Terry Nation Army

was an independent documentary series about the behind-the-scenes history of the Daleks on television. It was masterminded by Gavin Rymill and Jon Green, being a spin-off of the Dalek63•88 reference website and released on its official YouTube channel.
Series 1 (comprising six episodes around 20 minutes in length) was released over the month of July 2019 on YouTube,http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/terry-nation-army-series-one/ having been announced in June.http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/terry-nation-army/ Eight additional "unbound" episodes were released following Series 1's conclusion, spanning the period from 12 August 2019 to 28 February 2020. These "Specials & Bonus Videos", as they were labeled, focused on tangential aspects of the history of 1960s Doctor Who.http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/terry-nation-army-extra/ These episodes later would be retroactively incorporated into Series 1. Series 2 was comprised of eight episodes, releasing from April to December 2022. Series 3 began releasing in May 2023.
A series of Youtube shorts under the name of Terry Nation Army Shorts, focusing on single events of Dalek prop history, began releasing in September 2022 and are around one minute in length.
Although not licensed by the BBC, the series featured participation by many people involved in the production of official Doctor Who media, such as Jonathan Morris. It also developed a partnership of sorts with Big Finish, who timed a special promotion on The Masters of Luxor with the release of the Terry Nation Army episode The Failed Dalek Rivals, which ended by advertising said promotion. 
== List of episodes ==
=== Series 1 ===
# 	Name 	Subject 	Credits	Release date
1 	Camber's Dalek Disaster Documentary 	"In this episode we discuss how an epic failure during a location shoot resulted in the construction of an ingenious prop which still survives today. And we reveal a previously unknown fact about The Daleks' Master Plan special effects work." 	 	1 July 2019
2 	The Mystery of Terry Nation's Special Daleks 	"In this episode, we explore the distant origins of one of the most unusual Daleks to appear on TV: the Supreme in Planet of the Daleks. We explain how Terry Nation came to own the Supreme and three other movie props, and we discover their true genesis to discover they are not actually movie Daleks after all." 	 	8 July 2019
3 	Making Of Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. at Shepperton (Part 1/2) 	"Behind the scenes making the second Peter Cushing movie. How Shepperton Studios' standing set and backlot were used, and how the historic grounds became featured in Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD." 	 	15 July 2019
4 	Making of Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. at Shepperton (Part 2/2) 	"In the concluding half of our investigations into the filming of the Dalek Invasion at Shepperton Studios, we piece together the timeline at the end of production to reveal a desperate scramble to reassemble the set and film some decent Dalek footage." 	 	22 July 2019
5 	The Lost Colour 1960s Dalek Episodes 	"This week's episode looks at two lost Dalek productions, neither of which were actually Doctor Who episodes. A pilot episode of a Dalek spinoff series which Terry Nation tried to launch, and we look at how the paperwork may - or may not - have influenced Doctor Who. And the Out of the Unknown episode called Get Off My Cloud, which featured the Daleks in a dreamworld, but is lost from the archives." 	 	30 July 2019
6 	How Did A Crime Create the Dalek Supreme? 	"This week we look at the influences behind the introduction of 'one of the Supreme Council" in Planet of the Daleks, and the thefts which happened before production which nearly derailed the whole process." 	 	5 August 2019
7 	What Really Happened to the Movie TARDIS and Other Boxes 	“The movie TARDIS which is used ‘Dr. Who and the Daleks’ was probably built for that production, in 1965. The same prop was used again in ‘Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD’, the following year. Although it isn’t perfect … it’s the best of a bad bunch.” 	 	12 August 2019
8 	The Failed Dalek Rivals: Mechonoid Designs Rejected and Deleted Robots from The Chase 	“The Mechonoids were large geodesic polyhedric robots which made their one and only screen appearance at the end of the Doctor Who serial ‘The Chase’ in 1965. … However, unlike the Daleks, Terry Nation had carefully described the exact shape of his new robots, yet what he asked for was not what ended up on screen. He also devised another potentially marketable toy to appear in ‘The Chase’, which was omitted from the final program. So, what were the reasons he didn’t get the robots he asked for?, how were they eventually built?, and does one of them still survive today?”. 	 	14 October 2019
9 	Mechonoid Script Mistakes and Prop Mysteries Solved - Mission Recon & Merch Bonus Info	“To begin with, when and why did the name change from Mechon to Mechonoid?, and how did the wrong name make it to screen? To understand what happened, we need to follow the production process from script to screen.” 	 	22 October 2019
10	How Remembrance of the Daleks was Fixed in the Edit 	“The raw location footage from the 1988 serial ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ provides a wealth of information about the production process, including revealing one big change that had to be made to the ending. The alteration was needed because of certain decisions during recording, which resulted in several shots having to be dropped from the final episode because they no longer made sense. In this episode, we’ll look through some interesting clips from episode four, reconstruct the problematic scene as it was written, and show why it had to be fixed in the edit.” 	 	30 October 2019
11	The Original Ending of Dalek Invasion of Earth and its Problematic Monster Costume 	“In the 1964 television serial ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, there were too closely linked elements which both changed considerably from draft script to screen. In Terry Nation’s original draft, a pack of alien creatures from the Daleks’ home planet patrol the vast expanse known as ‘The Abyss’. The monsters, called ‘Slithers’, were conceived by the writer to look a particular way, but were then realised quite differently, and then hastily redesigned mid-production. Plus, a completely different version was conceived with a surprising appearance, but it was never implemented. So, what were all these alternative versions of the monster?, why is the no mention of the abyss that it roamed in the final TV episode?, and what does any of this have to do with an eighteenth-century book about English plants?”.	 	8 November 2019
12	Dalek Guns in The Mandalorian EXPLAINED and Other Dr Who Stuff in Star Wars 	“If you’re a Doctor Who fan with a very keen eye for detail, then episode one of the new Disney + series ‘The Mandalorian’ provides one moment which might just stop you in your tracks. When The Mandalorian’s weapons cabinet is opened, there’s a DL21 blaster inside, and included in that design is a nozzle that looks identical to those seen in a Doctor Who serial from 1974. But before you write this off as a coincidence, after all propmakers often used real world parts in their creations, there’s more to this story that meets the eye. And we can prove that this is no coincidence, and that Dalek guns are genuinely linked to the Star Wars universe.” 	 	14 November 2019
13	Doctor Who's Weird 1965 Christmas Special 	“Doctor Who’s first ever Christmas special was an episode named ‘The Feast of Steven’, broadcast on Christmas Day 1965. It was also Doctor Who’s last Christmas special for 40 years. … So how did this unusual episode come about?, how did the production team originally intend to incorporate real Hollywood legends into the episode, and who really wrote it?”. 	 	25 December 2019
14	When The Doctor Was a Human Who Invented the TARDIS 	“It may be surprising to learn, that in the early years of Doctor Who, there was no consensus on the origin of The Doctor or his time machine. When Terry Nation came to write ‘Section Dalek Three’, eventually called ‘The Chase’, it was clear in his mind that The Doctor had built the TARDIS himself. And it seemed he was probably just an ordinary man from the future. Some of these clues actually survive into the broadcast version, but some were edited out. One particular lost piece of dialogue shone on a spotlight on The Doctor’s own people, a people who we discover were not necessarily aliens at all. “ 	 	28 February 2020
=== Series 2 ===
#	Name 	Subject 	Credits	Release date
1	Time Television: Lost Lore and Design Development 	“In this third Dalek serial, Nation characterised The Doctor as an inventor who rustled up all manner of useful gadgets such as this unspecified explosive, plus the TARDIS magnet, and the time path detector, not to mention constructing the time machine itself. But in this episode, we are taking a look at one particular gadget that The Doctor invented which sheds light on the troubling god-like power of The Doctor’s own race, and leaves us pondering extremely disturbing implications about The Doctor’s many victories over his enemies.” 	 	28 April 2022
2	Movie Daleks Cross into the TV Series: An Expensive Failure 	“Since Doctor Who’s very first adventure featuring the Daleks, TV directors have always searched for ways to create the illusion that there were more Dalek props available than actually existed at the BBC. … back in the 1960s, there was one unusual occasion when the Doctor Who team at the BBC turned to a rival production company to help them solve the dwindling Dalek dilemma. But a series of unfortunate events resulted in a chaotic situation and an end result which heaped misfortune on an already shaky production.” 	 	19 May 2022
3	The Secret Life of the Bizarre Blowtorch Dalek 	“Part of the original fascination behind the Daleks, was that Terry Nation conceived of them not as maniacal invading monster, although that certainly came later, buts scientists and inventors living in a city which was decorated with sculptures and normal shops selling foodstuffs. The retail of the Daleks didn’t make it to screen, but in the final script they remained curious and resourceful beings. … This is the sizzling and somewhat surprising story of the bizarre blowtorch Dalek.” 	 	7 July 2022
4	Unseen 1967 Dalek Home Movie Discovery! Viewer Film Analysed 	“Following our plea for home movies from the 1960s, we’re delighted to have been offered an extremely rare piece of footage from the personal archive of Andrew Kirwan. In this episode, we’ll dive into the Dalek diaries from the 1960s to try to find out how a prop came to be wandering the streets of Oxfordshire on a strangely charitable mission.” 	 	26 July 2022
5	The Lost Filming Location from Talons and How it Looks Today 	“Doctor Who, like any television shot using real locations, is a time capsule of the world in which it was created. The Season 14 serial ‘The Talons Weng-Chiang’ used several streets in London to effectively recreated the Victorian period. But the places were chosen because they were deserted and decaying, as a result of their condition, they were soon either demolished or heavily restructured into the Thames-side tourist trap they are today. … So, using detailed comparisons between screen grabs and old photos, let’s travel back to the London of the 1890, which was really the London of the 1970s, to explore the alleyways of ‘The Clink’, and enlist the help of Sherlock Holmes to find exactly where the TARDS landed.” 	 	7 September 2022
6	The DALEK-TARDIS Disaster! Why was the "DARDIS" created and what went wrong? 	“The word ‘DARDIS’ is not a typo, the term has been used occasionally over the years to refer to the Daleks’ time machine that appeared in the 1960s serials ‘The Chase’ and ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. The exterior of the craft in its original form, was designed to be a clever optical illusion, but due to poor development and bad directing, its appearance onscreen was an abject failure. … At face value, the DARDIS in ‘The Chase’ was devised to generate drama the pursuit element of the plot, however, the real reason for its creation was Terry Nation had a greater problem to tackle. So, join us as we unravel the production problems of the villain’s time machine, and delve into the disaster of the Daleks’ DARDIS.” 	 	23 September 2022
7	How BBC Bosses Sabotaged Nation's Dalek Spy Thriller: The Original Master Plan	“Relatively early in Doctor Who’s history, Terry Nation decided that the Daleks were a worthy advisory to make them the only other race in the galaxy that were capable of time travel. Their time machine was introduced in ‘The Chase’, but giving the Daleks time travel capabilities made them almost too powerful, so, when Terry Nation came to plan his next serial ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, there would be no more hoping through history, the adventure would be grounded in a single realistic setting inspired by a sensational new cinematic franchise. … When the second version of the time vessel was constructed, there were some extremely intriguing details in the props and scenery inside. But what was the disaster that happened in storage that forced the production team into the kind of gigantic continuity error which we love to examine?”. 	 	28 October 2022
8	A History of the Special Weapons Dalek Props on and off Screen 	“For Doctor Who’s 25th season, writer Ben Aaronovitch was given the task of creating a story which make the Daleks a more powerful threat than they had been in recent years. His script described ambitious exciting elements such as a floating Howitzer bearing platform which accompanied the Imperial Dalek attack squad London. He also suggest that normal Daleks could have a special weapon which fired around corners like a homing missile. These two powerful creations were to overcome the Renegade forces as they looked to gain the upper hand in the Dalek Civil War. But for Doctor Who’s budget in the 1980s , this weapons platform was too ambitious. However, with a newly developed construction process, and borrowing some items normally found in a garden shed, a completely new type of Dalek was created, and one which would eventually return to the 11th and 12th Doctors’ eras. But as ever with Dalek prop history, there’s lots of twists and turns along the way.”	 	10 December 2022
=== Series 3 ===
#	Name 	Subject 	Credits	Release date
1	The Seven Classic Daleks in the Asylum - Complete Histories Uncovered 	“‘Asylum of the Daleks’ did indeed feature designs from past decades of Doctor Who, and in fact there were seven classic era props on screen, but the 21st century bronze Daleks still took centre stage, and with the set heavily fogged, the lighting low, everything sprayed with dirt and then the final gradin of the image, it was often a challenge to tell the props apart. But since Dalek spotting is in our top three leisure activities, and we like a challenge, there’s some fun to be had trying to work out which props are which despite all the hindrances. And the most intriguing Dalek designs hiding in the gloom, are those from the classic series, making them the target of this investigation. So, join us in the dank recesses of the Dalek asylum as we reveal the spooky secrets of the prison for Daleks who are too bonkers even for Daleks.” 	 	31 May 2023
2	The BBC Borrowed Six Bronze Daleks for The Asylum ... and the result was chaos 	“There is a mystery to solve inside the Dalek Asylum, something doesn’t add up, both literally and figuratively – some of these Daleks just don’t belong here. The production of ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ assembled an unprecedented thirty props, as we saw more of Skaro society and its dirty secrets than ever before – although if we’re talking dirty, Moffat’s next Dalek adventure would take the cake, but that’s for another time. The hype for the Series 7 episode surrounded the classic era Daleks, and in a previous video we identified and explained each of those seven retro designs, but there’s far more to the asylum which just arguing over whether it met the criteria of having every Dalek ever. For this production, in addition to those seven classic Daleks, the BBC had eleven of their own bronze style casings plus six new paradigms, but if you’re quick off the mark with your maths, that’ll only bring you to twenty-four in total. So, that leaves six mystery bronze Daleks unaccounted for that did not belong to the BBC. If they weren’t the property of the Doctor Who TV show, what is the origin of this hexadic hoard – hexadic means six apparently. When we eventually solved the mystery, the different owners of these weird Daleks, we were saddened to discover the fate of one and extremely baffled by the characteristics of some others. So, beware if you’re keen on continuity making sense, then hold tight because the occupants of the asylum are about to drive you insane.”	 	22 June 2023
3	How a Doctor Who Serial was Shaped by Jack the Ripper - Talons of Weng-Chiang Analysed	“There’s no denying that the 1977 Doctor Who serial ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ borrows heavily from fiction, from the costumes and mystery of a Sherlock Holmes adventure to the villainy and aesthetics of Fu Manchu. But there’s a darker influence which permeates this family TV serial, a genre of ghoulish storytelling about real life which has resulted in a character whose presence in fiction creates ripples of taboo excitement. And whilst undoubtedly the story owes a lot to Phantom of the Opera, there were actually real life events that predated the novel that concerned grizzly findings in tunnels beneath a forgotten music venue. So, let us walk the streets of the genuine Victorian London of 1888, and explore their subterranean levels to discover how this tea time adventure series connects to the harrowing reality of Whitechapel during the Autumn of Terror, and the figure who tormented it.” 	 	5 July 2023
4	The Crazy Cataloguing of the BBC’s Colossal Dalek Army (2005-2012) 	“When Russel T Davies brought back Doctor Who in 2005, he did so with a keen awareness that the budget would need to be managed carefully. This thinking is exemplified with the Dalek props, where he thought that if they push the boat out and build perhaps three real Daleks, then a split-screen could be used to make it up to six or nine, and this suggestion was written up in his script for ‘Bad Wolf’ and ‘The Parting of the Ways’. But fast forward seven years and by the time the cameras rolled on ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, split-screen effects were no longer being used to boost the number of Daleks in these shots. … So, come with us now on a journey through time and space as we learn about the ‘Swiss cheese’ Daleks in their peculiar parliament, and their lacerated leaders hiding in the dingy dungeon.” 	 	28 September 2023
=== Shorts ===
#	Name 	Subject 	Credits	Release date
1	Daleks support the Tories? 	A Dalek appeared at an event with a Tory MP. 	 	30 September 2022
2	Was this Dalek suit that rare? 	The availability of the Scorpion Automotives Dalek suit. 	 	1 May 2023
3	When the King and Queen met the Daleks 	King Charles III and Queen Camilla's visit to Roath Lock Studios in July 2013. 	 	6 May 2023
4	Russel T Davies' own screen used Dalek! 	A brief history of the Dalek casing owned by Russel T Davies. 	 	24 July 2023
5	The Dalek that saved lives 	A Dalek funfair attraction was used as a crash mat when a chair lift collapsed in Skegness in July 1987. 	 	20 September 2023
6	Why did this BBC Dalek not appear in Power of the Daleks.	A Dalek casing was used at a television exhibition in Northern Ireland, instead of filming for 'The Power of the Daleks'.	 	13 October 2023
== Trivia ==
The name "Terry Nation Army" is a reference to the song "" by American rock band .
== Footnotes ==
Category:Documentary series
Category:2019 documentaries
Category:2020 documentaries
Category:2022 documentaries
Category:2023 documentaries