The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Dad's Army

The Dalek Invasion of Earth* (6 X 25mins B&W)

Written by Terry Nation

Doctor Who Series two Serial two

World's End transmitted BBC1 21 November 1964

The Daleks transmitted BBC1 28 November 1964

Day of Reckoning transmitted BBC1 5 December 1964

The End of Tomorrow transmitted BBC1 12 December 1964

The Waking Ally transmitted BBC1 19 December 1964

Flashpoint transmitted BBC1 26 December 1964

* Note: until 1966 Doctor Who serials had no overall title, instead each episode had its own title.

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands on Earth a hundred years in the future (2164 AD) to find a plague-ridden London swarming with Robomen, men controlled by cybernetic helmets, and even worse ... Daleks! The Daleks are, in their own words, "the masters of Earth".

But the Doctor is puzzled as to why the Daleks are mining in Bedfordshire when there's no mineral or coal deposits of any worth there. Split up by circumstances, Barbara meets up with the resistance, led by Dortmun, the Doctor and Susan travel with two resisters Tyler and a young man Peter Fraser with whom Susan falls in love, and Ian is trapped aboard a Dalek spaceship. They all make their separate ways to the mine.

They discover that the Daleks plan to extract the molten core of the Earth and install a power unit so they can fly the Earth like  a ship through space. At the end, Susan is torn between staying on Earth with Peter out of love, or leave and go on with her grandfather out of care and duty. The Doctor makes the decision for her, by saying farewell and leaving without her. Thus, we have the first companion to leave the show.

Review

This serial saw the long awaited return of the Daleks, who had been the outstanding success of the first series, so much so that Sydney Newman, then head of BBC drama, admitted he'd made a mistake about his dislike for them and for the use of Bug Eyed Monsters in the show. Director Richard Martin does a very good job at keeping the audience in suspense, only showing the first Dalek in episode one's famous cliff-hanger, when it emerges from the Thames, a magnificent shot. Unfortunately, this would have been ruined by that week's Radio Times front cover showing the Daleks outside the Houses of Parliament. 

As for the story, watching it almost 60 years later it still stands up, barring the unfortunately bad Dalek flying saucers, the kind of dodgy special effect that would bedevil Who and lead to the show being ridiculed in some quarters, ignoring all the good factors of the show (script, acting, directing), as if special effects are the only reason for watching Who (or any show come to that!). Nobody just watches for model spaceships. At the time, the serial was hugely popular, 11.4million tuned into the first episode, reaching a high of 12.4million.

The first episode is very good, right from that opening image with the poster under the bridge proclaiming "It is forbidden to dump bodies into the river". It's uncanny seeing London so deserted, and the robomen are quite creepy, so much more so than in the 1966 film version (where they're unfortunately a little camp, not helped by their silly theme tune). The cliff-hanger is still superb, even if you know it's a Daleks story. The second episode keeps up the tension, again the eerily deserted London streets, shot at 5.30am on Sunday 23rd August 1964 (though eagled eyed viewers might spot the odd late Saturday night straggler heading home). Seeing the Daleks in such famous locations as Westminster Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, and the Albert Memorial, is spooky and  brings home exactly why this serial was so successful. This time it's personal. We're not in the past, or on another planet. This is our planet, and we've been conquered by the greatest galactic evil, the Daleks.

Another strength of the serial is that it plays on fears of Nazi invasion and occupation, and this was done deliberately by writer Terry Nation. The war was barely a quarter century ago, London still had bomb sites, and many of those watching the show would have memories of World War II, the London blitz, the threat of invasion, and the use of the London Underground as a place of safety (here, it's where the Resistance hangs out) and Nation even manages to use the V symbol (here on posters saying "Vetoed").

This story is clearly a metaphor for Nazi occupation, with the Robomen as kapos, with all its attendant race hatred, and the use of forced labour camps (the mine in Bedford), with a resistance force and collaborators, and black marketers, and people simply scared and willing to do anything for precious food. Of course, doing a story directly about the Nazis would be distasteful in a Saturday tea-time adventure serial, and a slur on the memory of all those who suffered at their hands. Something the producers of the modern retooling failed to realise (or care about), Let's Kill Hitler being probably the most offensive Who story ever made. Nation's script here, and Richard Martin's direction, clearly uses imagery and devices from a host of WWII movies, from prison camps to Peenemunde to underground resistance. It's all the better for that, as it makes the story compelling and, for a British audience, terrifying.

Nation realises, as he did with his first Daleks script, that to keep the interest up for six weeks, he would have to separate the travellers, so that each would have their own adventure. But he does it much better than in The Daleks, which felt padded. Here, the story seems to have a natural length. Each of the characters, and the actors playing them, is given their own stories and enough screen time in which they can grow and show us their character, and personality, and humanity (including aliens the Doctor and Susan). We also get a journey through a war and disease ravaged occupied country, meeting various people. We get to see a wide gamut of human reaction, we see bravery and friendship, as with Tyler and Peter, empathy and kindness (Wells), callous selfishness (black marketer Ashton, a wonderful cameo by Patrick O'Connell), resistance (Dortmun, the wheelchair bound head of the underground), and betrayal (the women in the woods). 

The acting is universally very good, with Bernard Kay especially good as Tyler. His gravitas grounds the story, he is brave but not a heroic fool, self-concerned (he prefers to travel alone) but not selfish, willing to help others. He and the pragmatic Peter, who falls in love with Susan and wishes her to stay with him to become a farmer and to grow things, keep our sympathies involved in their plight. It is to Martin's credit as a director, and to all the actors, that they play their parts as seriously as if it was a real WWII story. Perhaps they all knew it was in metaphor.

The production design and costuming is fine without being particularly outstanding. The most prominent is the redesign of the Daleks. They now have dodgem car type rubber buffers at the bottom, and they've got around their need to travel on metal floors by having power radio discs on their backs, thus freeing them to travel anywhere (except up stairs). The flying saucers, as I've said, are rubbish, but they only appear briefly. The other models, like the atom bomb down the mine chute, look like models, not entirely convincing. But again they're not the central thrust of the story, and I'm not going to mark such a well written, acted & directed serial down for such a minor blemish. 

And thus we come to the end, and the departure of actress Carole Ann Ford, and character Susan, who's not just a travelling companion like Ian or Barbara, but is the Doctor's granddaughter. This is the first time a companion has left, and it's a big moment. The end scene is, quite rightly, not the destruction of evil, but the reassertion of humanity, of goodness. Susan is genuinely torn between staying with her young man, and leaving with her grandfather. The Doctor knows this too, and he is similarly torn. Carole really acts this scene wonderfully, brilliantly delivering her well-written lines. At last Carole got the character development she wanted (she left because of this lack in the show, too often she simply screamed).

And William Hartnell seems genuinely touched not only as the Doctor, but personally, at her leaving. Apparently, after a year shooting together with only short breaks, Bill had become genuinely very fond of Carole. He might have also wondered whether this was the beginning of the end. As the Doctor, he gives a marvellous little speech to Susan. "One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan ... goodbye, my dear". Even though we're now used to seeing companions leave, often very abruptly, this scene is still quite touching. As for those who accuse him of simply abandoning her, I disagree. He knows she really wants to stay, and that one day she'll want to stop travelling and settle down, but that she'll put him before her own needs and would leave, no matter how unhappy that would make her. He makes the decision for her, and that's quite a selfless act, especially for an old man with no other family. It's fitting that this scene ends a story of Nazi-like occupation. 

So, a classic Doctor Who story, worthy of repeat showings and only the second to be awarded 5 stars by me. It's the second classic serial on a trot, and again with huge viewing figures. It looks like series two is off to a flying start. Things can only get better, surely!? But who would imagine that things would start to go so wrong, and so badly, and so quickly.

TARDIS rating: 5/5.

Credits

Dr. Who .................................................................................... WILLIAM HARTNELL

Ian Chesterton .........................................................................  WILLIAM RUSSELL

Barbara Wright ......................................................................... JACQUELINE HILL

Susan Foreman .......................................................................  CAROLE ANN FORD

Carl Tyler .................................................................................. BERNARD KAY

Peter Fraser ............................................................................. DAVID CAMPBELL

Dortmun .................................................................................... ALAN JUDD

Baker ........................................................................................ RICHARD McNEFF

Jenny ........................................................................................ ANN DAVIES

Larry Madison ........................................................................... GRAHAM RIGBY

Wells ......................................................................................... NICHOLAS SMITH

Women in the Wood ................................................................. JEAN CONROY

                                                                                                    MERIEL HOBSON

Dalek voices .............................................................................  PETER HAWKINS

                                                                                                    DAVID GRAHAM

Title Music ........................... by RON GRAINER with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Incidental Music Composed and Conducted by ................. FRANCIS CHAGRIN

Film Cameraman ................................................................ PETER HAMILTON

Film Editor .......................................................................... JOHN GRIFFITHS

Story Editor ......................................................................... DAVID WHITAKER

Designer ............................................................................. SPENCER CHAPMAN

Costumes Supervised ........................................................ by DAPHNE DARE

Make-up Supervised .......................................................... by SONIA MARKHAM

Lighting ............................................................................... by HOWARD KING

Sound ................................................................................. JACK BRUMMITT

Associate Producer ............................................................ MERVYN PINFIELD

Producer ............................................................................. VERITY LAMBERT

Directed .............................................................................. by RICHARD MARTIN 

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