Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
Review Date: Jun 06, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Gordon Flemying

Release Date(s)

1966 (June 24, 2025)

Studio(s)

AARU Productions/BBC-TV Productions (Severin Films)

Film/Program Grade: C+
Video Grade: A
Audio Grade: A-
Extras Grade: A

https://severinfilms.com/

Review

After the success of Dr. Who and the Daleks, it wouldn’t take a time-traveling alien genius to realize that Amicus Productions would produce a sequel as soon as possible. However, 1966’s Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. did not match the success of its 1965 predecessor, and any plans for a third film based upon the Doctor Who serial The Chase were scrapped altogether, essentially killing Dr. Who’s involvement with the theatrical experience. Peter Cushing returned once more to portray the good Doctor, as did Roberta Tovey as Susan, his young granddaughter. Replacing Jennie Linden as Barbara and Roy Castle as Ian from the first film are Jill Curzon as Louise, the Doctor’s niece, and Bernard Cribbins, Police Constable Tom Campbell, who finds himself an unwilling participant in the Doctor’s latest time and space traveling adventure.

After failing to stop a jewelry store robbery in progress, Tom runs into the nearest police box to phone for help, which turns out to be TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), wherein he meets the Doctor, Susan, and Louise before suddenly traveling to the future year of 2150. Upon their arrival, they find a devastated London landscape, which is under the close watch of the Robomen, brainwashed human servants to the robotic alien overlords, the Daleks. Other humans are in hiding or in lax servitude, eager to aid their alien masters in exchange for food. The Daleks’ ultimate plan is to use humans for mining deep into the Earth in order to destroy its core, which would enable them to pilot the planet like a spaceship across the galaxy and conquer other worlds. If the Doctor and his allies can evade being caught by the Robomen or killed by the Daleks outright, they may be able to stop them and save humanity from total extermination.

While Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. certainly has plenty of creative and entertaining flourishes, it’s definitely the lesser of the two Dr. Who films. It’s uneven in its approach, separating main characters from each other for nearly the entirety of a film in which we need them to be together in order to help and solve problems, but also inconsistent in tone. It’s a darker story in comparison to the first, but occasional attempts at silliness, using the character of Tom, often halt the film’s story progression and feel out of place. As this film, like the previous one, was aimed at children, the filmmakers likely felt that the heavier story material needed to be lightened up in places, but a sequence in which Tom pretends to be one of the Robomen for several minutes feels more like Mr. Bean slapstick than a Doctor Who story.

Like the previous film, most of the lead characters have plenty to do, aside from Louise. Like Barbara, she’s there mainly as eye candy (as evidenced by some of the unused promotional material) and contributes little to the plot itself. Other characters are much more helpful. Wyler (Andrew Keir), David (Ray Brooks), and Wells (Roger Avon) are all very useful in the fight against the Daleks. Those out for themselves, including the sleazy Brockley (Philip Madoc) and a hermitized mother and daughter (Eileen Way and Sheila Steafel), will do anything to please the Daleks as long as it means not being killed and having something to eat. David Graham and Peter Hawkins also return to voice the Daleks, but once again, go uncredited.

Production design is less interesting than the first film automatically, mostly because it’s a bombed out, Earth-bound location and not another planet where more creative visual freedom can be achieved, but also just in terms of lighting and sets. Still, there’s a very memorable stunt involving actor and stuntman Eddie Powell whose character tries to escape from the Daleks, only to be killed in the attempt. In the scene, he falls from a second story building through an awning and onto the ground before the Daleks move in for the kill. It’s an amazing stunt, particularly with the knowledge that, despite the mattresses, Powell broke his ankle and got up immediately to continue with the scene. There’s also some fun moments of the Daleks being destroyed, as well as a beautiful model of their ship flying through the air before crashing in the finale.

As an adaptation of the 1964 TV serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. has plenty of merit. It’s enjoyable in a lot of ways, and some even prefer it over the first film, partly because it’s closer to the TV version of Doctor Who than the first film. And as always, even if he isn’t the idealized Doctor, it’s always a treat to have Peter Cushing in the role.

Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. was shot by cinematographer John Wilcox on Techniscope 35mm 2-perf camera negative, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Severin Films debuts the film on Ultra HD outside the UK with StudioCanal’s 4K 16-Bit scan of the original camera negative. 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, graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and encoded to a triple-layered BD-100 disc. Like its predecessor, it’s a gorgeous presentation that thoroughly bests all previous releases, even topping Severin’s simultaneous Blu-ray release in terms of clarity and detail. The bitrate sits comfortably between 80 and 100Mbps, most of the time in the upper range, with well-managed grain, which is even more tightly-knit than the Blu-ray. The color palette isn’t as striking as the previous film, but the interiors of the Daleks’ spaceship, as well as the dilapidated streets of London and forested areas outside of it, offer a nice range of natural hues. Contrast is perfect with deep blacks and enormous shadow detail, which the HDR grades dutifully boost, in addition to the film’s color palette. The image is stable and clean, and outside of occasional and very mild fading along the bottom edge of the frame, which is far less visible than on the accompanying Blu-ray, it’s a near-perfect presentation.

Audio is included in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. Like the first film’s audio, it’s amazingly robust for a single channel source of audio. It’s well-balanced and thoroughly clean, offering great support for dialogue, score, and sound effects. In other words, another superlative track.

The Severin Films 2-Disc 4K Ultra HD release of Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. sits in a black Amaray case alongside a Region A 1080p Blu-ray with an insert featuring artwork from the film’s original Italian theatrical poster. It’s also available as part of the Total Extermination: The Peter Cushing Doctor Who Collection 4-Disc 4K Ultra HD and 2-Disc Blu-ray releases releases, which are exclusive to the Severin Films website, and also contain Dr. Who and the Daleks. Also optional is a standard edition Blu-ray of Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.. The following extras are included on both discs, all in HD:

DISC ONE: UHD

Audio Commentary with Barry Forshaw, Stephen Jones, and Kim Newman
Audio Commentary with Kim Newman, Robert Shearman, and Mark Gatiss
Trailer (2:43)

DISC TWO: BD

Audio Commentary with Barry Forshaw, Stephen Jones, and Kim Newman
Audio Commentary with Kim Newman, Robert Shearman, and Mark Gatiss
Daleks’ Invasion BBC: 1963 to 1969 A.D. (35:28)
Subotsky and the Daleks: Part Two (8:19)
Interview with Actor Bernard Cribbins (4:12)
Interview with Gareth Owen (4:18)
The Dalek Legacy: Invasion Earth (15:44)
Restoring Dr. Who in 4K (10:54)
Trailer (2:43)
Still Gallery (17 in all – 1:28)

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. Kim Newman returns for the second 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.

In Daleks’ Invasion BBC: 1963 to 1969 A.D., author and “Doctor Who expert” Stephen Thrower delves deep into the history of the Daleks, mostly on television. In Part Two of the audio-only Subotsky and the Daleks, writer Philip Nutman interviews Amicus producer Milton Subotsky at Subotsky’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 film, his reluctance in making a sequel, Peter Cushing’s sudden illness affecting the start of production, and rushing to finish the film at the last minute due to time constraints. In the interview with actor Bernard Cribbins, he recalls fond memories of working with Peter Cushing and director Gordon Flemyng, and sitting in on the casting sessions for the Doctor Who TV show. Next is another interview with Gareth Owen, author of The Shepperton Story, who talks about the production of the film, problems on the set, the Sugar Puffs cereal tie-in, and the proposed third film that was never made.

The Dalek Legacy: Invasion Earth 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, visual effects designer Mike Tucker, Doctor Who Magazine editorial assistant Emily Cook, screenwriter Robert Shearman, and Doctor Who Magazine writer and 3D artist Gavin Rymill. In Restoring Dr. Who in 4K, restorationists Anthony Badger, Ray King, and Steve Bearman of Silver Salt Restoration detail the process of scanning and restoring the films, including the difficulties of working with 2-perf film during the wetgate scanning process, researching visual and written information for the color grading process, and why the original camera negative was not used in the previous restoration. 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. 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 Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. featurette, which covered StudioCanal’s 2013 restoration from the interpositive. StudioCanal’s 2022 UHD and Blu-ray releases of the film 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, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. on 4K UHD 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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