Dr Who & The Daleks/Invasion Earth 2150 AD

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer - *Dr Who & The Daleks* Theatrical Trailer - *Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.* Photo Gallery - *Dr Who & The Daleks* Photo Gallery - *Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.* Featurette - *Dalekmania*
Rating
Year Released	1965/1966
Running Time	*Dr Who & The Daleks:* 79:27 Minutes *Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.:* 80:27 Minutes (Not 167 Minutes as per packaging)
RSDL/Flipper	*RSDL (26:57 in Dalek's Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)*	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	4	Director	Gordon Flemyng
Studio Distributor	Lumiere Universal Home Video	Starring	Peter Cushing Roy Castle Jennie Linden Roberta Tovey Barrie Ingham Michael Coles Bernard Cribbins Jill Curzon
Case	Transparent Amaray	Starring
RPI	$36.95	Music	Barry Gray Malcolm Lockyer Bill McGuffie

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Unless you count the Daleks killing people with smoke, No
Subtitles	None	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles	None	Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

I'll level with you all right now: I'm only a casual fan of Doctor Who, and hadn't viewed any of the serials in ten years when I sat down to look at The Five Doctors, although I have little hesitation in telling people that this is without a doubt the best television series to ever be aimed at children. Sitting down after a long, unpleasant day at school and watching the intellectual machinations of a humanoid alien from an advanced civilization provided a welcome respite, and all I could think about the next day was what would happen to the Doctor and his companions when I switched on to the ABC at five in the afternoon. It was fantasy and science fiction at their most pure, and it makes me shudder at the thought of what sort of programming the children currently being raised on The Wiggles are going to leave behind for generations to come.

Scary thoughts aside, purists will have already noticed that this is not exactly an entry in the official Doctor Who canon, per se. What we have here is a double feature of Doctor Who And The Daleks and Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., both of which are based upon two extremely memorable serials from the tenure of the very first Doctor. The first, which was simply titled The Daleks, is memorable because it is the very first serial to feature the species that has been the Doctor's most loved (or hated) nemesis of all time. The second, The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, is memorable not only for the scenario on which it is based, but long time Doctor Who viewers will also know that it is the serial that ends with the Doctor parting ways with Susan, his ever-so-loveable granddaughter. In fact, it is the serial from which the "one day I shall come back" quote that opens The Five Doctors is taken. Although seeing the quote in its proper context diminishes its impact somewhat, I've always felt that it perfectly summed up what I perceived Doctor Who to be about: solving one's problems through the application of intelligence and respecting another society's right to their own way of life.

Doctor Who And The Daleks

This 1965 film is based upon The Daleks, the first serial in which we see what Jon Pertwee described by saying "you only had to run down a flight of stairs and you had them screwed". Clocking in at just over seventy-nine minutes, while the original serial ran for a hundred and fifty, the narrative obviously runs on a rather truncated timetable. The Doctor (Peter Cushing in this incarnation), Susan (Roberta Tovey), Ian (Roy Castle), and Barbara (Jennie Linden) arrive on the planet Skaro, having taken the TARDIS on its "maiden voyage". I'll let that deviation slide since this feature never claimed to be part of the canon, anyway. Upon arriving on the planet, they find themselves caught in a battle between two civilizations: the Daleks, who have mutated to become dependent upon radiation, and the Thals, who use anti-radiation drugs to stay alive.

Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

This 1966 film is based upon The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, the 1965 serial in which Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) made her final appearance. It would be another twenty-two years before they found a companion character to match her level of intrigue and aptness as an intellectual foil for the Doctor (Sophie Aldred as the deceptively simply-named Ace). In this version of the story, Susan is played by Roberta Tovey again, while Ian and Barbara are replaced by Louise (Jill Curzon) and Tom (Bernard Cribbins). Again, the story length is truncated from a hundred and fifty minutes to a mere eighty, resulting in much of the impact of the original television serial being reduced or simply lost. With the scenario of an Earth that has been taken over by the Daleks unfolding, one cannot help but wonder if this is where James Cameron drew some of his inspiration for The Terminator. Check out the strings on one of the Dalek transport ships at 10:55.

Perhaps it is an indication of just how fascinated the Western Society of the times was with the oppression of the minorities that whenever Doctor Who's ratings started to flag, the BBC would air yet another Dalek serial. Peter Cushing's performance as science fiction's most memorable doctor, however, is rather insipid at the best of times, although most of the blame for this can be placed upon the scripting. The original actors who played the four adventurers in these serials, especially William Hartnell and Carole Ann Ford, would have played these parts much more convincingly, thanks in part to having scripts that were quite intelligent. Hartnell pretty much made the role of the Doctor his own until being forced to retire due to being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (thus giving birth to the whole idea of regeneration), and it is a pity that none of his performances are available on our beloved format as yet. Well, except for that short clip at the beginning of The Five Doctors, but imagine if the BBC invested a little time and money into cleaning up the source materials and transferring them to DVD. I know I'd buy at least one copy for showing future generations the right way to do Science Fiction.

A plea to Roadshow Home Entertainment (who have the rights to the Dr Who TV series): please start distributing more of the serials that the BBC have transferred to DVD. You can't just release one and expect the fans to be satisfied with that, especially when one of the serials in question, Remembrance Of The Daleks, has been voted by a couple of polls as one of the ten best of all time. Canon these two short films may not be, but at least Universal Home Video have done Doctor Who fans (and some serious ones at that, considering the esoteric nature of these features) the service of bringing them to a collectable medium.

Transfer Quality

Video - Doctor Who And The Daleks

This particular transfer has been taken from a print source. I have to especially mention that because the last transfer I looked at that had been taken from source material of this generation (Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex) was unrestored and looked positively awful. This, however, is an example of the right way to present a feature where no earlier-generation source material was available. Considering the age of the feature, I'd have to say that someone sank a fair number of dollars into cleaning up the print this was taken from, and the results, at least where the restoration is concerned, are worth every penny.

The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced. The cover is rather misleading in that it only states the aspect ratio of the transfer to be 16x9, implying that it has somehow been modified to fit the future ratio of television.

The transfer is quite sharp for the most part, with only the occasional lapse due to some shots being through windows or of action on a viewing screen. The shadow detail of the transfer is average, although it must be said that the majority of this film was shot in brightly-lit conditions. There is no low-level noise.

The colours of the film have a remarkably overstated use of dull hues, giving the transfer a decidedly sixties look that dates the feature beyond all doubts. There were no problems with bleeding or composite artefacts.

MPEG artefacts were not a problem for this transfer, although that's quite a surprise considering how tightly compressed the transfer is. Film-to-video artefacts are where this transfer comes undone, with aliasing being a constant and very distracting feature. Any shot where the Daleks are featured soon dissolves into a mess of aliasing, with the arms of the Daleks being the most annoying source. Film artefacts were a fairly constant feature in this transfer, with numerous black and white spots making an appearance, just to keep the artefact level up a bit, one would almost presume. A pair of reel change markings were noticed at 20:03, but their faint appearance leads me to suggest that at least some effort has been made to remove them.

Video - Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

This transfer is also presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and it is 16x9 Enhanced.

The transfer is very sharp from start to finish, with none of those shots through glass or of viewing screens to get in the way this time. The shadow detail is average, but it is again only called for on rare occasions, and there is no low-level noise.

Again, the colour scheme is rather dull and dreary, reflecting the time in which the film was shot. There were no instances of colour bleeding, and all the skin tones looked perfectly natural.

MPEG artefacts are not a problem in this transfer, again defying the tightness of the compression, however aliasing is once again quite prominent. Any shot with solid lines and Daleks in them contains a fair amount of aliasing, although this artefact is not nearly as bad as it was in Doctor Who And The Daleks, mostly because the occurrences were slightly fewer in number and less conspicuous. Film artefacts are a fairly constant occurrence, but no more than one would rightly expect from a film that is thirty-five years old. No reel change markings were noticed in this transfer, although it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it has been taken from a later generation source material than an interpositive.

This disc actually makes use of the RSDL format, with the layer change taking place at 26:57 in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150A.D. It is a fairly noticeable layer change, but it is not particularly disruptive to the flow of the film.

Audio - Doctor Who And The Daleks

Again, the packaging is somewhat misleading in stating that it contains stereo soundtracks. In reality, the soundtrack for this film and its sequel are monaural tracks that have been separated into faux stereo.

There is one soundtrack on this DVD: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, with a bitrate of 224 kilobits per second.

The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, with no problems coming even from the notorious distorted voices of the Daleks. However, the words spoken by the Daleks often sound as if they were recorded one word at a time and simply pasted together in order to maintain sync with the flashing lights on top of their heads. This is quite a disappointment in comparison to the smooth flowing voices that were in the Dalek serials I have seen to date, and it is quite distracting because I was so frequently ahead of the dialogue as a result. Apart from this annoyance, there are no discernible problems with audio sync.

The music in this film in credited to Barry Gray and Malcolm Lockyer, and a rather turgid effort it is at that. No usage of the original Doctor Who theme can be found in this soundtrack, which is a real disappointment considering that said piece of music is elite enough to save the score all by itself. Instead, we are left with the same sort of impossible-to-take-seriously themes that permeate many of the films from the mid-1960s.

The surround channels are not used by this soundtrack at all, and despite the cover description's claims, there is no stereo separation in this soundtrack. There are very few real sound effects in the film anyway, so this is nothing to worry about. The subwoofer took the occasional redirected signal to support explosions and crashing machinery, and it did so without becoming conspicuous in spite of the infrequent usage.

Audio - Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

There is only one soundtrack for this feature once again: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, with a bitrate of 224 kilobits per second.

Again, the dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, with even the Dalek voices being relatively easy to make out. Again, the words spoken by the Daleks sound like they were pasted together with a meat cleaver and some duct tape, but there are otherwise no problems with audio sync. A rather noticeable pop was heard at 9:36, but there were no other such problems in the soundtrack.

The music in this film is credited to Barry Gray and Bill McGuffie, once again being a rather uninspiring effort that reeks more of being left over from an episode of Gidget than an honest piece of Doctor Who music.

Again, the surround channels had nothing to do with this soundtrack, and there was no stereo separation despite the claims of the cover to the contrary. There aren't any real instances of sound effects that could be improved by the addition of surround channels, anyway. The subwoofer once again took some redirected signal to support the occasional explosion, and it did so without calling attention to itself.

Extras

Theatrical Trailer - Dr Who & The Daleks

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and a very loud Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Photo Gallery - Dr Who & The Daleks

A collection of stills from the film, as well as the theatrical poster, with no annotation.

Theatrical Trailer - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

A two minute and thirty-five second theatrical trailer, presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and a rather loud Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Photo Gallery - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

Again, this is a collection of stills from the film, as well as the theatrical poster, with no annotation.

Featurette - Dalekmania

Clocking in at fifty-seven minutes and eleven seconds, this documentary features footage in the aspect ratios of 1.85:1, 2.35:1, and Full Frame for good measure, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack features cast members like Roberta Tovey talking about the experience of making the two films, as well as such people as Gary Gillatt, editor at the time of the Doctor Who magazine talking about the relevance to the original serials. The writer of the original serials, Terry Nation, also makes an appearance, making this featurette well worth watching.

Censorship

As far as we have been able to discover, there are no censorship issues with this DVD.

R4 vs R1

As far as I have been able to find out, Region 1 misses out on this disc entirely, making the local version the disc of choice.

Summary

Doctor Who And The Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. are generally considered to be outside the official Doctor Who canon. It is easy to see why when the films are played from start to finish.

The video transfer is okay, but let down by problems with aliasing.

The audio transfer is good for a mono soundtrack.

The extras are limited, but of some interest.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output
Display	Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm) in 16:9 and 4:3 modes, calibrated using the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Built In (Amplifier)
Amplification	Sony STR-DE835, calibrated using the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers	Yamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Yamaha NS-90 Rear Speakers, Yamaha NS-C120 Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer