I’d seen the sequel (Daleks Invasion 2150 AD) years before on VHS, having heard that it was the better of the two movies. I didn’t hate it: not enough of a Whovian to care about the continuity issues, too fond of the top-billed actor to object to any PG-ish film that gave him a likable and somewhat prominent character. But I didn’t feel like I had a strong grip on what was going on (see: not much of a Whovian, above), and the film didn’t interest me enough to survive the Great VHS Purge of Ought-Something. (But then again very little did.)

Recently picked up both films on Blu Ray, because they were cheap and I felt like stockpiling blu-rays for…reasons, and watched Dr. Who and the Daleks. Seeing Basil of Baker Street and the Inspector from Dracula AD 1972 stalk around in tacky alien makeup and costumes took some getting used to. Never did get used to the awful techno-babble.

Even so, I thought this was a charming little movie with some cool big-screen visuals, plus a hilarious precursor to the Storm Trooper Impersonation sequence in A New Hope and goofy but entertaining performances from the main players. (Although, if you have some inexplicable need to see the top-billed actor being humorous, you would probably be better off with Revenge of Frankenstein, Island of Terror, or Legend of the Werewolf.)

And now, I suspect, Invasion 2150 AD will make more sense when I watch it on blu ray. Somewhat. Anyway, my opinion of this film doesn’t matter much, and I doubt I’ll find anything to say about the sequel, but I wanted to say: boy, sometimes it just doesn’t pay to skip the introductory adventure, no matter how badly the reviewers trash it.

https://www.nasa.gov/specials/trackartemis/

Because we didn’t have access to this stuff on the internet when I was a kid.