The Curse of the Daleks

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The Curse Of The Daleks is a Dalek stage play, written by David Whitaker and Terry Nation, which appeared for one month at the Wyndham's Theatre in London, beginning on December 21, 1965. It is notable for being Terry Nation's first live-action attempt to exercise his ownership of the Dalek concept independently of the BBC. As such, it does not include the Doctor, the TARDIS or any other elements from Doctor Who.

It was performed mostly as a matinée, indicating its marketing towards children.

It was produced by John Gale and Ernest Hecht, and directed by Gillian Howell. It starred Nicholas Hawtrey (Captain Redway), Edward Gardener (Rocket Smith), David Ashford (Bob Slater), John Moore (Professor Vanderlyn), Hilary Tindall (Marion Clements), John Line (Jonathon Ladiver), Colin Miller (Harry Sline), Nicholas Bennet (Dexion), and Suzanne Mockler (Ijayna).

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Background 3 Reception 4 References

[edit] Synopsis

Following the crash landing of an Earth spacecraft on Skaro, one of the astronauts believes he can turn the Daleks into his servants. As ever, the Daleks have other plans.

[edit] Background

Freelance writers for the BBC were allowed to retain intellectual property rights over concepts and characters they introduced into individual serials. As a result, Terry Nation found himself co-owning the Dalek phenomenon of the mid-1960s. Nation was eager to find some way of divorcing them from the Doctor Who universe so that he could build a franchise which would not require BBC cooperation, and two such attempts were made in 1965.

One was the Doctor- and companion-less episode Mission to the Unknown. Though commonly known as an introduction to the Doctor Who serial, The Daleks' Master Plan, it was also preparatory to a proposed Dalek-only pilot called, The Destroyers.^[1] Had it made it been completed, The Destroyers would have been centered around the same "Space Security Service" seen in Mission to the Unknown and Master Plan.

The second was through this play, which introduced the idea of accidental human discovery of the planet Skaro (similar to what happened to the TARDIS crew in The Daleks), and the humans' subsequent reaction against the Daleks.

While this was the only of the two approaches that actually got produced on the strength of Terry Nation's ownership alone, it received no further independent development. Elements from this play were later reworked by David Whitaker for the Second Doctor television story The Power of the Daleks.

[edit] Reception

The Times newspaper's anonymous critic gave The Curse of the Daleks a mixed but generally positive assessment in a review published on December 22, 1965. "No less compelling on the stage than the television screen, the Daleks are the undoubted stars of this futuristic adventure story," opened the piece. The reviewer concluded that: "After their false start, depending too much on weak jokes and technical jargon, a feeling of genuine crisis is generated. And the patience of the youthful matinée audience is rewarded as the Dalek menace increases. Despite the rather stilted dialogue, the actors play with all possible conviction, and Gillian Howell's direction has the necessary pace."^[2]

An animated CGI version of 'Curse Of The Daleks' has been made by Dr Who enthusiast, Stuart Palmer, and is available at www.alteredvistas.co.uk.

[edit] References