Dalek
Encyclopedia
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutant
s from the British science fiction television
series Doctor Who
. Within the series, Daleks are cyborg
s from the planet Skaro
, created by the scientist Davros
during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals
. They are genetically engineered Kaled mutants integrated within a tank
-like or robot
-like mechanical shell. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse. Various storylines portray them as having had every emotion removed except hate, leaving them with a desire to purge the Universe of all non-Dalek life
. Collectively they are the greatest enemies of the series' protagonist, the Time Lord
known as the Doctor
. Their catchphrase is "Exterminate!"
and designed by BBC
designer Raymond Cusick
.Designer Raymond Cusick said that he got the idea of their appearance "whilst fiddling with a pepperpot" and had them produced in fibreglass, at a cost of under each. They were introduced in December 1963 in the second Doctor Who serial, colloquially known as The Daleks
. They became an immediate and huge hit with viewers, featuring in many subsequent serials and two 1960s motion pictures. They have become as synonymous with Doctor Who as the Doctor himself, and their behaviour and catchphrases are now part of British popular culture
. "Hiding behind the sofa
whenever the Daleks appear" has been cited as an element of British cultural identity; and a 2008 survey indicated that 9 out of 10 British children were able to identify a Dalek correctly. In 1999 a Dalek appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture, photographed by Lord Snowdon
. In 2010, readers of science fiction magazine SFX voted the Dalek as the all-time greatest monster, beating out competition including Japanese movie monster
Godzilla
and J. R. R. Tolkien
's Gollum
, of The Lord of the Rings
.
, which defines it somewhat imprecisely as "a type of robot appearing in 'Dr. Who', a B.B.C. Television science-fiction programme; hence used allusively." English-speakers sometimes use the term metaphor
ically to describe people, usually figures of authority, who act like robots unable to break from their programming; for example, John Birt, the Director-General of the BBC
from 1992 to 2000, was publicly called a "croak-voiced Dalek" by playwright Dennis Potter
in the MacTaggart Lecture at the 1993 Edinburgh Television Festival
with a single mechanical eyestalk mounted on a rotating dome, a gun mount containing an energy weapon (or "death ray
") and a telescopic manipulator arm which is usually tipped by an appendage resembling a sink plunger
. Daleks have been seen to be able to use their plungers to interface with technology, crush a man's skull by suction, measure the intelligence of a subject, and extract information from a man's mind. Dalek casings are made of a bonded polycarbide
material dubbed "dalekanium" by a member of the human resistance in The Dalek Invasion of Earth
and by the Cult of Skaro
in "Daleks in Manhattan
".
The lower half of a Dalek's shell is covered with hemispherical protrusions, or "Dalek bumps", which are shown in the episode "Dalek
" to be spheres embedded in the casing. Both the BBC-licensed Dalek Book (1964) and The Doctor Who Technical Manual (1983) describe these items as being part of a sensory array, whilst in the 2005 series episode "Dalek", they are shown to serve a function in a Dalek's self-destruct
mechanism. Their armour has a forcefield that evaporates most bullets and resists most types of energy weapon; this seems to be concentrated around the Dalek's midsection (where the mutant is located), as normally ineffective firepower can be concentrated on the eyestalk to blind a Dalek. Daleks have a very limited field of vision, with no peripheral sight at all, and are relatively easy to hide from in fairly exposed places. Their own energy weapons have also been shown to be capable of destroying them. Their weapons fire a beam that has electrical tendencies, is capable of propagating through water and may be a form of plasma
. The eyepiece is a Dalek's most vulnerable spot, and impairing its vision often leads to a blind, panicked firing of its weapon whilst shouting, "My vision is impaired; I cannot see!" Russell T Davies subverted the catchphrase in his 2008 episode "The Stolen Earth
", in which a Dalek vaporises a paintball that has blocked its vision while proclaiming "My vision is not impaired!".
The creature inside the mechanical casing is depicted as soft and repulsive in appearance and vicious even without its mechanical armour. The first-ever glimpse of a Dalek mutant, in The Daleks
, was a claw peeking out from under a Thal cloak after it had been removed from its casing. The actual appearance of the mutants has varied, but often adheres to the Doctor's description of the species in Remembrance of the Daleks
as "little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour
". In Resurrection of the Daleks
a Dalek creature, separated from its casing, attacks and severely injures a human soldier; in Revelation of the Daleks, there are two Dalek factions and the creatures inside have a different appearance in each case, one resembling the amorphous creature from Resurrection, the other the crab-like creature from the original Dalek serial. As the creature inside is rarely seen on screen, a common misconception exists that Daleks are wholly mechanical robots. As of the new series
Daleks are shown to be mollusc-like in appearance, with small tentacles, one or two eyes and an exposed brain.
The voice of a Dalek is electronic; the Dalek creature is apparently unable to make much more than squeaking sounds when out of its casing. Once the mutant is removed, the casing itself can be entered and operated by humanoids; for example, in The Daleks
, Ian Chesterton
(William Russell
) enters a Dalek shell to masquerade as a guard as part of an escape plan.
For many years it was assumed that, due to their design and gliding motion, Daleks were unable to climb stairs, and that this was a simple way of escaping them. A well known cartoon from Punch
pictured a group of Daleks at the foot of a flight of stairs with the caption, "Well, this certainly buggers our plan to conquer the Universe". In a scene from the serial Destiny of the Daleks
, the Doctor and companions
escape from Dalek pursuers by climbing into a ceiling duct. The Fourth Doctor
calls down, "If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?" The Daleks generally make up for their general lack of mobility with overwhelming firepower; a joke among Doctor Who fans goes, "Real Daleks don't climb stairs; they level the building." Dalek mobility has improved over the history of the series: in their first appearance, The Daleks, they were capable of movement only on the conductive metal floors of their city; in The Dalek Invasion of Earth a Dalek emerges from the waters of the River Thames
, indicating that they not only had become freely mobile, but are amphibious
; Planet of the Daleks showed that they could ascend a vertical shaft by means of an external anti-gravity
mat placed on the floor; and Remembrance of the Daleks depicted them as capable of hovering up a flight of stairs. Despite this, journalists covering the series frequently refer to the Daleks' supposed inability to climb stairs; characters escaping up a flight of stairs in the 2005 episode "Dalek" made the same joke, and were shocked when the Dalek began to hover up the stairs after uttering the phrase "LEVITATE", in reference to their normal phrase "EXTERMINATE.". The new series depicts the Daleks as fully capable of flight, even space flight.
" of science fiction, which Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman
had wanted the show to avoid. The unsettling form of the Daleks, coupled with their alien voices, made many believe that the props were wholly mechanical and operated by remote control.
The Daleks were actually controlled from inside by short operators who had to manipulate their eyestalks, domes and arms, as well as flashing the lights on their heads in sync with the actors supplying their voices. The Dalek cases were built in two pieces; an operator would step into the lower section, and then the top would be secured. The operators looked out between the cylindrical louvres just beneath the dome which were lined with mesh to conceal their faces.
In addition to being hot and cramped the Dalek casings also muffled external sounds, making it difficult for the operators to hear the director's commands or studio dialogue. The top sections were also too heavy to lift from the inside, which meant that the operators could be trapped inside if the stagehands forgot to release them. John Scott Martin
, a Dalek operator from the original series, said that Dalek operation was a challenge: "You had to have about six hands: one to do the eyestalk, one to do the lights, one for the gun, another for the smoke canister underneath, yet another for the sink plunger. If you were related to an octopus then it helped."
For Doctor Whos 21st-century revival, the props were redesigned by production designer Ed Thomas, with consultation from artist Bryan Hitch
, producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
, and model builder Mike Tucker
. These Dalek casings retain the same overall shape and dimensional proportions of previous Daleks, although many details have been re-designed to give the Dalek a heavier and more solid look. Changes include a larger, more pointed base; a glowing eyepiece; an all-over metallic brass finish (specified by Davies); a housing for the eyestalk pivot; and significantly larger dome lights. The new prop made its on-screen debut in the 2005 episode "Dalek". These Dalek casings use a short operator inside the housing while the 'head' and eyestalk are operated via remote control. A third person, Nicholas Briggs
, supplies the voice in their various appearances. In the 2010 season a new and larger model appeared in several colours representing different parts of the Dalek command hierarchy.
, for The Dalek Invasion of Earth Terry Nation wanted the Daleks to be filmed on the streets of London. To enable the Daleks to travel smoothly on location, designer Spencer Chapman built the new Dalek shells around miniature tricycle
s with sturdier wheels, which were hidden by enlarged fenders fitted below the original base. The uneven flagstones of Central London caused the Daleks to rattle as they moved and it was not possible to remove this noise from the final soundtrack. A small parabolic dish was added to the rear of the prop's casing to explain why these Daleks, unlike the ones in their first serial, were not dependent on static electricity
drawn from the floors of the Dalek city for their motive power.
Later versions of the prop had more efficient wheels and were once again simply propelled by the seated operators' feet, but they remained so heavy that when going up ramps they often had to be pushed by stagehands out of camera shot. The difficulty of operating all the prop's parts at once contributed to the occasionally jerky movements of the Dalek. This problem has largely been eradicated with the advent of the "new series" version, as its remotely controlled dome and eyestalk allow the operator to concentrate on the smooth movement of the Dalek and its arms.
delivery, harsh tone and rising inflection of the Dalek voice were initially developed by voice actors Peter Hawkins
and David Graham
, who would vary the pitch and speed of the lines according to the emotion needed. Their voices were further processed electronically by Brian Hodgson at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
. Although the exact sound-processing devices used have varied, the original 1963 effect used equalisation to boost the mid-range of the actor's voice, then subjected it to ring modulation
with a 30 Hz sine wave
. The distinctive harsh grating vocal timbre this produced has remained the pattern for all Dalek voices since (with the exception of those in the 1985 serial Revelation of the Daleks
, for which director Graeme Harper
deliberately used less distortion).
Besides Hawkins and Graham, notable voice actors for the Daleks have included Roy Skelton
, who first voiced the Daleks in the 1967 story The Evil of the Daleks
and went on to provide voices for five additional Dalek serials and for the one-off anniversary special The Five Doctors
. Michael Wisher
, the actor who originated the role of Dalek creator Davros
in Genesis of the Daleks
, provided Dalek voices for that same story, as well as for Frontier in Space
, Planet of the Daleks
and Death to the Daleks
. Other Dalek voice actors include Royce Mills
(three stories), Brian Miller (two stories), Oliver Gilbert and Peter Messaline (one story). John Leeson
, who performed the voice of K-9
in several Doctor Who stories, and Davros
actors Terry Molloy
and David Gooderson
also contributed supporting voices for various Dalek serials.
Since 2005, the Dalek voice in the television series has been provided by Nicholas Briggs
, speaking into a microphone connected to a voice modulator. Briggs had previously provided Dalek and other alien voices for Big Finish Productions
audio plays
. In a 2006 BBC Radio interview, Briggs said that when the BBC asked him to do the voice for the new television series, they instructed him to bring his own analogue ring modulator that he had used in the audio plays. The BBC's sound department had changed to a digital platform and could not adequately create the distinctive Dalek sound with their modern equipment. Briggs went as far as to bring the voice modulator to the actors' readings of the scripts.
) or life-size photographic enlargements in the early black-and-white
episodes (The Dalek Invasion of Earth
and The Power of the Daleks
). In stories involving armies of Daleks, the BBC effects team even turned to using commercially available toy Daleks, manufactured by Louis Marx & Co
and Herts Plastic Moulders Ltd. Examples of such use can be observed in the serials The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks and Planet of the Daleks. Judicious editing techniques also gave the impression that there were more Dalek props than were actually available, and continue to be used to the present day, such as using split screen
in "The Parting of the Ways".
Four fully functioning props were commissioned for the first serial "The Daleks" in 1963, and were constructed from BBC plans by Shawcraft Engineering. These became known in fan circles as "Mk I Daleks". Shawcraft were also commissioned to construct approximately twenty Daleks for the two Dalek movies in 1965 and 1966 (see below). Some of these movie props filtered back to the BBC and were seen in the televised serials, notably The Chase, which was aired before the first movie's debut. The remaining props not bought by the BBC were either donated to charity or given away as prizes in competitions.
The BBC's own Dalek props were reused many times, with components of the original Shawcraft "Mk I Daleks" surviving right through to their final classic series appearance in 1988. Years of storage and repainting took their toll, however. By the time of the Sixth Doctor
's Revelation of the Daleks new props were being manufactured out of fibreglass, which were lighter and more affordable to construct than their predecessors. These Daleks were slightly bulkier in appearance around the mid-shoulder section, and also had a slightly redesigned skirt section which was more vertical at the back. Other minor changes were made to the design due to these new construction methods, including alterations to the fender and the incorporation of both the arm boxes, collars and slats into a single fibreglass moulding. These props were repainted in grey for the Seventh Doctor
serial Remembrance of the Daleks and designated as "Renegade Daleks"; another redesign, painted in white and gold, became the "Imperial Dalek" faction.
New Dalek props were built for the 21st century version of Doctor Who. The first, which appeared alone in the 2005 episode "Dalek", was built by modelmaker Mike Tucker
. Additional Dalek props based on Tucker's master were subsequently built out of fibreglass by Cardiff
-based Specialist Models.
, in which dancers in long skirts appeared to glide across the stage. For many of the shows, the Daleks were "played" by retired ballet dancers wearing black socks while sitting inside the Dalek. Raymond Cusick was given the task of designing the Daleks when Ridley Scott
, then a designer for the BBC, proved unavailable after having been initially assigned to their debut serial. An account in Jeremy Bentham's Doctor Who—The Early Years (1986) says that after Nation wrote the script, Cusick was given only an hour to come up with the design for the Daleks, and was inspired in his initial sketches by a pepper shaker on a table. Cusick himself, however, states that he based it on a man seated in a chair, and only used the pepper shaker to demonstrate how it might move.
In 1964 Nation told a Daily Mirror reporter that the Dalek name came from a dictionary or encyclopaedia volume, the spine of which read "Dal – Lek" (or, according to another version, "Dal – Eks"). He later admitted that this book and the origin of the Dalek name was completely fictitious, and that anyone bothering to check out his story would have found him out. The name had in reality simply rolled off his typewriter. Later, Nation was pleasantly surprised to discover that in Serbo-Croatian
the word "dalek" means "far", or "distant".
Nation grew up during World War II, and remembered the fear caused by German bombings. He consciously based the Daleks on the Nazis
, conceiving the species as faceless, authoritarian figures dedicated to conquest and complete conformity. The allusion is most obvious in the Dalek stories penned by Nation, in particular The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) and Genesis of the Daleks
(1975).
Prior to writing the first Dalek serial, Nation was chief scriptwriter for comedian Tony Hancock
. The two fell out and Nation either resigned or was fired. When Hancock left the BBC, he worked on several series proposals, one of which was called From Plip to Plop, a comedic history of the world which would have ended with a nuclear apocalypse, the survivors being reduced to living in dustbin-like robot casings and eating radiation to stay alive. According to biographer Cliff Goodwin, when Hancock saw the Daleks, he allegedly shouted at the screen, "That bloody Nation—he's stolen my robots!"
The naming of early Doctor Who stories is complex and sometimes controversial. The first Dalek serial is called, variously, The Survivors (the pre-production title), The Mutants (its official title at the time of production and broadcast, later taken by another unrelated story
), Beyond the Sun (used on some production documentation), The Dead Planet (the on-screen title of the serial's first episode), or simply The Daleks
.
The instant appeal of the Daleks caught the BBC off guard, and transformed Doctor Who from a Saturday tea-time children's educational programme to a must-watch national phenomenon. Children were alternately frightened and fascinated by the alien look of the monsters, and the Doctor Who production office was inundated by letters and calls asking about the creatures. Newspaper articles focused attention on the series and the Daleks, further enhancing their popularity.
Nation jointly owned the intellectual property rights to the Daleks with the BBC, and the money-making concept proved nearly impossible to sell to anyone else; he was dependent on the BBC wanting to produce stories featuring the creatures. Despite fans' adoration, the Daleks were clearly associated with Doctor Who and several attempts to market the Daleks outside of the series were unsuccessful. Since Nation's death in 1997, his share of the rights now belong to his estate and are administered by his former agent, Tim Hancock.
Early plans for what eventually became the 1996 Doctor Who television movie included radically redesigned Daleks whose cases unfolded like spiders' legs. The concept for these "Spider Daleks" was abandoned, but picked up again in several Doctor Who spin-offs
.
When the new series was announced, many fans hoped the Daleks would return once more to the programme. After much negotiation between the BBC and the Nation estate (which at one point appeared to break down completely), an agreement was reached. According to media reports, the initial disagreement was due to the Nation estate demanding levels of creative control over the Daleks' appearances and scripts that were unacceptable to the BBC. Eventually talks between Hancock and the BBC progressed more productively, and the Daleks were cleared to appear in the first series.
, which have caused continuity
problems. When the Daleks first appeared in The Daleks, they were presented as the descendants of the Dals, mutated after a brief nuclear war between the Dal and Thal
races. In 1975, Terry Nation revised the Daleks' origins in Genesis of the Daleks, where the Dals were now called Kaleds (of which "Daleks" is an anagram
), and the Dalek design was attributed to one man, the crippled Kaled chief scientist and evil genius
, Davros
. Instead of a short nuclear exchange, the Kaled-Thal war was portrayed as a thousand-year-long war of attrition
, fought with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons causing widespread mutations among the Kaled race. Davros experimented on living Kaled cells to find the ultimate mutated form of the Kaled species and placed the subjects in tank
-like "travel machines" whose design was based on his own life-support chair.
Genesis of the Daleks marked a new era for the depiction of the species, with most of their previous history either forgotten or barely referred to again. Future stories in the original Doctor Who series, which followed a rough story arc
, would also focus more on Davros, much to the dissatisfaction of some fans who felt that the Daleks should take centre stage rather than merely becoming minions of their creator. Davros made his last televised appearance for 20 years in Remembrance of the Daleks, which depicted a civil war between two factions of Daleks. One, the "Imperial Daleks", were loyal to Davros, who had become their Emperor, whilst the other, the "Renegade Daleks", followed a black Supreme Dalek.
A single Dalek appeared in "Dalek
", written by Robert Shearman
, which was broadcast on BBC One
on 30 April 2005. This Dalek appeared to be the sole Dalek survivor of the Time War
which had destroyed both the Daleks and the Time Lords. A Dalek Emperor returned at the end of the 2005 series, having rebuilt the Dalek race with genetic material harvested with human subjects. It saw itself as a god, and the new Daleks were shown worshipping it. These Daleks and their fleet were destroyed in "The Parting of the Ways
". The 2006 season finale "Army of Ghosts
"/"Doomsday
" featured a squad of four Dalek survivors from the old Empire, known as the Cult of Skaro
, led by a black Dalek named "Sec", that had survived the Time War by escaping into the Void between dimensions. They emerged, along with a Time Lord prison vessel containing millions of Daleks, at Canary Wharf due to the actions of the Torchwood Institute
and Cybermen from a parallel world. This resulted in a Cyberman-Dalek clash in London, which was resolved when the Tenth Doctor
caused both factions to be sucked back into the Void. The Cult survived by utilising an "emergency temporal shift" to escape. They would later appear in the two-part story "Daleks in Manhattan
"/"Evolution of the Daleks
", in which whilst stranded in 1930s New York, they set up a base in the partially built Empire State Building
and attempt to rebuild the Dalek race. To this end Dalek Sec merges with a human being to become a Human/Dalek hybrid. The Cult then set about creating "Human Daleks" by "formatting" the brains of a few thousand captured humans, with the intention of producing hybrids which remain fully human in appearance but with Dalek minds. The plot is ultimately foiled due to interference by the Doctor, and Cult members Daleks Sec, Jast and Thay are destroyed. The remaining Cult member, Dalek Caan, once again escapes using a temporal shift.
The Daleks returned in the 2008 seasons' two-part finale, "The Stolen Earth
"/"Journey's End
", accompanied once again by their creator Davros. The story reveals that Caan's temporal shift sent him into the Time War where he rescued Davros at the cost of his own sanity. The episode depicts a Dalek invasion of Earth led by Caan, Davros, and a red Supreme Dalek, who has kept Caan and Davros imprisoned in "The Vault", a section of the Dalek flagship, the Crucible. Davros and the Daleks plan to destroy reality itself with a "reality bomb". The plan fails due to the interference of the Doctor, his companions and Caan himself, who has been manipulating events to destroy the Daleks after realising the severity of the atrocities they have committed. The Daleks returned in the 2010 episode "Victory of the Daleks
", the third episode of the series; Daleks who escaped the destruction of Davros' empire fell back in time and, by chance, managed to retrieve the "Progenator". This is a tiny apparatus which contains 'original' Dalek DNA. The activation of the Progenator results in the creation of a "new paradigm" of Daleks. The New Paradigm Daleks deem their creators inferior and exterminate them; their creators make no resistance to this, deeming themselves inferior as well. They are organised into different castes (drone, scientist, strategists, supreme and eternal), which are identifiable with colour-coded armour instead of the identification plates under the eyestalk used by their predecessors. The Daleks only cameo in subsequent finales "The Pandorica Opens
"/"The Big Bang
" (2010) and "The Wedding of River Song
" (2011) as Steven Moffat decided to "give them a rest" and stated "There's a problem with the Daleks. They are the most famous of the Doctor's adversaries and the most frequent, which means they are the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe."
has described the Daleks as behaving "like toddlers in perpetual hissy fits", gloating when in power and throwing tantrums when thwarted. They tend to be excitable and will repeat the same word or phrase over and over again in heightened emotional states, most famously "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
In terms of their behaviour Daleks are extremely aggressive, and seem driven by an instinct to attack. This instinct is so strong that Daleks have been depicted fighting the urge to kill or even attacking when unarmed. The Fifth Doctor
characterises this impulse by saying, "However you respond [to Daleks] is seen as an act of provocation." The fundamental feature of Dalek culture and psychology is an unquestioned belief in the superiority of the Dalek race, and their default directive is to destroy all non-Dalek life-forms. Other species are either to be exterminated immediately, or enslaved and then exterminated later once they are no longer useful. When the "Human/Dalek Sec" hybrid began to doubt the Dalek race's supremacy and purpose, the other Daleks in the Cult of Skaro considered it to be a traitor and turned against it.
The Dalek obsession with their own superiority is illustrated by the schism between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks seen in Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks: the two factions consider the other to be a perversion despite the relatively minor differences between them. This intolerance of any "contamination" within themselves is also shown in "Dalek", The Evil of the Daleks and in the Big Finish Productions
audio play
The Mutant Phase
. This superiority complex is the basis of the Daleks' ruthlessness and lack of compassion. This is shown in extreme in Victory of the Daleks
, where the new, pure Daleks destroy their creator, impure Daleks, with their consent. It is nearly impossible to negotiate or reason with a Dalek, a single-mindedness that makes them dangerous and not to be underestimated.
Dalek society is depicted as one of extreme scientific and technological advancement; the Third Doctor states that "it was their inventive genius that made them one of the greatest powers in the universe." However, their reliance on logic and machinery is also a strategic weakness which they recognise, and thus use more emotion-driven species as agents to compensate for these shortcomings.
Although the Daleks are not known for their regard for due process
, they have taken at least two enemies back to Skaro for a "trial", rather than killing them immediately. The first was their creator, Davros
, in Revelation of the Daleks, and the second was the renegade Time Lord
known as the Master
in the 1996 television movie. The reasons for the Master's trial, and why the Doctor would be asked to retrieve the Master's remains, have never been explained on screen. The Doctor Who Annual 2006 implies that the trial may have been due to a treaty signed between the Time Lords and the Daleks. The framing device for the I, Davros
audio plays is a Dalek trial to determine if Davros should be the Daleks' leader once more.
Spin-off novels contain several tongue-in-cheek
mentions of Dalek poetry, and an anecdote about an opera based upon it, which was lost to posterity when the entire cast was exterminated on the opening night. Two stanzas are given in the novel The Also People
by Ben Aaronovitch. In an alternative timeline
portrayed in Big Finish Productions
audio adventure The Time of the Daleks
, the Daleks show a fondness for the works of Shakespeare
. A similar idea was satirised by comedian Frankie Boyle
in the BBC comedy quiz programme Mock the Week
; he gave the fictional Dalek poem "Daffodils; EXTERMINATE DAFFODILS!" as an "unlikely line to hear in Doctor Who".
Because the Doctor has defeated the Daleks so often, he has become their collective arch-enemy
and they have standing orders to capture or exterminate him on sight. In later fiction, the Daleks know the Doctor as "Ka Faraq Gatri" ("Bringer of Darkness" or "Destroyer of Worlds"), and "The Oncoming Storm". Both the Ninth Doctor
(Christopher Eccleston
) and Rose Tyler
(Billie Piper
) suggest that the Doctor is one of the few beings the Daleks fear. In "Doomsday
", Rose notes that while the Daleks see the extermination of five million Cybermen
as "pest control", "one Doctor" visibly un-nerves them (to the point they physically recoil).
featured the Daleks as the main villains: Dr. Who and the Daleks
, and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD
, based on the television serials The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, respectively. The movies were not direct remakes; for example, the Doctor in the Cushing films was a human who had built a time-travelling device named Tardis, instead of a mysterious alien who stole a device called "the TARDIS".
Four books focusing on the Daleks were published in the 1960s. The Dalek Book (1964, written by Terry Nation and David Whitaker), The Dalek World (1965, written by Nation and Whitaker) and The Dalek Outer Space Book (1966, by Nation and Brad Ashton) were all hardcover books formatted like annuals, containing text stories and comics about the Daleks, along with fictional information (sometimes based on the television serials, other times made up for the books). Nation also published The Dalek Pocketbook and Space-Travellers Guide, which collected articles and features treating the Daleks as if they were real. Four more annuals were published in the 1970s by World Distributors under the title Terry Nation's Dalek Annual (with cover dates 1976–1979, but published 1975–1978). Two original novels by John Peel
, War of the Daleks
(1997) and Legacy of the Daleks
(1998), were released as part of the Eighth Doctor Adventures
series of Doctor Who novels. A novella, The Dalek Factor
by Simon Clark
, was published in 2004, and two books featuring the Daleks and the Tenth Doctor
(I am a Dalek
by Gareth Roberts
, 2006, and Prisoner of the Daleks
by Trevor Baxendale
, 2009) have been released as part of the New Series Adventures.
Nation authorised the publication of the comic strip The Daleks in the comic TV Century 21
in 1965. The weekly one-page strip, written by Whitaker but credited to Nation, featured the Daleks as protagonists and "heroes", and continued for two years, from their creation of the mechanised Daleks by the humanoid Dalek scientist, Yarvelling, to their eventual discovery in the ruins of a crashed space-liner of the co-ordinates for Earth
, which they proposed to invade. Although much of the material in these strips directly contradicted what was shown on television, some concepts like the Daleks using humanoid duplicates and the design of the Dalek Emperor
did show up later on in the programme.
At the same time, a Doctor Who strip was also being published in TV Comic
. Initially, the strip did not have the rights to use the Daleks, so the First Doctor
battled the "Trods" instead, cone-shaped robotic creatures that ran on static electricity. By the time the Second Doctor
appeared in the strip in 1967 the rights issues had been resolved, and the Daleks began making appearances starting in The Trodos Ambush (TVC #788-#791), where they massacred the Trods. The Daleks also made appearances in the Third Doctor
-era Dr. Who comic strip that featured in the combined Countdown
/TV Action comic during the early 1970s.
Other licensed appearances have included a number of stage plays (see Stage plays below) and television adverts for Wall's
"Sky Ray" ice lollies (1966), Weetabix
breakfast cereal (1977), Kit Kat
chocolate bars (2001), and the ANZ Bank (2005). In 2003, Daleks also appeared in UK billboard ads for Energizer batteries, alongside the slogan "Are You Power Mad?"
in "Death at Bargain Prices", a 1965 episode of the fantasy/thriller series The Avengers
, which like Doctor Who was created by Sydney Newman, although broadcast on the rival ITV
network. During the 1992 Christmas special of the comedy series Mr Bean, the title character uses children's toys to play out a bizarre nativity scene
in which a Dalek exterminates a tiny lamb and a tyrannosaurus rex. Two purple toy daleks are also seen in the background of an episode of the American children's cartoon Rugrats
. In the comic television documentary The Red Dwarf A-Z
, two Daleks are shown (under "E" for "Exterminate") arguing that all Earth television is human propaganda, and the works more commonly attributed to William Shakespeare
and Ludwig van Beethoven
were actually written by Daleks; subsequently, one of them remarks that the "change the bulb" joke from "Legion
" was funny, and is promptly exterminated by the other for the crime of "not behaving like a true Dalek". In the 2004 series of Coupling
, written by Steven Moffat
(who was later to write for and produce Doctor Who), a Dalek appears in the second episode of season four. This was voiced by Nicholas Briggs
, who later went on to provide Dalek voices for the series proper from 2005 onwards. (Terry Nation's original Dalek rights deal with the BBC had been negotiated by his then agent Beryl Vertue
, later Moffat's mother-in-law.) In the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action
, the secret military base, Area 52, detains a number of monsters and robots from old sci-fi films; among those are some Daleks, who upon release by Marvin the Martian
, proceed to attack while spouting their catchphrases. A Dalek appeared alongside Darth Vader
, Ming the Merciless
, a Klingon
, the Sixth Doctor
and a 1980s Cyberman in a 2003 episode of the British motoring program Top Gear, to see who was "Master of the Universe" with a lap around their test track
in a racing modified Honda Civic
. The Dalek couldn't get into the car, so it exterminated the other drivers (with the exception of the Klingon and the Doctor; who had apparently fled beforehand as they were not present); the Cyberman was eventually declared the winner by the hosts. In a 2009 episode of the American sitcom Better Off Ted
, a deactivated Dalek is spotted in the sub-basement where the supposed "Robot Farm" is located. In 2010, a Dalek was a "guest" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
sitting off to the side and keeping a watchful eye on Ferguson. It never spoke, but occasionally moved around. This was a lead-up to having Matt Smith (actor) as a real guest on the show.
The first known musical reference to Daleks is the 1964 novelty single "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek" by The Go-Go's
, released during the 1960s' "Dalekmania
" fad. Dalek voices were sampled and recreated in the 1988 novelty single "Doctorin' the Tardis" by The Timelords (who later performed as The KLF
), and also sampled by the German electronic band Rotersand
in their 2005 single "Exterminate Annihilate Destroy". Many other musicians have referenced Daleks in lyrics, including: The Clash
, in "Remote Control" ("Repression—gonna be a Dalek / Repression—I am a robot / Repression—I obey."); The Creatures
, in "Weathercade" ("The Dalek drones are drowning"); and The Supernaturals
, in "Smile" ("I feel like a Dalek inside/ Everything's gone grey but used to be so black and white"). Bands have even incorporated Daleks into their names: Dalek I Love You
, a synthpop band active for over ten years from the late 1970s to the beginning of the 1990s, and instrumental surf-rock trio Dalek Beach Party, whose 1992 EP featured the song "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
conference in Blackpool
, delegate Hugh Dykes
publicly compared the Labour government's Defence Secretary
Denis Healey
to the creatures. "Mr. Healey is the Dalek of defence, pointing a metal finger at the armed forces and saying 'I will eliminate you'."
In a British Government Parliamentary Debate
in the House of Commons
on 12 February 1968, the then Minister of Technology
Tony Benn
mentioned the Daleks during a reply to a question from the Labour
MP Hugh Jenkins concerning the Concorde
aircraft project. In the context of the dangers of solar flare
s, he said, "Because we are exploring the frontiers of technology, some people think Concorde will be avoiding solar flares like Dr. Who avoiding Daleks. It is not like this at all."
Australian Labor Party
luminary Robert Ray
described his right wing Labor Unity faction successor, Victorian Senator Stephen Conroy
, and his Socialist Left faction counterpart, Kim Carr
, as "factional Daleks" during a 2006 Australian Fabian Society
lunch in Sydney.
Daleks have been used in political cartoons to caricature: Tony Benn
John Birt, Tony Blair
(also portrayed as Davros
), Alastair Campbell
, Alec Douglas-Home
, Charles de Gaulle
, Peter Mandelson
, Mark Thompson
(who played the Third Doctor
's companion Jo Grant
) in a photoshoot for Playboy
after Manning left the series. Although Playboy did not use the images, they were eventually published in a men's magazine named Girl Illustrated
.
Daleks were also featured in an unauthorised pornographic feature, Abducted by the Daloids. In the film, the "Daloids", portrayed by several Dalek models, abduct three scantily-clad models and watch lesbian scenes. The BBC took action to prevent sale of the DVD when learning of it in November 2005. Another pornographic parody, entitled Dr. Loo and the Filthy Phaleks was released earlier in 2005.
Daleks have appeared on magazine covers promoting Doctor Who since the "Dalekmania" fad of the 1960s. Radio Times
has featured the Daleks on its cover several times, beginning with the 21–27 November 1964 issue which promoted The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Other magazines also used Daleks to attract readers' attention, including the aforementioned Girl Illustrated.
In April 2005, Radio Times created a special cover to commemorate both the return of the Daleks to the screen in "Dalek
" and the forthcoming general election
. This cover recreated a scene from The Dalek Invasion of Earth in which the Daleks were seen crossing Westminster Bridge
, with the Houses of Parliament
in the background. The cover text read "VOTE DALEK!" In a 2008 contest sponsored by the Periodical Publishers Association
, this cover was voted the best British magazine cover of all time. The 2010 UK general election campaign also prompted a collector's set of three near-identical covers of the Radio Times on 17 April with exactly the same headline but with the newly redesigned Daleks
in their primary colours representing the three main political parties, Red being Labour, Blue as Conservative and Yellow as Liberal Democrats.
, including Spike Milligan
's "Pakistani Dalek" sketch in his comedy series Q, and Victor Lewis-Smith
's "Gay Daleks". Occasionally the BBC has used the Daleks to parody other subjects: in 2002, BBC Worldwide
published the Dalek Survival Guide, a parody of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks
. Comedian Eddie Izzard
has an extended stand-up routine about Daleks, which was included in his 1993 stand-up show "Live at the Ambassadors
". The Daleks made two brief appearances in a pantomime
version of Aladdin
at the Birmingham Hippodrome
which starred Torchwood
star John Barrowman
in the lead role. A joke telling robot, possessing a Dalek-like boom, and loosely modelled after the Dalek also appeared in the South Park
episode "Funnybot
" even spouting out "exterminate".
and "Rolykins" Daleks from Louis Marx & Co.
, as well as models from Cherilea, Herts Plastic Moulders Ltd and Cowan, de Groot Ltd, and "Bendy" Daleks made by Newfeld Ltd. At the height of the Daleks' popularity, in addition to toy replicas, there were Dalek board games and activity sets, slide projectors for children and even Dalek playsuits made from PVC. Collectible cards, stickers, toy guns, music singles, punching bags and many other items were also produced in this period. Dalek toys released in the 1970s included a new version of Louis Marx's battery-operated Dalek (1974), a "talking Dalek" from Palitoy
(1975) and a Dalek board game (1975) and Dalek action figure
(1977), both from Denys Fisher
. From 1988 to 2002, Dapol
released a line of Dalek toys in conjunction with its Doctor Who action figure series. Bluebird Toys produced a Dalek-themed Doctor Who playset in 1998.
In 1984, Sevans Models released a self-assembly model kit for a one-fifth scale Dalek, which Doctor Who historian David Howe
has described as "the most accurate model of a Dalek ever to be released". Comet Miniatures released two Dalek self-assembly model kits in the 1990s.
In 1992, Bally released a Dr Who pinball machine
which prominently featured the Daleks both as a primary playfield feature and as a motorized toy in the topper.
Beginning in 2000, Product Enterprise (who later operated under the names "Iconic Replicas" and "Sixteen 12 Collectibles") produced various Dalek toys. These included Dalek "Rolykins" (based on the Louis Marx toy from 1965); push-along "talking" Daleks; Dalek "Rollamatics" with a pull back and release mechanism; and a remote control Dalek.
In 2005 Character Options
was granted the "Master Toy License" for the revived Doctor Who series, including the Daleks. Their product lines have included static/push-along and radio controlled Daleks, radio controlled versions and radio controlled / 1:3 scale variants. The 12-inch remote control Dalek won the 2005 award for Best Electronic Toy of the Year from the Toy Retailers Association. Some versions of the 18-inch model included semi-autonomous and voice command-features. In 2008, the company acquired a license to produce Daleks of the various "classic series" variants. For the fifth revived series, both Ironside (Post-Time war Daleks in camouflage khaki), Drone (new, red) and, later, Strategist Daleks (new, blue) were released as both RC Infrared Battle Daleks and action figures.
. The game allowed the player to play various Doctors or companions, running them through several environments to defeat the Daleks. In 1997 the BBC released a PC
game entitled Destiny of the Doctors
which also featured the Daleks, among other adversaries.
Unauthorized games featuring Daleks continued to appear through the 1990s and 2000s, including Dalek-based modifications
of Dark Forces, Quake, and Half-Life, and even more recently, a mod of Halo: Combat Evolved
; many of these can be found online, including an Adobe Flash
game, Dalek:Dissolution Earth. In 1998 QWho, a modification
for Quake, featured the Daleks as adversaries. This also formed the basis of TimeQuake, a total conversion written in 2000 which included other Doctor Who monsters such as Sontaran
s. Another unauthorised game is DalekTron, a based on Robotron: 2084
written to coincide with the 2005 series.
One authorised online game is The Last Dalek, a Flash
game created by New Media Collective for the BBC. It is based on the 2005 episode "Dalek" and can be played at the official BBC Doctor Who website. The Doctor Who website also features another game, Daleks vs Cybermen (also known as Cyber Troop Control Interface), based on the 2006 episode "Doomsday"; in this game, the player controls troops of Cybermen which must fight Daleks as well as Torchwood Institute
members.
On 5 June 2010, the BBC released the first of four official computer games on their website, 'Doctor Who: The Adventure Games', which are intended as part of the official TV series adventures. In the first of these, 'The City of the Daleks', the Doctor in his 11th incarnation and Amy Pond must stop the Daleks from re-writing time and reviving Skaro, their homeland.
They also appear in the Nintendo DS
and Wii
games Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
and Doctor Who: Return to Earth
.
A lone Dalek appears in the IOS game The Mazes of Time
, Cheshire-based company "This Planet Earth" is the only business which has been licensed by the BBC and the Terry Nation Estate to produce full-size TV Dalek replicas, and by Canal+ Image UK Ltd.
to produce full size Movie Dalek replicas commercially.
Mutant
In biology and especially genetics, a mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character, arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not...
s from the British science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. Within the series, Daleks are cyborg
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
s from the planet Skaro
Skaro
Skaro is a fictional planet from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who created by the writer Terry Nation as the home planet of the Daleks and, at times, the centre of the Dalek Empire....
, created by the scientist Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals
Thal (Doctor Who)
The Thals are a fictional race of humanoid aliens from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, originating on the planet Skaro.-History within the show:...
. They are genetically engineered Kaled mutants integrated within a tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
-like or robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
-like mechanical shell. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse. Various storylines portray them as having had every emotion removed except hate, leaving them with a desire to purge the Universe of all non-Dalek life
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
. Collectively they are the greatest enemies of the series' protagonist, the Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
known as the Doctor
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
. Their catchphrase is "Exterminate!"
Creation
The Daleks were created by writer Terry NationTerry Nation
Terry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
and designed by BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
designer Raymond Cusick
Raymond Cusick
Raymond P. "Ray" Cusick was a designer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is best known for designing the Daleks, a race of mutants who move around in tank-like travel machines, for the science fiction television series Doctor Who....
.Designer Raymond Cusick said that he got the idea of their appearance "whilst fiddling with a pepperpot" and had them produced in fibreglass, at a cost of under each. They were introduced in December 1963 in the second Doctor Who serial, colloquially known as The Daleks
The Daleks
The Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964...
. They became an immediate and huge hit with viewers, featuring in many subsequent serials and two 1960s motion pictures. They have become as synonymous with Doctor Who as the Doctor himself, and their behaviour and catchphrases are now part of British popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. "Hiding behind the sofa
Behind the sofa
"Behind the sofa" is a British pop culture phrase, used as a metaphor to describe the actions that a state of fear may drive a person to — e.g., a child hiding behind the sofa to avoid a frightening television programme...
whenever the Daleks appear" has been cited as an element of British cultural identity; and a 2008 survey indicated that 9 out of 10 British children were able to identify a Dalek correctly. In 1999 a Dalek appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture, photographed by Lord Snowdon
Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon
Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, GCVO, RDI is an English photographer and film maker. He was married to Princess Margaret, younger daughter of King George VI and younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II....
. In 2010, readers of science fiction magazine SFX voted the Dalek as the all-time greatest monster, beating out competition including Japanese movie monster
Monster movie
Monster movie is a name commonly given to movies, which centre on the struggle between human beings and one or more monsters...
Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
and J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's Gollum
Gollum
Gollum is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. He was introduced in the author's fantasy novel The Hobbit, and became an important supporting character in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings....
, of The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
.
Entry into popular culture
The word "Dalek" has entered major dictionaries, including the Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
, which defines it somewhat imprecisely as "a type of robot appearing in 'Dr. Who', a B.B.C. Television science-fiction programme; hence used allusively." English-speakers sometimes use the term metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ically to describe people, usually figures of authority, who act like robots unable to break from their programming; for example, John Birt, the Director-General of the BBC
Director-General of the BBC
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and is now appointed by the BBC Trust....
from 1992 to 2000, was publicly called a "croak-voiced Dalek" by playwright Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...
in the MacTaggart Lecture at the 1993 Edinburgh Television Festival
Edinburgh International Television Festival
The Edinburgh International Television Festival, founded in 1976, is held annually over the British August bank holiday weekend at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre....
Physical characteristics
Externally, Daleks normally resemble human-sized salt and pepper shakersSalt and pepper shakers
The salt shaker and pepper shaker are condiment holders used in Western culture that are designed to allow diners to distribute edible salt and ground peppercorns.Salt and pepper shakers are often held in a cruet-stand.- Usage :...
with a single mechanical eyestalk mounted on a rotating dome, a gun mount containing an energy weapon (or "death ray
Death ray
The death ray or death beam was a theoretical particle beam or electromagnetic weapon of the 1920s through the 1930s that was claimed to have been invented independently by Nikola Tesla, Edwin R. Scott, Harry Grindell Matthews, and Graichen, as well as others...
") and a telescopic manipulator arm which is usually tipped by an appendage resembling a sink plunger
Plunger
A plunger is a common device that is used to release stoppages in plumbing. The tool consists of a rubber cup with an attached stick "shaft", usually made of wood or bronze. Before use, any objects such as hair in the plug grate should be removed and, if possible the overflow hole should be...
. Daleks have been seen to be able to use their plungers to interface with technology, crush a man's skull by suction, measure the intelligence of a subject, and extract information from a man's mind. Dalek casings are made of a bonded polycarbide
Carbide
In chemistry, a carbide is a compound composed of carbon and a less electronegative element. Carbides can be generally classified by chemical bonding type as follows: salt-like, covalent compounds, interstitial compounds, and "intermediate" transition metal carbides...
material dubbed "dalekanium" by a member of the human resistance in The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from November 21 to December 26, 1964....
and by the Cult of Skaro
Cult of Skaro
In the television series Doctor Who, the Cult of Skaro was an elite order of Daleks, and the first individual Daleks whose recurring nature has been explicit.-Background:The Cult of Skaro first appeared in the double-episode "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday"...
in "Daleks in Manhattan
Daleks in Manhattan
"Daleks in Manhattan" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 21 April 2007, and is the fourth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is part one of a two-part story, concluded in "Evolution of the Daleks"...
".
The lower half of a Dalek's shell is covered with hemispherical protrusions, or "Dalek bumps", which are shown in the episode "Dalek
Dalek (Doctor Who episode)
"Dalek" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 30 April 2005. It should not be confused with the first Dalek serial, The Daleks...
" to be spheres embedded in the casing. Both the BBC-licensed Dalek Book (1964) and The Doctor Who Technical Manual (1983) describe these items as being part of a sensory array, whilst in the 2005 series episode "Dalek", they are shown to serve a function in a Dalek's self-destruct
Self-destruct
A self-destruct is a mechanism which causes a device to destroy itself under a predefined set of circumstances.Self-destruct mechanisms are also found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people...
mechanism. Their armour has a forcefield that evaporates most bullets and resists most types of energy weapon; this seems to be concentrated around the Dalek's midsection (where the mutant is located), as normally ineffective firepower can be concentrated on the eyestalk to blind a Dalek. Daleks have a very limited field of vision, with no peripheral sight at all, and are relatively easy to hide from in fairly exposed places. Their own energy weapons have also been shown to be capable of destroying them. Their weapons fire a beam that has electrical tendencies, is capable of propagating through water and may be a form of plasma
Plasma (physics)
In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
. The eyepiece is a Dalek's most vulnerable spot, and impairing its vision often leads to a blind, panicked firing of its weapon whilst shouting, "My vision is impaired; I cannot see!" Russell T Davies subverted the catchphrase in his 2008 episode "The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
", in which a Dalek vaporises a paintball that has blocked its vision while proclaiming "My vision is not impaired!".
The creature inside the mechanical casing is depicted as soft and repulsive in appearance and vicious even without its mechanical armour. The first-ever glimpse of a Dalek mutant, in The Daleks
The Daleks
The Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964...
, was a claw peeking out from under a Thal cloak after it had been removed from its casing. The actual appearance of the mutants has varied, but often adheres to the Doctor's description of the species in Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 5 October to 26 October 1988....
as "little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour
Armour
Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action...
". In Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts between 8 February and 15 February 1984...
a Dalek creature, separated from its casing, attacks and severely injures a human soldier; in Revelation of the Daleks, there are two Dalek factions and the creatures inside have a different appearance in each case, one resembling the amorphous creature from Resurrection, the other the crab-like creature from the original Dalek serial. As the creature inside is rarely seen on screen, a common misconception exists that Daleks are wholly mechanical robots. As of the new series
Doctor Who (series 1)
The new first series of British science fiction series Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode "Rose", which marked the end of the programme's 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and aired its finale episode "The Parting of the Ways" on 18 June 2005...
Daleks are shown to be mollusc-like in appearance, with small tentacles, one or two eyes and an exposed brain.
The voice of a Dalek is electronic; the Dalek creature is apparently unable to make much more than squeaking sounds when out of its casing. Once the mutant is removed, the casing itself can be entered and operated by humanoids; for example, in The Daleks
The Daleks
The Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964...
, Ian Chesterton
Ian Chesterton
Ian Chesterton is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and a companion of the First Doctor. He was played in the series by William Russell, and was one of the members of the programme's very first regular cast, appearing in the bulk of the first two...
(William Russell
William Russell (actor)
William Russell is an English actor, mainly known for his television work. He was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.-Doctor Who:...
) enters a Dalek shell to masquerade as a guard as part of an escape plan.
For many years it was assumed that, due to their design and gliding motion, Daleks were unable to climb stairs, and that this was a simple way of escaping them. A well known cartoon from Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
pictured a group of Daleks at the foot of a flight of stairs with the caption, "Well, this certainly buggers our plan to conquer the Universe". In a scene from the serial Destiny of the Daleks
Destiny of the Daleks
Destiny of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 September to 22 September 1979. The story introduces Lalla Ward as the newly-regenerated Romana....
, the Doctor and companions
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
escape from Dalek pursuers by climbing into a ceiling duct. The Fourth Doctor
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
calls down, "If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us?" The Daleks generally make up for their general lack of mobility with overwhelming firepower; a joke among Doctor Who fans goes, "Real Daleks don't climb stairs; they level the building." Dalek mobility has improved over the history of the series: in their first appearance, The Daleks, they were capable of movement only on the conductive metal floors of their city; in The Dalek Invasion of Earth a Dalek emerges from the waters of the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
, indicating that they not only had become freely mobile, but are amphibious
Amphibious vehicle
An amphibious vehicle , is a vehicle or craft, that is a means of transport, viable on land as well as on water – just like an amphibian....
; Planet of the Daleks showed that they could ascend a vertical shaft by means of an external anti-gravity
Anti-gravity
Anti-gravity is the idea of creating a place or object that is free from the force of gravity. It does not refer to the lack of weight under gravity experienced in free fall or orbit, or to balancing the force of gravity with some other force, such as electromagnetism or aerodynamic lift...
mat placed on the floor; and Remembrance of the Daleks depicted them as capable of hovering up a flight of stairs. Despite this, journalists covering the series frequently refer to the Daleks' supposed inability to climb stairs; characters escaping up a flight of stairs in the 2005 episode "Dalek" made the same joke, and were shocked when the Dalek began to hover up the stairs after uttering the phrase "LEVITATE", in reference to their normal phrase "EXTERMINATE.". The new series depicts the Daleks as fully capable of flight, even space flight.
Prop details
The non-humanoid shape of the Dalek did much to enhance the creatures' sense of menace. A lack of familiar reference points differentiated them from the traditional "bug-eyed monsterBug-eyed monster
Bug-eyed monster is an early convention of the science fiction genre. Extraterrestrials in science fiction of the 1930s were often described as grotesque creatures with huge, oversized...
" of science fiction, which Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman
Sydney Newman
Sydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s...
had wanted the show to avoid. The unsettling form of the Daleks, coupled with their alien voices, made many believe that the props were wholly mechanical and operated by remote control.
The Daleks were actually controlled from inside by short operators who had to manipulate their eyestalks, domes and arms, as well as flashing the lights on their heads in sync with the actors supplying their voices. The Dalek cases were built in two pieces; an operator would step into the lower section, and then the top would be secured. The operators looked out between the cylindrical louvres just beneath the dome which were lined with mesh to conceal their faces.
In addition to being hot and cramped the Dalek casings also muffled external sounds, making it difficult for the operators to hear the director's commands or studio dialogue. The top sections were also too heavy to lift from the inside, which meant that the operators could be trapped inside if the stagehands forgot to release them. John Scott Martin
John Scott Martin
John Scott Martin was an English actor born in Toxteth, Liverpool. He made many film, stage and television appearances, but one of his most famous, though unseen, roles was as a Dalek operator in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.Martin operated Daleks from 1965's...
, a Dalek operator from the original series, said that Dalek operation was a challenge: "You had to have about six hands: one to do the eyestalk, one to do the lights, one for the gun, another for the smoke canister underneath, yet another for the sink plunger. If you were related to an octopus then it helped."
For Doctor Whos 21st-century revival, the props were redesigned by production designer Ed Thomas, with consultation from artist Bryan Hitch
Bryan Hitch
Bryan Hitch is a British comic book artist. Hitch began his career in the United Kingdom for Marvel UK, working on titles such as Action Force and Death's Head, before gaining prominence on American titles such as Wildstorm's Stormwatch and The Authority, DC Comics titles such as JLA, and Marvel...
, producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner is a Welsh television producer. Her most prominent work has been serving as executive producer on the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and its spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
, and model builder Mike Tucker
Mike Tucker
Mike Tucker is a special effects expert who worked for many years at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, and now works as an Effects Supervisor for his own company, The Model Unit. He is also the author of a variety of spin-offs relating to the television series Doctor Who and...
. These Dalek casings retain the same overall shape and dimensional proportions of previous Daleks, although many details have been re-designed to give the Dalek a heavier and more solid look. Changes include a larger, more pointed base; a glowing eyepiece; an all-over metallic brass finish (specified by Davies); a housing for the eyestalk pivot; and significantly larger dome lights. The new prop made its on-screen debut in the 2005 episode "Dalek". These Dalek casings use a short operator inside the housing while the 'head' and eyestalk are operated via remote control. A third person, Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs is a British actor and writer, predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks. Briggs sometimes uses the pseudonym Arthur Wallis...
, supplies the voice in their various appearances. In the 2010 season a new and larger model appeared in several colours representing different parts of the Dalek command hierarchy.
Movement
Early versions of the Daleks rolled on nylon casters, propelled by the operator's feet. Although casters were adequate for the Daleks' debut serial, which was shot entirely at the BBC's Lime Grove StudiosLime Grove Studios
Lime Grove Studios was a film studio complex built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915 situated in a street named Lime Grove, inShepherd's Bush, west London, north of Hammersmith and described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country...
, for The Dalek Invasion of Earth Terry Nation wanted the Daleks to be filmed on the streets of London. To enable the Daleks to travel smoothly on location, designer Spencer Chapman built the new Dalek shells around miniature tricycle
Tricycle
A tricycle is a three-wheeled vehicle. While tricycles are often associated with the small three-wheeled vehicles used by pre-school-age children, they are also used by adults for a variety of purposes. In the United States and Canada, adult-sized tricycles are used primarily by older persons for...
s with sturdier wheels, which were hidden by enlarged fenders fitted below the original base. The uneven flagstones of Central London caused the Daleks to rattle as they moved and it was not possible to remove this noise from the final soundtrack. A small parabolic dish was added to the rear of the prop's casing to explain why these Daleks, unlike the ones in their first serial, were not dependent on static electricity
Static electricity
Static electricity refers to the build-up of electric charge on the surface of objects. The static charges remain on an object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge. Static electricity can be contrasted with current electricity, which can be delivered...
drawn from the floors of the Dalek city for their motive power.
Later versions of the prop had more efficient wheels and were once again simply propelled by the seated operators' feet, but they remained so heavy that when going up ramps they often had to be pushed by stagehands out of camera shot. The difficulty of operating all the prop's parts at once contributed to the occasionally jerky movements of the Dalek. This problem has largely been eradicated with the advent of the "new series" version, as its remotely controlled dome and eyestalk allow the operator to concentrate on the smooth movement of the Dalek and its arms.
Voices
The staccatoStaccato
Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...
delivery, harsh tone and rising inflection of the Dalek voice were initially developed by voice actors Peter Hawkins
Peter Hawkins
Peter John Hawkins was an English actor and voice artist.- Career :Born in London and a native of Brixton, Hawkins' long association with British children's television began in 1952 when he voiced both Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men. In 1955–1956, He voiced Big Ears & Mr. Plod from The...
and David Graham
David Graham (actor)
David Graham is a British character actor and voice artist. Born in London, after a period in the R.A.F as a Radar Mechanic he trained as an actor in New York but has worked mainly on British television series....
, who would vary the pitch and speed of the lines according to the emotion needed. Their voices were further processed electronically by Brian Hodgson at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, one of the sound effects units of the BBC, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music for radio, and was closed in March 1998, although much of its traditional work had already been outsourced by 1995. It was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware...
. Although the exact sound-processing devices used have varied, the original 1963 effect used equalisation to boost the mid-range of the actor's voice, then subjected it to ring modulation
Ring modulation
Ring modulation is a signal-processing effect in electronics, an implementation of amplitude modulation or frequency mixing, performed by multiplying two signals, where one is typically a sine-wave or another simple waveform. It is referred to as "ring" modulation because the analog circuit of...
with a 30 Hz sine wave
Sine wave
The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. It occurs often in pure mathematics, as well as physics, signal processing, electrical engineering and many other fields...
. The distinctive harsh grating vocal timbre this produced has remained the pattern for all Dalek voices since (with the exception of those in the 1985 serial Revelation of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks
Revelation of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 March and 30 March 1985...
, for which director Graeme Harper
Graeme Harper
Graeme Harper is a British television director. He is best known for his work on the science-fiction series Doctor Who, for which he is the only person to have directed episodes of both the original run and revived run of the programme...
deliberately used less distortion).
Besides Hawkins and Graham, notable voice actors for the Daleks have included Roy Skelton
Roy Skelton
Roy William Skelton was an English actor and voice artist, whose voice was more familiar to television viewers than his name...
, who first voiced the Daleks in the 1967 story The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in seven weekly parts from 20 May to 1 July 1967. This serial marked the debut of Deborah Watling as the Doctor's new companion, Victoria Waterfield.Evil was initially intended to...
and went on to provide voices for five additional Dalek serials and for the one-off anniversary special The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
. Michael Wisher
Michael Wisher
Michael Wisher was a British actor.He is probably best remembered for having played Davros, the wheelchair-using scientific mastermind and creator of the Daleks, in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, the actor who originated the role of Dalek creator Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
in Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975. It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.-Plot:...
, provided Dalek voices for that same story, as well as for Frontier in Space
Frontier in Space
Frontier in Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from February 24 to March 31, 1973...
, Planet of the Daleks
Planet of the Daleks
Planet of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from April 7 to May 12, 1973.-Synopsis:...
and Death to the Daleks
Death to the Daleks
Death to the Daleks is a four-part serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast from February 23 to March 16, 1974, it comprises four 25-minute episodes. The narrative begins as the TARDIS suffers an energy drain and crash-lands on the planet Exxilon...
. Other Dalek voice actors include Royce Mills
Royce Mills
Royce Mills is an English television, stage and film actor.He attended Eastbourne College, then studied fine art for 5 years and qualified as a theatre designer before attending the Guildhall School where he was a prize winning student.He then joined in Bristol Old Vic and appeared in many theatres...
(three stories), Brian Miller (two stories), Oliver Gilbert and Peter Messaline (one story). John Leeson
John Leeson
John Leeson is a British actor who is best known for voicing K-9 on the television series Doctor Who from 1977 to 1979, and again in the 1980–1981 season. He was called back to do the voice of K-9 again for the 2006 episode "School Reunion" and again for the 2008 Doctor Who episode "Journey's End"...
, who performed the voice of K-9
K-9 (Doctor Who)
K-9, or K9, is the name of several fictional robotic canines in the long-running British science fiction television series, Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977...
in several Doctor Who stories, and Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
actors Terry Molloy
Terry Molloy
Terry Molloy is an English actor known predominantly for his work on radio and television.Molloy has been a member of the cast of BBC Radio 4's The Archers playing Mike Tucker since 1973 and has won awards for his work as an actor on radio.On television, Molloy is perhaps best known for his role...
and David Gooderson
David Gooderson
David Gooderson is a British actor who has appeared in several television roles. As well as portraying Davros, creator of the Daleks in the Doctor Who serial Destiny of the Daleks, he has appeared in Lovejoy, Mapp & Lucia and A Touch of Frost amongst other roles...
also contributed supporting voices for various Dalek serials.
Since 2005, the Dalek voice in the television series has been provided by Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs is a British actor and writer, predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks. Briggs sometimes uses the pseudonym Arthur Wallis...
, speaking into a microphone connected to a voice modulator. Briggs had previously provided Dalek and other alien voices for Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio plays
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
. In a 2006 BBC Radio interview, Briggs said that when the BBC asked him to do the voice for the new television series, they instructed him to bring his own analogue ring modulator that he had used in the audio plays. The BBC's sound department had changed to a digital platform and could not adequately create the distinctive Dalek sound with their modern equipment. Briggs went as far as to bring the voice modulator to the actors' readings of the scripts.
Construction
Manufacturing the props was expensive. In scenes where many Daleks had to appear, some of them would be represented by wooden replicas (Destiny of the DaleksDestiny of the Daleks
Destiny of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 September to 22 September 1979. The story introduces Lalla Ward as the newly-regenerated Romana....
) or life-size photographic enlargements in the early black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
episodes (The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Dalek Invasion of Earth is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in six weekly parts from November 21 to December 26, 1964....
and The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks
The Power of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 5 November to 10 December 1966. It is Patrick Troughton's first full story as the Doctor.-Plot:...
). In stories involving armies of Daleks, the BBC effects team even turned to using commercially available toy Daleks, manufactured by Louis Marx & Co
Louis Marx and Company
Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer from 1919 to 1978. Its boxes were often imprinted with the slogan, "One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?"-Logo and Offerings:...
and Herts Plastic Moulders Ltd. Examples of such use can be observed in the serials The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks and Planet of the Daleks. Judicious editing techniques also gave the impression that there were more Dalek props than were actually available, and continue to be used to the present day, such as using split screen
Split screen (film)
In film and video production, split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in half, but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamless view of reality, similar to that of the human eye...
in "The Parting of the Ways".
Four fully functioning props were commissioned for the first serial "The Daleks" in 1963, and were constructed from BBC plans by Shawcraft Engineering. These became known in fan circles as "Mk I Daleks". Shawcraft were also commissioned to construct approximately twenty Daleks for the two Dalek movies in 1965 and 1966 (see below). Some of these movie props filtered back to the BBC and were seen in the televised serials, notably The Chase, which was aired before the first movie's debut. The remaining props not bought by the BBC were either donated to charity or given away as prizes in competitions.
The BBC's own Dalek props were reused many times, with components of the original Shawcraft "Mk I Daleks" surviving right through to their final classic series appearance in 1988. Years of storage and repainting took their toll, however. By the time of the Sixth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
's Revelation of the Daleks new props were being manufactured out of fibreglass, which were lighter and more affordable to construct than their predecessors. These Daleks were slightly bulkier in appearance around the mid-shoulder section, and also had a slightly redesigned skirt section which was more vertical at the back. Other minor changes were made to the design due to these new construction methods, including alterations to the fender and the incorporation of both the arm boxes, collars and slats into a single fibreglass moulding. These props were repainted in grey for the Seventh Doctor
Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
serial Remembrance of the Daleks and designated as "Renegade Daleks"; another redesign, painted in white and gold, became the "Imperial Dalek" faction.
New Dalek props were built for the 21st century version of Doctor Who. The first, which appeared alone in the 2005 episode "Dalek", was built by modelmaker Mike Tucker
Mike Tucker
Mike Tucker is a special effects expert who worked for many years at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, and now works as an Effects Supervisor for his own company, The Model Unit. He is also the author of a variety of spin-offs relating to the television series Doctor Who and...
. Additional Dalek props based on Tucker's master were subsequently built out of fibreglass by Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
-based Specialist Models.
Development
Wishing to create an alien creature that did not look like a "man in a suit", Terry Nation stated in his script for the first Dalek serial that they should have no legs. He was also inspired by a performance by the Georgian National BalletGeorgian National Ballet
The Georgian National Ballet was the first professional state dance company in Georgia. Founded by Iliko Sukhishvili and Nino Ramishvili in 1945, it was initially named as the Georgian State Dance Company...
, in which dancers in long skirts appeared to glide across the stage. For many of the shows, the Daleks were "played" by retired ballet dancers wearing black socks while sitting inside the Dalek. Raymond Cusick was given the task of designing the Daleks when Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
, then a designer for the BBC, proved unavailable after having been initially assigned to their debut serial. An account in Jeremy Bentham's Doctor Who—The Early Years (1986) says that after Nation wrote the script, Cusick was given only an hour to come up with the design for the Daleks, and was inspired in his initial sketches by a pepper shaker on a table. Cusick himself, however, states that he based it on a man seated in a chair, and only used the pepper shaker to demonstrate how it might move.
In 1964 Nation told a Daily Mirror reporter that the Dalek name came from a dictionary or encyclopaedia volume, the spine of which read "Dal – Lek" (or, according to another version, "Dal – Eks"). He later admitted that this book and the origin of the Dalek name was completely fictitious, and that anyone bothering to check out his story would have found him out. The name had in reality simply rolled off his typewriter. Later, Nation was pleasantly surprised to discover that in Serbo-Croatian
Serbo-Croatian language
Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat, less commonly Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language with multiple standards and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro...
the word "dalek" means "far", or "distant".
Nation grew up during World War II, and remembered the fear caused by German bombings. He consciously based the Daleks on the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, conceiving the species as faceless, authoritarian figures dedicated to conquest and complete conformity. The allusion is most obvious in the Dalek stories penned by Nation, in particular The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) and Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks
Genesis of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was originally broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975. It marks the first appearance of Davros, the creator of the Daleks.-Plot:...
(1975).
Prior to writing the first Dalek serial, Nation was chief scriptwriter for comedian Tony Hancock
Tony Hancock
Anthony John "Tony" Hancock was an English actor and comedian.-Early life and career:Hancock was born in Southam Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, England, but from the age of three was brought up in Bournemouth, where his father, John Hancock, who ran the Railway Hotel in...
. The two fell out and Nation either resigned or was fired. When Hancock left the BBC, he worked on several series proposals, one of which was called From Plip to Plop, a comedic history of the world which would have ended with a nuclear apocalypse, the survivors being reduced to living in dustbin-like robot casings and eating radiation to stay alive. According to biographer Cliff Goodwin, when Hancock saw the Daleks, he allegedly shouted at the screen, "That bloody Nation—he's stolen my robots!"
The naming of early Doctor Who stories is complex and sometimes controversial. The first Dalek serial is called, variously, The Survivors (the pre-production title), The Mutants (its official title at the time of production and broadcast, later taken by another unrelated story
The Mutants
The Mutants is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 8 April to 13 May 1972....
), Beyond the Sun (used on some production documentation), The Dead Planet (the on-screen title of the serial's first episode), or simply The Daleks
The Daleks
The Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964...
.
The instant appeal of the Daleks caught the BBC off guard, and transformed Doctor Who from a Saturday tea-time children's educational programme to a must-watch national phenomenon. Children were alternately frightened and fascinated by the alien look of the monsters, and the Doctor Who production office was inundated by letters and calls asking about the creatures. Newspaper articles focused attention on the series and the Daleks, further enhancing their popularity.
Nation jointly owned the intellectual property rights to the Daleks with the BBC, and the money-making concept proved nearly impossible to sell to anyone else; he was dependent on the BBC wanting to produce stories featuring the creatures. Despite fans' adoration, the Daleks were clearly associated with Doctor Who and several attempts to market the Daleks outside of the series were unsuccessful. Since Nation's death in 1997, his share of the rights now belong to his estate and are administered by his former agent, Tim Hancock.
Early plans for what eventually became the 1996 Doctor Who television movie included radically redesigned Daleks whose cases unfolded like spiders' legs. The concept for these "Spider Daleks" was abandoned, but picked up again in several Doctor Who spin-offs
Doctor Who spin-offs
Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
.
When the new series was announced, many fans hoped the Daleks would return once more to the programme. After much negotiation between the BBC and the Nation estate (which at one point appeared to break down completely), an agreement was reached. According to media reports, the initial disagreement was due to the Nation estate demanding levels of creative control over the Daleks' appearances and scripts that were unacceptable to the BBC. Eventually talks between Hancock and the BBC progressed more productively, and the Daleks were cleared to appear in the first series.
Fictional history
Dalek in-universe history has seen many retroactive changesRetcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
, which have caused continuity
Continuity (fiction)
In fiction, continuity is consistency of the characteristics of persons, plot, objects, places and events seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time...
problems. When the Daleks first appeared in The Daleks, they were presented as the descendants of the Dals, mutated after a brief nuclear war between the Dal and Thal
Thal (Doctor Who)
The Thals are a fictional race of humanoid aliens from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, originating on the planet Skaro.-History within the show:...
races. In 1975, Terry Nation revised the Daleks' origins in Genesis of the Daleks, where the Dals were now called Kaleds (of which "Daleks" is an anagram
Anagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
), and the Dalek design was attributed to one man, the crippled Kaled chief scientist and evil genius
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
, Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
. Instead of a short nuclear exchange, the Kaled-Thal war was portrayed as a thousand-year-long war of attrition
Attrition warfare
Attrition warfare is a military strategy in which a belligerent side attempts to win a war by wearing down its enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and matériel....
, fought with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons causing widespread mutations among the Kaled race. Davros experimented on living Kaled cells to find the ultimate mutated form of the Kaled species and placed the subjects in tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
-like "travel machines" whose design was based on his own life-support chair.
Genesis of the Daleks marked a new era for the depiction of the species, with most of their previous history either forgotten or barely referred to again. Future stories in the original Doctor Who series, which followed a rough story arc
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
, would also focus more on Davros, much to the dissatisfaction of some fans who felt that the Daleks should take centre stage rather than merely becoming minions of their creator. Davros made his last televised appearance for 20 years in Remembrance of the Daleks, which depicted a civil war between two factions of Daleks. One, the "Imperial Daleks", were loyal to Davros, who had become their Emperor, whilst the other, the "Renegade Daleks", followed a black Supreme Dalek.
A single Dalek appeared in "Dalek
Dalek (Doctor Who episode)
"Dalek" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 30 April 2005. It should not be confused with the first Dalek serial, The Daleks...
", written by Robert Shearman
Rob Shearman
Robert Shearman is currently best known as a writer for Doctor Who and for his ongoing association with Jarvis & Ayres Productions which has resulted in six plays for BBC Radio 4 broadcast in the station's regular weekday Afternoon Play slot, and one classic...
, which was broadcast on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
on 30 April 2005. This Dalek appeared to be the sole Dalek survivor of the Time War
Time War (Doctor Who)
The Time War, more specifically called The Last Great Time War, is a conflict within the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
which had destroyed both the Daleks and the Time Lords. A Dalek Emperor returned at the end of the 2005 series, having rebuilt the Dalek race with genetic material harvested with human subjects. It saw itself as a god, and the new Daleks were shown worshipping it. These Daleks and their fleet were destroyed in "The Parting of the Ways
The Parting of the Ways
"The Parting of the Ways" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 18 June 2005. It was the second episode of the two-part story that featured Christopher Eccleston making his last appearance as the Ninth Doctor...
". The 2006 season finale "Army of Ghosts
Army of Ghosts
"Army of Ghosts" is the twelfth and penultimate episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who which was first broadcast on 1 July 2006...
"/"Doomsday
Doomsday (Doctor Who)
"Doomsday" is the thirteenth and final episode in the second series of the revival of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 8 July 2006 and is the conclusion of a two-part story; the first part, "Army of Ghosts", was broadcast on 1 July 2006...
" featured a squad of four Dalek survivors from the old Empire, known as the Cult of Skaro
Cult of Skaro
In the television series Doctor Who, the Cult of Skaro was an elite order of Daleks, and the first individual Daleks whose recurring nature has been explicit.-Background:The Cult of Skaro first appeared in the double-episode "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday"...
, led by a black Dalek named "Sec", that had survived the Time War by escaping into the Void between dimensions. They emerged, along with a Time Lord prison vessel containing millions of Daleks, at Canary Wharf due to the actions of the Torchwood Institute
Torchwood Institute
The Torchwood Institute is a fictional secret organization from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood. It was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria after the events of "Tooth and Claw". Its prime directive, is to defend the earth against...
and Cybermen from a parallel world. This resulted in a Cyberman-Dalek clash in London, which was resolved when the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
caused both factions to be sucked back into the Void. The Cult survived by utilising an "emergency temporal shift" to escape. They would later appear in the two-part story "Daleks in Manhattan
Daleks in Manhattan
"Daleks in Manhattan" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 21 April 2007, and is the fourth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is part one of a two-part story, concluded in "Evolution of the Daleks"...
"/"Evolution of the Daleks
Evolution of the Daleks
"Evolution of the Daleks" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 April 2007, and is the fifth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is the conclusion of the two-part story begun in "Daleks in...
", in which whilst stranded in 1930s New York, they set up a base in the partially built Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
and attempt to rebuild the Dalek race. To this end Dalek Sec merges with a human being to become a Human/Dalek hybrid. The Cult then set about creating "Human Daleks" by "formatting" the brains of a few thousand captured humans, with the intention of producing hybrids which remain fully human in appearance but with Dalek minds. The plot is ultimately foiled due to interference by the Doctor, and Cult members Daleks Sec, Jast and Thay are destroyed. The remaining Cult member, Dalek Caan, once again escapes using a temporal shift.
The Daleks returned in the 2008 seasons' two-part finale, "The Stolen Earth
The Stolen Earth
"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story; the concluding episode is...
"/"Journey's End
Journey's End (Doctor Who)
"Journey's End" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who first broadcast on BBC One on 5 July 2008. It is the second episode of a two-part crossover story featuring the characters of spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane...
", accompanied once again by their creator Davros. The story reveals that Caan's temporal shift sent him into the Time War where he rescued Davros at the cost of his own sanity. The episode depicts a Dalek invasion of Earth led by Caan, Davros, and a red Supreme Dalek, who has kept Caan and Davros imprisoned in "The Vault", a section of the Dalek flagship, the Crucible. Davros and the Daleks plan to destroy reality itself with a "reality bomb". The plan fails due to the interference of the Doctor, his companions and Caan himself, who has been manipulating events to destroy the Daleks after realising the severity of the atrocities they have committed. The Daleks returned in the 2010 episode "Victory of the Daleks
Victory of the Daleks
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Mark Gatiss and first broadcast on BBC One on 17 April 2010....
", the third episode of the series; Daleks who escaped the destruction of Davros' empire fell back in time and, by chance, managed to retrieve the "Progenator". This is a tiny apparatus which contains 'original' Dalek DNA. The activation of the Progenator results in the creation of a "new paradigm" of Daleks. The New Paradigm Daleks deem their creators inferior and exterminate them; their creators make no resistance to this, deeming themselves inferior as well. They are organised into different castes (drone, scientist, strategists, supreme and eternal), which are identifiable with colour-coded armour instead of the identification plates under the eyestalk used by their predecessors. The Daleks only cameo in subsequent finales "The Pandorica Opens
The Pandorica Opens
"The Pandorica Opens" is the twelfth episode, and first in a two-part story, in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on 19 June 2010. The Doctor's friends send him a warning; he deals with a message on a cliff, a mysterious box and a love story that...
"/"The Big Bang
The Big Bang (Doctor Who)
"The Big Bang" is the 13th and final episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the second part of a two-part season finale started with "The Pandorica Opens", at the end of which The Doctor is trapped, the TARDIS destroyed, and Amy Pond has been shot...
" (2010) and "The Wedding of River Song
The Wedding of River Song
"The Wedding of River Song" is the thirteenth and final episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One, BBC America and Space on 1 October 2011.-Plot:...
" (2011) as Steven Moffat decided to "give them a rest" and stated "There's a problem with the Daleks. They are the most famous of the Doctor's adversaries and the most frequent, which means they are the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe."
Dalek culture
Daleks have little, if any, individual personality, ostensibly no emotions other than hatred and anger, and a strict command structure in which they are conditioned to obey superiors' orders without question. Dalek speech is characterised by repeated phrases, and by orders given to themselves and to others. Unlike the stereotypical emotionless robots often found in science fiction, Daleks are often angry; author Kim NewmanKim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
has described the Daleks as behaving "like toddlers in perpetual hissy fits", gloating when in power and throwing tantrums when thwarted. They tend to be excitable and will repeat the same word or phrase over and over again in heightened emotional states, most famously "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
In terms of their behaviour Daleks are extremely aggressive, and seem driven by an instinct to attack. This instinct is so strong that Daleks have been depicted fighting the urge to kill or even attacking when unarmed. The Fifth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
characterises this impulse by saying, "However you respond [to Daleks] is seen as an act of provocation." The fundamental feature of Dalek culture and psychology is an unquestioned belief in the superiority of the Dalek race, and their default directive is to destroy all non-Dalek life-forms. Other species are either to be exterminated immediately, or enslaved and then exterminated later once they are no longer useful. When the "Human/Dalek Sec" hybrid began to doubt the Dalek race's supremacy and purpose, the other Daleks in the Cult of Skaro considered it to be a traitor and turned against it.
The Dalek obsession with their own superiority is illustrated by the schism between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks seen in Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks: the two factions consider the other to be a perversion despite the relatively minor differences between them. This intolerance of any "contamination" within themselves is also shown in "Dalek", The Evil of the Daleks and in the Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio play
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
The Mutant Phase
The Mutant Phase
The Mutant Phase is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
. This superiority complex is the basis of the Daleks' ruthlessness and lack of compassion. This is shown in extreme in Victory of the Daleks
Victory of the Daleks
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Mark Gatiss and first broadcast on BBC One on 17 April 2010....
, where the new, pure Daleks destroy their creator, impure Daleks, with their consent. It is nearly impossible to negotiate or reason with a Dalek, a single-mindedness that makes them dangerous and not to be underestimated.
Dalek society is depicted as one of extreme scientific and technological advancement; the Third Doctor states that "it was their inventive genius that made them one of the greatest powers in the universe." However, their reliance on logic and machinery is also a strategic weakness which they recognise, and thus use more emotion-driven species as agents to compensate for these shortcomings.
Although the Daleks are not known for their regard for due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...
, they have taken at least two enemies back to Skaro for a "trial", rather than killing them immediately. The first was their creator, Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
, in Revelation of the Daleks, and the second was the renegade Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
known as the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
in the 1996 television movie. The reasons for the Master's trial, and why the Doctor would be asked to retrieve the Master's remains, have never been explained on screen. The Doctor Who Annual 2006 implies that the trial may have been due to a treaty signed between the Time Lords and the Daleks. The framing device for the I, Davros
I, Davros: Purity
I, Davros: Purity is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It stars Terry Molloy reprising his role as Davros, the twisted creator of the Dalek race. "Purity" is the second in a four-part mini-series exploring Davros'...
audio plays is a Dalek trial to determine if Davros should be the Daleks' leader once more.
Spin-off novels contain several tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek
Tongue-in-cheek is a phrase used as a figure of speech to imply that a statement or other production is humorously intended and it should not be taken at face value. The facial expression typically indicates that one is joking or making a mental effort. In the past, it may also have indicated...
mentions of Dalek poetry, and an anecdote about an opera based upon it, which was lost to posterity when the entire cast was exterminated on the opening night. Two stanzas are given in the novel The Also People
The Also People
The Also People is an original novel written by Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, Roz and Kadiatu.-Plot:...
by Ben Aaronovitch. In an alternative timeline
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
portrayed in Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
audio adventure The Time of the Daleks
The Time of the Daleks
The Time of the Daleks is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, the Daleks show a fondness for the works of Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. A similar idea was satirised by comedian Frankie Boyle
Frankie Boyle
Francis Martin Patrick "Frankie" Boyle is a British comedian and writer, well known for his pessimistic, often controversial sense of humour...
in the BBC comedy quiz programme Mock the Week
Mock the Week
Mock the Week is a British topical celebrity panel game hosted by Dara Ó Briain that launched in 2005. The game is influenced by improvised topical stand-up comedy, with several rounds requiring players to deliver answers on unexpected subjects on the spur of the moment.It is made by independent...
; he gave the fictional Dalek poem "Daffodils; EXTERMINATE DAFFODILS!" as an "unlikely line to hear in Doctor Who".
Because the Doctor has defeated the Daleks so often, he has become their collective arch-enemy
Archenemy
An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy .- Etymology :The word archenemy or arch-enemy originated...
and they have standing orders to capture or exterminate him on sight. In later fiction, the Daleks know the Doctor as "Ka Faraq Gatri" ("Bringer of Darkness" or "Destroyer of Worlds"), and "The Oncoming Storm". Both the Ninth Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
(Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
) and Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
(Billie Piper
Billie Piper
Billie Paul Piper is an English singer and actress.She began her career in the late 1990s as a pop singer and then switched to acting. She started in acting and dancing and was talent spotted at the Sylvia Young stage school by Smash Hits magazine who wanted a "face" for their magazine...
) suggest that the Doctor is one of the few beings the Daleks fear. In "Doomsday
Doomsday (Doctor Who)
"Doomsday" is the thirteenth and final episode in the second series of the revival of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 8 July 2006 and is the conclusion of a two-part story; the first part, "Army of Ghosts", was broadcast on 1 July 2006...
", Rose notes that while the Daleks see the extermination of five million Cybermen
Cyberman
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
as "pest control", "one Doctor" visibly un-nerves them (to the point they physically recoil).
Licensed appearances
Two Doctor Who movies starring Peter CushingPeter Cushing
Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally...
featured the Daleks as the main villains: Dr. Who and the Daleks
Dr. Who and the Daleks
Dr. Who and the Daleks was the first of two Doctor Who films made in the 1960s. It was followed by Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D....
, and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD
Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD
Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. is the second of two films based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. It was the sequel to Dr. Who and the Daleks , and starred Peter Cushing in his return to the role of the eccentric inventor and time traveller "Dr. Who". It also...
, based on the television serials The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, respectively. The movies were not direct remakes; for example, the Doctor in the Cushing films was a human who had built a time-travelling device named Tardis, instead of a mysterious alien who stole a device called "the TARDIS".
Four books focusing on the Daleks were published in the 1960s. The Dalek Book (1964, written by Terry Nation and David Whitaker), The Dalek World (1965, written by Nation and Whitaker) and The Dalek Outer Space Book (1966, by Nation and Brad Ashton) were all hardcover books formatted like annuals, containing text stories and comics about the Daleks, along with fictional information (sometimes based on the television serials, other times made up for the books). Nation also published The Dalek Pocketbook and Space-Travellers Guide, which collected articles and features treating the Daleks as if they were real. Four more annuals were published in the 1970s by World Distributors under the title Terry Nation's Dalek Annual (with cover dates 1976–1979, but published 1975–1978). Two original novels by John Peel
John Peel (writer)
John Peel is a British writer, best known for his books connected to several television series. He has written under several pseudonyms, including John Vincent and Nicholas Adams. He lives in Long Island, New York and his wife is a U.S...
, War of the Daleks
War of the Daleks
War of the Daleks is an original novel written by John Peel, published in 1997, based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor and Sam. This novel was the first appearance of the Daleks in an original Doctor Who novel; they had not...
(1997) and Legacy of the Daleks
Legacy of the Daleks
Legacy of the Daleks is an original novel written by John Peel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
(1998), were released as part of the Eighth Doctor Adventures
Eighth Doctor Adventures
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
series of Doctor Who novels. A novella, The Dalek Factor
The Dalek Factor
The Dalek Factor is an original novella written by Simon Clark and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features a Doctor whose incarnation is unspecified. It was released both as a standard edition hardback and a deluxe edition featuring a frontispiece...
by Simon Clark
Simon Clark
Simon Clark is a horror novel writer from Doncaster, England. One of his most notable works is the novel The Night of the Triffids.Clark has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, World Fantasy Award for Best Novella and British Fantasy Award...
, was published in 2004, and two books featuring the Daleks and the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
(I am a Dalek
I am a Dalek
I am a Dalek is a BBC Books original novella written by Gareth Roberts and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor and Rose. This paperback is part of the Quick Reads Initiative sponsored by the UK government, to encourage literacy...
by Gareth Roberts
Gareth Roberts (writer)
Gareth John Pritchard Roberts is a British television screenwriter and novelist, best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
, 2006, and Prisoner of the Daleks
Prisoner of the Daleks
Prisoner of the Daleks is a BBC Books original novel written by Trevor Baxendale and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor without a companion and was released on April 2, 2009, alongside Judgement of the Judoon and The Slitheen...
by Trevor Baxendale
Trevor Baxendale
Trevor Baxendale is a novelist who has penned several Doctor Who tie-in novels and audio dramas.*The Janus Conjunction *Out of the Darkness *Coldheart *Eater of Wasps *Fear of the Dark...
, 2009) have been released as part of the New Series Adventures.
Nation authorised the publication of the comic strip The Daleks in the comic TV Century 21
TV Century 21
TV Century 21, also known as TV 21, was a weekly British children's comic of the 1960s and early 1970s. It promoted the many television science-fiction puppet series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Century 21 Productions...
in 1965. The weekly one-page strip, written by Whitaker but credited to Nation, featured the Daleks as protagonists and "heroes", and continued for two years, from their creation of the mechanised Daleks by the humanoid Dalek scientist, Yarvelling, to their eventual discovery in the ruins of a crashed space-liner of the co-ordinates for Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, which they proposed to invade. Although much of the material in these strips directly contradicted what was shown on television, some concepts like the Daleks using humanoid duplicates and the design of the Dalek Emperor
Dalek variants
Since their first appearance in 1963 there have been a number of variant models of the Daleks, a fictional alien race in the long-running BBC science fiction television programme Doctor Who.Daleks are not robots...
did show up later on in the programme.
At the same time, a Doctor Who strip was also being published in TV Comic
TV Comic
TV Comic was a British comic book published weekly between November 9, 1951 and June 29, 1984 for 1,697 issues. With its bright, eye-catching covers, it featured stories based on television shows running at the time of publication. The first issue had 8 pages and had Muffin the Mule on the cover....
. Initially, the strip did not have the rights to use the Daleks, so the First Doctor
First Doctor
The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...
battled the "Trods" instead, cone-shaped robotic creatures that ran on static electricity. By the time the Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
appeared in the strip in 1967 the rights issues had been resolved, and the Daleks began making appearances starting in The Trodos Ambush (TVC #788-#791), where they massacred the Trods. The Daleks also made appearances in the Third Doctor
Third Doctor
The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
-era Dr. Who comic strip that featured in the combined Countdown
Countdown (comic)
Countdown was a British comic book published weekly by Polystyle Publications - ultimately, under several different titles - between February 1971 and August 1973....
/TV Action comic during the early 1970s.
Other licensed appearances have included a number of stage plays (see Stage plays below) and television adverts for Wall's
Wall's ice cream
Wall's is a United Kingdom-originated food brand, covering both meat products and ice cream, owned by Unilever. Founded in London in 1786 by butcher Richard Wall, it was acquired in 1922 by Lever Brothers, which became a part of Unilever in 1930. To avoid summer lay-offs due to the down turn in its...
"Sky Ray" ice lollies (1966), Weetabix
Weetabix
Weetabix is a whole grain wheat breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited of the United Kingdom. It comes in the form of palm-sized biscuits. Variants include organic and Weetabix Minis versions. The UK cereal is manufactured in Burton Latimer, Kettering, United Kingdom and in Canada and...
breakfast cereal (1977), Kit Kat
Kit Kat
Kit Kat is a chocolate-coated wafer confection that was created by Rowntree's of York, England, and is now produced worldwide by Nestlé, which acquired Rowntree in 1988, except in the United States where it is made under licence by The Hershey Company. Each bar consists of fingers composed of three...
chocolate bars (2001), and the ANZ Bank (2005). In 2003, Daleks also appeared in UK billboard ads for Energizer batteries, alongside the slogan "Are You Power Mad?"
Non-Doctor Who television and film
Daleks have made cameo appearances in television programmes and films unrelated to Doctor Who from the 1960s to the present day. Dalek toys are seen in a department storeDepartment store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
in "Death at Bargain Prices", a 1965 episode of the fantasy/thriller series The Avengers
The Avengers (TV series)
The Avengers is a spy-fi British television series set in the 1960s Britain. The Avengers initially focused on Dr. David Keel and his assistant John Steed . Hendry left after the first series and Steed became the main character, partnered with a succession of assistants...
, which like Doctor Who was created by Sydney Newman, although broadcast on the rival ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network. During the 1992 Christmas special of the comedy series Mr Bean, the title character uses children's toys to play out a bizarre nativity scene
Nativity scene
A nativity scene, manger scene, krippe, crèche, or crib, is a depiction of the birth of Jesus as described in the gospels of Matthew and Luke...
in which a Dalek exterminates a tiny lamb and a tyrannosaurus rex. Two purple toy daleks are also seen in the background of an episode of the American children's cartoon Rugrats
Rugrats
Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991, and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004....
. In the comic television documentary The Red Dwarf A-Z
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...
, two Daleks are shown (under "E" for "Exterminate") arguing that all Earth television is human propaganda, and the works more commonly attributed to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
were actually written by Daleks; subsequently, one of them remarks that the "change the bulb" joke from "Legion
Legion (Red Dwarf episode)
"Legion" is the second episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series VI and the 32nd in the series run. It was first broadcast on British television on 14 October 1993. Written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Andy de Emmony.-Plot:...
" was funny, and is promptly exterminated by the other for the crime of "not behaving like a true Dalek". In the 2004 series of Coupling
Coupling (UK TV series)
Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...
, written by Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
(who was later to write for and produce Doctor Who), a Dalek appears in the second episode of season four. This was voiced by Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs
Nicholas Briggs is a British actor and writer, predominantly associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its various spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks. Briggs sometimes uses the pseudonym Arthur Wallis...
, who later went on to provide Dalek voices for the series proper from 2005 onwards. (Terry Nation's original Dalek rights deal with the BBC had been negotiated by his then agent Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue
Beryl Vertue is an English television producer and media executive. She is founder and chairman of the independent television production company Hartswood Films....
, later Moffat's mother-in-law.) In the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Looney Tunes: Back in Action is a 2003 American live action/animated adventure comedy film directed by Joe Dante and starring Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Timothy Dalton, and Steve Martin. The film is essentially a feature-length Looney Tunes cartoon, with all the wackiness and surrealism typical...
, the secret military base, Area 52, detains a number of monsters and robots from old sci-fi films; among those are some Daleks, who upon release by Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian
Marvin the Martian is a fictional character appearing in the Looney Tunes cartoons. Marvin's likeness appears in miniature on the Spirit rover on Mars.-Conception and creation:...
, proceed to attack while spouting their catchphrases. A Dalek appeared alongside Darth Vader
Darth Vader
Darth Vader is a central character in the Star Wars saga, appearing as one of the main antagonists in the original trilogy and as the main protagonist in the prequel trilogy....
, Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, TV shows and film adaptation.- First appearance :...
, a Klingon
Klingon
Klingons are a fictional warrior race in the Star Trek universe.Klingons are recurring villains in the 1960s television show Star Trek: The Original Series, and have appeared in all five spin-off series and eight feature films...
, the Sixth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
and a 1980s Cyberman in a 2003 episode of the British motoring program Top Gear, to see who was "Master of the Universe" with a lap around their test track
Top Gear Test Track
The Top Gear test track is used by the BBC automotive television programme Top Gear. It is located at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, United Kingdom. The track was designed by Lotus Cars...
in a racing modified Honda Civic
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a line of subcompact and subsequently compact cars made and manufactured by Honda. The Civic, along with the Accord and Prelude, comprised Honda's vehicles sold in North America until the 1990s, when the model lineup was expanded...
. The Dalek couldn't get into the car, so it exterminated the other drivers (with the exception of the Klingon and the Doctor; who had apparently fled beforehand as they were not present); the Cyberman was eventually declared the winner by the hosts. In a 2009 episode of the American sitcom Better Off Ted
Better Off Ted
Better Off Ted is an American satirical situation comedy series, created and written by Victor Fresco , who also serves as the show's Executive Producer...
, a deactivated Dalek is spotted in the sub-basement where the supposed "Robot Farm" is located. In 2010, a Dalek was a "guest" on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is a Peabody Award-winning American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson, the third regular host of the Late Late Show franchise, follows Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup...
sitting off to the side and keeping a watchful eye on Ferguson. It never spoke, but occasionally moved around. This was a lead-up to having Matt Smith (actor) as a real guest on the show.
Music
The Go-Go's (1960s)
The Go-Go's were a British group from Newcastle. The group is known for their 1964 novelty Christmas single, "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek"....
, released during the 1960s' "Dalekmania
Dalekmania
Dalekmania is a 1995 direct-to-video documentary released in the United Kingdom. "Dalekmania" is the name given to the craze or "mania" among children in the United Kingdom in the 1960s for all things associated with writer Terry Nation's creations, the Daleks, who were then regularly appearing in...
" fad. Dalek voices were sampled and recreated in the 1988 novelty single "Doctorin' the Tardis" by The Timelords (who later performed as The KLF
The KLF
The KLF were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
), and also sampled by the German electronic band Rotersand
Rotersand
Rotersand is a German electronic music act, formed in September 2002 by musician/producer Gun and singer Rascal with dance music producer/DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg joining them shortly after...
in their 2005 single "Exterminate Annihilate Destroy". Many other musicians have referenced Daleks in lyrics, including: The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, in "Remote Control" ("Repression—gonna be a Dalek / Repression—I am a robot / Repression—I obey."); The Creatures
The Creatures
The Creatures were a musical act formed in 1981 as a side-project for Siouxsie and the Banshees members Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie. The Times described their music as "adventurous art rock built around Siouxsie's extraordinary voice and drummer Budgie's battery of percussion".With the dissolution of...
, in "Weathercade" ("The Dalek drones are drowning"); and The Supernaturals
The Supernaturals
The Supernaturals were a five-piece guitar based pop band from Glasgow, Scotland. Fronted by singer-songwriter James McColl, they signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and four EPs. Other members included Mark Guthrie, Derek McManus and...
, in "Smile" ("I feel like a Dalek inside/ Everything's gone grey but used to be so black and white"). Bands have even incorporated Daleks into their names: Dalek I Love You
Dalek I Love You
Dalek I Love You may refer to:* Dalek I Love You, a synthpop group* Dalek I Love You , the group's self-titled album* Dalek I Love You , an audio play broadcast on BBC Radio...
, a synthpop band active for over ten years from the late 1970s to the beginning of the 1990s, and instrumental surf-rock trio Dalek Beach Party, whose 1992 EP featured the song "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
Politics
At the 1966 Conservative PartyConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
conference in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, delegate Hugh Dykes
Hugh Dykes, Baron Dykes
Hugh John Maxwell Dykes, Baron Dykes, born 17 May 1939 to Richard and Doreen Dykes is a British politician. He is a Foreign Affairs Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords.-Education:...
publicly compared the Labour government's Defence Secretary
Secretary of State for Defence
The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
Denis Healey
Denis Healey
Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey CH, MBE, PC is a British Labour politician, who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979.-Early life:...
to the creatures. "Mr. Healey is the Dalek of defence, pointing a metal finger at the armed forces and saying 'I will eliminate you'."
In a British Government Parliamentary Debate
Parliamentary Debate
Parliamentary Debate is an academic debate event. Many university level institutions in English speaking nations sponsor parliamentary debate teams, but the format is currently spreading to the high school level as well...
in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
on 12 February 1968, the then Minister of Technology
Minister of Technology
The Minister of Technology was a position in the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's ambition to modernise the state for what he perceived to...
Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
mentioned the Daleks during a reply to a question from the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP Hugh Jenkins concerning the Concorde
Concorde
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner, a supersonic transport . It was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, combining the manufacturing efforts of Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation...
aircraft project. In the context of the dangers of solar flare
Solar flare
A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy . The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day...
s, he said, "Because we are exploring the frontiers of technology, some people think Concorde will be avoiding solar flares like Dr. Who avoiding Daleks. It is not like this at all."
Australian Labor Party
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
luminary Robert Ray
Robert Ray (Australian politician)
Robert Francis Ray , Australian politician, was an Australian Labor Party member of the Senate from July 1981 to May 2008, representing the state of Victoria....
described his right wing Labor Unity faction successor, Victorian Senator Stephen Conroy
Stephen Conroy
Stephen Michael Conroy is an Australian politician and the current Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in the Gillard Ministry...
, and his Socialist Left faction counterpart, Kim Carr
Kim Carr
Kim John Carr is an Australian politician. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian Senate since April 1993, representing the state of Victoria. He was elected to the Senate at the March 1993 election, and was due to take his seat on 1 July...
, as "factional Daleks" during a 2006 Australian Fabian Society
Australian Fabian Society
The Australian Fabians was established in 1947. Inspired by the Fabian Society in the United Kingdom, it is dedicated to Fabianism, the focus on the advancement of socialist ideas through gradual influence and patiently promoting socialist ideals to intellectual circles and groups with power.The...
lunch in Sydney.
Daleks have been used in political cartoons to caricature: Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
John Birt, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
(also portrayed as Davros
Davros
Davros is a character from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Davros is an archenemy of the Doctor and is the creator of the Doctor's deadliest enemies, the Daleks...
), Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
, Alec Douglas-Home
Alec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT, PC , known as The Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963 and as Sir Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1974, was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964.He is the last...
, Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
, Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
, Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...
Pornography
Daleks have even made their way into pornographic material. A Dalek appeared with a naked Katy ManningKaty Manning
Katy Manning is an English actress best known for her part as the companion Jo Grant in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She has also made many theatre appearances, and is now a citizen of Australia. She is myopic...
(who played the Third Doctor
Third Doctor
The Third Doctor is the third incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee....
's companion Jo Grant
Jo Grant
Josephine "Jo" Grant is a fictional character played by Katy Manning in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
) in a photoshoot for Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
after Manning left the series. Although Playboy did not use the images, they were eventually published in a men's magazine named Girl Illustrated
Girl Illustrated
Girl Illustrated was a glamour magazine published in London, England from 1966 to 1977. It was a spin off of the Naturist magazine Health & Efficiency and was notable for its high quality paper and numerous colour photographs....
.
Daleks were also featured in an unauthorised pornographic feature, Abducted by the Daloids. In the film, the "Daloids", portrayed by several Dalek models, abduct three scantily-clad models and watch lesbian scenes. The BBC took action to prevent sale of the DVD when learning of it in November 2005. Another pornographic parody, entitled Dr. Loo and the Filthy Phaleks was released earlier in 2005.
Magazine covers
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
has featured the Daleks on its cover several times, beginning with the 21–27 November 1964 issue which promoted The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Other magazines also used Daleks to attract readers' attention, including the aforementioned Girl Illustrated.
In April 2005, Radio Times created a special cover to commemorate both the return of the Daleks to the screen in "Dalek
Dalek (Doctor Who episode)
"Dalek" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on 30 April 2005. It should not be confused with the first Dalek serial, The Daleks...
" and the forthcoming general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
. This cover recreated a scene from The Dalek Invasion of Earth in which the Daleks were seen crossing Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge
Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames between Westminster on the north side and Lambeth on the south side, in London, England....
, with the Houses of Parliament
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
in the background. The cover text read "VOTE DALEK!" In a 2008 contest sponsored by the Periodical Publishers Association
Periodical Publishers Association
The Professional Publishers Association - formerly known as the Periodical Publishers Association - is a publishing industry body which promotes and protects the interests of companies involved in the production of consumer, customer and business media in the United Kingdom.The PPA's work is...
, this cover was voted the best British magazine cover of all time. The 2010 UK general election campaign also prompted a collector's set of three near-identical covers of the Radio Times on 17 April with exactly the same headline but with the newly redesigned Daleks
Victory of the Daleks
"Victory of the Daleks" is the third episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is written by Mark Gatiss and first broadcast on BBC One on 17 April 2010....
in their primary colours representing the three main political parties, Red being Labour, Blue as Conservative and Yellow as Liberal Democrats.
Parodies
Daleks have been the subject of many parodiesParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
, including Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...
's "Pakistani Dalek" sketch in his comedy series Q, and Victor Lewis-Smith
Victor Lewis-Smith
Victor Lewis-Smith is a British satirist, producer, critic and prankster. He is known for his sarcasm and biting criticism.-Radio and recordings:...
's "Gay Daleks". Occasionally the BBC has used the Daleks to parody other subjects: in 2002, BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
published the Dalek Survival Guide, a parody of The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbooks
Worst-Case Scenario series
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht is a book published in 1999 by Chronicle Books. It was a highly popular title and spawned a series of related books, games, and a television show called Worst Case Scenarios...
. Comedian Eddie Izzard
Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...
has an extended stand-up routine about Daleks, which was included in his 1993 stand-up show "Live at the Ambassadors
Live at the Ambassadors
Eddie Izzard made his West End debut in 1993 at the Ambassadors Theatre. The show originally had a 4 week run, which was extended twice due to the popularity of the performance...
". The Daleks made two brief appearances in a pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
version of Aladdin
Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
at the Birmingham Hippodrome
Birmingham Hippodrome
The Birmingham Hippodrome is a theatre situated on Hurst Street in the Chinese Quarter of Birmingham, England.Although best known as the home stage of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, it also hosts a wide variety of other performances including visiting opera and ballet companies, touring West End...
which starred Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
star John Barrowman
John Barrowman
John Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...
in the lead role. A joke telling robot, possessing a Dalek-like boom, and loosely modelled after the Dalek also appeared in the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "Funnybot
Funnybot
"Funnybot" is the second episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 211th episode of the series overall. "Funnybot" premiered in the United States on Comedy Central on May 4, 2011, the first time a South Park episode has aired in May since season...
" even spouting out "exterminate".
Merchandising
The BBC approached Walter Tuckwell, a New Zealand-born entrepreneur who was handling product merchandising for other BBC shows, and asked him to do the same for the Daleks and Doctor Who. Tuckwell created a glossy sales brochure that sparked off a Dalek craze, dubbed "Dalekmania" by the press, which peaked in 1965.Toys and models
The first Dalek toys were released in 1965 as part of the "Dalekmania" craze. These included battery-operated, friction driveFriction drive
A friction Drive or friction engine is a type of transmission that, instead of a chain and sprockets, uses 2 wheels in the transmission to transfer power to the driving wheels. This kind of transmission is often used on scooters, mainly go-peds, in place of a chain.An example of this system is in...
and "Rolykins" Daleks from Louis Marx & Co.
Louis Marx and Company
Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer from 1919 to 1978. Its boxes were often imprinted with the slogan, "One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?"-Logo and Offerings:...
, as well as models from Cherilea, Herts Plastic Moulders Ltd and Cowan, de Groot Ltd, and "Bendy" Daleks made by Newfeld Ltd. At the height of the Daleks' popularity, in addition to toy replicas, there were Dalek board games and activity sets, slide projectors for children and even Dalek playsuits made from PVC. Collectible cards, stickers, toy guns, music singles, punching bags and many other items were also produced in this period. Dalek toys released in the 1970s included a new version of Louis Marx's battery-operated Dalek (1974), a "talking Dalek" from Palitoy
Palitoy
Palitoy was the name of a British toy company.It manufactured some of the most popular toys in Britain, some original items and others under licence...
(1975) and a Dalek board game (1975) and Dalek action figure
Action figure
An action figure is a posable character figurine, made of plastic or other materials, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, video game, or television program. These action figures are usually marketed towards boys and male collectors...
(1977), both from Denys Fisher
Denys Fisher
Denys Fisher was an English engineer who invented the spirograph toy....
. From 1988 to 2002, Dapol
Dapol
Dapol Ltd is a Welsh model railway manufacturer based in Chirk, Wales. The factory where design and manufacturing take place is just over the border in England.The Dapol trading name is known for its model railway products in N and OO gauges.-History:...
released a line of Dalek toys in conjunction with its Doctor Who action figure series. Bluebird Toys produced a Dalek-themed Doctor Who playset in 1998.
In 1984, Sevans Models released a self-assembly model kit for a one-fifth scale Dalek, which Doctor Who historian David Howe
David J. Howe
David J. Howe is a British writer, journalist, publisher, and media historian.-Biography:David Howe was born in 1961 and established himself as an authoritative media historian through writing articles for fanzines and other publications...
has described as "the most accurate model of a Dalek ever to be released". Comet Miniatures released two Dalek self-assembly model kits in the 1990s.
In 1992, Bally released a Dr Who pinball machine
Doctor Who (pinball)
Doctor Who is a pinball machine designed by Bill Pfutzenreuter and Barry Oursler, and released by Midway in September 1992. It is based on the television series of the same name...
which prominently featured the Daleks both as a primary playfield feature and as a motorized toy in the topper.
Beginning in 2000, Product Enterprise (who later operated under the names "Iconic Replicas" and "Sixteen 12 Collectibles") produced various Dalek toys. These included Dalek "Rolykins" (based on the Louis Marx toy from 1965); push-along "talking" Daleks; Dalek "Rollamatics" with a pull back and release mechanism; and a remote control Dalek.
In 2005 Character Options
Character Options
Character Options is a British toy company, notable for having both the Disney and Doctor Who toy licenses. It hit the headlines during 2007 as the UK distributor for the Bindeez range of products was recalled due to a dangerous chemical.-Doctor Who:...
was granted the "Master Toy License" for the revived Doctor Who series, including the Daleks. Their product lines have included static/push-along and radio controlled Daleks, radio controlled versions and radio controlled / 1:3 scale variants. The 12-inch remote control Dalek won the 2005 award for Best Electronic Toy of the Year from the Toy Retailers Association. Some versions of the 18-inch model included semi-autonomous and voice command-features. In 2008, the company acquired a license to produce Daleks of the various "classic series" variants. For the fifth revived series, both Ironside (Post-Time war Daleks in camouflage khaki), Drone (new, red) and, later, Strategist Daleks (new, blue) were released as both RC Infrared Battle Daleks and action figures.
Computer games
Licensed Doctor Who games featuring Daleks include 1984's The Key to Time, a text adventure game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Daleks also appeared in minor roles or as thinly disguised versions in other, minor games throughout the 80s, but did not feature as central adversaries in a licensed game until 1992, when Admiral Software published Dalek AttackDalek Attack
Dalek Attack is a computer game based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which the player plays the Doctor and fights the Daleks...
. The game allowed the player to play various Doctors or companions, running them through several environments to defeat the Daleks. In 1997 the BBC released a PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
game entitled Destiny of the Doctors
Destiny of the Doctors
Doctor Who: Destiny of the Doctors is a PC computer game based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who; released on 5 December 1997 by BBC Multimedia.- Overview :...
which also featured the Daleks, among other adversaries.
Unauthorized games featuring Daleks continued to appear through the 1990s and 2000s, including Dalek-based modifications
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
of Dark Forces, Quake, and Half-Life, and even more recently, a mod of Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved
Halo: Combat Evolved, frequently referred to as Halo: CE, or Halo 1, is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The first game of the Halo franchise, it was released on November 15, 2001 as a launch title for the Xbox gaming system, and is...
; many of these can be found online, including an Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
game, Dalek:Dissolution Earth. In 1998 QWho, a modification
Mod (computer gaming)
Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
for Quake, featured the Daleks as adversaries. This also formed the basis of TimeQuake, a total conversion written in 2000 which included other Doctor Who monsters such as Sontaran
Sontaran
The Sontarans are a fictional extraterrestrial race of humanoids from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and also seen in spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. They were created by writer Robert Holmes.-Culture:...
s. Another unauthorised game is DalekTron, a based on Robotron: 2084
Robotron: 2084
Robotron: 2084 is an arcade video game developed by Vid Kidz and released by Williams Electronics in 1982. It is a shooting game that features two-dimensional graphics. The game is set in the year 2084, in a fictional world where robots have turned against humans...
written to coincide with the 2005 series.
One authorised online game is The Last Dalek, a Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
game created by New Media Collective for the BBC. It is based on the 2005 episode "Dalek" and can be played at the official BBC Doctor Who website. The Doctor Who website also features another game, Daleks vs Cybermen (also known as Cyber Troop Control Interface), based on the 2006 episode "Doomsday"; in this game, the player controls troops of Cybermen which must fight Daleks as well as Torchwood Institute
Torchwood Institute
The Torchwood Institute is a fictional secret organization from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood. It was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria after the events of "Tooth and Claw". Its prime directive, is to defend the earth against...
members.
On 5 June 2010, the BBC released the first of four official computer games on their website, 'Doctor Who: The Adventure Games', which are intended as part of the official TV series adventures. In the first of these, 'The City of the Daleks', the Doctor in his 11th incarnation and Amy Pond must stop the Daleks from re-writing time and reviving Skaro, their homeland.
They also appear in the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
games Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth
Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth is a video game for the Nintendo DS based on the BBC TV series Doctor Who.The game is written by Doctor Who writer Oli Smith and features Matt Smith and Karen Gillan providing voices for their characters....
and Doctor Who: Return to Earth
Doctor Who: Return to Earth
The game was panned by critics. Official Nintendo Magazine, scoring only 19% and branded 'an insult to Doctor Who fans'.However it ranked at 11 on the UK Wii sales charts for the week....
.
A lone Dalek appears in the IOS game The Mazes of Time
Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time
Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time is a video game for the Apple IOS platform based on the BBC TV series Doctor Who.It is the first official Doctor Who game to be released through the App Store and was released on the Android platform in August 2011....
Full-size reproductions
A small but thriving community of Dalek fans have been building life-size reproduction Daleks for many years. The BBC and Terry Nation estate officially disapprove of self-build Daleks, but usually intervene only if attempts are made to trade unlicensed Daleks and Dalek components commercially, or if it is considered that actual or intended use may damage the BBC's reputation or the Doctor Who/Dalek brand. The CreweCrewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...
, Cheshire-based company "This Planet Earth" is the only business which has been licensed by the BBC and the Terry Nation Estate to produce full-size TV Dalek replicas, and by Canal+ Image UK Ltd.
StudioCanal
StudioCanal is a French-based production and distribution company that owns the third-largest film library in the world...
to produce full size Movie Dalek replicas commercially.
Stage plays
- The Curse of the DaleksThe Curse of the DaleksThe Curse Of The Daleks is a Dalek stage play, written by David Whitaker and Terry Nation, which appeared for one month at the Wyndham's Theatre in London, beginning on December 21, 1965. It is notable for being Terry Nation's first live-action attempt to exercise his ownership of the Dalek...
: Wyndham's TheatreWyndham's TheatreWyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
, London (premiere 21 December 1965) - Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to DoomsdayDoctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to DoomsdayDoctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday was a stage play based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The play ran at the Adelphi Theatre in London, England for four weeks, beginning on 16 December 1974...
: Adelphi TheatreAdelphi TheatreThe Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
, London (premiere 16 December 1974) - Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to DoomsdayDoctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to DoomsdayDoctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday was a stage play based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The play ran at the Adelphi Theatre in London, England for four weeks, beginning on 16 December 1974...
: Porirua Little Theatre, Titahi Bay, Porirua, New Zealand (premiere 24 November 1984) - Doctor Who - The Ultimate AdventureDoctor Who - The Ultimate AdventureDoctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure was a 1989 stage play, written by Terrance Dicks based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
: Wimbledon TheatreNew Wimbledon TheatreThe New Wimbledon Theatre is situated on The Broadway, Wimbledon, London, in the London Borough of Merton. It is a Grade II listed Edwardian theatre built by the theatre lover and entrepreneur, J B Mullholland. Built on the site of a large house with spacious grounds the theatre was designed by...
, London (premiere 23 March 1989) - The Tomb of the CybermenThe Tomb of the CybermenThe Tomb of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that originally aired in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1967 and is the earliest serial starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor to exist in its entirety...
(voice only): Oxford Brookes Student UnionOxford Brookes UniversityOxford Brookes University is a new university in Oxford, England. It was named to honour the school's founding principal, John Brookes. It has been ranked as the best new university by the Sunday Times University Guide 10 years in a row...
, OxfordOxfordThe city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
(premiere July 1998) - The Trial of DavrosThe Trial of DavrosThe Trial of Davros was an amateur theatrical production based on the long-running British BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and the character of Davros created by screenwriter Terry Nation...
: Tameside HippodromeTameside HippodromeTameside Hippodrome is a theatre located in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England.- History :The idea for the theatre came from William Henry Broadhead of Messrs, W Broadhead & Sons. It opened for business as "The Empire" on Monday 21 November 1904.In 1932, it was converted to a temporary...
, Ashton-under-LyneAshton-under-LyneAshton-under-Lyne is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it lies on the north bank of the River Tame, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines...
(premiere 16 July 2005) - The Evil of the Daleks: Theatre RoyalNew Theatre RoyalThe New Theatre Royal is a Victorian theatre in the centre of Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom. The building was constructed in 1854 as Landport Hall. It was converted to a theatre two years later. It was rebuilt in 1884 by Charles J. Phipps and again in 1900 by Frank Matcham...
, PortsmouthPortsmouthPortsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
(premiere 25 October 2006) - The Daleks' Master Plan: Theatre Royal, PortsmouthPortsmouthPortsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
(premiere 24 October 2007)
Concerts
- Doctor Who: A CelebrationDoctor Who: A CelebrationDoctor Who: A Celebration was a concert performed for the BBC's annual Children In Need charity appeal at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on 19 November 2006. It featured suites of incidental music composed by Murray Gold from the first two series of the revived television show Doctor Who,...
(19 November 2006) - Doctor Who Prom (27 July 2008)
Original novels and novellas
- War of the DaleksWar of the DaleksWar of the Daleks is an original novel written by John Peel, published in 1997, based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor and Sam. This novel was the first appearance of the Daleks in an original Doctor Who novel; they had not...
by John PeelJohn Peel (writer)John Peel is a British writer, best known for his books connected to several television series. He has written under several pseudonyms, including John Vincent and Nicholas Adams. He lives in Long Island, New York and his wife is a U.S...
(Eighth Doctor AdventuresEighth Doctor AdventuresThe Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
), published October 1997 - Legacy of the DaleksLegacy of the DaleksLegacy of the Daleks is an original novel written by John Peel and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
by John Peel (Eighth Doctor Adventures), published April 1998 - The Dalek FactorThe Dalek FactorThe Dalek Factor is an original novella written by Simon Clark and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features a Doctor whose incarnation is unspecified. It was released both as a standard edition hardback and a deluxe edition featuring a frontispiece...
by Simon ClarkSimon ClarkSimon Clark is a horror novel writer from Doncaster, England. One of his most notable works is the novel The Night of the Triffids.Clark has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, World Fantasy Award for Best Novella and British Fantasy Award...
(Telos Doctor Who novellasTelos Doctor Who novellasThe Telos Doctor Who novellas were a series of tie-in novellas based on the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, officially licensed by the BBC and published by Telos Publishing Ltd...
), published March 2004 - I am a DalekI am a DalekI am a Dalek is a BBC Books original novella written by Gareth Roberts and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor and Rose. This paperback is part of the Quick Reads Initiative sponsored by the UK government, to encourage literacy...
by Gareth RobertsGareth Roberts (writer)Gareth John Pritchard Roberts is a British television screenwriter and novelist, best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
(Tenth Doctor Adventures, part of the Quick Reads InitiativeQuick Reads InitiativeQuick Reads are a series of short books by bestselling authors and celebrities. With no more than 128 pages, they are designed to encourage adults who do not read often, or find reading tough, to discover the joy of books....
), published May 2006 - Prisoner of the DaleksPrisoner of the DaleksPrisoner of the Daleks is a BBC Books original novel written by Trevor Baxendale and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Tenth Doctor without a companion and was released on April 2, 2009, alongside Judgement of the Judoon and The Slitheen...
by Trevor BaxendaleTrevor BaxendaleTrevor Baxendale is a novelist who has penned several Doctor Who tie-in novels and audio dramas.*The Janus Conjunction *Out of the Darkness *Coldheart *Eater of Wasps *Fear of the Dark...
(Tenth Doctor Adventures), published April 2009
See also
- Abslom Daak
- Dalek EmpireDalek EmpireThe Dalek Empire refers to the sphere of influence of the Daleks, a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Dalek Empire is also a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions, featuring the Daleks. The series begins in...
- Dalek variantsDalek variantsSince their first appearance in 1963 there have been a number of variant models of the Daleks, a fictional alien race in the long-running BBC science fiction television programme Doctor Who.Daleks are not robots...
- DalekmaniaDalekmaniaDalekmania is a 1995 direct-to-video documentary released in the United Kingdom. "Dalekmania" is the name given to the craze or "mania" among children in the United Kingdom in the 1960s for all things associated with writer Terry Nation's creations, the Daleks, who were then regularly appearing in...
- Dalek comic strips, illustrated annuals and graphic novelsDalek comic strips, illustrated annuals and graphic novelsThis is a list of Dalek comic strips, illustrated annuals and graphic novels. Cameo appearances and reprints are only covered if notable.-Annuals & Graphic Novels:...
External links
- A history of the dalek props 1963–1988
- How the Daleks were built – BBC Wales interview with engineer Bill Roberts
- http://www.dalekvoices.co.nr Guide to making Dalek voices