Origin and Background of Daleks

Daleks are known as the Time Lords greatest enemy. They are the creation of Terry Nation, a science fiction writer from the BBC while the appearance of the Daleks was designed by Raymond Cusick. Inspirations for the design of the Daleks came from different examples of Nazis. As the Daleks evolve in the show they are very similar to the Nazi regime.

The named Dalek is rumored to have come from an encyclopedia. Encyclopedias are alphabetized to help people find information in them more easily, which is written on the spine of the book. There are two versions of this story but they are both similar because they deal with the spine of encyclopedia. It is believed that the name Dalek came from a spine of an encyclopedia that read, “Dal-Lek” or “Dal- Eks.” No one is sure which version of the encyclopedia was actually true.

Daleks have become such a large part of British culture. They are just as popular as the Doctor in Britian, in fact in a study done by National Trust, 9 out of 10 British children could identify a Dalek.[1] This shows just how impactful these Dalek creatures have been and currently still are. They have impacted the lives of British children 50 years later. In addition to being able to identify a Dalek many people can identify Daleks just through their catch phrase, “exterminate!” This line has become synonymous with Daleks. They speak with an alien voice in short sentences usually just one word. The majority of what they say is the famous, “exterminate!” line.

Daleks are a race that has grown from philosophers, which we learned in the episode “The Daleks.” During this time they were were known as the Dals which may hint towards their mutation during their nuclear war with the Thals. This turned them from being philosophers and known as Dals to a race known as the Daleks set on cleansing the universe of everything beside itself. During the war the Daleks discovered anti-radiation pills so they decided to attack the Thals by sending radiation from nuclear power plants in Skaro’s atmosphere. This did not harm Daleks because of the radiation pills. The Doctor convinced the Thals to fight back against the Daleks. The Thals are believed to have killed off the Daleks at the end of the episode. However, the Daleks seemed to catch the attention of Doctor Who fans so it was not long until they were brought back. There are several versions of the origins of the Daleks, You can find another version in another one of my blogs that will talk about how the Daleks are the Doctors number one nemesis. The other version actually goes more with the story line of Doctor Who but this story has many similarities to the other one and is a good place to start if you do not know what Daleks are.

The Daleks were brought back and so came the idea that they were better than everyone else. The idea of exterminate went from just killing the Thals to killing everything around them. Daleks believe that they are the top race and need to cleanse the universe of everything. They believe that this is what they were born to do. This is where the comparison to the Nazi regime comes in. For those who do not know the Nazi’s tried to kill everyone that was not an Arian. The Daleks wanted to kill everything but them just like the Nazi’s.

As you can see the Daleks have an origin that is like no other. Not only do they have an origin second to none but they their appearance is like nothing anyone has seen before. If you want to learn about their appearance check out one of my future blog posts.

References

[1] Stephen Moss, “Natural Childhood,” Natural Trust, (July 2008), 3.