“Surely,” I hear you cry. “The man who invented the Daleks is Davros? He’s battled against David Tennant AND Tom Baker and he’s really evil and stuff.” Ahh, this may be true. But the real creator was altogether more mild mannered than the despotic scientist. But without Terry Nation, Doctor Who may never have existed at all. Which would mean we’d have to watch double episodes of Hole In The Wall on a Saturday night. I’d rather be exterminated.
Alwyn W Turner’s biography of Terry Nation is a fun glimpse into the life of a man who managed to change televisual history. It’s easy to forget that Doctor Who was not an overnight success and that it was the appearance of the Daleks that made it into one of the most popular shows of the era (and subsequently, of all time). The book looks at the origins of their invention (and suggests that Nation had a helping hand form Tony Hancock when first thinking of the creatures) and just how insnely popular they became. Thanks to the savviness of both Nation and his agent, Nation retained the rights to the Daleks and managed to be set for life thanks to his creation and the book examines both their continual return to Doctor Who and their creator’s unsuccessful attempts to launch them in a series of their own.
Whilst the Daleks were a huge part of his career, the book also covers Nation’s writing stints with Associated London Scripts (whose offices including Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes) and on shows such as The Saint, The Avengers and The Baron. And let’s not forget that Nation was also the brains behind the much loved – and overdue for a revival – Blake’s 7 (on which he once wanted the Daleks to appear) and also created the bleak drama Survivors.
This will appeal to those wanting a new insight into the process of television writing between the 50s and 80s and Doctor Who fans will obviously love the background on their favourite monsters (well, unless you’re a Cyberman person). Turner has done extensive research (and it’s more impressive when you account for the fact that that Nation passed away in 1997) and clearly enjoys looking at some of the minutiae of television production. Also, Turner is not afraid to be critical of Nation when need be with some colleagues mentioning that he sometimes could be rather laid back with his writing and would sometimes liberally reuse his old plots.
Huge fans will love the insight whilst those with a more casual interest should find some interesting stuff within. So get out from behind the sofa just long enough to grab this.
Laurence Boyce is a journalist and regular contributor to The Culture Vulture and an ex-Morley lad. Frustrated by the fact people are holding a great event such as the Morley Literature Festival in his home town when he’s out of the country, he’s reviewing some of the books by some of the authors involved to show that books can truly be an international language
Alwyn W. Turner appears at Morley Town Hall, Morley at 7.30pm on Thursday 13th October as part of the Morley Literature Festival. Visit the website for tickets