Serial K, in six parts:
- World's End - 11/21/64, 11.4m viewers
- The Daleks - 11/28/64, 12.4m
- Day of Reckoning - 12/5/64, 11.9m
- The End of Tomorrow - 12/12/64, 11.9m
- The Waking Ally - 12/19/64, 11.4m
- Flashpoint - 12/26/64, 12.4m
Sound Bytes:
"We did not intend to bring the Daleks back. I felt very strongly that we should search constantly for new ideas. As it turned out, the huge popularity of the Daleks in fact blackmailed us into commissioning a sequel." - David Whitaker, quoted in Doctor Who: The Sixties by Howe, Stammers and Walker (Virgin, 1992)
"The black-and-white photography, the 'cheapness' of the film stock, the isolation of an empty London, and the general eeriness of this serial make it a television horror masterpiece...but one can always wish that the special effects were handled with a bit more panache." - John Kenneth Muir, A Critical History of Doctor Who on Television (McFarland & Company, 1999)
"Robo-old-men, more like. This is about as threatening as Last of the Summer Wine. It's incredible Hartnell got an Equity card." - Paul, one of SFX magazine's Couch Potatoes, reviewing the serial in SFX 50
Comments:
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a great sequel to the original Dalek serial, at least in concept. When we first met the Daleks, they occupied the remote and alien environment of Skaro; in this follow-up, they're deposited right on Earth. The terror has been brought home, so to speak.
Quality-wise, though, this story is kind of a roller coaster, sometimes rising to great dramatic heights and other times plunging into the realm of the juvenile. This may be an uncharitable thing to say, but I'll wager that script writer Terry Nation was responsible for the corny parts, while story editor David Whitaker wrote the classy character-related scenes.
For the most part, the visuals impress. The sets are filthy and rubble-strewn, conveying the impression that the Daleks have really ravaged London, and the freedom fighters all wear realistically grungy clothing. The location filming looks great, too. I realize that the scenes of the Daleks patrolling London are padding, but they add scope to the story and are shot well, so I like them. Equally impressive are the scenes set outside the mine, involving the Daleks herding a filthy mass of human prisoners. (A quick check of the production paperwork on the BBC Web site reveals that the exterior mine scenes involved 30 extras -- surely that's some kind of Doctor Who record?)
Unfortunately, the cinematic feel of The Dalek Invasion of Earth is marred by several production missteps. The infamous Dalek saucer does indeed resemble a pie plate on a string, and the Daleks are ultimately defeated by a comical selection of over-the-top stock footage. Another minus is the Dalek pet, the Slyther; the First Doctor's handbook helpfully reveals that the creature was made from "a boiler suit with pieces of sponge and plastic added." As if we couldn't tell. Rounding out the weak points, we have the Robomen, who are far too plodding and stupid to be truly threatening.
Despite this host of problems, I still think The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a near-classic serial that works best when it steers clear of flat action scenes and instead focuses on characters. It paints a memorably bleak picture of a post-apocalyptic Earth, where people are perfectly willing to betray each other to the Daleks to advance their own chances of survival. The two crones who inform on Barbara are particularly creepy; they're so starving and desperate that one of them starts licking like a dog at some sugar that the Daleks have given her. Ashton, the black marketeer, is another grim character who's ready to sell out anybody to get ahead.
The story isn't all bleak, however. In the midst of the grimness, Susan and David, a resistance fighter, manage to develop a very sweet and affectionate relationship. Since later Doctor Who episodes were virtually sexless, it's downright surreal to watch these two lovers playfully grapple with each other in one scene and then actually kiss (I know it's hard to believe, but it happens, I swear!) Romance may have been taboo in most of Doctor Who, but it's definitely here in this story, and it works.
The last episode is famous because the Doctor decides to leave Susan behind so she can marry David and start a normal life. This is a rather touching act of self-sacrifice on the Doctor's part, and his goodbye speech to Susan is rightfully the most celebrated scene of the era. Hartnell, who is very human at this point in the series, plays it well.
Susan's departure is probably the saddest thing in Doctor Who, with the possible exception of Jo Grant's final scenes in The Green Death. The Doctor and Susan clearly care for each other, but they never cheapen their feelings by actually employing the phrase "I love you." (Who says the original series couldn't do emotion properly?)
Thanks to Susan's bittersweet goodbye and the aforementioned gritty tone, The Dalek of Invasion of Earth just about manages to rise above limitations like its bad special effects and ridiculous plot involving the Daleks mining Earth's magnetic core. Many subsequent Doctor Who serials depicted alien assaults on our planet, but few of them were this dark or ambitious...or this good, for that matter.
Grade: A-