If we needed any further confirmation that long standing issues involving the use of The Daleks as part of the Doctor Who myths now appear to be well and truly over, the announcement of a new Daleks animated series, launching in November, is it.
Daleks! will consist of five 10 minute episodes and will feature a star-studded voiceover cast with Nicholas Briggs (voice of the Daleks in Doctor Who) Joe Sugg (YouTube, Strictly Come Dancing), Anjli Mohindra (Bodyguard, The Sarah Jane Adventures) and Ayesha Antoine (Holby City).
It’s great news – and I wish everyone involved well with the project. Coming as the culmination to the Time Lord Victorious multimedia project, and alongside the news of an impending collection of “The Daleks” comic strip from the 1960s comic, TV Century 21, Terry Nation’s pepperpot perils, originally designed by Raymond Cusick, are now well and truly back in action.
From personal experience and the accounts of many others, the former agent for the Terry Nation estate, now passed, proved a long-standing road block to developing new Dalek-related projects, even when Terry himself was enthusiastic about them.
While the idea may have been over ambitious, back in the 1990s, for example, Keith Barnfather of Reeltime Pictures, Kevin Jon Davies and myself developed an outline proposal for an animated Daleks series. (Indeed, there were at least two proposals for animated shows, both including Kevin, one of which got as far as having some associated music created, scored by Mark Ayres).
I took the proposal to a Chicago convention organised by Howard Lee and showed it to Terry Nation, who loved the concept, even suggesting some ideas for its further development – and then Roger Hancock, his agent of the day shot it down in flames because we hadn’t gone through him.
Back in 2016, writer and voiceover artist Russell Cook recalled a chat with Terrance Dicks, who described Nation’s then agent, the late Roger Hancock, as “the only man he knew who could ruin a deal that had been agreed on all sides, everyone happy then Roger got involved…”
What’s changed is that Terry’s family are now directly involved in the creation of any new Dalek projects – and this five-part CGI animation launching in November this year, the final, missing piece in Time Lord Victorious, is a welcome result of that.
• Daleks! will be available for fans to watch for free, weekly on the Doctor Who YouTube channel… be ready, or be exterminated!
• Earlier proposals for Dalek animated projects will be covered in Issue Four of Vworp Vworp Magazine. A terrific collection of Volumes One and Two of the nit for profit zine is available now
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Animation, Digital Media, Doctor Who, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds