Why Doctor Who Banned The Daleks

When Chris Chibnall took over as the new showrunner for Doctor Who, he confirmed in an interview with The Telegraph that the Daleks (as well as the Weeping Angels and Cybermen) wouldn't be making a comeback. Chibnall's primary interest in keeping the classic villains away was that he wanted to do something new.

"I want this to be a recruiting year for Doctor Who to bring in that next generation of audiences."

Alright, the fans can certainly understand that a showrunner may want to go into a new direction (even if they aren't happy about it), but that's not the only reason the Daleks won't be returning to the series. There's a rights issue at the center of the Dalek debate, and it's somewhat messy.

Daleks are the legal property of Terry Nation, the writer who came up with the concept all the way back in 1963. The way that creator rights work in the UK makes the Daleks the property of Nation, not the BBC. Nation passed away in 1997, and when this happened, the rights for the Daleks were passed to his estate.

From there, it gets a bit more complicated. Nation's estate owns the concept of the Daleks, but their image is owned by the BBC, thanks to the work of Raymond Cusick, who designed them. Because they are joint-owned by multiple entities, putting the Daleks into the new series, which began with Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor, was problematic from the start.

When the BBC announced in 2005 that Doctor Who would be returning to television, the network explained that there was an issue with Nation's estate regarding the rights to the Daleks. In part, it read:

"After lengthy negotiations, the BBC and Terry Nation have been unable to reach an agreement on the terms of the use of the Daleks. The BBC offered the very best deal possible, but ultimately, we were not able to give the level of editorial influence that the Terry Nation estate wished to have."

Ultimately, the estate and the BBC found common ground, and the Daleks were once more returned to the small screen in the episode, which was appropriately titled, "Dalek."

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