The Daleks
The Daleks is the second serial in 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, his granddaughter Susan Foreman, and her teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright 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 releases, and was adapted into a feature film starring Peter Cushing.
Plot
The TARDIS lands in a petrified jungle, where the First Doctor 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 and Barbara are not convinced. In the forest, someone touches Susan's 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, 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; 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. 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. Impressed by the outline, producer Verity Lambert extended the serial from six to seven episodes on 8 August, to better express Nation's story.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. 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. On September 16, following Tucker's departure from the show, Christopher Barry was appointed to direct the serial. 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. 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.
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. Cusick based the design of the Daleks on a man sitting in a chair. 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. 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. The prototype 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. 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.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. Barry commissioned Tristram Cary to provide the serial's incidental score, having worked together on No Cloak — No Dagger; 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.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.Filming
A week of shooting took place from 28 October 1963, consisting mostly of inserts of the city and models. 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. Weekly recording of the serial began on 15 November; it was later discovered that the first recording was affected by induction—an effect in which the voices from the production assistants' headphones was clearly audible. The episode was re-recorded on 6 December, pushing the weekly recordings of episodes 4–7 back by one week. The final episode was recorded on 10 January 1964.Reception
Broadcast and ratings
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. An additional million viewers watched for the following two weeks, and the final two episodes reached 10.4 million; by the end of the serial, the show's overall audience had increased by 50%. 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.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. 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.