Biography

Before becoming a film scriptwriter, Terry Nation was a prolific writer of UK television scripts in both the action and science fiction genres. His scripts are noted for their depth, i.e. they usually have many sub-plots as well as the main plot. As a writer on the BBC's Doctor Who (1963) series, he created the Daleks, the mechanical monsters who plan universal domination. On Earth they would constantly be planning to 'exterminate' all humans. Nation also created Survivors (1975) and Blake's 7 (1978) for the BBC.
- IMDb mini biography by: Paul Mason <odtaa@intonet.co.uk>

Writing fantasies with dystopian themes, such as The Dead Planet (1963), Genesis of the Daleks: Part One (1975), Survivors (1975) and Blake's 7 (1978).

He claimed that he based the Daleks on the SS and the Nazis. This was made particularly clear in what many consider his best script for the series, Genesis of the Daleks: Part One (1975), in which the character of Davros made his debut as a Hitlerian megalomaniac willing to commit genocide and supported by a deputy, Nyder, who is eerily reminiscent of Heinrich Himmler.

According to Doctor Who (1963) producer Barry Letts on the DVD commentary for the serial Planet of the Daleks: Episode One (1973), Nation made so much money from the success of the Daleks that he drank champagne every day.

He was very protective of the Daleks and the production team of Doctor Who (1963) had to seek his permission to use them. He was very unhappy with Douglas Adams's treatment of the Daleks as script editor on Destiny of the Daleks: Episode One (1979), believing he'd sent them up, and took some persuading to allow the series to use the Daleks again, but did eventually allow Eric Saward and Ben Aaronovitch to write Dalek stories in the 1980s on the assurance that they would not be sent up. Nation personally selected John Peel (not the DJ) to novelize the Dalek stories that he had written and would personally ship him any documents that he had held from the 1960s.

Before his involvement in the development of Doctor Who (1963), Nation had been a comedian and a script writer for Tony Hancock on his ITV series Hancock (1963). He would recall that it was his split with the comic which prompted him to pen his first Dalek saga.

He had a daughter called Rebecca.

I was, for that short time, the most famous writer on television... There was stuff coming to my house saying, 'Dalek Man - London'.

The function of people in television should be to take people away from all their daily toil.

[on the success of the Daleks] I suppose it's the fact that it is totally non-humanoid. It has no arms or legs, no facial distinctions, so it's not something that's a man dressed up.

[on the Daleks] The letters came from the parents saying "How dare you put these things on?" but the letters came from the kids saying "Please don't stop!"

Survivors (1975) has its roots in the future, as it were, but it's not science-fiction. It's not going into the realms of the impossible; it's skating very close to the possible.