DR WHO AND THE DALEKS

   Film (1965). AARU. Dir Gordon Flemyng, starring Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jenny Linden, Roberta Tovey. Screenplay Milton Subotsky, based on the second DR WHO tv story, 1963-4, the 7-episode The Dead Planet by Terry NATION. 85 mins. Colour.

   Dr Who - played colourlessly by Cushing as a polite old man - is inadvertently taken to a dying planet with his granddaughters and an accident-prone young man (Castle) as a result of the latter falling onto the controls of the Doctor's time-and-space machine, the Tardis. They find a city occupied by DALEKS about to wipe out their ancient human enemies, the Thals, with a neutron bomb; despite their fierceness the Daleks prove ridiculously easy to immobilize. DWATD shows something about the 1960s in having Dr Who, famous in later incarnations as a crafty expert in nonviolent resolution of conflict, hawkishly urging the pacifist Thals to war. This crudely made children's-film remake of the early tv story in which the Daleks made their debut is of interest mainly to Dr Who completists wishing to see Cushing in the role, which he never played on tv; though inferior to its original, it is at least superior to the even more tepid film sequel, DALEKS: INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D. (1966).

   PN