The overwhelming majority of dystopias have some connection to our world, but often in an imagined future or an alternate history. Furthermore, the dystopia was brought about as a result of human action or inaction, whether stemming from human evil or mere stupidity. A far distant future where the heat death of the universe makes human life difficult is not dystopian, as human beings are not responsible for entropy.

Dystopian societies usually exhibit one or more of the traits on the following list:

* A Utopian society with at least one fatal flaw.
* An apparently Utopian society, free of poverty, disease, conflict, and even unhappiness. Scratching the surface of the society, however, reveals exactly the opposite. The exact problem, the way the problem is suppressed, and the chronology of the problem form the central conflict of the story.
* Social stratification, where social class is strictly defined and enforced, and social mobility is non-existent (see caste system). See, for example, Brave New World’s prenatally designated Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons.
* A nation-state ruled by an upper class with few, or no, democratic ideals. Note that non-democractic societies are commonplace in historical fiction, fantasies taking place in historical settings or fantasy worlds, and in science fiction, particularly in planetary romance and galactic empires, but few of these societies are regarded as dystopian. In these cases, the hierarchical structure is a result of economic and social forces implicit in the society. The lack of democracy becomes a dystopian feature when the government is clearly imposed by force on a citizenry capable of self-government, particularly when the government hold some pretense of democratic ideals, as when children of the Party members in 1984 are admitted to the Party based on a test, while non-Party members’ children simply vanish if it appears they would pass the test.
* Conversely, a ruthlessly egalitarian society, in which ability and accomplishment, or even competence, are suppressed or stigmatized as forms of inequality, as in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”.
* A bloated welfare state, in which total freedom from responsibility has encouraged an underclass prone to any form of antisocial behavior, and productive contributors to society, particularly those trying to escape the underclass, are burdened with taxes punitive in effect, if not intent.
* Total control by the state of all economic activity. Private ownership may still exist, but the owners are controlled by the state. Black markets may exist, or not, but on the whole, freedom to engage in economic activities is severely limited in these dystopias, which may suppress any form of innovation as disruption, as in Ayn Rand’s Anthem.
* A totally or near-totally socially privatized world without a democratic republican state or with a state that only serves the business sector - business and private contractors own and control all of society and social organization, as in the movie Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and most Cyberpunk literature, as well as comics like Hard Boiled by writer Frank Miller and artist Geoff Darrow and the Judge Dredd series created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. There are usually many “small dictators” - essentially competing corporations and robber barons instead of one leader, with either a single police force that makes sure the system runs smoothly, or many small police forces hired by each corporation. Individuals with no wealth or social power are suppressed and miserable.
* State propaganda programs and educational systems that scare most citizens into worshipping the state and its government, in an attempt to convince them to believe that life under the regime is good and just, e.g. Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta.
* Strict conformity among citizens and a general assumption that dissent and individuality are bad, as in We, where people are permitted to live out of public view for only an hour a day, and are not only referred to by numbers instead of names, but are neither “citizens” nor “people”, but “numbers.”
* A state figurehead that people worship fanatically through a vast personality cult, such as Nineteen Eighty-Four’s Big Brother, We’s The Benefactor, or Equilibrium’s Father.
* Fear of, or disgust at, the world outside the state.
* A common view of traditional life as primitive and nonsensical.
* Alternatively, complete domination by a state religion, e.g the Sisterhood of Metacontrol in FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, the Technopriests in The Incal or fundamentalist Christianity (with elements of reconstructionism) in Escape from L.A..
* The “memory” of institutions overriding, or taking precedence over, human memory.
* A penal system that lacks due process laws and often employs psychological and/or physical torture, e.g. Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta.
* A lack of the key essentials of life for many citizens, as with food shortages. If the cause of this is clear, it is not natural disaster or crop failure, but deliberate engineering.
* Constant surveillance by governments or other agencies.
* Absence, or total co-option, of an educated middle class (such as teachers, journalists, and scientists) who might criticize the regime’s leadership.
* Militarized police forces and private security forces.
* The banishment of the natural world from daily life, as when walks are regarded as dangerously antisocial in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
* Construction of fictional views of reality that the populace is coerced into believing.
* Corruption, impotence, or other usurpation of democratic institutions.
* Conversely, a strict majoritarian democracy, which tramples on the rights of minorities, or continually sacrifices the well-being of society to maintain the majority rule, or both.
* Fictional rivalries between groups that actually operate as a cartel.
* Insistence by the establishment that:
o It provides the best of all possible worlds;
o All problems are due to the action of its enemies and their dupes.
* An overall slow decay of all systems (political, economic, religion, infrastructure. . .), resulting from people being alienated from nature, the State, society, family, and themselves. Yesterday was better, tomorrow will be worse.

In dystopian societies, the economic system centers on stability and is structured so that the government or the economic system is immune to change or disruption. Usually, the industries operate at maximum efficiency and capacity, and then the excess products or currency is absorbed in some way by the state. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, people are put on rations, and excess production is absorbed in the “war” that is always occurring with either Eurasia or Eastasia. In Brave New World, excess production is sucked by extreme consumerism, encouraged by the government. In the One State depicted in We, there is no currency or exchange whatsoever, either inside or outside the walls of the society, but everything is provided to the people. (via Wikipedia)

The new Dead Siren blog asks the question: What is the difference between Fandom with a capital F and simple imagination and are either a bad thing? And one of the editors called Sexy Fandom “just my sorta site.”

IGN, now, just like MySpace, owned by the very savvy folks at FOX has its Comic Con galleries posted now. They have them broken down into convenient categories like The Babes of Tokyopop and Final Fantasy Figures.

Galleries of pictures taken at the record-smashing Comic Con 2006 are already starting to post. ComingSoon.net has more than a hundred photos although most are not of people, but more importantly the booth babe galleries are starting to post, such as this Flickr gallery by Greg O’Connell, as reported by Comic Book Conventions.

I pleased to be able to report that Mars Dust, the well-dressed fandom web site, has printed a prototype of a magazine they hope to do. Their first issue covers psychobilling and horror rock, Bruce Campbell, cosplay, Star Wars artist Sara Wilkinson, and Wonder Woman model Diana Knight of Blue Blood fame, and an article on how to become a spaceship entrepeneur and perhaps help Molly have weightless sexual relations. Okay, the last one is really just how to become a spaceship entrepreneur and I admit I read the rest into it.

I have heard that you don’t count as rich until you own your own jet. Well real estate tycoon Robert Bigelow is raising the bar. He has committed five hundred million dollars towards attempting to make my dream of zero gee sex come true. Technically, the owner of the Budget Suites hotel chain has so far only funded the launch of a space-faring Russky balloon, but it is a scientifically important balloon in the journey towards creating the first commercial space station, which is the ultimate goal of Bigelow Aerospace. (via AP on Yahoo)

A forthcoming movie called Goya’s Ghosts chronicles the life and times and painter Francisco Goya. It particularly focuses on a muse of his, played by Natalie Portman. Said muse gets accused of heresy by a monk. Supposedly nude torture scenes ensue. Yes, fanboys, Padme Amidala only gets naked if torture is involved. (Those of you who wish to bone up on electrodes to the vulva can head on over to Wired Pussy for an education.) Natalie Portman has an entry on Mr. Skin which still contains only sexy, bikini, and the coveted underwear rating. No nudity. Apparently, Darth Vader’s lover made the director of Closer leave nudies of her on the cutting room floor. So it remains to be seen whether torture is really enough of a motivator or whether Goya really has a ghost of a chance of a naked Nat.

Fun Trivia has a section devoted to science fiction fen. The first quiz is on Classic Science Fiction Novels and I just want you all to know that I got 25 out of 25 correct. I just want you to know you are in expert hands with me here. (via Blue Blood)

This week, The Independent published an article, by their Washington Correspondent Rupert Cornwell, which asked whether human space exploration is really such a good idea. Arguments against manned space exploration were that it was more expensive and unwieldy than robotics and that there would be an inevitable loss of life from time to time. Arguments in favor of using humans, rather than machines, were that people can sometimes do better research and make proper repairs in ways machines can’t. Also, “The drama of watching men and women explore new worlds appeals to something basic in human nature.” They left out “Molly Case has always wanted to have sex in zero gee in front of a window on the stars.”

Okay, I probably was not really bought out by the Sci Fi Channel. Most likely, I was just annoyed at the way people are trending towards a repulsively mercenary attitude. Like they think doing anything for the joy of it is stupid. That stuff just sort of discouraged me for a while.

But this weekend Entourage had a character insert a highly collectible Shrek doll into a hooker. I couldn’t let that pass without mentioning it. Still viewable on HBO On Demand this week. Now that’s quality television.

There seems to be much debate on what the word chode means and why it is funny that the captain on Tripping the Rift answers to Chode. The Urban Dictionary has a raging debate of 333 definitions for the term. Most people, meaning those who do not spend all their time engaged in flame wars on UrbanDictionary.com, agree that chode refers literally to the perineum, the location between a gentleman’s scrotum and testicles. In colloquial use, calling someone a chode tends to mean you think they are an unsmooth idiot or at least acting like one. Some men find it comfortable to use various commercially available powders in the chode region in order to prevent chafing. That is all you all need to know about what Stephen Root meant about what a chode is. You can all stop emailing now. Future debate on the definition should be directed to UrbanDictionary. Thank you. (via Urban Dictionary)

Today Lucasfilm announced the licensing of a new line of “Adult” Star Wars novels.

“While the movies were still an ongoing project, it was important to portray all aspects of the Star Wars universe as wholesome family entertainment,” said Lucasfilm spokesmen Dirk Merdespieler. “However, now that the cycle of films is done, we can finally broaden the Star Wars franchise into marketing niches we’d heretofore avoided, and adult entertainment is at the top of our list.”

One of the first new licenses was awarded to longtime Star Wars novel publisher Del Rey Books, who will be putting out a line of Star Wars adult novels. Del Rey announced that the first book in the line would be Slave Girl of Tattoine by Barry Malzberg and Mike Resnick.

“Yeah, Barry and I had an old porn novel called Arab Slave Harem we’d never managed to sell, and it was pretty easy to alter so it fit in the Star Wars universe,” said Resnick when the two authors were reached for comment.

In the background, Malzberg could be heard laughing maniacally as he typed away at the updated manuscript.

“Instead of an Arab slave caravan, she gets captured by the Sand People and sold to Jabba the Hutt.”

“Hahaha! Banthas!” exclaimed Malzberg.

“Anyway, after some 200 pages she gets rescued by a young Luke Skywalker. All in all, its probably the easiest $50,000 Barry and I ever made.”

Del Rey’s publicist indicated that they were willing to look beyond traditional adult themes, and were willing to pay top dollar for works to fill what were previously considered niche markets. As proof, she cited the hiring of Pulitzer Prize winner E. Annie Proulx to pen Brokeback Falcon, a novel which explores the forbidden love between Han Solo and Chewbacca.

“The Star Wars universe is almost 30 years old,” said Merdespieler. “It’s high time our fans learned there’s more to life than comic books and action figures.” (via Locus)

The Museum of Hoaxes has a listing of the top 100 April Fools Day pranks. Included are the BBC convincing people that spaghetti grows on trees in Switzerland or Discover Magazine describing the new hotheaded naked ice borer species in Antarctica which could bore through ice using the heat of the blood vessels near the bony plate in its head.

It is pretty common for people to forget it is April first and believe various peculiar stories printed by their favorite, usually accurate publications. So I’m only amused and not disturbed that so many of you believed that Sexy Fandom was acquired by The Science Fiction Channel. I’m a little disappointed, however, by how many people wrote and told me essentially to stay strong against any sell-out criticisms because, no matter how much the blog got sucky, the important thing was that I was making a lot of money.

While I’m touched by your concern for my finances, I already make a lot of money. I do this blog for fun. I’m a TV writer, so obviously I’m for sale on some level, but it would take a whole lot of money for me to sell. This is supposed to be my venue to explore things I couldn’t normally. So, while I’m not wholly closed to being showered with cash, I would hope my readers would care if the character of SexyFandom.com changed. Money is nice, but it is not an excuse for bad behavior. If it were, then we wouldn’t have laws to put bank robbers in prison.

Once the sale of Sexy Fandom to the Science Fiction Channel goes through, I’ll be doing a lot more coverage of stuff like what I’d like to put through a Stargate and how Rose McGowan has matured as an actress on Charmed and a lot less coverage of where to find robot sex slaves and holiday-themed photos of freaky girls. I think the move in a less mature audiences direction will be fine. I never showed nudity on this site anyway. It will still be me writing the blog, just for a whole lot more money.

Sam Sugar, of Sugar Bank and related fame, is a very funny man. His post yesterday on 10 Lies Pornographers Tell had me in stitches. I was particularly amused by “1. Porn stars are breaking into the mainstream” and “9. Art Porn,” the latter of which included the beautiful explanation “Bach was a better composer than Yanni, and Monet was a better painter than Thomas Kincaid. If you disagree that’s not an opinion, it’s proof you’re an imbecile.” Now I’ve seen art which I felt appealed to the prurient interest, or at least made me wet, and I’ve seen adult material which I felt attained a higher level.

But naturally the debate in the comments section on SugarBank is not about the nature of art. The debate is about “8. Alt Porn. Traditionally porn performers get paid a fixed daily rate, don’t get any residual pay and have no real control over the product they’re in. The product itself features skinny white girls from the flyover states who get hired because of how they look and how they fuck. Or is that alt-porn? Janine’s been rocking tatts and attitude for a decade while raising two kids without ever being labeled ‘alt’ anything, while ‘alt porn’ darling Joanna Angel recently said on camera “…does the fact I’ll let any stranger cum on my face but won’t fuck a black guy make me a racist?” Er… yes it does Joanna. A tattoo and a bad dye-job is not going to upset ‘the system’ and the ‘alternative’ to traditional porn is independence, control and new ideas not haircuts, piercings and hip records.” But what about a really good tattoo and a really good dye job?

But the debate isn’t about how good a dye job it would take to facilitate true change. Someone named FurryGirl starts going off about how she disrespects her affiliates and mainstream porn. Never mind that on her site she openly states that the only photographers she would work with are those “emailing from a major adult entertainment company.” On SugarBank, she continues to slag everyone within striking distance with “don’t get me started on how painfully cliche most of the photography is on goth/punk porn sites. Haven’t we all had enough of pale goth chicks licking knives menacingly or masturbating in cemeteries?” First off, I will never get enough of pale goth chicks with weapons or tombstones. Secondly, I’ve seen a good number of what would count as the goth or punk porn sites on the web and I’ve never seen a set of someone actually masturbating in a graveyard. This suggests to me that, at the very least, the execution of such sets can hardly be trite, them not existing and all. So Forrest Black from gothic punk erotica icon Blue Blood jumps into the fray stating that FurryGirl “can kinda fuck off” and “There is an air of irreverent DIY independence connoted by the ‘altporn’ term or label, and I simply can’t accept the idea that traditional corporate product can live up to that notion. Then again, I think that term was originally coined by corporate interests eager to exploit the tattooed and pierced teen market space.”

Once the dust settled, Sam Sugar and Forrest Black had agreed that Janine Lindenmuller and Belladonna have got it going on and the brilliantly insightful Sam Sugar had coined the expression altsploitation, saying, “just like blacksploitation movies had little to do with changing the role, or perception, of blacks in Hollywood. Alt is only as ‘alt’ as the system that produces it and most of it’s as mainstream as anything.”

And I’m left really annoyed that FurryGirl is just a girl from the amateur porn niche who only shaves a little bit and not, as I’d hoped from her moniker, a women who has sex in a colorful furry animal costume.

How very pleasant to be finishing up the week here with news of Fatal Beauties, featuring some nice artsy photos of some very cute tattooed girls. (via SpookyBlog)

Ethnorotica waxed most eloquent on the topic of drawing manga females.

“I have to come clean here. You see, in junior high I fell in with a bad crowd, a group of multi-racial misfits who studied martial arts, collected manga and anime, went to comic-cons and traded duffel bags full of illicit hentai. Luckily for me I eventually discovered girls and thus spared myself a lifetime of collecting little figurines and living in my parents’ basement. Others weren’t so lucky.

It amuses me that years later the fodder for my adolescent fixations has suddenly acquired coolhunting cachet. We in America like to poke fun at the Japanese for their use of Engrish and their appropriation of the most ridiculous bits of American culture, but I’m quite certain they feel the same way regarding our fetishizing of “deviant” Japanese sexuality and otaku culture.” (via Ethnorotica)

Sugar Click is a new site reviews blog. The writing style is lively and personable. The reviews are in-depth without being boring, which is very rare. Essentially, SugarClick.com has the intelligence you wish Fleshbot had. (via Blue Blood)

The queer horror site is a free resource for people who identify as both part of the GLBT community and as horror fans. The site’s web design is a bit out of date, but I think this site’s mission makes that unimportant. The basic concept is that anyone with a marginalized sexuality has experienced some form of horror in his or her real life, yet a lot of horror further marginalizes and demonizes homosexuals and trans people. I would tend to agree with this assessment. It puts the lotion on its skin, anybody? Yet there are also appealing queer characters in horror literature and being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered does not mean you cannot enjoy the genre. The point of QueerHorror.com is essentially to tell others they are not alone. Which is pretty much the best thing any web site can do.

Altporn.net was one of the first sites I ever linked from Sexy Fandom, so odds are that regular readers have probably checked it out before. You have probably noticed the new tagging system on the site here. The tags are the little key word links beneath various posts which lead you to related posts when clicked. Tags are another way for people to navigate a web site and to find web sites with content of interest. I understand that Ed Roth from Altporn was responsible for my exciting new tagging system and I wanted to send him a big Sexy thank you.

I promise you, gentle readers, that I am going to be writing more often than just on holidays. I managed to stay away from the green beer and I have nearly completed a rather soul-sucking screenwriting project. So I should be able to get back to business as usual very soon. Blue Blood ran an entertaining St. Patrick’s Day photo set which inspired me to make a post and share the link for their digital St. Patrick’s Day card.

Everybody got their whips and werewolf masks ready for tomorrow’s Lupercalia festivities?

I was hoping to be snuggling my husband for midnight, but it looks like I will be attending a gathering instead. It should be fairly small and chill and a nice way to start 2006. Before I go, I thought I would share this photo where Miss Bunny and BlueBlood.com wish everyone a Happy New Year.

I seem to have spent much of this holiday season on the topic of constructed lovers. I’ve touched on dolls, robots, and androids, and the boxes Daleks travel in which are practically the same thing, and other mechanisms for sexual delight. There is something about making love to inanimate objects which seems very appropriate for this materialistic time of year. An interesting aspect of these gadgets which I have noticed is that the ones for women tend to be very functional but not very attractive. The machines for men tend to have much attention paid to appearance, but, when it comes to the act, they just lie there and the guy has to do all the work. No wonder the world needs Real Doll surgery experts. The Roboraptor can play “tug-of-war games” so I’m thinking I should have been more imaginative when making my Winter Solstice pagan desires list. Check out the video clips at this Roboraptor shopping link and tell me those women don’t look like they need to get laid. If there is one thing in life which can be depended upon, it is that human beings will figure out how to use almost any technology for some sexual purpose.

Fandom (from the noun fan and the affix -dom, as in kingdom, dukedom, etc.) refers to a community of keen aficionados who share a common interest in any phenomenon, such as authors, hobbies, genres or fashions. Fandom as a term can also be use to refer to the single interconnected network of these individual fandoms, many of which overlap.

Fans (or the plural fen) typically are interested in even minor details of the object of their fandom; this is what differentiates them from those with only casual interest.

The objects of a fandom typically relate to the arts, sports or entertainment. For example, it would be unusual to refer to an accountant who is very interested in the details of accounting as a “fan” of accounting.

Members of a fandom associate with one another, often attending fan conventions (such as science fiction conventions), and publishing and exchanging fanzines. Today, these communities are often online, especially for less well-known source material.

Some fans also write fan fiction, stories based around the universe and characters of their chosen fandom. Some also dress in costumes (”cosplay”) or recite lines of dialogue either out-of-context or as part of a group reenactment.

The term “fandom” is particularly associated with fans of the science fiction and fantasy genres, a community that dates back to the 1930s and has held the World Science Fiction Convention since 1939. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the usage of the term back as far as 1903, with many of its documented references referring to sports fandom.

The term is also commonly associated with anime/manga. Serious fans of this subject are also called otaku.

“Fandom” is also the name of a documentary / mockumentary about a fan obsessed with Natalie Portman. (via Wikipedia)

fandom (n.) antedating 1896 Washington Post, Oct 10, 1896, the world of enthusiasts for some amusement or for some artist; also in extended use. (via Science Fiction Citations)

Four different incarnations of the Emperor Dalek are known, three seen on the television series, and one in the TV Century 21 comic strip (a squat, golden Dalek with an enormous head-section). The first seen on screen was an enormous immobile conical shell plugged into a corner of the control room in the Dalek City on Skaro. The second was the Daleks’ creator, Davros, in a Dalek casing very similar to the TV 21 comic version of the Emperor, and the third was a visible Dalek mutant in a tank surrounded by a giant Dalek head and armour. It is unclear whether any these are the same Dalek, or up to four different Daleks.

The Dalek Emperor was first introduced in the TV 21 comic strip The Daleks, reproduced in collective format as the Dalek Chronicles . According to this comic strip version of events, the Emperor was originally a standard Dalek, one of the war machines created by the blue-skinned humanoid Dalek scientist Yarvelling. After the nuclear war that devastated Skaro, the mutants had survived in the casings. The only humanoid Dalek survivors of the war, Yavelling and the warlord Zolfian encountered a Dalek that persuaded them to build more Dalek casings for their mutated descendants. Before the last two humanoid Daleks died, a special casing was built for the Emperor to reflect its new rank. It was slightly shorter than the other Daleks, with a disproportionately large spheroid head section and in gold rather than grey. This origin story is completely different from that portrayed on television in Genesis of the Daleks.

The Emperor first appeared on television in The Evil of the Daleks (by David Whitaker, who also wrote most of the comic strips) where it was the immobile shell described above. The novelisation of Evil (adapted 26 years later from Whitaker’s scripts by John Peel) stated that this Emperor had originally been one of the Daleks who had tried to exterminate Davros in Genesis of the Daleks. At the close of the story, the Emperor was apparently destroyed as a civil war broke out amongst the Daleks.

The next time a Dalek Emperor appeared was in Rememberance of the Daleks. The Emperor of the Imperial Dalek faction was actually Davros, greatly deteriorated physically and reduced to a head and partial torso in a customised Dalek casing similar to that seen in the comic strips. He was last seen heading for an escape pod just before his ship was destroyed in the wake of the supernova that consumed Skaro.

The Dalek Emperor, from The Parting of the Ways. Another Dalek Emperor featured in the finale of the 2005 series The Parting of the Ways, its ship having barely survived the Time War. After its ship fell through time, it went into seclusion and went on to rebuild a new race of Daleks. This Emperor was a Dalek mutant floating in a transparent tank of liquid, topped by a giant-sized Dalek dome, complete with eyestalk, and flanked by panels of armour dotted by Dalek “bumps”. Because the Emperor had recreated the Dalek race, it saw itself as a god, and had transformed its Daleks from fascists to religious fanatics centred around them worshipping it.

A Dalek Emperor also appears in the Dalek Empire series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions. (via Wikipedia)

I didn’t even know I wanted this for the holidays and this is the best gift I could possibly have dreamed of. Blue Blood has come to the web in full force. Everything I love about a number of the Blue Blood sites has been packed into one gorgeous package at BlueBlood.com and you will just have to see for yourself. I’m sure I will have even more to say about Blue Blood and the brilliant and inspiring Amelia G and Forrest Black next month, than I have had to say about Daleks and other machine lovers this month. The Blue Blood relaunch is such big news I had to mention it right away. If you are true blue old school and loved Blue Blood magazine as much as I did, you will know what I mean. This is the real deal.

The Daleks were actually operated from inside by short operators who had to manipulate their eyestalks, domes and arms, as well as flashing the lights on their heads in sync with the actors supplying their voices. The Dalek cases were built in two pieces; once an operator stepped into the lower section the top would be lowered onto him. The operators looked out between the circular louvres just beneath the dome that were lined with mesh to conceal their faces.

Unfortunately, as well as being hot and cramped the Dalek casings also muffled external sounds, making it difficult for the operators to hear the director’s commands or studio dialogue. The top sections were also too heavy to lift from the inside, which meant that the operators could be trapped in them if the stagehands forgot to let them out. John Scott Martin, a Dalek operator from the original series, commented in a documentary that it would have been easier to operate a Dalek if one was an octopus, due to to the many controls involved.

Early versions of the Daleks were either rolled around on nylon castors or propelled by wheels connected to hand cranks by bicycle chains. While castors were adequate for the Daleks’ debut serial, which was shot entirely at the BBC’s Lime Grove Studios, for The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Terry Nation wanted the Daleks to take to the streets of London for location filming. As a result, the base of the costume had to be deepened to accommodate small pnuematic tyres. However, the bumpy flagstones of Central London caused the Daleks to rattle as they moved and it was not possible to remove this noise from the final shoot. Also added to the prop was a small radar dish at the rear of the casing, in an attempt to explain why these Daleks, unlike the ones in their first serial, were not dependent on static electricity drawn from the floors of the Dalek city for their motive power.

Later versions of the prop had more efficient wheels and were simply propelled by the operators’ feet. Occasionaly, modified tricycles were used. Even so, they were so heavy that when going up ramps they often had to be pushed by stagehands out of camera shot. In addition, the difficulty of operating all the prop’s parts at once also contributed to the occasionally jerky movements of the Dalek. The latest model of the costume still has a human operator within, but the movement of the dome and eyestalk is now remotely controlled so that the operator can concentrate on the smooth movement of the Dalek and its arms.

The Dalek voice, a staccato delivery, was initially developed by voice actors Peter Hawkins (who had also provided the voice for the popular children’s animated series Captain Pugwash) and David Graham, who would vary the pitch and speed of the lines according to the emotion needed. Their voices were further processed electronically by Brian Hodgson at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Although the exact sound-processing devices used have varied over the years, the original 1963 effect used EQ to boost the mid-range of the actor’s voice, then subjected it to ring modulation with a 30 Hz sine wave. The distinctive harsh grating vocal timbre this produced has remained the pattern for all Dalek voices since then. Notable voice actors for the Daleks include Roy Skelton. In the 2005 series, the Dalek voice is provided by Nicholas Briggs, speaking into a microphone connected to a voice modulator. Briggs has also done Dalek and other alien voices for audio plays.

The non-humanoid shape of the Dalek, unlike anything that had been seen on television before, did much to enhance the creatures’ sense of menace. With no familiar points of reference, it was a far cry from the traditional “bug-eyed monster” of science fiction that Doctor Who series creator Sydney Newman wanted the show to avoid. The unsettling form of the Daleks, coupled with their alien voices, also made many believe for a while that the props were wholly mechanical and operated by remote control.

Manufacturing the props was also expensive. In scenes where many Daleks had to appear, some of them would be represented by wooden replicas (Destiny of the Daleks) or, in the early black and white episodes, life-size photographic enlargements (The Power of the Daleks). In stories involving armies of Daleks, the BBC effects team even turned to using commercially-available toy Daleks, manufactured by Louis Marx & Co. A typical example of such use can be observed in Planet of the Daleks. Judicious editing techniques also made it look like there were more Dalek props than were actually available.

Initially there were four fully functioning props commissioned for the first serial, constructed from BBC plans by Shawcraft Models (which became known in fan circles as “Mk I Daleks”). Shawcraft were also commissioned to construct twenty or so Daleks for the two Dalek movies in 1965 and 1966 (see below). Most of these props from the movies filtered back to the BBC and were seen in the televised serials, notably in The Chase, which was released even before the first movie’s debut. The remaining props not bought by the BBC were either donated to charity or given away as prizes in competitions.

Those still in BBC hands were reused several times but eventually years of storage and repainting took their toll. By the time of the Sixth Doctor’s Revelation of the Daleks, the props were manufactured out of fibreglass, and were lighter and more affordable to construct than their predecessors. These Daleks were slightly bulkier in appearance around the mid-shoulder section, and also had a slightly redesigned base which was more vertical at the back. Minor changes were made to the design thanks to these new methods of construction, including alterations to the lower skirting as well as the mid-shoulder section incorporating the arm boxes, which were now one single unit, with the vertical bands encircling the casing also included in the fibreglass mould.

These were repainted in grey for the Seventh Doctor serial Remembrance of the Daleks and designated as “Renegade Daleks” while another redesign, painted in white and gold, became the “Imperial Dalek” faction. The new methods of construction also allowed the BBC Effects Department to build non-working “dummy” Daleks meant for use in scenes involving pyrotechnics. Several of these props were blown up in controlled explosions during the filming of Remembrance of the Daleks, which would not have been cost-efficient with working props. (via Wikipedia)

There is nothing like a little costumed roleplay to spice up sex, so all this talk of Dalek domination may have put the thought in your head that you’d like to try out a bit of that. Project Dalek to the rescue with helpful detailed instructions in downloadable PDF format for building your own Dalek. According to John at Project Dalek, there is something he refers to as the Dalek Builder’s Guild. I can’t tell if this is a humorous reference to his hobbyist friends or an actual organization. Anyway, the site is excellent if you need Dalek construction plans. And you probably do at this point. Disco hotpants not included.

The Daleks (pronounced “DAH-lecks” or “DAH-licks”) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The mutated descendants of the Kaled people (originally refered to as “Dals”) of the planet Skaro, they travel around in tank-like mechanical casings, a ruthless race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse. They are also, collectively, the greatest alien adversaries of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Their most infamous catchphrase is “EX-TER-MIN-ATE!”, with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic electronic voice (download sample). Other common utterances include “I (or WE) OBEY!” to any command given by a superior.

The Daleks were created by writer Terry Nation and BBC designer Raymond Cusick and were first introduced in December 1963 in the second Doctor Who serial. They became an immediate hit with the viewing audience, featuring in many subsequent serials. They have become synonymous with Doctor Who and their behaviour and catchphrases are part of British popular culture.

The word “Dalek” has entered the Oxford English Dictionary and other major dictionaries (the Collins Dictionary defines it rather broadly as “any of a set of fictional robot-like creations that are aggressive, mobile, and produce rasping staccato speech”). It is also a trademark, having first been registered by the BBC in 1964 to protect its lucrative range of Dalek merchandise.

The term is sometimes used in a metaphorical sense to describe people, usually figures in authority, who act like robots unable to break their programming. John Birt, the controversial ex-Director-General of the BBC, was called a “croak-voiced Dalek” by playwright Dennis Potter in August 1993. The Daleks even appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture in 1999, photographed by Lord Snowdon. (via Wikipedia)