Daleks are back .. playing it for laughs

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• Publication: Daily Star
• Date: 1998-02-10
• Author: Sandro 'Mr Showbiz' Monetti
• Page: 16
• Language: English

DOCTOR WHO'S dastardly enemies The Daleks are invading telly screens again — in Red Dwarf.

The pepperpot robots will be the new villains in the next series of the sci-fi sitcom.

"They're sure to EX-TER-MIN-ATE the ratings competition," said a show spokesman.

The menacing mechanoids will trundle on for one episode of the spaced-out comedy starring Craig Charles and Chris Barrie.

But viewers will get a glimpse of things to come when the sinister Daleks appear in The A-Z of Red Dwarf this Saturday on BBC2. It is part of a whole night of Red Dwarf to mark the show's tenth anniversary. The adenoidal invaders will take part in a comic sketch in which one Dalek drones: "All Earth television is human propaganda.

Sinister

"The works of Shakespeare were written by a Dalek and so were Beethoven's symphonies.

"But Mandy by Barry Manilow was not one of ours."

Red Dwarf bosses aim to get more laughs out of the dodgy Daleks in the eighth series to be filmed later this year. Daleks creator Terry Nation died a year ago.

But his estate have given permission for his creations to transfer to Red Dwarf.

Since their first Dr Who appearance in December 1963, the baddies with the sink plungers and egg whisks on their pepperpot casings have become cult favourites.

Sadly there is no sign of a new Dr Who series, but the show — and especially The Daleks — is still very popular with viewers.

Famous fans include comedian Harry Hill and pop star Liam Howlett of The Prodigy.

Both of them have full-scale replica Daleks in their homes.

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21 things Who never knew about them

1. THE Daleks were instant hits from their first appearance December 21 1963.
2. Four Daleks were built to start with at £120 each.
3. The fearsome exterminators were built of egg whisks, tennis balls and a sink plunger.
4. Two of the original four are in London's Museum of the Moving Image, another is at a bed and breakfast in Wales and the fourth was auctioned.
5. There were no female Daleks until this one (pictured right) turned up at the Star office.
6. Scriptwriter Terry Nation invented the Daleks and based them on the Nazis.
7. Although Nation created the characters, BBC designer Raymond Cusick came up with their pepperpot appearance.
8. Cusick got a one-off payment of £250, but Nation, who held the rights, made a fortune.
9. Nation claimed their name came from the spine of an encylopedia but it was actually a thought from the top of his head.
10. Dalek is an anagram of Kaled, the race from which Daleks mutated.
11. In the series, Daleks are squishy blobs inside their casings. In fact, each Dalek had a human operator inside.
12. Jon Pertwee, Doctor No 3, hated the Daleks and called them "ridiculous metal pepper-pots."
13. The popular Daleks appeared Win two 1960s movies.
14. A Dr Who nut called Raymond Twatt built a Dalek out of 30 cistern ballcocks.
15. Dalek Earth invasions were doomed because they couldn't walk up stairs.
16. But in 1988 the Daleks learnt how to hover.
17. The Daleks' gliding motion was inspired by the Georgian State Dancers.
18. Dalek leader Davros was overthrown when he designed a virus which could kill them.
19. 'Dalek' means "a far and distant thing" in Serbo-Croat.
20. Roy Skelton, the voice of Zippy and George in Rainbow, also voiced Daleks.

Caption: FEMALE FOE: This girl Dalek is all ready to exHER-minate

Caption: SPACE RAGE: The Red Dwarf crew

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.: Monetti, Sandro 'Mr Showbiz' (1998-02-10). Daleks are back .. playing it for laughs. Daily Star p. 16.
• MLA 7th ed.: Monetti, Sandro 'Mr Showbiz'. "Daleks are back .. playing it for laughs." Daily Star [add city] 1998-02-10, 16. Print.
• Chicago 15th ed.: Monetti, Sandro 'Mr Showbiz'. "Daleks are back .. playing it for laughs." Daily Star, edition, sec., 1998-02-10
• Turabian: Monetti, Sandro 'Mr Showbiz'. "Daleks are back .. playing it for laughs." Daily Star, 1998-02-10, section, 16 edition.
• Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Daleks are back .. playing it for laughs | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Daleks_are_back_.._playing_it_for_laughs | work=Daily Star | pages=16 | date=1998-02-10 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=28 April 2025 }}</ref>
• Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Daleks are back .. playing it for laughs | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Daleks_are_back_.._playing_it_for_laughs | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=28 April 2025}}</ref>