The BBC science fiction serial Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell as the warm, ageless Time Lord known only as "The Doctor" launched in 1963 and quickly developed a growing fan base, especially after the introduction of The Daleks, an alien race of mutants in robotic armor intention the extermination of the human race. Producers Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg secured the rights for the big-screen incarnation, casting Hammer horror star Peter Cushing in the lead role (now called Dr. Who rather than simply the Doctor) and giving the low-budget show the color and widescreen treatment.
Subotsky's screenplay adapts the television serial The Daleks by Terry Nation but discards much of the series lore. Dr. Who (as the poster writes his name) is no longer an alien Time Lord but an English grandfather and eccentric inventor and his time-traveling device, the TARDIS, is his latest invention. Roy Castle provides tired slapstick humor as the clumsy boyfriend of Who's daughter (Jennie Linden) and Roberta Tovey serves the familiar companion role as his spunky granddaughter. The plot sends them across the galaxy to a planet ravaged by nuclear war, where the Daleks take refuge in a self-contained city and the human-like Thals survive the radiation poisoning with life-saving drugs.
Though low-budget by the standards of Hollywood spectacles, this film looks grand compared to the show's slim TV production values and director Gordon Flemyng tries to open up the scope. The make-up for the Thales anticipates some of the aliens in the American science fiction series Star Trek and the wonderfully weird design of the dead alien landscape is a triumph of the invention over budget. And despite the liberties taken with the TV source, Cushing is a lovely Doctor, like a Jules Verne character by way of an absent-minded old professor with a puckish sense of adventure.
The weakness is the simplistic script and juvenile gags, which dumb down the ideas and themes of the show. Though the film was poorly reviewed, it was a popular hit, and a sequel, Dalek's Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., followed in 1966. Kino Lorber gives the film the special edition treatment with a new 2K restoration, commentary by British film historian Kim Newman, a specialist in science fiction and fantasy cinema, the hour-long documentary Dalekmania (1995) on the making of the two Dr. Who features, a video interview with author Gareth Owens, and a featurette on the restoration. Fans of the long-running Doctor Who, which remains popular in its most recent revival, and of 1960s fantasy cinema may be curious about this feature incarnation. A strong optional purchase.