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Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD (1966)

Dir: Gordon Flemyng.

Dr Who (Peter Cushing) is a Human inventor in his big screen incarnation (whereas in the famous BBC TV series he was an Alien 'Time Lord') and is pottering around in his ever faithful 'T.A.R.D.I.S' (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) time machine/space ship (disguised to look like an old Police telephone box) with his Granddaughter Susan (Roberta Tovey, from the first film) and his Niece Louise (Jill Curzon).

Suddenly, in rushes Police Constable Tom Campbell (Bernard Cribbens, who would reach the very height of fame as the voice over artist on the UK children's TV show "The Wombles") who has come to use the 'phone' to report a Jewellery heist.
Dropping down unconscious, due to a thump on the head by one of the robbers, 'The Doctor' decides he will have to join them on his latest jaunt.

For no good reason old Doc Who and his Family have decided to visit London in the year 2150 (makes a change from the seaside again this year) where they discover a ruined and desolate City. It seems those psychotic dustbins 'The Daleks' have invaded Earth, (well England anyway) turned some people into a mindless army of 'Robo Men' to help enslave the rest of the population to use them in digging a deep (and I mean deep) mine in the rolling hills of Bedfordshire in a barmy plan to use the Earth as a huge spaceship!
Can 'The Doctor' and the ragtag band of freedom fighters and scroungers he meets (that include Andrew 'Quatermass' Keir and Ray 'Mr Benn' Brooks) foil this diabolical (and generally crap) scheme?...

 

The 2nd big screen outing for 'Dr Who' is a vast improvement over the first ("Dr Who and the Daleks") in every way. Out go the hippie trippy fashions and colour schemes, out goes Roy Castle and out go completely non-menacing Daleks.
Instead we get a faster paced, grimmer, larger scale and bigger budgeted film that delivers Saturday Morning Matinee fun with cheesy relish.
Unlike the first film, here Director Gordon Flyming manages to keep the film moving along nicely and packs in as many battles between our heroes and those pesky Dalek's as the plot can hold.

The script is amazingly the combined work of four people. It's roughly based on a story in the TV show of "Dr Who" by Terry Nation, that has been re-written by fellow "Dr Who" writer David Whitaker, Sydney Newman and 'Amicus' head man Milton Subotsky.
That still does not stop the screenplay being crazy, illogical (what is the rest of the World doing? How could anyone actually mine to the Earth's core?) and filled with plot holes, but in a way that's what helps give the film it's charm and we are given some great characters to meet.
Keir's abrupt and stoic Wyler, Brook's laid back David are perfect in adding a much needed air of seriousness to the camp proceedings as two freedom fighters. Various other characters pop up to give us stout hearted 'working class' heroes and scheming opportunists, the highlight of the latter being Brockley a delightfully slimy individual essayed to perfection by Philip Madoc ("Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde").

As for the main cast, Cushing is pretty good as the rather doddering 'Doctor' with young Roberta Tovey doing a fine job and while Curzon is rather invisible Cribbens carefully keeps on the right side of silliness (unlike Roy Castle in the first film) with only one lame comedy sequence involving him pretending to be a 'Robo Man' outstaying it's welcome.

The use of outside location shooting helps a great deal in adding reality and scope to the film, and some of the ruined London sets are excellent (though there are some VERY 60's looking, battle scarred, advertisements plastered around this supposedly futuristic city!) and give a perfect setting for the wonderfully effective scenes of 'Daleks' wheeling through the rubble strewn streets. And the sight of a 'Dalek' trundling out from The River Thames is a hoot!

'The Daleks' themselves are as silly looking as ever (though with some groovy colour schemes) but they are given a much bigger air of menace and violence this time out as whole squads of them "EXTERMINATE" many plucky Brits with their rather crappy fire extinguisher smoke guns. Mind you, you can still destroy one by throwing a blanket over its lid and pushing it down steep slopes, such is the flaw of being a megalomaniac dustbin.

The 'Robo Men' are a delightfully camp touch as they march around in bad mirror sunglasses (some worn at, obviously hastily applied, odd angles), old motorbike helmets and kinky, black PVC one piece uniforms.

The effects, despite the larger budget on show for this 2nd film, are still cheap looking with some dreadful model work and toy looking spaceships. But some visuals work well with shots of the 'Daleks' in London and the surrounding Countryside and their spaceship hovering over the ruined City being highly effective.

All this whacked out fun is neatly (if rather overbearingly) wrapped up in a crazy music score by Bill McGuffie ("The Asphyx"), with electronic frills added by Barry Gray (who did great scores for classic British Sci-Fi shows "Capt Scarlett", "Joe 90" and "Stingray"), that is a mixture of bombastic military posturing and funked up 60's Jazz.
It's also one of the most overpowering scores to ever be put on a film. It's loud, as subtle as a Dalek and almost no scene goes by without it blasting out.

Overall "Daleks: Invasion Earth" is a crazy chunk of cult British Sci-Fi that overcomes it's technical flaws and begging budget to deliver plenty of camp thrills and spills.