Saturday, December 14, 2013

Evolution of the Daleks



The Daleks are one of the main antagonists in the show Doctor Who. However hard the Doctor tries to destroy them, the Daleks keep coming back. Although this creatures have been in Doctor Who since 1963 the Daleks have changed in many ways, in both appearance and mechanics. Even though there have been multiple remodelings of the Dalek, I'm just going to discuss the original version and the 2005 Dalek.

The original Dalek made its television premier in 1963 in "The Daleks." The appearance of a Dalek, if you have never seen one, is basically a trash can with a plunger and a whisk sticking out of it. I did a bit of digging and I found  a video explain why it looks the way it does. (It is posted below.)  I discovered the only reason Daleks have plungers and whisks as weapons is because the BBC could not afford anything more. They had to put a magnet in the plunger so it could carry objects. The actual body of the Dalek was originally designed as taller and cylindrical but then made short so the actor could have more comfort. Playing a Dalek was quite difficult, although the designers did make the Daleks shorter so the actors could sit, they props themselves weighed a lot. It was difficult just to move, but they also had to aim the rays (whisks) and push buttons every time that certain Dalek talked. The buttons made a light to tell which Dalek was talking, this was a last minute decision. 

(part 1)
 
(part 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KidjDHxi2oMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KidjDHxi2oM

The first appearance of the Daleks in the new 2005 series of Doctor Who was in the episode "Dalek," named after the original episode above. These Daleks basically still looked the same, with a few minor changes because of a bigger budget. A major change of the Dalek were that they now could fly. Yep, so now stairs are not a problem. The movement of the Daleks have gotten easier because one other advances of the Daleks which were that the eyestalk, lights, and arms were then remote operated, this put less pressure on the actors. A few other small changes to the design were the Daleks now had a glowing eyepiece and an all over brass finish.

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