A 60-year-old Doctor Who movie is streaming now on Tubi. Doctor Who may be the world’s longest-running sci-fi TV show, but the Daleks were the aliens who really cemented the series’ future. The 1960s were the decade of “Dalekmania,” leading to epic adventures in which the Daleks even pursued the Doctor through time and space. Meanwhile, Peter Cushing starred in film adaptations of two classic William Hartnell adventures.
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One of those, Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., is now streaming free on Tubi. Starring Peter Cushing, Roberta Tovey, Jill Curzon, and Bernard Cribbins, the story adapts the classic serial “The Dalek Invasion of Earth.” It opens with policeman Tom Campbell (played by Cribbins) stumbling into the TARDIS when he mistakes it for a police box. He’s the viewpoint character, used to introduce audiences to “Dr. Who” (as Cushing’s Doctor was officially called). Soon they wound up in the distant future, working to free humanity from the Daleks.
Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. is a Key Part of Doctor Who History
The Daleks have appeared in so many Doctor Who episodes, but the Peter Cushing movies were different. They were an opportunity for viewers to see the Daleks in color; the main TV show wouldn’t move to color until 1970, at the beginning of Jon Pertwee’s tenure. It’s leaner and slicker than the previous Dr. Who and the Daleks film, with more competent directing, even though it didn’t exactly come in for rave reviews at the time. It didn’t really need to; it was aimed at the schoolchildren who were shouting “Exterminate” in playgrounds.
Peter Cushing’s Dr. Who is, of course, generally considered non-canon – or as near to non-canon as Doctor Who can go, given showrunners like to ignore that idea. Bernard Cribbins, however, is most definitely canon; he returned to Doctor Who in the 2000s, playing Donna Noble’s grandfather Wilfred Mott. He made his final appearance in the 2023 special “Wild Blue Yonder,” shooting scenes shortly before his sad passing. Cribbins’ involvement alone makes Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. essential viewing.
It’s fascinating to contrast Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. with the original story that inspired it. The TV serial is undoubtedly better (in everything bar special effects), simply because it has more time to let the story breathe. The Robomen – humans under Dalek control – feel like they foreshadow the Cybermen, another classic Doctor Who villain introduced on the small screen in the same year. Cushing is a tremendous actor, portraying “Dr. Who” in a manner that echoes William Hartnell without being a simple copy. It’s definitely worth checking out, and then doing a compare and contrast.
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