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Dr Who, Daleks Kiss And Make Up
Dynamoo writes "The BBC is reporting that the creators of the new series of Doctor Who due next year have reached an agreement with the estate of the late Terry Nation to include the Daleks in the new series. This means that I'll definitely be watching.. although whether from behind the sofa or not remains to be seen." We previously reported on the apparent exterminate-ion of the lovable pepperpots from this new version.
Terry was trying to make an alien that didn't look like a man in a rubber suit. The Daleks were a sack of protaplasm with an arm, who had to live in robot bodies after they'd devastated their home planet.
Unlike the alien from the film 'Alien', they actually _couldn't_ be played by a man in a rubber suit.
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
He got progressively more insane as his hair grew greyer. Last sighted in "Fort Boyard", a "Crystal Maze" rip off.
The BBC website always uses the singular, and they should know.
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
Terry Nation wrote the scripts and created the Dalek characters. The design was by BBC employee Raymond Cusick, and this lies at the root of the rights problems / confusion now resolved - the Nation Estate could licence the name Dalek and characteristic speech patterns such as "Resistance is Uselesss" and, of course, "Exterminate", but not the likeness. The BBC could licence, and use, the likeness, but not the name or behaviour.
Tim Hancock, Terry Nation's former Agent and boss of "The Nation Estate" for licensing purposes, tried to bump up the price above the agreed UKP250,000 for using the Daleks in the new series at the last moment, and the BBC called his bluff. The Estate wasn't going to make much money if the new series didn't use the Daleks at all.
Tom Baker is still around, but not doing anything much of note, really, other than playing the part of a slightly crazy semi-recluse rather well. He had a brief part in the abysmally awful (yet oddly compelling, in an Ed Wood sort of way) "Dungeons and Dragons" a few years back as an elf.
Sean Daugherty "I have walked in Eternity -- and Eternity weeps."
>I'd have to disagree that the Sontarans or the Cybermen
>are more plausable enemies - the first a race devoted to
>war but unable to do anything about that little vent on
>the back of the neck and the second vulnerable to any
>opponent that can rustle up some gold and a cheesegrater.
Oh, I agree - they both need work as well. Those Achilles heels the writers built into the races were silly 20 years ago.
I just think there's more there to work with than there is with the Daleks. The original concept behind the Cybermen was truly creepy, for the '60s. I think that would be easy to recapture for a modern audience. Likewise the Sontarans are physically an impressive enemy, though clearly someone needs to teach them the concept behind the "gas cap".
The Daleks could probably be reimaged as well into a truly credible threat - say as little biomechanical tanks that fly around and blow stuff up - but you'd probably have to change so much of their behavior and their backstory you might as well spend your time coming up with new, better enemies.
One of the other problems late-era Doctor Who had back in the late '80s was needlessly dredging up old enemies - Omega, the Daleks & Davros, the Sea Monsters - just to have a nostalgia fest. Invariably the results were mixed at best. Even back in Tom Baker's day, the outstanding episodes - "The Ark In Space", "Terror of the Zygons" (if you can overlook the bad effects for a certain monster), "The Pyramids of Mars", "The Face of Evil", "The Robots of Death", "The Talons of Weng Chiang" - all of them introduced new adversaries for the Doctor to combat. Offhand the only episode I can think of that brought back an old adversary and sorta kinda worked was "Earthshock", which re-introduced the Cybermen after nearly a decade's absence. It wasn't perfect either, but at least it had its moments and wasn't terribly dull or silly.
Tom Baker does the voice overs in Little Britain
a bo ut_the_show.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/littlebritain/
aedan
In addition to the other sightings mentioned, Tom Baker appeared on a regular basis in a cultish British TV series called 'Randall And Hopkirk Deceased', a modern re-make of a 60s TV series of the same name.
And they that rule in England, In stately conclave met, Alas, alas for England They have no graves as yet.
Except Terry Nation didn't design the Daleks and the only thing he thought about was the lack of legs, based on a viewing of the Georgian State Ballet where the dancers appeared to glide due to their floor-length dresses. Raymond Cusick designed the rest, and he was the one inspired by a pepperpot.
"This is why men never share their feelings; because women always remember." -Just Shoot Me.
B-Movie? Sterotype? No! Dalek Empire is now in its third series. The first was excellent - I just need to sort out my budget to get the rest.
My dads hair brush became a Venom Grub and my 'Action Man' got it in the neck for days afterwards!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/gallery/monste rs1/webplanet2.shtml
Ok, I was only 4 years old......;-)
They can levitate. There's at least one episode where they did this (Dr. Who screamed "Run up the stairs", did do then turned around to see the levitating dalek following them).
As all Who devotees should know the last series with the Daleks, "Remembrance of the Daleks" finally showed them moving up stairs to get out of a cellar. They used a hover/rocket-type mechanism from my hazy memory. This htus totally wrecked my favourite cartoon from "Punch" magazine. This had the daleks at the bottom of a set of stairs. The head Dalek said: "Well.. that certainly bu**ers our plans for universal conquest!"
If that's too much typing for you,(without any spaces put there by Slashdot) yields: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/littlebritain/ab
Well, the best guide to who the Daleks are, is probably the Dalek entry on this page: http://www.lofficier.com/dwudd.html There are loads of Doctor Who sites with pictures of Daleks, but this is the Dalek gallery on the official Doctor Who site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/gallery/dalek/
some years ago he wrote an excellent autobiography, Who on Earth Is Tom Baker?
recommended not only for Doctor freaks, it's very funny and shows him to be a perceptive man.