Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

First, let me quickly bring the noobs up to speed on the show

Doctor Who is a show about an alien who travels the universe in a time/space machine called the TARDIS. During The Doctor's travels, he and his companion (usually a young human female with weak ankles) combat evil wherever they find it. Doctor Who can do what James Bond has done several times and swap out the lead roll when the actor retires and wants to leave the roll. So over the course of the last 40 years there have been several Doctors with different faces, but all the same character.

Oh, and the name of the show is Doctor Who. The main character is simply called The Doctor.

There - that should just about cover everything to get someone started. Now on with the rest of the review.

Lets set the wayback machine to somewhere late 1963, in England. The first four episodes of Doctor Who have aired on the BBC, pulling in reasonable rating numbers. Then - the first episode of the next story was transmitted, and England was never quite the same: the Daleks had arrived.

Today we take the Doctor's greatest enemies for granted. However, back in 63, nothing like them had ever been seen on TV. The kids went nuts for these strange creatures - and Dalekmainia was everywhere. The only cultural benchmark that people in the US have to judge how widespread Dalekmainia was is the insane and unexpected success of the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Much like the Dalek frenzy of the 60's, Star Wars mania took every form, every medium by storm. Action figures, TV specials, books, novelty records, clothes, toys, and funky dance moves in the discos. In short, you couldn't swing a lightsaber without hitting three different Star Wars items.

Now take all that hullabaloo and multiply it by a factor of ten. That's what Dalekmainia in the 60's was like.

One of the offshoots of this Dalek marketing frenzy were the two big screen outings for the Doctor - although it was the Daleks that were the stars (They even got top billing in the second feature: Dalek Invasion of Earth).

So, remember the primer at the beginning of the review? Forget it - at least in the context of the Dr Who movies. There were a number of significant changes made to the main characters when they were brought over to the big screen. The biggest of these is the Doctor - no longer a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, he is now a kindly old human scientist named Dr. Who.

Dr Who has two grandchildren - Barbara and Susan. In the TV show, Susan was indeed the Doctor's granddaughter - but here she's regressed in age to about 10 years old. Barbara, on the other hand used to be a school teacher with Ian Chesterton - and now she's um. . . a character in the movie. The TV Ian and the movie Ian seem to be more or less the same. It's unclear if Movie Ian was a schoolteacher too, but he is considerably more bumbling that TV Ian ever was.

That's everything. Still with me? Good.

As far as the movie goes, Dr. Who and the Daleks is pretty fluffy. The original TV episode that the story comes from was both groundbreaking and wobbly at the same time. The script, being seven half hour episodes, tends to drag in places - wandering around caves and corridors for entire episodes sometimes. The upside of this is that with 3 hours of screen time to play with, there is a lot of development between the principal characters. In short the TV version of the story was insightful, dramatic, exciting and new.

One would think that the movie, being shorter by a good deal, would jettison the fat and keep the good stuff. Sadly director Gordon Flemyng and producer Milton Subotsky eliminated both fat and good in equal measure. The end result is more uneven than the TV show by far.

The movie does have its good points. Peter Cushing again does a splendid job as the kindly, grandfatherly version of the Doctor. After all the Hammer Horror films, it's good to see him finally get a chance to play the good guy for once. Playing Dr Who allowed Peter to show off his seldom seen softer side.

On the other hand, Roy Castle as the bumbling Ian doesn’t quite work for me. He never veers into Inspector Clouseau or Jar-Jar Binks territory, but he's an element of comic relief that the story just didn’t need. William Russell , the TV Ian, was the hero of the series, playing off the Doctor's anti-hero roll. He endowed the character with enough confidence that the viewer never had a problem buying into what he was selling, no matter how outlandish. Here, however, he's just a goofy boob who quickly outgrows his welcome by the end of the first reel.

One of the gems of the movie however is Roberta Tovey as Susan - quite possibly the only character in the production that is actually better than her television counterpart. Jennie Linden as Barbra, on the other hand is pretty vapid and a non-entity for the course of the adventure.

In a strange twist of fate, the weakest link in the movie are the Daleks themselves. Putting the movie's 'star' in the spotlight like this means that we get a lot of scenes with clumsy movement and painfully grating voices. Don’t get me wrong - I think the Daleks are a great concept, but they shouldn’t have to carry as much of the film as they do. While they worked on the small screen, they're just not as good here.

Acting, plot and Daleks aside, one of the most impressive parts of the film is the production itself. The sets, the colors - the art and set directors really went to town here. Bright and bold colors, vivid Daleks, impressive looking computer displays and consoles, creepy alien forests, detailed clothes and makeup on the Thals - the movie is quite the spectacle.

In short, Dr Who and the Daleks earns an A for effort, but gets C+ for results. It's a fun fluffy little science fiction romp that has to live in the shadow of it's much more competent big brother.

THE VIDEO:
Anchor Bay (at least in the US) has released a gorgeous looking disc. The print is anamorphic, the picture is free of dust and print damage, the clarity is astounding and the colors are vivid. After life on television or on the video store shelves as a pan and scan video tape, this film has never looked better.

The sound is very solid too - nothing too outstanding, or that will put your subwoofer to work - but it gets the job done.

THE EXTRAS:
We start off with an essay of the history of Doctor Who, briefly touching on the TV show's 27 year run. We also get a bio on Peter Cushing, the original theatrical trailer, some stills and an audio commentary from Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey. The commentary covers some of the ground from the supplemental disc Dalekmainia included in the boxed set - but for those of you with only this one disc, it's pretty fresh and interesting.

While the package is not as good as what we get with the Restoration Team and their DVD offerings from the television show, Anchor Bay did a pretty good job pulling together a nice disc.

THE LAST WORD:
Light and fluffy, fun but not very memorable, marred by some bad directorial choices, Dr Who and the Daleks is a solid slice of 60's science fiction, and all the trappings that come with it. It's a great way to spend the afternoon if you don’t have access to the television show or the superior follow-up Dalek Invasion of Earth.

OTHER DOCTOR WHO EPISODES ON DVD:

DOCTOR ONE -
* The Beginning * Doctor Who and the Daleks * The Aztecs * The Dalek Invasion of Earth * Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. * The Web Planet * The Lost in Time Collection *

DOCTOR TWO -
* Tomb of the Cybermen * The Seeds of Death * The Mind Robber * The Invasion *

DOCTOR THREE -
* Spearhead From Space * Doctor Who and the Silurians * The Sea Devils * The Three Doctors * Carnival of Monsters*

DOCTOR FOUR -
* The Ark in Space * Genesis of the Daleks * The Pyramids of Mars * The Robots of Death * The Talons of Weng-Chiang *
Destiny of the Daleks *

DOCTOR FIVE -
* Earthshock * Time-Flight * The Five Doctors * Warriors of the Deep * Resurrection of the Daleks * The Caves of Androzani*

DOCTOR SIX -
* Vengeance on Varos * Timelash * Revelation of the Daleks *

DOCTOR SEVEN -
* Rememberance of the Daleks * The Television Movie*

THE NEW SERIES -
* Doctor Who - Series One * Doctor Who - Series Two * Torchwood - Series One * Doctor Who - Series Three * The Infinite Quest*


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8