Homemade Dalek (TV story)

Homemade Dalek was the title given in its partial Facebook upload by the BBC Archive to a skit that was broadcast on an episode of Blue Peter. As per the title, the segment highlighted a fan's home-made Dalek prop, and featured him encountering a real Dalek, whose dialogue foreshadowed the then-upcoming Destiny of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Destiny of the Daleks (TV story)"].

	Earth Dalek
	Grey Dalek
	Blue Peter studio, 1979
	John Adcock
	Renny Rye, Biddy Baxter, John Adcock
	21 June 1979
	BBC One
	Eight minute segment
Blue Peter skits
← Previous	The Dalek Appeal
Next →	Blue Peter special 2005

Given its fourth-wall-breaking nature, it is not considered a valid source by this Wiki.

Publisher's summary

Exterminate!…

Synopsis

to be added

Plot

Blue Peter hosts Simon Groom, Christopher Wenner and Tina Heath, accompanied by Goldie the dog, give a brief history of the Daleks, Doctor Who's nemeses who debuted sixteen years prior, in 1963. Groom then introduces the viewers to a casing prop created from cardboard and other household materials by one enthusiastic Doctor Who fan and Blue Peter viewer, Richard Berrinsale. After speaking about the building process, which went on and off for three years, Berrinsale climbs into the casing himself.

After Berrinsale attempts a Dalek voice from within the casing, Groom calls upon the programme's sound engineer to somehow give it the correct filter live, successfully emulating a "real" Dalek voice. Announcing that the Daleks will be returning to Doctor Who in The Destiny of Doctor Who and the Daleks in September, Groom then makes way for a "real BBC Dalek" so as to compare it to the "homemade version".

Instantly recognising that the "strange alien creature" is "not a member of the Dalek Race", the Dalek asks it to identify himself, prompting Richard to insist that he is simply an "Earth Dalek". The real Dalek dismisses this notion, recalling that the Daleks deserted Planet Earth "many years ago" as being "useless for [their] purposes". When the Earth Dalek proposes moving to Skaro, the BBC Dalek reacts even more violently, asking how the alien came to know "the secret of [the Daleks'] planet". Things are just about to turn violent when Groom steps in-between the two, breaking up the stare-off.

When he asks the real Dalek what the Daleks will do in the upcoming season, the Dalek simply reminds him that the Daleks were programmed by Davros to "conquer the universe". Prompted on how the Daleks intend to deal with the Doctor, who always defeated them in the past, the Dalek simply insists that the Doctor got "lucky" on those past occasions and will undoubtedly fall this time around, before trundling off the stage, still chanting that "the Daleks will conquer the universe" on a loop. This leaves Groom to thank both it and Richard for coming of the show, leaving viewers with a clip from the Doctor's last battle with the Daleks in 1972 — after which Wenner reappears, specifying that Episode 1 of The Destiny of the Daleks will debut on 1 September.

Cast

• Simon Groom - Himself
• Christopher Wenner - Himself
• Tina Heath - Herself
• Goldie - Herself
• Richard Berrinsale - Earth Dalek/Himself

Archival footage

• William Hartnell - Dr Who/Himself
• William Russell - Ian Chesterton/Himself
• Elisabeth Sladen - Sarah Jane Smith/Herself
• Michael Wisher - Davros/Himself
• Roy Skelton - Dalek Prime/Himself (voice)

Crew

• Producer - Renny Rye
• Series editor - Biddy Baxter
• Assistant series editor - John Adcock

Worldbuilding

• The Daleks made their first TV appearance in 1963 as achnemeses of Doctor Who. Four different actors played Doctor Who over the following sixteen years.
• By the timeframe of the story, the Daleks have not appeared on television for six years.
• Simon Groom points out the Earth Dalek casing's arm, eye-stick, and ray gun. He also refers to the luminosity dischargers as flashing "eyes".

Story notes

• The clip from The Dalek Invasion of Earth ^[+]Loading...["The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)"] is misleadingly presented as "what happened when [the Daleks] made their debut all those years ago". In fact, the serial marked the Daleks' second appearance, after The Dead Planet ^[+]Loading...["The Dead Planet (TV story)"].

Continuity

• Clips of TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth ^[+]Loading...["The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)"] and TV: Genesis of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"] are included as in-universe television.
• Simon Groom announces the then-upcoming opening serial of the new series of Doctor Who as The Destiny of Doctor Who and the Daleks, while Christopher Wenner refers to the first episode of The Destiny of the Daleks debuting on 1 September. These are both evidently slightly misconstrued announcements for TV: Destiny of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Destiny of the Daleks (TV story)"]. The allusions to Skaro and to Davros, who had been respectively reintroduced and introduced to the Daleks' mythos in their prior TV appearance in TV: Genesis of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Genesis of the Daleks (TV story)"], also serve to foreshadow the premise of Destiny.
• The Grey Dalek recalls that the Daleks "deserted Planet Earth many years ago". Although this was not the only occasion on which the Daleks invaded then vacated the planet, the presence of an earlier clip from the serial would suggest this to be a reference to the resolution of TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth ^[+]Loading...["The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)"].

Footnotes