 'Genesis
of the Daleks' was the first of two Dalek stories for Tom Baker. It is regarded
by many as the best Doctor Who story to date and the best Dalek story ever despite
Dalek screen time being very limited. The plot of 'Genesis' was based more centrally
around 'Davros', the creator of the Daleks, and as such little actual Dalek action
was seen.
Whilst much
effort was placed in the design of 'Davros', the mask in particular, the same
could not be said of the Dalek props. It seemed they received very little refurbishing
(except a heavy coat of new
paint) and the same problems still exhibited themselves from the previous two
stories. The sagging/badly aligned slats and missing bit of mesh still appeared.
Along with the other identifying areas we have previously noted it's easy to see
that the same three props, as had been used in the previous three stories, carried
out all the work. All 
the component parts were pretty much in the same places save for the domes which
had been swapped around.
Theoretically the design of the Daleks should
have resembled the original four from the debut 1963 story (or in fact an even
more primitive form) but it seems, yet again, BBC budgets put the mockers on that!
One
interesting piece of refurbishment was carried out to one set of the original
shoulders (the set which had had its lower collar replaced in 'The Chase'). As
previously noted the gun and arm boxes had become quite visibly damaged in the
previous stories, more than likely made worse by being stolen, and so a new set
of boxes was made for them. They appear to be slightly wider than the original
boxes and four large bolts also appeared around the oval. This addition makes
tracing these Shawcraft shoulders very easy throughout the following stories and
extra activities the props carried
out.
As had happened
during the making of 'Death to the Daleks'
two of the props clearly had their necks raised off the shoulders. This 'fault'
it seemed was becoming more common place and would even be deemed part of the
design for the next batch of props that were made in the eighties.
Davros
himself sat in a Dalek like skirt. It is not in fact a cut down or shortened Dalek
skirt, it is of quite different design. The designer is rumoured to have taken
the plans of the 'Build your own Dalek' from the 10th anniversary Radio Times,
which were woefully incorrect, and used them for the design of the skirt. At
the climax of the story 4 of the NSC props made an appearance. They were painted
up to match the main three props but were again completely static making them
stand out more than if they moved! Its unknown whether the other NSC prop/props
were available at the time. It could be that two were already too badly damaged
to use or just that the felt they didn't need them.
As
stated before, the props were often loaned out for personal appearances or exhibitions,
and even though the Daleks didn't appear again for some 4 years they were still
kept busy! Before 'Destiny of the Daleks' hit the screens in 1979 at least two
of the props were painted gold, appearing on other TV shows, with Robert Holmes
in a newspaper article (along with 2 grey props) and more oddly, posing with Katy
Manning for an adult magazine. Both were naked... 
Next
Chapter: 'Destiny' >>> |
