Dr. Who and the Daleks (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: May 27, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Gordon FlemyingRelease Date(s)
1965 (June 24, 2025)Studio(s)
AARU Productions/BBC-TV Productions (Severin Films)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: A
Review
In the mid-1960s, “Dalekmania” had swept the British nation after their first appearance in The Daleks serial storyline from the first season of Doctor Who, airing from December 1963 to February 1964. AARU Productions—essentially Amicus Productions which is primarily known today for horror anthologies such as Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors and Tales from the Crypt—sought to bring both Doctor Who and the Daleks to theatres in widescreen and in full color, and hire Peter Cushing to play the titular Doctor. The first film, Dr. Who and the Daleks, was very much a success in Britain, despite its mixed to negative reception from critics. However, Doctor Who fandom often disregards Dr. Who and the Daleks, as well as its sequel Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., as non-canonical detours. Others might argue that despite these variations on the source material (as well as the lack of lore that came later in the Doctor Who series), they’re still gorgeously-mounted and colorful pieces of entertainment that hold up as their own entities.
In Dr. Who and the Daleks, Dr. Who (Cushing) is a brilliant inventor, and his granddaughters Susan (Roberta Tovey) and Barbara (Jennie Linden) are his companions. One evening, Barbara’s klutzy boyfriend Ian (Roy Castle) calls on her, whereupon he’s introduced to Dr. Who and shown his latest invention, TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space); a police box in appearance, but actually a time machine and spacecraft. The four are then accidentally transported to the alien planet of Skaro, whereupon they meet the Daleks, ruthless robotic aliens hellbent on world destruction and total domination. Hiding from them outside the main city are the Thals, a race of humanoid beings that have survived wars with the Daleks in secret, wishing only to make peace with them. Dr. Who and his companions must convince them the Daleks cannot be reasoned with, subsequently helping to fight against them in order to survive extinction.
Amicus Productions co-producer Milton Subotsky adapted Terry Nation’s serial The Daleks for the big screen, squeezing seven half hour episodes into a 90-minute film, most would say with mixed results. Having not been a Doctor Who fan prior to viewing these films years ago, outside of seeing a few random episodes of series 1 and 2 of the 2005 revival, my Who knowledge was definitely limited at the time. Dr. Who and the Daleks is obviously not a highly-budgeted creation, but it more than makes up for it in its execution. It’s a beautiful film to look at with a myriad of colors bursting off the screen at any given time, but also features some excellent camera work and production design. The story is uneven, as to be expected, but it works well enough, outside of some unnecessary comedic pratfalls and slapstick, which is thankfully kept to a minimum.
Peter Cushing, who’s always a welcome presence in anything, is a bit more old man-ish and bumbling than a traditional Doctor might be, and quite literally named Dr. Who. He’s also more reactionary than participatory, sometimes taking a back seat to the other characters. On the other hand, Roberta Tovey is wonderful as the young Susan, who was aged down from the original serial. Roy Castle’s Ian can be challenging to appreciate from time to time, especially during the rather silly finale, but he doesn’t intrude on the film’s tone too much. Jennie Linden’s Barbara is pretty useless and contributes little to the narrative. Barrie Ingham is quite good as the leader of the Thals, though the Thals’ appearance is off-putting to some (I personally don’t have a problem with it). As for the Daleks themselves, they’re wonderfully colorful with minor cosmetic changes from the original series, but essentially the same menacing characters, at least on the surface.
The sequel, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. would bring Dr. Who into the future instead of to another planet, but that film, even with its charms, is the lesser of the two, especially in terms of design and visual appeal, not to mention story. Unfortunately, there would only be two Dr. Who films produced by AARU Productions as the proposed third film, which would have been based upon the eighth serial of the second season, Terry Nation’s The Chase, never came to fruition. More’s the pity as this incarnation of Dr. Who, for many, is a beloved one, and having more adventures with Peter Cushing in the lead would have been appreciated by many.
Dr. Who and the Daleks was shot by cinematographer John Wilcox on 35mm Techniscope 2-perf film, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Severin Films brings the film to Blu-ray for a second time with StudioCanal’s 4K 16-Bit scan of the original camera negative, which is also being released on 4K Ultra HD with High Dynamic Range. Wet-gate scanning was used to remove severe scratching, while color grading and restoration work were completed by Silver Salt Restoration, who dedicated over 200 hours to manually cleaning and carefully removing sparkle, dirt, and scratches. The whole of the restoration was supervised by Jahanzeb Hayat, and eventually encoded to a dual-layered BD-50 disc. It’s a gorgeous presentation that thoroughly bests all previous releases in terms of clarity and detail. The bitrate sits comfortably between 30 and 40Mbps, most of the time in the upper range, with well-managed grain. The color palette offers a rainbow of hues in nearly every shot, from the interiors of TARDIS and the Daleks’ city, to the broad Mario Bava-esque strokes of green, pink, and blue within the forest and swamp-like landscapes. Contrast is perfect with deep blacks and enormous shadow detail, surpassed only by the UHD. The image is stable and clean, and outside of occasional and very mild fading along the bottom edge of the frame, which is barely visible at all, it’s a near-perfect presentation.
Audio is included in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. It’s amazingly robust for a single channel audio source, well-balanced and thoroughly clean, offering great support for dialogue, score, and sound effects. Unfortunately, there’s what sounds like a minor digital click at the 79:46 mark, and a pair of very minor dropouts at 63:59 and 64:44. However, they’re barely noticeable, and it’s an otherwise superlative track.
Severin Films presents Dr. Who and the Daleks on Region A Blu-ray in a black Amaray case with an insert featuring artwork from the film’s Thorn EMI/HBO Video VHS release. It’s also available as part of the Total Extermination: The Peter Cushing Doctor Who Collection 2-Disc Blu-ray and 4-Disc 4K Ultra HD releases, which are exclusive to the Severin Films website, and also contain Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.. This Blu-ray is also included in the standard edition of the 4K Ultra HD release. The following extras for Dr. Who and the Daleks are included on all releases:
- Audio Commentary with Stephen Jones, Kim Newman, and Barry Forshaw
- Audio Commentary with Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey, Moderated by Jonathan Sothcott
- Audio Commentary with Kim Newman, Robert Shearman, and Mark Gatiss
- 1992 Audio Interview with Gordon Flemyng by Tony Earnshaw
- Subotsky and the Daleks: Part One (HD – 10:13)
- Kara and the Daleks (HD – 15:26)
- Dalekmania (Upscaled SD – 59:57)
- Interview with Gareth Owen (HD – 8:00)
- The Dalek Legacy: Destination Skaro (HD – 16:24)
- UK Trailer (HD – 3:14)
- Still Gallery (HD – 17 in all – 1:25)
The new commentary features “Whovians,” authors, and film scholars Barry Forshaw, Stephen Jones, and Kim Newman. Forshaw is meant to be a guide and moderator, but Newman often hijacks the conversation. Self-professed fans of Doctor Who and its film counterparts, they have a very chaotic discussion of the films and the TV show, mostly discussing it from the point of view of people who saw both films when they were young. Some will enjoy it, others might lose patience with it due to how everybody is trying to talk over each other, and Forshaw barely gets in a word edgewise. Your mileage may vary. The next audio commentary, recorded in 2001, features actors Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey, moderated by journalist Jonathan Sothcott. It’s a much more straightforward question and answer session with some definite gaps of silence, but it’s quite good as both ladies’ memories of their experiences on the film are sharp and informative.
Kim Newman returns for the third audio commentary, recorded in 2020, which also features screenwriter Robert Shearman and actor and writer Mark Gatiss. It’s a much more proper discussion about the film, their memories of it, and their feelings on it today. It’s aces compared to the first track. Last is a 1992 phone interview with director Gordon Flemyng, conducted by author and journalist Tony Earnshaw, which plays over the film and is essentially a fourth audio commentary. It’s invaluable as the director isn’t represented anywhere else in the bonus materials. Earnshaw opens the track by explaining the how and why of the interview, and emphasizing that it may have been one of the last that Flemying ever gave on these films, which makes it that much more special.
In the audio-only Subtosky and the Daleks, writer Philip Nutman interviews Amicus producer Milton Subotsky at Subtosky’s home in 1985 (both men have long since passed away). It’s a very frank and honest interview, with Subotsky providing his brief memories of the production, his biggest regret being the film’s US release, which he believed could’ve been much bigger with a different distributor. Kara and the Daleks features an interview with writer and Doctor Who expert Kara Dennison, who details how she came to know the two films, how she personally feels about them, and how she believes fans of the show should view them today. Dalekmania is a 1995 documentary about the films and the Dalek craze in 1960s Britain. Participants include actress Roberta Tovey, film writer Marcus Hearn, Doctor Who Magazine editor Gary Gillatt, screenwriter and Dalek creator Terry Nation, actors Barrie Ingham and Yvonne Antrobus, Dalek memorabilia collectors Tony Clark and Carol Hall, actress Jill Curzon, stuntman and stunt co-ordinator Eddie Powell, director and model maker Julian Vince, and actors Josh Maguire, Natalie Jarrett, Anastasia Mulrooney, Michael Wisher, Steve Arnott, Toby Aspin, Dave Hicks, and Stephen Mansfield.
Next is an interview with Gareth Owen, author of The Shepperton Story, who details the era in which the films were made, responses from friends to Dalekmania, aspects of the making of the films, and the films’ releases. The Dalek Legacy: Destination Skaro interviews a number of Doctor Who aficionados within the industry who express their opinions of the two films. They include Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs, screenwriter Robert Shearman, visual effects designer Mike Tucker, Doctor Who Magazine editorial assistant Emily Cook, and Doctor Who Magazine writer and 3D artist Gavin Rymill. Last are the film’s original UK trailer and a Still Gallery containing 17 production stills and a single behind-the-scenes photo.
Unfortunately, it seems that a high quality source for the US version of the film’s trailer could not be found, but you can view a low resolution version of it on Youtube if you wish. (It’s worth noting that portions of the Italian, French, and US trailers are shown in the Dalekmania documentary.) Also missing from the 2001 Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD release is the visual essay A History of Dr. Who. Not carried over from the 2020 Kino Lorber Studio Classics Blu-ray release is the Restoring Dr. Who and the Daleks featurette, which covered StudioCanal’s 2013 restoration from the interpositive, as well as the Restoring Dr. Who in 4K featurette from StudioCanal’s 2022 UHD and Blu-ray releases. The latter also included a 64-page booklet containing various essays, photos, and the film’s 1965 press book; a small reproduction of John Walsh’s book Dr. Who and the Daleks: The Official Story of the Films; two posters; four art cards; and a collectible coin.
Outside of a few random bits of missing bonus material, Dr. Who and the Daleks on Blu-ray from Severin Films is an outstanding disc and well-worth your time if you’re a fan of these films.
- Tim Salmons
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