They are all in place and we start now, building towards 24 October 2007, and the opening night of our final Doctor Who extravaganza – The Dalek Masterplan.
Here on Dalek Links you will be able, once again, to follow the creation of the play from the very beginning to the final performances. This excellent site will be our main source of information for the run of the show, so make sure you visit as often as possible.
Looking Back on The Evil of the Daleks, I still to have to slap myself a little bit when I think about how it went. To sell-out a five performance run in the circumstances we were in was almost unheard of. It was rather amazing. I am still enormously grateful to anyone who was a part of the show and to everyone who came to see it. It became clear quite early on in the week that a sequel would undoubtedly be needed. The only question is – which one to do? It had to be the Daleks. No question of that. It had to be a ‘lost’ story. So, the choice was really down to two options…
I chose The Dalek Masterplan simply because the obvious choice was too obvious! During the course of the final day of Evil, we were all chatting about the sequel. Everyone, including myself, had assumed it would be The Power of the Daleks. I think that natural certainty had caused my mind to start ticking! Mind you, The Power of the Daleks has everything one could want from a Doctor Who/Dalek story – strong characters, solid story, enough action. But, it also has a similar style to Evil, naturally as it was also by David Whitaker, and many of its themes are recurrent. I thought it best to go for more of a contrast, so I plumped for Masterplan. My own masterplan then formed that Power would have completed the ‘trilogy’ the following year, but that will not happen now, alas. A decision out of my hands.
So, once the various permissions were sorted, a process which was much quicker than last time, I got a copy of the script. It seemed quite clear what structure the play would need to take. Getting a 12-part script, which would notch up almost 5 hours worth of TV, down to about 90 minutes was a little easier than I had at first thought. It seemed clear that the show would have to use the beginning and the end of the original story as its core (no pun intended), with much of the ‘running-around’ removed. However, running concurrent with that was the inclusion of the ‘modern’ feel of Doctor Who as well. From Evil, we learned that a good 75% of our audience were ‘new’ fans of the show and families bringing their children. So, like Evil, it had to be their Doctor Who as well as ours, if that makes sense? Plus, I wanted the play to have its own unique strands, something I think I have managed to capture, and which I will keep a secret…
The first full draft of the script was completed on 1 February and we held our first meeting and a provisional read-through of the first completed draft of the complete script on 7 February. There are a few more drafts to come, but the basics are now in place. Most of the cast and crew were there and it was great to see old faces again, and to see a few new ones. Not least of which was Mike Maddox, our script editor. Mike is an accomplished writer and has recently worked with Paul Cornell on the Big Finish Audio ‘Circular Time.’ He will be working with me on subsequent drafts of the script, with our deadline for total completion being on 30 June 30.
The script seemed to come alive rather well, especially as Rob Thrush had rigged up the ring modulator! Several parts are still yet to be cast, so many of the cast mucked in and played different parts each. Also with us were Ashley Nealfuller of Devious, the Master Dalek builder himself. Plus, Stuart Currie – a local Dalek builder who has joined the team to assist in all things Dalek (more on the Daleks specifically in the next article to come soon). Martin Johnson, our renowned score composer was also present, as was Steve Redfearn, of Redders Daleks, and our poster designer. He’s come up with another smasher!
The poster for the stage production of The Dalek Masterplan – click to see a large version in a pop-up window
It was a great start to the proceedings and I am most grateful to everyone for finding the time to come. Rehearsals begin in early September. It seems such a long way away, but I daresay it will be upon us quicker than you know…
Nick Scovell – 10 February 2007
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