Colour (of the bright and shiny 60s variety)
Thanks to complex rights issues,
apart from the first two of Peter Cushing’s Doctor Who vs Daleks films (big
favourites on Sunday afternoon with both BBC2 and Channel 4), the rest are lost
in a complex legal process whose paperwork would probably fill up the Tardis.
At the moment, Jerry Lewis's 'The Day the Clown Cried' appears more likely to
be spat out screaming into the world. That’s a shame as these films form a nice
counterpoint to the series, initially following the same lines before heading
off in wild and weird directions.
‘Daleks – The Chase through Time’ is, like the first two films,
based on episodes of the TV show. Indeed Terry Nation seems to have written
these episodes with the express intention of turning them into a Peter Cushing
film. There’s The Empire State Building! There’s The Marie Celeste! There’s
Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster! And making their film debut, there’s Dave
Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich! Everything is bigger and far more fantastic
than the BBC could realistically conjure up, sadly though Amicus Pictures isn’t
up to the spectacle either.
Even in glorious Technicolor, Doctor Who (never forget that
that is, in these films, his actual title and surname – he is the well studied son
of parents with the unlikely name of Mr and Mrs Who) and his companions are
clearly not at The Empire State Building. The studio can use as many stock
shots of NYC as they like, but they can’t disguise a mock up. Similarly that
Marie Celeste they land on is not in the middle of the ocean. In fact the background
couldn’t be any more obviously cardboard unless Kenneth Connor fell through it.
As for the Universal/Hammer monsters (part of a horror theme
park our heroes visit), didn’t Amicus Pictures develop a good reputation for
horror? Shouldn’t they know how to do this stuff? So why is Graham Stark’s
Dracula so camp and pouty? (Was Liberace really the inspiration?) And why is
David Prowse’s Frankenstein’s Monster so powder puff? Why is the Monster
pictured at one point having a break, sitting down in a comfy chair and
drinking a couple of tea? It’s all very strange; an attempt at comedy which
didn’t work on TV and is played much, much, much broader on film – but doesn’t
work there either.
The
highlight of this potpourri of destinations is undoubtedly is Dave Dee, Dozy,
Beaky, Mick and Tith. Doctor Who and his companions find themselves in the
band’s house and chill out listening to the futuristically titled ‘Zabadak’ – a
song which manages to sound both adventurous and strangely banal. Here the
comedy works in a rather sweet fashion, with a lone Dalek scout pushed around
and mocked by the band as they play. I’m always impressed that the Dalek, with
its pepperpot shape, manages to slalom and bounce around the dance floor in
time to the beat. Underneath that metal shell he has a nice sense of rhythm.
What’s
truly interesting about that sequence, however, is that the producers allegedly
bent over backwards in an attempt to get The Beatles to be the musical cameo. A
photo does exist online of John Lennon larking around with a dalek, so clearly
it must have seemed a possibility. One can only imagine though what magic the
Fab Four and the Scary Scaro-ians would have produced if they’d reached their
third big screen outing together. The mind boggles at the psychedelic,
transcendent explosion of far-out spectacle which would have been unfolded if
these uber-colourful Daleks had met The Beatles in their resplendent Sgt Pepper
garb.
Okay, the plot: having thwarted two of their plans, the
Daleks decide to remove Doctor Who with the use of their own time machine.
Realising the danger he’s in, Doctor Who runs through time in an attempt to
escape them – along with his grand-daughters, Susan and Louise (Roberta Torvey and Jill
Curzon, returning from the last film) and stowaway teacher, Graham (Kenneth
Connor, moon faced and lovely through most of the running time, but too comic
relief to be a love interest to the noticeably younger Curzon).
There are a couple of flaws here. Firstly, why don’t the
Daleks just arrive at the location five minutes before Doctor Who and eliminate
him that way? (But then that flaw in logic is a problem in the TV show as
well). Secondly, Doctor Who on screen isn’t the mythical creation The Doctor is
on television; in fact he’s just a man. As such the film gives the impression
that this advanced race of super aliens has harnessed all their energy,
intelligence and will-power to eliminate one bloke. An incredibly bright bloke,
yes, but still one bloke. It seems a truly lop-sided battle, not made less so
when Doctor Who actually wins. Perhaps, given this film’s success in America,
one is tempted to imagine that Hanna-Barbara used it as the inspiration for
‘Stop the Pigeon’.
What’s episodic on TV remains episodic on the cinema screen.
When plotting cinema domination, Nation clearly thought more in terms of
spectacle than plot. But what’s truly interesting is that on the television The
Doctor is now Patrick Troughton, but on film it’s still Peter Cushing. And
rather than being part of some alien race who can change their faces, it’s made
clear more than once that Cushing is human. Even when using the same stories,
the lines of deviation between TV and film are hardening.
Still the Daleks are bright and shiny, as is The Tardis.
Peter Cushing remains a great presence to hang a film around and is really
creating his own version of the character. There are some scary and gooey scenes
which predate some gooier scenes and scarier films in the offing; but equally in
the sequence of the mutant Dalek who is less bright than the rest, we have a little
sign of other things to come...
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