DR WHOS GOLDEN GOOSE: THE DALEKS

DR WHO'S GOLDEN GOOSE: 

THE DALEKS 

Isn’t there some saying about killing gooses laying golden eggs? Take the Daleks of Dr Who, for instance.

Dr Who’s bread and butter was the Daleks. It’s a fact. Without them, there would be no Dr Who. But a combination of red-tape, apathy and Spike Milligan, had reduced them to a laughing stock, that caused the series to be cancelled for 15 years. And here’s why.

PAKISTANI DALEKS

The problem stemmed from Spike Milligan making the Daleks the butt of all jokes. Something Dalek creator Terry Nation tried very hard to avoid but was hampered by BBC interference.

Milligan used a genesis Dalek for his Pakistani Dalek sketch in 1975 and likely without Nations consent. But since the BBC owned half the Dalek rights, there was little he could do about it. 

This seemed to have a knock-on effect on future Dalek appearances. By 1979 they were no longer taken seriously.

Several years before Terry Nation had attempted to make the Daleks super-international commodities across the pond, with the idea of launching the Daleks into their own Tv series and get the Americans on board.

But again he was hampered by archaic BBC rules and regulations. Convoluted red-tape meant that the BBC wouldn't release the Daleks from contract.

Yet Spike Milligan could do with them as he pleased.

DOUGLAS ADAMS

Throughout the 1970s, the Daleks were already being reduced to mere dustbins on wheels. And nobody seemed to give a shit.

Destiny of the Daleks is a notable turning point, which gave way to sloppy Daleks throughout the 1980s. Watch any 80s Dalek story and they just looked terrible. Lit badly, shot badly and generally shoddy in appearance due to disrepair. Plus the operators seemed half-asleep.

Gone were the heady days of Dalek Operators such as Robert Jewell, a veteran of the Dalek movies, when Dalekmania was at its zenith.

By the time Destiny Of the Daleks rolled along, Nation was pre-occupied with other projects and showed little interest in Dr Who. 

He submitted a rough unfinished script to the BBC and washed his hands of the affair, leaving it all up to Douglas Adams, who used the opportunity to ‘re-invent’ the Daleks as comical robots. However this idea backfired.

Subsequently, a whole new generation thought Daleks were just machines, only adding to the parody they had become. Overall, the Daleks became stereotypes of themselves.

Not dissing Douglas Adams. He did a great job of Terry Nations story but his comical approach to the Daleks was the shows biggest blunder.

UNPOPULAR WITH ACTORS

Most actors hated working with them, in particular John Pertwee and Peter Davidson. I once trundled up to a red-faced Colin Baker in a Dalek at a Comic Con, where he told me to Bog Off! Peter Davidson was even worse.

Ironic since their entire success was purely because of the Daleks. Without them, there would be no autographs for them to sign.

STEADY DECLINE

Without serious attention paid to the Daleks, Dr Who took a steady decline in the 1980s. Yet nobody considered fixing the problem. Instead, the producers and stars of the show figured celebrity status over Daleks was more important.

In their final screen outing, Remembrance of the Daleks, the Daleks were so so utterly banal, that it made Destiny seem like a blockbuster by comparison.

By now Dr Who was sinking into the abyss and nothing could save it. Not even the Daleks.

By 1989, the decision was finally made to pull the plug. Dr Who was finished.

SHORT SIGHTEDNESS

Being a children's program, there wasn't much call for attention for detail, (at least as far as Daleks were concerned) as these stories were never intended to be televised again.

Typical BBC policy meant a large bulk of early Dr Who stories were actually taped over with Gardeners World. 

Nobody felt that these stories had artistuc value or should be preserved. 

Nor did they think anyone might want to buy a copy of Dr Who episodes on VHS or DVD. 

And no one would have imagined that by the 21st Century, the Daleks would regain stardom after Russell T Davis’s reboot or that Daleks would appear at the Royal Albert Hall.

CONCLUSION

Always look after them geese laying golden eggs.