There is something incredibly fascinating about early Doctor Who fandom - and the fact that it was almost all driven by the Daleks. The actual show itself was saved by the success of the first Dalek serial; and it's natural that the sheer popularity of the Daleks at the time would lead to an inevitable spinoff film. So a year and a half after the serial started; this film made it to the cinemas; releasing the day before the last episode of The Chase - the third TV Dalek story - aired on the BBC. I think this film is an incredibly interesting example of how the tone of the initial version worked so well; and how good a job the BBC did on the original version although this certainly has highlights.

There are some plot changes to ensure that things get going quickly - realistically with the 80 minute runtime and needing to not only run through the key points of a 3 hour TV serial plus also introducing the characters things won't be as the TV version was. All of the main characters are different - Dr Who (as is the characters official name here) and his granddaughters Barbara and Susan (who is a young child in this version; rather than a teenager) are relaxing at home; waiting for Barbara's boyfriend Ian to visit. When he arrives he's immediately shown the TARDIS and accidentally the four end up on Skaro when Ian's clumsiness launches the ship. The design of the TARDIS on the inside is totally different and I think works for Cushing's interpretation of the character - the First Doctor is an mysterious alien figure which the sleek modern design of the initial TARDIS helps to convey; while Cushing is a human mad scientist who's cobbled together his TARDIS and so its all wires hanging around and individual things stuck together - while I prefer the design of the TV version both works here.

After that start; the story runs with all of the beats of the original - the Doctor faking a problem with the fluid link to explore the Dalek city; the radiation sickness, the escape and then convincing the Thals to fight with them. It obviously has a much faster pace than the TV show - the convincing the thats to attack and the process of getting into the city is three episodes of the broadcast version but is covered in the last 20 minutes of this film as an example: with major elements reduced or cut down. All in all its an interesting adaptation but I prefer both the original serial and the 75 minute cut of the colourisation.

The production is impressive in some ways but I think overall lacking relative to the TV show despite the much high budget. The Dalek props look impressive - a lot closer to the modern TV ones than the classic Daleks plus there's a lot more props making the fight scenes feel bigger, and the voices are, as you might expect, much more developed considering that they had access to changes made by the voice actors (the same as were in the BBC TV version) in Dalek Invasion of Earth. The wider design is also impressive - the forest looks good; the city looks weird in the reddish hues but is well designed on the whole. The lighting and the soundtrack though completely change the town of the film compared to the serial - the original Daleks is dark and forbodding with the pressures being put on the characters being clear; this has a much more light hearted tone that I do not think works.

The charactarisations here also are weaker than the TV show. The Daleks are a lot more openly evil here and I don't think it often makes sense - a prime example is the Daleks telling Susan that they are using the letter as a trick rather than making the main characters learn about the Dalek's intent through their wider actions. The TARDIS trio are also much weaker characters because of the shorter runtime (and lack of preview material) which doesn't help - Cushing's bumbling mad scientist thing I think works as a version of the Doctor and he does the role well; Ian's role though is much worse basically being used as comic relief as much as anything else; and Barbara is just there. You don't have the looming tensions within the initial TARDIS crew that add to the tension here; and while that makes sense with this group of people it still feels off. Additionally the following of the TV beats sometimes feels off - the fluid link thing makes sense with the First Doctor at that point; don't think it does here.

In short: this is a fun film as a showcase for an alternative world of Doctor Who and I think is worth a watch; but it's definitely much weaker than the TV version of this show. It feels too jaunty and light hearted - which isn't appropriate for Doctor Who in my eyes.