The Evil of the Daleks - Doctor Who: On Screen, In Script, On Stage

Nick Scovell, the man who would go on to write, direct and star in the stage show of The Evil of the Daleks, began his Doctor Who stage career in 1996 when he was offered a slot at the Portsmouth Arts Centre and and opted to put on a theatrical performance of his recently-written script entitled Planet of Storms.

The Paul McGann TV Movie had not long been broadcast, and after obtaining the necessary rights, this Graham Williams-esque romp was mounted in October 1996 featuring gold aliens called the Pertinax, and the Terrible Zodin.

One member of the audience in this performance was Rob Thrush, a local fan, and he was looking for an actor to play The Doctor in his The Millennium Trap film in 1997. Thrush liked Scovell's Doctor and asked him to be in the film which went on to become highly regarded. In due course Thrush joined the theatre company and they did several plays together.

When another slot came free for a couple of years ahead, Rob Thrush had suggested that The Web of Fear would make a good stage show. And so in June 2000 he was able to secure the rights from both the BBC and writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln to mount a stage production of this lost classic. Thrush wrote, produced and directed it with Nick Scovell playing the Doctor.


	Soldiers patrol in The Web of Fear
	Photo Courtesy of Rob Thrush

Nick Scovell picks up the story about where the play was performed: "The Old Portsmouth Arts Centre is now sadly closed and bulldozed which was a lovely, lovely venue. It was a studio theatre, an old converted school. And the studio space was just the right size. You could only get ninety people in there. It was a nice stage area and on one half of the stage there was the railway tunnel and the other side was the inside of the fortress and laboratory. There was an empty space in the middle where we did various scenes."


Three of the cast in The Web of Fear
Photo Courtesy of Rob Thrush

"Rob’s style of show is quite different to mine. His were more of direct transference from the original. A very filmic style. So we cut from one scene to another very quickly. His style worked terribly well if you’re doing something that was filmic. We had the first filmed inserts in that one where it was basically all the stuff that was filmed on location for [the TV show] was on the screen, and everything that was in the [TV] studio was live on stage. So on the screen you had the big battle with the Yetis and us wandering round outside the station and finding the news seller covered in cobwebs and stuff like that. It worked very well, Web of Fear because it's quite a claustrophobic story and The Arts Centre was a small venue. It had this nice enclosed atmosphere and the Yetis worked very well as a monster because they were big hairy beasties and they had huge glowing eyes, and roared! They really did tower over us. He got some huge actors to play them and they roasted in these huge costumes."

"I have very clear memories of the rehearsals just being enormous amounts of fun because it was such a pacey show, all the scenes were about ninety seconds and we were running around the one set. There were three or four scenes in the laboratory I had with Alice who was playing Anne Travers when we were taking apart the control sphere and they’re very similar scenes in dialogue and pacing. We could never remember which was the right order and we’d have to go off and do the same route round, going offstage to run round to the back to come on again a different way. It was a nightmare remembering which scene was in order and Alice and I would be in the blackout asking, “Which one is it?! It’s not that one? No it’s that one!” The lights come up and off we go!"


	Doctor, Victoria & Jamie in The Web of Fear
	Photo Courtesy of Rob Thrush

Doctor Who at this time was very much deep into 'the Wilderness Years' coming half way between Paul McGann's only appearance as the Doctor, and the eventual triumphant return five years later. Publicity for the play highlighted the fact that it was a lost story to lure fans to the idea that this might be their only chance to see a forgotten classic.

Such was the draw of this play that when Nick Scovell made enquiries to the box office after the first rehearsal to see how tickets were selling, he discovered the play was completely sold out. An extra performance was booked in for the Saturday matinee as a result. You can read more on Rob Thrush's website here: The Web of Fear Stage Play.


Companions - Fury from the Deep
Image Courtesy of Rob Thrush

This success was reflected in the desire to do a follow up. The same Doctor was booked in 2001 and Rob Thrush again set about the task of re-creating a lost classic. In 2002 Fury from the Deep was successfully adapted and brought to the Theatre Royal between March 27th and 30th of that year. Once again the play was marketed with the emphasis on it being a lost story and it worked very well to draw attention. Like its predecessor, it was a sell-out and you can read more about the play here: Fury from the Deep Stage Play.

The Beginnings of Evil

After a gap of a couple of years, it was in the late summer of 2004, not long after the revived New Series of Doctor Who had started filming that Nick Scovell got the impetus to do something Doctor Who related. His daughters were asking questions about the toy Daleks around the house and he was very much of the opinion that the lure of these monsters was not a trick of the childhood memory.


	An Dalek on stage in The Evil of the Daleks
	Photo Courtesy of Daniel Cartwright

Doubting the likelihood of getting the rights to do anything official, his initial thoughts turned to a fan film version of The Evil of the Daleks but whilst running the idea past Rob Thrush, he suggested to Scovell that is should go on stage and was worth giving the Theatre Royal a ring. Initial contact with the BBC was returned the very next day with a phone call and that rights issue was cleared quickly. Permission then also had to be sought from the estate of the late Terry Nation.

Whilst awaiting a reply from that corner, written permission was also requested from, and granted by, the estate of the late David Whitaker, which is now looked after by one of his female relatives in Australia. However nine months had passed with still no word from the estate of Terry Nation. Amazingly, during this time, the BBC themselves were locked in a rights battle with Nation's agent, Tim Hancock, who was pushing for more editorial control over the TV scripts to ensure the Daleks remained true to their concept. The BBC only secured the use of the Daleks at the last minute, and Nick Scovell's situation was not dissimilar. With time running out for booking actors, only after an extremely persistent amount of telephoning, was he finally able to get clearance for the play

Adapting the Script for Stage

Nick Scovell was then faced with the task of turning 180 minutes of television in 90 minutes of stage show. He approached the problem by first making a note of the key elements of this classic based solely on his memory of it. A fan coming to see a new version of the story would expect the iconic scenes which are well known from the surviving episode two, the rather desperate human struggle, the very strong characters, and the climactic showdown with the Emperor. In addition to what the fans would want, he had to weigh up what someone coming to see it out of curiosity would enjoy, and what new Doctor Who fans would get from it. The new series at this point was an enormous success and with Dalek toys appearing in the shops there was no doubt parents would be bringing their children during half term. It had to be self-contained, obviously with no reference to the previous televised story, and without being tied up in new series continuity. There were a lot of elements to juggle.

Scovell initially created a wholly faithful stage script, starting at Heathrow and featuring the Antiques shop, complete with all the characters, and ending up on Skaro. From here he then started a lengthy redrafting process, stripping away any padding and the elements not needed to tell the main story. Episode one was removed entirely, as it's only function was setting up the mystery and providing a Dalek cliff-hanger before the Doctor had seen the face of the enemy. The large number of locations throughout the story were then addressed, as the writer explains:


	The Fireplace that holds a terrible twist
	Photo Courtesy of Daniel Cartwright

"There’s nothing wrong with many locations but I knew it would be on an open, bare stage, which is how all my plays are. I don’t like sets at all. They get on my wick to be honest! I like atmospheres and backgrounds. They work so much better in the theatre. To go from Heathrow airport, to an antique shop, to a coffee bar, to a Victorian mansion, to a planet billions of miles away in the future would be pushing it a bit. We could not effectively show such a change in emphasis without having to have some set there. With Evil you didn’t need it to tell the story."

In restructuring the story, it became clear what had to go. Jamie's series of tasks were efficiently reduced to just a sword-fight and the rescue of Victoria and the character of Kemel became totally redundant. This was no great loss as a good percentage of the modern audience will only have been familiar with the audio of the story and therefore are unlikely to feel the loss of a mute character. Quite aside from the practicalities of tightening up the narrative, it was not the easiest role to try to cast, being an amateur company with few willing volunteers to take on a character with no dialogue. Similarly, the pointless threat with Windsor Davies' character was jettisoned as it only served to provide a cliffhanger on TV.

But it was the removal of the multiple locations that became the key to moulding the whole structure of the play into a self-contained narrative with it's own unique ending.

The finale provided problems at the script stage due to the fact that a full-blown Skaro civil war was not possible. Discounting the idea of filmed inserts as with the previous plays, the compromise was to reduce the extensive battle to a short but equally terminal exchange of fire, and combine as much Dalek movement in the background with a focus on the human characters struggling centre stage.

Influences in the Script

Scovell notes how one particular classic Doctor Who shaped his approach to the new ending. "I think it was around that time that Ghostlight came out on DVD and I love Ghostlight, it’s in my top ten Doctor Who stories of all time. I love it. I think it’s a work of genius. I thought, if Evil was something like that, it could it all be set in the house because you can have that instant atmosphere and I that’s how I thought of the extra Dalek storyline thread. Some people said 'Isn’t it going to be a bit of a cop-out?' Well I don’t think so because I hadn’t done it for those reasons. I hadn’t thought 'Oh well we haven’t got a budget therefore it has to be in one place or one room.' If people think that, then that’s tough, but that’s not why I did it."


Nick Scovell as The Doctor
Photo Courtesy of Simon John

Just like in Ghostlight, in the stage version of The Evil of the Daleks, the Doctor is aware that the house he is in is destined to be destroyed in fire. This brought an interesting angle for those already familiar with how the story ends, because it was an acknowledgement that it didn't matter how familiar one might be with the plot, there was something new on offer.

Moving the showdown from Skaro to the mansion not only brought a surprise for the audience when the Emperor was revealed in the fireplace, but it gave the Daleks a different agenda. Instead of being the all-powerful beings plaguing the galaxy as they were in the 60s, they took on a more sneaking and weakened demeanour, having used their time corridor to see a bleak future for themselves. It was a change which tied in well with how the Daleks were to be seen in the new series at the time, where they are always trying to gather strength and swell their numbers.

In addition to elements being changed and removed, other aspects of the story were strengthened, particularly with Waterfield becoming a Reverend. Nick Scovell explains this change:

"This is going to sound strange but I have a penchant for tortured vicars. I’ve written a lot of plays with tortured vicars in. I am a man who believes. I have faith of my own. It’s not desperately strong. I don’t go to church or anything but I believe, and sometimes I pray. But I find it a fascinating concept that some people have so much faith and that they lose it and I’ve known some people like that."


	Lewis Bailey as Waterfield
	Photo: Simon John

"I like to give characters a real edge and Maxtible had an edge with his selfishness. Ruth had an edge because she’s the estranged daughter. But Waterfield didn’t really have an edge in the original. He was beautifully played by Lewis Bailey, but he was just like an angry father and that’s all he was. Making him a Reverend also gave him a reason to be in the house which isn’t really given in the original so my reasoning was that Waterfield was someone who had been chucked out by his church for his scientific beliefs and it says in the play, “if God exists he must be part of the fabric of creation and if I could understand what that was woven from...” So I think his fascination with science drew him to Maxtible and also got him chucked out of his parish. He couldn’t let his faith live side by side with his belief and his wish to really understand through science. That just gave him an edge, and that could give him some lovely scenes with the Doctor. The fact that they’re all fathers would link them as well. You’ve got the devoted father: Waterfield, the estranged father: the Doctor, and the bastard father: Maxtible. That to me was very personal, as I’m a very devoted father to my children and it’s a personal thing I bring with me to parts and writing. So I was really rather fond of Waterfield."


Theodore and Ruth Maxtible
Photo Courtesy of Peter Labrow

With this particular tortured Vicar being faced with an alien invasion in a Victorian setting, the audience might have wondered if there was a slight homage to the H.G. Wells novel, War of the Worlds. Scovell comments, "There might have been a subconscious link, because War of the Worlds is my favourite novel. It is one of my dreams to make a film that finally does it justice. But there is so much material in tortured vicars!"

"I like to debate faith and love even in something which could be perceived as trivial and lightweight as Doctor Who. I think that’s an interesting side to the Doctor as well. That clash of belief and faith. I find that a fascinating conflict. I believe in the deep rooted, unquestioning goodness of humanity and the fact that goodness will prevail. But then I see the terrible things that men can do and the dreadful things that we can build and make. For me I want to bring that deeper and more emotional element about the positiveness of humanity. I love the fact that Russell T Davies has picked up on that because I believe that is such an essential part of Doctor Who. And he’s said he’s half human. I know a lot of fans ignore that but he said it and I think it makes perfect sense."


	Rosie Grant as Victoria
	Photo: Peter Labrow

Nick Scovell also feels that adding the more adult and thought-provoking scenes was possible thanks to the quality of the original writer, David Whitaker."I think he’s the best writer the Daleks ever had. No-one else understood the Daleks like he did and I think Evil contains the two best Dalek lines ever: When the Dalek says “There is only one form of life that matters – Dalek life.” I think that’s just brilliant. And also the Doctor’s retort, “I will not be your slave!” because it just sums up that side of the Doctor perfectly. It’s a very good, bold line. I think David Whitaker was secretly a very deep Dalek fan. I’ve also read his script to Curse of the Daleks and it’s basically Power of the Daleks several cousins removed. I used some of the dialogue from that in Evil. There’s a professor examining a dead Dalek in Curse of the Daleks and he says “The Daleks only ever recognise success or destruction” and also the little poem that starts the play, "Remember, remember, the Dalek December." That’s a nursery rhyme that they recite in Curse of the Daleks when they remember the invasion of Earth. That added a slightly dark element to it. I just love Whitaker’s Dalek dialogue. He wrote them as characters and their plans are so devious. In both Power and Evil they’re using humanity against itself and the Daleks are so good in his hands."


Nick Scovell and a Dalek
Photo Courtesy of Simon John

Whitaker's stage script isn't the only place from which a line was borrowed, as one from Planet of Evil can be found where Waterfield says to Maxtible,“You and I are scientists, we purchase our right to experiment at the cost of total responsibility” and there is even a quote from Sherlock Holmes in there.

The era of Sherlock Holmes is also the period into which the play was moved. The TV version of the story was set in the 1860s, but for practical reasons Scovell brought the play a few decades forward as he explains, "1860 would be slightly frilly shirts, the big collars and the big side burns and it would look a bit like The Good Old Days. I thought if I update it I can go slightly Edwardian. It was purely practical as it saved us putting Victoria in a Crinoline. Try to get someone on and off stage in a Crinoline and you are stuck."

Casting

Although the lead character in the stage play was not meant to be an impersonation of the second Doctor, Nick Scovell nevertheless sees similarities between his interpretation of the Time Lord in this story, and the original.


	The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria
	Photo Courtesy of Simon John

"Patrick Troughton has always been my favourite Doctor. I think he’s perfect for the part and I think if he’d never played it I would have played it exactly as he did - that sort of little worried man. I think my Doctor is very human and emotional and paternal. I think that’s what makes your Doctor work, is keeping the paternal side which is very me as well. When you play the Doctor you try to play yourself but with a bit more authority and guts. That’s what makes your Doctor come alive, that caring side."

"I’d done two shows previously with John Paul McCrohon as Jamie and I could just hear him say the lines. We’ve known each other for years and get on very well. I think John Paul is better than Frazer Hines. He’s a very accomplished actor. He’s got a lot of charisma, he runs his own theatre company, he’s got a fantastic singing voice, he’s got a real belter of a voice for the musicals. He loved playing Jamie and he’s a big Doctor Who fan as well. Between the three appearances he put on a few pounds so his kilt had to be adjusted slightly each time which annoyed him!"

In Web of Fear Victoria had been played by young actress Nancy Holloway however she was unavailable for Fury from the Deep so Laura Ford took up the role. When it came to The Evil of the Daleks, Holloway was first choice again but she was forced to pull out. Rob Thrush had used an actress from a local college called Rosie Grant for a special event, and being talented, attractive and the right age for the role, she was duly cast as the screaming Victoria.

The Production and The Daleks

With other projects preventing him attempting the production in 2005, Scovell knew his next window of opportunity was in 2006, as he only commits to one big project per year. With the script finished, countless production meetings had begun by February. Rehearsals started in September 2006, a couple of months after David Tennant's tenth Doctor had had his showdown with the Cult of Skaro in Doomsday.

Rehearsals took place two nights a week for six weeks, followed by the technical and dress rehearsal in the theatre.

When it came to the Daleks themselves, there was a slight problem. The play did not have the resources or the funds to build a set of props. There were none left over from The Millennium Trap and a variety of possible sources such as Hyde Fundraisers and This Planet Earth did not have a large enough set which were all the same. The props also had to be used for rehearsals and kept for the duration of the play. The problem was finally solved by Rob Thrush who suggested the fan film Devious might have the answer. Sure enough, Ashley Nealfuller came to the rescue, offering his services and providing a whole batch of props for use.

The Daleks for The Evil of the Daleks were an interesting hybrid of the old style and the look which had recently been introduced in the new series. They fused the tall stature of the new props with the classic lines of the originals. They took the flat 'solar panels' from the 60s but added the configuration of the new series Daleks' large front panel and eye-cowel.

When the Doctor administers his Human Factor to the Daleks, the two regular props become his allies, and the reveal of the magnificent Emperor prop brought with it two more Daleks, this time with dark green domes. This tradition of the dark dome for Daleks associated with the Emperor is a direct reference to the TV story and has a legacy in the new series which you can read more about here.

On each performance of the play, the reveal of the Emperor received a fantastic reaction. Nick Scovell appraises the Emperor: "It’s perfectly proportioned, solidly built and looked brilliant anyway, but as soon as you light it it looks fantastic. When they first stuck it in the surroundings with all the tubes and then we opened up the fireplace, it was just "wow", with the lights and the smoke. Every time it opened up it got this huge round of applause and there was this great sense of excitement. This sounds really pretentious but when you’re on stage you can really sense the atmosphere of the audience and the mood. It took a surge in a similar way to when the Daleks first came on. I think on one occasion we got a round of applause when the Daleks came on. The kids were just aghast seeing them live because they came through these big doors with the smoke. We managed to get the Emperor looking really, really good. And the fact that Ashley made the head move and the eye stalk to light up was great. There was actually someone inside it. Poor Jon [Andrews] just sat there waiting for God knows how long, then just wiggled the thing and had to duck as it blew up so that he didn’t get his head blown off."

The Score

To compliment the live action, an excellent and highly atmospheric score was composed by a man plucked from relative obscurity from the internet and whose career was launched by the stage play.

For those who heard the theme and incidental music of The Evil of the Daleks stage play, it might come as something of a surprise to learn that the composer, by his own admission, could not read or write music, or play an instrument when he came to create the score.

Martin Johnson became involved after his version of the Doctor Who theme entitled "For a Darkened People" was found on the website WhoMix by Rob Thrush in September 2005. After discussions by email, the producers of the play took a chance on using Johnson to score the whole thing, and he set about researching the story, initially purchasing a copy of the TV story on audio for inspiration.

The theme tune for the show which can be heard on the above link on WhoMix, was chosen because the producers didn't want to use either the original or the new series version. To create something with the energy of the new series theme, but much darker in tone, French horns and a church organ were employed and a cello became the bass line. Adding to the appropriate Victorian motif of the whole piece, a vocal choir was mixed and the end result is very fitting for the tone of the whole play.


	Photo Courtesy of Peter Labrow

Often being struck with inspiration whilst out cycling, Johnson would literally hum the melodies which came to him into a Dictaphone, and then record them digitally into the computer later.

The first elements dealt with were the Daleks, and after creating the sinister theme for them, he adapted it into a more playful waltz-like variation for the human Daleks. He then set about devising the lighter melody for the Waterfields and the much darker theme for Maxtible. The latter is in fact darker than than the Daleks' own theme, in order to reflect just how evil this human character becomes in his greedy and manipulative quest.

Having met Nicholas Briggs during the read-through for The Evil of the Daleks, the conversation turned to the officially licensed Doctor Who audios made by Big Finish and how Johnson would like to work for them. It was a few months before the read-through for the stage sequel The Daleks Master Plan, when Johnson was asked to audition for Big Finish. He sent his audition just before production week on the play, and, with chats continuing during the run, it resulted in him working on the official Doctor Who audios.

And so, following in the footsteps of Nick Scovell who appeared with Colin Baker in Whispers of Terror and with Paul McGann in The Stones of Venice, Martin Johnson was welcomed into the Big Finish fold, working on the May 2008 release Assassin in the Limelight, then The Doomwood Curse.

Performance

The play ran at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth between 25th and 28th October 2006 during which time more than 3000 came to see the play and reviews were glowing. It was the first time for thirty years that a company at that theatre had played to a sell-out house every single night, so the draw of the play cannot be under-stated.

Proceeds went towards the restoration of the theatre and and £15,000 was raised. In addition, £550 was raised for Children in Need.

The play opens with the Dalek nursery rhyme taken from Curse of the Daleks, recited by all the main characters. The first five minutes of the play created a new scenario with the TARDIS being drawn off course and landing in a Victorian mansion. This quickly and efficiently replaced the whole of episode one and removed the need for any unnecessary tie-in to the TV shows arc-story in which the TARDIS had been stolen in the previous adventure. The Doctor finds a receipt for a large amount of raw material suggesting some massive engineering feat has been attempted in the house...

Thereafter we meet Waterfield and Maxtible and during a very faithful rendition of episodes two and three, we learn of their attempts to travel in time, plus the influence of the Daleks.

A nice touch to the stage direction was in having two Dalek casings always present at the back of the set, so even during non-Dalek scenes, the monsters cast a metaphorical shadow over the play all times, and acted as a constant reminder of their evil influence.

Maxtible's greedy and callous nature begins to be revealed and we learn that the Daleks are looking for the human factor in Jamie. His test is to rescue Victoria from the Daleks and the Doctor anaylses his emotions.

The cliff hanger of the first half ends with the Daleks about to exterminate Jamie and Victoria!

But as the second half begins, the Daleks spin round and in fact exterminate their human collaborator. The human drama unfolds as the Reverend Waterfield grapples with his faith and tries to reconcile the horrible things he is seeing with his desire to get closer to God.

The Doctor injects it into two Daleks who develop child-like behaviour and want to make friends. But these new creations are de-activated and the Doctor realises that there is a higher power at work.

As more Daleks enter the room, the large fireplace which has dominated the play splits to reveal the Emperor Dalek, bathed in light and shrouded in smoke.

The Doctor realises the Daleks have projected their time corridor eons into the future to a time where there are almost no Daleks. The Doctor says that the two Daleks he has made human will start to question and they will cause other Daleks to question. But the Emperor says that the Doctor has in fact shown them the Dalek factor and the human race will be reborn as Daleks. Maxtible becomes the first to be treated.

The Doctor is told to spread the Dalek Factor through the entire history of Earth and will help through his own free will... when he becomes the next Dalek human! The treatment beam shines down and the Doctor is being converted...

But then one of the test Daleks sees what is happening to his new friend, the Doctor. Jamie shoots the gold Dalek and whilst chaos breaks out the Emperor shouts "Do not fight in here!" as Maxtible attacks the Doctor. Waterfield intervenes and explosions erupt as Daleks spin and attack each other, and Waterfield dies.

The Doctor reflects on the fact that they have saved the future and with Victoria, they leave.

Thanks

I wish to express my sincerest thanks to these people who not only created the stage show, but have also been kind, enthusiastic and helpful in putting this website together. They are:

I would also like to thank Peter Labrow of Dalek Links, Simon John, Daniel Cartwright and Anni Ruecroft for their permission to use their photographs throughout the site, without with it would be a much more boring place!

The Evil of the Daleks Stage Show The Plays Before Evil