This was quite different to the Doctor Who television series. It is not part of the mainstream canon of Doctor Who and it's a bit childish. However as a Whovian, I quite enjoyed it. It's very good quality on Blu-Ray (which was what I watched it on). Peter Cushing portrayed the Doctor (or Dr. Who, as he's referred to in this film) as a kinder person than William Hartnell did. This is, as you may know, based on the second episode of Doctor Who, "The Daleks", which I found more entertaining despite the fact that the special effects and picture quality wasn't quite as good. The Daleks themselves talked strangely but looked superb. The Thals looked weird due to the fact that their makeup was overdone. The storyline for the film is good and it has a nice and the film as a whole is enjoyable. I recommend this to fans of the classic Doctor Who series, and I also recommend it on Blu-Ray, it is remastered fantastically! On another note that may upset many, Dr. Who is human (as far as we know) in this film and they have a different theme- tune.

I have never understood the rather low esteem the die-hard Who fans give to the Amicus films. I'm a casual Yank fan of the series; I enjoy the series overall, but find individual episodes and portrayals to be very hit and miss. However, I enjoy the heck out of the movies, despite hearing bad things about them before finally encountering Dr. Who and the Daleks on a late night TV broadcast.The films depart from the series in a few respects, mostly in the character background. The Doctor is an eccentric Earth genius who has developed the TARDIS, rather than an alien. He has two granddaughters, Barbara and Susan, where only Susan was a granddaughter in the series (though the 20th anniversary magazine had a story that suggested Susan wasn't a blood relation of the Doctor). In the series, Barbara and Ian are Susan's teachers, who stumble into the TARDIS, after following the odd little girl home. Here, Ian is Barbara's boyfriend, who is shown the TARDIS by the family. Also, the TARDIS interior is vastly different, with the film version looking like a complicated mess of wires, tubes, and equipment, compared to the cleaner and more functional lines of the series. After that, the film pretty much follows the plot of the original Dalek serial.Our explorers are accidentally propelled into the future, and to another planet (Skaro), where they discover a devastated world, as seen in the wonderfully designed petrified forest. They encounter a strange city, where they meet the Daleks, armored apparently robotic creatures who have survived a nuclear holocaust. Later, they will meet the Daleks' foes, the Thals, humanoids who have developed a serum to cure radiation sickness and create immunity. The Doctor and his family join with the Thals to stop the Daleks and their aims of conquest and destruction.The world is wonderfully realized, at times very reminiscent of the 60s, yet also appearing otherworldly and timeless. The exterior of the Dalek city is very evocative of this strange race, while the insides are sleek and functional, as who fit this mechanical race. The Dalek designs are slightly modified from the series, with some of the "plunger" arms replaced by gripper claws, slightly larger dome lights, and wider bases. Also, since the film is in color, we get to see varied designs for the Daleks that weren't available in the original black & white TV broadcast. The petrified forest is an amazing set, with a sandy gray texture and the appearance of a world frozen in time (rather like Pompeii or the petrified forest of Arizona). Watching the film, you feel like you are observing an alien world, not a studio set.The actors are all terrific, with Peter Cushing making a fine Doctor. he was a bit of a departure from the gruffer William Hartnell, but fits right in with the more twinkle-eyed qualities of Patrick Troughton or Tom Baker. It's a lighter portrayal, for sure, but never campy. Jennie Linden makes for a fine Barbara, who gets to muck in with the action, though she is the closest to the standard Who companion, asking lots of questions and screaming at the appropriate moment (though not nearly as much as the television ladies did). Roy Castle adds some comic relief as the slightly bumbling but valiant Ian. Castle proves very versatile and would have made a great hero, had he continued in the sequel. Roberta Tovey is excellent as Susan, the youngest granddaughter. She essays a very mature character, one who combines the seriousness of an adult scientist with the curious nature of a young girl. Susan makes for a great heroine, as she doesn't stand around screaming or whining. She explores and she solves problems. She could have easily have been the main focus of a whole series. The Thals are able assayed by Barrie Ingham and Geoffrey Toone, in the key roles. They are given an odd appearance that does look very 60s, but doesn't scream "The 60s" at you. really, they kind of look like a proto-Glam Rock band.The film offers plenty for everyone, with great sets, costumes, and vibrant colors contrasted with more subdued elements in the petrified forest. The is plenty of mystery to go along with the action and fantastic, presenting something for both child and adult. It has many tense moments and a rousing climax that makes good use of plot points that were introduced along the way.I personally feel that the harsher criticisms of some fans are grounded in fact that they forget this (and the series) was designed for children. As such, many elements are kept simple; but, that helps strip away some of the excess baggage of many sci-fi dramas and lets you focus on the key story elements. The lighter tone helps offset the rather grim nature of the story (a post-holocaust world and a fight for survival), but it never descends into farce. If you enter the film with an open mind, you will find much to entertain you.

I feel I have to put a disclaimer here. I am not a hardcore Dr. Who fan, I grew up with Pertwee and Baker and loved them, after that I hit puberty and the good Doctor left my own personal universe. So basically I want to say that I view this picture as a film lover, not as some serio Dr. Who fan. Thus I ask, just how did Amicus get it so wrong?Oh it really isn't as awful as some "who" fans have painted it as, and by painted I mean spittle daubed venom! But it looks like Amicus have tried to reinvent Dr. Who about 25 years before he needed reinventing. I mean, I realise it's a show involving time travel, but Amicus' Tardis is just a bit too early! They have taken two of Britain's most beloved entertainers and made one a bumbling comedy side-kick (Castle as Ian), and the other a doddering old eccentric granddad type (Cushing as the Doctor). Fair enough Cushing's Doctor is a genius, we know and understand that, but if you take away the Tardis invention, then this could be any old geezer in a sci-fi movie.Things are further muddied by lack of screen time for Cushing, he is strangely secondary here. It's a good job the two girls playing his nieces (Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey) get good characterisations to work from, and that the Daleks are a colourful and dastardly foe, because Sir Peter of the Who is jostling for attention in a film that bears his character's name. The irritants continue when you reach the end credits and the action quota amounts to being very little. It's safe to say the stunt department and director Gordon Flemyng's camera were not required to work over time.On the plus side. The production design, considering the low end budget, is visually impressive. The outer lands of the Dalek's planet Skaro is very striking with green tints and scorched plant life. The interiors are suitably metallic in feel, plenty of odd angles, though you will have to ignore parts of the set flapping about when they aren't meant too. The Thal race of beings that enter the story significantly, are interestingly costumed and made up, preempting Glam Rock by a few years, and those Daleks, pop culture for ever assured and entering the villain stratosphere, really do rock with their staccato voices. But ultimately the film feels like such a waste of talent and source material, so much so that not even a casual Dr. Who fan can proclaim it a worthy spin on this particular practitioner. 5/10

A colourful piece of 60s sci-fi nonsense for the kiddies. For 60s kiddies, mind you. I'm not quite sure how the 21st-century kiddies would react to this. Unless they're younger than 7 (or a bit on the daft side) they might find it all a little too goofy and dull.Granpa, a small girl with an IQ of 249, a comic-relief oaf, and his blond gal accidentally leave Earth in Cushing's time/space-travel "room", when the blond sexually assaults her boyfriend with an attempted hug and kiss. The four cartoon characters suddenly find themselves in the midst of an age-old conflict between some tin-cans and a tribe of very lazy blond people who do nothing all day but sit around their forest, staring into trees and putting on bad make-up. It is up to the 4 silly Earthlings to restore peace to this strange cardboard planet. After all, isn't that what Earthlings are well-known for, restoring peace everywhere they go? The Daleks aren't even proper robots. Sure, they speak in a slow, almost retarded monotone, and they move slowly (on wheels?), but inside each tin-can there is a small Dalek whom we (conveniently for the budget-restrained special-effects department) never get to see. Not that I was dying from curiosity to find out what they look like, mind you. The Daleks are given voices that are so over-the-top annoying that I had to mute the sound on occasion when they were talking, I simply couldn't bare to listen to them anymore. The movie's biggest crime.Cushing & co visit the Dalek city upon their arrival, and then they go back to their "room" in the forest. Then they return to the city, get captured, then manage to escape back to the forest, only to get re-captured. Yes, it's that kind of cheesy sci-fi with the usual table-tennis plot that goes nowhere. The Earthlings are basically like four ping-pong balls that move between the Daleks and the Thaals, between the city and the woods. Yes, the Thaals. Their name has a double A in it and they're all extremely blond. Dutch? Who knows.Funny creatures, the Thaals. They start off as a bunch of placid, apathetic, cowardly Gandhinistas, refusing to fight or kill anything or anybody in the name of pacifism, even finding excuses to not defend themselves against a bunch of decidedly anti-Thaalian quasi-robots. Cushing keeps trying to change their minds, to make them appreciate all the joys which armed conflict brings with it, but they simply won't budge. Yet all it took, in the end, was for one punch to be thrown by a Thaal, and these formerly inactive lazy hippies rapidly become a bloodthirsty fighting army, ready to destroy as many Daleks as they could. They suddenly understood: violence can be a lot of fun.Yes, it's that kind of 60s movie. To top it all off, we are even forced to watch a protracted climbing sequence. I mean, what would a goofy 60s sci-fi film be without some mountain-climbing-related padding?