Last update: 15 June 2008

Please send all reviews to empire639@msn.com with the word REVIEW in the subject line.

Be one of the first to review this production.

Terry Cooper (Ladiver in the production) writes:

I got my eagerly-awaited copy of Curse Of The Daleks in the post today (Cheers Stuart!) and cancelled all further appointments for the day, drooling like the mad fanboy that I am...

Cover
Lovely DVD style cover utilising the Wyndham theatre poster, with its' Egyptian style stencilled graphics. A cryptic "The Theatre productions Volume One" on the bottom line...makes me wonder what's next!!!

The Play
I’ve watched about six of Altered Vistas' Dalek Chronicles so far, and this one definitely stands apart. The opening sequence with the theatre makes one feel as if you're about to take your seats in the dark. Great stuff. Then the opening credits and spooky music kick in and I was reminded of the Peter Cushing movies - appropriate for a 60's production.

The show is really well put together - at times the camera angles are very cinematic and other times the feel of a stage play comes across really well.

There's so much to comment on in this production, so I'll try to get through it all without too much waffle! The casting is great. An ensemble that works really well. Hearing my own voice as Ladiver embedded into the rest of the voices made me feel like Tom Hanks in a Pixar movie - finally you get to hear how it all plays out, and you can hardly tell that the parts were recorded separately. Great job. The incidental music and background sound effects are just right too - the test is that you don't really notice when the music comes in and out. It's very natural, and all adds to the emotional impact of the scenes. Act one ends with a good cliffhanger at a natural point in the story.

The cast are all very good and deliver their lines confidently. Notably, Rocket Smith is excellent - I kept hearing shades of David Tennant there... Stuart take note! He was very natural sounding and easy to listen to. Captain Redway was also impressive - his cynicism and temper were pitch perfect. I played Ladiver as requested - in a laconic, sarcastic drawl, and I'm very happy with my input, but looking at it now, I kind of think a cheekier delivery like Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow (which is one of my many impressions) might've worked well there too!

Nothing is 100% perfect in any production, and only two tiny things slightly detracted from the polished finish. Professor Vandelyn was performed well, but there was an audio quality problem, which made his voice a little radio-like. And a couple of Marion Clements' lines sometimes sounded a little bit forced, like a Star Trek computer voice. The Daleks themselves were also reminiscent of the '60's movie voices, and although they're fine for this play, I would've loved to hear a different take on them, such as Roy Skelton's or Nick Briggs delivery, with an altered modulation. But these things are very minor and don't really stand out too much. I'm just trying to be fair. Even my Ladiver could've benefited from a bit more emotion at times. Harry Sline was great though. A real 'Nick Frost' kind of character, whose look fit the voice perfectly.

To sum it up, it's a mammoth job and it beggars belief to think this entire production is the sterling work of one man, working all the hours available for little or no return. Hats off to Stuart/Empire 639 for a huge leap forward in the quality and ambition of these amazing shows. It's completely absorbing and fascinating to watch a play that was on the theatre stage FOUR YEARS before I was even born, and a privilege and an honour to appear in it alongside such a brilliant cast. Kudos!!!!!!

Lindsay Blackwood writes:

Just watched Curse of the Daleks and enjoyed it thoroughly. I did not know that much about the plot etc, but was rivetted all the way through.

I loved the start of each act with the curtains closed and the sound of the orchestra tuning up. A very nice touch.

Thanks again.

Roger Smith (AKA Black Dalek) writes:

Well what can you say - after a 43 year wait and countless readings of the script I finally get to see it in all its glory.

It is well worth the wait and I am so glad I let Stuart have a copy. Stuart and the whole cast have done a FANTASTIC job.

Starting with the opening, I love the nod at the Peter Cushing films - all that colour and sound is brilliant.

Act One is a little slow but there are reasons - lots of introductions, expositions. The atmosphere is perfect, so desolate, but it does not take long to warm to the characters. Sorry, Trevor, but you are quite right, Rocket Smith does steal the show with a little help from Stuart’s camera work, angles you would not have see in the theatre (nice ass, Marion).

Act Two and it all comes together very well indeed, few red herrings and a great twist. So it is more of a whodunnit than a sci-fi story - most enjoyable.

Now my question is does Skaro do internet Thal brides as they are ‘very fit’ (I believe is the current expression).

As for the extras:

Disc One, Curse Cubed: lovely images from Iain McClumpha and voice by Stuart from the original text from the theatre programme. Wonderful stuff.

Desert Island Discs: What can I say? It had me believing right to the end credits. Fantastic job by Jonathan Redwood. You must bring out a Hartnell comic strip.

Disc Two, Original Curse: very good potted history of the play. Where on earth do you get all the information?

Over all what can you say, the whole package is ASTOUNDING. Great addition to a growing and most welcome collection.

So once again many many thanks to all involved.

John C writes:

I’ve only just found out about these productions. A post on “Howe’s Transcendental Toybox” lead me to the web site and I thought I’d give Curse of the Daleks a try. I’m glad I did…

I was very impressed with the whole production. It flowed well and genuinely drew you in to the story. It’s amazing that all the parts were recorded separately because it all hangs together beautifully. Admittedly, there was some differences in the acoustics of a couple of the voices but this did not distract from the story at all. Good performances all round. The Dalek voices were excellent.

Visually it maintained the feel of a play with everything revolving around a small number of sets. The characters are depicted convincingly and the lip sync, while not perfect, adds to the whole effect.

I must also comment on one the extras. The Desert Island Discs with Jonathan Redwood was a definite highlight – I enjoyed it a great deal.

Thanks to all involved for the time and effort involved in bringing this play to the small screen. Well done, Stuart, for pulling all of it together. I’m certainly looking forward to the next AV whatever it may be.

Now I’m off to order the ones I’ve missed from the past…

Trevor Sproston writes:

I’ve just watched Curse if the Daleks, and I’d like to pass on my heartiest congratulations. This is obviously an ambitious project, and the amount of time and work spent upon it are evident in the production. The modelling of the characters has improved significantly, as has the animation. The faces in particular are an order of magnitude better than in, say, Abslom Daak, and they now walk more convincingly, with definite “weight” to them.

To my ears, the “Clements” character unfortunately sounds rather monotonous, compared to the others – she seems to be angry most of the time, and “would make a good Dalek”. Perhaps Whitaker found it difficult to create a believable female character.

Regarding the play itself: it’s very much of its time, and it’s meant as an adventure for kids. It’s not great theatre, but nonetheless an essential artefact for all Dalekophiles, which we can only appreciate thanks to Altered Vistas, and I’m very grateful to you all for the time and effort you’ve all put in to recreate it. As a kid, I would never have had the chance to go and see it.

One minor continuity quibble: in the second act, there are two occasions when the Black Dalek is at the console, and you can see that his image has been reversed - his gun is on the wrong side – but I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.

The extras are well thought out. The programme notes are a neat inclusion, and Iain McClumpha’s graphics are first class – really atmospheric and nostalgic. As regards Jonathan Redwood’s William Hartnell – well I was totally fooled. A brilliant impersonation. The Real Curse is once again, an informative article.

Adam Bullock writes:

I've just (this minute!) finished watching Curse of the Daleks and had to say a big thankyou - this is an epic effort (possibly the best fan production I've ever seen). I'm beginning to think you have an army of clones locked in a basement somewhere to keyframe all that animation. I’ve dabbled with animation myself and it's mind-boggling to think how much work has gone into this.

The direction is top quality, really bringing out a lot of drama and tension, the lighting is superb - both the moody interior stuff and the subtle daylight. The scene where it begins to get dark really conveyed the atmosphere of nightfall on Skaro well.

The human characters are very convincingly animated, the movement nice and fluid. The lipsyncing works well - I presume that a lot of this was done with the program called CrazyTalk. Does this make it much easier? Admittedly, the mouths don't always completely close as characters talk, but this is so minor I really stopped noticing after a couple of minutes.

Well done to all the cast, too. Although not all professional actors, the performances were consistently good throughout, giving the source material a very convincing delivery.

On top of this feature-film effort, there's also the extras. The Desert Island Discs re-creation is uncanny - Jonathan Redwood is almost spot-on, not only sounding like Hartnell but getting a lot of his speech mannerisms too. On the basis of this I can't wait to watch The Invasion from Space later (let's hope we'l be hearing more from the First Doctor in the future). It really felt like I was hearing Hartnell talk, and conveyed a lot of insight into the man. Curse cubed was fun, and the renders of the cube were beautiful - some very '60s settings.

Finally, the easter-egg (I assume it was intended as such, since it's not listed on the CD sleeve) - what can I say? I had to have a break half way through in order to collect my jaw from the floor where it had fallen! An amazingly well-executed animation.

Also, may I add a lot of thanks for all the previous productions - although I was aware of the '60s comics, I wasn't familiar with them, and so approached the animations as a fresh drama series. Your meticulous work on each has really brought this alternative Dalek history to life.

Andrew Scott writes:

Everything stopped this afternoon just after a parcel was pushed through the letter box.

I tore open the package and was greeted by the latest Altered Vistas releases.

I thought I would have a quick look at the first part of The Curse of the Daleks.

I was hooked from the beginning and carried on watching till the cliff-hanger to Part One. Once again these guys have produced another lovingly crafted work and I just want to take the time to say A BIG THANK YOU for all your time and effort.

It wasn't just that I was enthralled by the play, but then I went on to the extras. The Dalek cube section was really enjoyable but the best ever must be the Desert Island Discs with William Hartnell

A shiver went down my spine while listening and I was amazed at the end to discover it wasn't actually Hartnell's voice. I did a bit of a double take as it sounded exactly like him.

Anyway can't wait to find out what happens in the next part of The Curse of the Daleks.

And of course then there is the reading of the Invasion from Space annual complete with CGI bits to bring it to life.

Was there ever a better time to be a Doctor Who fan?

I really don't think so.

Tom Tyrrell writes:

The Curse of the Daleks is a really enjoyable play, very well served by this adaptation. Forty years too young to see it first time around, I was looking forward to the chance to experience another obscure yet fascinating corner of Doctor Who lore.

The story itself is a tightly plotted base-under-siege story reminiscent of some of Patrick Troughton’s best, though it doesn't drag quite as much as one of those lengthy six-parters. It reminded me particularly of one of my favourite films, John Carpenter's Assualt on Precinct 13, as much for its tense and spartan structure as for the inclusion of the mysterious and charismatic convict who steals every scene he's in - Ladiver is a dead ringer for Napoleon Wilson! I didn't guess the identity of the traitor, but I think that was mostly because David Whitaker cheated a bit with the plot twist. The female characters are variously a frosty spinster stereotype and a faithful wife stereotype, but it's a play of its time. The plot spins out at a slow, tense and very involving pace, with the Daleks kept mostly in the background. It's a very eerie moment when they first start to move

The animation was excellent as usual, though I did find it a little distracting the way everyone's teeth moved with their mouth (sounds odd, looks odder).

Of the extras; an absolutely seamless recreation of William Hartnell's Desert Island Discs - I didn't even know it was Jonathan Redwood until they told me so at the end - an entertainingly demented story of Dalek history concealed in glass cubes, accompanied by some amusing illustrations; and an informative mini documentary on the history of the stage play. Another excellent package.

Kevin Turner writes:

It’s taken a while to find time to sit down and finally watch The Curse of the Daleks, and it was well worth the wait!

From the sixties-style opening to the final twist of the whodunnit at the end, the quality of this video is excellent. The lip syncing and the actors were first class, please pass on my congratulations to them all.

This story shows the Daleks for what they were, total dominators. Unfortunately we have not seen them like this in the new Doctor Who series, but we live in hope. Anyway back to Curse... this was one of those productions that once you start watching, you have to see it all. I must say I enjoyed it very much and I look forward to more of the same, which I know will happen. Again congrats to you and your team for keeping the true Daleks alive.

Alan Mckenzie writes:

I have just finished watching copies of Curse of the Daleks and Invasion from Space, kindly copied for me by Steve Norris. Very different in style, both from The Dalek Chronicles and from each other, I enjoyed both immensely on their own merits.

Unfortunately, I never got the chance to see "Curse" as a stage play - can't think why; at that time, at the age of 9, anything concerning the Daleks was a "must" for me! There must have been a very good reason why my mother was unable to take me up to Wyndhams to see it.

However, that omission has now been righted, albeit over forty years later. Another excellent production technically, the new-style facial and mouth movement with speech was quite effective and the sound quality very good indeed. The only problem I have found with some of the other AV productions is that occasionally, it has been rather difficult to make out what the characters, particularly the Daleks, are saying. This time however, there were no such problems.

Never having seen the play, I found the plot-lines and expressions fascinating. They are a wonderful time-capsule of the 1960s, reminding me of many things I'd forgotten about. They also illustrate graphically, a very common and actually rather endearing trait which runs through a great deal of 1950s & 1960s sci-fi; i.e. the apparent inability of the writers to imagine any technology much beyond that which existed at the time of writing, even though the stories were set perhaps a hundred or more years into the future.

Thus we still have transistors in common usage, while the Thals go one better and, apparently, still use thermionic valves from which, bizarrely, the filaments are removable! You might have thought that during the Daleks' long "sleep" the Thals might have had a look round the Dalek city and investigated or reverse-engineered some of the Dalek kit. Or maybe, the Daleks were still at the crystal and cat's-whisker stage!!!

In that sense, Curse is very similar to Thunderbirds where, although supposedly set in 2067, we still have reel-to-reel tape recorders, analogue meters and massive, 1940s-style indicator lamps!

I also loved the reference to a "50/- watch"! Oh for the old pre-decimal money and the prices and value that went with it - gone forever, I'm afraid.

I think had I seen Curse on stage, I would have been fidgeting with frustration throughout the first half, due to lack of Daleks. After all, you don't go to see a play about the Daleks to spend the first half sitting listening to a bunch of humans spouting endless 1960s technobabble, do you! I guess however, that the moment when the inert Dalek in the courtyard came to life and "snuck off" without anybody noticing would have been good in the theatre. You can just imagine all the children (and probably some of the adults too) yelling "It's behind you!" as he glided silently away.

Yes, all in all, another triumph for Altered Vistas, I would say.

Thank again to AV for two very enjoyable new productions.

(ALAN’S INVASION FROM SPACE REVIEW CAN BE READ ON THE REVIEW PAGE FOR THAT PRODUCTION)

Bryan Simcott writes:

I watched this all in one go, and then later in two parts on separate days. I do wonder how you work you magic with these things, as I assume, bar the odd close up and a few angles here and there, that most of the production was done to give an overall stage feel, with lots of wide shots. Was there any time when you thought to edit the whole thing down? As it says in the documentary, the whole production is very flat, until the Daleks arrive and, even then, it’s a bit long.

The actual production is brilliant, and gives a real feel of what the story would have been like to see. It’s one of those mythical Doctor Who beasts. and at last I’ve been able to see it. I loved some of the ‘camera’ angles on the Daleks inside the city. It’s a pity that with all your wonderful technical skills, the actual plot and script were not a bit more up beat.

Do you ever decide to make a production, then like this one, realise halfway through how long it is and wonder if you should do it, or do you even like it as a story/production? Would you still work on something if it wasn’t really firing you up? There’s nothing like a plodding script to still a beating heart, each morning when you wake, realising you have to just keep going with it. It’s testament to your commitment that you did finish this and made it such a wonderful release. I’m not sure I would have had your dedication, with some of the very long-winded passages, lip syncing, and general ponderousness of the whole thing. I’m sure this version, in colour and with MORE Daleks that I imagine the stage version would have had, is the very best way to encapsulate the production and bring it alive to a new (and in some cases) older audience.

Thanks for continuing to surprise with each release

Tony Kennedy writes:

this is the first review I’ve given for a while. It was, as usual, brilliant. I’d had no idea what to expect from this as I had no previous knowledge of the storyline before.

l loved the sets, the cast where very clear in their dialogue, and the animation was beautiful.

One disappointment though, this one didn’t go down too well with the kids (think they’ve now been spoiled by the TV show.)

Can’t beat them all, looking forward the next production