The Daleks (1963–64): The Story That Created a Phenomenon

An in-depth examination of William Hartnell’s first encounter with the Daleks, the development of the characters, the relationships at the heart of the story, contemporary reactions and the birth of Dalekmania.

There are certain moments in television history when a programme changes almost overnight. Sometimes it happens because of a new actor, a particularly memorable episode or an idea that catches the public imagination. For Doctor Who, one of those moments came on Saturday 21 December 1963, when a mysterious metal creature emerged from the shadows of an alien city and threatened Barbara Wright.

That creature was a Dalek.

The programme was barely a month old. Its first story, An Unearthly Child, had introduced William Hartnell as the Doctor, Carole Ann Ford as his granddaughter Susan, and William Russell and Jacqueline Hill as the schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. It had established a mysterious time machine, an alien grandfather and a universe of possibilities. But it had not yet demonstrated quite what sort of science-fiction adventure Doctor Who might become.

The seven episodes of The Daleks did that. They introduced an alien civilisation shaped by nuclear catastrophe, a race of apparently gentle humanoids, a terrifying new enemy, and a moral conflict about hatred, survival, pacifism and the use of violence. They also gave the programme its first truly iconic monsters.

The consequences were enormous. The serial’s audience grew as it progressed, and by its conclusion Doctor Who had become a much more prominent part of the BBC’s Saturday schedule. The Daleks became a national craze, appearing in newspapers, toys, merchandise, publicity events and spin-off adventures. They were no longer simply the monsters in the second Doctor Who story. They were becoming a cultural phenomenon.

Yet there is a danger in looking back at the serial solely through the lens of that success. The Daleks are now so familiar that it is easy to forget how strange and unsettling they must have seemed in 1963. It is also easy to overlook the human drama surrounding them: the Doctor’s gradual moral development, Susan’s vulnerability and courage, Ian’s growing confidence, Barbara’s emerging authority, and the changing relationships between four travellers who had not chosen to become a family.

This is a story about the birth of the Daleks, but it is also a story about the birth of Doctor Who itself.

1. What was The Daleks?

The story is commonly known today as The Daleks, although its original episode listings used the title The Dead Planet. It is also frequently called The Mutants, particularly in older reference material and fan discussions.

The BBC’s production team had not settled on a consistent overall title for every early serial. Individual episode titles were much more prominent at the time. The familiar title The Daleks became firmly established through later releases and reference works.

 

The serial consists of seven episodes:

The story was written by Terry Nation, produced by Verity Lambert, and directed by Christopher Barry and Richard Martin. Raymond Cusick was responsible for the original Dalek design, while Tristram Cary provided the electronic and atmospheric music. The Dalek voices were performed by Peter Hawkins and David Graham.

 

The regular cast was:

• William Hartnell as the Doctor.

• Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman.

• William Russell as Ian Chesterton.

• Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright.

The story takes place on Skaro, a planet devastated by a nuclear war. Two peoples have survived: the Thals, who have developed into a peaceful, apparently beautiful humanoid civilisation, and the Daleks, who have become physically dependent on protective metal casings and politically committed to hatred and extermination.

The TARDIS crew become involved in the conflict after the Doctor discovers that the ship’s fluid link is missing. He persuades Ian and Barbara that they must enter the mysterious metal city to retrieve it. His decision traps them in the Daleks’ power and sets the story in motion.

There is a wonderfully important point here: the Doctor’s companions are not initially drawn into the adventure because they are seeking to save the universe. They are trying to get home.

The Doctor’s selfish decision creates the immediate danger. His eventual moral development comes from recognising that he has a responsibility to the people and world around him.

That is one of the most interesting aspects of the serial. It is not simply the story of a hero defeating monsters. It is the story of a flawed, sometimes rather unpleasant man discovering what being a hero actually requires.

Part One: The world of Skaro

2. A planet after the apocalypse

The first episode begins with the TARDIS arriving in a strange, apparently lifeless landscape.

The travellers step outside into a petrified forest. The trees are dead, the ground is barren, and the atmosphere is deeply unsettling. There is no obvious sign of civilisation, but in the distance stands a huge metallic city.

The contrast is immediately effective.

The forest represents the natural world destroyed by catastrophe. The city represents the technological civilisation that survived the catastrophe, although the nature of that survival is not yet clear.

The travellers have arrived in a place where something terrible has happened, but they do not know what.

This is a good example of the early Doctor Who production team’s understanding of atmosphere. The serial does not need elaborate visual effects or vast landscapes to establish that Skaro is alien. The barren setting, unusual music, strange lighting and the actors’ reactions do much of the work.

The story also introduces a question that runs throughout the serial: what happens to a civilisation when it survives a disaster but loses the qualities that make it humane?

The Thals and Daleks offer two different answers.

The Thals have survived by abandoning warfare. The Daleks have survived by embracing it.

Neither society is presented as a simple product of its environment. Both have made choices, and those choices have shaped their future.

That gives the story a moral dimension which is more sophisticated than its basic adventure format might initially suggest.

3. The Thals and the Daleks: two possible futures

The Thals initially appear to be the obvious heroes.

They are attractive, physically healthy and apparently peaceful. Their clothing and manner suggest a civilisation that has recovered from the destruction of the past. They are not aggressive and seem to place considerable importance on cooperation.

The Daleks, by contrast, appear to be the opposite. They live inside machines, are dependent on the power supply of their city, and regard other forms of life as inferior.

The contrast is deliberately stark.

But Terry Nation’s story is not quite as straightforward as a battle between good-looking people and ugly monsters. The Thals’ pacifism is also a weakness. They have become so committed to avoiding violence that they struggle to recognise when their survival requires resistance.

Their leader, Temmosus, is a particularly interesting figure. He is a dignified and thoughtful man, but his faith in peace does not protect him from the Daleks.

His death demonstrates that goodness and moral conviction do not automatically provide physical protection.

The Thals’ dilemma is an important one. If a society refuses to fight under any circumstances, what happens when it encounters an enemy that has no interest in peaceful coexistence?

The story does not suggest that the Thals should become like the Daleks. Instead, it asks whether defending life can sometimes require confronting those who threaten it.

That is a difficult distinction, and it gives the serial more depth than a straightforward adventure about destroying monsters.

4. The Daleks as the product of nuclear catastrophe

The Daleks are introduced as the surviving inhabitants of a civilisation destroyed by nuclear war.

They are not simply robots. They are mutated beings whose physical existence has become dependent on protective machinery.

This is crucial to understanding why they are so disturbing.

A robot can be frightening, but a robot is fundamentally a machine. The Daleks are something worse: living creatures that have lost almost every recognisable feature of ordinary humanity.

Their bodies are concealed. Their voices are electronic and strangulated. Their movements are mechanical. Their emotions appear to have been reduced to suspicion, anger and hatred.

The viewer is encouraged to wonder what is actually inside the casing.

The story initially gives us only partial information. We see the Daleks’ machinery before we understand the nature of the creatures themselves. The eventual glimpse of an organic appendage is particularly effective because it confirms that the metal casing is not merely a vehicle or weapon.

There is something alive inside it.

The horror comes from the combination of the familiar and the unfamiliar. The Dalek has an eye, an arm and a means of communication, but none of these resemble ordinary human anatomy.

It is recognisable enough to be understood, yet strange enough to be frightening.

The nuclear background also reflects anxieties that were very real in the early 1960s. The Second World War was still within living memory, the atomic bomb had transformed the understanding of warfare, and the threat of nuclear conflict remained a major concern.

The Daleks embody the nightmare of a civilisation that has survived the destruction of its world but become morally and physically deformed by the experience.

They are not merely aliens from another planet. They are a warning about what intelligent life might become.

Part Two: The seven episodes

5. Episode One: The Dead Planet

The first episode establishes the landscape and the immediate problem.

The TARDIS arrives on Skaro, and the travellers explore the petrified forest. The Doctor becomes fascinated by the distant city, while Ian and Barbara are much more interested in returning to the ship.

The Doctor discovers that the fluid link is missing. He claims that the TARDIS cannot function without it and that the only possible source of mercury needed to replenish it is inside the city.

This is a pivotal moment for the Doctor.

He has not yet developed the moral outlook that later generations of viewers would associate with the character. He is secretive, manipulative and prepared to endanger his companions to satisfy his curiosity.

Ian and Barbara are understandably suspicious, but they have little choice but to follow him.

The travellers enter the city, and Barbara becomes separated from the others. She is left alone in a strange environment, surrounded by unfamiliar machinery and pursued by something she cannot properly identify.

The episode ends with a terrifying moment: a Dalek’s mechanical appendages emerge from a concealed opening and threaten her.

It is an extraordinary cliffhanger.

The Dalek itself is not fully revealed, and that is part of the reason the moment works. The audience has been shown the strange city, the empty landscape and the travellers’ growing unease. Now something has reached out of the darkness.

The threat is immediate, physical and mysterious.

Review

This is one of the serial’s strongest episodes. It understands the value of withholding information. The audience does not need to know everything about Skaro yet; it needs to feel that something is wrong.

The production design is simple but effective. The city is artificial and oppressive, while the forest feels dead and exposed. The contrast gives the story a distinctive visual identity.

Hartnell is also excellent here, although his Doctor is not especially sympathetic. He is curious to the point of recklessness and uses the fluid-link problem to manipulate Ian and Barbara.

That is precisely what makes the character interesting. He is not yet a conventional hero.

Barbara’s isolation provides the emotional centre of the cliffhanger. Jacqueline Hill conveys her fear convincingly, and the audience is left with the unsettling prospect that she has encountered something far more dangerous than the travellers anticipated.

6. Episode Two: The Survivors

The second episode reveals the Daleks in full.

The travellers discover that the city is inhabited by creatures living inside metal casings. The Daleks control their environment and are suspicious of any outsiders.

Their first interactions with the TARDIS crew establish the essential nature of the creatures. They are intelligent, organised and technologically advanced, but they have an absolute hostility towards other forms of life.

The Doctor and his companions are imprisoned.

The episode also begins to reveal the history of Skaro. The Daleks and Thals are survivors of an ancient conflict, and the planet’s present condition is the result of a devastating war.

The title The Survivors is therefore especially appropriate. Both races have survived, but their survival has taken radically different forms.

The Daleks have preserved themselves through machinery and isolation. The Thals have preserved themselves through cooperation and pacifism.

Review

The first full appearance of the Daleks is the serial’s defining moment.

Their design is remarkable because it avoids the traditional appearance of a science-fiction monster. They do not have elaborate faces, frightening teeth or recognisable bodies. They are compact, enclosed and oddly domestic in shape.

That apparent simplicity makes them more unsettling.

Their voices are equally important. Peter Hawkins and David Graham give them a distinctive electronic delivery, making even ordinary statements sound threatening.

The Daleks are not simply shouting monsters. Their language is controlled, repetitive and bureaucratic. They speak with the confidence of an organisation that has already decided the fate of everyone around it.

The episode also introduces the Daleks’ most important characteristic: their hatred is ideological.

They do not merely dislike the Thals. They believe the Thals should not exist.

That distinction turns them from ordinary villains into something far more disturbing.

7. Episode Three: The Escape

The Doctor and his companions remain prisoners, while the Daleks continue to investigate their presence.

Susan becomes particularly important. The Daleks want to use her as a means of communicating with the Thals. They intend to persuade the Thals that they are willing to negotiate, while actually preparing an ambush.

Susan is forced into a dangerous position.

She is young, frightened and separated from the people who normally protect her. Yet she is also capable of making decisions independently.

Her involvement with the Thals is an important step in her development.

The Doctor, Ian and Barbara eventually escape the immediate danger of the Dalek city. However, their escape is not simply a matter of getting away. They now understand that the Daleks represent a threat to the entire Thal community.

The serial begins to change direction.

What started as a story about four travellers trying to recover a missing component becomes a story about whether they will intervene in the fate of an alien civilisation.

Review

This episode is important for Susan because it gives her something meaningful to do.

She is not simply the Doctor’s granddaughter, nor is she merely the frightened teenager who accompanies Ian and Barbara. She has a capacity for empathy and communication that becomes valuable to the Thals.

Carole Ann Ford is particularly effective when Susan is required to act despite her fear.

The episode also develops the Daleks’ manipulative side. They are not just physically dangerous. They understand that other people can be persuaded, deceived and used.

That makes them more threatening than creatures whose only response to an outsider is immediate attack.

8. Episode Four: The Ambush

The Daleks’ plan becomes clearer.

Susan has been sent to the Thals with a message suggesting that the Daleks are prepared to negotiate. The Thals, who genuinely wish to avoid conflict, are inclined to believe that peaceful contact might be possible.

Temmosus leads his people towards the city.

The Daleks have no intention of negotiating. They open fire, and Temmosus is killed.

His death is one of the serial’s most important turning points.

Until this point, the Thals’ pacifism has appeared admirable, even if somewhat naïve. Now the audience sees its terrible vulnerability.

Temmosus has done nothing to deserve his fate. He approaches the Daleks in good faith and is murdered for it.

The event changes the Thals’ understanding of their enemy and forces them to consider whether they can continue to survive without defending themselves.

Review

This is a particularly strong episode because it makes the Daleks’ philosophy concrete.

Their hatred is no longer simply something they express through dialogue. It has consequences.

Temmosus’s death is shocking because the character has been established as a dignified leader rather than an expendable villain. His fate demonstrates that the Daleks’ violence is not the result of misunderstanding or a temporary disagreement.

They are committed to exterminating the Thals.

The episode also creates an important moral question for the Doctor and Ian: can they help the Thals defend themselves without turning them into another version of the Daleks?

That question becomes the story’s central ethical problem.

9. Episode Five: The Expedition

The travellers and the Thals begin preparing for a journey through the dangerous wasteland surrounding the city.

The plan is to reach the Dalek city and confront the threat at its source.

This is a substantial change in the story’s structure. The TARDIS crew are no longer merely escaping from danger. They have accepted a responsibility to help others.

Ian becomes increasingly important to the practical planning. His military experience and sense of discipline make him a natural organiser.

The Thals also begin to change. Their earlier reluctance to fight is gradually replaced by a willingness to take action.

However, this is not presented as an easy transformation. They have to confront their own beliefs and decide what sort of people they want to become.

Review

The fifth episode is where the serial becomes more obviously an adventure story.

There is a danger that the expedition material might feel like a simple journey from one location to another, but it serves a useful purpose. It allows the Thals and the TARDIS crew to develop a working relationship.

It also provides a contrast between Ian and the Doctor.

Ian tends to approach problems through practical action and personal responsibility. The Doctor approaches them through scientific knowledge, experience and sometimes manipulation.

Both are useful, but neither is sufficient on his own.

The story is also beginning to show that the Doctor’s companions have become more than unwilling passengers. They are now active participants in a moral struggle.

10. Episode Six: The Ordeal

The journey becomes increasingly dangerous.

The travellers and Thals encounter physical obstacles, and the expedition begins to place pressure on their relationships.

Antodus, one of the Thals, becomes particularly important. His fear and uncertainty make him a contrast to the more confident members of the group.

The title The Ordeal refers not only to the physical difficulties of the journey but also to the emotional and moral strain experienced by the characters.

The Daleks remain a constant threat, and the expedition’s progress is far from straightforward.

The episode ends with another disturbing revelation about the creatures inside the Dalek casings. The audience sees an organic appendage, confirming that the Daleks are living beings rather than simply mechanical constructs.

It is a brilliant moment because it deepens the mystery without completely resolving it.

Review

The episode’s greatest strength is its atmosphere.

The journey through Skaro’s hostile landscape gives the serial a sense of physical danger. The characters are no longer confined to the Dalek city, but that does not mean they are safe.

The glimpse of the Dalek mutant is particularly effective. It turns the casing from an impressive piece of machinery into something much more disturbing.

The Daleks are not simply machines that happen to be hostile. They are biological creatures whose physical condition has become inseparable from their technology.

The episode also gives the supporting Thals more personality. Their different responses to danger help make the group feel like a community rather than a collection of interchangeable extras.

11. Episode Seven: The Rescue

The final episode brings the conflict to a conclusion.

The Thals and the TARDIS crew reach the Dalek city and attempt to defeat the creatures.

The Doctor’s scientific knowledge becomes essential. The Daleks depend on their power supply, and the travellers recognise that disabling it may provide a way to defeat them.

The Daleks are ultimately deprived of the power they need to operate.

The Thals survive, and the travellers are finally able to recover the fluid link and return to the TARDIS.

The story ends with the Doctor reflecting on the Thals’ future and offering advice about the pursuit of knowledge.

His closing words are particularly memorable:

“Always search for truth. My truth is in the stars.”

It is an appropriate conclusion because the Doctor has changed considerably since the opening episode.

At the beginning, he was interested in Skaro largely because it was an intriguing new world. He was prepared to manipulate his companions to satisfy his curiosity.

By the end, he has accepted that his knowledge and abilities carry responsibilities.

Review

The ending is satisfying in terms of character development, although the final battle is not as spectacular as the story’s build-up might suggest.

Patrick Mulkern’s Radio Times retrospective praises the early cliffhangers and the serial’s thematic ambition, while noting that the urgency and claustrophobia weaken towards the conclusion and that the climactic battle is disappointing.

 

That is a fair assessment.

The Daleks have been established as an overwhelming force, and their eventual defeat feels somewhat easier than the preceding episodes suggest it should be.

Nevertheless, the resolution is thematically appropriate. The Thals survive because they learn to resist, the Doctor grows because he accepts responsibility, and the companions have become a more cohesive group.

The serial also leaves the audience with something much more important than a defeated enemy: the knowledge that the Daleks exist.

They have not been introduced as a one-off monster. They have been introduced as a civilisation, with a history, an ideology and the potential to return.

Part Three: The characters and their relationships

12. William Hartnell’s Doctor: from selfish curiosity to moral responsibility

The most interesting character development in the serial belongs to the Doctor himself.

When viewers first encountered Hartnell’s Doctor in An Unearthly Child, they were presented with a mysterious and rather unpleasant old man. He was secretive, impatient and suspicious of the humans who had discovered his existence.

He was not an obvious hero.

In The Daleks, those qualities are still present. Indeed, the first episode shows him at his most selfish.

He wants to explore the city. Ian and Barbara do not. Rather than respecting their concerns, he invents a problem with the fluid link to force them to accompany him.

This is a morally questionable decision.

The Doctor’s curiosity is one of his defining characteristics, but in this story we see its less attractive side. He is so interested in discovering something new that he is prepared to put other people in danger.

It is important that the story does not immediately transform him into a perfect hero.

Instead, his development takes place gradually.

As he learns more about the Daleks and the Thals, he becomes increasingly aware that his actions have consequences. He has helped create the situation in which the travellers are trapped, and he begins to recognise that the fate of the Thals matters beyond his own desire to escape.

His scientific knowledge also becomes more morally purposeful.

At the beginning, he wants to investigate. By the end, he wants to use his knowledge to help.

This is an important foundation for the character’s future.

The Doctor will continue to be curious, eccentric, stubborn and sometimes infuriating. But the serial establishes that he can grow through his experiences.

The Doctor’s final advice to the Thals is particularly significant. His truth is in the stars. He is not simply an old man travelling through space because he enjoys seeing strange things. He has a sense of identity that is bound up with exploration and knowledge.

The line also reinforces the difference between him and the humans he travels with.

For Ian and Barbara, Earth is home. For the Doctor, the universe is home.

13. Ian Chesterton: the human hero

Ian is arguably the most traditionally heroic character in the serial.

He is practical, courageous and concerned with the safety of others. He does not possess the Doctor’s scientific knowledge, but he has a clear understanding of responsibility.

That makes him a natural contrast to Hartnell’s character.

In the opening episode, Ian is understandably suspicious of the Doctor. He has already been taken against his will to prehistoric Earth and has little reason to trust the old man’s claims about the TARDIS.

His concern is not merely personal. He is also protective of Barbara and Susan.

As the story develops, Ian becomes increasingly important to the group’s survival.

He is willing to take risks, confront the Daleks and help the Thals. His military background is particularly useful, although his contribution is not limited to physical courage.

Ian is also capable of understanding the moral dimensions of the conflict.

His observation about prejudice as a dislike of those who are different captures one of the story’s central themes. The Daleks’ hatred is not based on a genuine threat from the Thals. It is rooted in the belief that difference itself is unacceptable.

Ian recognises the danger of that attitude.

His relationship with the Doctor also develops.

Initially, Ian sees the Doctor as the person responsible for their predicament. He does not accept the old man’s authority simply because he is older or more knowledgeable.

Over time, however, the two begin to function as complementary partners.

The Doctor has knowledge and ingenuity. Ian has practical judgement and physical courage.

Neither is always right, and that is what makes their relationship interesting.

Ian is not simply the Doctor’s assistant. He is often the person who challenges him when his decisions become irresponsible.

14. Barbara Wright: the emotional and moral centre

Barbara is perhaps the most quietly important character in the story.

In the opening episode, she is one of the people most directly affected by the Doctor’s manipulation. She is not interested in exploring the city and does not want to risk her life simply because the Doctor is curious.

Her fear is entirely understandable.

The first episode’s cliffhanger places Barbara in immediate danger, and Jacqueline Hill’s performance helps make the Daleks’ arrival genuinely frightening.

Barbara is not a passive character, however.

She has an emotional intelligence that complements Ian’s practical instincts and the Doctor’s scientific knowledge.

She is particularly sympathetic towards Susan, and she is capable of understanding the Thals’ desire for peace.

Barbara’s response to the Daleks is not based simply on fear. She understands that their treatment of the Thals is morally unacceptable.

Her relationship with Ian is also significant.

They are colleagues who have been placed in an extraordinary situation, and their shared concern for Susan gives them a sense of responsibility that increasingly resembles a family relationship.

Barbara’s presence helps keep the group emotionally grounded.

The Doctor can become distracted by scientific possibilities, and Ian can become focused on practical survival. Barbara is often the person who reminds them that individual people matter.

That quality will become increasingly important in later Hartnell stories.

15. Susan Foreman: the alien child

Susan is one of the most intriguing characters in the early programme because she occupies a position between two worlds.

She is the Doctor’s granddaughter, but she is also a young person who has spent time living on Earth.

She understands human behaviour, yet she is not entirely human herself.

Her unusual knowledge, strange assumptions and occasional flashes of alien understanding were important elements of An Unearthly Child. In The Daleks, these qualities become part of the group’s survival.

Susan is able to communicate with the Thals and is entrusted with carrying a message between the two groups.

That gives her a significant role in the story.

She is not merely accompanying the adults. She is acting independently, making decisions and accepting responsibility.

Her vulnerability is also important.

Susan is young, and the serial does not pretend that she has the same experience or confidence as Ian and Barbara. She can be frightened and uncertain.

But those qualities make her more believable, not less.

Her courage is not the absence of fear. It is her willingness to act despite being afraid.

The story also continues to develop the mystery surrounding her and the Doctor.

We know that they are not ordinary humans, but we do not yet know the full extent of their origins or abilities.

Susan’s otherworldliness is presented through small details rather than lengthy explanations. Her knowledge is unusual, her reactions are sometimes unexpected, and her relationship with the Doctor suggests a history that neither of them is prepared to explain fully.

This is one of the early programme’s most effective mysteries.

Part Four: The Doctor and Susan’s otherworldliness

16. Two outsiders among humans

One of the most interesting aspects of the early Doctor Who stories is that the Doctor and Susan are not simply visitors from another country or another planet.

They are fundamentally different from the people they meet.

Ian and Barbara represent ordinary human experience. They have jobs, homes, familiar social expectations and a clear sense of what is normal.

The Doctor and Susan do not share those assumptions.

Their relationship with Earth is complicated. They have been living among humans, but they do not belong to human society in the same way.

In The Daleks, that difference is reinforced by the way they respond to Skaro.

Ian and Barbara are frightened by the unfamiliar landscape and the possibility of danger. The Doctor is fascinated by it.

Susan is often caught between the two reactions. She understands the danger but also has an instinctive curiosity about the world around her.

The Doctor’s otherworldliness is especially important because it is not simply a matter of being more intelligent.

He has a different sense of time, history and personal identity.

The humans think in terms of journeys and destinations. The Doctor thinks in terms of centuries, civilisations and the wider universe.

His closing line to the Thals captures that difference.

His truth is in the stars.

He does not belong to a single world.

17. The Doctor and Susan’s relationship

The relationship between the Doctor and Susan is still mysterious in this serial.

They are clearly close, and the Doctor is protective of her. Yet he is not always especially gentle.

He expects her to accept his decisions, and he can be impatient when she questions him.

There is a sense that their relationship has a long history that the audience has not been allowed to see.

Susan is not simply a child who has been taken on an adventure by her grandfather. She is part of his life and shares some of his alien perspective.

That creates an interesting contrast with Ian and Barbara.

Ian and Barbara are gradually becoming a family through shared experience. The Doctor and Susan already have a family relationship, but they are still learning how to live alongside other people.

The Doctor is particularly interesting because he is not always a conventional guardian.

He is capable of affection, but his curiosity can override his concern for others. Susan sometimes has to negotiate with him rather than simply obey him.

The serial therefore contributes to the gradual development of a relationship that becomes more recognisable and emotionally complex in subsequent stories.

18. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara: a family being formed

The strongest interpersonal development in The Daleks may be the gradual formation of the TARDIS crew as a group.

At the beginning, they are not a comfortable travelling party.

Ian and Barbara have been kidnapped. Susan is their pupil’s granddaughter. The Doctor is a mysterious old man who refuses to explain himself.

There is very little trust.

The story changes that.

The Dalek threat forces them to depend on one another. They have to share information, make decisions and accept that their survival depends on cooperation.

The Doctor’s knowledge becomes useful, but Ian’s courage and Barbara’s emotional intelligence are equally important.

Susan’s ability to communicate with the Thals provides another essential contribution.

The group becomes stronger because its members have different strengths.

That is a pattern that will become central to Doctor Who.

The Doctor rarely succeeds entirely alone. His companions provide perspectives and abilities that he does not possess, and they often challenge him when he becomes too remote or too certain of himself.

In this respect, The Daleks is not merely introducing a monster. It is establishing the emotional and dramatic structure of the programme.

Part Five: Terry Nation and the creation of the Daleks

19. A practical problem becomes a legendary monster

Terry Nation’s original idea for the Daleks was partly a practical solution to a writing problem.

The Doctor needed an enemy on the alien planet. Nation wanted something non-human, something that could be immediately recognisable and could create a threat without requiring elaborate human-like performances.

In a later interview, Nation explained that he had not initially expected the story to become a defining part of television history. He thought of it as a job and did not imagine that the Daleks would take over his professional life.

 

The design process was equally important.

Raymond Cusick was given the task of turning Nation’s concept into a physical object.

The design had to meet several requirements:

• It needed to look unmistakably alien.

• It had to be possible for an actor to operate from inside it.

• It had to move convincingly.

• It had to be affordable within the BBC’s limited budget.

• It had to be distinctive enough to be recognised immediately.

The solution was the familiar shape: a domed head, a central eye, a rounded body, a rotating midsection and a tapered lower section.

The famous appendages were also the result of practical and creative compromises.

The simple sink plunger became one of the Dalek’s most recognisable features. It was inexpensive, visually distinctive and slightly absurd in isolation. Yet when attached to the Dalek’s body, it became an unsettling instrument of alien intelligence.

Cusick also wanted the Daleks to glide rather than walk. The idea was influenced by the appearance of performers in the Georgian State Dance Company, whose costumes concealed their feet and created the impression of smooth movement.

 

This was an inspired choice.

The Daleks do not walk like human beings. They glide.

That makes them seem less like creatures wearing armour and more like mobile machines.

Their movements are economical and purposeful. They do not need to run or gesture dramatically. Their stillness is part of their menace.

20. The genius of the Dalek voice

The Dalek design would not have been as effective without its voice.

Peter Hawkins and David Graham gave the creatures a distinctive electronic delivery.

The voices were not simply robotic imitations of ordinary speech. They were deliberately stylised, with unusual emphasis and a controlled rhythm.

Their dialogue often sounds like a computer issuing instructions.

This is especially effective when they discuss the extermination of the Thals.

The Daleks do not sound angry in the ordinary human sense. They sound as though they are stating a perfectly reasonable administrative objective.

That is what makes them frightening.

They have removed emotion from their moral decisions while retaining an absolute commitment to destruction.

The voice also gives the Daleks an identity that audiences can recognise even when they are not visible.

A few syllables are enough.

21. Why the design worked

There is an obvious temptation to dismiss the original Dalek props as crude by modern standards.

They were built on a limited budget and operated by actors working inside the casings. Their movements were restricted, and their physical appearance was relatively simple.

But the design has survived for more than sixty years.

That is a remarkable achievement.

The Dalek is instantly recognisable from its silhouette alone. It does not need a detailed face or elaborate costume.

It is also adaptable. It can be presented as frightening, comic, threatening or even strangely pathetic, depending on the story.

The original design succeeded because it was not trying to imitate an existing creature.

It created something new.

Part Six: Contemporary reactions and the BBC’s response

22. The programme’s uncertain beginning

It is worth remembering that Doctor Who did not begin as an obvious success.

The first episode, An Unearthly Child, was broadcast on 23 November 1963. The BBC’s audience research report recorded a reaction index of 63, close to the contemporary averages for television drama and children’s programmes.

The report included viewers who found the programme imaginative and promising, but also some who felt it was too childish for adults or unsuitable for more timid children.

The acting was generally considered satisfactory, and the sound effects were praised for creating an appropriate atmosphere.

 

This is important because the programme was still finding its identity.

The original concept had been designed to combine education, history, science fiction and adventure. The Doctor could take the audience into the past or the future, allowing the programme to move between different kinds of story.

But the BBC was not entirely certain whether the concept would work.

The early audience figures were not yet spectacular.

The arrival of the Daleks changed that.

23. The viewing figures rise

The serial began with an audience of approximately 6.9 million viewers.

The second episode fell to around 6.4 million, but the third episode attracted 8.9 million. The figures then rose further, reaching approximately 10.4 million for the final two episodes.

 

These figures are striking.

The programme had not simply retained its audience. It had attracted a substantial number of additional viewers as the serial progressed.

The academic study Space for ‘Quality’: Negotiating with the Daleks, by Jonathan Bignell, examines the BBC’s production records and audience research. It describes the serial as averaging around nine million viewers, with the audience share rising from approximately 14 per cent for the first episode to 21 per cent for the final two.

 

The figures help explain why the Daleks became so important to the programme’s future.

They demonstrated that Doctor Who could attract a large family audience through science-fiction adventure.

24. Sydney Newman and the monster he did not want

The Daleks were not originally what Sydney Newman wanted for Doctor Who.

Newman, the BBC’s Head of Drama and one of the programme’s principal creators, had been wary of conventional science-fiction monsters. He wanted something more intelligent and imaginative than a succession of bug-eyed creatures.

Yet the Daleks became the programme’s first great success.

In a later recollection quoted in the academic literature, Newman admitted that he had initially objected to their introduction, but acknowledged that they were what established Doctor Who as a major success.

 

This is a wonderful example of television history refusing to follow its creators’ expectations.

The thing that Newman had been reluctant to embrace became the element that helped secure the programme’s future.

It also demonstrated that popular science fiction did not have to abandon intellectual ambition.

The Daleks were visually striking monsters, but the story used them to explore nuclear destruction, racial hatred, survival and moral responsibility.

The programme could be entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time.

25. What did the press think?

The original launch of Doctor Who received relatively limited press attention.

The programme’s first reviews focused on the unusual combination of characters and its science-fiction premise.

A review by Michael Gowers in the Daily Mail described Hartnell and Ford as representing the mysterious unknown, while Russell and Hill represented the sceptical human world. The review also noted the unusual appearance of the TARDIS as a police box.

 

The Daleks, however, were not immediately promoted as the programme’s defining attraction.

Patrick Mulkern’s later Radio Times retrospective points out that the magazine’s early feature material did not even mention them. The first photograph of a Dalek appeared only towards the end of the serial, and then only partially in some regional editions.

 

That is fascinating from a modern perspective.

Today, the Daleks are synonymous with Doctor Who. It is almost impossible to imagine a publicity campaign for the programme that did not use them prominently.

But in December 1963, the BBC had not yet realised what it had.

The public discovered the Daleks through the story itself.

That gradual revelation was part of their success.

26. The press discovers Dalekmania

By 1964, the situation had changed dramatically.

The Daleks were becoming a major entertainment story, and newspapers began to report on the public enthusiasm surrounding them.

An Associated Press report published in the United States in November 1964 described the Christmas demand for Dalek toys and costumes, comparing the craze with Beatlemania. It reported that children wanted Daleks in two forms: battery-powered toys and costumes that allowed children to dress up as the creatures themselves.

 

The comparison with Beatlemania is particularly revealing.

The Daleks were not musicians, film stars or conventional celebrities. They were fictional monsters from a Saturday-afternoon television serial.

Yet they had become recognisable enough to generate national enthusiasm and international press attention.

The BBC was dealing with a phenomenon that had grown beyond the original programme.

Part Seven: Dalekmania

27. From television monsters to household names

The Daleks’ popularity did not end when the first serial finished.

Indeed, that was when their wider cultural life began.

The BBC started receiving requests for photographs of the creatures. Companies approached the Corporation about manufacturing toys, and the merchandising department recognised that the Daleks represented a commercial opportunity.

An account of the BBC’s merchandising history in Doctor Who Magazine: Chronicles 1963–64 describes how the Corporation’s Television Enterprises department became increasingly involved in exploiting the Daleks’ popularity. By February 1964, the production office was receiving requests for photographs, and on 20 February the merchandising department was already being approached by companies interested in making toys.

 

This was a new kind of opportunity for the BBC.

Character merchandising was not yet the routine part of children’s television that it would later become.

The Daleks helped demonstrate how a television character could become a product in its own right.

28. Why children loved them

It is not difficult to understand the appeal.

The Daleks were frightening, but they were also simple enough to imitate.

Their voices were distinctive. Their movements were recognisable. Their shape was easy to reproduce in toys, costumes and drawings.

Children could play at being Daleks without needing elaborate equipment.

The creatures also offered something unusual: they were villains who were instantly identifiable.

A child did not need to remember a complicated backstory to recognise a Dalek. The shape and voice were enough.

The Daleks were also slightly ridiculous in their physical design, although that did not necessarily reduce their menace.

Their unusual appearance made them memorable.

They were not handsome, heroic or conventionally attractive. They were strange, aggressive and completely unlike anything else on television.

That was precisely the point.

29. The role of Blue Peter

The BBC’s children’s programme Blue Peter helped extend the Daleks’ popularity beyond the original serial.

It featured material connected with the Daleks and encouraged viewers to engage with the programme in practical and creative ways.

Later features included Dalek-themed food and other activities. The BBC archive’s account of Dalekmania includes a 1966 Blue Peter feature in which Valerie Singleton demonstrates Dalek cakes and sandwiches.

 

This kind of publicity helped turn the Daleks into a familiar part of children’s culture.

They were not simply something to watch on television. They were something to draw, build, play with and talk about.

The BBC also arranged for Dalek props to appear at children’s events and exhibitions. Jonathan Bignell’s research describes how the Corporation had four Daleks stored at Ealing Studios by Christmas 1964 and arranged for them to be lent to organised parties and exhibitions, including charitable events.

 

30. Toys, costumes and commercial success

The Daleks became a merchandising success on a remarkable scale.

Toys, costumes, photographs and other products appeared as the craze developed.

Bignell’s research notes that more than 130 merchandising spin-off products were eventually associated with the Daleks.

 

The creatures were especially well suited to merchandising because their design was so distinctive.

A Dalek toy did not need to reproduce a detailed face or a complex costume. Its familiar outline was enough.

The design also worked in different sizes.

A small toy could be recognised immediately, while a full-sized costume could turn a child into a Dalek.

The BBC’s commercial departments were learning something important: a successful television character could have a life outside the television programme.

The Daleks were among the clearest early examples of this.

31. The Daleks and the Beatles

One of the most repeated stories about Dalekmania is that the Daleks were more popular than the Beatles.

The comparison became part of the publicity surrounding The Dalek Invasion of Earth in 1964, when the Daleks returned to television.

The BBC’s archive material recalls how the Daleks attracted considerable attention despite competition from the Beatles in the television schedules. Terry Nation later discussed the Daleks’ popularity and their ability to attract audiences in archive interviews.

 

It is worth treating such claims carefully.

They are part of the period’s publicity and cultural mythology, rather than proof that the Daleks were universally more popular than the Beatles.

But the comparison tells us something important about the scale of the phenomenon.

The Daleks were being discussed in the same breath as the biggest entertainment craze of the decade.

For a television monster, that was extraordinary.

32. The Daleks become the programme’s identity

The success of the first serial changed the expectations placed upon Doctor Who.

The BBC now knew that audiences responded strongly to futuristic adventure and that the Daleks were a major attraction.

Terry Nation was subsequently asked to write more Dalek stories, and the creatures became the first major recurring enemies in the programme.

The BBC archive describes them as the first of the Doctor’s enemies to return, with their 1964 appearance helping to cement their place in popular culture.

 

This was a significant development.

Before the Daleks, Doctor Who was a new programme with an unusual premise.

After the Daleks, it had an enemy that audiences could recognise and anticipate.

That helped give the series a sense of continuity.

The Doctor could travel anywhere in time and space, but the Daleks could return to challenge him.

They became part of the programme’s mythology.

Part Eight: What makes the story work?

33. The nuclear allegory

The most obvious theme in The Daleks is the danger of nuclear war.

Skaro is a planet destroyed by a devastating conflict. Its inhabitants have survived, but the consequences of the war have transformed them.

The Daleks represent the nightmare of technological survival without moral progress.

They have retained intelligence, organisation and scientific ability, but they have lost compassion.

Their civilisation is technologically advanced but morally primitive.

The Thals offer an alternative.

They have abandoned warfare and built a society based on cooperation. Yet their pacifism has left them vulnerable to a people who do not recognise the legitimacy of peaceful coexistence.

The story therefore avoids an entirely simplistic message.

It does not suggest that violence is desirable. It does suggest that refusing to defend others can have consequences.

That is a more complicated argument than simply saying that war is bad.

34. Racism and the fear of difference

The Daleks’ hatred of the Thals is also an allegory for racial prejudice.

They believe that their own kind are superior and that other forms of life are unacceptable.

The Thals are not a genuine threat to the Daleks. Their very existence is enough to provoke hostility.

This is why the story remains relevant.

The Daleks’ hatred is not rational in the ordinary sense. It is ideological.

They have constructed a worldview in which the destruction of other life forms is not merely acceptable but necessary.

Their language turns extermination into a moral duty.

That is a particularly chilling idea.

The Daleks do not believe themselves to be villains. They believe they are defending their own superiority.

35. The danger of technological dependence

The Daleks are also dependent on their technology.

Their metal casings protect them, but they also restrict them. Their power supply is essential to their survival.

They have become prisoners of the machinery that keeps them alive.

This creates an interesting paradox.

The Daleks appear to be masters of technology, yet their technology has become a limitation.

Their society has developed sophisticated machines, but the creatures themselves have lost much of the physical independence associated with ordinary life.

They are powerful and vulnerable at the same time.

That makes them more interesting than simple mechanical villains.

36. Pacifism and self-defence

The Thals’ pacifism is one of the most debated elements of the story.

At first, their refusal to fight appears admirable.

They have survived a terrible war and decided that violence must never again become the basis of their society.

But the Daleks exploit that commitment.

Temmosus’s death shows that peaceful intentions cannot guarantee peaceful outcomes.

The Thals must decide whether defending themselves will destroy the principles on which their civilisation is built.

The Doctor and Ian help them understand that resisting aggression does not necessarily mean embracing hatred.

The distinction is important.

The Thals do not need to become Daleks in order to survive.

They need to protect their people while retaining the values that make their society worth saving.

Part Nine: The production and storytelling

37. Christopher Barry and Richard Martin

The serial was directed by two directors: Christopher Barry and Richard Martin.

Barry directed the first, second, fourth and fifth episodes, while Martin directed the third, sixth and seventh.

 

The division of responsibility is interesting because the serial maintains a reasonably coherent style despite having two directors.

The early episodes are particularly strong in their use of atmosphere and suspense.

The Dalek city feels enclosed and threatening, while the petrified forest creates a sense of exposure and isolation.

The production is clearly constrained by the technology and budgets of early 1960s television, but it makes effective use of those limitations.

The serial was recorded in the BBC’s studio environment, with filmed material produced at Ealing Studios. The production schedule was demanding, and the scripts had to provide regular dramatic climaxes.

 

The first three cliffhangers are especially effective:

1. Barbara is trapped and threatened by the first Dalek.

2. Susan must venture into the dangerous forest.

3. The escape from the Dalek city ends with the disturbing glimpse of an organic creature beneath a covering.

These are examples of serial storytelling at its best.

Each episode gives the audience a reason to return the following week.

38. Tristram Cary’s music

The music is another important element.

Tristram Cary’s electronic score helps establish the alien nature of Skaro.

The music is not simply background decoration. It contributes to the atmosphere of the city and reinforces the sense that the travellers have entered a world governed by unfamiliar technology.

The early Doctor Who production team had limited resources, but the use of electronic sound and experimental music helped create a distinctive identity.

The Daleks themselves are also part of this soundscape.

Their voices, the machinery of their city and the music work together to make Skaro feel like a place in which technology has become dominant over organic life.

39. The serial’s weaknesses

It is worth acknowledging that The Daleks is not perfect.

The seven-part structure creates some stretches of relatively slow storytelling.

The expedition through the wasteland takes time, and some of the supporting Thals are not especially well developed.

The final battle is also less impressive than the build-up might suggest.

The Daleks have been established as an overwhelming threat, but their eventual defeat is somewhat abrupt.

There are also moments when the dialogue becomes heavily explanatory.

The audience is repeatedly told about the history of Skaro, the nature of the conflict and the differences between the two races.

Some of that exposition is necessary, but it can slow the drama.

Nevertheless, the story’s strengths are substantial.

Its atmosphere, character development, visual imagination and thematic ambition make it much more than a historical curiosity.

Part Ten: How important was The Daleks to Doctor Who?

40. The story that helped save the programme

The serial arrived at a critical point in the programme’s history.

The BBC had not yet decided that Doctor Who would become a long-running institution.

The early audience research was mixed, and the programme faced uncertainty about its future.

Jonathan Bignell’s study describes how an internal decision to cancel the programme was postponed while The Daleks was already in production. The success of the serial subsequently helped ensure the programme’s survival.

 

That makes the serial historically important.

It did not merely introduce a popular monster. It helped demonstrate that the programme had an audience and a future.

The Daleks gave Doctor Who a distinctive identity at a time when it was still trying to establish itself.

41. The beginning of a recurring mythology

The Daleks also introduced the idea that the Doctor could have recurring enemies.

Before this, the programme’s structure was based primarily on travelling to different periods and encountering new situations.

The Daleks changed that.

They were a threat that could return.

They had their own history, their own civilisation and their own ambitions.

They were not simply monsters waiting for the Doctor to arrive. They were an organised power with the ability to pursue their own objectives.

This helped create the sense that the Doctor’s universe existed beyond the immediate story.

The Daleks were the first major example of an enemy who could become part of the programme’s ongoing mythology.

42. The Doctor becomes a hero

The serial also helps establish the Doctor as a moral figure.

He begins as an arrogant and manipulative old man, but the events on Skaro force him to confront the consequences of his actions.

He learns that knowledge carries responsibility.

He also learns that the universe is not simply a collection of interesting places to visit. It is full of people and civilisations whose lives can be affected by his decisions.

This development is essential to the character’s future.

The Doctor will continue to make mistakes, but he will increasingly become someone who stands against oppression and cruelty.

The seeds of that character are visible here.

43. The companions become essential

The serial also establishes the importance of the companions.

Ian, Barbara and Susan are not simply passengers.

Each has a different contribution to make, and the story would not work in the same way without them.

Ian provides courage and practical leadership.

Barbara provides emotional intelligence and moral clarity.

Susan provides empathy and a connection with the Thals.

The Doctor provides knowledge and ingenuity, but he is not always the person who makes the best decisions.

The group succeeds because it combines different abilities.

That is one of the defining characteristics of Doctor Who.

Part Eleven: How should we judge the Daleks themselves?

44. Are the Daleks frightening?

The original serial presents the Daleks as genuinely frightening creatures.

Their appearance is unusual, their voices are disturbing and their ideology is horrifying.

They are also effective because they are not constantly moving.

They can remain still and speak in a controlled manner, creating the impression that they are always calculating.

The first episode’s cliffhanger is particularly effective because the audience does not yet know what the Dalek is.

Later stories would make the Daleks increasingly familiar, but their first appearance benefits from mystery.

The serial also gives them a degree of intellectual sophistication.

They understand diplomacy, deception and scientific investigation.

They are not simply aggressive animals.

Their intelligence makes their cruelty more disturbing.

45. Are the Daleks more interesting than the Thals?

The Daleks are certainly more memorable, but the Thals are important to the story’s moral structure.

Without the Thals, the Daleks would simply be hostile creatures living in an alien city.

The Thals provide a contrast that allows the audience to understand what the Daleks have become.

They also make the central conflict more meaningful.

The Daleks are not simply trying to conquer territory. They are trying to destroy another form of life because they cannot tolerate its existence.

The Thals give the story something to defend.

Their survival matters because they represent the possibility of a different future for Skaro.

46. Are the Daleks simply evil?

The serial does not present the Daleks as morally complicated in the sense that they might suddenly become sympathetic.

Their hatred is deeply embedded in their society.

However, the story does give them a history.

They were once part of a civilisation that experienced a catastrophic war. Their physical transformation and dependence on machinery are the consequences of that disaster.

That history does not excuse their behaviour, but it makes them more than arbitrary monsters.

They are the product of a society that has allowed fear and hatred to become its defining principles.

That is a more disturbing explanation than simply saying that they are evil because they are aliens.

Part Twelve: The legacy of the first Dalek story

47. Why the story still matters

More than sixty years after its first broadcast, The Daleks remains one of the most important stories in the history of Doctor Who.

Its importance is not simply that it introduced the programme’s most famous enemies.

It established several ideas that would become central to the series:

• The Doctor could encounter recurring enemies.

• Science fiction could be used to explore moral and political themes.

• The companions were essential to the Doctor’s adventures.

• The Doctor could develop through his experiences.

• A television monster could become a major part of popular culture.

• The programme could attract a large family audience through imaginative adventure.

The Daleks also helped establish the visual and dramatic language of Doctor Who.

Their appearance, voices and behaviour became part of the programme’s identity.

The story’s influence can be seen in the way later writers approached the Daleks, the way the BBC marketed the programme, and the way audiences came to understand the Doctor’s universe.

48. Was it a masterpiece?

There are reasons to be cautious about calling every aspect of the serial perfect.

The pacing is uneven. Some of the supporting characters are underdeveloped. The final battle is disappointing. The production limitations are sometimes obvious.

But the serial succeeds at something much more important.

It creates a world that feels different from anything the audience has encountered before.

It introduces creatures who are instantly memorable.

It gives the Doctor a meaningful character journey.

It develops the companions and their relationships.

And it combines entertainment with serious ideas about war, prejudice and the survival of civilisation.

The serial is not merely important because of what came afterwards. It is an enjoyable and ambitious piece of television in its own right.

Final verdict: the story that gave Doctor Who its identity

The Daleks is one of those rare television stories whose importance is difficult to exaggerate.

It gave Doctor Who its first iconic enemy, helped secure the programme’s future and created a phenomenon that extended far beyond the television screen.

But its greatest achievement is perhaps that it does not sacrifice character and ideas for spectacle.

The Daleks are unforgettable, but the story is about much more than them.

It is about the consequences of nuclear war, the dangers of ideological hatred, the difficulty of defending peaceful values, and the responsibility that comes with knowledge.

It is also about four very different travellers learning to depend on one another.

Hartnell’s Doctor begins as a selfish and sometimes manipulative old man. By the end, he has begun to understand that his curiosity must be accompanied by responsibility.

Ian becomes the practical hero, Barbara the emotional and moral centre, and Susan the young alien whose empathy and courage help connect two very different societies.

Their relationships are still developing, but the foundations of the TARDIS family are already visible.

And then there are the Daleks.

They are frightening because they are intelligent. They are memorable because they are visually unlike anything else. They are disturbing because their hatred is presented as a perfectly organised political and moral system.

They are also, paradoxically, wonderfully simple television creations.

A metal casing, an electronic voice, a single eye and a plunger arm were enough to create one of the most recognisable monsters in popular culture.

The BBC did not know that it was creating a phenomenon when it commissioned the story. Sydney Newman had reservations about the idea of conventional monsters. The press initially paid relatively little attention to the Daleks. The production team was working with tight budgets and demanding schedules.

Yet the audience responded.

The Daleks captured the public imagination, and Doctor Who was transformed.

The first Dalek story is therefore both an origin story and a turning point. It marks the moment when a promising new television programme became something much bigger.

It introduced the Doctor’s greatest enemies, but it also helped define what the Doctor himself would become.

The Daleks did not merely arrive on Skaro. They arrived in British popular culture, and they never really left.

Selected sources and further reading

• BBC Doctor Who — official story guide, episode dates, cast and production credits: The Daleks.

• Radio Times — Patrick Mulkern’s retrospective review, including discussion of the story’s strengths, weaknesses and original transmission history: The Daleks review.

• BBC Archives — historical account of the Daleks’ rise and Dalekmania: The Dalek Invasion.

• Jonathan Bignell, Space for ‘Quality’: Negotiating with the Daleks — academic study drawing on BBC Written Archives Centre material: Read the research.

• Doctor Who Magazine: Chronicles 1963–64 — historical articles on the press response and merchandising: Breaking News and Toy Stories.

• 1964 Associated Press newspaper report on Dalek Christmas merchandise — an example of the craze attracting international attention.

One final historical distinction: the famous command “Exterminate!” is not actually heard in this first serial. The Daleks talk about exterminating the Thals, but the familiar shouted catchphrase had not yet become part of their vocabulary. That is a small detail, but it is a lovely reminder of just how much of the Dalek mythology was still being invented when these seven episodes first went out.