CLASSIC WHO MARATHON
Finally, I'm posting my
DALEK INVASION OF EARTH review and I would like to thank Meglos for his patience and good grace in waiting, and his terrific review (again).
So Susan’s gone. I never completely warmed to her because of the wimpy way she was written, which Carole Ann Ford obviously thought as well as she left due to Susan's lack of character development. Susan just didn’t have the boldness that one would expect from a time travelling teenager … she was no Ace. But she made up for it in these last episodes. Considering she is supposed to be only 15 (did she have any birthdays since the series started?), it is slightly creepy her being courted by a bearded young man, but as Susan looks older than 15, maybe her beau was younger than he looked as well. And what custodian abandons their loved one with what would appear to be her first boyfriend?!? I guess Susan isn’t your average teenager. But still …
Susan and the Doctor’s final scenes were so sweet and sad: first the painfully awkward conversation where they avoided the elephant in the room (that Susan had fallen in love); then Susan’s anguished conversation with her beau where she shows her complete loyalty to the Doctor, over and above her own wants; then the Doctor locking her out of the TARDIS before releasing her from any obligation she felt to look after him rather than to live her own life. And then he was gone. And I cried. It was a great goodbye speech, delivered with all the gravitas it deserved. You could argue there was a tinge of sexism involved, but I choose not to see it that way:
[By the riverside] I want you to belong somewhere, to have roots of your own. With David, you’ll be able to find those roots and live normally like any woman should do.
[From the TARDIS] Believe me, my dear, your future lies with David, and not with a silly old buffer like me. One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan, goodbye, my dear.
The adventure as a whole was terrific, though obviously more or less the same plot as the movie that based itself on this serial,
Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. with Peter Cushing as the (human) Doctor, and Bernard Cribbins who played Donna’s grandfather Wilfred as an Ian-like character. I watched the movie recently so there was a little déjà vu, even though the TV version came first.
The feel was marvellously industrial with its empty factory settings, desolate scenes under bridges and so on. The depiction of a harsh and defeated London was perfect, from the opening scenes with the sign – IT IS FORBIDDEN TO DUMP BODIES INTO THE RIVER – to Barbara running the roadblock in a truck. It also ran one of my favourite themes … I think DW is at its best when there is an organised rebel group battling to free the planet from oppressors. It's a theme for the ages and, considering Britain was in the throes of granting independence to its numerous colonies, very poignant.
My favourite scenes, however, involved the wheelchair-bound Dortmun who built a bomb to destroy the Daleks. His face-off against them was really moving, a disabled man with limited means of escape trying to blow up the seemingly invincible enemy. Quite the suicide mission. So sad, so brave, and so self-sacrificing. I’m not supporting suicide missions here, just the tenacity to do whatever you can when things are completely bleak.
Of course, there were the usual funny bits, like the speed the Daleks initially flew down the helipad ramp, although they seemed to fix that as the episodes went on.
And the Dalek-controlled humans sounded like dreary lobotomy patients. But to be fair, who’s to say that if a mind was controlled by Daleks the voice wouldn’t sound like that of a lobotomy patient.
Then there was the scene where Susan accidentally pulls down a crumbling bridge onto the TARDIS, the Doctor tells her:
‘What you need is a jolly good smacked bottom.’
Ah, the good ol’ days of child abuse ... although that line was probably added to highlight the shifting relationship between the Doctor and Susan ... as by the end he finally realises she's no longer a little girl.
AND one of the Daleks says 'RESISTANCE IS USELESS' … a kick for Hitchhikers fans like me.
All in all, an EPIC adventure. A story like this is what we all watch DW for.
, oh and I must say! FANTASTIC review 