Monday, July 1, 2013

Anatomy of the Dalek!

 
Clipped from Wikipedia: The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. The Daleks were conceived by science-fiction writer Terry Nation and first appeared in the 1963 Doctor Who serial The Daleks, in the shells designed by Raymond Cusick.

Within the programme narrative, Daleks are cyborgs made from their original forms, extraterrestrial Kaleds from the planet Skaro, genetically modified and integrated within a tank-like robotic mechanical shell. They were created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals. During a conflict with the Time Lords, the Daleks were almost completely killed off. This took place off-screen between the 1996 television movie and 2005 revived series, and was a plot point in several episodes. The Daleks are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse. Various storylines portray them as having had every emotion removed except hate, leaving them with a desire to purge the Universe of all non-Dalek life. Collectively they are the greatest enemies of the series' protagonist, the Time Lord known as the Doctor. They are popularly known for their catchphrase "Exterminate!" and are a well-recognised reference in British popular culture.

In 1999 a Dalek appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture, photographed by Lord Snowdon. In 2010, readers of science fiction magazine SFX voted the Dalek as the all-time greatest monster, beating out competition including Japanese movie monster Godzilla and J. R. R. Tolkien's Gollum, of The Lord of the Rings.


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