The man who designed the daleks has died. Half a century ago, Ray Cusick transformed a brief description in a Doctor Who script into one of the most feared sci-fi villains of modern times — a killing machine that squawked "exterminate".
"People say I was inspired by a pepper pot," he said in a documentary about the show in 2008. "I always think, if that's all it takes to become a designer then it's a doddle."
In fact, he had invited a "special effects chap" to lunch, and used the pepper pot to show how the daleks should move with no visible means of support. "It could just have easily been the salt cellar."
In this techno age his original Dalek may look like a Blue Peter creation, but at the time it terrified young viewers. Since then generations have been tranfixed by them.
Dreamt up by Terry Nation, the Doctor Who scriptwriter, it was Cusick who gave them form. David Graham, the original voice of the daleks, said Cusick was responsible for "one of the most iconic designs of TV sci-fi". He added: "We were given a brief that they were supposed to be menacing so we created this stacatto style of del-iv-er-ary; they played it through this synthesiser, giving it added menace. The rest is history." Cusick's daughter, Claire, said that her father, 84, from Horsham, West Sussex, died peacefully in his sleep on Thursday.
The current series of Dr Who returns to the BBC on March 30.
Caption: The Doctor Who creation that has scared generations
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