FOR 13 YEARS a massive television audience has watched, fascinated, while the four personalities of "Dr. Who" have joined battle with creatures that clanked and clattered, crawled and crept, flown and fulminated, oozed and squelched.
During 84 series, totalling well in excess of 400 episodes, a whole clutch of writers have been employed by the BBC to churn out these remarkable adventures which now attract probably more adult viewers than the children for which they were originally intended.
The impact of what started as a modest four-part sci-fi-series; written by Anthony Coburn in 1962 with not a mention of a Dalek has blossomed into almost an industry.
What really got it off the ground was an invitation to scriptwriter Terry Nation to provide a second series and he came up with "The Dead Planet." And the Daleks.
To the former programme designer, Ray Cusick, goes the credit for shaping the first Dalek. Terry Nation had scripted what he wanted: "Hideous machine-like creatures .. legless... with no human features.
Cusick came up with the now internationally known pepper-pot design. The rough design was let out to contract to Shawcraft Models for construction. And the employee who stood on the factory floor to have lines drawn around him was Len Hutton. Hutton is now on the visual effects staff at the BBC, making his own ingenious contributions to the success of "Dr. Who" and other programmes.
The Daleks, today, are built by BBC technicians, much more sophisticated machines than those early £15-a-time prototypes. Actors never mind playing Daleks. The "pepper-pots" are equipped with seats and the castors are propelled easily and comfortably by the actor's feet.
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