 "Day of the Daleks" is the first Dalek story since the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Evil of the Daleks" that ended the Season Four – so making it the first Dalek story, made for television, that depicts the Daleks in colour.
Despite the on-screen title being "Day of the Daleks" this story has been incorrectly referred to as "The Day of the Daleks". This error has occurred in many places including the Radio Times listings and on the BBC video releases.
The original storyline was written by Louis Marks and was not intended at first to be a Dalek story. It was decided to incorporate the Daleks very late in its planning stage and then as a more of a sequel to the 1964 First Doctor story "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", though in the event reference is made only to the Daleks having ‘invaded Earth again’ and it is merely implied that they have altered their own past to do so.
As production loomed it was discovered that only three complete Daleks were still retained by the BBC this meant that Director Paul Bernard was faced with considerable limitations in planning the shots of the Dalek attack on Auderly House.
All three Daleks used in this story were refurbished. Two were given a grey-and-black livery while the third was painted in gold and black. This made a change from the show's monochrome years when the superior Daleks had borne a predominantly black colour scheme while the regular Daleks were grey and blue. Hence the reason why only three Daleks appear on screen at any one time. Film editing was used to in an attempt to give the illusion that there were more than three Daleks.
To explain the return of the Daleks after their "final end" (as stated by the Second Doctor in "The Evil of the Daleks"), lines were scripted to reveal that the humanised Daleks had lost the civil war seen in "The Evil of the Daleks", placing this story after "The Evil of the Daleks" in the Daleks' own chronology. However, this scene was ultimately not filmed.
The Daleks' lackeys (referred to for much of the story's gestation as simply “Monsters”). They were neither named nor described in Louis Marks's scripts but were initially envisaged as dog-like humanoids who spoke fluent English. Director Paul Bernard however, suggested that they should be slow-speaking monstrous apes, and the race's name became ‘Ogorons’ and then ‘Ogrons’.
Nicholas Courtney (playing the part of The Brigadier) appeared, uncredited, in the reprise from the end of episode two that was shown at the beginning of in episode three.
While Nicholas Courtney, John Levene (who plays Sergeant Benton) and Richard Franklin (who plays Captain Mike Yates) had all been contracted for the entirety of Season Eight, it was decided to hire them only on a story-by-story basis during Season Nine. This approach was the same with Roger Delgado, who had also been a regular during Season Eight but would now only be contracted to play The Master for specific stories.
BBC television news reporter Alex Macintosh appears as himself in episode four.
Dalekanium is presented in this story as an unstable explosive in the alternate future. In "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", Dortmun also calls the material that the Dalek casings are made of as dalekanium. This is continued in "Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks".
Watch out for the scene, early in the first episode, where The Doctor and Jo Grant, while working on the TARDIS console, see themselves briefly appear at the entrance to The Doctor’s lab. Originally this story was to end with a scene where The Doctor and Jo went back to the lab, and saw their earlier selves working at the TARDIS console – so maintaining continuity. However, in editing, episode four was found to be overrunning and so this last scene was cut from the finished story. Terrance Dicks would later restore the scene in his Target novelisation of this story.
One notable aspect of episode four (used in a mindprobe of The Doctor) was the inclusion of photocaptions of the First and Second Doctors. This was the first visual reference to the First Doctor since "The Power of the Daleks" and The Second Doctor since his final story, "The War Games". To represent the First Doctor, two images from "An Unearthly Child" and one from "The Daleks" were selected, while pictures from "The Faceless Ones" and "The Invasion" were used to depict the Second Doctor.
Strangely this story features the TARDIS console once more outside of the TARDIS itself, as in "The Ambassadors of Death" and "Inferno" – despite it being back inside the TARDIS during the previous season.
A section of the closing title sequence appears in the background on the screen of the Daleks' mind analysis machine at the end of episode three. The first of the episode's closing credits is superimposed over this scene just before the foreground images are removed, leaving just the title sequence. The rest of the credits then follow.
This was the first of a number of stories in which the key colour used for the CSO effects was yellow rather than blue.
Episode two of this story gained an audience of 10.3 million - the first time an individual episode had exceeded ten million viewers since part three of 1965/66 First Doctor story "The Daleks' Master Plan" more than six years earlier.
This story was repeated on BBC One as a 60-minute omnibus in September 1973.
The novelisation of this story, by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in April 1974. It renames the manor from ‘Auderley House’ to ‘Austerly House’. There have been Dutch, Turkish, Japanese, Polish and Portuguese language editions. A Brazilian edition, was also published with the title "Doutor Who e a Mudança da História" ("Doctor Who and the Change in History").
This story was released on VHS and Betamax in July 1986. This was, in fact, the final Doctor Who release in the Betamax format.
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The Firsts:
The first story of Season Nine.
The first appearance of the Daleks in the show since 1967 (and the first time in colour on TV).
The first time that Jo Grant encounters the Daleks.
The first appearance of the Ogrons.
The first visual reference to the Second Doctor since "The War Games".
The first visual reference to the First Doctor since "The Power of the Daleks".
The first of a number of stories in which the key colour used for the CSO effects was yellow rather than blue.
Episode Two was the first time an individual episode had exceeded ten million viewers since part three of 1965/66 First Doctor story "The Daleks' Master Plan".
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Paul Bernard
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(Position = 82 out of 159)
(Position = 71 out of 200)
