THE 1960'S DR WHO TARDIS IS A 'WRITE' OFF IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!!

BACK IN THE MID 1960'S Peter Cushing appeared and starred in not one but TWO feature films, as Dr Who. 'Dr Who and the Daleks' (1965) and 'Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD. When I say, Dr Who please do not for all is sacred, mistake THIS Dr Who for the BBC Doctor Who that has been gracing our television screens for the past ?? years, also that Doctor and tv show, well... originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot, in the form of a television film titled Doctor Who. The programme was relaunched in 2005, and since then has been produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff. Also as dedicated viewers of said tv show and Doctor Who often tell me, 'The first film 'Dr Who and the Daleks' features a much different Doctor from the one we currently know, on tv. 

TO START WITH, he is entirely human. Barbara Wright from the tv show is no longer his granddaughter's teacher, but another granddaughter of The Doctor himself. Still with me? William Hartnell, tv Doctor Who was quite  annoyed at being passed over for the role of Dr Who and that Peter Cushing was cast in the role. The reason? Cushing was seen as a better known face to the cinematic world and therefore more capable of launching Dr Who to a wider audience, in was a children's film and family entertainment. Cushing does actually play the part with more warmth and childish humour than the famously grumpy Hartnell, and is for all intents and purposes a fantastic Doctor. So yup Cushing's Dr Who certainly IS NOT canon. Cushing himself always maintained that his Doctor was a proper Doctor, though not necessarily the First One, that he was so clearly based on. 

BUT CUSHING'S Dr Who did have a pretty neat TARDIS! It looked the same as the one in the tv series, but this one in TWO films and BIG SCREEN was ..IN COLOUR! Like the Tardis, all the DALEKS were in colour for the first time too! What a blast and . . what a COUP! 😉 Not THE Doctor, but full colour TARDIS and stars of both shows and films, the DALEKS as well.. for the first time!

THE INFLUENCE of the colour DALEKS did I am sure, go some way to what would soon become an international hobby... making YOUR OWN DALEK! Even though the TV series promoted some spin off full colour covered annual books for the kids at Christmas, it was only when the films displayed to the public and fans, DALEKS in FULL COLOUR and presented on a BIG SCREEN, that anyone had the opportunity to see them up close, moving in FULL TECHNICOLOUR, for the first time. . . and THE TOPS OPENED, to reveal a scaly thing on the floor ! Magic! 😀😊😉

THE DALEKS LOOKED AMAZING, but as a five year old boy, the thing that interested me the most, was THAT TARDIS! Looking at it now, as an adult, it does look uncannily like someone has thrown the contents of a dodgy self employed cowboy electrician's van onto a film set, to me at that time it was MAGICAL both INSIDE and OUT. After the films were wrapped, so was the interior of the time machine. But the exterior, of course survived! 

IT SEEMS THE TARDIS had survived and was finally purchased by a 'wood-turning-and-machine-company' who... 'can supply everything for the woodworker from machinery, hand and power tools to hundreds of accessories and of course the one thing that all woodworkers require – Timber' .... in Somerset, England! Well, sadly wood-turning, screw drivers, any chisels or DIY and all things that go buzz are all very uncharted lands to me. I know as much about any of these things, as I do brain surgery. Though, I have watched Cushing's 'head-work surgery' in 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' quite a few times! On finding this company and trying to figure what their connection was to Cushing's olde Tardis, it still took me a quite while to fathom out what it actually was they were selling! Unlike their vast variety of tools on offer, sadly I am not that sharp!

THEN THE PENNY DROPPED . . PENS! Or indeed, Pen Blanks: 'Pen blanks are little pieces of wood common to the pen turning industry. Many other wood workers find these pieces of wood to be perfect for their niche, they are  easy to turn and finish and are very tactile when fashioned into a writing instrument'. So, these are strips of wood, pieces of the tardis, that can be turned on a machine and used for the barrel of a pen! YOU WRITE with it! Hmm an interesting hobby, if that floats your boat or flies your Tardis!

SO HOW DID THIS COMPANY, come up with this idea, it's weird choice to arrive at when in fact they have a WHOLE piece of movie Doctor Who sorry... Dr Who . . movie history in their possession? Then came the bad news in the product description: 

'Doctor Who Tardis Plywood pen blanks. This is the very first Mk1 Tardis that was created for Peter Cushing for the film 'Dr Who and the Daleks' and was originally constructed in 1965'.  

'Can we just point out that this Tardis was in terrible condition, the sill fell off in transit and when we moved it on its own wheels the actual door fell off. Sadly it's been left outside and as it's a 54-year-old film prop it wasn't designed for the outdoor English weather, we've managed to salvage what we can and these are the first blanks available from what must be one of the most iconic and well known film-related prop.'

'These plywood blanks we would only recommend for the more experienced turner, I've made a dozen or so now and I found you cannot put any pressure when turning, so takes time plus you must have sharp tools.The blanks measure 5 inches x 20mm x 20mm and come complete with a certificate.'

MY GOODNESS! 😕  How depressing reading was that? 😔😑 So THAT is what has happened to the Cushing's Dr Who Tardis! Cut up into 5 inch pieces!!? Blimey! Well, I guess 'tis better than what happened to so many painted glass matts, props and goodies during Hammer films move from Bray studios in the 1960's. That was a lot to do with SKIPS, and I am not referring to the dance or gym rope kind! At least, there is something I can have and hold, the TARDIS in the body of something useful and to keep in my pocket.. to eventually leak in my jacket pocket! Can I STILL write? Do I have £44.99 in my piggy bank savings? Never mind, all is good! Now where do I buy a wood lathe and a sharp chisel? - Marcus Brooks

COME JOIN US YOU'LL BE MOST WELCOME HERE!!!

CALLUM MCKELVIE: GOES RUMMAGING ON PLANET AARU FOR CUSHING WHO GOODIES!

SO FIRST THING FIRST- I’ve been away a little while, but now I’m back! So as before every Sunday I’ll be stealing the lime light to ramble a little about a differing aspect of Cushing and his work. It seemed best to return with a bang and following on from my two-part review of the ‘Dr. Who’ movies, we’re presenting another two-part piece on the films, though this time it’ll be more along the lines of a ‘behind the scenes feature’. Primarily there’s two reasons for this. A) I am of course a massive Doctor Who fan. B) There’s a lot of neat images and footage we have yet to share.

ONE OF THE MAIN REASON FOR this article was to showcase some footage available on the BBC DVD of the Jon Pertwee story Death to the Daleks. (see above) Recently discovered at the time of that stories release, the footage is a rare behind the scenes look at the making of the 1965 film. The BBC’s presentation of the footage is admirable as they’ve gone to the trouble of interviewing some of the original crew along with Hammer Historian Marcus Hearne, for what is an admittedly small amount of film. 

THE FOOTAGE has some interesting Cushing moments, showcasing him exploiting the slapstick comic potential of his character as he jumps around wildly in a doorway when their escaping the Dalek trap. The real delight however is a tiny moment in which Cushing and fellow star Roy Castle are seen partaking in a small song and dance number of what we can presume is some kind of Broadway theme. Unfortunately as the footage has no sound we’ll never know what this sounded like! Though I’m sure someone with excellent lip-reading skills could tell us the name of the song.

ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING facts in terms of the films promotion centres around its sets. Designed by Scott Slimon (who worked on many contemporary horror pictures including Scream and Scream Again and The Skull amongst others) they are easily one of the most striking aspects of the production. Indeed so striking were they deemed by Milton Subotsky that not only did sections of them appear alongside the Daleks at the Cannes Film festival in the 1965, but they then went on a country-wide tour across the UK promoting the film. 

SEVERAL OF THE DALEKS from the film would be loaned out the BBC and appear as ‘Dalek guards’ in The Chase, which due to the shows tight turn-around would actually be broadcast before the film’s release. Their noticeable by the fact they are missing their large bases.

OF COURSE THE FILM was released during the height of so-called ‘Dalekmania’ within Britain, when the titular killer pepper-pots from the planet Skaro were taking over the toy stores. Indeed it’s often easy to forget that during this period it wasn’t really the ‘Doctor’ that was the draw of ‘Doctor Who’. The year the film was released the Daleks appeared in a massive 19 television episodes and that’s excluding cameo appearances, indeed one of the episodes didn’t even feature the Doctor (Mission to the Unknown). 

BY THE TIME the film hit cinema screens then a slew of Dalek related merchandise was available for the avid collector. Some was explicitly related to the Cushing film (The ‘Paint and Draw the Film of Dr. Who and the Daleks’ book) whereas a majority was simply ‘Dalek’ merchandise (Dalek soap, Inflatable Daleks). Most famous….or perhaps that should be infamous was the ‘Dalek Playsuit’. A red plastic dome would fit upon the head of the wearer, with a plastic sucker and gun arm, whilst there body would be draped in a plastic sheet, designed to look like a Dalek.

MORE EXPLICITLY movie related merchandise including a Dell comic adaptation, that like all Dell comic adaptations of the time told the story of the film with some rather unimpressive artwork. Meanwhile child star Roberta Tovey released the album ‘Who’s Who’ with a B-side featuring Jack Dorsey’s Dance of the Daleks. Listen to it at your peril…

PLEASE JOIN ME HERE AGAIN, next week! Where I’ll be discussing tid-bits concerning the second Dalek movie…DALEK INVASION EARTH 2150 AD!.

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA  . . 

CALLUM MCKELVIE ASKS : DOCTOR WHO AND DR WHO JUST WHO IS WHO?

IN ROUGHLY two-month’ time, the science-fiction programme Doctor Who, will see the thirteenth official ‘Doctor’ take on the role and the first female to do so. In its now over fifty year run-time, the programme has been through varying incarnations, from the political thrillers of the early 70’s period of the shower, to the gothic horror explored a mere five years later. Perhaps it is this versatile nature that allows it to be one of the most popular British television programmes of all time. 

THAT SAID, the two Dalek movies from the early 60’s are somewhat…controversial. Many people detest them, often citing the childish atmosphere and complete abandonment of the continuity of the television programme. Well I must confess that I hold a very different view and here I intend to defend a pair of often lambasted movies. This first post will tackle 1965’s Dr Who and the Daleks, whilst I will return soon to take on the sequel, Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D (1966).

TO BEGIN, in the interest of full disclosure I must confess that:
A) I am a massive Doctor Who fan, to the point that I regularly attend conventions, listen to the audios, buy the magazines etc., etc. B) that is primarily due to these two films.

PICTURE IF YOU WILL, a four/five year-old northern lad who is already becoming something of a science-fiction aficionado. By this point I’d seen and enjoyed Forbidden Planet (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and War of the Worlds (1953). So naturally when I caught the final five minutes of Dr Who and the Daleks, I was hooked, managing to catch the entirety of the sequel a week later. From there I spun off into the television series, before eventually finding my way back to classic Sf/Horror cinema. So there you have it, this is the perspective of not only a Doctor Who super-fan, but one whose entire love for this subject is probably the result of these two movies.

SO WHERE TO BEGIN, my defence then? Well the Doctor Who movies usually receive criticism for three main points. The differences to the TV version, the child-like atmosphere and (amongst some fans) Cushing’s portrayal of the role. Starting with the first point, the television character is an alien, having fled his home planet and now roams time and space in his stolen Tardis, referring to himself only as; The Doctor (played on television by William Hartnell). He lands on the planet Skaro, with his granddaughter Susan and two school teachers, Ian and Barbara. Here he meets the Daleks, survivors of a nuclear war against another species, the Thals. The Daleks have mutated hideously and have locked themselves in travel machines in order to survive. Consumed with race hatred, they wish to eliminate the now peaceful Thals.

CUSHING AND SUBOTSKY'S version is a human being called ‘Dr. Who’ a somewhat dithering Grandfather who built the Tardis in his back garden. His granddaughter is no longer a teenager, but a small girl (Roberta Tovey) and the school teachers are changed for his beautiful niece (Jennie Linden) and her comic-relief lover (Roy Castle). This lack of continuity with the television series often causes upsets. 

ABOVE: Until quite recently in the TV series, the question of what actually IS inside the DALEK armor, was never really touched on and certainly not see, making this shot, a NO NO!

ABOVE: The SLAP-STICK SLICK, of Roy Castle is from 'another time'. The  now serious business of WHO time travel, losses it's drama punch, with clown shoes throwing a pie into the face of today's Doctor Who . . . 

THOUGH ONE WONDERS how much this is effected by what has come since. At this stage decidedly little was known about the title character. Several points which the film states as absolute (his name being Dr. Who and the possibility that he built the Tardis) were at this point, possibilities. In the 1965 television serial The Chase, the first doctor stated that he had built the Tardis whilst the Daleks would refer to him as ‘Human’. Other details from this time that would forgotten included a line that indicated the Doctor had only one heart and the Daleks stating that although he was human, this was not his ‘true form’ (The Daleks Masterplan 1965).

NOT ONLY THAT but the television serial upon which this is based (1963’s The Daleks) was cut down from a seven episode serial with each episode running roughly twenty-five minutes, into a ninety minute feature film, losing the more ‘talky’ elements and emphasising the action sequences. 

THIS WAS ALSO the trend at the time, with many adaptations of popular television shows at the time, choosing to adapt one of that particular series most popular or ‘important’ story lines. For example 1970’s House of Dark Shadows adapts Barnabas’s main story from Dark Shadows, ramping up the gore and fear factor for a mainstream audience whilst the UK 1971 Callan theatrical movie, also adapted that show’s first episode, again increasing the thrills for a big screen adventure. 

THE DARKER ELEMENTS  and detail of the script had to be jettisoned and the resultant film (no doubt due to Subotsky’s love for family friendly material) was aimed at younger children. Again this can be somewhat jarring to fans of the television series, but this is not unlike a majority of the science-fiction adventure films of the time. Perhaps a good comparison is the 1964 adaptation of H.G Wells The First Men In the Moon which similarly features an eccentric elderly inventor, a journey to another civilisation and an emphasis on light-hearted comedy, or another Jules Verne adaptation 1959’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth. 

'The First Men In The Moon' (1964) Soft, Cuddly and Kiddie-friendly!

 Our Review and Gallery of 'The First Men In The Moon' can be found: HERE!

AGAIN, whilst this may seem jarring, contextually it seems perfectly normal befitting a film of this nature as made in the mid 1960’s. It had a space journey, scary monsters and an alien world, perfect for the kid’s matinees! A Doctor Who film of the mid-late 1970’s would no doubt of followed some of the cinematic conventions of the time, as indeed the aborted script of Tom Baker’s Doctor Who Meets Scratchman, shows with him borrowing heavily from British horror. Indeed he even wanted Vincent Price to play the Villain!

IT'S HARD TO THINK of another Cushing character which is as divisive as his portrayal of the Doctor, a portrayal that would be massively toned down in the next film. Here he is heavily made up, with shocking white hair and a large bushy moustache. He seems constantly arched over and twitters and jumps excitedly, a mix between a Victorian scientist and the ideal grandfather. Admittedly, at points it can seem a little bit much perhaps not helped by the script (which includes a somewhat cringe inducing joke about ‘soft centred’ chocolates) but Cushing’s whimsical charm fits the very light-hearted tone of the film.

IT ALSO DOESN'T HELP that given the cut down run-time, Cushing has surprisingly little to do as the film goes on. Of course he invents the machine to take our heroes to the planet, deducts various things throughout the film, but when facing off the Daleks, he seems somewhat weak. Cushing’s Doctor (at least in this instalment) isn’t the strong, steadfast hero that we now associate with the character.

IN THE SEQUEL (as we shall see) this is one of the character traits that he changes to suit the darker script and his Doctor is all the better for it. However again we come back to the argument that at this stage the Doctor isn’t the draw. His character is not set in stone and in the colourful, child-like and child-for world of the film he fits right in. 

THE DALEKS themselves are terrifying. In full colour, they are far larger than their television counter-parts and having deeper, more booming voices that echo around the large and equally impressive sets. There are also far more of them, gliding menacingly in the background of various shots. The final battle sequence is superb and is easily the highlight of the film, with large explosions and Daleks spinning and crashing, making the television version pale in comparison.

INDEED WHILST certainly characters and some of the darker sides of Nations script are gone, the action set pieces are increased ten-fold. Dr Who and the Daleks is a brilliant Saturday matinee adventure film. Cushing’s portrayal, whilst certainly controversial, fits the tone and mood of the film perfectly.

WHILST I CAN see why fans of the show may not like this particular version, the television original is still there. You can still watch it and it has in no way had its status or reputation diminished by this version. Dr Who and the Daleks is best viewed not as a ‘Doctor Who’ film but a Dalek orientated children’s film and it is by no means any the worse for that. 

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA . .