![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wow. I just finally sat myself down and watched "Dr. Who and the Daleks", the movie starring Peter Cushing. It was reasonably enjoyable, as you might expect given that it was based on the second ever Doctor Who television serial, but if you were only going to watch one of them, I'd go for the television version.
Where the movie version really falls down is in the characterization. Ian is largely reduced to comic relief, and Barbara doesn't fare much better. (Though she does get to attack a Dalek with her lunch. I don't remember if that bit was in the TV series.) Peter Cushing's Doctor is very likeable - really almost too likeable. By making him human and mostly taking away the less pleasant side of his character, the movie removes much of what made William Hartnell's Doctor so fascinating. Only Susan is arguably an improvement over her TV version - she gets most of the science-y bits that would have gone to Ian and much of the plucky bravery that would have gone to Barbara in the TV series. Smart plucky little girls are a good thing.
Interestingly, in the opening scene of the movie, Susan is reading a book called Physics for the Enquiring Mind, which I recognized instantly. It was my uncle's high school physics text book, if I recall correctly, and my father kept it because it was a much better physics text book than the one he had. I used it many years later as a supplement to my own high school physics text book - it really helped me with learning to work out some of the thornier mechanics problems. So it was quite funny to see it in the hands of a Doctor Who character!
Where the movie version really falls down is in the characterization. Ian is largely reduced to comic relief, and Barbara doesn't fare much better. (Though she does get to attack a Dalek with her lunch. I don't remember if that bit was in the TV series.) Peter Cushing's Doctor is very likeable - really almost too likeable. By making him human and mostly taking away the less pleasant side of his character, the movie removes much of what made William Hartnell's Doctor so fascinating. Only Susan is arguably an improvement over her TV version - she gets most of the science-y bits that would have gone to Ian and much of the plucky bravery that would have gone to Barbara in the TV series. Smart plucky little girls are a good thing.
Interestingly, in the opening scene of the movie, Susan is reading a book called Physics for the Enquiring Mind, which I recognized instantly. It was my uncle's high school physics text book, if I recall correctly, and my father kept it because it was a much better physics text book than the one he had. I used it many years later as a supplement to my own high school physics text book - it really helped me with learning to work out some of the thornier mechanics problems. So it was quite funny to see it in the hands of a Doctor Who character!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-22 08:00 pm (UTC)But you know all that. :-D
Daleks in widescreen Technicolor are definitely cool, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-23 03:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-23 06:07 am (UTC)