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Terry Nation didn't create Davros ...

The little here sounds like he might have some sort of case, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. The Davros drawing, if it can be authenticated as prior to the show, may have some ground to stand on. However, I don't know what the terms of ownership and use of entry materials falls under. The contest wasn't a BBC hosted one according to the article, what was the status of ownership the entry materials after being submitted? Were the contest runners able to use the materials after submission? If the BBC acquired them from the contest runners, perhaps the law may say the contest runners are the ones at fault for selling or distributing materials rather than the BBC? I'm just guessing here, but I am interested to see where this goes.
 
I'm a mite suspicious, I have to say. (Even aside from the fact this is the Daily Mail! "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!":D) The fact that the sketch looks too much like the Davros as he appeared on screen, when you'd expect it to be a child's drawing that hinted at aspects of the character. The half-man half-Dalek schtick is one thing, but the head piece, the switches, the withered arm. It looks more like he sketched it while watching the telly in 1975. You'd also have to wonder how Terry Nation (not involved in the judging) would have seen the competition entries. Or the BBC designers who actually created the Davros seen on screen. Even if Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks liked the idea, and mentioned it to Nation as a possibility for his next script, would they have given him the sketch or kept it and given it to the designers? There's just far too many people involved here for it to have been so comprehensively ripped off from a child's competition entry. These sort of competitions usually have an exclusion clause in the rules that all entries become the property of Polystyle magazines, just to prevent this sort of litigation thing occurring if something vaguely similar turns up years later.
 
Yeah, it's always funny when someone makes this kind of claim 30 - 40 years after the fact.

A few years ago, someone claimed the flute part of Down Under from Men At Work was taken from some other song, 28 years after the fact :rolleyes:
 
Oh dear....Somebody just might be about to detonate a reality bomb...if that is actually true.

Unless of course the competition in question made it clear any ideas used in the show from the competition was property of the BBC...although its interesting that no mention that Davros was not solely a TN creation has ever been mentioned anywhere.

Will watch with interest to see how this pans out, and if true then.....'YOU DID THIS!!!' rants the BBC, as the court finds in favour of the plaintif. 'You are the destroyer of worlds,' the BBC declares,...

Sorry could not help myself.:p
 
The same thing happened to me, honest. When I was a kid I loved Mega Man and I sent in a bunch of drawings of new boss villains to some contest. A few years later one of the games had something exactly like my characters in it! Of course I'm pretty sure I've lost the original drawings at this point and I don't remember what kind of contest I entered into.
 
Well, the original competition (according to those who know these things ) was a "entries cannot be returned" thing, so he can't still have the original if he entered it, and the picture appears to be a tracing from a book published in 1976... *after* Genesis aired.

I call it as someone confusing memories of entering the competition (for a mag that folded decades ago, and the judges of which are dead) with drawing a pic of a liked character after enjoying Genesis three years later.

And looking for a quick buck.
 
Ar-Pharazon said:
Yeah, it's always funny when someone makes this kind of claim 30 - 40 years after the fact.

A few years ago, someone claimed the flute part of Down Under from Men At Work was taken from some other song, 28 years after the fact :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

And they won.

Sometimes things take time. It looks like the Down Under issue was more about who owned/controlled the copyright of the lifted piece of music. And the lifted piece was an older bit of music, so....

This however... is suspicious.
 
Has anyone heard of the term 'statute-barred'? In the UK, you have 3 years to issue proceedings (6 years in a breach of contract case) or, if your cause of action arose when you were a child, three years from the date of attaining your majority (ie until you're 21).

This time can be extended in a personal injuries case or if you only learn of your cause of action at a later time.

The time has long since elapsed in this man's case. This case is going nowhere.
 
There's been a lot of discussion about this now on Gallifreybase and Roobarbs, and most people are of the same opinion as me - that it's complete bollocks. Lots of evidence, including the exact competition entry rules, the original design drawings for Davros, have been brought into it. But it does boil down to the fact that the guy produces a picture that looks almost exactly like the real Davros, when the original designs were quite different only ending up with the Davros seen on screen due to being what the Visual Effects department could achieve/afford - he also says he wrote an essay called "Genesis of the Daleks" which title the serial didn't acquire until some way into the production process - when the original competition was to draw a monster to feature in the TV Action comic strip, and the entry form was in the comic featuring something like a 8-inch square box for your picture - but you weren't required to submit an essay. None of it adds up. Either he's trying it on, or he's very very confused.
 
Professor Zoom said:
And they won.

Sometimes things take time. It looks like the Down Under issue was more about who owned/controlled the copyright of the lifted piece of music. And the lifted piece was an older bit of music, so....

This however... is suspicious.
Click to expand...

It's a bullshit ruling that - while technically legal - was a moneygrab by a bunch of lawyers. If anything, the Girl Guides should be getting royalties.
 
More than 35 years later? Please....

I call shenanigans. I doubt they'll get anywhere with this.
 
At face value, there do seem to be two possibilities:1) Terrance Dicks, Barry Letts, Terry Nation AND designer James Acheson all entered into a conspiracy to exactly rip off the story title, character name and design suggested by a 12 year old kid.or 2) He's making it up.Neither of which seem wholly credible, so Lonemagpie's suggestion 3 seems far more sensible. He entered the competition, his entry wasn't returned, and he's now found something he drew and wrote later, after Genesis went out. To back up that idea, I had a look at the village pub's copy of the Mail this afternoon, and that reprints some of some pages from his story. You can only read a few lines of each page, but what is there seems very similar to the history of Davros that was in the 1976 Marks and Spencers' Dalek annual... unless that was copied from his compeition entry too!
 
Thats just so odd, as people have said it's curious that his drawing was that accurate to what eventually appeared...
 
Kestrel said:
Professor Zoom said:
And they won.

Sometimes things take time. It looks like the Down Under issue was more about who owned/controlled the copyright of the lifted piece of music. And the lifted piece was an older bit of music, so....

This however... is suspicious.
Click to expand...

It's a bullshit ruling that - while technically legal - was a moneygrab by a bunch of lawyers. If anything, the Girl Guides should be getting royalties.
Click to expand...

auntiehill said:
More than 35 years later? Please....

I call shenanigans. I doubt they'll get anywhere with this.
Click to expand...

Legitimate or not, my issue is, why do they wait 28 or 35 years to say anything about it?

In the case of Down Under, if it was about the money, why not grab it when the song is huge and the money is pouring in?

In the case of Davros, why not do this when he was much more popular, during the original run?
 
^^ Well, in this case he only uncovered the drawing recently.

While hardly conclusive or anything, that drawing paper seems awfully white for that amount of time.
 
you would think if Terry did nick the idea, he would have changed it to try and disguise the fact.
 
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