10 Doctor Who Episodes That Accidentally Changed The Show Forever
1. The Daleks
"No bug-eyed monsters."
This was apparently one of Sydney Newman's directives when he and Verity Lambert were developing Doctor Who in 1963.
Unfortunately for Newman, Terry Nation had other ideas, and his request was almost completely ignored in the show’s second story with the introduction of perhaps the greatest “bug-eyed monsters” of all… the Daleks!
An immediate hit on broadcast, the seven-part serial that eventually became known as "The Daleks" was instrumental in shifting the show away from its original goal of being educational, turning it into the sci-fi adventure we know and love today.
Nation was quickly commissioned to write The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and many other writers turned their hands to creating their own fantastical space-aliens. Without the Daleks, we might never have got Cybermen, Ice Warriors, Silurians, Sontarans, Zygons, or even a second season at all.
An Unearthly Child may have been Doctor Who’s first episode, but The Daleks is when the show became what it is today. Hooray for bug-eyed monsters!