CONQUER AND DESTROY!

WHILE THE DOCTOR’S AWAY, HER ARCH ENEMIES WILL PLAY… THE PRODUCERS BEHIND THE THRILLING NEW DALEKS! ANIMATED SERIES PREPARE THE BATTLEFIELD

- WILL SALMON

ONCE UPON A TIME, THE DALEKS had empires. The children of Skaro conquered whole galaxies from their fleets of saucers, all led by the mighty, golden-domed Dalek Emperor. They battled Monstrous and Mechanoids, conquered the Archives of Phryne, and finally set their eyestalks on invading Earth… Of course, none of that happened on screen. While Doctor Who has filled out the backstory of its first and best monster (most notably in 1975’s bleakly brilliant “Genesis Of The Daleks”), it hasn’t spent too much time on what they get up to when the Time Lord isn’t around. Instead, much of the lore surrounding them came from the printed page, in Terry Nation’s Dalek Special and in the TV Century 21 comic strips.

All of that changes with Daleks! – a new CGI animation launching online in November. With not a TARDIS in sight, it follows the pernicious pepperpots as they do what they do best: rampage across the galaxy conquering, exterminating and getting into scraps with enemies old and new.

COSMIC ADVENTURES

“It’s all about the Daleks being the most Daleky Daleks that they could possibly be,” says the series’ writer James Goss down a crackly line in early October. SFX has just seen episode one, while the remaining four-inch towards completion in an animation studio, somewhere in Salford.

“My Doctor Who as a kid was the 1960s