Post by burrunjor on Apr 9, 2024 12:53:31 GMT
I've always felt that Jadis, the white witch and main antagonist from the first two Narnia books was an influence on the Daleks. In fact I think the first three DW stories in general were inspired by the Narnia books. Now obviously I'm not saying that DW ripped it off. As I'm always saying, no one and nothing is completely original. Everybody takes from everybody else. Also it's true that nobody takes from one source. Whilst he may be persona non grata these days, Joss Whedon was right when he said all anyone ever does is take little bits and pieces from things they like and mesh them together into something new.
DW absolutely throughout its history has been that. A bit of Dan Dare, a bit of Nigel Kneale, later for the revival a bit of Xena, a bit of Buffy etc. However in its earliest stages well I'd say HG Wells work like the Time Machine, War of the Worlds, Dan Dare comics and Narnia (and possibly Doctor Omega) were the biggest inspirations.
Now the first Narnia book (chronologically, it was actually the penultimate released, but in collections is often placed at the beginning and despite references to later stories, can be read as such.) Is called The Magicians Nephew, and its premise matches the first three DW stories perfectly.
It sees a young boy named Digory and his friend Polly stumble into Digory's wicked Uncle Andrew's workshop where he gives Polly a magic ring that teleports her somewhere. Andrew explains that he comes from a lineage of wizards from Atlantis, and whilst he is not a Wizard, he stumbled on old family secrets enough to create these magic rings that can take you to the wood between world, which is basically a magical multiverse. It's a never ending forest, and each portal in the woods leads to another universe. Digory of course goes after Polly to try and rescue her, and when he and Polly are in the woods they decide to explore and travel through another pond into another reality.
The world they visit, Charn is a dead planet. There are no signs of life, its sun is red, the plants are dried up, even the water is gone. In the distance however is a big city, and whilst Polly understandably wants to get out of there, Digory is curious and they explore the dead city. Digory eventually stumbles upon an enchantment that awakens an ancient queen Jadis.
She explains to them that she is the last ruler of Charn. At one point Charn was the most powerful planet in the universe and commanded a great empire. However over the centuries it became corrupt and Jadis and her equally vile sister fought for the throne. Both agreed not to use magic, but Jadis' sister broke the pact, and eventually triumphed. Just as she was about to take over, Jadis used the deplorable word a spell so powerful it had been banned by all rulers of charn before, as it was capable of destroying an entire planet. Jadis however rather than let her sister win spoke the word and destroyed all life on Charn.
(That's actually my favourite part of the book, when Jadis' sister breaks through the gates of the castle with her men and smugly states "victory" to Jadis, only for the evil witch to respond "yes but not yours" before destroying her entire people!)
Jadis then placed herself into suspended animation until such a time as she could be awoken, knowing that some day another magic user would find her world, and her enchantment would play on their curiosity. Jadis then uses the two children to escape her world and travel to ours where she goes on a rampage throughout London, makes Uncle Andrew her little bitch, before the children trick her and take her back to the wood between the worlds, though following another confrontation, they all fall into another portal and end up in a new world, Narnia.
This is at the beginning of Narnia when it is being created by the Lion Aslan through song. Jadis predictably attacks Aslan, but is driven away. Following this Aslan tells the children to plant a tree that will keep Jadis out and despite her attempts to trick Digory, he does so, and Aslan takes all the humans home, whilst Jadis flees to the wastelands outside Narnia to rebuild her forces.
Aslan also gives digory an apple which cures his sick mother, whilst Andrew who was routinely humiliated first by Jadis and then by the animals of Narnia, is humbled and becomes a better person. The apple that cures Digory's mother's core later grows into a tree that is struck by lightening, after which Digory makes a wardrobe out of it, and years later when Digory is an old man, said wardrobe becomes a portal to Narnia that some kids stumble through when staying with Digory in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. On the other side meanwhile, hundreds of years have past as time moves at a different rate in Narnia. Jadis, now known as the White Witch has taken over Narnia and imposed a fascist regime over it, but she is ultimately overthrown by the combined might of Aslan and the children and finally slain.
Now the similarities between these two stories and DW are strong.
First and foremost the wardrobe to Narnia has been commented on as a precursor to the TARDIS. Both are everyday objects that lead to weird and wonderful dimensions, both are bigger on the inside than the outside.
Beyond that Uncle Andrew is very similar to the first Doctor. Both blur the line between mad scientist and wizard. Andrew uses magic, but approaches it in a scientific way in his laboratory, creates magical devices rather than having innate powers. The Doctor meanwhile uses science, but it is so over the top, and whimsical it seems like magic, and on top of that his mysterious past, immortality and overall look make him seem more like a Wizard at times.
Also both Andrew and the Doctor start out as bad guys, who are quite intimidating figures to the protagonists. Neither are outright evil, but both are extremely callous and care more about their experiments than Ian and Barbara and Polly and Digory. Still both over the course of the adventure get humiliated again and again, which humbles them and in both cases they end up becoming better people by the end of it.
Ian and Barbara meanwhile fulfill the Digory and Polly role, a male and a female character who stumble on this old wizard/scientist's work and end up whisked away to multiple other worlds. Their journey follows a similar trajectory somewhat.
Both Ian and Barbara and Polly and Digory end up in a strange forest at first, after which they then end up on a dead planet in both cases, Charn and Skaro. Much like Charn, everything on Skaro is gone, except for a mysterious city in the distance, which one member wants to explore against the others wishes. Just like with Polly and Digory, the Doctor and his companions discover an evil monster within the city, the Daleks, who was responsible for destroying this planet eons ago in a war with their rivals who were no better.
The Daleks themselves are very similar to Jadis in personality and just what they represent. Both villains are fascist, xenophobic monsters who view others as inferior to them. Jadis comments on how Andrew is the type she would have done away with as he is not a real magical creature like her, whilst the Daleks, well you all know how they feel about other life forms LOL. Also both represent contemporary fears of the atomic bomb. The Daleks were created by one, whilst Jadis' use of the deplorable word destroying her world in an instant is obviously a metaphor for the horrors of atomic power.
Also in their second story, both Jadis and the Daleks go on to conquer another world. In both cases we see them as desperate, almost pitiful creatures, in a world they destroyed, but in the second they are in command and powerful, with that story showing our heroes having to skulk in the shadows and try and whip up a rebellion against them, in both cases the heroes, Susan and the children then stay behind to help the world the Daleks and Jadis destroyed rebuild. (Parallels can also be drawn between the Daleks origins and Jadis in the way that Davros wipes out his own people like she did for his own power and glory. Think of what a power couple Jadis and Davros would have made LOL.)
Finally both the first three DW stories and the first two Narnia stories explore a lot of the same themes. Again through Jadis and the Daleks they explore the horrors of the atomic bomb, fascism, race hatred etc, they also explore man's curiosity getting the better of him with the Doctor and Andrew, and both also explore feminism. This came really in DW's case from Verity Lambert, but in CS Lewis it came in The Magician's Nephew from his wife who was a feminist. Both stories not only have strong female heroes in Barbara and Polly (with Jadis also being a brilliant female villain who isn't just in love with the male hero and wants to be with him like Catwoman or Missy.)
They also show how both genders balance each other out and need each other. Now I'm not saying this is how it always is, but back then at least the idea was that women are somewhat more rational and level headed and men are more impulsive and adventurous. Of course sadly women were often just depicted as being more cowardly as a result in media, but these stories show that it isn't that women aren't brave. When need be, Barbara and Polly show just as much courage against the Daleks and Jadis as any of the men around them, but it's more just they're just not quite as reckless as the men around them. They have better instincts, ironically aren't as emotional, don't just plow on in there, and a lot of the time the woman has to bail the man out of trouble, or think of something he didn't like Barbara in The Edge of Destruction or Polly being the one to see Jadis for what she is, when Digory is infatuated with her and thinks she is just feisty and knows what she wants and that Polly is just jealous of her. However at the same time the likes of the Doctor and Digory's curiosity isn't always a bad thing as not only do they make great discoveries, but it also pushes them to do great things too and in some situations you maybe need someone that won't overthink things and just plows on in there like they did. (Indeed this would arguably become the default setting for the Doctor and companion relationship going forward in a lot of instances and to be fair it's often I think how a lot of male and female characters are portrayed in popular culture, like Fry and Leela too.)
Overall with this in mind I think it's fair to say that the Narnia books or rather The Magician's Nephew and The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe can be seen as precursors to the early years of classic who in a number of ways. Again that's not to say that obviously the Time Machine wasn't another big influence, and that you can't draw parallels between it and the first Dalek story, and that War of the Worlds obviously wasn't a huge influence on The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and again there is A LOT of Dan Dare in the Daleks too, but yeah overall I think Narnia is one of the major factors, and surprisingly is often overlooked.
Whilst people often go on about the wardrobe to Narnia and the TARDIS, I've never really seen Jadis and the Daleks compared to each other, but personally I think of her as a kind of proto Dalek.
DW absolutely throughout its history has been that. A bit of Dan Dare, a bit of Nigel Kneale, later for the revival a bit of Xena, a bit of Buffy etc. However in its earliest stages well I'd say HG Wells work like the Time Machine, War of the Worlds, Dan Dare comics and Narnia (and possibly Doctor Omega) were the biggest inspirations.
Now the first Narnia book (chronologically, it was actually the penultimate released, but in collections is often placed at the beginning and despite references to later stories, can be read as such.) Is called The Magicians Nephew, and its premise matches the first three DW stories perfectly.
It sees a young boy named Digory and his friend Polly stumble into Digory's wicked Uncle Andrew's workshop where he gives Polly a magic ring that teleports her somewhere. Andrew explains that he comes from a lineage of wizards from Atlantis, and whilst he is not a Wizard, he stumbled on old family secrets enough to create these magic rings that can take you to the wood between world, which is basically a magical multiverse. It's a never ending forest, and each portal in the woods leads to another universe. Digory of course goes after Polly to try and rescue her, and when he and Polly are in the woods they decide to explore and travel through another pond into another reality.
The world they visit, Charn is a dead planet. There are no signs of life, its sun is red, the plants are dried up, even the water is gone. In the distance however is a big city, and whilst Polly understandably wants to get out of there, Digory is curious and they explore the dead city. Digory eventually stumbles upon an enchantment that awakens an ancient queen Jadis.
She explains to them that she is the last ruler of Charn. At one point Charn was the most powerful planet in the universe and commanded a great empire. However over the centuries it became corrupt and Jadis and her equally vile sister fought for the throne. Both agreed not to use magic, but Jadis' sister broke the pact, and eventually triumphed. Just as she was about to take over, Jadis used the deplorable word a spell so powerful it had been banned by all rulers of charn before, as it was capable of destroying an entire planet. Jadis however rather than let her sister win spoke the word and destroyed all life on Charn.
(That's actually my favourite part of the book, when Jadis' sister breaks through the gates of the castle with her men and smugly states "victory" to Jadis, only for the evil witch to respond "yes but not yours" before destroying her entire people!)
Jadis then placed herself into suspended animation until such a time as she could be awoken, knowing that some day another magic user would find her world, and her enchantment would play on their curiosity. Jadis then uses the two children to escape her world and travel to ours where she goes on a rampage throughout London, makes Uncle Andrew her little bitch, before the children trick her and take her back to the wood between the worlds, though following another confrontation, they all fall into another portal and end up in a new world, Narnia.
This is at the beginning of Narnia when it is being created by the Lion Aslan through song. Jadis predictably attacks Aslan, but is driven away. Following this Aslan tells the children to plant a tree that will keep Jadis out and despite her attempts to trick Digory, he does so, and Aslan takes all the humans home, whilst Jadis flees to the wastelands outside Narnia to rebuild her forces.
Aslan also gives digory an apple which cures his sick mother, whilst Andrew who was routinely humiliated first by Jadis and then by the animals of Narnia, is humbled and becomes a better person. The apple that cures Digory's mother's core later grows into a tree that is struck by lightening, after which Digory makes a wardrobe out of it, and years later when Digory is an old man, said wardrobe becomes a portal to Narnia that some kids stumble through when staying with Digory in The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. On the other side meanwhile, hundreds of years have past as time moves at a different rate in Narnia. Jadis, now known as the White Witch has taken over Narnia and imposed a fascist regime over it, but she is ultimately overthrown by the combined might of Aslan and the children and finally slain.
Now the similarities between these two stories and DW are strong.
First and foremost the wardrobe to Narnia has been commented on as a precursor to the TARDIS. Both are everyday objects that lead to weird and wonderful dimensions, both are bigger on the inside than the outside.
Beyond that Uncle Andrew is very similar to the first Doctor. Both blur the line between mad scientist and wizard. Andrew uses magic, but approaches it in a scientific way in his laboratory, creates magical devices rather than having innate powers. The Doctor meanwhile uses science, but it is so over the top, and whimsical it seems like magic, and on top of that his mysterious past, immortality and overall look make him seem more like a Wizard at times.
Also both Andrew and the Doctor start out as bad guys, who are quite intimidating figures to the protagonists. Neither are outright evil, but both are extremely callous and care more about their experiments than Ian and Barbara and Polly and Digory. Still both over the course of the adventure get humiliated again and again, which humbles them and in both cases they end up becoming better people by the end of it.
Ian and Barbara meanwhile fulfill the Digory and Polly role, a male and a female character who stumble on this old wizard/scientist's work and end up whisked away to multiple other worlds. Their journey follows a similar trajectory somewhat.
Both Ian and Barbara and Polly and Digory end up in a strange forest at first, after which they then end up on a dead planet in both cases, Charn and Skaro. Much like Charn, everything on Skaro is gone, except for a mysterious city in the distance, which one member wants to explore against the others wishes. Just like with Polly and Digory, the Doctor and his companions discover an evil monster within the city, the Daleks, who was responsible for destroying this planet eons ago in a war with their rivals who were no better.
The Daleks themselves are very similar to Jadis in personality and just what they represent. Both villains are fascist, xenophobic monsters who view others as inferior to them. Jadis comments on how Andrew is the type she would have done away with as he is not a real magical creature like her, whilst the Daleks, well you all know how they feel about other life forms LOL. Also both represent contemporary fears of the atomic bomb. The Daleks were created by one, whilst Jadis' use of the deplorable word destroying her world in an instant is obviously a metaphor for the horrors of atomic power.
Also in their second story, both Jadis and the Daleks go on to conquer another world. In both cases we see them as desperate, almost pitiful creatures, in a world they destroyed, but in the second they are in command and powerful, with that story showing our heroes having to skulk in the shadows and try and whip up a rebellion against them, in both cases the heroes, Susan and the children then stay behind to help the world the Daleks and Jadis destroyed rebuild. (Parallels can also be drawn between the Daleks origins and Jadis in the way that Davros wipes out his own people like she did for his own power and glory. Think of what a power couple Jadis and Davros would have made LOL.)
Finally both the first three DW stories and the first two Narnia stories explore a lot of the same themes. Again through Jadis and the Daleks they explore the horrors of the atomic bomb, fascism, race hatred etc, they also explore man's curiosity getting the better of him with the Doctor and Andrew, and both also explore feminism. This came really in DW's case from Verity Lambert, but in CS Lewis it came in The Magician's Nephew from his wife who was a feminist. Both stories not only have strong female heroes in Barbara and Polly (with Jadis also being a brilliant female villain who isn't just in love with the male hero and wants to be with him like Catwoman or Missy.)
They also show how both genders balance each other out and need each other. Now I'm not saying this is how it always is, but back then at least the idea was that women are somewhat more rational and level headed and men are more impulsive and adventurous. Of course sadly women were often just depicted as being more cowardly as a result in media, but these stories show that it isn't that women aren't brave. When need be, Barbara and Polly show just as much courage against the Daleks and Jadis as any of the men around them, but it's more just they're just not quite as reckless as the men around them. They have better instincts, ironically aren't as emotional, don't just plow on in there, and a lot of the time the woman has to bail the man out of trouble, or think of something he didn't like Barbara in The Edge of Destruction or Polly being the one to see Jadis for what she is, when Digory is infatuated with her and thinks she is just feisty and knows what she wants and that Polly is just jealous of her. However at the same time the likes of the Doctor and Digory's curiosity isn't always a bad thing as not only do they make great discoveries, but it also pushes them to do great things too and in some situations you maybe need someone that won't overthink things and just plows on in there like they did. (Indeed this would arguably become the default setting for the Doctor and companion relationship going forward in a lot of instances and to be fair it's often I think how a lot of male and female characters are portrayed in popular culture, like Fry and Leela too.)
Overall with this in mind I think it's fair to say that the Narnia books or rather The Magician's Nephew and The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe can be seen as precursors to the early years of classic who in a number of ways. Again that's not to say that obviously the Time Machine wasn't another big influence, and that you can't draw parallels between it and the first Dalek story, and that War of the Worlds obviously wasn't a huge influence on The Dalek Invasion of Earth, and again there is A LOT of Dan Dare in the Daleks too, but yeah overall I think Narnia is one of the major factors, and surprisingly is often overlooked.
Whilst people often go on about the wardrobe to Narnia and the TARDIS, I've never really seen Jadis and the Daleks compared to each other, but personally I think of her as a kind of proto Dalek.
