YMMV / Dr. Who and the Daleks

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Halliwell's Film Guide described the film as "limply put together, and only for indulgent children", if not dismissing the Doctor Who franchise as a whole. The Doctor Who franchise is still going strong to this day, while Leslie Halliwell didn't get to live to see its fandom grow to millions as he died in 1989.
• Broken Base: Opinion is sharply divided amongst Doctor Who fans as to the quality of the films as, from the Doctor being a human named Dr. Who to the interior of the TARDIS, it's very hard to find common ground. Still, most fans agree that the production values, sets on Skaro, and special effects are fantastic, and there is also a generally good appreciation of Peter Cushing's performance.
• Common Knowledge: A lot of people criticize the film for having the Doctor be human instead of Gallifreyan. This is mainly a product of circumstance as at the time of its release the series hadn’t figured out his race yet, and it wouldn’t be until after this film that he would be recognized as an alien.
  • Same goes for him being actually named Doctor Who as this was early enough in the series where they were still establishing the character’s identity.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The film's version of Susan is widely agreed to be perhaps the best thing about it, for coming across as more fearless and competent than her much older counterpart in the TV series.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Taking full advantage of the colour technology provided by the cinema, the Daleks are all sorts of colours — which helped inspire Steven Moffat's Dalek overhaul.
  • Terry Nation himself alluded to ideas of a "pecking order" among his creations in interviews and other material.
• The Scrappy: Ian and Barbara, for being reduced from the quick-thinking, brave man and woman of action of their televised counterparts to being a complete and utter buffoon and a useless dead weight respectively.
• Special Effect Failure: The approaching Roman army seen at the end of the film is an obvious rear projection. Not only is the picture quality and color grading noticeably different compared to the rest of the film, but the footage is also shot from below, whereas the Tardis doors are shot from head-on, making it look like the Tardis is about eighteen inches tall.

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