Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD (Movie, 1966)

Well the Daleks are back in yet another unofficial spin-off movie. Like I explained with the last one, Terry Nation still has the rights to the Daleks. So he made these movies with "Dr. Who". This one is an adaptation of his First Doctor serial "The Dalek Invasion of Earth". Did you notice the subtle title change?

One cool thing about this one is that it also stars Bernard Cribbins, who played Donna's uncle Wilf in Season Four. He's awesome! After this, Nation tried to make another movie but it fell through. A year later he tried to go to America to make a Dalek TV show. Spoiler: that also never happened.

Like the last movie, this is a bit hard to find. I'm sure you can find an old copy around somewhere if you're looking for a legal method.

What did you think of this? Was it better than the first one? Was it better than the official serial? Is it just too weird to see a guy actually named Dr. Who and human? Can't blame FOX for this one.

The first movie was so bad because it was beat for beat remake of The Daleks, but worse because of a number of goofy factors. This one changes it up from The Dalek Invasion of Earth a little bit, but not for any good reason. Every decision they make is worse, especially the weird character replacement of Ian and Barbara but not Susan. The final scene goes out of its way to be paradoxical in the worst way.

This is missing the weirdness of the original and the sense of defeat Earth has. There's truly not enough Dr. Who or even Daleks. Way too much on rebellion people that I really don't care about this time. If I had to make a top five list of my favorite things from Dalek Invasion of Earth (Farewell speech, "Do not drop bodies into the river", etc) none of them are in this version. Instead all we have is......color?

Wilf is young!

I got this out because I got the sense from Dalekmania that this did the story better (while Doctor Who and the Daleks did it worse).

I like the visuals better here. Some of the casting and design work seems more apt (the wheelchaired scientist looks less evil). The Robomen are less silly.

Bernard Cribbins's character joins the party a bit too readily. All it takes is the dusting of exposition that the audience needed, and he jumps into Ian's role.

The holdinc cell intelligence test is a joke next to what they did in the serial.

I think there are more Daleks here than in the serial. Several things that were done by Robomen in the show are done by Daleks here (I enjoyed watching the Dalek twiddle controls too much). Unfortunately, that means they're easier to fight. When your unstoppable alien tank can slide down a ramp and explode from a light shove, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

Is the smoke the Daleks spray supposed to be poison/acid? I took it as shorthand for flame or rays earlier, but it acts more like you'd expect what you're actually seeing to act like. Actually, it looks like they're armed with fire extinguishers.

While I like the music, sometimes it makes some odd choices. Why play a jazzy tune when the Dalek comes out of the water and captures the Doctor and Tom? The Roboman theme plays far too often without variation.

I think they skipped two whole episodes, and just had somebody pop up and say "welp, here's the Daleks' whole plan". (Incidentally, "turn a planet into a spaceship" sounds more like a means than an end to me)

They did a good job of making the finale make even less sense.

But hey, it looks pretty.