History Trivia / DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks

** Originally, the conflict between the Daleks and the Thals was more focused on stopping the possibility of another neutronic war. At the serial’s conclusion, an alien race would arrive on Skaro and as the Doctor would explain, the aliens’ ancestors had actually started the war. They now wished to "make reparations and assist in rebuilding the planet". Because of time and budget, Creator/TerryNation rewrote the story to explicitly make the Daleks villains, as well as a DownerEnding.

** Originally, the conflict between the Daleks and the Thals was more both-sided. The titular characters were more focused on stopping the possibility of another “neutronic war” (unaware the Thals were now pacifist). In the seventh episode, the Thals would bring the defeated Daleks back online to discuss peace terms. By the end, the Doctor would reveal that neither side started the war: they had been attacked by an alien race. The descendants of those aliens would then arrive on Skaro, as the radiation levels had lowered, to "make reparations and assist in rebuilding the planet". Due to insufficient time and budget, Creator/TerryNation made the Daleks into villains with a DownerEnding.

** The Doctor and Susan were originally sentenced to be executed in a "Sonic chamber".

** The original proposal had the Daleks wanting to wipe out the Thals to ensure they could never start another neutronic war (unaware the Thals were now pacifist). In the seventh episode, the Thals would bring the defeated Daleks back online to discuss peace terms. By the end, the Doctor would reveal that neither side started the war: they had been attacked by an alien race. The descendants of those aliens would then arrive on Skaro, as the radiation levels had lowered, to "make reparations and assist in rebuilding the planet". Due to insufficient time and budget, this plot was cut out and the Daleks were redrafted as more obvious villains, with no "happy ending".
** In the original script, much was made of a forthcoming "great rain" — a periodic meteorological event on Skaro — which would reduce the radiation levels enough to permit the Daleks to emerge from their city and confront the Thals.
** The dangers facing Ian, Barbara and the Thals in the mountains originally included mutated spiders and a fiery gas fissure.

** The designer originally assigned to this serial was Creator/RidleyScott. However, a problem with Scott's schedule meant that he was replaced by Raymond Cusick, who was thus given the task of realising the Dalek creatures.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: Many within Creator/TheBBC viewed this as some silly little filler story that would quickly be forgotten once a more prestigious purely historical story -- which eventually became "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E4MarcoPolo Marco Polo]]" -- aired afterwards. Instead, this ended up being the story which defined the entire series for over over sixty years. Downplayed in that "Marco Polo" was also extremely well-received; indeed, many fans would argue that it's not only the better of the two stories, but arguably even the best story of the entire First Doctor era. However, the series veered away from that type of story in the years ahead, and it really didn't help that "Marco Polo" had the misfortune of being one of the few stories to end up with no surviving material whatsoever.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: Many within Creator/TheBBC viewed this as some silly little filler story that would quickly be forgotten once a more prestigious purely historical story -- which eventually became "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E4MarcoPolo Marco Polo]]" -- aired afterwards. Instead, this ended up being the story which defined the entire series for over the better half of a century. Downplayed in that "Marco Polo" was also extremely well-received; indeed, many fans would argue that it's not only the better of the two stories, but arguably even the best story of the entire First Doctor era. However, the series veered away from that type of story in the years ahead, and it really didn't help that "Marco Polo" had the misfortune of being one of the few stories to end up with no surviving material whatsoever.

* MagnumOpusDissonance: Many within Creator/TheBBC viewed this as some silly little filler story that would quickly be forgotten once a more prestigious purely historical story -- which eventually became "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E4MarcoPolo Marco Polo]]" -- aired afterwards. Instead, this ended up being the story which defined the entire series for decades to come. Downplayed in that "Marco Polo" was also extremely well-received; indeed, many fans would argue that it's not only the better of the two stories, but arguably even the best story of the entire First Doctor era. However, the series veered away from that type of story in the years ahead, and it really didn't help that "Marco Polo" had the misfortune of being one of the few stories to end up with no surviving material whatsoever.

* MissingEpisode: Averted, but only narrowly so. This story was ''supposed'' to be junked, but by sheer luck a BBC employee working in the vault noticed these episodes were marked for destruction and intervened. However, the first episode had to be filmed twice (after it was discovered that talkback from the production gallery had inadvertently been captured on the soundtrack), and the original version does not survive (apart from the cliffhanger, which was used as the reprise for the broadcast Episode 2).[[note]]It has been theorised that the "talkback from the production gallery" explanation was an excuse to redo the episode, because it is unlikely that nobody would have noticed it at any point during the recording; dissatisfaction with the model of the Dalek city has been suggested as a reason for wanting to redo the episode, as the original and the one used in the remount are very different[[/note]]

* FirstAppearance: Of the titular pepperpot-shaped creatures who would become the Doctor's greatest enemies for centuries to come, as well as the Thals. Skaro itself debuted at the end of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild previous serial]].

** In the original script, much was made of a forthcoming “great rain” — a periodic meteorological event on Skaro — which would reduce the radiation levels enough to permit the Daleks to emerge from their city and confront the Thals.

** The Doctor and Susan were originally sentenced to be executed in a “Sonic chamber”.