The Daleks
| Episode of the Doctor Who series | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| title | The Daleks | ||
| Original title | The Daleks | ||
| Country of production | United Kingdom | ||
| original language | English | ||
| length | 7x25 minutes | ||
| classification | Season 1, episodes 5–11 5th - 11th episode in total ( list ) |
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| First broadcast | December 21, 1963 to February 1, 1964 on BBC |
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| German-language first broadcast |
June 29, 2018 (DVD) | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director |
Christopher Barry (episode 1, 2, 4 & 5) Richard Martin (episode 3, 6 & 7) |
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| script | Terry Nation | ||
| production | Verity Lambert | ||
| music | Tristram Cary | ||
| occupation | |||
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| chronology | |||
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The Daleks (The Daleks) is the second story arc of the British science fiction - television series Doctor Who . It consists of 7 episodes that aired between December 21, 1963 and February 1, 1964.
action
Instead of landing on Earth, the TARDIS navigates the doctor, his granddaughter Susan and their teachers Ian and Barbara to an unknown planet. There the four time travelers find themselves in a petrified jungle and can see a futuristic looking city on the horizon. The doctor, who seems fascinated by the planet, insists on exploring the city. However, Ian and Barbara vote against and want to return to Earth as soon as possible. After Susan also asked the doctor to leave the planet, he seemed to agree and started the TARDIS launch. But already during the start there are problems and the TARDIS cannot dematerialize. According to the doctor, the TARDIS lacks mercury, which can only be found in the city. Therefore, the group dared an expedition there.
In the city, Barbara is separated from the group and overwhelmed by mutated aliens in strange tinny machine hulls: the Daleks . After a short time, the doctor, Susan and Ian are also captured and the doctor has to expose himself to an exhausting interrogation by the Daleks. He learns that the whole planet was contaminated by nuclear war and that he and his companions were also exposed to the deadly radiation. The Daleks send Susan back to the TARDIS to bring them an anti-radiation drug. But Susan is stopped on the way by a second race of aliens: the Thals.
Susan seems to be able to secure a peaceful agreement between the two races, but the Daleks betray them and attack the Thals, who wanted to give the Daleks the anti-radiation drug as a peace offer. However, as it turns out after a test of the drug, it is fatal for Daleks, so they plan to bombard the planet's atmosphere with nuclear weapons again in order to be able to survive outside of their metallic protective covers.
In the chaos of the Daleks ambush, the doctor and his companions escape. You learn from the Thals that they are on the planet Skaro, which was destroyed by a nuclear war between the Daleks and the Thals. After the Doctor and the Thals learn of the Daleks' plan, Ian and Barbara manage to convince the peaceful Thals to attack the Daleks together and put an end to this war. The leaders of the Thals agree and so all of the Thals attack the city of the Daleks. Apparently all of the Daleks are wiped out in the attack.
Since peace seems to have returned to Skaro, the doctor and his companions say goodbye to the Thals and make their way back to earth. But during take-off there is an explosion in the Tardis, causing the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara to lose consciousness.
production
The serial was originally commissioned as a six-part series by David Whitaker, then script editor of Doctor Who, from author Terry Nation, after he was impressed by Nations work on the British science fiction series Out of this World . Under the title The Mutants , it was to be broadcast as the fourth storyline after Marco Polo , but was preferred for unknown reasons. The young Ridley Scott was originally intended to be the designer for the serial. He was unable to attend due to scheduling issues and was replaced by Raymond Cusick , who ultimately gave the Daleks their iconic appearance.
The first episode of the series The Dead Planet was recorded twice in 1963 because there were many technical errors in the first recording. The second recording was two weeks before it first aired, with Susan wearing different clothes. The first version of the episode has now been lost, but individual scenes from it, including Susan's original clothing, were shown in the recap of the second episode. Shortly before the recordings for the second episode, The Survivors , were filmed on November 22, 1963, the production team was informed of the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy . Nevertheless, the recordings took place as planned.
Alternative title of the serial
As was customary at the beginning of the series, each individual episode got its own episode title instead of a title for all episodes of the series.
- The Survivors (to German Survivors ): First working title of the serial during the early planning stages.
- Beyond the Sun (in German beyond the sun ): Second working title of the series during the early planning phase.
- The Mutants (in German Die Mutanten ): Production title and official title until 1972, before another serial was produced under this title with the third doctor.
- The Dead Planet (in German Der tote Planet ): Was used once by the Radio Times in 1973 for the 10th anniversary of the series.
Audience ratings
| episode | Original title | German title | running time | UK premiere | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dead Planet | The dead planet | 24:22 minutes | December 21, 1963 | 6.9 million viewers |
| 2 | The Survivors | The survivors | 24:27 minutes | December 28, 1963 | 6.4 million viewers |
| 3 | The Escape | The escape | 25:10 minutes | 4th January 1964 | 8.9 million viewers |
| 4th | The ambush | The ambush | 24:37 minutes | January 11, 1964 | 9.9 million viewers |
| 5 | The expedition | The expedition | 24:31 minutes | January 18, 1964 | 9.9 million viewers |
| 6th | The Ordeal | The trial by fire | 26:14 minutes | January 25, 1964 | 10.4 million viewers |
| 7th | The Rescue | The rescue | 22:24 minutes | February 1, 1964 | 10.4 million viewers |
Cast and dubbing
The German synchronized version of the series was produced by Metz-Neun Synchron Studio- und Verlags GmbH. The dialogue book was written by Manuel Karakas, who was also responsible for directing the dialogue.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| The doctor | William Hartnell | Michael Schwarzmaier |
| Ian Chesterton | William Russel | Marcus Off |
| Barbara Wright | Jacqueline Hill | Gundi Eberhard |
| Susan Foreman | Carole Ann Ford | Demet Fey |
| Temmosus | Alan Wheatley | Achim Barrenstein |
| Alydon | John Lee | Erik Borner |
| Dyoni | Virginia Wetherell | Dagmar Bittner |
| Ganatus | Philip Bond | Jan Langer |
| Antodus | Marcus Hammond | Felix Mayer |
| Elyon | Gerald Curtis | |
| Daleks | Peter Hawkins David Graham |
Dirk Hardegen Peter Lehn Isaak Dentler |
publication
The serial was the first to be adapted in the form of a novel. The adaptation was written by David Whitaker and was released on November 12, 1964 under the title Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks . A new edition of the novel appeared in 1972 under the title Doctor Who and the Daleks . The novel version is told from the perspective of companion Ian Chesterton and ignores the events from the previous serial The Child from the Stars , apart from a slightly adapted version of the first meeting of the Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara before going on Skaro with the TARDIS land. Susan's last name was also changed from Foreman to English, a change that has been adopted in several other publications.
The serial was released on video in England in 1989 and 1991, and a DVD release followed in 2006 as part of the Doctor Who - The Beginning box set . The soundtrack to the serial by Tristram Cary first appeared on September 1, 2003 as part of the Doctor Who: Devils' Planets - The Music of Tristram Cary Sets.
In Germany, the serial was published in the 1990s in the form of a novel by Goldmann Verlag under the title Doctor Who and the Invasion of the Daleks . A German-dubbed version of the series was released on DVD on June 29, 2018.
Film adaptation
The serial served as a template for the film Dr. Who and the Daleks from 1965 with Peter Cushing as Dr. Who, Roberta Tovey as Susan, Roy Castle as Ian Chesterton and Jennie Linden as Barbara. Since the film summarized the plot of the series in about 82 minutes, a few things were changed to get the story up and running faster. In addition to Susan, Barbara is a granddaughter of the doctor who appears in the film as Dr. Who is addressed by name several times and is not an alien from the planet Gallifrey, but a scientist from planet Earth.
The film was a success in British cinemas and so in 1966, Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 AD, a sequel based on the Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth was produced . However, this flopped at the box office and the planned production of a third Dalek film based on the Doctor Who serial The Chase never came.
Trivia
- The serial starts right after the last scene of the previous serial The Child from the Stars .
- The Daleks were originally not supposed to appear in the series anymore. However, due to the unexpected success of the serial and the popularity of the alien race, they continued to be used in the series and are still one of the doctor's best-known opponents to this day.
Web links
- The Daleks on the official website of the BBC with photonovel with Telesnaps to illustrate the episode
- The Daleks - Detailed recap in the Doctor Who Reference Guide.
Individual evidence
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