The Mutants (aka The Daleks)

The Daleks on their home planet Skaro in The Mutants (aka The Daleks, 1963-64).

“Terry Nation invented what Doctor Who stories have to be,” Steven Moff at told Doctor Who Magazine recently – citing as evidence the Welsh wizard’s introduction of such enduring formats as the Earth invasion story, the quest story and, as early as Christmas 1963, “the story where Doctor Who turns up on the planet and saves the nice people from the metal people.”

Alydon (John Lee), leader of the Thals.

In fact, The Mutants is such a lodestar for all that follows, David Whitaker’s novelisation does away with the preceding few weeks’ Paleolithic faff altogether, and basically admits that ‘Doctor Who Starts Here’. It’s also, lest we forget, a holocaust story about a race of genocidal fascists modelled on the Nazis – strong stuff for the BBC’s new teatime adventure serial, tasked with minding the children until Juke Box Jury.