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Serial: K  Episode Nos. 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, and 51. Title: The Dalek Invasion of Earth

The TARDIS returns to London, but it is not the London Ian and Barbara remember.  The streets are empty,
dead bodies float in the river, and flying saucers fly overhead.  The Doctor and his companions are horrified to find
it subjugated by robotized human slaves serving masters they had thought dead... the Daleks.

This story marks the departure of Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman.

starring William Hartnell as Dr. Who, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright, and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman.  Written by Terry Nation, Associate Produced by Mervyn Pinfield, Produced by Verity Lambert, and Directed by Richard Martin..

Originally transmitted from 21 November 1964 to 26 December 1964 on BBC1.

The DVD features are as follows:

2 Disc Set. 

On Disc 1: 

-     All 6 episodes of the serial, cleaned and restored and given VidFIRE video-look reprocessing treatment. 

-         Graphical menus, episode selection features, and scene selection features.

-         Commentary track by actors William Russell (Ian), Carole Ann Ford (Susan), producer Verity Lambert, and director Richard Martin.  Moderated by Gary Russell. 

-         Production Notes Subtitles

-         Original 4:3 aspect ratio

-         Original BBC1 broadcast trailers.

-         CGI Effects Sequences option.   The disc authors have created some newly computer-generated replacement shots of the Dalek flying saucers and of the future London skyline.  You’ll only see them, however, if you select this option first from the Special Features menu, as the default version on the disc uses the original effects.  You also have the option to watch all of the new sequences in one edited-together lump rather than as part of the action of the show.

-    Subtitles option, displaying captions for the hearing impared.

On Disc 2:

-         Instead of the usual FBI copyright warning, as the disc boots up a Dalek voice (original voice artist David Graham) warns you not to copy the disc or you will be exterminated!

-         Future Visions – an 18-minute featurette on the production design of the story mainly featuring the story’s Designer Spencer Chapman.

-         Future Memories – a 45-minute featurette on the making of the serial from the point of view of the guest cast.  The interview subjects include Ann Davies (Jenny), Bernard Kay (Caldwell), Peter Fraser (David Campbell), David Graham (Dalek voice), Nick Evans (Dalek and Slyther operator), Nicholas Smith (Wells), and Peter Hawkins (Dalek voice). 

-         Talking Daleks – a 10-minute featurette on the design and recording of the Dalek voices with interview subjects David Graham and Peter Hawkins (Dalek voice artists) and Brian Hodgson, the sound designer of the time from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

-         Now and Then – a 7-minute featurette contrasting the London locations used in the story as they appeared in 1964 during production with how they look today, narrated by Gary Russell.

-         Script to Screen – a 6-minute featurette demonstrating graphically how the cameras in the television studio used a “camera script” to direct their movements during the recording of a scene.

-         40th Anniversary Celebration – a 3-minute “music video” featurette showing various clips from the entire Doctor Who series set to a re-edited version of the theme music as recorded by the dance music group Orbital.

-         Blue Peter – 7 minutes of material from a 1960s episode of the BBC children’s show Blue Peter where a female host demonstrates how the kids at home can make their own Dalek cakes.

-         Whatever Happened to Susan?  - a 28-minute BBC radio drama purporting to tell the story of what happened to the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan.  Of course, being a radio drama, there is only a static shot of Susan appearing on the screen as the sound plays.

-         Rehearsal Film – About 1 and a half minutes of home movie footage of the recording of the final episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth that was shot by Carole Ann Ford in the studio on her final day.  She had unfortunately double-exposed the film, so the images are mixed together with those of an old couple playing golf, but it’s still intelligible and an intriguing unique look at the studio and sets.  In color.

-         Photo Gallery

-         Who’s Who – cast biography information

-         Subtitles option.  All featurettes can be played with caption subtitles for the hearing impared.

-    2 Easter Eggs.  Use your mouse to highlight the blank-looking area below and you’ll see how to find them and what they are.

            1st Egg: Highlight the “40th Anniversary Celebration” selection, then press your left arrow.  A Doctor Who logo will appear.  Select that, and you will     see a newly-made rendering of the Slyther attacking a Dalek Invasion of Earth title card.(Just because it’s newly made though, doesn’t mean it’s           convincing. J)

            2nd Egg: Highlight the “Whatever Happened to Susan” selection, then press your left arrow.  A Doctor Who logo will appear.  Select that, and you will         see Sid the Slyther back, this time on a London street, trying to get a date. 

-    There is a small authoring mistake in the DVD of The Dalek Invasion of Earth that’s worth mentioning, but certainly not enough to merit

     anything like returning your disc or a recall.  They have incorrectly left the “surfing” option open on the scenes where there are alternative CGI

     shots available.  This causes your player to put an “angle feature” icon up on these scenes when it shouldn’t, and lets you switch from the

     default original shots to the CGI or back, which it also shouldn’t.  You’re only supposed to be able to turn the CGI shots on from the DVD’s

     menu.  Anyway, you can stop this distracting icon from popping up by going into your DVD player’s menu and switching off the “angle feature”

     option you’ll find there somewhere.