Grey Dalek (Robots Ad)
Several Daleks, including a Grey Dalek, a Skaro City- or Mechanus Attack-like Blue Dalek, and a Gold Dalek, were employed at a dysfunctional call centre for a banking company, alongside various other robotic beings.
After a caller guilelessly tried to get through to the services they needed, the call was transferred by the B9 Robot to John Robot. John then attempted to pass the call to the Grey Dalek, who was flanked by the Blue Dalek. However, because the Dalek could not hold a phone receiver in its manipulator arm, the phone instead dropped to the ground. This angered the Grey Dalek, who began shouting "Exterminate! Exterminate! Destroy!" and firing at John while a frantic B9 Robot again repeated "Your call is important to us!" to no one in particular. (TV: Robots Ad [+]Loading...["Robots Ad (TV story)"])
Behind the scenes
This Dalek and the Gold Dalek, among the props provided by Retro Universal Robots at the behest of BBC Worldwide, were both played by the same Dalek operator, Andrew Corson, in different shots that were then spliced into the same edit.[1]
The prop was one of the seven main Daleks built by Corson for Canberra Daleks & Robots. According to its blurb on the official website, this prop was eventually repainted into a 1960s-style black-domed Silver Dalek.
The Grey Dalek was built between 1986 and 1988. The Warrior or Worker Dalek is the most common type of Dalek. During the 1960s their outer casing was silver, changing over to various shades of grey in the 1970s. The base of a Dalek is covered by hemispheres. In the 1960s these were a light sky blue then black in the 1970s. "This was my first Dalek and it took 18 months to build. I started on the base section first, using diagrams from the 1983 technical manual. I wasn't able to complete the job until I obtained a copy of plans published in the Radio Times. Why did I build a Dalek? It was so I could participate in the Canberra Festival street parade. What better way to conceal oneself?"
One scene ultimately deleted from the finished product saw the Grey Dalek enter a small "confrontation" with a white Imperial Dalek when the two faced each other at a corridor junction that was too narrow for the two of them to pass at the same time. The White Dalek was on set throughout the production but is not visible in any of the shots used in the final edit.[1]
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 9 March 2005 ANZ Bank Advert. Facebook. Archived from the original on 7 September 2024. Retrieved on 7 September 2024.
- ↑ About. Canberra Daleks & Robots. Archived from the original on 7 September 2024. Retrieved on 7 September 2024.
