bob@ulose.UUCP ( Robert Bismuth ) (09/22/85)
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Many people responded with possible sources for the name DALEK. I
should have been more careful in my first posting - what I meant was to
pose the question: where did Terry Nation get the name from?
Several people took my question the wrong way and responded with the
story line derrivation from KALED.
The leading theories were:
1. Terry Nation owned an encyclopedia set on which two adjacent volumes
were labled DAL and LEK, and,
2. He invented the name without any "real world" prompting.
Holders of #1 opinion report Terry Nation saying this in an interview
and holders of #2 comment that while at one time he said this, he later
denied it and claimed total fictious invention.
What I remember is similar to #1. Shortly after the success of the
first DALEK episodes, Terry Nation was interview on BBC radio. He
described himself as somewhat overcome with success and commented that
prior to the invention of the DALEKs he had been poor and starving.
He was very frank during the interview and said that after conceiving
of the tale of the "Dead Planet", he needed a name for the pseudo robot
creatures. He looked up at the book shelf over his desk and the first
5 volumes spelled: DALEK, if one took the first letter from each title.
Thus it was born.
Eventhough I am remembering events of over 20 years ago, I tend to
still believe this, since though successful at the time, his success
was still somewhat isolated from the lime light since Dr. Who had a
smaller dedicated following.
-- bob
(decvax!ulose!bob)dbw@ariel.UUCP (DAVE B. WOOD) (09/24/85)
in the first DALEK story (The Daleks), the races on the planet were originally the DALs and the THALs (sp?). The DALs were calling themselves the DALEKS by the time the show starts.
percus@acf4.UUCP (Allon G. Percus) (09/26/85)
> The leading theories were: > > 1. Terry Nation owned an encyclopedia set on which two adjacent volumes > were labled DAL and LEK, and, > > 2. He invented the name without any "real world" prompting. > > Holders of #1 opinion report Terry Nation saying this in an interview > and holders of #2 comment that while at one time he said this, he later > denied it and claimed total fictious invention. > > What I remember is similar to #1... As other people have no doubt pointed out, in the book "Celebration," it says otherwise. From an article about the daleks: =========================================================================== (Reprinted without permission of W. H. Allen) . . . Terry [Nation], of course, helped generate the very beginnings of the Dalek legend when he told writers and journalists seeking for a profound reason for the success of the machines and the singularly appropriate name he had given them -- that he had actually seen it on the spine of an encyclopedia volume covering the words DAL to LEK. It was a piece of sheer invention to satisfy the insistent demands of the press, he now readily admits: 'And in fact anyone checking the encyclopedias would have found that there has never been one covering those particular letters!' . . . =========================================================================== So long for that argument. (I hope...) A. G. Percus (ARPA) percus@acf4 (NYU) percus.acf4 (UUCP) ...!ihnp4!cmcl2!acf4!percus