Episode 6: The Survivors

Synopsis:

Separated from her friends, Barbara has been forced to the deeper levels of the strange city, where she has come under attack by one of its inhabitants. Concerned that she has not kept their rendezvous, Ian insists that they search for her. The Doctor is initially reluctant and wants to return to the TARDIS, but Ian is holding the vital fluid-link.

They re-enter the city and find themselves in a large hall, with many doors leading off it. Beyond one of these they hear a noise and, investigating, find a laboratory. The sound is coming from a Geiger Counter, and they see that it is reading dangerous levels. This explains why they have been feeling unwell. The Doctor admits that he sabotaged the TARDIS in order to see this city. Once again he insists that they leave for the TARDIS immediately, in the hope it can take them to a time and place where they can be cured. Ian, however, insists that they first find Barbara.

Back in the hall, they are suddenly confronted by the city's inhabitants - squat, domed metal creatures. ON the dome is a single eyestalk, and in the middle section of their casings are a utility arm and an energy weapon. Ian discovers this when tries to run. One of the creatures opens fire on him, paralysing his legs.

They are all taken down to the lower levels of the city and placed in a cell, where they are reunited with Barbara. They tell her about the radiation sickness.

The Doctor is brought before the Daleks and he learns from them that this is the planet Skaro, and they are the survivors of a neutronic war fought generations ago against the Thal people. The Daleks had thought that he and the others were Thals. They do not know what they look like as both races underwent mutation due to the radiation effects. They believe that the Thals may use drugs to survive in the radiated atmosphere, whilst they have been forced to retreat into these armoured life support shells. They are unable to leave the confines of their city. The Doctor mentions the box of chemicals left outside the ship the previous night, and deduces that these may be the Thal drugs.

The Daleks want one of the travellers to go to the TARDIS and fetch the drugs. The Doctor and Barbara are too ill, and Ian's legs are still paralysed - so it is Susan who must go.

After glimpsing a scaly shape in the darkened forest, she makes it safely to the TARDIS. She then dreads the return journey with the drugs that are needed to save her grandfather and the teachers, believing the Thals to be horrific mutants...

Data:

Written by: Terry Nation

Recorded: Friday 22nd November, 1963 - Lime Grove Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm Saturday 28th December, 1963

Ratings: 6.4 million / AI 58

Designer: Raymond P Cusick

Director: Christopher Barry

Guest cast: Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Michael Summerton, Gerald Taylor (Dalek operators), Peter Hawkins, David Graham (Dalek voices).

Critique:

This episode was recorded as the cast and crew had just heard about the shooting, in Dallas Texas, of President John F Kennedy. News of the assassination would have been coming in as the evening progressed. The BBC staff had to get their information from ITV, as all the BBC executives were attending an industry dinner that evening.

The Dalek casings make their first full appearance in this episode. Terry Nation had specified that he did not want them to have a shape resembling a human being. Associate producer Mervyn Pinfield had suggested cladding actors in cardboard tubes painted silver - the exact opposite to Nation's wishes. Ray Cusick based his design around a seated person, meaning that the Daleks would be relatively small in comparison to humanoid characters. He looked for a child's tricycle that it could be built around, but couldn't find anything that would accommodate an adult operator.

The single eyestalk was another of Nation's ideas. Their gliding movement came from a TV appearance by the Georgian State Dancers, whose skirts touched the floor and made it look like the dancers were gliding. Nation told one newspaper that he made up the name from a dictionary spine for DAL - LEK, but later admitted this was not true.

The first designs were more cylindrical, with multiple utility arms with pincers. This was simplified to a single arm and a gun - originally one set above the other at the front of the casing, but then placed side by side. The skirt section was supposed to be rounded, but Cusick was misinformed that this wasn't possible - which is why he opted for vertical slats instead. He had hoped to have a transparent skin over the skirt, with lights underneath to suggest that they were totally see through.

The original Daleks casings, of which four were built by Shawcraft Models of Uxbridge, were silver in colour, with pale blue hemispheres on the skirt. Cusick had hoped for six Daleks, but the £500 budget would only stretch to the four.

Christopher Barry contacted the Post Office to enquire about methods for realising the Dalek voices. In the end he used Brian Hodgson of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, who was already providing special sounds for the series, who used a ring modulator device.

Sydney Newman was horrified by the sight of the Daleks - believing them to be the BEM's (bug-eyed monsters) which he had determined would never feature in the series. Verity Lambert and David Whitaker had to argue their case - that they were organic creatures scarred by radiation, who were forced to live in protective shells. The story would be about nuclear war and how a race might survive such a catastrophe.

William Hartnell and Jacqueline Hill have a fairly easy time on this episode, as they spend most of it lying ill - a good thing bearing in mind the news that was coming out of Dallas that evening. William Russell gets a little more to do, but it is a good episode for Carole Ann Ford.

The Doctor is interrogated by the Daleks in one scene, but they spend more time explaining about themselves than getting him to tell them about himself and the others - thus providing an info-dump on the background to the Daleks.

The cast were not impressed with their first view of the Daleks - Russell thought them ludicrous. However, once they saw them in action they realised that they might be on to something big...

Trivia:

• The Survivors was at one time considered as the overall title for this story.
• After the fault locator and the food machine last week, the TARDIS lock mechanism is described. It has a safety measure whereby there is only one correct way of inserting the key, and about twenty wrong ones. If a wrong one is used, the whole lock melts. 
• Susan's description of this lock was all added at the last minute, to give good reason for it to be her who makes the solo journey back to the TARDIS.
• Extra Chris Browning donned the Thal cape for the brief glimpse seen by Susan in the forest.
• The glimpse of a sink plunger at the conclusion of The Dead Planet did not necessarily draw in more viewers the following week. The Survivors actually saw a dip of half a million. It was after this, their first full appearance, that the ratings shot up.
• The BBC always insisted on using the term "operators" to describe the actors who inhabited the Dalek shells. This was to suggest that they might be radio controlled machines.
• Peter Hawkins and David Graham pre-recorded some of the Dalek voices for this episode. Peter Hawkins would later be in studio for his voices, but Graham always pre-recorded his. Hawkins did the higher pitched voices, and Graham the lower registers.
• William Russell celebrated his 39th birthday during rehearsals for this episode.
• Throughout the 1960's artists often depicted the Daleks with a number on their dome, as well as a circular speaker grill in their mid-section. This came about through the use of photographs taken at rehearsals. It was found that the director could not identify which Dalek was which once their tops were on, so numbered pieces of paper were taped to the dome. This roll of tape was then stuck in the metal belt until needed next, to be removed prior to recording. The tape was also used to cover the sharp edges on the casing, after Hartnell cut himself on one.
• Due to the bad news earlier in the evening, the usual post-recording drinks were skipped this week.