The Daleks
Joe Siegler
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The Daleks
This Story: Season 1, Story 2. Production Code B
Overall: Story 2, episodes 5-11
Airdates: 21 Dec 1963 to 1 Feb 1964.
Written by Terry Nation. Directed by Christopher Barry.
Episode Titles
- The Dead Planet
- The Survivors
- The Escape
- The Ambush
- The Expedition
- The Ordeal
- The Rescue
Notes
- This story is sometimes called “The Dead Planet” or “The Mutants” depending on whose story you’re reading. Also a working title for this was “Beyond the Sun”.
- The original production designer for this story was Ridley Scott, who was then a BBC designer. There was a scheduling conflict, and the job fell to Raymond Cusick instead. Ridley Scott went on to have a very successful career despite not getting to design the Daleks.
- On the 60th anniversary of the show (23 Nov 2023), this was broadcast in a 75 min cut down version – and colorized as well! I have a couple of screenshots of the color version below.
- The actual height of the Daleks on set were four feet eight inches.
- The cloak that Susan got from Alyson was kept in her room in the Tardis.
- The events of this episode are recalled a decade later in the Jon Pertwee serial “Planet of the Daleks“.
- Admin note: On 1 Apr 2026 I moved the social media posts for this story from Twitter to BlueSky. The Twitter originals are still on that platform, you can see them with the following links. The Twitter originals were dated 22 Aug – 29 Aug 2021.
- [ Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 ]
Links
[ Wikipedia | Tardis Data Core | SPS Historium | Amazon US DVD | Amazon UK DVD | My earlier 2012 review ]
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 5 (Story 2 - 1/7) - "The Dead Planet" - 21 Dec 1963 #DoctorWho The first ep of the first Dalek story has barely a single Dalek in it. Very heavy on the Tardis crew doing some exploration, which I really liked. The Doctor is still a jerk here, though. Banger of a cliffhanger.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 6 (Story 2 - 2/7) - "The Survivors" - 21 Dec 1963 #DoctorWho The 2nd ep of the 1st Dalek story still delays showing a Dalek in full. Most of this story is about the Tardis crew being sick due to radiation. Daleks are simple captors here; a much different feel to modern Daleks.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 7 (Story 2 - 3/7) - "The Escape" - 4 Jan 1964 #DoctorWho We meet the Thals, the other race on Skaro. They help the Tardis crew recover from radiation. Most of this ep is about escaping. Liked the pace of this ep; was an improvement on the last one. Another good cliffhanger.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 8 (Story 2 - 4/7) - "The Ambush" - 11 Jan 1964. #DoctorWho 1/3 The crew escapes the Daleks on Skaro, but leave an item they need to fly the Tardis behind, so they have to go back to the city. It sets up the next few episodes, which is where the padding begins. As part of the
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 8 (Story 2 - 4/7) - "The Ambush" - 11 Jan 1964. #DoctorWho 2/3 escape, there's a sequence with Ian inside a Dalek which is amusing. We also finally get an extermination in Ep4 here (Thal leader) during the episode's title sequence. The story COULD have ended here, IMO.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 8 (Story 2 - 4/7) - "The Ambush" - 11 Jan 1964. #DoctorWho 3/3 Just one question about the scene where Daleks provided food for the Thals just to ambush them. Why would the Daleks have stores of bog roll/toilet paper? They don't need it themselves. :)
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 9 (Story 2 - 5/7) - "The Expedition" - 18 Jan 1964 #DoctorWho Most of this epi is the Tardis crew trying to get the Thals to attack the Daleks to help them recover the fluid link. It's a morality play for the most part - "What will you fight for?" Some good scenes with Ian.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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>#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 10 (Story 2 - 6/7) - "The Ordeal" - 25 Jan 1964 #DoctorWho Most of this ep I would have ditched. This is the crew and the Thals going through the jungle to get back to the Dalek city. Could have been combined w/ last ep to make this shorter. A real snoozer of an episode.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 11 (Story 2 - 7/7) - "The Rescue" - 25 Jan 1964 #DoctorWho 1/2 The last episode of the first ever Dalek story is not bad, but I would have made the final battle a bit more exciting. Also the 1st example of the Doctor "talking" a Dalek to death. Actually, a lot of this ep had
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 11 (Story 2 - 7/7) - "The Rescue" - 25 Jan 1964 #DoctorWho 2/2 more of the trek from last ep, forgot it was here too - The trek has a lot to do with the slow pacing past Ep4. Always wish we saw more Thals - it took til Pertwee's era (Planet of the Daleks) for them to return.
— Joe Siegler (@joesiegler.blog) April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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