The announcement by Steven Moffat, executive producer of Doctor Who, that the Daleks are to be given "a rest" (he called them "the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe") has a touch of déjà vu; the BBC have long had mixed feelings about the most famous baddies in British television.
Back in 1963, when writer Terry Nation submitted the scripts for the first ever Dalek story, BBC executives were unimpressed. "This is terrible," said the head of serials. "I don't want you to make it."
Sydney Newman, the man who had created Doctor Who, was no more enthusiastic, shouting: "I told you, goddamit, no bug-eyed monsters." Luckily a shortage of scripts and a need to fill the schedules meant that The Daleks went out that Christmas. And was an immediate hit.
Its popularity ensured the survival of Doctor Who, and a guaranteed return 12 months later, much against the judgment of many at the BBC. "This is positively their last appearance," insisted a Television Centre spokesperson.
It wasn't. The Dalek Invasion of Earth was an even bigger triumph, with audiences touching the 12 million mark. And Christmas 1964 saw the outbreak of Dalekmania, with replica toys the must-have gift of the year, and everything from Dalek soap to slippers flooding the shops.
The merchandising success took Nation and the BBC by surprise. It made Nation a rich man, earning – it was said – the equivalent of £4.5m at today's prices in the first 18 months, while the public acclaim and commercial opportunities finally changed the Corporation's attitude. From that moment on the Daleks were used any time the show needed a ratings boost. When the series was revived in 2005, they were back to send a new generation scurrying behind the sofa.
They've survived so many attempts to kill them off that Moffat's "rest" will surely prove to be just one more failed attempt to exterminate the ultimate Doctor Who villains.
