DIGITAL DINOS

When prehistoric monsters returned to Who with Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, all eyes were on The Mill, the digital wizards who had handled Doctor Who’s digital effects since 2005. The team sat down with writer Chris Chibnall and discussed which dinosaurs to use, even toying with the notion of creating a brand new species never seen before. This idea was eventually dropped. They also gave Chibnall three rules to make the job of integrating the dinosaurs with the real-life sets and actors a little easier – when writing he had to remember the three ‘f’s: no fur, no flocking and no feathers! Physical versions of Tricey the Triceratops and a pterodactyl were also built by Millennium FX. The pterodactyl only took two weeks to construct, but Tricey was more tricky, racking up six weeks in the workshop.

MONSTER MAKER – THE BLUFFER’S GUIDE TO…

TERRY NATION

Full name: Terry Joseph Nation

Born: 8 August 1930, Cardiff, Wales

Died: 9 March 1997, Los Angeles, California, USA

Famous for: Creating the Daleks.

Came to London in 1955 looking to make it as a stand-up comedian. Failed miserably. A talent scout told him: ‘Son, the jokes are funny – it’s you that’s not!’

Got his big break writing an episode of The Goon Show for comedian Spike Milligan. The show was never recorded but Milligan’s scriptwriting agency signed him immediately. Went on to write for Frankie Howerd, Eric Sykes, Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock.

Was invited to write his first Doctor Who adventure – The Daleks – following success with stories written for ABC’s Out of This World anthology series in 1962.

Would write a further eight Dalek stories, plus The Keys of Marinus and The Android Invasion, as well as collaborating on the two Dalek feature films of the 1960s, the Curse of the Daleks stage play, and various books and annuals.

Other notable works: Wrote 13 episodes of The Saint between 1964 and 1968. Contributed six episodes to The Avengers. Script edited The Avengers and The Baron. Acted as Story Consultant on The Persuaders. Created Blake’s 7 and Survivors. Produced and wrote for US adventure series MacGyver.

THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF DAVROS

BIRTH AND NEAR-DEATH

Born at the end of the thousand-year war between the Thals and the Kaleds, Davros is a brilliant scientist who quickly rises through the ranks of the Kaled Elite Scientific Corps. Crippled and blinded in a terrible laboratory accident, the now disfigured scientist desperately clings to life. Even as his internal organs fail, Davros fashions himself a mobile life-support system complete with a super-optic bionic eye, a fatigue eliminator removing the need for sleep and a mechanical heart and lungs. His injuries are so severe that Davros would die within thirty seconds if his new implants failed.

THE BIRTH OF THE DALEKS

Davros eventually becomes the head of the Scientific Elite and proceeds to experiment on Kaled DNA. Fifty years after his accident, he realises that neutronic radiation has begun to mutate the Kaleds themselves. Accelerating the process, he creates a conscience-free creature, which he places in the very first Dalek casing. When the Kaled leaders threaten an investigation into Davros’s work, the scientist helps the Thals launch a full-scale nuclear attack on the Kaled dome, committing genocide against his own people.

EXTERMINATION

Davros hadn’t bargained on his progeny’s ruthlessness. Convinced of their own superiority, the Daleks exterminate their creator. But Davros isn’t killed so easily. His secondary life-support system kicks in, placing him in a state of suspended animation.

RESURRECTION

Thousands of years later, the Daleks return to Skaro in search of their creator. Now almost completely robotic, they are locked in stalemate with the android Movellans. Believing that Davros can give them the edge, they revive the scientist, only to be foiled once again by the Doctor. Davros is cryogenically frozen and taken back to Earth to stand trial for his crimes against the entire universe.

IMPRISONMENT AND RELEASE

Ninety years later, the Daleks once again liberate Davros, this time from his cryogenic cell in an Earth prison station. At the mercy of a Movellan virus, the depleted children of Skaro task Davros with creating a cure and the scientist wastes no time in using the opportunity to regain control of his creations. Ultimately unsuccessful, Davros escapes even as he begins to show the first symptoms of his newly created Movellan virus strain.

DALEKS OF THE DEAD

Curing himself of the Movellan plague, Davros manages to install himself at the Tranquil Repose cryogenic funeral home on Necros as the self-appointed ‘Great Healer’. Unbeknown to the grieving families, Davros begins mutating the remains of the near-dead humans into Daleks, creating a high-protein foodstuff from the leftovers. Even though he has all but wiped out famine, the employees of Tranquil Repose shop him to the Daleks who take him back to Skaro for trial.

EMPEROR DAVROS

Somehow Davros manages to perform a coup on Skaro, becoming Emperor of a new breed of Imperial Daleks. His continued genetic tinkering causes a civil war and when he attempts to replicate Gallifrey’s time-travel experiments Davros is tricked into destroying Skaro’s sun by the Seventh Doctor. Abandoning his Imperial flagship, Davros flees in an escape pod.

THE JAWS OF DEATH

In the first year of the Time War, Davros leads the Daleks into battle at the Gates of Elysium but is thought dead when his command ship flies into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. He is rescued by Dalek Caan and creates a new race of Daleks from his own flesh. Now completely insane, and once again imprisoned by his creations, he plans to destroy the universe by use of a reality bomb. He is killed when the Crucible is destroyed.

Or is he?

BRINGING DAVROS TO LIFE

The creator of the Daleks has been played by four actors:

After a suggestion that Davros be based on Dan Dare’s green-skinned arch-enemy the Mekon, Wisher’s mask was created before the actor had been cast. Wisher’s own teeth were blackened to suggest decay and his voice passed through a ring modulator to give it a Dalek edge. The actor reportedly based Davros’s intonation on that of the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Wisher was unavailable, so David Gooderson was cast as Davros but the budget wouldn’t run to a new mask. The badly damaged original had been on display at Doctor Who exhibitions in Longleat and Blackpool, and it was in such a state of disrepair that a cleaner even threw it away one night after shooting, believing it was rubbish.

When Terry Molloy was cast as Davros in 1984, budget was allocated to the creation of a completely new mask. While it was undoubtedly more flexible than the original, Davros’s new haggard visage was soon dubbed ‘Ena Sharples’ by the crew after the popular character from Coronation Street in the 1960s and 1970s. Molloy would return for two further stories, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks.