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Raymond Cusick
Raymond Cusick
Raymond Cusick
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Raymond Patrick Cusick (28 April 1928 – 21 February 2013)[2] was an English designer for the BBC. He is best known for designing the Daleks,[3] a race of aliens who move around in tank-like travel machines, for the science fiction television series Doctor Who.

Key Information

Born in the Lambeth district of London, Cusick became interested in engineering while still at art school and began attending evening classes. However, his father wanted him to follow a more regular career, so Cusick took a course in mathematics and science at Borough Polytechnic,[1] intending to become a civil engineer. Not finding this to his liking, he enlisted instead in the British Army and found himself stationed in Palestine, but did not enjoy that experience either. On his return to England he completed a teacher training course, but then obtained a nine-month position in repertory theatre at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Cardiff.[4]

In the late 1950s Cusick briefly took a position teaching art but applied and was accepted for a post at the Wimbledon Theatre[4] where he remained for three years. Cusick joined the BBC in 1960[5] as a staff designer and was responsible for the set design of many Doctor Who stories, creating not just futuristic settings but also historical sets and dioramas. Another BBC in-house designer, future filmmaker Ridley Scott, had been assigned to design the Daleks in 1963, but scheduling conflicts saw the job handed to Cusick.[1] Cusick worked on other BBC television programmes including The Pallisers, The Duchess of Duke Street, On Giant's Shoulders, When the Boat Comes In, Rentaghost and Miss Marple.[1][4]

As Cusick was a salaried BBC employee at the time he designed the Daleks, he was not paid royalties. Given the large revenue generated by merchandise featuring Cusick's Dalek design, he felt that he should have been paid a royalty (as was script writer Terry Nation, who created the concept of the Daleks but did not design them).[6] When Cusick left Doctor Who in 1966, unhappy with the lack of recognition he had received for his work on the series, the show's producer and head designer did arrange for the BBC to recognise his contribution with an ex-gratia payment of around £100.[1]

In the late 1970s, he was a designer for the James Burke BBC programme Connections. He lived near Horsham, West Sussex. After retiring as an art director for the BBC in 1988,[3] his hobby was writing about battles from the Napoleonic era—he contributed to a number of specialist magazines and periodicals on the subject.

Cusick was interviewed for the BBC video release Daleks: The Early Years (1992) and in July 2008 he appeared in an episode of the BBC Three documentary series Doctor Who Confidential. In both instances, Cusick spoke of the original Dalek design and how the concept came to fruition.[7]

The end titles of the 2016 animated reconstruction of The Power of the Daleks (1966) give official credit to Cusick for designing the Daleks.

Personal life

[edit]

Cusick was a widower with two daughters and seven grandchildren. He died of heart failure in his sleep after a short illness on 21 February 2013 at age 84.[7]

References

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Raymond Cusick

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Raymond Cusick was a British television production designer best known for creating the Daleks, the iconic extraterrestrial villains of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. Born on 28 April 1928 in Lambeth, London, Cusick served in the British Army in Palestine after World War II and pursued interests in sculpture through evening art classes while briefly studying science and mathematics at Borough Polytechnic. He worked in repertory theatre before joining the BBC in 1960 as a design assistant, advancing to full designer in 1962. Cusick's most enduring contribution came in 1963 when he designed the Daleks for the Doctor Who serial The Daleks, stepping in after the original designer became unavailable; drawing from a script's vague description of gliding motion, he famously illustrated the concept by sliding a pepper pot across a table, ultimately crafting an otherworldly, tank-like form with a domed head, eyestalk, manipulator arm, gunstick, and castor-based movement that rejected a conventional "man in a suit" approach. He went on to design sets and creatures for additional Doctor Who stories, including The Keys of Marinus (1964), Planet of Giants (1964), and The Daleks' Master Plan (1965–66), before departing the series. In his later BBC career, Cusick served as production designer on period dramas and other series such as The Pallisers (1974), The Duchess of Duke Street (1976–77), When the Boat Comes In (1981), and Miss Marple adaptations in the 1980s, often drawing on his passion for historical research, particularly the Napoleonic Wars. He retired in 1988, subsequently running a small hotel in south London with his wife Phyllis, whom he married in 1964; she predeceased him, and he is survived by two daughters and seven grandchildren. Cusick died of heart failure on 21 February 2013 in Horsham, West Sussex, at the age of 84.

Early life

Birth and background

Raymond Cusick was born in 1928 in Lambeth, central London. From childhood, he nurtured a desire to become a sculptor and attended evening classes at art school, but his father felt he should pursue a more practical path. He studied science and mathematics at Borough Polytechnic but did not enjoy it.

Entry into design

Cusick enlisted in the army and served in Palestine. Returning to the UK, he worked in repertory theatre before joining the BBC as a design assistant in 1960.

BBC career

Joining the BBC and early assignments

Raymond Cusick joined BBC Television in 1960 as a design assistant, following his earlier experience in repertory theatre after returning to the UK. He soon advanced to the role of staff designer within the BBC's design department, where he contributed to set design for a range of television productions. In his initial years at the BBC, Cusick worked on various programs, including dramatic plays and other series, building his expertise in television set design under the corporation's in-house system. Specific early credits from this period are limited in documentation, but his role involved creating visual environments for live and recorded broadcasts typical of BBC programming in the early 1960s. This foundational experience as a staff designer positioned him for assignments across BBC genres, including contributions to the corporation's growing output in science fiction by 1963.

Doctor Who involvement

Raymond Cusick served as a designer on Doctor Who from 1963 to 1966, contributing to the series during its formative first three seasons. As a visual designer, he was responsible for the sets, props, and creature designs across nine serials, helping to shape the program's distinctive aesthetic in its black-and-white era. He collaborated closely with producer Verity Lambert, who oversaw the show's early production, and directors including Christopher Barry. The serials he designed include The Daleks (21 December 1963 – 1 February 1964), The Edge of Destruction (8 February – 22 February 1964), The Keys of Marinus (11 April – 16 May 1964), The Sensorites (1964), Planet of Giants (31 October – 14 November 1964), The Rescue (2 January – 9 January 1965), The Romans (1965), The Chase (25 April – 6 June 1965), and The Daleks' Master Plan (1965–66). His most notable contribution was the creation of the Daleks in the second serial, though his broader work encompassed diverse historical, futuristic, and alien environments for the program.

Other television credits

Raymond Cusick maintained a prolific career as a production designer at the BBC after his early work on Doctor Who, contributing to a diverse range of drama, comedy, and anthology series. He served as production designer on the period drama The Duchess of Duke Street (1976), where he created sets evoking Victorian and Edwardian England, and on the adaptation of Anthony Trollope's novels The Pallisers (1974). Other notable credits include production design for the police procedural Z Cars, specifically the episode "Made for Each Other" (1963), and for the mystery miniseries Clouds of Witness (1972). Cusick also worked on comedy and serial formats, including as production designer for series 2 of Hugh and I and for episodes of the soap opera The Newcomers (1965), which he additionally directed in at least one instance (Episode #1.382 in 1969). He contributed to the science fiction anthology Out of the Unknown and to other productions such as The Avengers and Adam Adamant Lives! Later in his career, his design work encompassed series like When the Boat Comes In and BBC adaptations of Miss Marple stories, as well as BBC2 Playhouse episodes. These projects showcased his versatility across genres, from historical recreations to contemporary and genre storytelling.

Design of the Daleks

Conception and development

Raymond Cusick was assigned to design the Daleks for the Doctor Who serial The Daleks (broadcast December 1963 to February 1964) after the originally scheduled designer, Ridley Scott, proved unavailable for both location filming and studio work. Producer Verity Lambert insisted on continuity by using the same designer throughout the production, leading to Cusick receiving the assignment as he was available following his work on another project. The task required creating a completely new alien creature distinct from typical monster costumes of the era, such as men in silver suits with masks, which Cusick deliberately avoided. Terry Nation's script described the Daleks as hideous, legless, machine-like creatures moving on a round base, with no human features, a lens on a flexible shaft serving as an eye, and arms ending in mechanical grips. To realize this vision, Nation and Lambert emphasized a gliding movement without visible legs or any sign of a human operator inside. In discussions with Lambert and director Christopher Barry, Cusick developed the concept of the Dalek as a casing for a mutated "brainy blob" that had evolved artificial limbs after a nuclear war, with the editorial decision that the creature inside would never be shown on screen. Under tight constraints, including working evenings and weekends alongside set design duties, Cusick conceived the Dalek design on a Saturday night and finalized it by Sunday afternoon. He produced initial sketches and presented them to Shawcraft Models, who advised that the concepts would cost about ten times the allocated budget, prompting significant modifications. An early idea involved a tricycle mechanism for propulsion, which would have required a deeper base skirt, but this was adjusted in favor of a more practical arrangement using casters to enable smooth gliding motion while concealing the operator. The resulting form incorporated a rounded base with an angular skirt to accommodate the practical needs of performance and construction.

Design elements and execution

The Dalek design realized by Raymond Cusick featured a distinctive pepper-pot shaped body that defined their menacing silhouette. This consisted of a flared skirt at the base, a cylindrical mid-section with vertical slats, and a domed head from which extended a single articulated eyestalk capable of pivoting to scan the environment. The manipulator arm was a flexible rubber suction cup—often likened to a sink plunger—designed to grip and manipulate objects, while the opposing arm terminated in a gunstick with a circular nozzle for extermination. The livery employed a metallic silver-gray finish accented with black horizontal bands on the dome and vertical detailing on the skirt, along with spherical gold or bronze knobs embedded in the base section. The Daleks were constructed primarily from fiberglass to create lightweight yet durable casings that could withstand repeated studio use and lighting effects. An operator sat inside on a low saddle or bicycle-style seat, with their head positioned in the dome to control the eyestalk via handles and their hands operating the arms through internal mechanisms. The base incorporated three caster wheels that permitted smooth, gliding movement across flat studio floors. The skirt was deliberately extended downward and outward to completely conceal the casters and the operator's legs, eliminating any visible trace of human involvement or mechanical propulsion. This arrangement produced the eerie illusion of autonomous, floating motion central to the Daleks' on-screen presence.

Reception and cultural impact

The introduction of Raymond Cusick's Dalek design in the 1963–1964 serial The Daleks transformed the fortunes of Doctor Who, dramatically increasing audience figures and securing the programme's future after early cancellation threats. Initial viewing numbers had hovered around 6–7 million after the first serial, but the Daleks' appearance roughly doubled the audience, pushing the show beyond 9 million viewers and establishing it as a mainstream success. This surge sparked nationwide "Dalekmania," with the creatures gripping public imagination through their menacing presence and distinctive appearance, leading to widespread fascination among children and families alike. The phenomenon extended to merchandising, with the Daleks inspiring toys, novelisations, and a 1965 cinema film adaptation, while media coverage sometimes referred to the series as "Dr Who and the Daleks" between 1964 and 1966. Public demand for the Daleks prompted their swift return after the original story had intended to destroy them, further cementing their role in the programme's survival and growth. By late 1964, during the serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Doctor Who achieved higher viewing figures than a competing ITV special featuring The Beatles at the peak of early Beatlemania, demonstrating the scale of the Daleks' cultural dominance at the time. Raymond Cusick's design was widely credited for the creatures' immediate and lasting appeal, as their alien, non-humanoid form stood out starkly against typical contemporary television monsters and became instantly recognisable. The Daleks have endured as a landmark in science fiction design, retaining their core visual and behavioral elements across decades and influencing popular culture through repeated appearances and adaptations. Their catchphrase "exterminate" and distinctive gliding movement entered collective memory, contributing to their status as an iconic element of British television history.

Later years and death

Retirement from BBC

Raymond Cusick retired from the BBC in 1988 after a long career as a designer and art director. Following his departure, he and his wife Phyllis ran a small hotel in south London. He maintained ties to his Doctor Who legacy by contributing design materials and insights to several Doctor Who DVD releases and sharing reminiscences about the program's early days at Doctor Who-themed events. Outside of these activities, Cusick pursued his interest in military history by writing articles on Napoleonic campaigns for the journal of the Waterloo Association.

Death and tributes

Raymond Cusick died on 21 February 2013 at the age of 84 following a short illness. He passed away in his sleep due to heart failure at his home in Horsham, West Sussex. His daughter Claire Heawood confirmed the news, stating that he is survived by two daughters and seven grandchildren. The death prompted immediate tributes from the Doctor Who community and industry figures. Doctor Who Magazine reported the news with great sadness, describing Cusick as the designer of the Daleks and noting that "half a century on, his iconic design lives on." Actor and writer Mark Gatiss paid tribute by saying, "Farewell to the great Ray Cusick. His passing is especially sad in this anniversary year but his creation remains immortal. Daleks forever!" Original Dalek voice actor David Graham hailed Cusick's work as responsible for "one of the most iconic designs of television sci-fi," crediting the combination of brilliant design and synthesised voice for the creatures' success. Current Dalek voice actor Nicholas Briggs emphasised the enduring cultural impact, stating that Doctor Who "would not be the same" without the Daleks and that Cusick's creations had left "an indelible stamp on the series."

Legacy

Raymond Cusick's legacy is chiefly defined by his design of the Daleks, widely regarded as one of the most iconic monsters in science fiction television history. The Daleks' distinctive pepper-pot shape, gliding movement, and eyestalk created an instantly recognizable and terrifying presence that has endured across six decades of Doctor Who and beyond, influencing countless homages, parodies, and adaptations in popular culture. His work demonstrated how effective visual design could elevate low-budget television production, establishing a lasting template for monster creation within the BBC's design department and contributing to Doctor Who's distinctive aesthetic. The enduring success of the Daleks has kept Cusick's contribution prominent in discussions of the series' visual history. Posthumous tributes, including features in Doctor Who documentaries and anniversary specials, have repeatedly credited him with shaping one of the show's defining elements and helping secure its place as a cultural institution. His influence extends to inspiring subsequent generations of designers in television and film, who cite the Daleks as a benchmark for creating memorable and believable extraterrestrial threats.
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