LEGENDS OF 'WHO': TERRY NATION

Terry Nation and certain infamous creations at his luxurious mansion in 1973. Image by Alan Ballard, restored by Clayton Hickman.

Forced into a quick and financially desperate situation where he had to write six (eventually seven) episodes for what he perceived as an upcoming juvenile science fiction series, so as to pay for a new central heating system for he and his wife's flat, talented Welsh comedy writer Terry Nation, finding a hidden flair in prior years for science fiction/adventure television script writing, took the assignment from his friend and script editor David Whitaker, delivered the work as needed (albeit in mostly storyline form) and 'flew like a thief' with his payment, unaware that his upcoming story, the second for the new BBC series of Doctor Who, would soon become an all-time classic, and put the show into ratings-smashing success with homegrown audiences of all ages, as well as eventually finding popularity on an international level. 

Terry Nation with the Daleks' visual creator, designer Raymond Cusick, at a publicity event in the mid-sixties.

Most importantly, however, he'd launch within that show an iconic monster to regularly combat its titular hero across what would be sixty years within the sci-fi hall of fame. Creatures that would bring with them fear and fascination to audiences in equal measure (with further thanks to the design help of talented BBC staffer designer Raymond Cusick, who never got his deserved co-credit for their popularity), as well as propel Nation into the top tier, money-making league of UK television script writers. Yes, the infamous and deadly race from Skaro that were the Daleks, mutated monsters living in robot shells (their evil born from the very real hells of World War II and the inhuman Nazis) would be an overnight sensation, onscreen relying on radiation to survive within their technological city. Unlike anything ever before seen on TV before 1963/64, the Daleks calculating xenophobia against a friendly race of residing humans, the Thals, would soon see the Doctor and his companions, stranded on Skaro, having to defeat them at all costs. 

The historic first encounter with the Skaro monsters in The Daleks.

And so it seemed that the Daleks had indeed been destroyed by the end of the show's action-packed seventh episode, but viewer demand soon brought them back again (this time to the more accessible and relatable confines of planet Earth), and again... 

'Dalekmania' had truly begun!