So just recently, I was re-watching the original Star Wars trilogy, and I was just thinking about another role Peter Cushing was in outside of playing Grand Moff Tarkin. There was a point where he actually played the Doctor.
Back in 1965, a few years after the original show premiered, AARU Productions, in association with BBC, made an adaptation of Doctor Who into a movie series. More specifically, adapting the Daleks stories into a trilogy.
The first movie in the series, Dr. Who and the Daleks, was based off the 1963 serial on the Daleks first appearance in the series. The sequel, Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD, was adapted from The Daleks Invasion on Earth from 1964, which was most notable for being the first Doctor Who serial to feature a companion leaving, which was the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan Foreman.
There were also plans for a third movie, but due to low box office sales and poor reception, it never came to fruition. My guess is that it would have been based off The Chase, the 1965 Doctor Who serial involving the Daleks chasing after the Doctor through a time machine they invented on their own, and also notable for the departure of the last two original companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbera Wright. Looking at the quality of the two Daleks films, it might have actually been a good thing this one didn't get made.
Still, it's fascinating looking at these two films as this was a really weird and interesting point in Doctor Who's history. Part of the reason why I think these films were made was to kind of introduce Doctor Who to a more worldwide audience than the UK, and there wasn't really an international market for British television programming at the time. Most of the time, the international market would adapt a British show instead of importing it (such as Sanford and Son being an adaptation of Steptoe and Son). The market for importing British shows would not really start forming until roughly around the 1970s. In fact, wouldn't really be until around the 70s that Doctor Who would start airing on PBS stations in North America.
Also because this film is an adaptation of the TV show, it's not part of the Doctor Who canon. Some of the plot points are a lot different, such as for instance, the Doctor having two granddaughters instead of one, with Barbera being his second granddaughter instead of a school teacher. Also notable is that both films came out before the concept of the Doctor regenerating into another body was even a thought in people's minds. In fact, the Doctor's first regeneration episode aired in October 1966. One year after Dr. Who and the Daleks, and two months after Daleks Invation Earth 2150 AD.
So yes. Those two films existed... and it's quite surreal. What are your thoughts on this whole thing?
