The Young Chevalier

February is insult added to injury. After the penury and gloom of miserable January comes this odd-numbered bastard of a month, which many even struggle to pronounce properly. The only good thing about it is I'll be back at Fawcett Mill in Cumbria next weekend.

Last weekend, however, I watched the 60s Dalek matinees again, for the first time on DVD. These kiddie-friendly cash-ins first appeared on BBC tv in the mid-70s "Saturday Night at the Movies/High Adventure" slot, during Jon Pertwee's summer break.

Doctor Who and the Daleks stars Grand Moff Tarkin (above left) and variety legend Roy Castle in a garish Outer Space romp in the Dalek City of Lava Lamps. It retells the seven- episode Dalek debut story in a fizzy, pacy way, although Who purists get annoyed at the departures from the original. The Doctor and his granddaughters, Susie and Barbara, seem to have the surname "Who"-or maybe "Hoo" -and they've built "T.A.R.D.I.S". in their back garden.
One of the changes I like, because I'm a Softy Centre, is that when the timid Antodus falls into the chasm, he survives. It lessens the impact of the ordeal in the mountains but it actually made me smile. Cushing's Nutty Professor is  warmer and less spikey than Hartnell's version but the film's Ian and Barbara are pallid things, compared to their tv counterparts: the versatile Castle is particularly tiresome in his slapstick scenes and Jennie Linden's Sweater Girl is purely decorative. Roberta Tovey's child-heroine Susan is the most likeable and memorable "Companion" in the trio.

The Daleks themselves are a bit halting-in-their- delivery but there are a couple of low-angle shots where they are imposing and iconic. The pacifist Thals, led by Barrie Ingham (above), are hugely camp in their waistcoats, leggings and mascara; however, Susan's pursuit by Alydon in the petrified forest is the most effective and exciting sequence in the film. I think very young Dalek fans would still enjoy this gentle Sixties artifact.

I actually prefer the sequel, Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD, to its tv counterpart. We lose the less-than-scary Slyther- which looked like a sack with Deely Bobbers-  and the zombie-like Robomen. There's  no sign of or reference to Ian and Barbara but we gain the magnificent Bernard Cribbins:

The future Wilfred Mott plays Tom Campbell, a police constable who stumbles on board T.A.R.D.I.S. (much as the woeful Dodo Chaplet also did in 1966) trying to summon assistance during a jewellery robbery. Cribbins is a better physical comedian than Roy Castle, a better actor and slightly more heroic. We also gain the sultry Louise Who, Doctor Who's niece, played by  Jill Curzon in fab gear boots and batwing cape:

She doesn't say much but she's one of the most glamorous companuions of the Sixties. More on that topic, later...
Again, the movie adapts a tv story at a brisk, headlong pace. All the set-pieces are intact but it looks much better than the original. The Dalek saucer is tremendous and the ruins of London pretty impressive, although, amusingly, product placement by  breakfast cereal sponsors Sugar Puffs abounds. There's more action, thanks to the somewhat kinky Robomen and the supporting cast are all very strong: Shotts' own Andrew Keir, a lethal Ray Brooks, fresh from his success in Dick Lester's "The Knack...";
 and a silkily menacing performance by Philip Madoc as the treacherous  black marketeer, Brockley. Madoc gives the best performance in the film, next to Cribbins. The defeat of the Daleks is quite perfunctory but there's a charming coda in which Dr. Who gets Tom back to 1966 in time to foil the heist.
The film wasn't successful enough to spawn a sequel although producer Milton Subotsky would try to pitch "Doctor Who's Greatest Adventure". I like to think of At the Earth's Core as the third Cushing/Who picture but google "Daleks vs. Mechons" on Youtube to see a fan-made trailer of what might have been. Charlie Hawtrey's Aridian is genius.

The Technicolour Dalek World of the movies has had quite an effect on the visual sense of the Matt Smith Years, as we saw in the much-reviled Victory of the Daleks last April. But since that same overly-critcial audience will not admit the movies into the "canon", Troughton's Doctor, debuting in 1966, is offically the Second Doctor; his second tv outing was, of course, The Highlanders.

The last of what are known as the "Pure Historicals" (until the Peter Davison Years), this is the second example of script editor Gerry Davis' attempts to infuse "Romance" into what he thought of as an unpopular sub-genre. The first, The Smugglers, is a thud-and-blunder response to the educational Historicals of Verity Lambert's tenure- now, somewhat ironically, generally regarded as some of the best Hartnell serials. Davis was probably reacting to audience reactions to The Massacre (slow, talky and obscure) and The Gunfighters (unconvincing and unfunny) and The Smugglers is an engaging, incident-packed potboiler, with a couple of graphic murders. It also featured the first Tardis trip for the Second Best Companion Pairing of the Sixties: Ben and Polly, the Terry and Julie of Who.
The Highlanders is a more light-heated affair and in common with many Second Doctor stories, it now only exists as a soundtrack and telesnaps. It's also less about the battle of Cullloden and far more about the slave trade. The biggest villain in this story isn't a stranded alien or megalomaniac computer: it's a crooked solicitor.

This week was the third time I'd listened to the story and again, I found new things to enjoy, particularly Andrew Downie's ship captain Willie Mackay. Troughton's Doctor is an elusive character, quite different from the "Oh, my giddy aunt" Cosmic Hobo of 68-69 and a master of disguise. Like Cushing's character, we are led to believe his name might actually be Who, given his alias as the Hanoverian "Doctor Von Wer".
Polly, meanwhile, is resourceful and wily, miles away from the "weedy, frightened lady"  she'd become. Ben is imprisoned for most of the story so although The Highlanders is best known for introducing Troughton's comedy stooge Jamie ( the affable Frazer Hines,)  much more of the Companion role  actually goes to Hannah Gordon as Kirsty:

I remember first seeing Hannah Gordon in My Wife Next Door in 1972, a sitcom written by the Avengers' Brian Clemens, cool and "trig" and spikily Scottish.Under Polly's groovy Mary Quant influence, weepy Kirsty becomes more confident and eventually, instrumental in the rescue of her father from the slave ship on the river Ness. It makes no narrative sense for Jamie to join the Doctor's crew when Kirsty's the one who was involved in all the action but she vanishes from the story in the concluding minutes of the final episode. A great pity: there could have been a proud wildcat of Scotland in the Tardis nearly forty-five years early.

I took the notion to listen to this story again because Inverness is the nearest city for me and the bus passes near Culloden- confusingly , via the village of Balloch.
Perhaps because of the riverside location, the Sneck is a  chilly, ugly ,concrete slab of a place. Everyone under thirty looks like a member of Slipknot and everyone over thirty, like Phil Mitchell or Tubbs from Royston Vasey. I visited Heroes For Sale yesterday-  the owner is very helpful and his stock extensive but next to nothing was contemporary. Maybe any new releases are snapped up on Wednesdays. Anyway, I picked up issue two of Heroes For Hire. It's got one of those tediously fashionable photo-realistic covers, featuring Ghost Rider and  generic 90s mercenary, Silver Sable. Despite that less-than- promising start, the story features a guest-appearance from Satana, the Devil's Daughter, a twist ending and a great title: "Dammunition".  It is, somewhat surprisingly, one of the best books published by Marvel at present.

Next: The Orton Diaries
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