The designerof the Daleks from the BBC's Doctor Who has died aged 84 after a short illness,his daughter has said.Former BBC designer Ray Cusick died of heart failurein his sleep on Thursday, Claire Heawood added.
The Daleks became the iconic villains in cult sciencefiction series Doctor Who, which is due to mark its 50th anniversary withevents this year.
Mr Cusick, from Horsham, West Sussex, leaves twodaughters and seven grandchildren, his family said.
The official Doctor Who Magazine tweeted: "It's with great sadnessthat we report the death of Ray Cusick - the designer of the Daleks. Half acentury on, his iconic design lives on."
Doctor Who actor and writer Mark Gatiss tweeted: "Farewell to the greatRay Cusick. His passing is especially sad in this anniversary year but hiscreation remains immortal. Daleks forever!"
'System of logic'
The designergave form to the concept of the Daleks, created by Doctor Who screenwriterTerry Nation and which first appeared in series one of Doctor Who nearly 50years ago.
In the show, the race of Daleks was said to have beendeveloped by a scientist to survive a war on their home planet of Skaro.However, the scientist was later killed by his own creation.
The Daleks, mutants encased in studded, tank-likemachinery that appear to glide over the ground, became a cultural sensation,with generations growing to love their famous electronic command of"Exterminate".
In a 2008 episode of BBC Three's Doctor WhoConfidential, Mr Cusick visited the BBC props department and explained hisinspiration for the design of the Daleks, which has changed very little overthe years.
"People do say I was inspired by a pepper pot -but I always think 'If that's all it takes to become a designer then it's adoddle'."
He explained that, in fact, the pepper pot detailcame from a lunch with Bill Roberts, the special effects expert who would makethe Daleks, when Mr Cusick picked up a pepper pot and moved it around thetable, telling him: "It's going to move like that - no visiblemeans."
"Ever since then people say I was inspired by apepper pot - but it could have been the salt pot I picked up," he said.
He went on: "When I'm asked what I was inspiredby I suppose it was really a system of logic because I realised that you've gotto have an operator to operate them. If you had anything mechanical, 10 to oneon the take it would go wrong, so you've got a human being in there who wouldbe absolutely totally reliable...
"I then thought 'Well, the operator's got to sitdown', [so I] drew a seat, ergonomic height, 18in, got the operator down, andthen drew round him. That's how the basic shape appeared."
David Graham, who created the original voice of theDaleks, said the villains' success in frightening generations of viewers was acombination of "brilliant design" and the synthesised voice added toit.
He said Mr Cusick was responsible for "one ofthe most iconic designs of television sci-fi".
"They captured the imagination of so manypeople. It was a wonderful thing," he told BBC Radio 5 live's StephenNolan show.
Nicholas Briggs, who voices the modern Daleks, saidthe show would not be the same without them.
"Extinction is not an option - If you say DoctorWho to someone in the street about the second thing they're going to say is'Exterminate'," he said.
"Lots of my friends who are not Doctor Who fansthink that the programme is 'Doctor Who and the Daleks' - that surely theDaleks are in it all the time - which isn't true but that is the impression.
"That's the brilliance of the creation of theDaleks. They've made an indelible stamp on the series really."
Source: BBC
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