The Cinema
The two Aaru Dalek films, produced by Milton Subotsky based on the first two BBC TV Dalek stores, were screened in Australia, but only for about a week each, during Christmas holidays. Dr. Who and the Daleks premiered in Sydney on 23 December 1965, with one of the Daleks (apparently the Red one) from the film in the foyer, while the next, Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. was unaccountably delayed for well over a year after its first British screening (from 22 July 1966), not being shown in Sydney until 15 December 1967. It is probable that one of the film Dalek casings was acquired from the film distributor by the new TV station, Channel Ten, as a Dalek made a number of appearances introducing children's programmes, it had been re-equipped so the many dots on its sides flickered as it spoke. The original 35mm Cinemascope film prints would subsequently have been sent around the South Pacific and on to other areas with links to Britain (presumably Singapore and Hong Kong), so were no longer available in Australia by 1974. Copies of the films were, however, retained as 16mm colour prints by "British Empire Films" later renamed "Australasian Film Hire", but these prints were not widescreen, but based on the standard TV format, available for hire to home and small-scale screenings. In late 1975, such a screening of Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. organised by Antony Howe for a group of fans may be said to mark the first organised fan activity in Australia, certainly in Sydney. The first film was to appear on TV not on the ABC but on a commercial station, Channel Seven, in black and white, but the second film did not get broadcast (on Channel Ten) until about 1980.
The films' director Gordon Flemyng was later to work on several ABC TV productions in the 1980s and the leading Dalek operator, Robert Jewell also migrated to Australia.
Read more about this topic: Doctor Who In Australia
Famous quotes containing the word cinema:
“The cinema is going to form the mind of England. The national conscience, the national ideals and tests of conduct, will be those of the film.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Strangers used to gather together at the cinema and sit together in the dark, like Ancient Greeks participating in the mysteries, dreaming the same dream in unison.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)