EXTERMINATE them, exterminate them....but did they exterminate the original six Daleks from the first Dr Who programmes?

The Dalek at the 1964 party

You see, hemeltoday's Local History section contains a sub-section of pictures of Hemel in the 1960's and one of those pictures is of the Access Equipment Christmas party of 1964 which was attended by one Dalek, and it looks like a real true Dalek.

Although the picture has been on Hemeltoday for a good three years now, it was only last weekGary Rymill and a team of fellow Dr Who and Dalek fans and experts found it through a web search. Gary's asked us for a full sized print and we're now searching our archives of negatives to find it.

Gary told us: "Down the years there have been many attempts to describe the developments of the Dalek props that were built for Doctor Who but the histories have contained inaccuracies and included some myths known to be false.

"Myself and a few others (some of us have links to the TV series production and others are merely keen enthusiasts) are setting out to see if we can piece together, once-and-for-all, what happened to the props and when.

"Whilst it is the case that through the decades about two dozen props of one kind or another have appeared on screen, there were actually only six "true" Daleks originally built for TV in 1963/64.

"Those fibreglass originals survived in dwindling numbers through to 1988, with the addition of some new wooden scene fillers in the 70s and then cheap vac-formed ones in the 80s.

"But it is those original six that are of continual interest to Dalek historians, not least because there is even some debate about how many were really made, but mainly because there are so many myths and uncertainties about the props. It is clear from photos such as yours that the original TV props did far more than appear on screen.

"They appeared at parties, fundraisers, TV promotions and two of the original six were even donated to Dr Barnardo's where they were used to destruction.

"With so little documentary evidence from the time the only way to attempt to track the escapades of these props is through contemporary photography. It is relatively easy to determine the originals from replicas that appeared later and with close attention to detail, it is even possible to tell the first six props apart from each other.

"Therefore when private photos such as yours show one of the original props in an unusual setting there is always the hope that it will reveal something surprising that has not been previously known about the way it was built, or modified, or what its eventual fate was. "


IT'S also possible you can help too. Were you at that Access party of 1964? Do you have some pictures too, especially colour ones as ours were in black and white.
Access, of course was one of the early firms to move into Hemel Hempstead's new town Maylands Avenue and in those days many of the firms held Christmas parties.
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