Ray
Cusick returned as designer for this serial and made a few changes from the last
serial. He arranged for the large fender and large wheels to be removed from the
props to return them to their more original style. The requirements of the plot
had prompted the addition of the Radar-like Dish for the previous story and, understanding
this, Cusick replaced it with a series of vertical slats attached to the shoulder
section to act as solar collectors.  'The
Chase' throws up some interesting questions. During the story only four proper
Daleks appear on screen together at any one time, which ties in to the records
from the end of 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth' that state four props were stored.
The Black Dalek which appears in one scene of the first episode is repainted for
later appearances as a silver Dalek and. With its infamous neck repair, 'sagging'
collar and bunched-up eye rings there's little doubt it's the DIoE1 Black Dalek
from the previous serial, but more on that later...
Other components which
are easily spotted in 'The Chase' include the bad skirt first seen in 'The
Daleks' and the two shoulder sections which were refurbed with "high
screws" for 'The Dalek Invasion
of Earth.' A third shoulder has uniquely narrow collar under its gunboxes,
also from the original 1963 batch.
One way to attempt to keep track of
the on-screen props is by their eye-stalks, but this method falls foul of a refurbishment
mid-way through recording. To begin with there are three Daleks with black eye-balls
and one with a silver eye-ball (a leftover from 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth').
However, from episode four onwards, all four Daleks have black eye-balls. At this
point also, the many broken slats around the Daleks' shoulders are repaired which
makes counting them, and telling them apart, more difficult.
It is well
known that three props from the as-yet-unreleased feature film 'Dr
Who and the Daleks' were appropriated by the BBC for 'The Chase' but they
were not modified to match the TV appearance so the half-hearted measure was taken
of removing the large fenders for the scenes in the time machine (the fenders
are reinstated for shots in the jungle later). As a result, these Daleks stand
out somewhat due to their diminutive stature as well as lack of solar panels and
other design differences. These three can be seen in the image below from episode
three. The film Daleks are on the left accompanied by two original TV props on
the right.
However, in addition to the obvious film props above, it has long been a source
of debate as to whether another film prop was taken by the BBC and adapted to
appear the same as the TV Daleks. Some prop histories include a film conversion,
others do not.
The first thing we can be certain about is that the only fully-moving
Daleks in 'The Chase' are normal TV Daleks. This is best demonstrated early on
when after the Black Dalek (which we know to be a prop from the previous serial)
gives his orders, the three remaining silver props enter the time machine. As
they do this, they each turn away from camera so that their skirts can be seen
to be lacking the telltale film-style misalignment, as shown in the images on
the right. The skirt on the far right has the badly aligned hemispheres found
back in the debut story in 1963 as discussed on 'The
Daleks' page. There is one misleading shot in the control room which momentarily
looks as if a skirt has film-type hemis, but it is a trick of the light, and when
the prop moves closer to the camera and the light changes, it becomes clear that
it is a TV skirt.
  The
confusion starts because the Dalek seen on the right in famous publicity photos
for 'The Chase' taken at Camber Sands does actually exhibit all the characteristics
of a film Dalek, and yet it looks like a TV prop. (Check the 'Dr
Who and the Daleks' page for an explanation of what constitutes "film-style"
components).
To add further complication, this Dalek is actually not the
only one with some film-type bits! The Black Dalek DIoE1 has got itself
film-style gunboxes too, which can be seen below left, however this
prop's new shoulder section is not 100% film-style, as the lower
collar can be positively matched to the black Dalek's previous
appearance in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, so this shoulder section
became a partly recycled TV/film mixture.
To illustrate the reverse of this phenomenon,
one of the original TV shoulder sections has had its collar remounted with screws
at a height normally associated with film props! So it becomes apparent that at
this stage one characteristic which could potentially explain the origin of a
part can be misleading!
As well as the DIoE1 shoulders, there is one more
isolated piece of a "film Dalek" glimpsed during this story: In one
shot on the Mary Celeste, as a Dalek turns its back on the camera, the telltale
hemi misalignment is visible (shown below right).
 So
with all these film parts on show, including an apparently complete film Dalek
masquerading as a TV prop, was a film prop converted? Why would they convert this
one Dalek for the Sands and then not use it properly in studio? Why use three
other film props and not convert them too?!
The first problem encountered
when theorising about any 'conversion' is simply one of numbers. Shawcraft created
eight full hero props for the first feature film. The Cannes Film Festival of
1965 took place between 12 May and 28 May and there are photographs showing that
this batch of props includes five hero props. The recording of the 'The Chase'
which featured the remaining three film props overlaps with these dates which
proves that all eight hero props were still intact during May 1965, however the
Camber Sands photos of the alleged 'conversion' were taken a month before, on
9th April! It would appear there cannot be a converted film hero prop in 'The
Chase' because there aren't enough props to go round.
So what can the
origin of this prop be? Sources agree on the fact that Shawcraft provided a new,
light-weight Dalek for this story. It was this one which would have been used
to cross the sands where a normal prop would be too heavy and it could also be
used for scenes such as where a robotic Frankenstein's monster lifts up and smashes
a Dalek.
Since Shawcraft made new moulds to build its batch of film Daleks,
these were the moulds that would have been
available for making any new Dalek components required. Therefore when it came
to building a new prop for this story, it would have come out with the appearance
of a film Dalek. It may even have utilized any spare film parts lying around the
workshop.
Similarly, when it came to the black Dalek needing a shoulder
unit to replace its wooden gun-boxes, they would have been made from a new film
mould. So the answer as to why the full film-style Dalek never appears in the
group of active props in studio would appear to be because it is only a "stunt
Dalek", albeit a very well-made one. Presumably this film skirt appeared
in the Mary Celeste shot (right) because it was due to be pushed into the water
at the tank filming but when a Dalek was needed for a quick shot, the film skirt
was mixed with a TV top half briefly. Evidence in favour of this is that the Dalek
moves with great difficulty, not at all smoothly, which makes sense because it
is lifted up later on and the "film skirt" has no wheels!
In
trying to determine whether this prop was a conversion, aside from evidence of
numbers which is hard to refute, there are other logical factors to consider which
supports the idea that it is actually a new build. Firstly, why would they take
a fully-working prop and render it immobile, then only use it for stunt scenes?
It seems more likely it was a new build which was never given wheels or a seat
in the first place. Secondly, if the production team got hold of four genuine
props (rather than the three we know about) then why only convert one of them
without even touching the rest? Surely that suggests the three unmodified film
props where treated differently and on a a different schedule to the Camber Sands
Dalek? And thirdly, 'The Chase' was filmed in April/May 1965, a couple of months
before the publicity machine for 'Dr
Who and the Daleks' was in full swing, so would AARU have permanently surrendered
any of their precious props knowing how much promotional work was ahead? Not to
mention  competitions
which would offer Daleks as prizes! This line of reason would also make it seem
likely that the three genuine film props were only borrowed, hence the lack of
modifications. All this evidence would lead us to conclude there was no film conversion.
There are undoubtedly film-style components around, but whether they ever appeared
on the big screen at all, seems unlikely.
During the story a Dalek had
to rise from where it had been buried in the sand. Initially an attempt was made
to film this with a full-sized prop (the film-style new addition) being pulled
by a Land Rover. Unsurprisingly it failed due to the weight of the sand, and so
the scene was achieved using a model instead. The image left shows the aborted
attempt to achieve this and once again we see the "film" style Dalek
in all its glory: Beautifully made no doubt but showing little evidence of ever
having been anything other than a new build.
One final curiosity about
this stunt Dalek is that during the final recording in which it was used, it is
sporting a more basic form of gun as featured in the film, whereby the octagonal
spokes are missing. In fact this style was to be adopted by all TV Daleks two
stories later during Patrick Troughton's debut 'Power of the Daleks'. This change
in gun during 'The Chase' was presumably due to damage to the gun during filming
of an earlier scene and it was replaced with a spare film-style gun. In the third
image from right below, the underneath of the base can be seen to have a makeshift
cover and no wheels. 
As
mentioned above, at the end of 'The Chase', the fate of the three film Daleks
is uncertain. Given the forthcoming promotional work for the film, it was likely
they were merely borrowed for this story, not bought. The main four hero props
were all stored for future use. Next
Chapter: 'Curse' >>> |
