Doctor Who: The Daleks (1963)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 21 December 1963 - 1 February 1964
Number of Episodes: 7
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: black and white
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Producer: Verity Lambert
Associate Producer: Mervyn Pinfield

SCRIPT
Script: Terry Nation
Story Editor: David Whitaker

DIRECTION
Directors: Christopher Barry (episodes 1, 2, 4, 5), Richard Martin (episodes 3, 6, 7)

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: John Treays, Geoff Shaw
Film Camera: Stewart Farnell

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Ted Walter

MUSIC
Incidental Music: Tristram Cary

SOUND
Studio Sound: Jack Clayton, Jack Brummitt

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Elizabeth Blattner
Costumes: Daphne Dare

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designers: Raymond P. Cusick (episode 1-5, 7), Jeremy Davies (episode 6)

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Norman Stewart
Assistant Floor Manager: Michael Ferguson (uncredited)

CAST
EPISODE 1: The Dead Planet
William Hartnell (Dr Who)
Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright)

EPISODE 2: The Survivors
William Hartnell (Dr Who)
Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright)
Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices)
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Michael Summerton, Gerald Taylor (Daleks)

EPISODE 3: The Escape
William Hartnell (Dr Who)
Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright)
Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices)
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Michael Summerton, Gerald Taylor (Daleks)
Alan Wheatley (Temmosus)
John Lee (Alydon)
Virginia Wetherell (Dyoni)
Philip Bond (Ganatus)
Chris Browning, Katie Cashfield, Vez Delahunt, Kevin Glenny, Ruth Harrison, Lesley Hill, Steve Pokol, Jeanette Rossini, Eric Smith (Thals - uncredited)

EPISODE 4: The Ambush
William Hartnell (Dr Who)
Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright)
Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices)
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Michael Summerton, Gerald Taylor (Daleks)
Alan Wheatley (Temmosus)
John Lee (Alydon)
Virginia Wetherell (Dyoni)
Philip Bond (Ganatus)
Marcus Hammond (Antodus)
Jonathon Crane (Kristas)
Gerald Curtis (Elyon)
Chris Browning, Katie Cashfield, Vez Delahunt, Kevin Glenny, Ruth Harrison, Lesley Hill, Steve Pokol, Jeanette Rossini, Eric Smith (Thals - uncredited)

EPISODE 5: The Expedition
William Hartnell (Dr Who)
Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright)
Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices)
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Gerald Taylor, Peter Murphy (Daleks)
John Lee (Alydon)
Virginia Wetherell (Dyoni)
Philip Bond (Ganatus)
Marcus Hammond (Antodus)
Jonathon Crane (Kristas)
Gerald Curtis (Elyon)
Chris Browning, Katie Cashfield, Vez Delahunt, Kevin Glenny, Ruth Harrison, Lesley Hill, Steve Pokol, Jeanette Rossini, Eric Smith (Thals - uncredited)

EPISODE 6: The Ordeal
William Hartnell (Dr Who)
Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright)
Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices)
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Gerald Taylor, Peter Murphy (Daleks)
John Lee (Alydon)
Virginia Wetherell (Dyoni)
Philip Bond (Ganatus)
Marcus Hammond (Antodus)
Jonathon Crane (Kristas)
Chris Browning, Katie Cashfield, Vez Delahunt, Kevin Glenny, Ruth Harrison, Lesley Hill, Steve Pokol, Jeanette Rossini, Eric Smith (Thals - uncredited)

EPISODE 7: The Rescue
William Hartnell (Dr Who)
Carole Ann Ford (Susan Foreman)
William Russell (Ian Chesterton)
Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright)
Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices)
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Gerald Taylor, Peter Murphy (Daleks)
John Lee (Alydon)
Virginia Wetherell (Dyoni)
Philip Bond (Ganatus)
Marcus Hammond (Antodus)
Jonathon Crane (Kristas)
Chris Browning, Katie Cashfield, Vez Delahunt, Kevin Glenny, Ruth Harrison, Lesley Hill, Steve Pokol, Jeanette Rossini, Eric Smith (Thals)

UNCREDITED CAST
Frans Van Nordo (Thal double - uncredited)
Peter Diamond (double for Antodus - uncredited)
Chris Browning (double for Alydon - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

The crew of the TARDIS find themselves stranded on a barren, radiation scarred world dominated by petrified forests and poisoned wastelands. Discovering a vast city, The Doctor tricks his companions into exploring but are soon captured by the inhabitants, the Daleks, organic creatures cased in protective metal shells. The planet is Skaro, devestated by a nuclear war 500 years ago fought between the Dals - now mutated into the megalomaniacal Daleks - and the still humanoid and now pacifist Thals. A group of starving Thals arrive at the Dalek city hoping that their old enemies will take pity on them and help to save their dying race but the Daleks ambush them and exterimate their leader Temmosus. The Doctor and his companions escape with the fleeing Thals but are forced to return to the Dalek city to retrieve a missing component from the TARDIS. Persuading the Thals to give up their peace loving ways, the quartet lead an assault on the Dalek city hoping not only to retrieve their missing component and make good their escape from Skaro, but also to prevent the Daleks from detonating a massive neutron bomb that will obliterate the Thals once and for all...

The first appearance of the mighty Daleks in a story that, much more than the lacklustre 100,000 B.C., shaped the future of the series as a whole. The classic first appearance of the Daleks - as a menacing sink plunger at the end of episode one - remains highly effective, as is the angular design of the Dalek city. Though the later episodes tend towards the repetative and banal and show signs of much padding, The Daleks is a stunning achievement that still stands up well even now. Though the later Genesis of the Daleks rewrote some of what was learned here and was a more effective 'introduction' to the Daleks, this original serial remains one of the finest of all the Dalek stories. It was also the real beginning of something very special.

EPISODES

The Dead Planet (21 December 1963)
The Survivors (28 December 1963)
The Escape (4 January 1964)
The Ambush (11 January 1964)
The Expedition (18 January 1964)
The Ordeal (25 January 1964)
The Rescue (1 February 1964)

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1963
October
28: UK - filming at Ealing

November
1: UK - filming at Ealing
15: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D (this material was eventually never broadcast)
22: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D
26: UK - filming at Ealing
29: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D

December
2: UK - filming at Ealing
6: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D (re-shoots)
13: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D
20: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D
21: UK - Episode 1: The Dead Planet first television broadcast (on BBC1)
28: UK - Episode 2: The Survivors first television broadcast (on BBC1)

1964
January
3: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D
4: UK - Episode 3: The Escape first television broadcast (on BBC1)
10: UK - studio recording at BBC Lime Grove Studio D
11: UK - Episode 4: The Ambush first television broadcast (on BBC1)
18: UK - Episode 5: The Expedition first television broadcast (on BBC1)
25: UK - Episode 6: The Ordeal first television broadcast (on BBC1)

February
1: UK - Episode 7: The Rescue first television broadcast (on BBC1)

The Mutants
The Dead Planet
The Survivors
Beyond the Sun

SEQUELS
Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964)
Doctor Who: The Chase (1965)
Doctor Who: Mission to the Unknown (1965)
Doctor Who: The Dalek Master Plan (1965 - 1966)
Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks (1966)
Doctor Who: The Evil of the Daleks (1967)
Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks (1972)
Doctor Who: Frontier In Space (1973)
Doctor Who: Planet of the Daleks (1973)
Doctor Who: Death to the Daleks (1974)
Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks (1975)
Doctor Who: Destiny of the Daleks (1979)
Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983)
Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks (1984)
Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks (1985)
Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks (1988)

SEE ALSO
Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150 AD (1966)
Doctor Who: The Space Museum (1965)
Doctor Who (1996)
Doctor Who: Dalek (2005)
Doctor Who: Bad Wolf (2005)
Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways (2005)
Dr Who And The Daleks (1965)

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.11-16
credits, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker), synopsis

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

aliens, cities, daleks, mutations, nuclear weapons, other planets, radiation, time travel

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009