In the mid 1970s the BBC repeated the film Daleks Invasion Earth 2050 AD starring
Peter Cushing. My Doctor was Jon Pertwee, but I loved this interloper with wing-mirror
cheekbones. Cushing’s second big screen starring role as remains my favourite
childhood memory of Doctor Who. I was eight years old and still remember the
excitement I felt as the Red Command Dalek snapped in his computer-voice
‘Resist and you will be exterminated’. My friends and I were so impressed by
the Red Command Dalek that we invented games with cunning elaborate escapes
from the malevolent metal killer. However, my strategy was the most cunning.
The Northern Irish amusement arcade Barry’s
(Northern Ireland’s Disney), had as its pride of place a Red Commando Dalek
which one could climb into, operate the controls and simulate the experience of
being a Dalek. After the Daleks’ imminent invasion of earth, I would occupy the
red Dalek; infiltrate their ranks: they would fail to detect my ruse; and earth’s
resistance would be aided by my cunning subterfuge. The memory is as lucid as
the red fascist Dalek itself; and has bequeathed me with the lasting conviction
that Peter Cushing is the Doctor. | 
