Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966)

Too much of everything

Awesome Movie

A Disappointing Continuation

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

I saw this film more than half a century ago, so I remembered little of it, including Bernard Cribbins co-starring, but one thing I did remember was Peter Cushing introducing himself to the Cribbins character as Doctor Who. It is widely believed that The Doctor has never alluded to himself or been alluded to as such. In the TV series, maybe not.What do we have here? An amiable if sinister romp into the future where The Doctor's and our most dangerous enemy the Daleks are plotting to destroy the Earth for their own nefarious ends. "Exterminate!" Well, "Kill!" doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? The one thing missing is the Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire theme. How did that ever come about?

This is a definite improvement over the previous Peter Cushing DW film, "Doctor Who and the Daleks," which was much too primitive and child-oriented. This is aimed at an older viewer, with a story that while not exactly sensational is much more sophisticated and closer to contemporary British SF like "Day of the Triffids" and the Quatermass cycle. Using locations. Peter Cushing's Doctor is a bit less Boris Karloffy and more Doctory, and Roberta Tovey and Bernard Cribbins make excellent companions (Jill Curzon is much blander than Jennie Linden in the earlier film but looks sensational in a tweed traveling suit with stylized ulster-caped sleeves.)

DALEKS' INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D. has quite a bit going for it: it's big budget, widescreen DR. WHO, for one thing; it also boasts some excellent special effects -not to mention the Daleks themselves; and here we even see an amphibious Dalek early in the movie (and the Daleks throughout are more mobile than previously seen); and then there's Andrew Keir (Dr. Quatermass himself) as a resistance fighter. He almost steals the show. Peter Cushing as The Doctor is a bit doddering and low key, but even these aspects of his personality would've been more tolerable if he'd had more to do: Cushing's part almost amounts to little more than a cameo. Well crafted but definitely aimed at the younger members of the audience, DALEKS' INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D. is fun for kids of all ages.

I am a fan of the Doctor Who TV show, both in its original incarnation and in modern dress. I've also seen the two earlier movies and thought them odd and sad. I was therefore shocked and pleased to find this movie version of "The Dalek Invasion of the Earth" serial to be excellent. The pacing is better, the color photography by John Wilcox has its moments of beauty -- even the Technicolor Daleks have a peculiar beauty.Working with only minor variations from the television serial, this demonstrates something I have long maintained: the writing on the TV DOCTOR WHO was often first rate. It was the cripplingly tiny budgets that often made it seem ridiculous, with its impossible shooting schedules, cardboard sets and monsters that frequently seemed to be a man lurking under a cast-off shag rug.The memories of children often play them false in later years. People report on seeing a particular favorite DOCTOR WHO serial from childhood and being shocked at how much better it is in memory than looking at it as adults. Children assume the lovely details that the adult mind demands. How very pleasant for this adult to see them filled in here!