The Beatles may have been “more popular than Jesus” by 1966, but in 1964 the Daleks were providing some stiff competition. Their appearance in Doctor Who's second adventure captured the public imagination, launching a wave of merchandising. So the time was ripe for someone savvy to place them — as the eventual trailer excitedly declared — “in colour on the big screen, closer than ever before!”
Alert to the money-spinning potential of the craze, producer Joe Vegoda secured the rights to the Daleks’ TV debut from the BBC. Milton Subotsky — co-founder of Amicus, the British studio behind anthology horrors like Dr Terror's House Of Horrors — set about compressing Terry Nation's scripts into a screenplay, turning the Doctor into a “brilliant science professor” (played in avuncular fashion by Peter Cushing). As Amicus was strongly associated with horror, it was decided to present this more child-friendly offering under the company AARU Productions.
When originally announced, the director attached was Freddie Francis, the Oscar-winning cinematographer on, who had also directed for Amicus. However, by the time production on began at Shepperton Studios he had — for reasons lost in the mists of time — been replaced by Gordon Flemyng (soon to father actor Jason).
