A Bluffer’s Guide to Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth
This First Doctor classic gives the show bigger scope
Describe The Dalek Invasion of Earth in six words:
London’s future equals Nazi-occupied France.
This is… the one where the Daleks have won.
Episodes: 46 – 51 out of 862
What Happens?
The TARDIS lands in London, the future, where the Daleks have invaded. They have turned certain people into their servants: the Robomen. Others are either part of their labour camp or trying to survive.
The time-travellers are separated but each make contact with the remaining human resistance: All travelling towards the Daleks’ mine in Bedfordshire where the Daleks are drilling to the Earth’s core.
The time-travellers make concerted efforts to repel the Daleks: Ian sabotages their bomb while the Doctor and Barbara make individual efforts to get into the Daleks’ headquarters and takeover their control over the Robomen: inciting the Robomen to rebel against the Daleks.
With the Dalek menace destroyed, the Doctor observes that Susan has developed a connection with a freedom-fighter called David Campbell. Realising that Susan will sabotage her own future to look after him rather than stay with David, the Doctor makes the decision for her, locking the TARDIS doors and making a sad farewell.
First broadcast: 21st November — 26 December, 1964
Why was this made?
Producer Verity Lambert and Story Editor David Whitaker were well aware of the success of the Daleks. Writer Terry Nation was invited back to write a new Dalek story. The serial was directed by Richard Martin who had previously directed a handful of the original Dalek episodes.
The recording of this story saw the departure of Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan, from the series. Ford had grown dissatisfied with the role and wanted to depart. It also saw a greater extensive use of location filming in the series.
Observations / Things to Say:
- Ian says “the long way round”, a line of dialogue that will repeat in the Moffat era (like “Fear makes companions of us all”)
- TARDIS still has to malfunction: this time it’s the scanner. And it still has to be made inaccessible by falling debris. The show is not committing itself to willing adventurers yet.
- Charming to put the story almost 200 years in the future: Broadcast in 1964, calendar found reading 2164.
- Firsts: First suicide on-screen, first twisted ankle, first use of the Daleks screaming “exterminate”, first use of “constellation” as a synonym for solar system, first companion farewell, first TARDIS dematerialisation with a character moving in shot.
- Location filming makes everything feel bigger.
- Exposition: Cutting between Craddock/Doctor and Ian with Susan/David. Then, Craddock’s voice-over over action of a young woman being beaten by a Roboman.
- Daleks graffiti? Their eyestalks work as radio transmitters?
- Attacking the Daleks: defeating their base of operations is same as last Dalek story’s plan. The Doctor announces that he has neutralised the warning system without explanation — Eventually that’s what the sonic screwdriver will be invented for.
- Dalek approaching the Doctor from the Daleks’ POV: First example of the Doctor being explicitly framed visually as the hero. The Doctor is being made epic.
- Susan’s farewell: Touching moment with Hartnell and Ford just before it happens. Built up as well (A little unrealistic — What do they see in each other? But it might come across differently if you’re an audience member experiencing the story in a month and a half, rather than across a few days).
Between You and Me
Doctor Who’s first sequel: But rather than trying to recreate successes of the past, Nation, Whitaker and Lambert create something new, something bigger.
Bringing the aliens to Earth opens horizons for the series. The Daleks are no longer the show’s first aliens (and they are the show’s first aliens, Dr. Who’s and Susan’s origins are ambiguous but betray the idea of being advanced humans: Either way, they aren’t Time Lords who are only invented in 1969). No, the Daleks are also the first returning aliens, and the first aliens to be seen invading Earth. The Daleks’ history and nature are being rewritten to make them the show’s big villains. But the Doctor is being rewritten as well: a hero, an adventurer, a righter of wrongs. Indeed, Susan’s departure helps this. Free of his family obligations, the Doctor can be fully outcast from his home-world, his only connection being his magnificent time-ship that takes him to adventures.
The Doctor’s speech is also, brilliantly done by Hartnell. Apparently, Hartnell accidentally forgot a few lines from his farewell speech.
I’ve read those lines. I think Hartnell knew exactly what he was doing.
Recommended / Further Reading: