The Daleks (TV story)

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"The Daleks" was the second story of the first season of Doctor Who and marked the first appearance of the Daleks, a race of creatures that would become known as the Doctor's greatest enemy.

Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives on the planet Skaro, a seemingly dead world. When the Doctor sees a technologically advanced city in the distance he is determined to investigate, and is even willing to sabotage the TARDIS to get what he wants. While in the city though the crew are captured by the Daleks, a race of scientists who have been mutated into creatures who must encase themselves in a metal body to survive. Before long the travellers are suffering from radiation poisoning.

After managing to escape the city they encounter another race living on the planet, the Thals. In contrast to the Daleks, the Thals are a race of physically perfect pacifists. After a dangerous journey Ian is able to lead the Thals to victory and destroy the Daleks

Plot

The Dead Planet (1)

The travellers discover the Dalek city.

When the TARDIS arrives in a petrified jungle, the Doctor and his companions are unaware that the planet is highly radioactive. The Doctor is eager to explore a futuristic city that they discover beyond the forest but Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright insist on returning to the ship. Determined to get his way, the Doctor sabotages the TARDIS, claiming that mercury is needed for the fluid link. The only place to find mercury is the city.

The next morning, when the travellers emerge from the TARDIS, they find a box outside that holds vials filled with an amber liquid. Susan places the box in the ship for safekeeping, after which the four travellers head off to the mysterious city. It is entirely built of metal with doorways that are fashioned as squat rounded arches. Barbara manages to open a door, revealing a corridor beyond, but a shutter soon falls cutting her off from her colleagues. Within moments a strange creature emerges from a nearby lift, threatening her with a metal arm.

The Survivors (2)

The Daleks capture the Doctor, Susan and Ian

Ian, Susan and the Doctor enter a room full of machines, including a Geiger counter, which confirms they’ve been exposed to radiation. The trio realise the gravity of the situation, prompting the Doctor to admit his sabotage of the fluid link. This causes more mistrust between them and Ian takes the fluid link hostage to ensure the Doctor helps him look for Barbara. The trio continue to explore the city and are soon captured by beings known as Daleks, who imprison them together with Barbara. It soon becomes apparent they are all suffering from radiation sickness, with Barbara succumbing very quickly.

The Doctor is interrogated by the Daleks, who explain something of the history of their predicament. They are survivors of a neutronic war with the Thals, which has caused mutations to both races. The Daleks are now confined to their travel machines limited to the boundaries of their metallic city. They are reliant on a variation of static electricity to provide them with the ability to move. The Doctor persuades the Daleks that the travellers will die from radiation sickness if no drugs are found, so Susan is sent to retrieve them from the TARDIS. She makes her way out of the city and back into the petrified forest. Having collected the anti-radiation drugs in the TARDIS she prepares herself for the return journey.

The Escape (3)

Prisoners of the Daleks

Outside the TARDIS, Susan encounnters a stranger. He is a striking, handsome, blonde man named Alydon. His appearance proves his race, the Thals, have not suffered the same disfiguring mutations as the Daleks. He explains that he brought the drugs to Susan and now gives her more, hoping she will be able to save her friends. The Thals live in the forest and were indeed at war with the Daleks who they had believed were all now dead. He explains that the Thals have travelled many miles across the planet in search of food as their race is near starvation. The Thals now hope to establish a treaty for food with the Daleks. Susan heads off to the Dalek city while Alydon returns to the Thal encampment and tells his friends about his encounter, hoping Susan can broker a peace and trade agreement.

Susan reaches her friends and passes round the drugs, then contacts the Daleks and explains that the Thals are now looking for peace and food. The Daleks imply acceptance, asking the Thals in return to help them cultivate the land, but in reality they are plotting revenge and extermination of their old enemies. The message of peace is conveyed to the Thals, who are invited to collect food from the entrance hall to the Dalek city the following day.

Having recovered with chemical help, the Doctor’s party succeed in overpowering one of the Daleks and decide to use the robotic shell as a means of escape. The monstrosity within is dumped while Ian squeezes into the Dalek casing. In this guise he escorts his three friends through the city, hoping they can make a break for freedom.

The Ambush (4)

Escape!

The ruse works thanks to some quick thinking on the part of Ian, who even convinces another Dalek that he is one of them and is taking the three human prisoners for further questioning. However, when the same Dalek makes enquiries it discovers that it has been duped and sounds the alarm.

After a tight squeeze getting out of the casing, Ian and his friends find themselves at a window where they observe the Thals arrive to collect the food. As the Thals take the food the Daleks open fire, exterminating several Thals including their leader Temmosus.

The surviving Thals including Alydon regroup and find the four travellers. They all travel together to the Thal encampment where a young Thal named Dyoni provides a history of the planet Skaro from a Thal perspective. It seems that the Daleks were once known as Dals, humanoids similar to Thals who mutated into their current form after the lengthy neutronic war. The Thals have reacted to their history by adopting pacifism as a creed. However, it soon becomes apparent that the TARDIS crew need fighting allies – Ian has left the empty but vital fluid link in the Dalek city and they must retrieve it somehow.

The Expedition (5)

The Daleks make plans

]]Ian eventually spurs Alydon on to display aggression when he threatens Dyoni, prompting the new Thal leader to hit him. This must now be channelled against the Daleks and the Thals agree to help the TARDIS crew. One group will accompany Ian and Barbara as they cross the swamp, then go around the lake to the mountains, where they can enter the city unseen through a back entrance. The other group, led by the Doctor and Susan, will try to sabotage the Daleks’ surveillance equipment.

In the city the Daleks test the medication left by the travellers which they now deduce is deadly to them. As a response they decide to increase the levels of radiation on Skaro and thus make it impossible for the Thals to survive.

The attack party heading for the Lake of Mutations makes good progress on their lengthy journey. Four Thals called Elyon, Kristas, Ganatus and Antodus, the latter two of whom are brothers, have accompanied Barbara and Ian. Vast pipes are used to take water from the lake into the Dalek city. The lake also contains many mutated off-shoots from the war and Ian soon spots a multi-tentacled creature in the water. The assembled party are shocked to hear one of their number, Elyon, scream as one of the monsters drags him below the murky surface.

The Ordeal (6)

The Doctor and Susan are captured

]]It is clear Elyon is dead but the party must continue with their journey and climb the mountain. It remains a treacherous journey, with narrow fissures and no clear paths.

At the front of the city the Doctor’s party have succeeded in disabling the Dalek surveillance cameras using large mirrors to reflect sunlight into them. This persuades the Daleks to reorientate their probes on to the Thal encampment rather than the other possible entrances. The Doctor and Susan become bolder and move to sabotage some static electricity control boxes, but their activity has alerted the Daleks, who soon surround them. They are taken to the control centre of the city and are told of the Dalek plan to irradiate the entire planet.

Meanwhile, Ian's party has found a tunnel that should lead to the Dalek city. Antodus is less secure than his colleagues and starts calling for them to turn back. The situation is made more perilous by rockfalls which stops them retreating even if they wanted to. The only way is onward – and a vast chasm is their next hurdle. One by one the party has to jump across, supported by a rope between them. The last to jump is Antodus, who loses his footing and falls into the abyss, his weight dragging Ian toward the edge.

The Rescue (7)

The Thals attack the Daleks

Antodus sacrifices his life to save the others, and cuts the rope, letting himself fall. The others press on and within a short while have found an entrance point to the city.

At the front of the city Alydon has also led another band of Thals in an assault, hoping to rescue the Doctor and Susan. By luck the two parties converge on the Dalek control centre at the same time. Together they destroy the Dalek apparatus and prevent the radiation release. They also disable the power source for the Daleks in the city. The creatures become immobile and soon die. The Thals are repulsed by all the death, but are grateful their struggle is finally over.

They all return together to the Thal camp – this time with the fluid link – and the Doctor and his party make their farewells and return to the TARDIS. No sooner than they are in flight there is an explosion on the console and the four travellers fall to the floor.

Cast

Crew

Notes

  • The first story featuring The Daleks
  • The story was originally entitled The Mutants but is now referred to as The Daleks to avoid confusion with story 3N.
  • The story is also known as The Dead Planet and The Survivors
  • It is never mentioned in the story whether the travellers are in the past, the present or the future. In "The Dalek Invasion of Earth," the Doctor states this first encounter with the Daleks occurred " a million years in the future," towards the end of Dalek history, though he gives no indication how he knows this. "Planet of the Daleks" suggests this first encounter occurred in the past, generations before the 26th century. This is now generally the accepted placement of the story, though the exact year is still a matter of debate and theorizing among fans. In his A History of the Universe, Lance Parkin arbitrarily places the story in 1963, suggesting that the Doctor was attempting to return Ian and Barbara back to their own time and succeeded, only getting the planet wrong.
  • "Death to the Daleks" has a few similarities to this story. The Doctor and Sarah Jane find themselves on a planet, Exxilon, which, like Skaro, was once a lush world and home to an advanced civilization, now rendered desolate. They discover some of the life has been petrified, sight a city on the horizon, and Sarah is captured by the natives while exploring the city, just as Barbara is captured by the Daleks. Like the inhabitants of Skaro, the inhabitants of Exxilon have developed into two distinct groups. One, like the Thals, are gentle and peace-loving, while the others are warlike and hostile to all outsiders.
  • Episode 6 was made under the working title The Caves of Terror and episode 7 under the working title The Execution
  • It was Mervyn Pinfield who suggested that The Daleks use static electricity
  • It was Richard Martin who suggested that the Thal anti-radiation drug be lethal to the Daleks.
  • Bands of sticky tape were affixed around the shoulder section of the Daleks after William Hartnell cut himself on one of the metal bands
  • This story replaced previous preposals including "Beyond the Sun" and The Masters of Luxor
  • Music from The Daleks was released in 2003 as part of Devil's Planet - The Music of Tristram Cary. This CD also includes tracks from The Daleks' Master Plan and The Mutants
  • Some of the music from this story was released as Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Volume One - The Early Years, 1963-1969" (BBC Music WMSF 6023-2).
  • All episodes exist in 16mm telerecordings
  • The episodes were all recovered from negative film prints which were discovered at BBC Enterprises in 1978
  • The negative of episode 7 is a dub from the positive print
  • Telesnaps exist for episodes 1,2,4 and 5 in private collections
  • This story was originally designed by Ridley Scott who later went on to direct films such as Alien and Blade Runner


Ratings

Myths

  • Terry Nation named the Daleks after seeing the spines of a set of encyclopaedias (He made up the name but invented this as a story to tell the press)
  • There was a transmission fault at the start of the first episode that meant the opening moments were in negative. (This was intentional on the part of the production team who wanted to create the impression of heat)
  • This story was intended to feature a Glass Dalek, but this was changed due to budget constraints (The idea of the Glass Dalek was created by David Whitaker for his novelisation of the story) A Glass Dalek did appear in the Sixth Doctor story, "Revelation of the Daleks."
  • Electronic interference on the original tape meant that the first episode needed to be remade (The first episode was remade but this was because instructions being relayed to the studio from the control gallery were clearly audible on the original recording)
  • Raymond Cusick based the shape of the Daleks on pepper pots (The inspiration for the Daleks was a man sitting in a chair. He did however use a pepper pot to demonstrate how he envisaged the Daleks moving)

Location filming

The story was filmed at both Ealing and Lime Grove Studio D

Continuity

Discontinuity

  • The Dalek geiger counter has the word danger written on it in English.
  • The Dalek cell in which the main characters are held contains a bed something the Daleks would have had no need for. [possibly it was their for Thal prisoners, or was their when the Daleks had been humanoid]
  • It is originally stated that the Thals have travelled for 4 years but this is later reduced to 1 year.
  • Ganatus is aware of the cultural conventions existing in England in the 1960's "We won't use one of the customs of your planet: "ladies first"". [ Barbara might have talked to him about where they came from]
  • Ian waits for Temmosus to finish his speach before warning them that the Daleks plan to attack.
  • Despite having turned off the power, the Thals are able to leave through the electronic doors.
  • In episode 3 Susan can be seen running on the spot while the production crew hit her with twigs.
  • In episode 6 Ian grabs a rock wall and ends up with polystyrene in his hand
  • When the Doctor shorts out a Dalek control panel the explosion happens too early.

References

Technology

Individuals

See also

Story novelisation

Dalekstarget.jpg

This story was first published in novel form by Target Books in May of 1973 as Doctor Who and the Daleks, ISBN 0-426-10110-3, "Based on the popular BBC television serial." The story by David Whitaker has no continuity with "An Unearthly Child" (which was adapted into novel form eight years later), with Ian and Barbara having never met each other or the Doctor and Susan prior to the events of the story. It was numbered 16 in the series of 156 novels published by Target.

DVD, video, and audio releases

Cover for "The Beginning" anthology DVD 2006
  • DVD Release - This story was released in January 2006 together with "An Unearthly Child" and "The Edge of Destruction" on "The Beginning" compilation DVD.
  • Video Release - Released as "The Daleks: The Dead Planet (Episodes 1-4) and the Exhibition (Episodes 5-7)"
First Release: The BBC originally intended to release this story in a box set with An Unearthly Child and The Edge of Destruction but they changed their plans and decided to release each story individually.
Volume One of the two volume VHS edition
UK Release: June 1989 / US Release: June 1995 Australia/New Zealand Release: December 1989
PAL - BBC Video BBCV4242 (2 tapes)
NTSC - CBS/FOX Video 8253 (2 tapes)
NTSC - Warner Video E1275 (2 tapes)
Notes: The 'next episode' caption has been removed from Episode 7
Second Release: An unedited, remastered edition:
UK Release: February 2001 / Australia/New Zealand Release: April 2001
PAL - BBC Video BBCV6960 (2 tapes)

External links


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