Colony of the Daleks

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***Colony of the Daleks*** is a *Doctor Who* non-profit fan-film, written, directed, edited by and starring Astile Doherty. It was release on 8 August 2020. The video is dedicated to William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor from 1963 to 66, and died on 23 April 1975.

## Synopsis

After finally repairing the TARDIS and taking off, the Doctor lands his shapeshifting time machine (now in the form of a wardrobe) within a countryside house in Somerset, 2003. This isn't an ordinary nice house though; it holds a dark secret - an underground colony full of Daleks plotting to eradicate the Earth once and for all!

## Production

This episode sees the Doctor wearing a new outfit, due to the fact Doherty forgot he'd packed his actual costume. He also wasn't sure if he'd actually be filming while on holiday or not. As a result, much like *The House of Morlog*, the entire production, from acting to story to editing, is improvised.

All of the video's original scenes were shot at a countryside house in Somerset. The places seen consist of the maze garden, the back garden with the swing and pizza oven areas, the field where the sheep and alpacas reside, the cinema room, the interior of the house itself (front room, kitchen, first floor hallway and guest room '7'), and the parking area.

The life-sized Dalek prop was a recreation of the 60s Dalek props, but Doherty doesn't know who made it, who it currently belongs to and how it wound up in the cinema room. One of the biggest concerns while filming was breaking it, due to the already poor condition it was in.

All the Dalek footage was borrowed from surviving clips of 1966's *The Power of the Daleks* and 1972's *Day of the Daleks*. Clips from *Power* were screen-recorded with audio and either remained the way they were or were dubbed over with the borrowed soundtrack, stock music and original voice acting by Doherty and his mother Lisa Moorish using QuickTime Movie and uploading the audio to the website voicechanger.io. Clips from *Day* were recorded without audio and completely dubbed over. The communication screen had to have a black square pasted over it so that the Controller from the episode would be obscured.

All editing was handled using DaVinci Resolve 16. All footage originally in colour - clips from *Day* and all the original scenes - were recoloured in the software to be black and white. Scenes originally shot in a normal aspect ratio were cropped to be 4:3. Using this decolorisation and cropping technique, the story is quite different to how it was originally framed and shot, and looks more like the 60s/70s episodes it is homaging. This was not the original plan, but Doherty had forgotten that classic *Who* was shot in 4:3, so he had to improvise. It also looked better with the title sequence.

The shot where the Doctor runs away from off-screen Daleks was actually an accidental improv caused by a sheep chasing Doherty when he tried to approach it (he had scared it the previous day and wanted to apologise). This part of the running around sequence was meant to go on for longer, with the sheep coming out of the same gate as if to imply the Doctor had been scared away by it, but a groundskeeper heard Doherty shouting and running and checked to make sure things were alright. The scene then ends with the Doctor disappearing into the maze. It ultimately made more sense the way it turned out because it's more logical and less goofy if Daleks make the Doctor run away instead of a fluffy animal.

The title sequence used is the 4:3 short haired version edited to be black and white.

## References to *Doctor Who*

The Doctor first uses the Second Doctor's humorous catchphrase, "Oh my giddy aunt!"

The way the Doctor hides behind a car and looks around is similar to how the Second Doctor hides at Gatwick Airport behind a plane wheel in 1967's *The Faceless Ones*.

Most of the music and several clips come from 1966's *The Power of the Daleks*. The way the Doctor spies on the Daleks is also similar to how Lesterson did in the same story.

Some clips from 1972's *Day of the Daleks* are used, namely the Gold Dalek's communication with the Commander and subsequent chant with two Grey Daleks.

The title *Colony of the Daleks* is obviously in reference to the fact most Dalek stories use 'of the' or 'Dalek' in their titles, with a handful of exceptions.

The way the Doctor runs around the maze garden is similar to the Second Doctor running away from the Ice Warriors in 1969's *The Seeds of Death*.

The Doctor's outfit is slightly similar to the Tenth Doctor's, being both smart and slightly casual in appearance (namely the shoes and t-shirt).

The Doctor uses the Third Doctor's bizarre, iconic phrase "I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow" first heard in 1972's *The Sea Devils*.