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| Invasion of the Daleks |
Views: 1271 |
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Tempis Fugid
Registered: 12/10/05
Posts: 20
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 Sunday, January 15 2006 @ 07:35 PM EST |
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Thanks to Netflix, I watched "Invasion of the Daleks" this weekend.
Overall, I found the storyline great. The 'robotmen' and devices that keep them in check. The resistance. The dark theme. All this in a children's show! Cool!
To watch it all in one sitting proved to be too much. So I finished the following day.
What surpised me was the speech the Doctor gave at the end to say farwell to Susan. It seemed out of character for him, but more importantly, it helped make that connection to "The Five Doctors" episode that I saw in my youth.
I never knew where that came from. To realize now it was his 'tough love' speech for Susan so she'd start a new life...Wow!
Random thoughts--
It bothered me that the tardis windows seemed to be open upon landing...It's suppose to be an undestructable vehicle...and the windows are open. 
My vivid imagination wonders how the mind control devices for the "robotmen" might look or funciton of this episode was made in the present day.
Barbara seems a bit up tight. I'd rather dump her off on Earth than Susan.
Brian
Alton, NH |
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tarashnat
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 3062
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| Sunday, January 15 2006 @ 10:35 PM EST |
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Brian,
The reason Susan left, is that Carole Ann Ford grew tired of the character as she was being written. Originally, Susan was supposed to have strange powers, and to be an experienced time traveller. The character ended up being a screamer, which is not the character that Miss Ford was offered, nor wanted to play.
The first time I watched The Dalek Invasion of Earth was in a movie version on NJN (a PBS network in New Jersey) and I remember falling asleep towards the end. It was a long time ago... 
Taras |
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Daleks don't accept apologies! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!
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Cynful456
Registered: 11/08/05
Posts: 20
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| Sunday, January 15 2006 @ 10:43 PM EST |
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This is an excellent story! Wasn't the sign about not dumping bodies in the water creepy?
I too enjoyed the Doctor's goodbye to Susan. It was a great insight to the otherwise crotchety First Doctor. It's still one of my favorites.
As for Barbara, I agree that she tended to be uptight, but I really think she added a touch of class to Doctor Who. She was very striking, and an educated, intelligent woman. I'm not saying that other female companions were stupid, but Barbara, Liz Shaw, the 1st Romana, and perhaps Zoe were very intelligent and very resourceful. They were a welcome change to the ankle-twisting and such (though I know Barbara fell prey to that plot device at least once!)
I'm glad you're enjoying the Netflix. I keep telling myself I need to break down and check it out (though I'll continue to buy my Who DVDs, since I'm such a nerd.)
Cyn |
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Dangermouse
Registered: 12/01/05
Posts: 229
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| Monday, January 16 2006 @ 04:38 PM EST |
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I love the scene where the Dalek comes out from the Thames!
The Doctor's speech to Susan is a really emotional one and for anyone who finds Hartnell a bit 'cold' - it really helps you see his characters warmth.
One of my favourite lines too : "..I eat!" |
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He's the strongest, he's the quickest, he's the best.....
"Yorkshire is a state of mind"
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PolyphonicAsthma
Registered: 10/15/05
Posts: 35
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| Saturday, January 21 2006 @ 09:57 PM EST |
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[Quote by: Tempis Fugid]
To watch it all in one sitting proved to be too much. So I finished the following day. |
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My wife and I have started DW over from the very beginning this year and have just recently seen Invasion of the Daleks. I have to admit that some of the pacing does tend to drag on a bit. (And if you think some of the older eps are hard to watch in one sitting, trying doing that to the recreations!) 
[Quote by: Tempis Fugid]
What surpised me was the speech the Doctor gave at the end to say farwell to Susan. It seemed out of character for him, but more importantly, it helped make that connection to "The Five Doctors" episode that I saw in my youth. |
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I know what you mean! It was great to finally be clued in to what that speech was all about! I just recently watched a Sylvester McCoy production diary for the McGann movie and at the very end he's saddened by the fact he'll never play the Doctor on tv again. Then he starts to recite that speech. It was touching but now that I know the original context it didn't have the impact it would have otherwise.
[Quote by: Tempis Fugid]
To realize now it was his 'tough love' speech for Susan so she'd start a new life...Wow! |
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I really liked Carole Ann Ford and secretly hope she'll reappear in a future episode. Actually, since she is a Timelord too (I presume), then it'd be really cool to have her regenerated character live on.
[Quote by: Tempis Fugid]
Random thoughts--
It bothered me that the tardis windows seemed to be open upon landing...It's suppose to be an undestructable vehicle...and the windows are open.
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You think that's bad?  There's a few episodes where the TARDIS windows are cracked back a bit. haha There's even times when it materalizes without any sound! Weird, but I'm glad they fixed it later on!
[Quote by: Tempis Fugid]
My vivid imagination wonders how the mind control devices for the "robotmen" might look or funciton of this episode was made in the present day.
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I actually thought the Peter Cushing movie version robomen looked a little cooler. Of course they had a bigger budget I'm sure... I wonder how they could even do them in present day and not come off as Cybermen?
[Quote by: Tempis Fugid]
Barbara seems a bit up tight. I'd rather dump her off on Earth than Susan. |
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Barbara's actually stronger in some of the earlier episodes. Yeah, she is a screamer and tenders to hurt her ankle more than a few times but if you ever get a chance to watch an even earlier episode called The Aztecs your opinion of her might change. Personally, I really dig Ian. He really seems to keep a cool head about him even when Hartnell tends to ramble and looks lines. 
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tarashnat
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 3062
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| Sunday, January 22 2006 @ 02:20 AM EST |
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re. the appearance of the TARDIS as a police box: You could credit it to a flakey chameleon circuit... But I think that the real reason is that on the day of filming, it was just too hot for all the actors to stand in the prop waiting for their cues.
re. sprained ankles: once you've sprained an ankle, it's easier to re-injure it.
re. Susan: Carole Ann Ford's character was supposed to be so much more than what ended up being on screen. Just the title of the first episode An Unearthly Child hints that she was to be a focal point of the series. Unfortunately, the character never developed along the original proposals.
Taras |
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Daleks don't accept apologies! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!
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PolyphonicAsthma
Registered: 10/15/05
Posts: 35
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| Sunday, January 22 2006 @ 11:09 AM EST |
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[Quote by: tarashnat]
re. the appearance of the TARDIS as a police box: You could credit it to a flakey chameleon circuit... But I think that the real reason is that on the day of filming, it was just too hot for all the actors to stand in the prop waiting for their cues. |
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I chalk it up to one of those charming things about the black and white episodes you just have to choose to ignore. After all, those TARDIS windows were open in the obvious prop models too!  |
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James Brown 1977
Registered: 02/22/06
Posts: 52
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| Thursday, February 23 2006 @ 08:04 AM EST |
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| A good episode that Hartnell speech at the end has to be one of the best scenes ever made. |
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Dr Who is back baby Yeah !!!
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DarthSkeptical
Registered: 03/11/06
Posts: 1129
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| Sunday, March 19 2006 @ 07:37 PM EST |
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[Quote by: Tempis Fugid]What surpised me was the speech the Doctor gave at the end to say farwell to Susan. It seemed out of character for him, but more importantly, it helped make that connection to "The Five Doctors" episode that I saw in my youth.
I never knew where that came from. To realize now it was his 'tough love' speech for Susan so she'd start a new life...Wow!
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That "tough love" speech is, indeed, a bit out of character...unless you're paying attention to the unfortunately subtle development that Susan got. As taras points out, Susan got screwed. But if you draw a line between her in "Unearthly" (Part 1), virtually any random episode in Season 1, "The Sensorites", and "Invasion", you can kinda see some character development that makes that speech mean more. "The Sensorites" is maybe Susan's strongest outing, in which she stands up for herself to the Doctor and you can see, or at least imagine, that she's coming more into her own.
They really kinda missed a huge opportunity with Susan to make a really interesting character, because the elements are all there, but they're not assembled correctly. If we'd gotten a bit more of the "unearthly" amongst the "child" throughout her tenure, we could have gotten some dramatically interesting angst that would've made her proactivity in "The Sensorites" and "Invasion" more meaningful. That final speech should've been really heartwrenching, the emotional coda to a relationship we've seen develop onscreen. As it is, the speech itself is delivering way too much of the actual story of the Doctor's relationship to Susan, instead of being the emotional reaction to various "beats" sprinkled throughout her time on the TARDIS.
Compare that with . . .
[Highlight to reveal 2005 spoilers]
. . . the moment the Doctor sends Rose back home in "The Parting of the Ways". That whole moment where she appears to inspire him to answer and he sorta tricks her into the TARDIS so he can force her to go home to safety, along with the hologram speech afterwards is the 2005 nod to the Hartnell speech. But it works so much better because everything about the scene has been set up throughout the season. On first viewing it shocked the hell out of me. I was as tricked as she was. It made sense that he would've thought of something at the last minute, and that her guesswork might have illuminated the path for him. And it made absolute, horrible sense that he would have thought it his responsibility to send her away from there. It's him saving her life as she did his in "Rose". It's him responding to Jackie's question, "Is she safe?" in episode 4. It reads as a convincing lie, the first time you see it, because she HAS inspired him to a solution before, as in "The Doctor Dances". We know that he would want to be a positive impact on her life because of the care he shows for the improvement of the last days of Dicken's life in Episode 3. It all just "gels" in a way that the Hartnell speech doesn't.
You can make the Hartnell speech work for yourself, by going back and looking for the clues, but it doesn't put a lump in your throat, exactly. I think that speech would've been much more effective to Ian and Barbara on their exit. |
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"I think of myself as ambitious in casting terms, and I know that Bonnie [Langford] has the potential to make the part totally unirritating . . ." — JNT, 1986
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JeffL
Registered: 03/11/06
Posts: 177
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| Friday, September 15 2006 @ 07:35 PM EDT |
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Personally I feel this one is a far superior story to the first "The Daleks" story in 1963. The first one was just way too slow moving,
By the time "Dalek Invasion" came out, I think Hartnell had his character down pretty good and I found it more interesting to watch him by then because he seemed less grumpy and a little more cheery. By then he was taking more control of the situation...like the scene where he and Ian try to escape by using magnets to open the door.
Although I never really understood why The Slyther monster was added. It didn't have much pertinence to the rest of the plot. |
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