Showrunner, Russell T Davies, has revealed what he thinks is the “best decision” he made when bringing Doctor Who back to TV screens in 2005. And it’s all about design.
As showrunner, Davies was and is the executive producer, meaning he has eyes across all aspects of the franchise; what he recalls as a particular triumph of his initial run as head honcho.
He says:
“That was my best decision, to stick to the Daleks. They weren’t allowed to change their proportions at all.
“People had great designs, they were big and they were brutish but they were more like droids. You know, when you get a toy Dalek that looks like a Dalek, it’s not a Dalek. When they get the measurements wrong, when you draw it, you go, ‘That doesn’t look like a Dalek.’ I just had to believe – that was just an act of faith.”
The Daleks were in copyright purgatory, so Series 1, at some point, didn’t have Daleks in, instead being replaced by spherical beings that likely turned into the Toclafane in Series 3. Nonetheless, an agreement was reached so they came back firstly in Dalek, written by Robert Shearman, and then again in the season finale, Davies’ Bad Wolf/ The Parting of the Ways.
We might gather from this, too, that if the Daleks return to take on the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa), their design won’t have changed — they’ll be those Bronze Daleks best associated with Davies’ first time as showrunner. Not a surprise, exactly, but still significant.
