Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
UK quad poster
Directed by	Gordon Flemyng
Produced by	Max J. Rosenberg Milton Subotsky
Written by	Milton Subotsky
Based on	The Dalek Invasion of Earth by Terry Nation
Starring	Peter Cushing Bernard Cribbins Ray Brooks Jill Curzon Roberta Tovey Andrew Keir
Music by	Barry Gray Bill McGuffie
Cinematography	John Wilcox
Edited by	Ann Chegwidden
Production company	AARU Productions British Lion Films
Distributed by	Amicus Productions (UK) Continental Distributing Walter Reade Organization (US)
Release date	5 August 1966 (UK)[1]
Running time	84 minutes[2]
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£286,000[3]

Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is a 1966 British science fiction film directed by Gordon Flemyng and written by Milton Subotsky, and the second of two films based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. It stars Peter Cushing in a return to the role of the eccentric inventor and time traveller Dr. Who, Roberta Tovey as Susan, Jill Curzon as Louise and Bernard Cribbins as Tom Campbell. It is the sequel to Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965).

The story is based on the Doctor Who television serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth, produced by the BBC. The film was not intended to form part of the ongoing storylines of the television series. Elements from the programme are used, however, such as various characters, the Daleks and a police box time machine, albeit in re-imagined forms.

Plot

Tom Campbell, a London Special Constable, is on patrol near a jewellery shop. Men are burgling the shop and Tom is struck down by their getaway driver before he can stop them. Running to what appears to be a police box to call for backup, Tom enters TARDIS, a time machine operated by its pilot, Dr. Who, with his niece Louise and his granddaughter Susan.

Dr. Who pilots TARDIS forward in time to 2150, where they find that London is now an empty landscape of demolished buildings. The Daleks, one-time adversaries of the Doctor, have invaded Earth and ravaged entire continents, while humanity's remnants have formed underground resistance movements. Some captured humans have been turned into brainwashed slaves called Robomen, but the majority have been taken to the Dalek mining complex in Bedfordshire, where the aliens' excavations extend to the core of the Earth.

Louise and Susan are taken in by a group of rebels based in the London Underground, led by Wyler, David, and the wheelchair-bound Dortmun. Meanwhile, Tom and Dr. Who are captured by a squad of Robomen and taken on board a Dalek spaceship, where they are placed in a cell with a man called Craddock. Dr. Who realises that the door is sealed by magnetism and breaks the connection with a plastic comb, but he is unaware that the escape is merely an "intelligence test" devised by the Daleks to determine who should be robotised. However, while Dr. Who, Tom and Craddock are undergoing the conversion procedure, the rebels launch an attack with hand-held bombs. During the battle, Dr. Who flees with David while Tom and Louise, who is knocked unconscious by one of the bombs, stow away in a deserted part of the ship. The Daleks escape and take off for the Bedford mine with few prisoner losses.

Wyler, having lost most of his team, returns to the rebel hideout, where Dortmun and Susan are waiting. The group commandeer a van to rendezvous with any remaining survivors in Watford, but Dortmun is killed by a Dalek patrol and Wyler and Susan are forced to abandon the vehicle before it is destroyed. Deciding that Dr. Who would avoid the Daleks in Watford, Wyler and Susan set off for the Bedford mine. David and Dr. Who are also heading for the same destination, but are confronted by Brockley, an unscrupulous smuggler, who seizes their rifle in exchange for a promise to get them safely into the complex.

The spaceship touches down at the mine. Tom and Louise exit the craft through a disposal chute and take refuge in a tool shed. Meanwhile, Wyler and Susan shelter at a hut owned by a pair of spinsters who repair slave workers' clothes in return for freedom and food. However, the women betray them to the Daleks out of desperation.

In the morning, David and Dr. Who are brought into the mine by Brockley, where they are reunited with Tom and Louise. One of the miners, Conway, reveals that the Daleks are planning to drop a bomb into their mineshaft to punch out the Earth's core, which will be replaced with a giant motor enabling the aliens to pilot Earth to their home world of Skaro. However, Dr. Who learns that the old shaft leads to a convergence point between the North and South Magnetic Poles and deduces that, if the bomb were deflected down this path, the explosion's magnetic energy would be powerful enough to suck the metal Daleks into the core of the Earth.

As Tom and Conway work to alter the bomb's trajectory, Dr. Who orders David and Louise to create a diversion while he chooses to remain in the tool shed. Brockley offers to help Dr. Who and escorts him outside – where the scientist is not surprised to discover a detachment of Daleks waiting to take him away. The treacherous Brockley then tries to escape himself, but the Daleks destroy the tool shed with him inside.

In the mineshaft, Tom and Conway run into Craddock who is now a Roboman. While fighting, Conway and Craddock fall to their deaths down the shaft. Tom removes the timbers boarding up the entrance to the old shaft and then rushes back up to ground level.

Sent to the Dalek command centre for extermination, Dr. Who discovers Wyler and Susan. In the control room the inventor seizes an opportunity to distract the Daleks and commandeers the Robomen's command circuit, ordering them to turn against their masters. As the Robomen fight the Daleks, Dr. Who escapes with Wyler and Susan, while the slave workers flee from the mine. The Daleks defeat the Robomen's revolt and release their bomb into the shaft, unaware that Tom has successfully altered the route; the device is deflected into the disused shaft and detonates at the pole convergence. The Daleks, overwhelmed by the magnetism, are pulled into the Earth's core and destroyed. Meanwhile, the spaceship, having just taken off, is brought crashing down onto the complex in a massive explosion.

Later Dr. Who, Tom, Louise, and Susan return to the past. Dr. Who materialises TARDIS a couple of minutes before the jewellery store raid, giving Tom time to take over the getaway car after knocking out the driver, then to knock out the other two thieves as they get into the back seat. As he drives off to the police station to deliver the criminals, he gleefully utters his name with the new title he hopes to be promoted to and laughs, "Detective Inspector Tom Campbell, OBE. Ha ha ha ha! Thank you, lads!" Dr. Who, Louise, and Susan wave goodbye as he passes.

Cast

Production

• Amicus bought an option to make three Dalek-related stories from Terry Nation and the BBC for £500.^[3]
• Principal photography commenced at Shepperton Studios, England, on 31 January 1966, and was completed on 22 March, eleven days behind schedule.^[4]
• The shoot was complicated by the illness of Cushing, which required some rewriting to reduce his on-screen appearances.
• There were a number of accidents on set during production. A Dalek prop caught fire during shooting of rebels storming a spaceship. Stuntman Eddie Powell, playing a prisoner called Thompson, broke his ankle during a scene in which his character is killed by the Daleks while trying to escape from them.^[5] Actor Andrew Keir also hurt his wrist when punching through a van windscreen during a sequence in which his character, Wyler, and Susan escape from London.^[4]
• The film’s budget of £286,000 was nearly sixty percent larger than its predecessor.^[6]
• In 1995, a documentary about the two Dalek films, Dalekmania, was released on video. It revealed details about the productions, spin-offs, and publicity campaigns.^[7] It was later included as an extra in many of the home media video releases of the two Dalek films.

Dalek props

The design and colour scheme for the majority of the Dalek props was very similar that used for the television versions at the time, having large, black, bases and predominantly silver paintwork, with grey shoulders, natural aluminium collars and slats and blue hemispheres. Three Daleks leaders are also shown. A gold Dalek appears to be in overall command of the invasion force, a black Dalek controls the Bedfordshire mining operation and bomb detonation, and a red Dalek is in charge of the Dalek spaceship and operations to capture human slaves, robotise prisoners and wipe-out any resistance. As with the first film, the props were fitted with larger dome light than their TV counterparts, and some were equipped with a mechanical claw in place of the standard plunger.

Tie-in products and later coverage

• The breakfast cereal Sugar Puffs sponsored the film and, in an example of product placement, Sugar Puffs signs and products can be seen at various points in the film.^[5] In exchange for its funding, the company was also allowed to run a competition on its cereal packets to win a Dalek film prop, and feature the Daleks in its television advertisements.
• From 1965 to 1967, the TV Century 21 comic featured a one-page Dalek comic strip. From January 1966 onward artists Eric Eden and Ron Turner depicted the Daleks using elements from the film design, including mechanical claws and large bases and dome lights. During the run of the strip, the comic also often featured photographs from, and articles about, the films.
• In January 1984, an article about the two Dalek films appeared in Doctor Who Monthly containing production information, photographs and interviews.^[8] Another article about the films appeared in the 1995 Spring Special edition of Doctor Who Magazine.

Release

The film premiered in London on 22 July 1966.^[5]

Marketing

Of the film’s £286,000 budget, over £50,000 was spent on promotion.^[5]

The original trailer for the film describes actor Ray Brooks as "the boy with the knack". Brooks had recently starred in the popular, Palme d'Or winning 1965 Richard Lester comedy The Knack …and How to Get It.

Critical response

The film was given a negative review in The Times newspaper on 21 July 1966: "The second cinematic excursion of the Daleks shows little advance on the first... The filming of all this is technically elementary... and the cast, headed by the long-suffering, much ill-used Peter Cushing, seem able, unsurprisingly, to drum up no conviction whatever in anything they are called to do. Grown-ups may enjoy it, but most children have more sense."^[9]. (At the time of publication films were reviewed by John Russell Taylor, although during this period The Times did not name its journalists and the review is credited only to "Our Film Critic").

Radio Times gave the film three stars out of five in a retrospective review, stating "Independence Day it's not, but director Gordon Flemyng keeps the colourful action moving swiftly along to cheap and cheerful effect. Youngsters will love it, while adults will want to E-X-T-E-R-M-I-N-A-T-E Bernard Cribbins, who provides comic relief as the bumbling bobby. Yet, through all the mindless mayhem roll the ever-impressive Daleks, truly one of science fiction's greatest alien creations."^[10]

In a review of the 2013 Blu-ray release Starburst magazine’s Paul Mount said the feature was "a leaner, slicker film than its predecessor, its bigger scale and lavish location filming giving the story room to breathe and allowing for some effective action sequences, such as the rebel attack on the impressive Dalek flying saucer."^[11]

A third Dalek film, to be based on the serial The Chase, was planned but never produced because of this film's under-performance at the box office.^[6]

Radio adaptation

The film's soundtrack was adapted and presented by Gordon Gow for radio broadcast on the BBC Light Programme on 18 November 1966 as Show 305 of the Movietime series. It was produced by Tony Luke.^[4][12][13]

Home media

References

External links

• Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. on Tardis Data Core, an external wiki
• Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. on IMDb
• Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. at AllMovie
• Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. at Rotten Tomatoes