Name Poll 2: Episodes 5 to 11

[Rob McCow]

It's the first Doctor Who story with the Daleks, that was written by Terry Nation. It features a sucker-arm in it's first episode and Daleks in full view pretty much throughout the rest of the story. It starts when the travellers land on Skaro and ends just after they leave. You know the one!

But what, WHAT is it called?

And where did these other names come from?

[SiHart]

It's always been The Daleks to me.

[Terry Leptil]

It's The Daleks for me too. I don't know why it's referred to as The Mutants in The Television Companion by David J. Howe.

When The Mutants was made in 1972, I don't know why they didn't use one of the working titles (Independence or The Emergents) or call it The Mutants of Solos or something. Was The Daleks referred to as The Mutants back then?

[Rob McCow]

I don't think old stories were referred to at all!

It has been claimed that none of these stories had 'overall' titles until 'The Savages'. They were known either by the individual episode titles; or by Serial letter; or as 'that one that introduced the Daleks'. The story titles were invented later, usually drawing on an individual episode title to name the serial.

This doesn't seem to ring quite true to me, but then I'm no BBC Historian. There's no episode of Marco Polo called 'Marco Polo', the same is true of The Aztecs and others.

So why wasn't Part Seven of Serial B (called 'The Rescue') confused with Serial L ('The Rescue')?

Anyway - I don't think that anyone in the Doctor Who production office had any idea that there was an older serial called 'The Mutants'!

[Dirk Gently]

It's always been The Daleks to me.

Likewise.

[SiHart]

Though The Dead Planet is rather nice. I'll never, ever call it The Mutants, despite that apparently being the "correct" title according to the paperwork.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Not sure why but I always called it The Dead Planet before the videos came out, and wasn't sure why it was just called The Daleks then. Since then I suppose I've called it The Daleks as that seems to be the general consensus. But it's a bit of a rubbish title and The Dead Planet is much better, so I've voted for that.

[Stuart Wallis]

It's always been The Daleks to me.

Same here.

[Rob McCow]

With no votes so far for 'The Mutants', today is proving a tragic day for official paperwork.

[Junkyard]

I've always known it as 'The Daleks', hence the vote. I believe that 'The Mutants' was the title of the first draft of the script but it's so long ago I may well be mistaken.

[Andrew Curnow]

Didn't "The Dead Planet" get adopted when the RT 10th Anniversary special listed all the stories (or rather, those with individual titles per episode) by the title of their first episode. Hence the first three stories were An Unearthly Child, The Dead Planet, and The Edge of Destruction. Which are all reasonably fine, but it gets a bit baffling when we get the exciting seven-parter Roof of the World, followed by Sea of Death...

Or is that another "Invasion of the Dinosaurs part 1 was accidentally binned alongside The Invasion" urban myth type of thing?

The Dead Planet is actually a nice title, but... ultimately not all that accurate!!! So it's The Daleks for me. BTW, I really enjoyed DWM's Archive of this story back in (I think) 2005, when they used a different title for the top of each page. Those scallywags!

[Anthony Williams]

It's The Daleks!

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Not sure why but I always called it The Dead Planet before the videos came out, and wasn't sure why it was just called The Daleks then. Since then I suppose I've called it The Daleks as that seems to be the general consensus. But it's a bit of a rubbish title and The Dead Planet is much better, so I've voted for that.

Same here - I'm sure books must have been calling it that as having not seen it until the videos came out I wouldn't have known what the individual episode titles were and I wasn't connected to other fans back then (apart from Ant Cox) so I wouldn't have known what fandom were calling it.
I remember that I was surprised that the video called it 'The Daleks'.

Of course since the video release I have naturally been calling it 'The Daleks'. In fact until this thread appeared I had forgotten that I ever thought of it as anything else!

[Stuart Wallis]

It's The Daleks!

Where?!

[Anthony Williams]

Where?!

In your cupboard!

[J.R. Southall]

Well, let's be honest, it really is The Daleks these days, isn't it? Although The Dead Planet is a great title, and makes you want to watch the story much more than any of the others do.

However, I've actually voted for In An Exciting Adventure With The Daleks, just because. I'd love to have seen that on the DVD release!

[Ssarl]

I don't think old stories were referred to at all!

It has been claimed that none of these stories had 'overall' titles until 'The Savages'. They were known either by the individual episode titles; or by Serial letter; or as 'that one that introduced the Daleks'. The story titles were invented later, usually drawing on an individual episode title to name the serial.

This doesn't seem to ring quite true to me, but then I'm no BBC Historian. There's no episode of Marco Polo called 'Marco Polo', the same is true of The Aztecs and others.

So why wasn't Part Seven of Serial B (called 'The Rescue') confused with Serial L ('The Rescue')?

Anyway - I don't think that anyone in the Doctor Who production office had any idea that there was an older serial called 'The Mutants'!

The story titles weren't made up long after the fact, though, and they weren't necessarily confined to obscure paperwork until Andrew Pixley came along. The Radio Times would print things like ' This week a four part serial called Galaxy 4 appears.

I like how The Space Museum is the only one of the lot which has been referred to by the same title forever.