A history of the Dalek props

The Darkness Is Coming

Preparations for Season 22 had started as early as late 1983 with the planning of a new Cybermen tale as a high-impact opener. Producer John Nathan-Turner was keen to bring back some older foes for the season and along with the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Master and the Daleks would appear. JNT wanted to end the season on a high too, and so the Daleks were chosen to end the production run.

Eric Saward was unhappy with his handling of the Daleks in Resurrection of the Daleks feeling the story was overly complex with too many story strands. He felt he could do much better and over the summer months of 1984, while on holiday, he prepared a new story inspired by Evelyn Waugh's play The Loved One. The play had some dark tones that he felt he could bring into Doctor Who, and officially the script was commissioned in November 1984. Work on the production side had advanced quickly and Revelation of Daleks, as it became known, went into pre-production in the same month.

The director assigned to the story was Graeme Harper who had impressed the previous season directing The Caves of Androzani - Peter Davison's final story. Caves also had some darker moments itself, dealing with subjects such as gun-running and drug use. Harper wanted to get the best from the Daleks and was enthused by JNT's notion of dispelling an old Dalek myth.

One of the new Daleks at the Liverpool Festival
Photo - Kathleen Griggs



The new Necros One and Necros Two



The new props still showed various quirks

Dalek N4 gets a very brief appearance before
getting destroyed

Growing Daleks

Between May an October 1984 the first International Garden Festival was held in Liverpool. It was an effort, devised by Conservative Minister Michael Heseltine, to regenerate tourism in the Liverpool area which had been in decline for some years. The event was not unlike the Chelsea Flower Show although the idea perhaps used more contemporary themes and the many gardens that covered the huge site used all sorts of art or interactive elements.

The BBC had their own area within the show consisting of a large tent filled with TV props and BBC Micro computers for the public to play with. Outside the tent was a Doctor Who themed area that included a TARDIS and K-9 prop along with three Daleks of a new design.

Since the very early days of Doctor Who, Dalek props had been loaned out to private events and exhibitions, with the Longleat and Blackpool exhibitions even receiving their own specially-made props. The three new props on display at the Liverpool festival departed from the exact shape of the TV originals as a new set of fibreglass moulds had been created by Martin Wilkie (whom also arranged the exhibition with Lorne Martin) allowing quick fabrication of skirt and shoulder sections.

The type of skirt front was steeper than a standard prop, with smaller hemispheres that were spaced further from the skirt's top and bottom edges. The fender section was now moulded to the bottom of the skirt and included a 'double staged' look with the lower half being recessed. The shoulders were moulded to include a lower collar and whist the boxes were also moulded a wooden 'plate' was inserted through the front section to complete them. Holes were cut through for the pivots and the pivot retainers were screwed into the rear of the plate which formed some lumps and bumps on the outside. The complete shoulders were slightly shorter and broader than usual and when coupled with the skirt the outline was of a stockier and less sleek Dalek. The neck and dome of the festival props were overlarge, giving the whole prop a slightly comical look to the trained eye. One of the Daleks was made to look battle damaged, with a hole in the side revealing the inner workings.

From this available source of new moulded parts the BBC had produced a batch of new Daleks, four of which would star in Revelation of the Daleks. Despite their origins starting in spring 1984, these group are termed Necros props after the planet from their first screen use. For their TV appearance, revisions were made to the head and neck section so that conformed better to the appearance of the original Daleks.

The neck cage was raised from the shoulder (held in place by black screws) to hide the elevation of the dome on the A-Frame. The casings were painted in a white finish with gold highlights. Despite looking brand new at first glance, on closer inspection the props are rather hastily put together, with misaligned slats and wear and tear on the body. This meant that like their older counterparts they each show unique differences which can be tracked.

The first clear difference is on the centre front small slat. Dalek Necros One, or Dalek N1 for short, has the slat riveted to the collar in the usual vertical pattern, whereas Dalek N2 has the rivets spaced diagonally and Dalek N3 horizontally. The rear centre slat of Dalek N2 also had a diagonal pattern, whilst Dalek N3's complete set of slats are more haphazardly aligned and riveted than the other two props. The cages had a number of chips in the paint and the angles of the chamfer as well as the thickness of the rings varied across the three props. The lamination on the armbox of Dalek N2 was bent upwards at the corner and the gun and arm box of Dalek N3 showed several lumps around the pivots due to the internal pivot retaining screws. All three props, despite having the new style moulded fender, had a rubber drape tacked around the outside to hide the underside of the skirt.

The fourth Dalek, Dalek N4, was used solely as an SFX prop in one scene and utilised only a skirt and shoulder section. The appearance came in the DJ's studio and was one of the two Daleks destroyed by his 'sonic' gun. A lightweight neck and dome section was created to sit on top of the prop which, on cue, was blown up. Interestingly the fender section had black tape wrapped around the outside instead of rubber.

At least one more skirt was used for other SFX scenes. This skirt had various lightweight sections placed on top for destruction purposes (the lightweight shoulders are easily spotted as they used gold gun and arm pivots instead of the usual white). This skirt is also visible in the DJ's studio scene and has its lower fender section coloured black.

Flying Daleks

Three locations were chosen for the exterior filming of the episodes - The IBM building at North Harbour near Portsmouth, Tangmere aerodrome near Chichester and Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Petersfield. A day or two before filming began on 7th January 1985, Dalek N1 was taken to Kings Cross Railway Station in London where a photo call was held. JNT also appeared in a series of photos that showed the prop attempting to board a train.

JNT was keen to dispel the myth that Daleks couldn't climb stairs, and so Saward included sections within his script that would see Daleks hovering. A battle sequence was planned where the characters of Orcini and Bostock would encounter a Dalek patrol, and after an exchange of fire one of the Daleks would be seen to hover prior to exploding.

On the morning of the first day's shooting the crew awoke to a covering of snow which ended all hopes of getting the planned shots. The catapult needed to fire the Dalek into the air could not reach the location and the idea had to be dropped. Harper and crew quickly found a new location that had an interesting look - the aforementioned aerodrome - and a Dalek was 'destroyed' on the ground instead.

The snow changed many of the shots during the filming and in the event only one brief scene with the new prop could be filmed outdoors.

Growing Daleks II

Studio taping got underway a little under two weeks later on 17th January, with the first session ending on the 18th. The second block ran from 30th January until 1st February.

Seven hero Daleks of different kinds would be utilized throughout the story. Saward had continued a thread from his previous Dalek tale and created a Dalek faction loyal to Davros himself. The new Necros props would fulfil this role. Dalek N1 and Dalek N2 were used to carry most of the work and there is only one instance where all three main Daleks can be seen on screen together - on the screen in the DJ's studio after they are dispatched to kill him. All three main props were also used in the scenes of Orcini's attack on the fake Davros, but never in the same shot together.

The Daleks loyal to the Supreme Dalek would be played by the same four props as had featured in Resurrection of the Daleks. They were in the same component mix as before with the exception that Dalek One-7 and Dalek Six-ex had swapped necks with Dalek One-7 now having the 'Shawcraft style' neck cage and Dalek Six-ex having the simpler Goon version. The same four domes used in Resurrection of the Daleks were re-used but they swap between props even in the few scenes in which these Daleks were used.

Initially, in his guise as The Great Healer, only Davros' head was seen. He was positioned in a glass tank located in the centre of his lair. In the story, it transpires that this is a decoy, and the real Davros appears at the climax of the tale. Once again Terry Molloy played the Daleks' creator.

One of the grizzlier elements of the story called for the new Daleks to be grown from humans. These Daleks would be incubated within a glass Dalek - an idea first mooted in 1963 but dropped due to budget issues. The glass Dalek in Revelation of the Daleks was in fact realised using perspex and the embryo elements were housed inside to help hide certain parts of the actor's body. A vacuum-formed version was used when it was destroyed.

After having to abort the hovering Daleks on location, Harper was keen to make sure the effect was achieved in studio. He decided that attempting the scene with a full sized prop wouldn't be viable and so he used one of the commercially available Dalek models made by Stuart Evans' company Sevans. The model was painted to match the new Necros Daleks, and it was video taped at the appropriate angle and then overlayed into the scene. Unfortunately however the finished product doesn't quite give the effect Harper was trying to achieve and the viewer was left confused as to what was happening. This was corrected on the DVD release many years later when another Sevans model was superimposed over the raw footage to give the correct perspective. Davros was seen to hover too, and this effect was flawed by superimposing Terry Molloy, who was supposedly in the background, on top of the raised leg of the prone Orcini in the foreground.

Director Graeme Harper was keen to include a couple of tight shots showing humans menaced closely by Daleks. The large diameter of the Daleks' casings made it impossible to frame all the actors and props together, so Harper used unattached eye-stalks which could be hand-held and moved into view of the camera.

Journey's End

Revelation of the Daleks would be the last screen use for two of the long-standing Dalek props. Dalek v-5 was retired and was never seen again. It was also to be Dalek Six-ex's last Doctor Who appearance, although it has never fully disappeared from the Dalek scene. After Revelation of the Daleks it was moved to the Blackpool exhibition where it stood outside the entrance for visitors to have their picture taken with. It was left out in all weather and quickly deteriorated with the neck rings suffering in particular.

Dalek One-7 and Dalek N2 were dispatched to Longleat where they were displayed in the BBC shop that was located near the exhibition. Again the public were invited to have pictures taken with the props. Dalek N2 already had a hastily chosen new eye to replace the missing original and the lamination of the armbox had been completely torn off.

May 1986 saw the launch of a travelling exhibition of Doctor Who items to the USA. The tour had taken some months to organise in which a huge truck which was filled with exhibits. The outside of the trailer was covered with a painting by Andrew Skilleter who was a prolific Doctor Who artist at the time. What exhibition would be complete without a Dalek and so Mike Tucker of BBC VFX was called upon to refurbish Dalek N1. The chip in the oval was repaired and the mesh tidied, and the prop was given a new coat of gloss white paint with gold highlights. A new eye with a unique pupil design was also fitted. The prop was passed into the hands of another technician who then fitted an internal movement mechanism to rotate the dome and move the eye and gun stick.

In June 1986 Dalek Six-ex reappeared on television. The radio show Women's Hour had teamed up with the Red Cross to raise money for Sudan and Christie's in London were holding an auction of various items donated by famous personalities and organisations. Dalek Six-ex was being donated by the BBC and was expected to raise in excess of £3000.

The prop had undergone some heavy refurbishment for the sale, with a new coat of paint, and larger oval which covered the unsightly four bolts on the shoulders. The Blackpool exhibition had closed down the year before and a number of the components from an exhibition prop had been used to restore the Dalek¹. The eyestalk bore an uncanny resemblance to the smaller versions used at Blackpool and Longleat, and the slats and mesh also appeared very similar. The neck cage now had an original clover rod style but in this case was apparently a new build as the exhibition versions would have been too small for the standard shoulders. The dome was one of the remaining Goon domes from the pool of spares.

The sale generated much interest from television and the press and yet again the strange looking Dalek received a major public viewing. The BBC themselves used the opportunity for some self promotion and the prop featured on news items throughout the day. It wasn't the last time this particular Dalek would see an auction house.

Big changes were afoot at the end of season 22. The BBC were unhappy with Doctor Who and it was placed into an 18 month hiatus to rethink the show. When it returned the new season was dogged by many off-screen problems, including the sacking of the lead star and a fall out between Eric Saward and JNT resulting in the departure of the script editor. The vacant post was filled by Andrew Cartmel who had plans for the show that would take it into a new direction and style.