16mm telerecordings of this serial were saved by Ian Levine, who discovered them at BBC Enterprises marked for destruction in 1978.
This serial introduces the Daleks, the series' most iconic and popular monsters, for the first time and established Docteur Who (1963) as a resounding popular hit, with ratings rising to 10.4 million by the end of the serial. As a result of its success, the production team quickly arranged a return for the Daleks to be broadcast in the next season, which became World's End (1964).
This installment had to be remounted due to talk-back - direction from the on-set director to the cast - that had made it onto the original version's soundtrack.
Fans voted this number 22 in a countdown of the 163 Docteur Who (1963) stories in Outpost Gallifrey's 40th anniversary poll in 2003.
This story, commonly known as "The Daleks", is made up of seven episodes:
- Episode 1: The Dead Planet
- Episode 2: The Survivors
- Episode 3: The Escape
- Episode 4: The Ambush
- Episode 5: The Expedition
- Episode 6: The Ordeal
- Episode 7: The Rescue