Plagiarism of the Daleks?

[thehornedgod]

The Mail reports a fan is suing the BBC on the grounds that he created Davros three years before Genesis of the Daleks:

Comments

[snowflakie06]

I definitely agree with you that he should win if his claims are proven. It's too bad that it couldn't have happened earlier on though so that he could have been credited when other episodes featuring Davros aired ie Stolen Earth/Journey's End. (I haven't seen any episodes featuring him other than those two otherwise I would have named others XD)

[ibishtar]

WOW O_O. That's huge. I'm torn about wanting this to be true or not. On one hand, it would be awesome if Davros was indeed created by a 13-year-old, but the idea of Terry Nation stealing his idea like that is awful.

[sherrilina]

Interesting...I wonder though, don't these competitions usually have some kind of disclaimer about everything submitted becoming the property of the BBC or whatever? Or maybe not then....or wait, I suppose this magazine was totally unaffiliated with BBC?

[pleasant_muse]

they do now.

not sure about then.

[thehornedgod]

That's what I'm thinking. Surely in those days Clark would have owned Davros even if he'd won? Otherwise why does the Terry Nation estate own the Daleks?

[sharaz_jek]

Davros was resurrected for an acclaimed two-part special in 2008 and has since featured in a series of spin-off novels, audio books, computer games and even a stage play.

Wow - War of the Daleks, Davros, The Juggernauts, Terror Firma, Masters of War, the I, Davros series, and that play about his trial all came out between 2008 and now! (And when was he in a computer game - I can't find anything on the TARDIS wiki and surely they're not counting his entry in the TARDIS database in Destiny of the Doctors.)

But on a serious note, didn't Tony Hancock complain that Terry Nation stole his idea of survivors of a nuclear war feeding off radiation inside dustbin-shaped casings? I don't know if he was right, but there's precedent for accusing Terry Nation of Dalek-related plagiarism.

[thehornedgod]

He did. So if the idea of the Daleks was Hancock's, the design of course was by Cusick, and if even Davros was created by Clark... what's left?

[sharaz_jek]

The name and the culture? Except that everything about Dalek culture that isn't repackaged Nazi ideology was invented by later writers, so...

[londonkds]

If you take it that far back both Hancock and Nation are probably plagiarising Samuel Beckett's End Game.

[puppetmaker40]

I am betting this will go down pretty fast. The moment he sent the picture to the contest, he signed a release for the contest. It done then pretty much as it is done now.

Wonder why this came up again now after so long?

[lefaym]

Can a thirteen year old's signature be legalling binding in that way?

[purplelavender]

money... plain and simple..

[ooxc]

I really doubt that - it seems much more likely to me that one would want the recognition than money