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Doctor Who's Dalek Designer Dies At 84

Posted by Soulskill on from the rest-in-peace dept.

SchrodingerZ writes "Raymond Cusick, a production designer for the BBC show Doctor Who from 1963 to 1966, has died from illness. 'Terry Nation, who died in 1997, wrote the 1963 story The Daleks, in which the "satanic pepperpots" first appeared, but it was Cusick who came up with the machines' distinctive look, including the bobble-like sensors, eyestalk, sucker and exterminator weapons.' His horrid creation has remained a prime enemy in Doctor Who for over 50 years, and have remained relatively unchanged. His tireless work however was never fully awarded, as his only pay for the project was about £100. Cusick also worked on such shows as Z Cars, Dr Finlay's Casebook and The Forsyte Saga to The Duchess of Duke Street, When the Boat Comes In and Rentaghost. He officially retired in 1987. Claire Heawood, Cusick's daughter, has said that her father was 'suffering from an illness and died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday.'"

24 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. He didn't die by maroberts · · Score: 5, Funny

    He was ex-term-inat-ed.

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

    1. Re:He didn't die by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I..... I.... I want to... downvote this... and yet... its so full of WIN and Dalek based humor and demands to be voted up as funny...

      We cant all be like the Cybermen and not have to make such tough decisions!

    2. Re:He didn't die by ls671 · · Score: 2

      Margin between being ex-term-inat-ed and keep going on is sometimes really thin. You have to grasp that concept well in order to continue efficiently in your journey.

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
  2. The distinctive look and attitude.. by ihaveamo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...was in part mimicking the Nazis. Extermination .... Supreme race..... and the Daleks look a bit like panzer tanks. I can imagine that 50 years ago, with WWII not such a distant memory, the Daleks would have been personally terrifying to a lot of Brits.

    1. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They were terrifying to brits that lived on ground floors without stairs. The rest, not so much.

    2. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Daleks don't need to levitate up stairs. They just level the building.

    3. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by ls671 · · Score: 2

      There was never any panzer on british soil. Buch of V2s although...

      --
      Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    4. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by Dupple · · Score: 4, Informative

      A while ago I was researching every episode and story line the Daleks have appeared in. It's a bit of a tangle. However, the greatest source of Dalek trivia has to be

      http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/

      I've no idea who put that site together, but the depth of detail (every Dalek ever made and when they appeared) is bordering on the obsessive. I read all of it...

      --
      Watch those corners
    5. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by meerling · · Score: 3, Insightful

      True, but there were a LOT of British soldiers on the front lines facing German Panzers. Nobody said they actually saw them in Great Britain.

    6. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by Dexter+Herbivore · · Score: 2

      Vale Ray Cusick, you gave me nightmares as a kid... respect.

    7. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by grouchomarxist · · Score: 2

      You're obviously making a ridiculous request. Of course, there aren't going to be London newspapers with titles like "we got a hell of a beating", with or without Panzers.

      How about you find a source that Panzer images were censored from British newspapers?

      In any case, the Daleks were introduced in 1963, so the British public would be well aware of the shapes of Panzers by then.

    8. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is a quite bizarre argument.

      Of course there was propaganda during the war, and lots of censorship. On the other hand not only were there newspaper photos, the British were making action movies about the war during the war. It's unlikely that none of them contained a panzer. As you say it would doubtless be blown up, but that would involve seeing it first.

      But the Daleks first appeared in 1963, 18 years after the end of the war. Pretty much everyone will have been very familiar with what panzers looked like by that time, again because of the vast number of action war films.

      I'd never really thought about it before but I buy the idea that elements of the design were taken from tanks. The rotating lid, with the projecting eye stalk is very tank like. And the gun and plunger universal joint is absolutely like the one on machine guns on tanks.

      Whether or not that helped to make the Daleks scary, I don't know. They certainly terrified me as a child, but it was more the inhumanness, the seeming invincibility, the likelyhood of instant death upon seeing one, and the voice I think. With the exception of the voice, they were scary in much the same way Alien is scary.

      I love the design of the Daleks as a classic. But I think their scariness had more to do with Terry Nation's writing. The Daleks, including their Nazi basis, were his idea, as written in the script, before the physical design of the Daleks was thought up. "Exterminate", the supreme race etc. were his ideas.

    9. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      The War of the Worlds didn't take any inspiration from the Nazis, given that H G Wells wrote it in the 1800s.

      You may be thinking of the 1950s movie version. That did have changes from the book, including moving it from Victorian England to contemporary America, but AFAIR it didn't add anything Nazi like that wasn't already in the book.

      It's the same word repeated twice.

      You mean tautology. Like for example: "repeated twice".

    10. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by jcr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Panzer tanks"? It's the same word repeated twice.

      Nope. "Panzer" is not the German word for "Tank." It's grammatically to correct to say "Panzer tank" to distinguish a Panzer from a Tiger tank, for example.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    11. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Funny

      The War of the Worlds didn't take any inspiration from the Nazis, given that H G Wells wrote it in the 1800s.

      That means nothing. After all, H. G. Wells invented the time machine. :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    12. Re:The distinctive look and attitude.. by zorro-z · · Score: 2

      During the "Master Trilogy" of a few years back- the one in which the Master rejiggers the TARDIS as a paradox machine so as to allow the distant seed of humanity to travel back in time to conquer the Earth- there is a scene in Germany where Daleks are flying through the air screaming "EXTERMINIEREN," to bring that image more fully to life, so to speak...

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGx7c-QBotE

      --
      -Z
  3. thanks! by Nyder · · Score: 4, Informative

    I love Doctor Who and the series has entertained me for decades.

    Always thought the Daleks had a great look, even if going up/down stairs was a problem. But thanks to the Daleks, I got Davros, and my namesake, Nyder.

    Of course, we can't forget the picture of Jo Grant (Katy Manning) posing with a Dalek: https://www.google.com/search?q=jo+grant+doctor+who+dalek+nude+picture&hl=en&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=iBYrUYz4OuKXiQLN74DoCQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1133&bih=844

    Anyways, thanks for the Daleks and may you not come back as a zombie.

    --
    Be seeing you...
    1. Re:thanks! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Uhm, NOT SAFE FOR WORK, link opens to nude photos, tasteful nudes, but still nude.

  4. Legacy by symes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I, along with many other children, hid behind a sofa because of this guy. An interesting legacy. Both creative and terrifying and I cannot think of anyone who has does similar and touched so many in the process. Cusick had a good innings and, as reformed juvenile sofa dweller, thanks for the memorable scares.

    1. Re:Legacy by xaxa · · Score: 2

      I, along with many other children, hid behind a sofa because of this guy.

      My mum tells me my uncle hid behind the sofa. My grandma says my mum hid behind a cushion, sometimes.

      What I don't understand is why the show is currently popular with 20-something adults. I've watched a couple, and found it pretty boring. I don't see the attraction.

      (The original theme music is fantastic. The newer music is disappointing. It sounds like the Pirates of the Caribbean formed an indie rock band to cover the CNN theme but tripped over a cheap synth.)

  5. Oh for f... do some bloody research by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    His horrid creation has remained a prime enemy in Doctor Who for over 50 years

    That's quite a trick, considering the 50th anniversary is in November this year. Timey wimey, wibbly wobbly...

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  6. Re:Doctor Who? More like Doctor Poop by grumbel · · Score: 2

    If you are looking for an entry point into Doctor Who, watch the episode Blink, it's incredible well done and probably the most fun take on time travel since Back to the Future. If you don't like that one, then yeah, Doctor Who ain't for you, as it doesn't get better then that, but that episode it worth a try either way.

  7. Re:disappointed... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    British humour are top class, don't get me wrong.

    British grammar are even better.

    But this is not funny.

    FYI: You are not everyone.

    If any of your favourite shows has a laughter box in it, you are fail too.

    Whereas believing your opinion to be worth more than everyone else's makes you such a win?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  8. Re:The REAL creator... by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

    The physical design was great. But the concept of the Daleks, the Nazi theme, that they were mechanical things that glided across the floor etc was Terry Nation.

    Cusick was the designer. Terry Nation was definitely the creator.