In 1972 we saw another
change in the Daleks, and thanks to colour television much in the way we saw Genesis of the Daleks with Tom Baker,
we were able to view the new Dalek in the way it was intended. In ‘Day
of the Daleks’ and ‘Frontier in
Space’ we were introduced to the Gold version. This Dalek had definitely been
resprayed, even the ray gun had been sprayed gold, and the grill behind the eye
stalk, was blue, whereas others were white. And the balls around the skirt were
black.
Producer was Barry
Letts, Script Editor was Terrance Dicks.
Jon Pertwee was the Doctor with Katy Manning as his wonderful assistant
Jo Grant.
The premise for the
episode was that guerrillas from a Dalek-controlled twenty-second century
travelled back in time to prevent World War III.
In ‘Frontier in Space’ Roger Delgado featured in his last ever
appearance as the Master, as he was killed on 18th June 1973 in a
car crash in Turkey.
The episode was
broadcast on the 24th February – 31st March 1973, writer
was Malcolm Hulke, Directors were Paul Bernard, David Maloney, Script Editor
was Terrance Dicks, Incidental music again by Dudley Simpson. The Doctor again was Jon Pertwee with Jo
Grant as his assistant.
The premise for this
episode was that the twenty-sixth century, Earth and Draconia were fighting for
control of the galaxy...
One of the things I have
noticed about these earlier Daleks especially in this episode is that the
Doctor towers over them. Daleks did vary
in size, the smallest during the Hartnell period were around 5ft tall then
subsequently growing a few inches taller till we see the Daleks in the newer
series reaching 6ft in height. Although
Pertwee was 6ft 2.5in it’s clear to see that in this episode alone, it must
have either been cramped inside the shells or the operators were smaller in
stature.
In 1973 saw the Supreme
Council Dalek that featured in Day of the Daleks.
This Dalek was
despatched to Spiridon to represent the Supreme Council of Daleks.
During the filming of
this group of episodes, the Dalek Supreme was a modified prop loaned by Terry
Nation, from the 1966 film Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150AD and in place of its
eyestalk it held a torch. It’s lights
were also purple that shone on its dome.
It’s skirt was black with gold balls.
The slatted side panels looked as though they’d been haphazardly popped
back into place. For a Supreme Dalek it
had definitely seen better days.
During filming the Dalek
Supreme was a modified prop loaned by
Terry Nation, from the 1966 film Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150AD and had a torch
stuck in its eyestalk.
In 1974 the Daleks
returned again in Death of the Daleks,
this time Sarah Jane Smith (Lis Sladen) replacing Jo Grant to became 3rd
Doctor’s new companion. The Silver
Warrior Daleks were stranded on the planet Exxilon. They were silver and black, but a lighter
silver to previous Daleks. The other
difference with these Daleks were their dome lights, these were orange and
unlike the Supreme Dalek, were much smaller, almost to the original. The other difference was the ray gun. On the planet Exxilon, the ray guns were
useless and so were adapted and made a lot thinner.
Although now the comment
of a sink plunger and an egg whisk were living true to form.
Again these Daleks were
shorter than the Supreme Dalek. They
looked in style and shape to be those of a drone army of Daleks.
In 1979 the Daleks
returned for Destiny of the Daleks, where they fought a long and costly war
with the Movellans. Aware this was not a
battle they could win, as both sides were robots, a group of Daleks returned to
Skaro in search of Davros in the hope he would help them find a way to defeat
the Movellans.
These Daleks were
similar to those in Genesis of the Daleks, a dark grey shell with black balls
around their skirts. The eye stalk was a
much darker blue than previous but the dome lights were white. The Doctor was the 4th incarnation
and his assistants were Romana and K-9 (Leela Ward and David Brierley)
The script editor for
this story was Douglas Adams, Producer Graham Williams, Director Ken Grieve,
Writer Terry Nation and Incidental music by Dudley Simpson.
It was broadcast on 1st
to 22nd September 1979.
There appeared two sets
of Daleks in this episode, some containing an oval space between the arm stalks
and also above their skirts, around the black slatted strips of their shoulders
they also appeared to have been crudely taped as if to hold them together. Perhaps these Daleks were also part of the
Genesis of the Dalek crew, given that Davros’ costume and wheelchair were
reprised from that episode also despite being in poor condition.
In 1984 saw the Daleks
return with the oval space between their weapon stalks although in some places
this looked to have been welded, but the oval design was still evident. These were the Renegade Daleks and appeared
in the Revelation of the Daleks, the Resurrection of the Daleks and the
Remembrance of the Daleks.
In Resurrection of the
Daleks the Renegade Daleks rescued Davros from a prison ship. But Davros later betrayed them after raiding
a mortuary on Necros in order to breed new Daleks. A few Renegade Daleks survived.
The Director for
Revelation of the Daleks was Graeme Harper, Writer was Eric Saward, Incidental
music by Roger Limb. It was broadcast 23rd
– 30th March 1985. It
featured Terry Molloy as Davros with John Scott Martin, Cy Town, Tony Starr and
Toby Byrne as Daleks and providing the voices were Royce Mills and Ray Skelton.
In Resurrection of the
Daleks, Davros had escaped from his space prison in order to deactivate a
Movellan virus stored somewhere in London.
Terry Molloy played
Davros.
It was broadcast 8th
– 15th February 1984 and featured the 5th Doctor with
Tegan and Turlough.
One of the other
interesting notes are the metal mesh that runs around the shoulders of only
certain Daleks, as if this may in some way give these ones less or more power
over the others. It does look to be somewhat cruder and also runs with the
black strip of tape above its skirt (below the weapon stalks) as if again this
has been brought back from a previous series/episode.
The Renegade Dalek also
had less of a sheen on it’s paintwork, giving the appearance of another drone,
another foot soldier as it were.
The black Supreme
Renegade Daleks also appeared in Resurrection of the Daleks and led the mission
to rescue Davros.
These were everything
the other Daleks were except that they were fully black with grey balls about
their skirt and were a lot shinier than their Renegade Daleks featured prior. The oval disk is still noticeable but has
been covered by a sheet of oval riveted metal, perhaps these far superior
beings had been upgraded from the previous Daleks. They still portrayed the silver metal mesh
beneath their slatted shoulders too.
The Necros Dalek only
appeared in the Revelation of the Daleks in 1985. These were Davros’ newly improved Daleks, the
ones in which he’d used parts from a raided mortuary in Necros. They were white and gold coloured. The oval space between their weapons was much
larger than previous Daleks and instead of silver mesh it appeared gold beneath
the white painted slats around their shoulders.
There was something far more regal about these Daleks, cleaner perhaps as
if Davros was starting again redesigning his creations. They also appeared far taller than their
counterparts.
One other interesting
factor that I came to discover while writing this article was the name of the
planet. Necros – its the name given to
the aliens involved in the taking of magic from wizards in the aptly titled
‘Wizards Vs Aliens’ show on CBBC. Interesting!
The Black Supreme
Renegade Dalek featured in Remembrance of the Daleks was in charge of the
renegade Daleks. It’s exterior was clean
and black and shiny, it had orange lights on its dome, had silver metal mesh
behind its slatted metal strips and had a grey eye stalk.
The other thing to
notice about the Daleks as they developed were the fenders at their base, they
were growing less like the bumpers first seen in the episodes featuring
Hartnell.
In Remembrance of the
Daleks we were to see another change in the Dalek structure. Still maintaining their original features,
there were noticeable changes to even those.
From the dome the lights had risen, looked different to the original,
these resembled large screws with a disk of clear Perspex from first
glance. Their eye stalks and eye
ball were gold. The grill around their
head was gold. In fact their weapon
stalks and ray gun, the slats around their shoulders and the balls around their
skirts were gold. The mesh however had disappeared and the oval welded piece
between the weapons took on a shapely diamond or stretched hexagonal shape
rather than the smoother oval in previous Daleks.
These Daleks were also
the first to hover and fly properly.
Again in Rembrance of
the Daleks we saw yet another type this time in the shape of The Special
Weapons Dalek. This was sent in to
destroy the Renegade Daleks and had only one weapon. It had ‘a foreshortened neck and a truncated dome sitting atop a
circular row of small square view ports’.
This Dalek featured only briefly in Asylum of the Daleks. It is equipped with a large energy cannon
that is twice as powerful than that of the Dalek weapons. It is a force to be reckoned with. In one scene it took out two Daleks in one
hit, vaporising them both with a single shot, leaving only scorch marks in the
ground. It has a good deflector shield
protecting it against attack by opposing Dalek force.
In the next issue we’ll
look at the Daleks from the Time War to the present regarding the 11th
Doctor.
Until then....be safe!
Sources taken from:
Doctor Who by Mark
Campbell ISBN 978-1-904048-74-9
Wikipedia Daleks
Barnaby Edwards (thank
you)
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