Now on the Big Screen: The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who at the Movies
Charles Norton
Language: English
Pages: 252
ISBN: 2:00198538
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Now you can see them in colour on the big screen,
closer than ever before.
So close, you can feel their fire.
So thrilling, you must be there...'
(Dr Who and the Daleks - original theatrical trailer)
In 1965, two American filmmakers took the BBC's Doctor Who television series to the cinema. Starring Peter Cushing, Dr Who and the Daleks and Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150AD brought a colourful world of Dalek invaders and a time-travelling Police Box to the big screen for the very first time.
In the decades since, many other filmmakers have tried and failed to replicate the success of those two movies. Barely a year has gone by without someone, somewhere, trying to make a new motion picture based around Doctor Who.
Through new interviews with those involved and never before published paperwork from the British Board of Film Censors, the story of Doctor Who's difficult relationship with the cinema can now be told.
This is the complete story of the few Doctor Who films that were made and the many more that were not. It is an exciting adventure of Scarecrows, Yeti and the deadly game of Cricket. It is also a cautionary tale of a hopeless place called 'development hell' and the souls of the many lost motion-pictures that have ended up there.
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simply: ‘The rights were licensed … for a specific period. Unfortunately, the production did not get off the ground within an extended license time and the rights reverted to the BBC … If legal proceedings were to be issued they would be vigorously contested.’[497] Only a few days earlier, on 10 January, the London Evening Standard also carried a two page exposé on the problems that had beset the film project. Over a year later, on 14 February 1997, Litten, Dugdale and Humphreys issued BBC
Doctor Who movie … Doctor Who is one of those iconic properties that always presents opportunities … But it needs a new approach. It needs to be updated and made relevant for today’s audiences …’[547] ‘Doctor Who needs to be reinvented for a global audience,’ said Jeremy Bolt. ‘That means casting an international name in the lead … What about Laurence Fishburne? Or Anthony Hopkins?’[548] Prophetically, the article also commented: ‘The fast progress on Doctor Who: the Movie has scuppered plans
Keir’s biggest ever picture, Cleopatra[209] (1963). It was during the filming of these control room scenes that the Black Dalek prop was damaged, stuntman Joe Powell (brother of Eddie) dislodging its pincer attachment during a fall. By the wonders of ill-judged continuity, in the finished movie, the claw magically reappears in the very next scene, without explanation. The attack on the Daleks by the miners and the Robomen and the subsequent destruction of the Dalek mine was a complex
the little boy and his sister going to the cinema and all that. That’s all the fun stuff … I had a chance to play Daleks.’ There were two Dalek props in use that day. One appeared in a sequence inside the cinema itself (as a static prop), while the other one (operated by Mick Hall) was used in a more expansive ambush scene outside the building. ‘We didn’t do much with the Dalek,’ recalls Davies. ’We had it twitching its sticks a bit. It didn’t move much. We thought we could get away with it.’
film. ‘I wouldn’t mind appearing in Doctor Who again,’ said Troughton. ‘It would be nice to remake “The Evil of the Daleks”, which was a classic, as a full-length feature film. It probably wouldn’t break all box office records, but in this day of videos I am sure there would be a ready market.’[311] Sadly, Troughton died not long after (in 1987) and the film of ‘The Evil of the Daleks’ never progressed past Troughton’s early thoughts. DOWNTIME Haisman would write no further Doctor