The Daleks

Parts: 7
Writer: Terry Nation
Airdates: 21 December 1963 - 1 February 1964
Production Code: B

Alternate Title: The Mutants
Episode Titles: The Dead Planet; The Survivors; The Escape; The Ambush; The Expedition; The Ordeal; The Rescue

Doctor: first
Companions: Susan, Ian, Barbara

Creature Feature: Daleks

Story: The TARDIS arrives on the planet Skaro, in the middle of a petrified forest that borders a city which appears to be abandoned. The Doctor is curious, and wishes to explore. Ian and Barbara are not interested in such pursuits, and ask to return to the Ship. Craftily, the Doctor manufactures a problem with the mercury-filled fluid link and insists that they visit the city so that he can collect more mercury to repair it.

The quartet reaches the city and begins to explore. The Doctor, Susan and Ian learn that the planet is dangerously radioactive. Alarmed, the Doctor confesses his little ploy and suggests that they hurry back to the TARDIS. But already the consequences of his deception have set in - the city is actually not deserted, and its inhabitants have captured Barbara.

These are the Daleks - hideously-mutated blobs enclosed inside squat metal travelling machines. Five hundred years previously, a nuclear war had ravaged the planet, and the creatures inside the Daleks are the descendants of one group of combattants. Outside the Dalek city, the TARDIS crew meets the descendants of the other group - the Thals, beautiful blonde humanoids who are in desperate need of food. While Ian and Barbara begin to prove their worth to the Doctor, he must find a way to keep the evil Daleks from wiping out the Thals, and at the same time recover the fluid link from the heart of the Dalek city.


Notes: This story saw the introduction of the metallic pepperpot-shaped Daleks, probably the most successful monster of the show's history and the one that guaranteed its continued success. The Mutants is actually the correct title for this story; it was later changed to The Daleks to avoid confusion with the third Doctor episode of the same name (NNN).

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