Geek Syndicate
Antony’s Choice:
The Daleks and their world were a design triumph
Huge credit must go to Raymond Cusick who
created the design of the Dalek machine. This
design is fifty years old and yet they have
hardly changed from his original work. It
was all there from the get go: the pepper pot
shape, the sink plunger, the extermination ray,
the voice, everything. In my opinion it is the
package that makes them so terrifying. It’s
ingenious that these monsters are not and do
not appear to be humans in suits. It is the truly
alien look of their revolving eye stalk and that
horrific shrieking voice that makes them not
just a classic Doctor Who villain but one of the
best villains in any genre.
So witness the development of the Doctor as
the layers of the man you now know start to be
added. Hide behind the sofa as The Daleks have
not changed. This is one of the most frightenin g serials I have watched. I saw it for the first
time when I was twenty-four and it had me
hiding behind the sofa!
Synopsis (from TARDIS.wikia.com):
The Doctor, Vicki, and new companion Steven
Taylor arrive in Saxon Northumbria on the eve
of the Viking and Norman invasions. It is 1066,
a pivotal moment in British history. The hand of
a mysterious Monk is at work in the nearby monastery, intending that history takes a different
course.
It can’t be denied that Doctor Who may not have
continued beyond its initial thirteen week run
if it hadn’t been for Terry Nation’s creations.
As well as introducing an iconic threat to the
series, The Daleks was a triumph of design – the
Dalek city is wonderful to behold in both shots
of the model exterior and the sets themselves.
However, I would argue that there are many
stories from this initial three year era of the
show that surpass this one. My choice comes
from the end of Hartnell’s second series.
I may well be slightly biased towards this story
as it is the first Hartnell Doctor Who that I ever
saw. I had read many adventures from this period, thanks to the excellent novelizations that
were published by WH Allen and Target, but I
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