From the people who brought you Flight Through Entirety.

Saturday 21 November 1964

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

The Power of a Pair of Clutched Lapels

Taranium Core, Episode 3
Sunday 30 August 2026

This week, it’s our annual trip to post-apocalyptic 22nd-century London to see how David, Tyler and Jenny are getting on. Turns out, probably better than we let on last time.

Josh Snares is a Doctor Who documentarian and YouTuber who has actually guested on an episode of Flight Through Entirety. James mentions his version of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, which is now apparently no longer available. To make up for this, here is a link to an adorable video where Josh gets to operate a Dalek based on the black Dalek from The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

You and Who was a series of Doctor Who essay anthologies edited by friend-of-the-podcast J R Southall and published between 2012 and 2019. Brendan was one of the contributors.

Andrew Hodson’s Contract Roulette is our way of referring to the fact that sometimes the Doctor just dumps his companion on whatever planet he’s on when the actor’s contract ends. See, for example, Steven, Vicki, Leela and Mel. Its first mention appears to have been in Flight Through Entirety Episode 109: Dark Colours.

James’s speculations about the Doctor and Susan’s relationship are interrupted by Richard accusing him of “lungbarrowing it”. Marc Platt’s Virgin New Adventures novel Lungbarrow (1997) provides an unsuspecting fandom with a definitive answer, apparently, to a question that no one really cared about. According to the TARDIS wiki, it’s established elsewhere that Susan’s real name is either Larn or Arkytior. For Christ’s sake.

Brendan mentions producer Verity Lambert’s correspondence with Donald Baverstock, who was the Controller of Programmes for BBC1 in 1963, when Doctor Who was being created and during its first two years. He resigned from the BBC in 1965 rather than moving over to BBC2.

Terry Nation goes on to create a show set in a post-apocalyptic England after billions of people die of a plague. It’s called Survivors, and it runs for three seasons from 1975 to 1977. It’s clearly inspired by John Wyndham’s 1951 novel The Day of the Triffids. In Series 1, Episode 9, Law and Order, not written by Nation, a disabled man is falsely accused of murder and is executed; when the real killer confesses, they decide not to execute him because he is an essential member of the community. (Sandifer summarises the episode in this essay on Survivors.)

Kenton Moore played the Roboman who drowns himself in the Thames at the beginning of Part 1. He will go on to play Noah in The Ark in Space (1975). He died in May 2025 at the age of 93.

Flight Through Entirety discussed The Dalek Invasion of Earth in Episode 3: Bernard Cribbins in Vinyl, released on Sunday 20 July 2014. We discussed it again last year as part of 500 Year Diary Season 2: The Second Coming, in which we discussed the second stories of Doctor Who’s most important monsters and villains. That was Season 2, Episode 1: Daleks Daleks, released on Sunday 27 April 2025.

Follow us

Nathan is on Bluesky at @nathanbottomley.com, Brendan is @retrobrendo.bsky.social, James is @ohjamessellwood.bsky.social, and Richard is @moggywrangler.bsky.social. The 500 Year Diary theme was composed by Cameron Lam.

500 Year Diary shares a social media presence with Flight Through Entirety, which means you can follow us on Bluesky and Mastodon, as well as on X and Facebook. Our website is at 500yeardiary.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on Apple Podcasts, or we’ll cover this story again this time next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. Don’t think we won’t.

And more

You can find links to all of the podcasts we’re involved in on our podcasts page. But here’s where we’re up to right now.

In the most recent episode of Startling Barbara Bain, we gave Barbara a week off and watched The Day After Tomorrow, a one-off educational drama produced by Gerry Anderson between Series 1 and 2 of Space: 1999. Were we entertained? No. Were we disappointed in any way? Also no.

On Untitled Star Trek Project, Nathan and friend-of-the-podcast Joe Ford said goodbye to Wesley Crusher (for now) in an underwhelming episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called Final Mission.

Taranium Core, Episode 3: The Power of a Pair of Clutched Lapels (The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

Recorded on Sunday 7 June 2026 · Download (58.0 MB)
Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts · Overcast · Pocket Casts · Castbox · RSS

Transcript