Elisabeth Sladen autobiography, news has also surfaced of the release of a previously-reported pseudo-autobiography (in other words, just a regular biography) about and titled The Man Who Invented the Daleks: The Strange Worlds of Terry Nation
“Terry Nation was one of the most successful and prolific writers for television and radio that Britain ever produced. His vision of a post-apocalyptic England, Survivors, has been re-made thirty years on, Blake’s 7 endures as a cult sci-fi classic, and his most famous creations, the Daleks, ensured, and at times eclipsed, the success of Doctor Who.”
Not only did Nation write every Dalek story from their Season 1 debut, The Daleks, to Destiny of the Daleks in the late Tom Baker era; he was also behind 1964′s environment-hopping delight The Keys of Marinus, and 1975′s The Android Invasion, two eerily Dalek-less tales that will no doubt be mentioned in the book as well.
The Man Who Invented the Daleks: The Strange Worlds of Terry Nation by Alwyn W. Turner will mysteriously appear on the shelves of all decent booksellers sometime in May, courtesy of publishers Aurum Press (yes, the same Aurum Press that’s publishing the Lis Sladen one). RRP £20; pre-order from Amazon for £17.
(via Gallifrey News Base)
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Ray Cusick won’t get a dime of this either. It comforts me a bit when I’ve seen interviews where Pertwee and Baker have each brought up the fact that Cusick designed the Daleks and in reality co-created them, yet although he promised Ray that they’d both be millionaires, Nation never contacted Cusick again. Nation was a douche bag.
Now when Cusick writes *his* book, I’ll buy that.
great point, Rick – Cusick must have some great stories to tell about all of the shows he worked on
Interesting view there. Which brings up a whole can of worms in the entertainment business.
Taking a more esoteric example – should Andy Serkis and the CGI team get a proportion of the royalties on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit books, because they brought Gollum to life on the screen?
Should The Pet Shop Boys get a part of the songwriting royalties for their stonking version of “Always On My Mind”?
And where do you draw the line in cases like this?
My gut feeling is that Cusick does deserve more recognition for a design classic. Whether that should translate to money or not I’m not so sure.
Still, I think if he’d started off with the “New Paradigm” Daleks, he wouldn’t have deserved a bean! lol