From the first two sentences, one would've thought I was talking about politicians, but no, the above was writer Terry Nation's description of his creations the Daleks, the monsters who put 8 million viewers and made Dr. Who an overnight success.

Like many DW fans, the Daleks are my favourite villains and in fact the impetus behind my wanting to watch the series in the first place. Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor, hosts this special program from the Museum of the Moving Image, in front of some Daleks at the permanent Dr. Who exhibit. He talks of Terry Nation, the cliffhanger at the end of Episode 1 of the first Dalek story that had people waiting in anticipation for Episode 2, and presents the original BBC trailer for The Dalek Invasion Of Earth.

There are recollections by Terry Nation, who was looking for something totally non-human as opposed to a human in an obviously bad costume, Roy Skelton, who did the voices for the Daleks, John Scott Martin, who was inside the actual Dalek machines, and Raymond Cusick, the one who actually designed the machines and who gets the most commentary here, as he deserves it. If Cusick hadn't been free, a certain Ridley Scott, then also a designer at the BBC, would have designed the Daleks. Cusick didn't get as much money as he deserves, as he also had to design all the special props and sets!

Three complete episodes are shown here--parts 5 and 10 of the Dalek Master Plan, the twelve-part epic sadly no longer available in the BBC Archives, and episode 2 of the 7-part Evil Of The Daleks, which presumably saw the final end of the machine creatures. There is a clip from Episode 4 of the DMP, where one of the Doctor's companions sacrifices herself. She isn't the only one in this story. Sara Kingdom, a Special Security agent, dies in the final episode. She was played by Jean Marsh, best known as Rose in Upstairs Downstairs, but was also the first wife of the future Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee. She is particularly ruthless in Episode 5--"They must be shot on sight, but aim for the head!" As for Evil, it was the debut of the companion Victoria, played by lovely Deborah Watling. There's also a brief clip from The Power Of The Daleks, Patrick Troughton's debut story, which features a bunch of Daleks screaming out "Daleks conquer and destroy!"

A good special documentary featuring the Daleks, who are as much a part of Doctor Who as the title character.