I haven't seen any DW episodes from the pre-Tom Baker era so I can't compare this film to its contemporary TV episodes, but I've seen a lot of SF films from this era and this is pretty standard product. I notice that it was made by the same team of Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg that made the Amicus horror anthologies in the 1970s, which I love, and compared to even those low-budget films this is super low budget and unsophisticated, but it does have the same earmarks of comparative good taste, especially in visual presentation (the use of Technicolor is outstanding) and casting. Jennie Linden and Roberta Tovey are both high-ranking companions.Peter Cushing's Doctor (who's given a somewhat different backstory than the Doctor in the TV series--he's apparently human, and the creator of the Tardis) is kind of underwritten and he plays him in the manner of one of Boris Karloff's kindly old mad doctors. With his white brushed-back mane of hair, velveteen jacket and checked trousers there's a visual similarity between him and Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor. A baton has clearly been passed.

Purists of the BBC cult programme will doubtless sniff at this cheerfully undemanding little spin-off by Amicus producers Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg. But, aimed squarely at Saturday morning children's cinema audiences, its not without its charm. Not least the paint-box colours (the petrified surface of planet Skaro is lit by a lurid green light) and lava-lamp decor. And some of the planetary landscape mattes are rather magnificent in their comic-strip way.Alas the weakest link, amazingly, is Peter Cushing as Dr Who. Though the film mainly sticks to writer Terry Nation's original story, the producers understandably had to jettison the television serial's back-story (such as it was in 1965) if it was to appeal to the crucial American market. But here Cushing's Doctor is little more than a doddery old grandfather, with none of the crotchety antagonism of William Hartnell, the role's originator. And the Tardis interior is just a mess of overhanging wires and junkyard cast-offs rather than the wonderfully sterile, futuristic control room of the small-screen.The Daleks, though larger, are more ungainly and don't have the streamlined menace of the TV ones (perhaps the only monsters on film to actually swivel with sheer pent-up malice). Worst of all, their exterminators just scoosh out rather pathetic white smoke. Was the original x-ray laser effect, turning the TV screen image negative, deemed too scary, even though most of its audience would have thrilled to it at home? There's not a great deal more to commend it. Roy Castle clowns around rather embarrassingly as the young male lead, while Jenny Linden barely gets a line of script as the heroine. All in all, eleven year-old Roberta Tovey walks away with the acting honours.

I'm sure that on release DR WHO THE DALEKS was a perfectly serviceable children's adventure, colourful, light-hearted and action-packed. Seen today, though, it's an embarrassing cash-in on the popularity of TV's DOCTOR WHO, and it can't hope to hold a candle to that production.Where to start with what's wrong with this outing? Not least Peter Cushing, whose Who is a doddering ninny, a version of the same irritating character he wheeled out in AT THE EARTH'S CORE (although he's even more irritating here). An obvious spin on William Hartnell's portrayal, Cushing is awful - and it's not often I get the chance to say that! I'd much rather see him playing the dogged Van Helsing or ruthless Frankenstein, I have to say.We're also treated to Roy Castle indulging in some sub-standard comedy routines and a couple of irritating kids thrown into the mix. The story is paper-thin and it's pretty silly the way that the characters find themselves randomly catapulted to the alien world within the first couple of minutes.The supposed good guys, the Thals, are a fairly annoying riff on the Eloi from THE TIME MACHINE, and the Daleks are grating in the extreme; they have a way of speaking in very slow, stilted voices here and it makes listening to them a real chore. Throw in schlocky effects and a general pandering to the lowest common denominator and you have an annoyingly twee movie.

PLOT OUTLINE: While demonstrating his latest invention, a time machine, to his granddaughter's boyfriend, Dr. Who accidentally activates the machine, causing them to teleport to a distant planet where they battle radiation sickness & the Daleks.This is the first of two feature films to have been made from the groundbreaking classic TV series DOCTOR WHO. The show, originally designed to teach Britain's young audiences about history, morphed into some kind of space opera, with its main cast travelling across time & space, encountering numerous aliens & monsters & defending Earth from countless evil schemes & invasions. There have been comparisons with the series STAR TREK, but what sets them apart is the fact that while Star Trek, while bigger-budgeted than Doctor Who, was nothing more than lightweight sci-fi that was a bit low on ideas (all it did was visit a new civilisation each week & change it so they turn out like Earth), Doctor Who was an incredibly sophisticated science fiction series that had some truly mind-blowing concepts (the TARDIS, an alien spaceship / time machine that could take on any form, but ultimately ending up looking like a police telephone booth, is without doubt the most iconic time-travel machine ever) & having some memorable creatures.Which brings us to the Daleks. Appearing in the show's second adventure, a seven-part serial written by Terry Nation, the Daleks were a race of mutants that live inside tank-like cyborg bodies & whose nefarious schemes involve taking over every planet in the galaxy (or at least they did from their second appearance onwards). Here, Nation uses the alien race as a metaphor for the Nazis, with the peaceful Thals a stand-in for the Jews (the Thals don't make any return appearances for the rest of the series, except for the prequel adventure Genesis of the Daleks in the early 1970s).While the original adventure was a low-budget masterpiece, Dr Who and the Daleks is nothing more than a dumbed-down sci-fi flick that has wasted a novel concept & turned it into a lightweight children's film (to be fair, the show itself was aimed at children but it also catered for the adults), with Nation's script re-written so that the anti-war paranoia that the story had was removed & replaced with a militant pro-war stance. As a result, the film negates any cleverness that the original story had.That said, the film, while not as good as the original story, does work somewhat as a kid's film. The production values are top-notch but ultimately lapse into being pointlessly flashy – the show had values that would make Ed Wood blush but compensated by having a script that was very intelligent – here the film is reduced to resembling one of Irwin Allen's TV shows (for the uninitiated, Irwin Allen was a producer who made shows that claimed to be sci-fi but which were so lacking in basic science that they ended up insulting the viewer – LOST IN SPACE was one example). Even with this in mind, the film does manage to entertain, with the Daleks looking fearsome, moving around their (poorly designed) metal city & squawking "EXTERMINATE" while firing lethal smoke at their victims.The acting is very mixed. Peter Cushing, who has made a career out of playing gentlemen scientists, is right at home here playing the titular hero (which has been changed from an alien exile to a human scientist). He makes a valiant effort to give life to the role but ultimately loses due to Subotsky's poorly written script. On the other side of the coin is Roy Castle, who is a real pain to watch – his clowning skills might make children laugh but it proves to be so irritating that his performance really drags the film down the gurgler. The supporting cast, most notably young Roberta Tovey, is passable.