It’s been a while since any custom Daleks were showcased on this blog, and in that time the collection has been continuously updated with new Daleks, as well as repaints for existing Dalek customs. In this post, we have a showcase of a grey Dalek from a Doctor Who Comic Relief special from the ’90s, a Dalek design that originated from the cover art for a novelisation, and an obscure New Series Dalek design.
The Curse of Fatal Death Dalek Drone
This custom is based on the Dalek Drone seen in the 1999 Doctor Who Comic Relief sketch, The Curse of Fatal Death. Written by Steven Moffat, this special stars numerous high-profile actors and actresses, including Rowan Atkinson, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley and Jonathon Pryce. This comedy special also included a range of unique Dalek designs, using original props from the Classic Series that had been repaired and updated for the special.
In order to reflect the design of this Dalek seen on screen, the main body of this custom is a repainted Imperial Dalek, but the dome is a standard 1970s dome with an Imperial Dalek eyestalk attached. Various colours of paint have been used, including light grey, black, silver for the grating on the midsection, blue for the rings on the eyestalk, and orange for the dome lamps. The notched Imperial Dalek plunger has been replaced with a standard Dalek plunger, and the gunstick has been repainted silver. The colour scheme is similar to that of a Dalek drone from Destiny of the Daleks, but with the Imperial Dalek sculpt.
The Daleks’ Master Plan Novelisation Red Supreme Dalek
This Dalek colour scheme is a niche fan-favourite, featuring on the classic cover of the novelisation of The Daleks’ Master Plan, written by John Peel. Because The Daleks’ Master Plan is in black and white, it is open to interpretation what the colours of each individual Dalek are. Although a black Dalek prop was used for the Supreme Dalek in this story, and in-canon that Dalek is a Black Dalek, the cover of the novelisation of the episode features a striking Red Dalek as an alternate colour scheme for the Supreme.
This custom was made using a standard black-domed Emperor’s Guard Dalek from The Evil of the Daleks, but with the dome and skirt repainted red and the midsection repainted white. The silver neck rings and midsection mesh, as well as the cyan hemispheres, retain their original factory paint. This is one of several red 1960s Dalek customs in the collection, this one is distinguishable from the others by the squinting iris, white midsection and cyan hemispheres.
Buzz-Saw Dalek Imperial Guard
Briefly seen in the 2005 finale to Series 1, The Parting of the Ways, this black-domed Dalek of the Emperor’s Guard not only sports a unique black skirt with gold hemispheres, but also wields a buzz-saw. As this Dalek only exists as a CGI model used in one episode, it has very few on-screen appearances, but it did feature on one of the Battles in Time trading cards. Despite its fleeting appearance in the series and its obscure appearances in other Doctor Who media, the buzz-saw Dalek is nonetheless a common sight among collections of custom New Series Emperor’s Guard Daleks. Serving as the unofficial fifth member of the usual quartet of Emperor’s Guard Daleks, this striking Dalek design is unique among bronze Daleks.
This custom was made using a standard bronze Dalek, the later variety of the old bronze Dalek figure mould which has a deeper bronze colour and no gold ring on the midsection. The dome and skirt were painted black, but the neck, midsection, hemispheres and base retain their original factory paint. The buzz-saw attachment was made using a part of the internal mechanism of another Dalek figure’s eyestalk housing, which was affixed to a manipulator arm with the sucker attachment removed. The buzz-saw was then repainted silver to match the arm.
Sacred Icon 