Essential Doctor Who: First Doctor: The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Yes, I knew that I invited criticism by not including "The Daleks" as essential Doctor Who. Of course it is, but only in terms of the history of the series. I personally didn't rate it and didn't enjoy it much. This second dalek story, though, is a different kettle of fish altogether.

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This is one of the Hartnell stories where I could honestly say that I knew the storyline pretty well before watching it. This is partly through having several times seen the Peter Cushing film, “Daleks : Invasion Earth 2050” based on the serial, and partly through the Target novelization. While the film to a greater extent, and the novels to a lesser extent may take a couple of liberties with some of the plot details, by and large they’re pretty faithful enough to give you a good idea.

After Watching

While not wishing to gloss over any of this show’s flaws, I really enjoyed it. I wrote about the DWM Mighty 200 poll in my round up of season 1 – and this story is ranked 44^th on the DWM Mighty 200 poll, and I think that’s pretty fair.

Actually the start of the serial, the first episode, was really on the whole rather good. I mean, I’d already in the past watched “An Unearthly Child”, and “The Daleks”, and read the Target novelisation of “The Keys of Marinus”, but when you see the opening of this, their last adventure together, you come to realize how they have developed as a group together. You can’t help wondering what the impact of this episode would have been had they kept daleks out of the title, and pre publicity for the show, and you hadn’t realized they were involved until that iconic final shot of the dalek coming up out of the Thames.

Really and truly, this should be quite disorienting. I am watching this in 2015, pretending to be London some time after 2164, while all the time making no effort to look like anything other than 1964. Although the show is set around 2164, the visuals make no concession to this, and as a result you kind of just get on with it. If anything it gives the story a nostalgic feel.

Actually, the rather gentle pace of the first couple of episodes, and the atmosphere reminded me of films such as ‘Day of the Triffids’, and if anything its maybe a foreshadowing of Terry Nation’s own “Survivors”, his 1970s drama series about life for a group of survivors of a devastating pandemic which kills a huge percentage of the human population of Earth.

 I don’t know that you can get the point of the Hartnell shows from just reading the Target books. The stories I’ve actually seen, and this one in particular give me the strong feeling that you have to watch them to understand.  I loved the third and fourth Doctors, but there was always a feeling that they were going to eventually take charge and be more than equal to whatever situation they might find themselves in. The dynamic is completely different in the Hartnell era. In “An Unearthly Child” the Doctor has taken Barbara and Ian off on a joyride to prove to them that he can do what he says he can. This is an extremely irresponsible, if not reprehensible act, since he knows that there is no guarantee that he is ever going to be able to bring them back to his own time and space. In the first episode  they do actually believe that they’re home after all this time, and it’s the dawning realization that this is not actually the case which adds greatly to the atmosphere and poignancy. I find that the way that the action and the driving of the plot is shared out between the Doctor , Ian and Barbara, and to a much lesser extent Susan, to be really different to what I’m used to as well. It shouldn’t work, and yet it actually does. For example – the extended sequences of Barbara and Richard Briers’ wife running through the streets of London pushing Dortmun should really be laughable. But they aren’t.

Partly this is because of some great acting. Look at Jacqueline Hill’s face during these sequence. I tell you the woman looks terrified out of her skin. I cheered when she drove into the Daleks.

OK – the plot, essentially, is rubbish. The Daleks are excavating the Earth’s core in order to bung a motor in it and fly it around the Universe? Yeah, right. Nonsense. The special effects shots of the Daleks’ flying saucer actually flying are rather embarrassing. They must have looked pretty crappy even back in 1964, which is why you see so little of them. I can’t help wondering why they needed these shots anyway. If you’re going to do it that badly, then why do it at all? Then there’s the Robotmen. Their headsets are awful, and some of their acting doesn’t seem a lot better. Yet harping on about these things is all missing the point. I concede all of these drawbacks, and yet I loved it.

This story is all about the triumphant resurrection of the Daleks. They had a massive part to play in the success of the first season, and as a reward they get a story which allows us the iconic shots of the lone Dalek rising out of the Thames, and Daleks trundling across Westminster Bridge and around Trafalgar Square. The shots of the robotmen overseeing the enslaved humans dragging wagons into the mine are really good too.  There’s some lovely performances too. Bernard Kay – again, a name you might not know, but a face you surely do – is always good value for money. It was nice to see Nicholas Smith – Mr. Rumboldt from ‘Are You Being Served’ popping up in the mine scenes too. If you twist my arm and force me to tell the truth I’d admit that it’s probably at least an episode too long, and yet I would still far rather watch this than the film version any day of the week. I would also far rather watch this than ‘The Daleks’ .The original Dalek serial is too long at 7 episodes, and I’m afraid that the Thals get on my wick after a while, being, in my considered opinion, a bunch of big girls’ blouses. And if that wasn’t enough, we have Susan’s leaving scene. This is neatly prepared for with a couple of the Doctor’s comments as he notices the burgeoning romance between Susan and David Campbell. Actually, I say burgeoning, but this was 1964 family viewing, so subtle hints are all we get. The Doctor has been criticised for his indecent haste in packing Susan off at the first opportunity, but I think that this is in character, as a protracted leaving scene would not be something he could handle yet. This was the first ever leaving scene in Doctor Who, and in my view Hartnell pulls it off brilliantly. These little emotional moments, where he is called on to put out real tenderness, really show off what a good actor he was.

Judging by the fact that she was willing to appear in 1983’s ‘The Five Doctors’, and other appearances on various shows and DVDs about the show, Carole Ann Ford has come to terms with her time on the show. You can’t help sympathising with her, since by all accounts she was sold on the ‘unearthly child’ concept of her role, yet found that the unearthly aspects of her character were largely ignored, and she became the first in a long line of screamers. For a lot of her time she was just used as a functional character whose purpose was there to move the plot forward. She wouldn’t be the last. I am sorry to see her go, but I think the show will cope without her far more easily than it would do without Ian or Barbara at this stage.

 What Have We Learned

Everything is cyclical. Or, put it another way, London in 2164 will be a dead ringer for London 1964

William Hartnell is capable of scenes of genuine emotional intensity

Daleks keep pets