The Daleks

The Daleks (also known as The Mutants and The Dead PlanetTemplate:--) is the second serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC TV in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Christopher Barry and Richard Martin, this story marks the first appearance of the show's most popular villains, the Daleks, and the recurring Skaro people, the Thals.

In the serial, the First Doctor (William Hartnell), his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), and her teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) land in an alien jungle and are captured by the Daleks, a race of mutated creatures who survive off the radiation that remains in the atmosphere after a nuclear war with their enemies. As the group attempt to escape the Daleks, they discover more about the planet and the ensuing war, and attempt to broker a peace.

The Daleks was originally commissioned by script editor David Whitaker, having seen Nation's other writing work. Nation wrote a story outline, influenced by the threat of racial extermination by the Nazis. Whitaker and producer Verity Lambert were impressed, despite disapproval from the show's creator Sydney Newman, who wanted to avoid serials with "bug-eyed monsters". Barry directed several episodes of The Daleks, trailed by Martin who directed three episodes due to Barry's other commitments. The Daleks were designed by Raymond Cusick, and underwent several iterations, while the Dalek voices were achieved using a ring modulator.

The serial premiered with seven million viewers, and audiences grew as news about the Daleks spread; the show's overall audience increased by 50% after the final episode. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for Nation's script, although several reviewers criticised its length. It later received several print adaptations, as well as home media and soundtrack releases, and was adapted into a feature film starring Peter Cushing. A 75-minute colourised version was broadcast in 2023 for the programme's 60th anniversary.

Plot

The TARDIS lands in a petrified jungle, where the First Doctor (William Hartnell) tries to determine their position by taking a reading of the stars. He insists they explore a futuristic city they spot beyond the forest, but Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) are not convinced. In the forest, someone touches Susan Foreman's (Carole Ann Ford) shoulder; the Doctor does not believe her. Later, a box of vials is found outside the TARDIS. The Doctor claims the fluid link of the TARDIS is running low on mercury (a ruse he later admits to), forcing the crew to travel to the city in search of more mercury.

Barbara becomes separated from her colleagues in the city and is threatened by an unseen creature with a metal arm. Before long, the entire crew is captured by unseen creatures operating tank-like machines, the Daleks. Susan is eventually sent to retrieve anti-radiation drugs from the TARDIS after the Doctor realises this is what the box contained. Susan encounters a second species, the Thals, who used to be at war with the Daleks. The Thal who left the drugs reveals he encountered her in the forest. Susan attempts to broker peace between the two groups, and while it appears to work, the Daleks eventually betray the Thals, opening fire on them at what was supposed to be a peaceful exchange of food. The Daleks attempt using the anti-radiation drugs, but discover that they are fatal to Daleks. They conclude that Daleks need radiation to survive and decide to bombard the atmosphere with more radiation.

In the ensuing chaos, the Doctor and his companions escape with the Thals, and learn their version of the history of their planet. They also learn that the Thals are avowed pacifists. They are unable to leave Skaro, however, as the fluid link has been taken by the Daleks. In order to save them from the Daleks, the TARDIS crew convinces the Thals of the importance of aggression and warfare, and manages to lead the Thals in a successful attack against the Daleks. At the end, it is believed the Dalek race has been destroyed when their power supply is knocked out. The TARDIS crew leave Skaro, but an explosion in the TARDIS knocks them out.

Production

Conception and writing

The second serial of Doctor Who was always planned to be futuristic, due to the historical nature of the first serial, An Unearthly Child. In July 1963, the serial was titled Doctor Who and the Robots, to be written by Anthony Coburn and directed by Rex Tucker;Template:Sfn the latter was also set to direct the fourth serial, Doctor Who and the Mutants, for which script editor David Whitaker commissioned comedy writer Terry Nation on 31 July, impressed by his work in the science-fiction series Out of This World.Template:Sfn Nation had written a 26-page outline for a story entitled The Survivors at his home, influenced by the threat of racial extermination by the Nazis and the concerns of advanced warfare, as well as taking influences from H. G. Wells' novel The Time Machine (1895).Template:Sfn Impressed by the outline, producer Verity Lambert extended the serial from six to seven episodes on 8 August, to better express Nation's story.Template:Sfn

Show creator Sydney Newman and head of serials Donald Wilson were unhappy with the serial, having wanted to avoid featuring "bug-eyed monsters"; however, with no other scripts prepared, they were forced to accept the serial for production.Template:Sfn The serial was later brought forward to the second in broadcast order. Due to other sudden commitments, Nation quickly wrote the scripts for the serial at the rate of one per day.Template:Sfn On 16 September, following Tucker's departure from the show, Christopher Barry was appointed to direct the serial.Template:Sfn Lambert's original choice for director was Richard Martin, but Wilson wanted Barry to remain in charge. However, Barry's other work commitments led to a compromise by the production team: Barry would direct the early episodes of the serial, and Martin would trail him to gain more experience.Template:Sfn The serial went through a number of working titles during production, including The Survivors and Beyond the Sun, before settling as The Mutants towards the end of production.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Design and music

The designer originally assigned to this serial was Ridley Scott, later a famed film director. However, a problem with Scott's schedule meant that he was replaced by Raymond Cusick, who was thus given the task of realising the Dalek creatures.Template:Sfn Cusick based the design of the Daleks on a man sitting in a chair.<ref name="Fourth Dimension"/> Cusick's original design was tubular, with a plain skirt section, bumpy midriff with one pincer arm, and a short head with an eye-lens; Lambert rejected this design as being too expensive. It was decided that the designs should be more comfortable for the actors, allowing them to be seated. Cusick's second design was shorter, with a diamond-patterned body and larger head, and two double-jointed claw arms; one of the arms was replaced by a suction cup, due to the low budget of the production. The design was refined to fit over a small tricycle, and the arms were moved further down to allow the operator to see out of a metal gauze above the midriff. Lights were added to the dome to indicate which Dalek was speaking, as suggested by Barry.Template:Sfn

Shawcraft Models—who had designed parts of the TARDIS set—worked with Cusick to design the Daleks; when Cusick met with Shawcraft's Bill Roberts to discuss the project, he used a pepper pot to demonstrate the Daleks' movements.Template:Sfn The prototype (known internally as "Shawcraft One") had a wooden base, with the skirt section made using fibreglass. It stood at four-foot six-inches, allowing a small seated actor inside. The BBC approved of Shawcraft's designs, allowing three weeks for the final models. While Cusick wanted six Daleks, the £500 budget only allowed for four.Template:Sfn The final models stood at four-foot eight-inches, painted in silver with grey trimmings, and light blue balls on the skirt; the lights on the domes were Christmas tree lights covered by a ping-pong ball, operated by the actor inside.Template:Sfn

Nation once claimed that he came up with the name "Dalek" after seeing a set of encyclopedias with one volume spanning the section of the alphabet from Dal – Lek. However, he later admitted that this was a story for the press, and that he had just made up the name.Template:Sfn Barry commissioned Tristram Cary to provide the serial's incidental score, having worked together on No Cloak — No DaggerTemplate:Hsp; while Newman disliked Cary's work, Barry and Lambert convinced him otherwise. Barry had heard some musique concrète music and, intrigued by it, asked Cary to compose a strange and simplistic electronic score for the serial. About twenty minutes of music was used in the serial.Template:Sfn

Casting and characters

Actor Alan Wheatley was chosen to portray Temmosus, the leader of the Thals, having worked with Hartnell in an episode of The Flying Doctor in 1959; David Markham was originally considered for the role. Virginia Wetherell was cast as the female Thal named Dyoni, having previously worked with Martin. Dinsdale Landen was chosen to play Ganatus, but production date changes forced him to drop out of the serial; he was replaced by Philip Bond, with whom Barry had worked on No Cloak — No Dagger.Template:Sfn The names of the Thals were revised in the final script: Temmosus was originally Stohl, Alydon was Vahn, Ganatus was Kurt, Kristas was Jahl, Antodus was Ven, Dyoni was Daren, and Elyon was Zhor.Template:Sfn Four actors were chosen as Dalek operators, due to their small stature and muscular ability: Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Michael Summerton, and Gerald Taylor; Barry knew Manser as a sensitive actor who reacted well to voices, while Martin knew Taylor through repertory theatre. Due to the Daleks' electronic voices, it was considered impractical for the actors inside the machines to also deliver the dialogue. As a result, the Dalek voices were performed off-set by Peter Hawkins and David Graham.Template:Sfn Barry contacted the Post Office's Joint Speech Research Unit for information on electronic voices. Two samples were provided: one using a vocoder with low and medium monotone pitch; and one using written computer characters, generating a sound which was less human but more time-consuming. While Barry enjoyed these methods, the BBC opted to develop its own method to achieve a similar effect, as some of the Dalek speech was required in studio during production.Template:Sfn Martin worked with Brian Hodgson of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to find suitable tones; ultimately, the actors spoke through a lip-ribbon microphone, which was later given an electronic quality after passing through a ring modulator.Template:Sfn

Filming

A week of shooting took place from 28 October 1963, consisting mostly of inserts of the city and models.Template:Sfn Rehearsals for the cast began on 11 November; Nation only attended one session, due to work commitments. Some of the Dalek dialogue was pre-recorded on 13 November by Hawkins and Graham, portraying the higher-pitched "Dalek One" and lower-pitched "Dalek Two", respectively.Template:Sfn Weekly recording of the serial began on 15 November;Template:Sfn it was later discovered that the first recording was affected by induction—an effect in which the voices from the production assistants' headphones were clearly audible. The episode was re-recorded on 6 December, pushing the weekly recordings of episodes 4–7 back by one week.Template:Sfn The final episode was recorded on 10 January 1964.Template:Sfn

Reception

Broadcast and ratings

Template:Episode table The first episode was broadcast on BBC TV on 21 December 1963, and was watched by 6.9 million viewers. The following episode received 6.4 million viewers. By the third episode, news about the Daleks had spread, and the episode was watched by 8.9 million viewers.Template:Sfn An additional million viewers watched for the following two weeks, and the final two episodes reached 10.4 million;Template:Sfn by the end of the serial, the show's overall audience had increased by 50%.Template:Sfn To date, the serial has been repeated twice on the BBC: the final episode was broadcast on BBC Two late in the evening on 13 November 1999 as part of "Doctor Who Night", garnering 1.6 million viewers; and the serial was shown in three blocks from 5–9 April 2008 on BBC Four, as part of a celebration of the life and work of Lambert following her death in November 2007.Template:Sfn

BBC Enterprises prepared to dispose of the 16mm telerecordings of the serial in 1978. When this was discovered by fan Ian Levine and BBC Enterprises Film Sales employee John Bridger, they contacted Sue Malden of BBC Archives to request that the destruction of The Daleks, and all other remaining 1960s Doctor Who serials, should cease. Subsequently, the remaining film prints were relocated to the BBC archives for preservation.Template:Sfn A further copy of the fifth episode of the serial was discovered in the private collection of former BBC employee Francis Watson and returned to the BBC in 2004.Template:Sfn

Critical response

Following the broadcast of the fifth episode, the Daily MirrorTemplate:'s Richard Sear described the show as "splendid children's stuff", describing the cliffhanger as "smashing".Template:Sfn Retrospective reviews were also positive. In The Discontinuity Guide (1995), Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping described the serial as "brilliantly directed, full of inventive touches and wonderful set-pieces"; they noted that the first four episodes helped to launch Doctor Who to success, but wrote that the last three "comprise a B-movie trek through hideous landscapes", comparing it unfavourably to Flash Gordon.Template:Sfn In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker praised the serial for introducing the Daleks and lauded Cusick's designs, but felt that the Thals—particularly after the death of their leader Temmosus in the fourth episode—were "faceless stereotypes" used only for plot, and criticised their costume design.Template:Sfn In A Critical History of Doctor Who (1999), John Kenneth Muir similarly praised the Daleks, as well as Barry's "stylish" direction and the performances of Hill and Hartnell.Template:Sfn In 2006, DVD TalkTemplate:'s John Sinnott, despite noting that "there are a few parts that drag just a bit", commended the script for allowing the characters to develop and holding tension unlike the previous serial.<ref name="DVD Talk Review"/> In 2008, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times praised the strength of Nation's scripts, particularly the first three cliffhangers, but felt that "the urgency and claustrophobia dissipate towards the end", describing the final battle as "a disappointingly limp affair".<ref name="Radio Times Review"/> In 2011, Christopher Bahn of The A.V. Club wrote that the serial is "quite solid, full of well-paced action and some interestingly subtle characterizations, though it definitely begins to drag around the fifth episode, with a long trek through swamps and caverns that moves the plot forward by about an inch".<ref name="AV Club Review"/>

Commercial releases

The story was originally released on VHS on 5 June 1989, with a photomontage cover. A remastered version of the serial was released on VHS on 26 February 2001 under the title Doctor Who: The Daleks (Remastered). For the DVD release on 30 January 2006, the serial was released as part of Doctor Who: The Beginning alongside the first and third serials, with several special features, including audio commentary by the production team and a documentary on the creation of the Daleks.Template:Sfn

In print

The Daleks was the first Doctor Who serial to be adapted as a novel. Written by David Whitaker, the book was first published in hardback on 12 November 1964 by Frederick Muller Ltd as Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks. A paperback release by Armada Books followed in October 1965 with a new cover and interior illustrations by Peter Archer. Two international versions of the book were released in 1966: a Dutch hardback edition, Dr Who en de Daleks, was translated by Tuuk Buijtenhuijs; and American and Canadian hardback editions were licensed to Soccer Books and Saunders, respectively. In July 1967, a North American paperback was published by Avon Books, featuring a photomontage cover by Paul Weller.Template:Sfn

In 1972, Universal-Tandem Publishing acquired the rights to republish the title as part of the new Target Books range. Renamed Doctor Who and the Daleks, the book was published on 2 May 1973 with a new cover painting of Hartnell. The release also received several translations worldwide.Template:Efn A new version by Virgin Books titled Doctor Who – The Daleks, featuring a cover by Alister Pearson, was issued on 16 January 1992, and a reproduction of the Target book was published on 7 July 2011 with a cover by Chris Achilleos and foreword by fantasy author Neil Gaiman.Template:Sfn An illustrated version of the book, with art from Robert Hack, was released on 3 November 2022.<ref name="Timelash"/>

A verbatim transcript of the transmitted version of the serial, edited by John McElroy, was published by Titan Books in December 1989, and reissued in 1992.Template:Sfn An audiobook reading of the novelisation, narrated by William Russell, was published by BBC Audiobooks on CD on 7 March 2005, and later reissued on the five-CD set Doctor Who: Travels in Time and Space on 7 November 2005.Template:Sfn

Soundtrack

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Cary's music from this serial was first released on CD as part of Doctor Who: Devils' Planets – The Music of Tristram Cary by BBC Music on 1 September 2003.Template:Sfn The music also received an individual CD release, along with sounds by Hodgson and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, on 15 September 2017.<ref name="2017 CD"/>

Film version

In 1965, the serial was adapted by Milton Subotsky as a film, Dr. Who and the Daleks, starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who, Roberta Tovey as Susan, Roy Castle as Ian Chesterton and Jennie Linden as Barbara. The film also received a sequel in 1966, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., based on the 1964 serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth.Template:Sfn

The Daleks in Colour

A 75-minute colourised version of the serial, titled The Daleks in Colour, was announced on 2 November 2023, to celebrate Doctor WhoTemplate:'s 60th anniversary.<ref name="Radio Times 60th"/> It features a new score by Mark Ayres, original sound design, and new material written by incumbent showrunner Russell T Davies and recorded by original Dalek voice actor David Graham.<ref name="Radio Times 60th Date"/><ref name="Radio Times 60th RTD"/> Among the new material written by Davies was "Exterminate!", the Daleks' famous battle cry missing from the original story.<ref name="DWM Yearbook"/> Davies sought to colourise old Doctor Who serials shortly after returning the role of showrunner in early 2022, considering himself "the curator of a museum in some sense".<ref name="SMH Colour"/>Template:Sfn The Daleks in Colour was edited by Benjamin Cook.<ref name="Screen Rant 60th"/>

File:The Daleks in Colour - colour palette.png

For the colourisation, each character was allocated a colour palette for consistency.Template:Sfn

Rich Tipple led the project as lead colourisation artist after Doctor Who executive producers Joel Collins and Phil Collinson saw his fan-made work on YouTube.Template:Sfn Production began in November 2022 and ran for ten months;Template:Sfn Tipple was joined by Timothy K. Brown, Scott Burditt, and Kieran Highman. Characters had individual colour palettes, and each team member was allocated a different location for consistency: Tipple oversaw the Dalek city, Brown the TARDIS control room, Burditt the caves, and Highman the jungle.Template:Sfn The team sought to honour the original serial while making it appealing to new viewers.Template:Sfn<ref name="BBC Colour"/>

Colour photographs from the original filming were consulted but creative license was encouraged; instead of imitating the original sets, the team sought to create a version "if Doctor Who had original Star Trek money to produce something in colour, on colour cameras".Template:Sfn Discussions were required for some colours, such as the TARDIS console, which was painted green during filming to avoid camera flare but intended to look white, and Barbara's shirt, which was originally blue but made pink in the colourisation to avoid poor contrast.Template:Sfn Some changes included Skaro's red sky becoming green in the evenings.Template:Sfn

The Daleks in Colour aired on BBC Four on 23 November<ref name="Radio Times 60th"/> to 350,000 overnight<ref name="Twitter Freeman"/><ref name="Twitter Brown"/> and 499,000 consolidated viewers,<ref name="DWM Viewers"/> before becoming available on BBC iPlayer.<ref name="Radio Times 60th"/> It was released on DVD and Blu-ray, alongside the original seven-part serial, on 12 February 2024 in the United Kingdom,<ref name="Colour DVD UK"/> 19 March in the United States,<ref name="Colour DVD US"/> and 4 September in Australia.<ref name="Colour DVD Aus"/> It was also available as a SteelBook release.<ref name="Colour DVD"/> The TelegraphTemplate:'s Tristram Fane Saunders complimented the editing, and praised the original serial's production design, cinematography, and score.<ref name="Telegraph Colour Review"/> Bleeding CoolTemplate:'s Adi Tantimedh lauded the faster pacing for heightening performances and characterisation, though found some cuts too abrupt, flashbacks unnecessary, and picture quality unstable.<ref name="Bleeding Cool Colour Review"/> Comic Book ResourcesTemplate:'s Andrew Gladman considered Ayres score "a driving force" for the story's faster pace.<ref name="CBR Colour Review"/>

Soundtrack

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Ayres composed the score for The Daleks in Colour. While the production team originally considered a full re-score, Ayres insisted that Cary's original work be retained, as he was friends with Cary and Hodgson. He sought his work to be "both celebration and reinvention: respectful to the original, while not entirely reverential".<ref name="DWM Yearbook"/> A soundtrack of The Daleks in Colour, featuring Cary and Ayres's work, was released by Silva Screen Records on 13 September 2024, on digital platforms and as a two-disc set.<ref name="2024 Record"/><ref name="2024 SFX"/> The first disc features the soundtrack from the serial, while the second (exclusive to the physical release) features unused and alternate tracks.<ref name="2024 CD"/>

Bibliography

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External links

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