BOOK REVIEW: THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE DALEKS - THE STRANGE WORLDS OF TERRY NATION

THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE DALEKS: THE STRANGE WORLDS OF TERRY NATION

By Alwyn W. Turner

Published in the UK by AURUM PRESS

Reviewed by Scott Weller

Enter: the Daleks!

Russell T. Davies may be regarded as the modern day TV saviour who creatively rescued DOCTOR WHO from cancellation oblivion and brought it back, like a phoenix from the ashes, to new heights of popularity from 2005 inwards, but, before him, way back in 1963, another equally talented Welsh gentleman of similar strong script writing talents and born creative savvy was doing the same thing for the series during its early troubled beginnings, helping the children’s sci-fi show, prior dwarfed by the transmission shadows of the Kennedy assassination, to hit the big league with the viewing masses by creating the Daleks, not only the most successful futuristic and unusually alien creations ever devised in British sci-fi for the then small screen, but certainly the most recognizable and defined icons for villainy ever since, who are still scaring and fascinating generations of children and adults even now in the modern series evolving mythology.

From humble origins as a young boy in South Wales whose life and passion for comics and adventure stories sent him beyond his comparatively straightforward life as a salesman with his fathers upholstery company to the then bright lights and big dreams of ambition and success to be gleaned working in London, a young Nation would soon find a his own unique way to crack into the entertainment industry, first as an actor/comedian, then as a comedy writer who would go on to pen the kind of revolutionary hit and miss comedy that had been quickly growing within the birth and evolution of both radio and then TV,  joined at the hip with the emerging popularity of the American comedy ideals that were proving popular and trend-setting with Britain’s post-war audiences, of whom the likes of Bob Hope was doing the kinds of material that an enthusiastic Nation wanted to partake in and ride the crest of the wave of success from. Through luck, being in the right place at the right time, and with great friends and contacts, he’d soon be mixing creative ideas with the likes of legendary comedy writing/performing greats as Eric Sykes, Spike Milligan (who especially played an important factor in launching his writer career on British TV), John Junkin, Tony Hancock, and the legendary duo of Ray Galton and Alan Simpson in what truly was an exciting and innovative new time for the country with the growing strength of the television revolution both on the BBC and the commercial rival ITV channel, all of which saw the healthy and urgent need for good writers-with Nation being one of the obvious choices…

And he was certainly ambitious, with lots of dreams of being a success, but there was nothing megalomaniacal about such desires: he was also an all-round, much liked man, if occasional bullshit artist who later liked to weave a good tale around mundane truths. One of his greatest strengths was the possession of a very good memory, alongside a witty raconteur skill which swiftly lead him on to Millionaire’s Road with his pot-pourri invention of the Daleks and what would go on to become their many iconic appearances within DOCTOR WHO’s formative Black and White years, and via repeats and merchandise (of which the Skaoran meanies (visually created by the brilliant designer Raymond Cusick-who sadly never got the kind of recognition and success he deserved at the time) continue to make a hefty profit for his estate (zealously protected by the late agent/friend Roger Hancock and his successors), as well as the BBC, even today…)

Fortunately for us all, Nation’s aforementioned career in comedy never quite took off, despite some good work which improved and gained mostly positive reviews for the legendary Tony Hancock, and so it was into drama that he quickly retreated to in order to survive and look after his family, soon working on an adaptation of a classic Philip K. Dick novel for the ITV, followed by further work in that genre for the BBC, of which he had been on and off involved in writing all kinds of material for the corporation since the fifties, and then the fast offer of work, which he initially turned down, on a brand new children’s sci-fi adventure series called DOCTOR WHO, which urgently needed to fill a seven week space for a story that had fallen through.

Terry Nation with his greatest creation, a Dalek, in the mid-sixties. Image: ULIKE

Once amiably describing in a rare TV interview how he needed money in 1963 and took the script job on the unknown, upcoming sci-fi series which he knew he could write fast, get the payments in and “fly like a thief!”, Nation’s super adventure story soon propelled his writing career to the top of the TV tree, and would prove to be the start of the almost symbiotic phenomenon of both DOCTOR WHO and the dreaded Daleks-a mutated race living within domed shells to survive, who soon made their first true and threatening visual appearance in the second story’s second episode, where a legend was born which resulted in children all over the country soon mimicking the intriguingly designed metallic meanies and shouting their harsh war cries of “Exterminate, exterminate!” in the school playground, whether against class mates or teachers. Those xenophobic, hate wielding creatures, and their need to conquer and destroy, would capture imaginations for years to come and see in a swift craze for Dalek merchandise- Dalekmania- that got so big at one point in 1964 that the monsters were pulling in more profit revenue than The Beatles!

And the rest, as they say, is history…

First Doctor William Hartnell encounters THE DALEKS. Image: BBC 

The Daleks take on their rivals, the Mechanoids, in THE CHASE. Image: BBC

Alwyn W. Turner’s book tells the entire fascinating and immersive story with regards to Nation’s creations and his continuing with them over the many years to come, alongside the riches he gained, the imagination and creativity he showed in continually bringing them back to delight viewers, and the occasional trials and frustrations that came with their birth and evolution.

Into colour for the metal monsters in DAY OF THE DALEKS. Image: BBC

Jon Pertwee's adventurous Doctor fights Daleks and Ogrons in DAY OF THE DALEKS. Image: BBC

Along the way, it also includes the WHO Dalek stories he didn’t write but which would eventually add to the creatures vast mythos, the creation legends, the merchandise, plus a detailed look into the sadly never to come to fruition attempt by Nation to do a series that would specially launch the creatures on to US TV audiences, plus the two colorful and exciting Peter Cushing starring WHO/DALEK films made by AARU in the mid-sixties using Nation’s first two stories for adaptation to the big screen. There’s also detailed behind the scenes examinations of Terry Nation’s own equally worthy created adventure series beyond WHO, which would also leave their indelible marks on British TV culture in the seventies and early eighties: two series that were more adult in tone existing within often morally grey shaded worlds, and which would prove to be the next evolutionary step in Nation’s writing: the cult classic success that was the sci-fi space rebellion epic BLAKE’S 7–the dark, British flip side of the US STAR TREK-and his even darker and disturbing look at a human race trying to survive after being savagely decimated by a deadly virus: SURVIVORS (which recently had a brief renaissance on UK TV as a brand new two season running re-imagining on the BBC), whose difficulties and disappointments in being brought to life on screen are well documented by the author.

ITC TV series classics that Nation would write scripts for would include THE SAINT.... Image: ITV.

...the likeable duo of THE PERSUADERS. Image: ITV.

And THE AVENGERS era starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Linda Thorson as Tara King. Image: CANAL+

Then there’s the other wealth of incredible contributions he made to top TV series in our lifetime, in and around the period he was on WHO, working with other writing greats like Dennis Spooner and Brian Clemens on the likes of hit shows that were all spellbinding the populist TV masses into the sixties and seventies, like THE CHAMPIONS, DEPARTMENT S, JASON KING, THE BARON, THE SAINT, THE PERSUADERS, and the ultimate series of that type of genre: THE AVENGERS, all of which are fully documented and explored with complete behind the scenes notes and episode explorations of Nation’s contributions which are all very accessible, informative and lively to read, noting Nation’s trademarks and highlights, for both good and bad.

Despite being in and out of fashion with critics more times than flared trousers, Nation, as a writer and author, would never, ever profess to having been a talent the likes of Shakespeare, Dickens or some of the greatest of his contemporaries, but one thing was always guaranteed: whenever you saw Nation’s name on a television script you were always guaranteed a darned good action adventure yarn, one always with excellent central ideas, plotted with pace and excitement, and lined with interesting, if not always fully developed, characters. Seventies WHO creatives Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts would consider his work to be page turning stuff that, despite the odd re-use of successful ingredients over the years, was like a good summer holiday novel in that you always wanted to know what was going to happen next with the heroes and villains, and which always proved to be compulsive TV.

Three of the SURVIVORS: Greg (Ian McCulloch), Jenny (Lucy Fleming) and Abbie (Carolyn Seymour). Image: BBC

Nation's post-Dalek triumph: the galactic space opera BLAKE'S 7. Image: BBC.

Equally, Nation’s ground breaking ideas would always keep his series interesting and exciting, and doing four or five episodes with subtle but ambitious story arcs for his series would be a brave move that would lead to the kind of major story lines mimicked by today's writers of hit series like the epic BABYLON 5 (of which its series creator and head writer J. Michael Straczynsksi has always told people he was heavily influenced by British sci-fi, in particular Nation’s work in both WHO and BLAKE’S 7) and to an even larger and more complex degree by LOST.

Working on other peoples shows was always fun and financially rewarding for Nation, but it’s a shame that, for a man of such ideas, that only two of his later seventies projects got off the ground. Prior to and after the aforementioned SURVIVORS and BLAKE, the book also gives us a tantalizing look at Nation’s little known projects that haven’t seen much light of day –either due to their being junked after their original transmissions, never repeated or simply forgotten-like the one off period BBC adventure/sci-fi X-FILES of its time, THE INCREDIBLE ROBERT BALDRICK, starring Robert Hardy in a pilot that had the potential for a great series but which sadly never went much further.

Along the journey exploring Nation’s writing career, some fascinating modern myths about his ideas and statements are revealed, some of which are expanded on in detail and others quickly de-bunked and given a more realistic and refreshing re-interpretation.

There’s also the odd accusation of plagiarism in his works that’s touched on, too (like with Tony Hancock’s concerns that his story/visual idea of a robot society was turned into the Daleks, or Brian Clemens’s decades running falling out with Nation over what he considered was his friends blatant pinching of SURVIVORS), but its soon clear that Nation- a fan from the outset of FLASH GORDON, John Buchan adventure stories, DC comics and all kinds of boys own stuff, plus the added HOLLYWOOD glamour being shown by its larger than life screen gods and goddesses in the movies being shown in Welsh picture houses during his formative years-was already a talented man capable of coming up with similar ideas himself: someone who clung to his imagination and story-telling fiercely within that creative sponge that was his mind, and would never knowingly mean any harm to any of his friends in the industry.

Nation’s long desired dreams of going to America and finding success would finally come partially true in the late seventies by the time of his writing episodes for the penultimate series of BLAKE’S 7, and its here that the true sadness of the final stages of his career comes through, as, in the home of his heroes and icons, he would become caught in the creative but political controlled system that is the underbelly of the Hollywood film and TV system: a man who never got the chance to follow up on the kinds of success he saw in whilst he had been in the UK. Despite the lucrative pay and relaxing lifestyle to which he had now become accustomed and enjoyed with his family, Nation’s imagination and ideas for new projects, some of which are outlined in the book, were effectively reined in and stifled, never to be made, whilst his actual on screen credits States-side ended up being relatively few. The kind of future success beyond WHO’s and BLAKE’S 7 would sadly never come to fruition, but his legacy of quality work over twenty years remains, to this day, as bright as a shining star.

Terry Nation reins supreme over new Fourth Doctor Tom Baker. Image: BBC

Despite a couple of little mistakes (one linked to a B7 episode) or omissions of a few bits of other historical information, this is probably the best book you’re ever likely to get on Terry Nation and his immense body of writing credits, with some great anecdotes about the quite shy man and his life- a talented individual who loved the industry and clearly enjoyed the style to which he became accustomed to after the appeal and success of his greatest TV creations. THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE DALEKS is an enjoyable cocktail of television history, slight biography (slight as there’s actually very little about his family life with his wife and daughter) and critique, not only regarding the man and his career, but also the events and people shaping the golden age of television and entertainment around him, too, in a constantly evolving and iconic period showing us the highs and lows of working in England, especially for Nation as he lived and carved out his freelance writing in addition to his fifteen plus years on and off in association with WHO and the Daleks.

They say write what you know, and this book expertly examines just what made Terry Nation the populist writer and successful children’s novelist he would become (one of the few members of his profession known and remembered for his work, especially with the Daleks, of which he has also been mistakenly known as the man who created DOCTOR WHO!), and why his scripts continue to endure and be enjoyed, with Alwyn W. Turner’s commentary presented within a prose style that isn’t overdone but both totally accessible and informative, alongside some great interview quotes from Nation and the many remarkable and iconic men and women in the film and TV industry who worked with him in so many creative circles.

Nation at home in the early seventies with his success stories. Image: BBC.

All-in-all, the author has done a remarkable job with this book and fans of TV and DOCTOR WHO will much enjoy it. THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE DALEKS is well worth purchasing if you love the intriguing populist history of DOCTOR WHO and the Daleks, and the golden age of television!

KOOL TV RATING: 4.5 out of 5

Get the book here: The Man Who Invented the Daleks: The Strange Worlds of Terry Nation by Turner, Alwyn W. (2011) Hardcover: Amazon.co.uk: Books