The Dalek Invasion of Earth
Encyclopedia
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a serial in the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

, which originally aired in six weekly parts from November 21 to December 26, 1964.
This serial marks the final regular appearance of Carole Ann Ford
Carole Ann Ford
Carole Ann Ford is a British actress best known for her role as Susan Foreman in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She also appeared in the 1962 film version of The Day of the Triffids....

 as companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...

 Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter and original companion of the First Doctor, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season...

.

The basic plot of the story was used for the film Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D..

Footage of William Hartnell
William Hartnell
William Henry Hartnell was an English actor. During 1963-66, he was the first actor to play the Doctor in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...

 as the First Doctor
First Doctor
The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...

 from this serial was subsequently used in the 1983 special The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...

.

Plot

The TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...

 materialises, the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....

 surmising from the surroundings that they have landed in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 only to find it devasted and decayed. It turns out the year is 2164. Barbara and Susan are taken by a couple of refugees to a nearby shelter in an abandoned Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 station and meet resistance members named Dortmun (the leader), Carl Tyler, David Campbell, Jenny, Jack Craddock, Thomson, Baker and Larry Madison while the Doctor and Ian stumble across bodies wearing strange metal helmets and soon find an army of them and Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...

s rising from the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

. The Daleks take the Doctor, Ian and resistance members onboard their saucer and convert any escapees into robomen.

The Doctor is caught breaking out of his cell with Ian and Craddock, who was sent with them, and he and Craddock are to be converted into robomen while Ian runs out to look for Barbara and Susan. But the Doctor's transfer operation breaks down while Susan, Barbara and the resistance team attack the Dalek force using explosives created by Dortmun. But the bombs affect the humans as well as the Daleks and several are injured or killed.

The Daleks retreat to their ship and take off to their mining operations in Bedfordshire. Ian and Larry are left onboard the ship hiding unnoticed while the Doctor with Susan, David, Baker and Tyler travel there on foot. Barbara, Dortmun and Jenny make their own ways. Dortmun is exterminated on his way out of London while attempting to use his last bomb against a group of Daleks.

The saucer lands by the mine and Ian and Larry meet miners named Wells and Ashton. Both are later killed by an aggresive creature called a Slyther, a pet of the Black Dalek. The predator falls down a mine shaft to its death, but in causing this to happen Ian and Larry are plummeted down on a cart to the mine.

The Doctor and Susan reunite with Barbara in the mine and discover that the Daleks are drilling through the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

's crust so that they can blow out its core with a penetration explosive capsule and then use a guidance system to pilot the planet around space. Ian becomes trapped inside the device as it is on schedule. He disarms it but manages to fall at the bottom of the shaft. The Doctor and his friends enter the control room and set the Robomen against the Daleks. The device is rearmed and is sent down the shaft. But Ian creates a barrier to intercept it and he and his friends escape out of the mine before the bomb explodes, destroying the Dalek fleet and causing an entirely new phenomenon — a volcanic eruption
Volcano
2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

 in England.

Back in London, the Doctor bids Susan farewell to have a new partnership with David and he, Ian and Barbara leave in the TARDIS.

Continuity

  • Elements of this story appear in later Doctor Who stories. The serial was the basis for the Peter Cushing
    Peter Cushing
    Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...

     film, Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D..
  • Dortmun calls the material the Dalek casings are made of Dalekanium. In the alternate future
    Parallel universe (fiction)
    A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...

     of Day of the Daleks
    Day of the Daleks
    Day of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 January to 22 January 1972.-Synopsis:...

    (and the PC
    Personal computer
    A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

     computer game Destiny of the Doctors
    Destiny of the Doctors
    Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors is a PC computer game based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who; released on 5 December 1997 by BBC Multimedia.- Overview :...

    ), Dalekanium is an unstable explosive that can penetrate Dalek casings. In "Daleks in Manhattan
    Daleks in Manhattan
    "Daleks in Manhattan" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 21 April 2007, and is the fourth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is part one of a two-part story, concluded in "Evolution of the Daleks"...

    ", Dalekanium is confirmed by the Daleks themselves to be the substance which Dalek casings are made from.
  • The Virgin New Adventures
    Virgin New Adventures
    The Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...

     novel GodEngine
    GodEngine
    GodEngine is an original novel written by Craig Hinton and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Chris, Roz, the Ice Warriors and the Daleks....

    by Craig Hinton
    Craig Hinton
    Craig Paul Alexander Hinton was a British writer best known for his work on various spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who....

     offers an alternate explanation for the Daleks' attempt to remove the Earth's core: an ancient Osirian
    Pyramids of Mars
    Pyramids of Mars is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 25 October to 15 November 1975.-Synopsis:...

     weapon, capable of turning a star into a giant plasma cannon, which can be operated only on a planet without a bipolar magnetic field. GodEngine suggests that the Daleks were working with a rogue group of Ice Warrior
    Ice Warrior
    The Ice Warriors are a fictional extraterrestrial race of reptilian-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The race originated on Mars, and first appeared in the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors where they encountered the Second Doctor and his...

    s to assemble this weapon, and planned to install it on the Earth. The novel also states that the Doctor returned to recover Susan's discarded TARDIS key. The same plot device was also used in the non-canonical film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD
    Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD
    Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is the second of two films based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the sequel to Dr. Who and the Daleks , and starred Peter Cushing in his return to the role of the eccentric inventor and time traveller "Dr. Who". It also...

    .
  • The Big Finish Productions
    Big Finish Productions
    Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...

     audio drama The Mutant Phase
    The Mutant Phase
    The Mutant Phase is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....

    is partly set on Earth in the year 2158, when the Fifth Doctor
    Fifth Doctor
    The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....

     and Nyssa encounter invading Daleks in a rapeseed
    Rapeseed
    Rapeseed , also known as rape, oilseed rape, rapa, rappi, rapaseed is a bright yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae...

     field in Kansas
    Kansas
    Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

    . The plan to extract the Earth's core and the mine works in Bedfordshire are mentioned, implying that the two stories are involved with the same invasion. The date of 2158 agrees with the above reasoning about the invasion having started in approximately 2157. The canonicity of the audio plays, like all spin-offs
    Doctor Who spin-offs
    Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....

    , is uncertain.
  • Carole Ann Ford reprised her role as Susan in the 1983 20th Anniversary television Special The Five Doctors
    The Five Doctors
    The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...

    , although no mention was made of David or her life after the Doctor had left her. Some of this was explored in the spin-off
    Doctor Who spin-offs
    Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....

     BBC Books
    BBC Books
    BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...

     novel Legacy of the Daleks
    Legacy of the Daleks
    Legacy of the Daleks is an original novel written by John Peel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...

    by John Peel
    John Peel (writer)
    John Peel is a British writer, best known for his books connected to several television series. He has written under several pseudonyms, including John Vincent and Nicholas Adams. He lives in Long Island, New York and his wife is a U.S...

    . Ford's departure was the first of what would be many cast changes in the history of the programme. The Doctor finally properly visits his granddaughter in the 2009 audio story An Earthly Child
    An Earthly Child
    An Earthly Child is a Big Finish Productions audiobook based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is free to those whose subscription includes Plague of the Daleks.-Plot:...

    starring Carole Ann Ford as Susan and Paul McGann
    Paul McGann
    Paul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...

     as the Eighth Doctor
    Eighth Doctor
    The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...

    . This story also introduces the Doctor's great grandson Alex Campbell, played by Jake McGann
    Jake McGann
    Jake McGann is an English actor. He is the second and younger son of actor Paul McGann and Annie Milner. He has an elder brother, Joseph , born in 1988...

    , Paul McGann's son.

Production

  • This was the very first serial of Doctor Who which made extensive use of location filming, with London
    London
    London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

     being chosen as the primary backdrop. The decision to use London also helped to keep the show within its production budget given that the BBC's Lime Grove studios where Doctor Who was produced were located at nearby Shepherd's Bush
    Shepherd's Bush
    -Commerce:Commercial activity in Shepherd's Bush is now focused on the Westfield shopping centre next to Shepherd's Bush Central line station and on the many small shops which run along the northern side of the Green....

    . Location filming took place in various parts of the city including extensive sequences at Whitehall
    Whitehall
    Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...

    , Trafalgar Square
    Trafalgar Square
    Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

    , Westminster Bridge
    Westminster Bridge
    Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames between Westminster on the north side and Lambeth on the south side, in London, England....

    , Albert Embankment
    Albert Embankment
    The Albert Embankment is a stretch of the river bank on the south side of the River Thames in Central London. It stretches approximately one mile northward from Vauxhall Bridge to Westminster Bridge, and is located in the London Borough of Lambeth.Albert Embankment is also the name given to the...

     and The Royal Albert Hall
    Royal Albert Hall
    The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....

    , moving on to Kensington
    Kensington
    Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

     and the Albert Memorial with scenes involving the Dalek roadblock being filmed at Wembley
    Wembley
    Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena...

    . Other key locations used were filmed at the abandoned Wood Lane (Central Line) tube station
    Wood Lane (Central Line) tube station
    Wood Lane tube station is a disused station on the Central Line of the London Underground. It was built to serve the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908 and the 1908 Summer Olympics....

     in West London and river sequences both shot besides the River Thames
    River Thames
    The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

     at St Katherine's Dock in Wapping and at Kew railway bridge.
  • The music was composed and conducted by Francis Chagrin
    Francis Chagrin
    Francis Chagrin ,) was a composer of film scores and popular orchestral music, as well as a conductor.- Career :...

    .

Alternative titles

  • Working titles for this story included The Daleks, The Return of the Daleks and The Invaders. The story has at times been called World's End, most notably in the frontspiece of its novelisation. This is the title of the first episode and was applied to the story as a whole by the 1973 Radio Times
    Radio Times
    Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...

    10th anniversary special and several lists that copied it. See Doctor Who story title controversy. Interestingly, the story begins in the real World's End area of Chelsea in London
    Chelsea, London
    Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

    .

Cast notes

  • William Hartnell is absent from episode four, bar a single shot in the reprise from episode three. The Doctor appears briefly at the beginning of the episode with Hartnell's stand-in, Edmund Warwick, shot from behind, groaning and falling over. Hartnell was injured while filming the battle at the Dalek saucer in episode three, and most of his lines went to David Campbell. According to commentary on the DVD release, the man carrying Hartnell down the saucer's ramp dropped him and he hit his head on the metal stand of the camera. Warwick went on to appear as the First Doctor's robotic double in the later Dalek serial, The Chase
    The Chase (Doctor Who)
    The Chase is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 22 May to 26 June 1965. The story is set on multiple locations including the Mary Celeste, the Empire State Building, and the planet Aridius...

    .
  • Nicholas Smith appears in his first speaking role in television. He was originally only to have appeared in episode three, but according to Smith on a documentary accompanying the serial's DVD release, he talked the director into letting him lead the miners' revolution in episodes five and six.
  • Bernard Kay portrays Carl Tyler (and also provides the voiceover on the longer of the two surviving BBC trailers for this story). He would later appear in The Crusade
    The Crusade (Doctor Who)
    The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. The story is set in Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade.-Plot:...

    , The Faceless Ones
    The Faceless Ones
    The Faceless Ones is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 8 to May 13, 1967. The story concerns a race of identity-stealing aliens known as the Chameleons...

    , and Colony in Space
    Colony in Space
    Colony in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 6 weekly parts from April 10 to May 15, 1971.- Synopsis :...

    as well as the audio play Night Thoughts.
  • According to Carole Ann Ford, she got tired of the role of Susan because the producers of the show would not let her expand and develop the character.

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...

, was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...

 in 1977. This version featured cover art based on the film rather than the TV series. A German translation
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 was published in 1981 by Schneider-Buch with the title Doctor Who - Kampf um die Erde (Doctor Who — Struggle for the Earth) with cover illustration by David A. Hardy
David A. Hardy
David A. Hardy , is the longest-established living space artist, having illustrated his first book in 1954....

. A French translation
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 was published in 1987 under the title Docteur Who - Les Daleks envahissent la Terre (Doctor Who — The Daleks invade the Earth). The cover depicts the controversial twin French physicists Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff
Bogdanov Affair
The Bogdanov Affair is an academic dispute regarding the legitimacy of a series of theoretical physics papers written by French twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanov . These papers were published in reputable scientific journals, and were alleged by their authors to culminate in a proposed theory for...

 as presenting the book.

VHS and DVD releases

  • This story was released on VHS
    VHS
    The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

     in 1990.
  • As part of the Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Celebration releases in June 2003, the story was released on Region 2 DVD
    DVD
    A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

     as a two-disc set, with several extra features. These included the option to view the story with certain special effects sequences replaced with newly created CGI
    Computer-generated imagery
    Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...

    .
  • The DVD was also included in a limited-edition box set with later stories Resurrection of the Daleks
    Resurrection of the Daleks
    Resurrection of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts between 8 February and 15 February 1984...

    and Remembrance of the Daleks
    Remembrance of the Daleks
    Remembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....

    .

External links

Fan reviews
Target novelisation
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