Director Gordon Flemyng
Stars Peter Cushing, Roy Castle & Jennie Linden
Rated PG
Score 4/6
An eccentric inventor and his companions travel in his TARDIS to the Planet Skaro and battle the evil menace of the Daleks.
For those of you who might be interested Peter Cushign portrayed Dr. Who in two movies Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966) which were released between the tenures of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. It should be noted that the Cushing movies are retellings of the first two Dalek serials, The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth. On a side note interesting points were made by Nicholas Briggs and Richard Shearman in The Dalek Legacy – Destination Skaro about how back in the 70’s and 80’s to be considered a true Doctor Who fan your opinion of the Cushing movies had to be that they didn’t count canonically. So it seems that fans and their outrage and gatekeeping about their franchises is not a new thing.
I have mentioned in the past how I am a fan of Older episodes (or if you prefer ‘Classic Who’) Doctor Who because it is interesting to see the television production standards from over fifty years ago. Now granted we are looking at movie, and there is a difference with the level of production most notably with the panoramic shot of Skaro from the mountain in the third act. Cushing might not have given the best ever portrayal of Doctor Who but I loved the cheekiness that he brought to the role and I loved the chemistry he had with Roberta Tovey’s Susan and I loved the light-heartedness of Roy Castle’s comedic moments as Ian.