Nicholas ([info]nwhyte) wrote,
@ 2006-06-05 12:14:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Entry tags:doctor who, doctor who: 01

The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Bought this in London last week. Excellent value - six Hartnell epsiodes of classic story, plus various mini-documentaries, including a short silent film shot by Carole Ann Ford on her last day as Susan (featuring William Hartnell with no wig and looking ten years younger).

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is good - in fact, the first three episodes are excellent, with the Dalek coming out of the river at the end of episode one, and episode three a real high point, with the scenes of the Daleks in London, wandering past Westminster, congregating in Trafalgar Square, and patrolling the Albert Memorial (having obviously somehow got up the steps) particularly effective. That is also the episode where Susan tells David of her feeling of dislocation: "I never felt that there was any time or place that I belonged to. I’ve never had any real identity." And the incidental music is great - I hadn't heard of the composer Francis Chagrin before but he was apparently a well known film composer; shall look out for his other work. There is a real feeling of occupied Europe resisting the Nazis (and I write this in a village which experienced that directly rather than just in the cinema).

It is a bit let down by episode four, with no Doctor in sight and the rather rubber-suited Slyther, and the Daleks' actual plan when revealed stretches our suspension of disbelief. But the pace is kept up (especially by Jacqueline Hill as Barbara).

And finally the departure of Susan. Beautifully done, the first time that a member of the regular cast had left the show. "Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine," says the Doctor, promising to return, but we know he never will.



(1 comment) - (Post a new comment)


[info]shsilver
2007-02-27 08:48 pm UTC (link)
Just finished watching this. I felt it could have been tightened into a four or five episode arc or they could have expanded some parts, notably the crones in the hut, the food runner, the bomb maker.

The one area that really needed the most expansion was the courtship of Susan. Apart from the brief make-out session the Doctor interrupted, there was no real sign of anything between her and David until the end.

What I would love to see in the current version of Doctor Who is to have the Doctor travel to a period several years along from these events and meet up with Susan and David's child, his great-grand-child, perhaps with Carole Anne Ford playing Susan at the appropriate age who recognizes her grandfather (after all Time Lords must have ways of recognizing each other, see The Armageddon Factor when Drax not only recognizes the Doctor, but even comments on his nose).

(Reply to this)


(1 comment) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…