Evil of the Daleks history and status

[johndalton]

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere as I am new to this forum.

I fondly remember the Evil of the Daleks as one of the finest Dr Who stories ever.  I was 5 years old when it was first on.  I believe it was repeated in the months after it was first shown and I also strongly recall it being repeated on weekdays in summer 1976 or 1977.

I have looked at the page:-

missingepisodes.blogspot.co.nz/p/timeline.html

From this it would seem the master tapes wer erased in 1968-69 and that a print was recovered from Australia in 1974.  I assume it was this latter print that was used for the 1970s repeat.

No doubt like many others, I would fondly like to see this again and the Episode 2 + stills + audio doesn't satisfy!

Is it really possible that all 7 episodes could have been "junked" (ie destroyed) after the 1970s screening?  At a time when Betamax was already in existence (in the US and Japan) Auntie must have foreseen a market?  And it would be possible that someone with a Philips N1500/N1502/N1700 would have made a home recording?

I would be interested if others could share their knowledge of this.

[Richard Develyn]

Can I just ask what country you're in?

If you're in the uk, then a 1970s screening of Evil of the Daleks would be a revelation to all of us!

Richard

[johndalton]

Dec 4, 2014 13:38:35 GMT Richard Develyn said:

Can I just ask what country you're in?

If you're in the uk, then a 1970s screening of Evil of the Daleks would be a revelation to all of us!

Richard

I am in the UK and I have a very strong recollection of it.

I may be suffering from false memmory syndrome or confusing it with another story.  My recollection is however very strong.

And surely there must be some prints out there somewhere if they were returned in 1974.

[shellyharman67]

1968 was the last showing !

[Richard Bignell]

The only repeats shown in 1976 and 1977 were:

Planet of Evil #1 - Mon 5 Jul 76
Planet of Evil #2 - Tues 6 Jul 76
Planet of Evil #3 - Wed 7 Jul 76
Planet of Evil #4 - Thurs 8 Jul 76
The Sontaran Experiment (Compilation) - Fri 9 Jul 76
Pyramids of Mars (Compilation) - Sat 27 Nov 76
The Brain of Morbius (Compilation) - Sat 4 Dec 76
The Deadly Assassin #1 - Thurs 4 Aug 77
The Deadly Assassin #2 - Thurs 11 Aug 77
The Deadly Assassin #3 - Thurs 18 Aug 77
The Deadly Assassin #4 - Thurs 25 Aug 77
The Robots of Death #1-2 (Compilation) - Sat 31 Dec 77

The only Dalek material shown around that time would have been the compilation repeat of Genesis, which was shown on 27 December 1975 or perhaps the showings of the two Dalek films in 1974 and then again in 1978.

[johndalton]

I am wondering how I cam to carry around such a vivid memory of this for so long if it is not true.

[Rob Moss]

Could it be from the 1968 repeat..? Or is it possible that you were overseas when you saw it..?

[shellyharman67]

Most likely memory not correct ! As if you say it was UK....... I suspect one of the Dalek Movie films, and age

[Nicholas Fitzpatrick]

Dec 4, 2014 15:12:24 GMT johndalton said:

I am wondering how I cam to carry around such a vivid memory of this for so long if it is not true.

If you were 5 when it first aired 1967, you'd be 6 when it repeated.

I certainly vividly remember some television from when I was 6! Heck, 5 even. Your probably confusing when you saw it, rather than what you saw.

[James Anderson]

The book wiped says this story was a repeat on bbc 1 in 1968

[Patrick Coles]

'Evil of The Daleks' was only repeated just once in 1968, it was shown again right after 'The Wheel in Space' story with a special 'intro' scene where The Doctor & Jamie discover Zoe hiding in a basket to stowaway in the Tardis

- The Doctor then puts on some headphones & we see a Dalek exterminate a man on the Tardis scanner....The Doctor wants to explain to Zoe the dangers she might be facing if she chooses to travel with them and thus he 'relates' the earlier 'Evil of The Daleks' adventure (supposedly on the Tardis scanner) which we then go into a complete repeat of for the next six weeks - this scenario is not picked up on at the end however as we just go into the following season after that with Zoe now a regular character....

I don't ever recall the 'Evil of...' story being repeated therafter on UK TV which as a black & white story featuring a previous Doctor would have (then) been very unlikely in the colour TV era of later Doctors Jon Pertwee & Tom Baker...

[johnstewart]

Seem to recall reading that the 1967 broadcast was from 405 line V/T and that for the c June ( ? ) 1968 repeat the tapes were copied over to 625 line? The opening was apparently re edited to accommodate the recap from the end of 'wheel in space'. That all may be wrong but it's what I read 9some time ago). At least that's one more possible chance as tape duplicates were apparently made. The can on the existing episode indicates that T/R film copies were taken later in the year of broadcast (1967). It's on record that the BBC began destroying the film prints in 1972 beginning with 'The Dalek Masterplan' amongst others. Not sure about when the tapes were wiped (1969) ? Often not all the tapes were wiped in one go sometimes up to three passes were made and some masters survived late. I.E. oddments from 'The Invasion' and 'Fury from the deep' were still on the shelves in 1971. The prints of 'Evil of the Daleks' were still available on the BBCs sales list in 1974 after which I believe they were withdrawn. Presumably they were then released for junking 1975-76 though the oddment recovered episode 2 was still in the film library in 1976 reportedly. It's not clear whether that was never destroyed at all or a returned oddment from the Australian prints sent back to the BBC in 1975 which was supposed to have included some (incomplete) material from the story. It was in my opinion the best Troughton story though at it's time of junking the programme had not been considered for archiving as such. Apparently Barry Letts was consulted in view of the department keeping one or two examples here and there; and what he considered to be good examples. He recommended 'The Daemons' though as it turned out the tapes that appeared to be held were 'Day of the Daleks', 'The Three Doctors', 'Carnival of monsters' and 'Green Death'. The final Pertwee season was held on tape probably right up to the end of the junkings in 1977 as rights to sale were still valid. 'Invasion of the dinosaurs' episode 1 was wiped by accident as technicians thought it was an episode of the Troughton 'Invasion' story which had been released by then. For the same reason no Tom Baker Who was junked. Apart from 'Spearhead' which was made on film most of the first two Pertwees masters had been wiped. 'The Sea Devils' was only partially wiped probably because the masters were accessed and moved to compile the end of year repeat, possibly also why the Daemons oddment survived. There seemed to be no decision to actually keep any complete pre 1970 stories. All that was kept were most of those transmitted as telerecordings and odd viewing prints someone; producers or projection preview wanted kept to show what the programme was like at that time. But there was no set policy for that type of show. In terms of whether a show was something of an well made epic like 'Evil' or something less spectacular like 'Enemy of the world' didn't really make any difference for that type of show as there was no policy to archive select it bar what I stated. Long winded answer but I hope it helps.

[George D]

Mar 9, 2015 21:37:58 GMT johnstewart said:

It was in my opinion the best Troughton story

I tend to agree, however tomb, web of fear enemy of the world and others are also iconic.

From evil to fury, we had a very impressive run with my only disappointment being the first ice warriors story.

[johnstewart]

Mar 10, 2015 0:34:32 GMT George D said:

Mar 9, 2015 21:37:58 GMT johnstewart said:

It was in my opinion the best Troughton story

I tend to agree, however tomb, web of fear enemy of the world and others are also iconic.

From evil to fury, we had a very impressive run with my only disappointment being the first ice warriors story.

I like 'Enemy of the world' now but at the time it was really a story; I think; mainly geared towards balancing the budget after they had lost the historicals. To be fair it's maybe a matter of taste. I really liked the first Ice Warriors story which intrigued me. You have to remember also not all very small kids were good at locking their attention to action adventure that didn't move fast or feature monsters. My Brother for example was in the 13-15 age range to whom 'Enemy' and 'Freewheelers' would appeal with their James Bond influence.

[johnstewart]

Dec 4, 2014 13:03:42 GMT johndalton said:

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere as I am new to this forum.

I fondly remember the Evil of the Daleks as one of the finest Dr Who stories ever.  I was 5 years old when it was first on.  I believe it was repeated in the months after it was first shown and I also strongly recall it being repeated on weekdays in summer 1976 or 1977.

I have looked at the page:-

missingepisodes.blogspot.co.nz/p/timeline.html

From this it would seem the master tapes wer erased in 1968-69 and that a print was recovered from Australia in 1974.  I assume it was this latter print that was used for the 1970s repeat.

No doubt like many others, I would fondly like to see this again and the Episode 2 + stills + audio doesn't satisfy!

Is it really possible that all 7 episodes could have been "junked" (ie destroyed) after the 1970s screening?  At a time when Betamax was already in existence (in the US and Japan) Auntie must have foreseen a market?  And it would be possible that someone with a Philips N1500/N1502/N1700 would have made a home recording?

I would be interested if others could share their knowledge of this.

In addition to episode 2 of course there are also some other clips from the story. Part of the special effects model shots for the city exists somewhere. Someone mentioned this was something to do with designer Micheal John Harris. Whether it was him or Ian levine that retrieved , I was told part of the original film was found in a drawer at the Dr Who production office in the early seventies. According to collector Mick Hall, a member of staff had been breaking pieces off over time to use as a toothpick; or so he heard. The fragment that remained was saved but doesn't amount to that much. It consists of 'trim'; (part of unused footage; where a technicians hand pulls back a toy Dalek before letting it go for the actual take, then a small section of the take. The Dalek was one of two Louis Marx tricky action Dalek toys used in the model scenes. One was in silver livery one in black with silver or gold waistbands. Ironically neither quite look like their full size counterparts. It was cost effective but the Dalek has a longer flatter topped head, and the waistbands lack the slats present from 'The Chase' onwards.

The other material available is the lovely short private 'behind the scenes' film made by cameraman Tony Cornell at the time. This didn't come to light for years as it was in a privately owned collection and was privately shot. It shows the scenes that were filmed at Ealing for the end of the story. This revolves around the model of the city, seen on a table with technicians setting it up; and the Dalek Emperor room during the final battle.

Though not all the shots are seen from the same angle as they appeared onscreen; some of which I recall as electronic camerawork; many are from actual takes. The blowing up of the emperor, and some of an exploding silver Dalek. There are some shots of the lid bursting off the Dalek onto the floor with wires dangling out of the brain I recall that aren't present. But it's a comprehensive pocketbook of what went out in the final episode. This footage appears on several BBC DVDs as extras. Can't recall offhand which but I know it appeared on the first DVD vesrion of TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN before it was VidFired. Hope this info helps.