These sinister Aliens, bent on universal conquest, mutated and rendered immobile by radioactivity, inhabit metal transporters to become Cyborgs with built-in Blasters. They were introduced in the television series Doctor Who by writer Terry Nation in The Mutants (1963-1964), the long-running programme's second story, beginning with the episode "The Dead Planet"; this storyline is now generally referred to as The Daleks to distinguish it from a later sequence also called The Mutants. It was subsequently filmed as Dr Who and the Daleks (1965); another 1964 television story was filmed as Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966). The Daleks returned in many Doctor Who television episodes, being the most popular feature of its first decade; only in 1975 did we learn, in Genesis of the Daleks, that they had been created by an evil, crippled genius, Davros. Their popularity continues in the show's twenty-first century revival. [PN/DRL]
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