BBC & Big Finish team-up for 'Time Lord Victorious' project
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Sounds like the New Adventures, where they often talked about the Daleks and told stories on the periphery of the Dalek Wars, and Bernice Summerfield grew up with trauma from the wars and Ace went off for a few subjective years and came back as a hardened veteran Dalek slayer, but they were never allowed to have a Dalek actually appear in a story. The Daleks were basically like Norm's wife Vera on Cheers (or Maris on Frasier -- wow, did I ever notice before that the original and spinoff both used the same running gag?).
I didn't know that. I know rights worked differently in England and the creators of that kind of stuff get more rights than in the US, but I had assumed everything related to DW would still be included in the DW rights. So does that mean they have to get separate rights for every single character, alien, and concept that they take from the show?
Hell, back when the show first came back, there was a very real possibility the show itself wouldn't be allowed to use the Daleks. The rights to the Daleks were finally granted at the eleventh hour, at a point where RTD had already created a new race which was in concept designs to be the enemy the Time Lords fought against in the Time War. That race ended up being used in season 3, the Toclafane.
But yes, a good majority of the aliens and even certain characters in Doctor Who are owned by the writers who created them, which is why you often see a special notation in the episode credits about this race or character created by whoever. In most cases though, it's a simple act of requesting permission and getting it granted as a formality, though there have been a few cases of the BBC getting in trouble for using something without the creator's permission, most notably Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, though I understand an accord has since been reached there.
The main reason there's been so much hesitation regarding the Daleks is that Terry Nation and his estate have been notoriously difficult to work with regarding right to the Daleks. Basically, they know they have the keys a very popular and identifiable part of British pop culture and that BBC will jump through whatever hoops imaginable to use the Daleks.
Depends. I know one reason why Daleks were rarely used in the Doctor Who novels is because Terry Nation actually insisted that half of what the author was paid for writing the book be turned over to him. Understandably, not a lot went for that arrangement, though there were a few who did.
At one stage they did a complete run through on Australian TV (pre 2005) but had to skip the Dalek eps because there was a rights fight going on with the nation estate.
just a pity that that the nation estate is able to hold so much sway given that he was only a partial creator (anyone really think the daleks would work so well without their design?).
In the early 2000s, Big Finish were able to negotiate a license for the Daleks with the Terry Nation estate that was affordable for them. One of the reasons for that is they (read: Nick Briggs) wanted to do Dalek stories unconnected from Doctor Who, and the Nation estate was amenable to that. Terry Nation had tried to sell NBC a Dalek series in the late 1960s; I sometimes think of an alternate history were Daleks and Star Trek are shown back-to-back.
The BBC had more difficulty in 2004, as The Wormhole says above. They were pissed about two things. Terry Nation hadn't been happy with "Remembrance of the Daleks" in 1988, and I've heard the he issued his estate a directive to not work with the BBC on Dalek appearances in the future. (Big Finish was fine; they weren't the Beeb.) And, the Dalek cameo in Looney Tunes Back in Action wasn't authorized by them. It's long been my opinion that the reason they relented in their stance in 2004 was that they realized that the Daleks weren't exploitable outside of Doctor Who and if the RTD series were a success without the Daleks their property would be devalued.
One of my favorite stories of Terry Nation and the Dalek rights involves Doctor Who Magazine, though I think it was Doctor Who Weekly at the time. Steve Moore and Steve Dillon introduced a new character to the Doctor Who universe, Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer. (If you're unfamiliar with the character, he's basically Snake Pliksson from Escape from New York with a chainsaw that can cut through Dalekanium.) In one story, the magazine's rights to use the Daleks lapsed, so Ablsom Daak fought Kill-Mechs, who were exactly like the Daleks but looked and talked nothing like them. And in the next issue, Daak was back fighting the Daleks. Years later when it was reprinted in a Marvel graphic novel, the Kill-Mechs were replaced with Daleks.
What were his objections, if I may so boldly ask?
LOL.
That was hilarious! DW stories I never knew that I needed to know.
One issue he had that I remember hearing about, Terry Nation completely lost it over the existence of a Special Weapons Dalek, feeling it to be redundant given Daleks are already armed with the most powerful weapons imaginable.
To be fair, I always thought the way the Special Weapons Dalek was presented was rather silly. Two opposing Dalek forces are fighting each other, shooting back and forth but never hitting each other. Then one side tosses in the towel and declares it's time to call in the "Special Weapons Dalek." We get a two minute sequence of a fancy Dalek with a huge cannon rolling along as very distinctly sounding 1980s background music plays. This Dalek then fires its huge cannon, instantly obliterating the opposing side. Still, if that's all the issue Nation had, it's a bit of an overreaction.
This one I'm not 100% sure of its accuracy, though another story I've heard is that Nation was supposed to have veto authority over the script, which he tried to exercise to remove the scene with the Dalek hovering up the stairs, but the scene stayed in over his objections.
That would have been a hell of a pairing. Or even better, they could have had the Daleks on Star Trek.In the early 2000s, Big Finish were able to negotiate a license for the Daleks with the Terry Nation estate that was affordable for them. One of the reasons for that is they (read: Nick Briggs) wanted to do Dalek stories unconnected from Doctor Who, and the Nation estate was amenable to that. Terry Nation had tried to sell NBC a Dalek series in the late 1960s; I sometimes think of an alternate history were Daleks and Star Trek are shown back-to-back.
T
Yeah, as popular as the Daleks are in Dr. Who, I can't really see them doing quite as well by themselves.
Not to mention, the fans probably would have started getting frustrated if they never were on the new show.
That's funny.
The special weapons dalek probably suffered from the BBC budget. Could image if the daleks were to build such a unit it would be huge fucker of a Dalek that would be used to break any stalemates.
Guess he missed the bit in the earlier story when the Doctor mocked the daleks for not being able to climb stairs. And lets face it - for plantery conquest involving surface fighting, the daleks aren't that well designed
Quite the contrary, that was his problem, Dalek's aren't supposed to be able to climb stairs, according to Nation, and they should only have limited, assisted flight abilities, like those discs we saw them using in Planet of the Daleks.
I can only imagine how he'd react these days to seeing Daleks flying all over the place.
Its a good thing Terry Nation is not in charge of the Daleks anymore. Guy knew dick.
I’m imagining Terry sitting watching all those tired old stand-up comedy routines about the Daleks being defeated by stairs and nodding approvingly.
So he objected to the Special Weapons Dalek because he thought your common-or-garden Dalek was already the ultimate killing machine... yet at the same time, he objected to the levitating Dalek because he thought Daleks should be too limited to handle anything but a flat surface. O-kayyyy...
It beggars belief.
Honestly, though. It sounds to me more like Nation was jealous of the attention that Remembrance was getting than anything else.
Honestly, all the stories I've heard about Terry Nation make him sound less like he cared about the artistic integrity of how the Daleks should be presented, and more about being in a position where he could be as contrarian and difficult as he pleased, and he therefore milked that for all it was worth, even managing to continue to do so from beyond the grave.
