Do you believe in the science fiction stories of Doctor Who and the Daleks

Go right back to the year 1965 and the classic, British science fiction film, Doctor Who and the Daleks was released onto our screens. Starring Peter Cushing as the dashing Doctor, with Roberta Tovey and Jennie Linden as his two granddaughters, Susan and Barbara. A young Roy Castle starred alongside Peter Cushing as Barbara’s boyfriend, Ian.  This film was the very first Doctor Who plot to be filmed in the widescreen format and in glorious technicolour.  The clever, adventurous Doctor has invented a time travelling machine called The Tardis, and when demonstrating it to his granddaughters and Ian, they are unfortunately transported to a planet far away from Earth. The intrepid group decide to explore this strange planet and spot a distant city far away on the horizon. While wandering around the strange city they are all captured by cyborg creatures that call themselves Daleks.

How the Doctor and his companions escape

The Daleks are trapped in the city by radiation and their decaying metal casing suits that they wear as armour.  If only they had known about HVOF, which is High-velocity oxy-fuel coating, a specialised thermal spray coating from a company such as https://www.poeton.co.uk/standard-treatments/plasma-coatings would have helped restore their corroding metal exteriors . Having become contaminated with radiation themselves the human companions tell the Daleks that they have drugs on board their ship that can help them all and they allow Susan to travel back to the Tardis alone to retrieve the drugs. Back at the time machine Susan befriends another alien species called the Thals and their leader Alydon. The Thals are arch enemies of the Daleks and promise to help Susan and her family. After finding out that the Daleks are planning to betray the Doctor, his family and The Thals, the courageous group manage to overpower one of the metal machines and escape.

The Daleks’ downfall

Working together the Thals and the humans manage to trick the Daleks into destroying their own control console which cuts off all their power and completely disables them. Fleeing back to the Tardis the Doctor, his granddaughters and Susan’s boyfriend Ian return to Earth safely. The curse of the Daleks returned to our television screens in 1966 when the second film entitled Daleks Invasion Earth was released. There are thousands of ardent fans who follow the adventures of The Doctor and who believe in his abilities to regenerate into a different person when he dies. Are you one of these devoted fans who believe in the good Doctor?

 

Summary

The 1965 film Doctor Who and the Daleks was the first Doctor Who story, starring Peter Cushing alongside Roberta Tovey, Jennie Linden and Roy Castle. After the Tardis transports the group to a distant planet, they’re captured by the Daleks and later escape with help from the Thals, an enemy species of the Daleks. Working together, the humans and Thals trick the Daleks into destroying their own power source, letting the group return to Earth.

Questions this article raises

• How does this 1965 film differ from the TV series?
• Who else has played the Doctor in later Dalek stories?
• Why were the Daleks considered such a groundbreaking villain?