The Daleks are the most feared race in the Whoniverse, and definitely the most iconic. But what inspired their original design?
The Daleks were the brainchild of writer Terry Nation, who was keen to put a new type of monster on our screens – namely, one that didn’t look like a person in a suit. Prior to writing Doctor Who, he had been to see a performance of the Georgian State Dancers, and there was a scene in which the peasants entered and danced across the stage. Their skirts were so long that it was impossible to see their feet moving, and it gave the impression that they were gliding. Nation knew this was the kind of movement he wanted for his creations.
This is how he described them in his original script for ‘The Daleks‘: “Hideous machine-like creatures, they are legless, moving on a round base. They have no human features. A lens on a flexible shaft acts as an eye. Arms with mechanical grips for hands.”
After this, though, the visual design of the Daleks fell to in-house BBC designer Raymond Cusick, whose design for the metal mutants went through several iterations. It was always clear that, whatever the shape, the shell would have to be big enough to accommodate a performer.
Interestingly, the task of designing the Daleks originally fell to Ridley Scott, who would later find fame as a film director with the Alien series. History could have been very different if he’d been the one to breathe life into the metal mutants.
It didn’t all fall to Cusick, though. Several people were involved in round-table discussions which lasted several weeks, Nation among them. It was during this time that the story about the Dalek design being based on a pepper pot first emerged. Nation would later state in a 1977 interview that he found himself playing with a pepper pot one weekend whilst trying to crystallise how the Daleks should look. Cusick also said that a pepper pot was used during design meetings to give a sense of how the Daleks should move.
At the same time, there was the practical question of how, exactly, the performers would fit inside the monsters’ casings. Initially, Cusick had toyed with the idea of putting a tricycle into the Dalek base, which the actor would sit on and pedal. But this idea was ultimately abandoned in favour of a simple chair, with the Dalek base being fitted with rubber casters. For the operator, it would be a bit like moving an office chair around the room.
But the design work didn’t end here. The BBC outsourced the construction of the Daleks to a company called Shawcraft, whom they often used for the realisation of more complex models. It was during this time that certain amendments were made to the ‘final’ design from Cusick, but it’s hard to tell how much influence Shawcraft had. Certainly, there are some notable differences between the BBC’s sketches and the on-screen models. For a start, in the drawings the two Dalek appendages are set at different levels, with the ‘sink plunger’ sitting lower than the gun, and a shorter eye stalk.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Remarkably, the design of the Daleks has varied very little over the years. There have been occasions when producers have attempted to redesign the metal mutants, and these have mostly been met with a lukewarm-to-negative response. Certainly, the paradigm Daleks from 2010’s ‘Victory of the Daleks’ were not universally loved. These were much larger and somewhat ‘hunchback’ in appearance, and came in a variety of colours.
These Daleks weren’t seen much after 2010, making only a brief appearance in 2012’s ‘Asylum of the Daleks,’ and these were spray-painted in a metallic red as opposed to the Lego-like yellows and blues from ‘Victory.’ Steven Moffat, who conceived the redesign, said that he considered these Daleks to be an ‘officer class’ and not a replacement for the original version.
There was also the scrapyard version which appeared in 2018’s ‘Resolution’ – a ragtag assortment of spare parts which the Dalek creature cobbled together in order to provide itself with a shell. This, in turn, inspired the robot versions which appeared in 2021’s ‘Revolution of the Daleks,’ which were slicker redesigns of the one from the scrapyard.
All of the Dalek variations have retained the same basic shape, though, and the overall design is similar to an army tank. It’s unclear whether this was a conscious decision on the part of Nation, or Cusick. Certainly, it’s no secret that the Daleks were inspired by the Nazis – such was their xenophobia and obsession with racial purity – but the extent to which this fed into the physical design is unknown. But in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth,’ the monsters did unashamedly parade through London performing Hitler salutes with their plungers!
The most radical redesign of the Daleks was in the mid 1990s when producer Philip Segal was gearing up to produce the Doctor Who TV movie. One of the early concepts that was toyed with was a so-called ‘spider Dalek’ in which a tentacled, metallic creature unfurled from the classic Dalek shell. All that remains of this design idea is a brief CGI test, which ultimately came to nothing. And as it turned out, the Daleks didn’t even feature in the TV movie, save for a brief voice over in the story’s prologue.
And whilst ‘spider Daleks’ would have been interesting to see, a total redesign of the metal mutants isn’t something that TV audiences seem to be crying out for. The original Dalek design is so iconic and beloved and instantly recognisable, even by those who have never seen the series. It is a testament to Terry Nation, Raymond Cusick and all of the designers at the BBC that this Doctor Who monster is still so popular. They are an enduring creation.
What is your favourite thing about the design of the Daleks? And which is your favourite iteration of the metal mutants from Skaro? Let us know in the comments below.
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