Red Dalek (Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)

Red Dalek
Species:	Dalek
Place of origin:	Skaro
First appearance:	Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.
Appearances:	HOMEVID: Untitled 1

A Red Dalek commanded the Daleks' ship during the occupation of Earth in 2150, and was destroyed like the other invaders thanks to the efforts of Tom Campbell and Dr. Who. (TV: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)

The Dalek Survival Guide identified a Red Saucer-Pilot Dalek as a member of the Dalek Invasion Force in the version of history "B" relative to the First Doctor's version of history "A". (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide) In the "A" reality, a black-and-silver Dalek saucer commander supported the Black Dalek Leader designated Supreme Controller in the Dalek Earthforce; (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) the guide acknowledged a report claiming this Dalek was red rather than black. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)

Characteristics

The Red Dalek had a casing mostly coloured red, consisting of the dome section, middle section and lower section. As with all Daleks on Earth, it sported a tall black fender at the bottom of the lower section, two cone-shaped luminosity dischargers which stood atop the dome and flashed when the Dalek spoke, coloured red like the Black Dalek, alongside mostly silver accessories; the neck rings which supported its black neck grille, slats across the middle section, middle section bands atop and below the arm sockets, and the eyestalk that connected the eye lens, which appeared as a shining white disc at the face of a black ball, to the dome's pivot, supported by five light blue discs. The left and right arms of the middle section were a gunstick and claw manipulator arm respectively. The sense globes in the Red Dalek's lower section were coloured silver. (TV: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)

Biography

In London, the Red Dalek oversaw the Robomen patrols and transport of human prisoners into the Dalek spaceship. (TV: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) The Black Dalek, the Red Dalek and two Robomen once patrolled a street of the ruined London, narrowly missing the presence of an older Susan in TARDIS, which they mistook for an unremarkable real police box and glided past without comment. (HOMEVID: Untitled 1)

Presented with Craddock and Thompson, two humans responsible for the deaths of two Robomen, the Red Dalek ordered they be robotised to replace them. When Thompson was killed in an escape attempt, the Red Dalek warned the prisoners that any further resistance would be dealt with in the same way. Within the spaceship, the Red Dalek saw that the prisoners, including Dr. Who, Tom Campbell and Craddock, were taken to cells in groups of three. Soon after, Dr. Who was able to open the cell door, thus passing the Daleks' intelligence test for robotisation. Intercepting Dr. Who's group, the Red Dalek had them taken in for the robotisation process which it oversaw. When it came time for Dr. Who's group to be robotised, resistance fighters David and Wyler led an attack into the Dalek spaceship. The Red Dalek survived the engagement, which resulted in many deaths on both sides while Dr. Who and Ian were set free.

Aboard the spaceship, the Red Dalek, on the orders of the Gold Dalek, pursued a van which was ultimately destroyed, not realising that Wyler and Susan had escaped. Soon after, the spaceship landed in Bedfordshire, where human slaves were made to mine to further the Daleks' goal to extract the magnetic core of the Earth, which would allow them to pilot the planet like a giant spaceship; having found a fracture in the Earth's crust, the Daleks intended to drop a explosive device through the fracture, which would cause the metallic core to burst out and plunge towards the Sun, killing all humans in the area.

Ultimately, the Black Dalek reported that the Earth's outer core had been penetrated and so oversaw preparations for the explosive capsule with the Red Dalek and the Gold Dalek. Reporting to the Gold Dalek that Dr. Who, the "rebel leader", had been captured, the Red Dalek was ordered to position the capsule. However, Dr. Who stalled by offering to help neutralise the Daleks' weakness to magnetism. Once the Robomen arrived, Dr. Who seized the control and ordered the Robomen to attack the Daleks. Though the control room was soon secured, Dr. Who and company escaped, creating a distraction and so the capsule was dropped only to explode off-course. As the Daleks were all summoned into the spaceship, they were incapacitated by the magnetic forces. Unable to control itself, the Red Dalek fell down the shaft where the capsule had been dropped, following the Black Dalek before the ship itself crashed, destroying all the Daleks on Earth. (TV: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)

Behind the scenes

Prop

The Red Dalek was depicted using a specially constructed prop.

The Witch's Familiar

The Red Dalek among its brethren. (DOC: The Witch's Familiar: Behind the Scenes)

A Red Dalek identical to this individual was to be one of the Daleks in the rebuilt Dalek City in The Witch's Familiar.

However, while it was present on set during shooting, no footage of this particular Dalek prop made it to the final cut of the episode, with its existence only being revealed through production photographs released on the BBC website.

Had the shot been retained in the finished episode, this would have constituted one of the few instances of acknowledgement of material from the two Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies in the TV series proper, alongside the Fourth Doctor's reminiscing about the resolution of Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. in Genesis of the Daleks.

Other matters

No Red Dalek was present in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the black and white TV serial which was adapted into Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.. However, Susan and the Daleks, a live-action minisode featuring Carole Ann Ford, released in 1993 as part of 30 Years in the TARDIS, did eventually depict a Red Dalek as active in the "TV version" of the invasion.