The Chase

"Doctor Who and the Retarded Daleks", "Doctor Who vs Doctor Who", "The Dalek Invasion of Time"

"The One with the Almost Identical Giant Man" (USA), "Journey into the Voyage of Deadly Adventure in Space and Time Dimensions" (Terry Nation's first draft)

Doctor Who is chased by some incompetent Daleks who are intent on killing him badly.

*** - It's a messy old mess and no mistake. It is redeemed only by... I can't actually finish this sentence. Sorry.

"Aridius ? What a bloody stupid name for a wet planet. Tempting fate - that's what you retards did" (William Hartnell would re-record this as "Arrow… ridius ? Wah-what a stupid name for a wet janet hmm ? Tempting fail - that's what you rah-retards did, no I don't suppose you did" before it was cut).

"You'll end up as a cinder floating around in pants"

In six weeks Daleks went from feared killers to cuddly monsters and it's the millionaire Terry Nation's fault.

One enterprising fan recently edited the famous “Pakistani Dalek” from Spike Milligan’s Q series into part four of The Chase and, amazingly, the story was unaffected. Six of the nine fans shown the updated version didn’t notice the addition (even though it was in colour).

Peter Purves appears three times in this story – once as Morton Dill, once as Steven Taylor and once as Hywel Bennett.

The Mechanoids were named after an encyclopaedia spine – MECH to NOID

Terry Nation was quoted in 1969 saying “I keep using the encyclopaedia spine gag and you suckers keep believing me”.

Drat.

A Mechanoid spin-off was mooted for six minutes in 1967 until someone realised it was the worst idea in TV history. An honour it held until 1985’s Bottle Boys with Robin Asquith.

The panda – HiFi – was one of a number of home entertainment inspired animals on children’s TV at the time. Who can forget “Stereogram” (Blue Peter cat), Play School’s short lived dolly “Colour Telly” and the sequel to Muffin the Mule “Film Projector the Donkey”

The decision to use Steven as a companion was a back up plan after Morton Dill was deemed too expensive (Terry Nation wanted his normal fee plus a life-time parking space at Television Centre).

Si Hunt

"I recall an occasion when I was called upon to address a gathering of "Doctor Who" purchasers at a memorabilia convention in one of those grotty Northern cities who sold their charm in an attempt to be more like London. I was extolling the virtues of the first "Dalek" tin - which has sadly not appreciated in value as much as I assured my accountant it would when I persuaded him to invest 25% of his company's pension fund in "Doctor Who" video cassette rarities. A prole joined in the question and answer session, in the former capacity naturally as he was only a member of lower caste, and speculated that Story R was an appallingly made piece of entertainment. "Don't be pathetically stupid" I quipped, "Story R is a gift from the god that I as a rational and sensible man am not so idiotic as to waste my time believing in. It is six productions which, in addition to generating literally thousands of hours of historical research, also allows us to indulge in our other great passion - criticising everything. Unlike you subnormal peasants, I am learned enough to criticise every single detail of shows such as this without ever being in danger of over stepping the mark and being violently accosted in a dark alley by Terrance Nation's agent and three of his henchmen. I told them as much back in 1995 and they withdrew hastily once they heard the ambulance's sirens."

Incompetence is Bliss

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