In what will be the most anticipated episode of the new series the next installment of Doctor Who sees the return of the Doctor’s oldest enemies, the Daleks.
Written by Big Finish veteran Rob Shearman episode 6 sees the Doctor and Rose become involved in the affairs of billionaire collector Henry Van Statten who, beneath the Salt Plains of Utah, holds the last Dalek in captivity.
Nick Briggs, who voices the Dalek, says it “is initially very vulnerable and suffering from a mental breakdown. He came shooting to Earth through the time-space vortex many years ago and spent God knows how long in a huge crater just screaming.”
“Now he’s in the hands of Van Statten – who has done all sorts of nasty things to him to try and make him talk – and he’s kind of gone off the rails.”
When the distressed Dalek breaks free it soon becomes a fight to the death with Rose caught in the middle.
Also appearing in the episode is former Coronation Street star Bruno Langley who plays scientist Adam Mitchell who works for Van Statten. Talking of his character’s role in the story Bruno says “his job is to research the stuff that Van Statten buys and tell him what they are.”
Explaining the writing process Rob Shearman says “the way I approached it was to focus more on the creature inside the machine, to make it a proper character who elicits our sympathy at first but then displays all its evil and cunning.”
“What Russell [T Davies, Executive Producer] has done so well is humanise the series and make it more emotional. So to have the Dalek as the Doctor’s biggest foe, it needed at least some of the depth of character that the Doctor now has in Christopher Eccleston’s portrayal.”
Dalek Facts
The Daleks were created by Terry Nation and first appeared in 1963 alongside the very first Doctor played by William Hartnell.
They returned many times during the series appearing in screen for the final time in Remembrance of the Daleks with the seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy and played an offscreen role in the 1996 television movie starring Paul McGann in which they exterminate the renegade Timelord, The Master.
Episode Six, Dalek’, airs on BBC One on Saturday 30 April at 7pm.
Link: BBC News Feature
