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{{real world}} | {{real world}} | ||
{{title | {{title dab away}} | ||
{{Infobox | {{Invalid}} | ||
image=Curse of the Daleks programme.jpg| | {{Infobox Story | ||
|image = Curse of the Daleks programme.jpg | |||
|main character = [[John Ladiver]] | |||
|featuring = | |||
|enemy = [[Bob Slater (The Curse of the Daleks)|Bob Slater]], [[Skaro City Dalek]]s | |||
writer=[[David Whitaker]] | |setting = [[Skaro]], [[2179]] | ||
premiere= [[21 December]] [[1965]] | |writer=[[David Whitaker]], [[Terry Nation]] | ||
|}} | |premiere= [[21 December (releases)|21 December]] [[1965 (releases)|1965]] | ||
|adapted into = The Curse of the Daleks (audio story) | |||
|director = [[Gillian Howell]] | |||
}}'''''The Curse of the Daleks''''' was the first stage play to be based upon elements of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and the second production to take place within the [[Doctor Who universe|''Doctor Who'' universe]] which didn't actually feature [[the Doctor]] after [[TV]]: ''[[Mission to the Unknown (TV story)|Mission to the Unknown]]''. | |||
== Overview == | |||
''The Curse of the Daleks'' came to [[London]]'s [[Wyndham's Theatre]] at the height of "[[Dalekmania]]" in the UK. It had a month-long run from [[21 December (releases)|21 December]] [[1965 (releases)|1965]] to [[15 January (releases)|15 January]] [[1966 (releases)|1966]] as a matinee show. Afterwards, the production was not remounted to go on tour and has never been performed since. | |||
== Plot == | |||
In the bare, "curved ribbed store hold" of the spaceship ''[[Starfinder]]'' are two prisoners. [[Harry Sline]] is under arrest for slave trading between [[Mars]] and [[Venus]], and he's looking at a thirty year prison sentence in ''The Deeps'' underwater prison in the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. Meanwhile, disgraced Commander [[John Ladiver]]'s many crimes include illegal sales of [[uranium]] to "the wrong people", an act that almost led to a space war. He's suspected of having "cached away about thirty million". Ladiver is facing execution. Both have just done eight days in a holding cell on Satellite Prison, and Sline is trying to file through the handcuffs chaining the pair together. Food is brought by radio-pic operator and engineer [[Bob Slater (The Curse of the Daleks)|Bob Slater]], who is armed with a "short stubbly" detonator handgun, while Captain [[Stephen Redway]] looks in on the prisoners. | |||
The ''Starfinder'', travelling at light speed, runs into trouble as it hits a meteor storm, resulting in the programme circuits shorting. Co-pilot [[Rocket Smith]] enters to inform Redway that there is smoke coming out of the radio-pic set because somebody sabotaged it by throwing iron filings in it. Forced to land to make repairs, the crew choose the relatively quiet nearby planet of [[Skaro]], even though the [[Unispace Police]] have declared Skaro out of bounds. The human crew are dimly aware that Skaro is the home of the now deactivated [[Dalek]]s and the beautiful race of [[Thal]]s. The aloof [[Marion Clements]] enters with her boss, Professor [[Vanderlyn]]. Sline and Ladiver are disembarked, still manacled together, along with Vanderlyn's equipment, including refrigerated crates of biological specimens from around the universe, wheeled in on a trolley to keep them out of the oven-like heat on board the ''Starfinder''. | |||
In a courtyard in the dead [[City of the Daleks]], there are many archways and ramps and secret doors, as well as a dormant Dalek standing in the courtyard, overgrown with vines and with its [[eyestalk]] and its suction pad arm pointing at the ground. Vanderlyn relates how the humans managed to switch off the Daleks power at the end of the Dalek war, and embraces the Skaro landing as an opportunity to make notes. Rocket hangs his jacket over the Dalek’s eyestalk. Vanderlyn and Marion pull the creepers off the Dalek to examine it, with Redway attempting to flirt with Marion. Vanderlyn thereafter starts to unload his specimen cases from the trolley and finds there is one that he doesn;t recognise - a large case with his name written on it, that contains a dozen thick black discs. It has a smooth bright metal base, metal without joins, in two sections with "some kind of barely visible pin sticking out of a hole in the base." Before long, Rocket notices one of discs is missing, and it turns up stuck to the side of the overgrown Dalek, whose eyestalk twitches into life as its sucker stick starts to straighten up and it moves around and exits through the ramp. The mystery black boxes turn out to be flooding power into the Dalek like a blood transfusion, and at the same time, whispering recorded orders to the Daleks as well. | |||
Redway takes command of the situation, while Vanderlyn talks about electricity and indeed static electricity. Sline eventually manages to file through his manacles, and is felled by an anaesthetic bullet as he attempts to make a break for it. Three Daleks appear trundling down the ramp with a trolley on which is Vanderlyn's crate, a crate that now contains only the slumped body of Slater. The black boxes are gone. | |||
In the Scanner room of the City, the Daleks are powering themselves up and plugging in a huge screen on which they have the humans under surveillance. As a Dalek gives orders to mobilise, Redway goes missing with the only detonator gun, leaving Rocket in charge. It turns out that Slater was not killed by Daleks, but poisoned by a hypodermic. The humans send up a flare to bring in the Thals, who reply by flashing a piece of polished metal. | |||
An explosion then heralds the appearance of the Thal leader [[Dexion]], and his daughter [[Ijayna]], as they seal passages behind them. These Thals and Commander Ladiver have met before, when Ladiver led the regular five-yearly patrol of local star system three years before and investigated Ijayna's claim that someone had landed secretly on Skaro just before Ladiver's last visit - possibly, as they now believe, to test the black boxes. Ladiver's reports were ignored, and his subsequent uranium-smuggling career was a cover for routine flights across Skaro space. Ijayana and Ladiver become engaged to be married and the Thals set Ladiver free. | |||
A badly-wounded Redway stumbles in, and the Daleks order the humans to hand over their radio as Redway dies. Someone is controlling the Daleks and they have plans to rule the universe from Skaro. Night is falling when a torch-equipped Dalek appears through a secret door. They exterminate Sline when he runs for it, as Ladiver escapes. The Daleks round up the women, and it begins to look as if whoever is controlling the Daleks is probably male, with suspicion falling on Vanderlyn and Rocket. | |||
Dexion, Rocket and Vanderlyn are drugged and propped up on a bench, whilst Marion and Ijayna are secured to floor by magnets. They discover that the Daleks master is Slater, who wasn't really dead, having injected something to freeze his heart. He rants on about how the Daleks obey him, and how the two girls are going to be his playthings when he rules the universes. Ladiver then attempts to thwart the Dalek power-up by clinging to the underside of a trolley full of power cells that is pushed by another Dalek. However, the Daleks do momentarily manage to get full power, which leads to their black boxes falling off, which in turn frees them from Slater's control, immediately turning on Slater, exterminateing him. | |||
Ladiver meanwhile has manged to pull the power cells out of their sockets, and messing with the Daleks electrical engineering, starts to power them back down again. As the Daleks die, Ladiver and Ijanya kiss. | |||
== Cast == | == Cast == | ||
* [[ | * [[Stephen Redway|Captain Redway]] - [[Nicholas Hawtrey]] | ||
:Captain of the [[Starfinder]] | ::Captain of the ''[[Starfinder]]'' | ||
* [[Rocket Smith]] - Edward Gardener | * [[Rocket Smith]] - [[Edward Gardener]] | ||
:The co-pilot, nicknamed "Rock". | ::The co-pilot, nicknamed "Rock". | ||
* [[Bob Slater]] - [[David Ashford]] | * [[Bob Slater (The Curse of the Daleks)|Bob Slater]] - [[David Ashford]] | ||
:communications engineer | ::communications engineer | ||
* [[Vanderlyn|Professor Vanderlyn]] - John Moore | * [[Vanderlyn|Professor Vanderlyn]] - [[John Moore]] | ||
:has refrigerated samples of biological specimens from many planets | ::has refrigerated samples of biological specimens from many planets | ||
* [[Marion Clements]] - Hilary Tindall | * [[Marion Clements]] - [[Hilary Tindall]] | ||
:Vanderlyn's assistant | ::Vanderlyn's assistant | ||
* [[ | * [[John Ladiver]] - [[John Line]] | ||
: former Commander, convict arrested for uranium smuggling | ::former Commander, convict arrested for uranium smuggling; has been to Skaro before and knows the Thals | ||
* [[Harry Sline]] - [[Colin Miller]] | |||
* [[Harry Sline]] - Colin Miller | ::convict arrested for slave-trading | ||
:convict arrested for slave-trading | * [[Dexion]] - [[Nicholas Bennet]] | ||
* [[Dexion]] - Nicholas Bennet | ::leader of the [[Thal]]s | ||
:leader of the [[Thal]]s | * [[Ijayna]] - [[Suzanne Mockler]] | ||
* [[Ijayna]] - Suzanne Mockler | ::Dexion's daughter, is engaged to Ladiver | ||
:Dexion's daughter, is engaged to Ladiver | |||
* [[Dalek|The Daleks]] - uncredited | * [[Dalek|The Daleks]] - uncredited | ||
:depowered at the time of the Starfinder's landing | ::depowered at the time of the ''Starfinder''{{'}}s landing | ||
:led by a [[ | ::led by a [[Black Dalek]] | ||
== Crew == | == Crew == | ||
* [[Producer]]s - John Gale and Ernest Hecht | * [[Producer]]s - John Gale and Ernest Hecht | ||
* [[Director]] - Gillian Howell | * [[Director (crew)|Director]] - [[Gillian Howell]] | ||
* Licensee and Managing Director - Donald Akbery | * Licensee and Managing Director - Donald Akbery | ||
* [[Designer (crew)|Designer]] - Hutchinson Scott | * [[Designer (crew)|Designer]] - Hutchinson Scott | ||
== | == Worldbuilding == | ||
* [[Unispace Police]] have declared [[Skaro]] off-limits | * [[Unispace Police]] have declared [[Skaro]] off-limits. | ||
* Every five years, the local stars are patrolled. | * Every five years, the local stars are patrolled. | ||
* [[The Deeps]] is a prison located in the [[Atlantic Ocean]] | * [[The Deeps]] is a prison located in the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. | ||
* [[Paris]] and [[London]] were destroyed during the war. | * [[Paris]] and [[London]] were destroyed during the war. | ||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
* The script for the play is currently filed in the British Library in the Manuscript Collection as Play no 1965/50, Lord | * The script for the play is currently filed in the British Library in the Manuscript Collection as Play no 1965/50, Lord Chamberlain's Licence No. 356, November 1965. | ||
* The writing of the play is credited to both David Whitaker and Terry Nation, although Nation actually had very little to do with it. | |||
* An advert appeared in ''The Stage'' newspaper in October 1966, in which John Gale Productions announced that they were putting their entire stage production of ''The Curse of the Daleks'', including the Daleks, up for sale. The Dalek props, however, did not get sold - they were recycled for ''[[Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (theatrical film)|Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.]]''. | |||
* The frequently used title device "... of the Daleks" did not originate with this story. That honour actually goes to the comic story ''[[Invasion of the Daleks (comic story)|Invasion of the Daleks]]''. | * The frequently used title device "... of the Daleks" did not originate with this story. That honour actually goes to the comic story ''[[Invasion of the Daleks (comic story)|Invasion of the Daleks]]''. | ||
* Whitaker credits this story as coming from one of the Dalek Chronicles. | * David Whitaker credits this story as coming from one of the Dalek Chronicles. | ||
* Five Dalek props were used, one painted as a [[ | * Five Dalek props were used, one painted as a [[Black Dalek (The Curse of the Daleks)|Black Dalek]]. | ||
* The "Dalek December" is a reworking of "[[ | * The "Dalek December" rhyme is a reworking of "[[Gunpowder Plot|Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November]]". | ||
* [[The Power of the Daleks]] would again feature the idea of depowered Daleks. | * ''[[The Power of the Daleks (TV story)|The Power of the Daleks]]'' would again feature the idea of depowered Daleks. | ||
* An [[The Curse of the Daleks (audio story)|official audio adaptation]] was released by [[Big Finish Productions]] in [[November (releases)|November]] [[2008 (releases)|2008]]. | |||
* The story | |||
== Remakes == | == Remakes == | ||
: ''Main article: [[The Curse of the Daleks (audio story)]]'' | : ''Main article: [[The Curse of the Daleks (audio story)]]'' | ||
* In April 2008, Altered Vistas released their computer-generated fan-production of The Curse of the Daleks (AV16). It was later withdrawn on announcement of an official release. | * In April 2008, Altered Vistas released their computer-generated fan-production of ''The Curse of the Daleks'' '''(AV16)'''. It was later withdrawn on announcement of an official release. | ||
* In November 2008, a new production of the play was mounted for CD release by [[Big Finish Productions]] as ''[[The Curse of the Daleks (audio story)|Doctor Who: The Stageplays - The Curse of the Daleks]]''. | * In November 2008, a new production of the play was mounted for CD release by [[Big Finish Productions]] as ''[[The Curse of the Daleks (audio story)|Doctor Who: The Stageplays - The Curse of the Daleks]]''. | ||
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* [http://www.alteredvistas.co.uk/html/curse_of_the_daleks.html Altered Vistas - Curse of the Daleks] (a withdrawn fan-production) | * [http://www.alteredvistas.co.uk/html/curse_of_the_daleks.html Altered Vistas - Curse of the Daleks] (a withdrawn fan-production) | ||
* [http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/curse-of-the-daleks-stage-play.htm Dalek 6388 - A Dalek Prop History - Curse of the Daleks Stage Play] | * [http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/curse-of-the-daleks-stage-play.htm Dalek 6388 - A Dalek Prop History - Curse of the Daleks Stage Play] | ||
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[[Category:Doctor Who stage plays]] | [[Category:Doctor Who stage plays]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Sources released in 1965]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Dalek stage plays]] | ||
