Movie Info
Movie Name: Daleks—Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
Studio: AARU Productions Limited
Genre(s): Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Doctor Who
Release Date(s): August 5, 1966
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Please drop the bomb and end this movie
Dr. Who (Peter Cushing), his granddaughter Susan (Roberta Tovey), and his niece Louise (Jill Curzon) are joined by a London constable named Tom Campbell (Bernard Cribbins) and find themselves tripping time again in his TARDIS. When they arrive in Earth’s future, they find it subjected to enslavement by the evil Daleks…can the Doctor and his friends liberate the Earth and stop the threat of the Daleks forever?
Daleks—Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is a follow-up to the big screen film Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and adapts the popular British TV series Doctor Who into a color, big-screen version. The movie is not part of the Doctor Who canon and was poorly received by critics and fans.
Dammit! Froot Loops again!
The first Dr. Who film was a rather interesting adaptation of Doctor Who: The Daleks (Story #2) and this film continues the adaptation trend by adapting Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Story #10). The movie is bright and colorful, but the plot is quite boring. The first story keeps moving and has some fun. This movie has a lot of dead points and really drags through the middle of the story (something that Doctor Who episodes also suffer from).
It is also strange that the movie is so different than the first movie. There is no mention of previous companions Barbara and Ian and instead there is now a niece named Louise. The format that worked in the first movie (with the characters getting separated) doesn’t work here and there needed to be more of a unified from to almost make them a team.
Visually, the movie is quite stunning in comparison with the original Doctor Who series. The Technicolor is bright and the special effects are relatively strong for what appears to be a moderately ranged budget film. I like seeing the earlier looking Doctor Who in color when all the real old ones are black-and-white.
Goodbye to Dr. Who and his friends
I can’t hate Cushing as Dr. Who either. He is an interesting version of the Doctor and it would have been nice to see him get to play the Doctor again (possibly in the series). He is a bit more active than the William Hartnell version of the Doctor and it is fun for him to be a bit more proactive (despite following a Doctor Who story). He just doesn’t seem as teetery as Hartnell and it does aid him.
Daleks—Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is more of a curiousity than a good film. It is interesting to see different interpretation of a classic character and if you are a fan of Doctor Who it might be worth checking out. Another notable for Doctor Who fans is that the Tom Campbell character is played by Bernard Cribbins who returned to Doctor Who in the relaunch as Donna Noble’s grandfather Wilfred Mott and had an important impact on the Doctor (David Tennant) and his future. The movie however was a failure and this was the last outing for Cushing and the Doctor.
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