Starburst Letters
I am a great fan of Dr. Who and Blake's 7 so when I was told about your article with Terry Nation in Starburst 6. I treated myself to a copy. John Fleming's interview was good except for the fact that Dr Who's adventure, Genesis of the Daleks was said to have had the Doctor falling off a cliff and a girl getting her foot trapped in a railway line. In the 1976 story by Robert Holmes, The Deadly Assassin, the Doctor fell down a cliff and got his foot trapped in a railway point in front of an oncoming train. Incidently page 6's second photo was of the Doctor. Susan and Ian getting cornered by Daleks. Another point is that Dr Who is the name of the programme and the main character is 'the Doctor'.
The Complete Dalek Index was a let-down as someone had very carefully read The Dr Who Special or Target's issue of The Making of Doctor Who and re-written the information. Many of the facts are incorrect and the list should read as follows:
First Season, 1963-64
Episodes 5 to 12. The original Doctor Who season was only meant to run for 13 episodes. The first four were about stone age savages and the next seven were about the Daleks. The Dead Planet was, in fact, the first episode of this story, the subsequent ones being The Survivors. The Escape, Ambush, The Expedition, The Ordeal and The Rescue. The war on Skaro was a neutronic one and although Ian and Barbara. the first two companions, were human. Susan slated in the first episode that she was born in another time on another world.
Second Season, 1964-65
Dalek Invasion Earth. The first episode of this story was World's End the subsequent ones being The Daleks. The Day of Reckoning, The End of Tomorrow The Waking Ally and Flashpoint. The "Dalek Leader" was. in fact, the Black Dalek or the Dalek Supreme. The Dalek saucer was parked at Chelsea Heliport. The story actually took place in 2167.
The Space Museum. (4 episodes by Glyn Jones). Whilst at the Morok exhibition of creatures, the Doctor saw and rode in, a Dalek.
The Chase. The first episode here was The Executioners. The following episodes were The Death of Time. Flight Through Eternity, Journey into Terror. The Death of Doctor Who. and The Planet of Decision.
Third Season, 1965-66
Mission to the Unknown was not the re-introducer to the season, and was preceeded by a four episode adventure. Galaxy 4.
The Dalek Master Plan. Terry Nation wrote this story with Dennis Spooner. The first episode was The Night mare Begins, which was followed by The Day of Armageddon. The Devil's Planet. The Traitor, Counter. Plot, Coronas of the Sun, The Feast of Steven, Volcano, Golden Death. Escape Switch, Abandoned Planet, and Destruction of Time.
Dennis Spooner's previous story was The Time Meddler, again The Watcher was episode 1. The SSS agent was Sara (not Sarah) Kingdom.
Fourth Season, 1966-67
All the information was correct and the Dalek Emperor was the leader in Evil. Subtitles for episodes had been dropped.
Sixth Season, 1969-69
The War Games (10 episodes by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke) In the closing episode, a Dalek was amongst the creatures present at the Doctor's trial.
Eighth Season, 1971
The Mind of Evil (6 episodes by Don Houghton) In episode 2, the Master created images of the Doctor's adversaries to scare him. one being a Dalek
Ninth Season, 1972
The Gay of the Daleks. The bomb Shura used was a Dalekenium bomb.
Tenth Season, 1972/3
Frontier in Space. (6 episodes by Malcolm Hulke) In Episode 6, a squad of Daleks emerged to be the controllers of the Master and the Ogrons who were trying to start a war between Draconians and Humans. The Dalek squad escaped so the Doctor followed them la the planet of Spirodon.
Planet of the Daleks. All information correct.
The Day of the Daleks. A couple of months after this series. this story was reshown as a one hour compilation.
Eleventh Season, 1973-74
Death to the Daleks. All information correct.
Twelfth Season, 1974-75
Genesis of the Daleks. All information correct.
Thirteenth Season, 1975-76
Genesis of the Daleks. In mid-season, this story was repeated as a one hour compilation.
Terry Nation also wrote two other stories for the Dr Who series.
The Keys of Marinus. The first episode of this story was The Sea of Death, followed by The Velvet Web, The Screaming Jungle, The Snows of Terror, Sentence of Death and The Keys of Marinus. Not only the Doctor. but Barbara, Ian, Susan. Arbitan's daughter Sabetha, her friend Atros. and his friend Ekrim. The Doctor only held the fifth key as Sabetha had the second, third and fourth and Arbitan. the first. Sabetha handed her key's over and Arbitan's was stolen, but it was Ian who handed over a fake that he had found.
The Android Invasion, (4 episodes by Terry Nation). The Kraals of Oseidan created a replica of an English village which they inhabited with Android duplicates of the villagers. They were then sent to Earth to release a deadly virus to kill all humans.
These stories were in the first and thirteenth series.
I hope that I have put you right on a few things that were maimed. I hope your magazine also does well and you have another feature on Doctor Who or Blake's 7 soon.
Andrew Pixley. Sheffield. Yorks.
To be honest, Andrew. you were not the only one to catch some of the mistakes in the Dalek Index. Others to take us to task were: President of the DOM Who Appreciation Society. Jan Vincent Rudzki and Julien Knott. But your information was the most detailed end sets the record straight once and for all.
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: (Apr. 1979). Starburst Letters. Starburst p. 21.
- MLA 7th ed.: "Starburst Letters." Starburst [add city] Apr. 1979, 21. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Starburst Letters." Starburst, edition, sec., Apr. 1979
- Turabian: "Starburst Letters." Starburst, Apr. 1979, section, 21 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Starburst Letters | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Starburst_Letters | work=Starburst | pages=21 | date=Apr. 1979 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=22 April 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Starburst Letters | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Starburst_Letters | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=22 April 2025}}</ref>
