Doctor Who and The Daleks
1965 Movie
By Terry Nation
Reviewed By Steven Harris
In late August
of 1965 Regal Films International released a movie based on Terry Nation’s BBC Doctor Who storyline, The Daleks, which had initially been
screened eighteen months earlier. The screenplay, adapted by Milton Subotsky
but remaining reasonably faithful to the original Nation script, showed an
entirely new crew for the Tardis zipping off across time and space to encounter
the already iconic metallic pepper-pots from Skaro.
In much the
same way that the 1967 version of Casino
Royale and Never Say Never Again (1983)
are not considered to be part of the James Bond canon, director Gordon
Flemyng’s forays into Dr. Who movies
are not incorporated into the history of the BBC television show or the
character of the Doctor himself. Whether the BBC had designs on a theatrical
release of their hugely successful science-fiction show, as some suggest, or
not is irrelevant: Terry Nation had created the Daleks and was perfectly within
his rights to wish to exploit the concept on the big screen. Some deal must
have been done, however, to allow Regal Films, a company more known for budget
horror nonsense, to use the Doctor’s name and the acronym TARDIS (the ship is
still a familiar blue police box which presumably was not copyrightable at that
time, even though the BBC did copyright the image once such devices were no
longer being manufactured or used by the British constabulary).
