The Doctor has battled many enemies across space and time, but no antagonist is more iconic in the Whoniverse than the Daleks. In fact, the original Doctor Who might not have taken off without the Daleks’ arrival just a month after the series premiere in 1963. Their unique pepper-pot design and memorably terrifying voice immediately become a pop-culture phenomenon and even inspired two feature film adaptations starring Peter Cushing.
It seemed that as long as the Doctor was active, the Daleks would always be there to fight. Therefore, it’s shocking to find out that during the development of the Doctor Who revival, it appeared as if the Time Lord’s most iconic enemy wasn’t going to be a part of the show. Let’s look at how the BBC didn’t own the rights to the Daleks after using them for decades in the classic series.
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At the time of the original series, the BBC and Doctor Who’s creative team agreed that the show’s writers would own the characters they created. But even after the classic series came to an end in the late ’80s, the agreement still stood, leaving the rights to the Daleks in the hands of writer Terry Nation. Nation would die in 1997, but rather than the rights reverting back to the BCC, they became the property of his estate. Therefore, when Russell T. Davies began developing the Doctor Who revival, the broadcaster needed permission from the Nation estate to use the classic villains.
In 2004, the BBC and Nation’s estate both released statements announcing that the Daleks wouldn’t be a part of the new series. The studio explained that they “offered the very best deal possible but ultimately we were not able to give the level of editorial influence that the Terry Nation estate wished to have.” The Nation estate, however, shot back at the broadcaster, claiming that they were trying to “ruin the brand” of the Daleks.
Not long after the statements were released, though, the BBC and Nation estate reopened negotiations and were able to smooth things over. The Daleks would go on to become a massive part of the current Doctor Who series, being the species that wiped out the Time Lords in the Time War. And Davies’ work developing the series without the Dalek wouldn’t go to waste, as his idea for an alternative villain would eventually become the Toclafane, who appeared in the third series finale.
While the Doctor would’ve probably preferred the Daleks be extinct in the new series, the revival wouldn’t have been the same without them. Technology has evolved over the decades to create scarier and more advanced machines, but the Daleks are still as effective as they were in 1963. Even with the occasional alteration in color and design, the simple look of the villain provides a menace unlike any antagonist in science-fiction, and it’s hard to believe they were nearly replaced in the Whoniverse.
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