Production
| Episode | Broadcast date | Run time | Viewership |
Archive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Episode One" | 1 January 1972 (1972-01-01) | 23:36 | 9.8 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
| "Episode Two" | 8 January 1972 (1972-01-08) | 23:52 | 10.4 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
| "Episode Three" | 15 January 1972 (1972-01-15) | 24:18 | 9.1 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
| "Episode Four" | 22 January 1972 (1972-01-22) | 24:17 | 9.1 | PAL 2" colour videotape |
Working titles for this story included The Ghost Hunters and Years of Doom. As originally written, the serial revolved around the Ogrons instead of the Daleks. It was planned to bring the Daleks back at the end of the season, in a serial called The Daleks in London by Robert Sloman. This plan was dropped when the production staff realised that the show would not have a hook to entice viewers (after the Third Doctor's introduction in Season 7 and that of the Master in Season 8), and Sloman's serial was allegedly shaping up to be too similar to The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Instead, writer Louis Marks was asked to alter his serial to include the Daleks. Osterley Park was originally proposed as the setting and location for Day of the Daleks. The name was changed to Auderly in the finished programme, and renamed Austerly in the novelisation.
Terry Nation, who penned the first story The Daleks in 1963, was given an on-screen credit at the end of all four episodes of this story as having originated them. The production team only had three Dalek props available for use during the production of this serial, so only three Daleks appear on screen at any one time. One of the Daleks is painted gold so only two regular casings are seen in shot. Film editing is used to attempt the illusion of more than three Daleks.
Early in the first episode, there is a scene where the Doctor and Jo are working on the TARDIS console in the Doctor's lab. A mistake by the Doctor causes another Doctor and Jo to briefly appear at the entrance to the lab. Originally the serial was to end with a scene where the Doctor and Jo went back to the lab, and saw their earlier selves working at the TARDIS console. However, the last episode was overrunning and director Paul Bernard decided to cut the scene, which he personally disliked. Script Editor Terrance Dicks tried to persuade Bernard to put it back in, but Bernard refused and producer Barry Letts agreed that it should be cut. Dicks would later restore the scene in his novelisation of the story. It should be noted that this story features the TARDIS console once more outside of the TARDIS itself, as in The Ambassadors of Death and Inferno.
Dropmore House was instead used as the location for the peace conference. Brentford Towers in Green Dragon Lane, Brentford was used to portray the Controller's futuristic base.
This serial is unusual because episodes two and three begin with the cliffhanger music that ended the previous episode being played again.
Read more about this topic: Day Of The Daleks
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