I have been making these DIY Dalek figures for ten years, and in that time I’ve kind of avoided doing the very original design. It was a situation where I wanted to wait until my skills were honed, so when I did get round to it, I could do it justice.
This is probably the neatest and tidiest Dalek I’ve made so far, in an attempt to live up to how pristine and new they were in the episode. I’m quite happy with how it turned out, aside from some slight unevenness round the back that’s not noticeable from most angles.
The original batch of Daleks were constructed for Doctor Who by a small business called Shawcraft, and I do find myself geeking out over how much effort was put into them. Those props made on a tight budget sixty years ago had more working features in them than even the Daleks used in modern Doctor Who.
The gun had a mechanical firing mechanism, to have something real and tangible underneath the death ray effects. The sucker-cups were fitted with electromagnets, so Daleks could pick up objects and pass things between each other. There was even a camera-style contracting iris, so a Dalek could ‘squint’. Things like this are only ever done with insert shots or specially-made attachments in the modern show.
Those things were built to last, too. A couple of Shawcraft’s Dalek props were still in service as late as 1988, a full 25 years later, while younger props deteriorated around them. Even while making it easier for themselves by simplifying the design and skimping on functionality, the BBC still couldn’t duplicate the quality of construction on those very first Daleks.
On top of my admiration for the craftsmanship, I also just really like the design itself. Very sleek. While up close it’s much more intricate, from afar it still looks sleeker than what would come later. I wouldn’t necessarily call it my very favorite type of Dalek, but it’s certainly up there for me.