On Saturday night (3rd August, 2013) I saw at The Astor Theatre the two 1960s Dalek films; Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Both I’ve seen multiple, closer to countless times on both VHS and DVD.

I went to see them again, in part because I have never seen them ' the big screen' before and also because, as part of my 'be more social' self-motivation thing have gotten onto meetup.com and found some people who share similar fascinations, thoughts and cultural touchstones that I do.

One of them ‘The Melbourne Sci-Fi and Fantasy Meetup Group’ had a meet for this screening of this double feature. Although several people RSVPed on the site only three actually attended, well 4 including myself.

Screenshot: Dr. Who and the Daleks (used under fair use)

It was an absolutely squally night for it with a lot of rain coming down leading up to the start and at the end of the night. I don't know about during, I was in the cinema. The rain paused long enough for me to talk to the theatre and back to my car between the downpours.

Even with only 4 people I had a good chat with the others who'd come along.

Watching the movie in a cinema with other people who also appreciate it is a new experience for me and my appreciation of these two films.

It was interesting to look at Dr. Who and the Daleks with a fresh perspective, as it’s a film I’ve not seen for at least 5 years, probably more than though, though the DVD has been sitting on my shelf, so I could watch it if I wished to.

With Dr. Who and the Daleks, I never really appreciated its comedy. I just mostly saw it as an adaption of the TV story upon which it's based. Even later on having read about it and knowing that the “Ian” character in the movie is there as more of a comedy role than that of a 'hero' character that the TV series Ian was.

But watching it alone the humour isn't really there for me, or rather I saw it but didn't recognise it as comedy humour.

There is a lot of slapstick humour to Ian's performance, in almost all of his scenes he is doing some simple physical comedy, usually falling over/into/onto/sitting down onto something. It seems obvious thinking on it now, but it took watching it with a group of people in a cinema to really appreciate the comedy of it, or the intended comedy.

It’s something I just didn’t really notice watching it alone and away from other people who notice (and laugh) at the comedy.

There’s also unintentional comedy in the movie that simply comes from it being a very 1960s movie. The opening titles and music is very incredibly 1960s.

Dr. Who and the Daleks is very efficient with its story telling, another thing that I never really noticed the last time I watched it.

Having somewhat recently watched The Daleks, the TV story upon which the movie is based it seems almost rushed. The TV story is 7 episode long with each running around about 25 minutes giving the story 175 minutes to run.

Dr. Who and the Daleks has a running time of 79 minutes.

Dr. Who and the Daleks is not a continuation of the TV series, instead it’s its own stand alone series, a different universe to the TV series of Doctor Who.

In what seems to be less than 5 minutes all the main characters are presented; Dr Who played by Peter Cushing the scientist who’s a bit childish (and yes his name is “Dr Who”), his granddaughter Barbara who’s probably early to mid-20s, his other graddaughter Susan (sometimes called “Susie) and Ian. Susan and Barbara are established as being quite smart with Dr Who being a bit childish through them each reading science books and Dr Who reading an Eagle comic, commenting to himself “most exciting”.

Only Susan really gets to show off her intelligence that’s introduced in the opening moments of the movie, Barbara, who is shown to be pretty tough (more so than Ian) isn’t shown to be quite as smart as Susan or Dr Who.

The wallpaper has owls on it. That was the other thing I noticed when watching it up on the big screen. The Whos (I guess that’s their name) have owl wallpaper.

Why Dr Who has built a time machine within a Police Box isn’t really explained. It seems to be the classic reason of “why not?”.

Nevertheless there’s the establishment of its larger within than without, some good WTF expressions from Ian played by Roy Castle.

The standout performance across both movies and individually in each is Roberta Tovey in the role of Susan.

She has to do a lot of the technical dialogue, Peter Cushing does some of the explanations of Tardis (it’s not in either film “the TARDIS” as it is in the TV series. Whenever it’s mentions it’s “we need to get back to Tardis”.) Given how much younger she is than Carole Ann Ford was in the role it’s fairly commendable what she does. She’s got a lot of dialogue with most of the major players in the first film; the Daleks, the Thals and the main cast and is convincing in it.

Screenshot: Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (used under fair use)

In the second film Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D . Tovey’s Susan is in someways more mature than Ford’s Susan Foreman role in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Mostly down to her age. There’s one scene in the TV story when Susan meets the rebels of London and Dortmun asks Foreman “and what do you do?” and she replies “I eat” and then giggles. Which would have been fine dialogue for Tovey’s Susan, but not for Ford’s Susan who 6 episodes later gets partnered up and left behind by the Doctor in a post-invasion-apocalyptic London.

Tovey’s Susan in Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. is actually quite mature given what happens to her and what she faces.

Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. wasn’t as much a revelation as the first film was to me.

It still has some humour, though it’s more obvious humour than the first.

It’s also a much darker story, set on a post-invasion Earth with the Daleks ruling it. Although not as grim as the TV version of the story The Dalek Invasion of Earth makes it out to be, it’s still several steps darker than the first film.

The one thing that I noticed was the music, how much more there was of it in this film. There was music and sound effects in Dr. Who and the Daleks, in that film it was present, though not obvious. In Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. it was present and a member of the narrative; there was an obviousness to its presence in the film. It signalled scenes more so than the previous film did.

There were a few other notable things between the movies I noticed. The plunger control for Tardis, which Ian comedy falls onto in the first film is also present in the second. Not something I realised, mostly because I don’t think I’ve ever watched these films back to back.

The journey in Tardis is momentary in the first film, in keeping with the pace of that film it happens almost, though not quite instantly. In the second there is a sense of movement and travel in Tardis as they journey through time, that camera at an angle shifts from side to side as though on a boat.

At the end of Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. there is also a neat illustration of time travel, while of course the whole film presents time travel, but at the start and its end it shows one outcome – the bank robbery successful and with Tom Campbell being hit over the head seeking help in a Police Box – Tardis. In the second outcome at the end Dr Who puts him back a few minutes earlier before the robbery takes place and Campbell is able to knock out the getaway driver.

Campbell does not encounter himself, despite going back ‘before’ he encountered Tardis the first time. So it’s a little vague on some of the intricacies of time travel, but does neatly illustrate what Tardis can do.