Taken from todays edition of the sun:

Daleks ex-ter-min-at-ed!
By SARA NATHAN

THE Sun is launching a campaign to save the Daleks — after they were exterminated from the new Dr Who series.

BBC chiefs are desperate for hi-tech versions of the Time Lord’s arch-enemies to appear.

The Beeb shares rights to the sci-fi killers with the family of their creator Terry Nation, who died in 1997.

But talks broke down on Wednesday when Mr Nation’s estate demanded control of Dalek storylines.

Beeb producers said they offered “the very best deal possible”. But the Nation estate feared producers planned to make the Daleks “too evil”.

A BBC insider said: “It’s hard to imagine Dr Who without Daleks but it seems we have no choice.

“The Nation estate’s demands were completely unacceptable. They care a lot about the Daleks. We fear they have been lost forever.”

Now, with just a month before filming starts, the Beeb is having to create other enemies to be faced by new Time Lord Christopher Eccleston.


Writer Russell T Davies, creator of Channel 4’s Queer As Folk, said: “We’re disappointed the Daleks won’t be included but we have a number of new and exciting monsters.

“And I can confirm we have created a new enemy for the Doctor which will keep viewers on the edge of their seats.”

The new series will be shown next year.

But sci-fi fans are outraged at the prospect of no Daleks.

Chris Balcombe, 44, of Southampton, has organised a protest march in a bid to get them re-instated. He said: “Daleks were infamous for sending children diving behind sofas in the Sixties and Seventies. Dr Who without them is unthinkable.”

Now The Sun is appealing for Mr Nation’s estate to back down — and allow the Daleks to make a comeback.

Not sure what to think about this. They are an odd type of enemy but I do love that fear that builds up when you know they are chasing you? EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

Imo, one of the best things about Dr who was the daleks, so without them.....

It was the Cybermen that creeped me out more than the Daleks.

I preferred the Cybermen

Yeah, they were good too, but for comedy value as well as scaryness, the daleks were my fave. :)

Ah yes -

"Exterminate"

or

"I am going to attack you in my pepperpot body using an egg whisk and a sink plunger" :lol:

Hey you posted that the same time as me :lol: :lol: :lol:

Indeedy :lol:

Well that settles it - The Cybermen rule :headbang:

Yeah, why did they have a plunger?

"Death, or plumbing...Death or plumbing" *

"Here's Bob the Dalek, he's got 2 lasers, don;t mess with him. Here's Steve the dalek, got 2 plungers. He's a bit crap really. * :lol:

* both courtesy of Eddie Izzard :lol:

He was rumoured to play Doctor Who, I wonder if that was because of his jokes :lol:

Quite possibly. Although he should stick to comedy. I can never take him seriously when he's acting! :lol: :lol:

I'm a big fan and I know what you mean about his acting but I do like some of his stuff. Not sure what to make of him in Oceans 12 :huh:

Just cannot imagine the series not having them, hopefully they will get it sorted out at some future point

Personally, I think the Daleks were overrated and aside from a few moments their last great story was The Evil of the Daleks (conveniently a story which featured the Dalek's 'final end').

While they were iconic in the past, these days they look a bit silly (especially to the children they would be trying to appeal to), and were they in the new series they would have either had to a) keep the original design, and expect potential ridicule, or b ) update the design, and to be honest if they did that then they might as well just think of a new enemy.

While it looks bad, this ban of Daleks is potnetially a good thing, as it allows Eccleston's Doctor to get new, original enemies (after all, when you think of classic recurring enemies in Doctor Who, the last Doctor to introduce one was Pertwee's, when the Sontarans were introduced).

I dont think that is necessarily true, there were plenty of new enemys introduced throughout the remaining Doctors after Pertwee.

I think the new series has to introduce new enemys in order to be sucessful BUT also they should not break away from the past and should at some point reintroduce both the DALEKS and the CYBERMEN.

I guess the MASTER will turn up again at some point as well although I hope they dont over use him!!!

True, but my point is that when you consider the publically recognised 'big bads' of Doctor Who (Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Yeti, The Master, Sontarans), all of them had been introduced before the end of the Third Doctor's era. While there have been good enemies since then, none of them have really engraved themselves on the public consciousness like the above ones have. After all, you never see more than the odd few people remember the Mara, or Sil as great Who enemies :)