Some of us might remember two Doctor Who movies (Doctor Who and the Daleks and Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.), starring Peter Cushing.

Then there was "The Five Doctors", when Doctor #1 was portrayed by Richard Hurndall because William Hartnell had died several years earlier.

I suppose both of these actors should be represented here.

My library system seems to have an extremely limited selection from the original series. Is "Doctor Who and the Daleks" worth checking out?

Well there's now two versions on DVD. The TV version has just been released in the UK, and here in Australia, as part of "The Beginning" Box Set. The Peter Cushing version was a colour remake. The film version is BRIGHT and full of COLOUR, like the director was on a serious acid trip. It's worth watching for camp value alone. The TV version, well it was made for black and white TV on a shoestring in 1963 in Britain. As long as you accept that, then you will get something on it. Otherwise you'll sit there wondering if there were any dentists in England post the world war. Big exception - there is one incredibly blue joke that is so vulgar it went over everyone's head.

Since he's from the US, that will be the movie version he's talking about as the TV version won't be released here in the US until later this month when The Beginning Boxed set comes out.

And Fernsey is correct - the movie version is big, bright, and campy, while the TV version is what you would expect from 1963 B&W TV. But, you know, it's still pretty darn good once you accept it for what it is. Especially the first episode and that iconic first cliffhanger. The story is, after all, the reason why we are still talking about the series 43 years later...

Thanks, fernsey and Demetrios! I guess I'll check it out, then, being prepared for it to be quite campy.

My six year old nieces loved the Cushing films when they wanted to see MORE! after watching the new version of the show.

Richard Hurndall was my favorite part of "The Five Doctors." I loved the testy, Victorian schoolteacher vibe he gave the character. Which was apparently a flawless impersonation of the original—I've heard that Carole Ann Ford and others who worked with William Hartnell were seriously spooked by how reminiscent Hurndall's performance was to that of the deceased actor.

Well. "Doctor Who and the Daleks" was... interesting. Certainly quite campy, and amusing in its terribleness. What's the story with the canon-ness of the Doctor being the "grandfather"? Is there anything (other than the existence of Daleks and the TARDIS) in this movie that *is* taken as canon?

Virtually all fans, if not every fan, likely consider the two Peter Cushing movies to be non-canonical. They were film adaptations of two stories from the television series, and do contradict them (and the rest of the series) in several ways, some of them quite extreme (then again, they do follow the TV versions closely in spots, so some of what you saw is a brightly-colored mirror of canon events, if you get my drift).

The Doctor is a grandfather in the television series, but only to Susan. Barbara and Ian are quite different characters entirely - Ian, especially, isn't the comic relief. Both Barbara and Susan are older in the television series, while Susan and the Doctor are much more alien and mysterious (and the Doctor, almost sinister at times). The whole tone of the television series is much more subdued and less camp (by a long shot), with the monochrome actually working to create a more mysterious, eerie, and, at time, frightening environment (and a lot more claustraphobic, due to the cramped sets). But, conversely, a lot of the underlying plot does remain the same from the televised version to the movie...

Ideally, the thing you should do is to watch the original Dalek serial when the Beginning DVD set comes out in a few weeks. Then you can compare the two versions, as well as finding out how the series really began.

Thanks, Demetrios! That clears it up quite well. :)

Go on, tell us what it was! You can use spoiler text if it's that filthy.

I'm not at home so I can only give an approximation, but Ganatus is teasing Alydon about Dyoni's feelings for him - and makes some joke about the two of them "wanting to work on the same end" - the delivery completely supports the innuendo too....check it out, episode 3 or 4 - and Ganatus is lying on his back outside the TARDIS. I only picked up on it because the production notes (a DVD extra) pointed it out with lots of exclamation marks....

The Dalek films are great fun but they're definitely *not* part of the continuity of the series. In the movies, Cushing plays a human scientist called Dr. Who who's built a time machine called Tardis out of an old Police Box he's picked up somewhere. In the TV series the Doctor (not Dr. Who) is an alien Time Lord who stole a time machine called the TARDIS from a repair shop and ran away to Earth where the camoflague unit of the ship got stuck as a Police Box disguise.

Which are quite big differences.

But the best thing about the Dalek movies is that they led to the creation of this crazy poster for the Italian release:

http://www.cosedaunaltromondo.it/english/t...il.php?tId=105#

See that sexy space lady? See that space battle with UNIT spaceships? Not in the film. And the guy in the black PVC is actually a foot soldier of the villains, rather than a hero like the poster makes him out to be. Still, it looks like he's on a promise from the Space Babe so good luck to him.

Peter Cushing was ok in Doctor Who and the Daleks. I have not seen the 2nd film with him yet. Hurndall was also acceptable as the First Doctor but noticeably very different from Hartnell.

Iornic as both actors were more or less playing different intepretations of the same incarnation.

I wouldn't mind checking out the Peter Cushing films, but I heard that they are not faithful to the TV series. How are these movies different from the show?

I liked Richard Hurndall in The Five Doctors. I am not sure if he was anything like Hartnell, since my only exposure to the First Doctor was watching The Aztecs several months ago.

Carlos1969, Nuallain sums up the biggest difference -- the Doctor has an entirely different background, and he's more of an amiable old buffer than Hartnell's version. The stories are condensed retellings of two of the Hartnell Dalek stories, with Technicolour Daleks.

Well as the stories the movies were based upon (The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth) are both out on DVD, you can compare and contrast them yourself! The first movie is more similar to the television story it is based upon than the second, although there are significant differences, many of which were mentioned in Nuallain's post above...