14 Doctor Who Urban Legends That Are Actually True
14. The Daleks Were Based On The Nazis...
This one pretty much goes without saying. They have become the Doctors most iconic - and not to mention persistent - adversaries of all time and when they first appeared on TV screens back in December 1963, they were like nothing the British viewing public had ever seen before. It didnt take long for a case of Dalekmania fever to sweep over the nation but just where did the idea for the now internationally recognisable pepperpots even come from? Well, with their chilling and foreboding battle cry of Exterminate! combined with an ongoing mission to achieve total conformity throughout the universe, there was surely only one source of inspiration thats worth mentioning. If you hadnt guessed already, Dalek creator Terry Nation based their agenda - to an extent, anyway - on the formidable Nazis as he drew certain similarities between the Daleks ideology and the real life motives of Hitlers infamous German party. The Daleks are determined to make every other species just like them by any means necessary which sounds hauntingly familiar to the historic events of World War Two when you put it like that. The general idea was that the Daleks were an alien race that glided rather than walked so you never knew they were coming - a metaphor thats also not too far from the truth. Whats more, Raymond Cusick, who was assigned with the task of designing the Daleks (although heres one for the fact fans - the job was originally offered to Alien director Ridley Scott!), was the man behind their distinctive pepperpot shape and, contrary to popular belief, it wasnt just because he was running out of time and had a pepperpot on his table. They were billed as Nazis on casters owing to the fact that they looked like men sitting down inside a wall of protective metal casing. The concept was revolutionary and the added plunger has also been likened to a solider salute. It also means theyre great to have around if you ever need to get unblock your sink so theyre a Jack of all trades, really. Merciless killing machines bent on world domination, of course, but ever handy in a plumbing crisis.