Divorced from their original circumstances, the Daleks hover somewhere between the absurd and the terrifying; their bizarre mix of fragility and menace is what’s kept them in the public consciousness long after their initial novelty had worn off. But much like with the Doctor himself, their weird edges have been sanded off, and they’re more the generic alien invaders here. Just as in any summer blockbuster, nuance has to be sacrificed for spectacle.
But again: as spectacles go, Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. isn’t bad at all. For those who don’t give a toss about Doctor Who, it’s a fascinating precursor to some of the excesses we find in modern action filmmaking. For hardcore fans, it’s a weird look into an inexplicable alternate reality where Grand Moff Tarkin and young Wilfred Mott beat the crap out of the Daleks.
And for somebody who’s waiting impatiently for the new season to start, it provided a solid distraction that (however briefly) kept me from going back to re-watch “Timelash”…
Again: anyone who doesn’t get that reference, you’re the lucky ones.
Anyone that does…pray for me.
(The doctor is in, baby…)
