Daleks and the First Doctor

[dbskyler]

I'm currently watching the First Doctor story "The Daleks" and enjoying it quite a lot. The Daleks have never been my favorite monsters, but I think I "get" them now for the first time. They really are creepy with the way they glide around, and the way their eyestalks move to look at you when they talk. Plus, it's so fun to see the "firsts":



-- The Daleks use the word "exterminate"!
-- A Dalek is blinded by putting something on its eyestalk (mud, in this case)!
-- We get a hint of what's inside! (I'm glad to learn that right from the beginning, Daleks were not machines, but creatures inside the machines.)

I'm looking forward to the rest (I'm right in the middle of part 4 right now), but I just had to stop here and post because guess what the Doctor just said? The Thals are walking into an ambush, Susan wants to warn them, and the Doctor said, and I quote:

"The Thals are no concern of ours. We cannot jeopardize our lives by getting involved in an affair which is none of our business."

I'm like, who is this???? Because it's certainly not the Doctor! It's fascinating to see how much his core character has changed since these very early days.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

*nods* Time and experience change his PoV immensely.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm more curious in the RL production side of the change. It seems like the writers/producers started out with the idea that Ian would be the moral conscience of Team TARDIS, and I'm wondering when that started shifting to the Doctor. (Not that the Doctor is always moral, even -- or especially -- now, but he's cared about the lives of strangers for as long as I've known him, and it's very weird to learn that the character didn't start out that way.)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

You might find answers to that query in the About Time volume(s) for the First (and Second) Doctor(s)...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of those books! I just Googled them, and they sound very intriguing.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh - I did waffle about a couple of them - must be more than a year ago, on my LJ - I've got the Third and Fourth Doctor ones (I think).

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, taht's cool! I'm so glad you're enjoying it. I really like it - I love the adventures with the first TARDIS team and the way they are just one big adventure that doesn't pause until The Reign of Terror.

You are, though, about to plunge into Terry Nation B-movie cliche-land at this point. I enjoy that sort of thing as well as his better writing, heh. :-)

And, indeed, by the next Dalek story he will count it his duty to stay and fight them. "They dare to tamper with the forces of creation?" /"Yes, and we have got to dare to stop them!")

I love b&w DW quite hopelessly, though.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying it a lot! I'm watching one part per night, and it's reminding me of my childhood because that's how my local PBS station broadcast Doctor Who when I first started watching it. I also think there's something to be said for viewing Classic Who the way it was meant to be viewed, one part at a time (although I'm cheating a little because there's no way I'm going to wait a whole week between parts!)

So what's your take on the evolution of the Doctor's character? When did the writers start making him the "hero" instead of (or in addition to) Ian?

[thisbluespirit]

Yay. :-) (I adore the original Team TARDIS. Well, I love most of them, but there's something about the first adventures - no rules have been set yet, and it's lovely.)

I think that's interesting, because it's hard to say - the change is quite gradual. Also, The Aztecs would suggest that the Doctor's not wanting to be involved is not necessarily him always not being moral - he has learnt to his cost that interfering with history is not wise, so his moral, or his way of protecting himself and Susan is non-interference. But it is gradual - getting shown up by Ian in An Unearthly Child, him getting them all into trouble in the Daleks, Barbara's wonderful raking him down in The Edge of Destruction. (She says something like "You ought to get down on your knees and thank us, you ungrateful old man!") His confrontation with her in return in The Aztecs, and Cameca, might well be another turning point for him. He's mystery-solving by The Sensorites, anyway, more so than Ian. (Although maybe not as much as Barbara, who has a holiday in the middle and then comes back and solves everything.) Probably the moment we know the change has happened somewhere - and it seems quite natural by then - is the moment in The Dalek Invasion of Earth that I mentioned (which is the first serial of the second season). It seems to be a gradual shift, rather than any sudden decision, but definitely from then on, he's the one putting things right. The Rescue is next, and he charms Vicki, and faces down the villain alone. Ian and Barbara are always a little more even with him on the hero stakes than any other characters - but then, they were the very first characters we met in this show, after all.

If you ever get the chance to watch all that's left of the first couple of seasons episode by episode in order like you're doing with this one now, I highly recommend it. (Especially in dark winter months!)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- thank you!

If you ever get the chance to watch all that's left of the first couple of seasons episode by episode in order like you're doing with this one now, I highly recommend it.

Well, that's sort of what I'm doing. I'm taking part in a re-watch community over on Dreamwidth (http://of-rassilon.dreamwidth.org/). I've gotten behind, but the community is also behind, so it's working out so far. I don't know how long I'll keep it up for, but I've been curious about these early episodes for a long time, and the community has finally given me the push I needed to actually watch them.

Speaking of which, I just watched part 6 tonight. The Doctor was in the middle of congratulating himself when he got captured by Daleks! LOL, at least some things haven't changed. :D

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, that's nice. :-) Yay.

And, :lol:, yes! He does learn never to smoke again after being bashed over the head while lighting his pipe in An Unearthly Child, but some lessons he never gets... :-)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Just finished watching it! So, that's the Daleks destroyed, then. Good thing, too, because just imagine what would happen if they weren't all as completely dead as they appear to be? :D

I also got to watch the *real* Genesis of the Daleks, aka the DVD extra on how the Daleks got created. They interviewed Raymond Cusick! And Verity Lambert! And Sydney Newman! And some other people! It was very interesting, actually. Apparently Daleks were supposed to have something besides plungers to hold things with originally, but they ran out of money, so had to go with plungers. *g* Mostly, though, I was impressed with how much thought and care went into their creation. That's another hallmark of Doctor Who, isn't it? Never mind that you're working on a silly sci-fi show with no budget; just go make it as good as you can.

[thisbluespirit]

Hurrah! And, yes, just imagine - they might even try to invade Earth next! That would be terrible.

Aw, cool. I have the DVD - I can't remember which of the extras I've watched, and haven't. The Beginning boxset came armed with an impressive amount of things like that. But :lol: at the plungers. That is so typical.

[lolmac]

I assume you've read the story about his wanting to create a monster that didn't move like a human being, and getting part of the idea from watching a troupe of dancers from Georgia (the Asian country, not the US state).

A good many years ago, I actually had the opportunity to take a short (VERY short) class in that style of dancing. The women wear dresses with very stiff, bell-like skirts, and they really do glide across the floor as if they're floating. It turns out to require the most insane amount of fine muscle control, years of practice and reallly good leg muscles (like most forms of dance).

When that show was made, the Nuclear Menace was very much in the forefront of people's minds, so part of the attitude underneath the Daleks was the notion of what would be left if radiation shriveled away all our humanity. Hence, withered mutant creatures in ominous machines. And of course, the Cold War was lurking underneath the script, with the idea that rival superpowers might destroy each other and everyone else, leaving only dehumanised survivors and a blasted world.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Actually no, I haven't read that story. That's very interesting! I was just wondering how much credit Terry Nation actually deserves for the Daleks, because it's the way they move and look that really makes them, and I thought that maybe it was actually the production designer (or whoever's in charge of monster-making) who should be getting all the royalties. But it sounds like Terry Nation came up with the way they look, too? I'm also amazed at how little Daleks have changed over the years. Sontarans and Cybermen have been redesigned, but Daleks are the same. Well, except for Moffat's latest Day-Glo colors, but I like to think that will turn out to be a temporary aberration.

[thisbluespirit]

It was Raymond Cusick who designed them, and as far as I know he never got a penny beyond his usual salary for it. (I think he also made the Dalek city model for that ep, too).

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

That's really a shame, because the Daleks wouldn't have been nearly as popular without his design.

[lolmac]

I managed to find an excerpt online:

‘It had to be . . . mechanical. And then in order to make it non-human what you have to do is take the legs off. That’s the only way you can make it not look like a person dressed up. I had seen the Georgian state dancers, where the girls do this wonderful routine. They wore floor—brushing skirts and took very tiny steps and appeared to glide, really glide across the floor. That's the movement I wanted for the Daleks.’

Also: 'Wishing to create an alien creature that did not look like a "man in a suit", Terry Nation stated in his script for the first Dalek serial that they should have no legs. He was also inspired by a performance by the Georgian National Ballet, in which dancers in long skirts appeared to glide across the stage.'

The Cybermen could be redesigned and still obviously be Cybermen (especially since the originals were really cheesy) -- after all, they're human-form robot-men, which is a very loose idea. But the Daleks were and are something specic to Doctor Who: not just a mechanical menace, but one with a specific, unique and immediately recognisable form. Attempts to redesign them, other than very minor tweaks to accomodate improved materials and filmmaking technology, wouldn't work, and I'm quite relieved that it hasn't really been tried. Compare the TARDIS: the inside can be redesigned, even completely and radically changed, as long as the outside is kept the same.

The Daleks have antigravity and better special effects now, but they still have that same silhouette, the silly plunger arm, and the eye-stalk. Thank heavens.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered about the plunger -- well, haven't we all? -- but the eye-stalk is malevolent perfection. So is the way Daleks move (I guess we'll give that one to Terry Nation, and/or the Georgian dancers).

[lolmac]

We can give the idea, and the insistence, to Nation, and the specific image to the Georgians, who will be very happy and proud.

The plunger arm was because the Don't Make These Things Look Humanoid aliens had to be able to hold things; so, suction. Even if they'd been able to do mechanical hands at the time, that would have gone against the mandate to be non-human.

I also remember the debate over the name -- Nation had originally told the press that he got it from looking at a multivolume London phone book (or encyclopedia, or dictionary) with the letters on the spine DAL-LEK. He later pointed out, in a different article, that you only have to look at the publication in question to see that the answer was rubbish; there never had been volumes with that breakdown of letters.

Quite a bit later, I read a fascinating article by a fan, who had looked at the London phone directory at the time. It was in four volumes:

A-D
E-K
L-R
S-Z

The fan then drew a little diagram showing the books on a shelf, with the first two volumes on their sides and the third and fourth upright next to them.

D-A L S
E-K R Z

She concluded that Nation had, at some point while writing, looked up and seen the letters, and his mind had gone "DALEK! That works!" He'd had some notion that the phone book was involved, mentioned it in the initial interview, and then recanted when he realised it couldn't be true. The sudden popularity of the critters caught everyone by surprise and provoked a media frenzy, and how much success does one usually get when interviewing an author about the creative process?

It's pure speculation, but the phone book lettering is correct, and I think it's entirely likely.

An almost entirely unrelated item: Terry Nation moved from the UK to Hollywood in 1980. Blake's 7 was still on the air, but he was no longer involved (I believe he jumped, rather than being pushed, as they say). One of the shows he worked on was . . . MacGyver. *g*

He never wrote any episodes for it, but the first season included short standalone sequences that ran before the credits, known as "Opening Gambits". He wrote three of them (out of seven total).

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Ha, the phone book thing is great! I love that someone went to all that trouble to figure it out, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were right.

Yay for Terry Nation and MacGyver! I'm kind of sad to learn that he didn't write an episode, though, because I'd like to see what he would have done with it.