The Failed Dalek Rivals: Mechonoid Designs Rejected and Deleted Robots from The Chase 

"The box-shaped robot advanced down the white, featureless hallway." It's like I'm there!

Dr. Who - "Fascinating . . . . utterly fascinating. A robot cleaner." The man who pilots and often repairs a dimensionally transcendental time machine is enthralled with a cleaning robot. I wonder how he'd react to a Roomba...

I think an overlooked element of why the Mechonoids failed was the sound design choice they actually went with for the voices. They were almost impossible to understand, especially if there was any other noise!

“Cusick then designed it with flat surfaces” ....and that’s revenge for the millions nation made off his design! Well played ray

"..and the Mechonoids were, ultimately, balls." * chuckle *

"Nation wanted something elegant to offset the hard line panels of the daleks.....Ray Cusick then designed it with flat surfaces"

I wonder if a Roomba can be programed to randomly scream, "Exterminaaaaaaaate!". My cats are starting to not fear it.

One Chumbley survived into 1968 when it was dissected and became the dome of the Emperor Dalek in Evil of the Daleks! Strange but true...

Verity Lambert was a damn genius.

Omg I'm so happy this video exists, I love Mechanoids, lot more than most and really wanna see more of them, in the show, in the fan base and so on

The mechanoids original design looks so cool, id love to see them return and look similar to that, slick and silver design.

Poor Steven, being held by the Mechonoids for so long.

The research that goes into these shows is amazing.

I'm so glad they brought the Mechanoids back in Daleks!

Such an impressive and fascinating series of documentaries. i was particularly amazed by the animation and CGI work in this one. So professional. Well done.

0:57 "This is a fake"... presumably in felt tip. Nice touch. :)

Legless Tom Baker "I've hardly touched a drop" LOL. Brilliant!

When I was a nipper, a couple of the early Doctor Who Weeklies did The Chase as an archive and naturally pictures of the Mechonoids looking damn sexy in their Ealing appearance dominated the pages. I fell in love with those shapes there and then. Their debut was one of the first 'out of time' Doctor Who stories I ever did see - a slightly fuzzy pirate video back in the day - and my love increased. I think it was Dennis Spooner who in an interview for Fantasy Empire declared Terry Nation was disappointed that Cusick's designs were too big and thus they never returned to Doctor Who and he never made the big Dalek bucks a second time round. Well, I don't think Ray Cusick minded terribly much considering how much he made first time round.

This video became unexpectedly circular for me too... I was obsessed with the Mechonoids after I saw a photo of one of them in an old Dr Who magazine as a young kid - the same magazine [including a "How To Build Your Own Dalek" feature] which was mentioned in one of the other recent 'Dalek 63-88' episodes!

I'm surprised there's no mention of the big finish story juggernauts The mechonoids are renamed and reengineered by davros

I WAS ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE MORE OF THE MECONOID`S ON SCREEN - LOVED THE COMIC ADVENTURES AGAINST THE DALEKS

Honestly, they should bring back the Mechonoids to encounter The Daleks again

6:36 - 6:45 that Pianos plotting its revenge "I will play what you want me to,...............for now" ;p

IMO it doesnt have to always be dalek related, these amazingly details history's you always pull out are what I love.. where the stuff was made, how they stored it, trouble they had on set, Brilliant stuff.

Only 4 minutes on the screen, yet I remember every detail. Can’t believe it was 1965. Great video.

Ah! I know Tony! A fantastic builder and restorer!

The Chase is one of my favourite Dr stories and I love the Mechonoids. I feel there potential was enormous. Imagine the Mechonoids expanded from their planet? Imagine there were many more planets they we sent to prepare for humanity before the war? Imagine they developed their own empire as a result? When Character Options released the Mechanoid set I bought six sets. Now I plan to produce a Dalek/Mechonoid war photo comic. Long live the Mechonoids.

Wait You worked on The DVD Files! I used to get them all the time when I was a kid! Seriously you're awesome great video.

I really love the longer videos, I still find these so interesting. Tbh watching this makes me wanna make an animation closer to the Second Empire series on Dark Raven Productions

The Big Finish production The Juggernauts, ft #6, Davros and the Mechonoids is one of my favourite audio stories ever. Thanks for the amazing video!

Soooo glad the Mechonoids R back for the Dalek animated series on the Dr Who YT channel! The Daleks vs Mechonoids fight was the best part of The Chase.

Incredible amount of work went into making this film and those props, I remember 1965, but not those Mecinoids.

If I ever had the opportunity to write a Doctor Who episode, I'd make it a Dalek vs. Mechonoid war story that a pacifistic planet gets caught in the middle of.

An unexpected but welcomed subject. Excellent video, bravo

I remember as a kid my parents would get me the battles in time magazines and the collectable packs of cards. In these magazines there’d be cool posters and one of them was a battle between mechonoids and daleks I thought it was so cool. I didn’t know what they were at the time

another brilliantly put together documentary! when the time eventually comes for complete season 60's box sets, i will be genuinely shocked if you aren't approached to have these contracted for use officially, the detail research and production itself is flawless

When you mentioned cleaning robots with bad design capabilities, I then head-cannoned straight to Paradise Towers... Oh, the joys of being a Doctor Who fan. Love your channel!

To be honest, Nation pretty much got the design he wanted, just not the sales of merchandise!

I really like the original design of the mechanoids. Hope we get to see these designs pop up somewhere in future Doctor Who productions.

If you want to look at an interesting use of the Mechanoids, I would suggest second empire: trapped in amber. I would also recommend the main comic in general, as it’s an interesting take on the Daleks in general

I used to own the life-size replica Mechanoid and was the one who put it on eBay 10 years ago, as it really did take up half my lounge! I collected it person from that museum in Blackpool and would love to have bought many other items he had on display, but only the Mechanoid was available, probably due to the amount of space it took up!

I'm so happy to see these again in the animated series they started putting out

Do we know what this lost robot looked like Well yes- Pepsi add plays SO PEPSI WERE THE REAL MECHANOIDS ALL ALONG

Fantastic episode. I love i can share and watch these with my husband with 11 years between us he grew up with hartnell and i grew up with pertwee and baker just nice to have some time together thank you.

i like how the mekanoids fart-talked

I have the Big Finish CD of 'The Masters of Luxor' and I've always enjoyed and felt that it's a shame that it never got made for TV. Don't get me wrong I am still a HUGE 1960's Dalek fan (not only from the TV show, but also the ones from the Movies, Books and Comics) and I wouldn't want to go back in time and arrange a 'swap' of sorts, but I think that it may have been nice for the BBC to dust off the scripts, update them a little (not for modern times but rather to incorporate other Doctor's and Companion teams into the existing story) and produce a TV version, let's say around the time that they were looking for the 'next Daleks'. I know that this may be a somewhat strange idea for me to have, but it's my view anyways. As it stands there are quite a few unmade stories that I would like to have seen made into TV stories, or perhaps made into episodes for the BBC Wales series? At least however we have Big Finish.... Happy Times and Places.

An amazing video, unsurprisingly, The mechanoids were always one of my favourite, under used and under appreciated monsters.

That original mechonoid design is great!

Wow! Great stuff. Hartnell & Troughton would be impressed if they could see your work in 2020!

Absolutely excellent! You've done it again. Full of interesting detail and I loved it!

Incidentally the other design of mechonoid in the thumbnail I'm sure is in hitchhikers guide to the galaxy TV series where the mice are sitting in the holes. It might just be coincidence.

I love these documentaries, fantastic work. I was at that Dimensions convention at Stockton on Tees. It really was a beautiful prop they had there.

Nation's idea for the Mechonoid voice sounds rather cool and a little creepy, but I doubt that it would have been very easy to listen to most TV sets in 1965. Happy Times and Places

I appreciate all your hard work and research for these videos. Thank you!

These videos are pure gold!

Another fantastic and fascinating video, as always! Thank you for making it!

Another fascinating episode. Thank you for all your hard work.

- Looks at the Mirebeast, looks closer again..... looks away.. looks again, then suddenly shouts:"That's a Peni " before he's taken off the air - :P

This was really interesting, thank you!

Goodness, I wish there was a photo online of that surviving prop

Thank you once again for a fascinating and entertaining video. I love your work.

Great. Many thanks for your hard work on this documentary. I love Dr Who and this was enjoyable and informative. Many many thanks xxx.

Fascinating and well researched as always!

Another superb piece. Worth the wait.

Another very well-researched docu - I leaned a lot! And there were even some daleks in it - bonus!

Why have I missed this till now!? Oh well better late than never, brilliant as always guys thanks very much!

Another great episode!

Instantly subscribed, good work

I just don't know how these guys do it! Another brilliant fact filled documentary and a credit to you both. Brilliant job!!

Well worth the wait for this new material about the Daleks and related material.

I absolutely love all the vids you make. They are really informative and add to the pleasure of being a classic who fan.

Fantastic video, subscribed!

Brilliant! Let's hope Russell Minton is watching these and gets you to do some documentarys for the collection blurays. Ive been binge reading your website lately after getting a piece of dalek 7. The amount of detail and history you've found is truley amazing and a fascinating read.

Amazing work on this video keep up the good work

I think I'm going to have to become a patron when I'm paid in a few weeks time, your content is so professionally produced and absolutely fascinating, I thought I had a near comprehensive understanding of classic Who props but I've never been happier to be wrong. Absolutely wonderful videos!

Excellent content. Just amazing research and great production. Best resource for Dalek lore on the matrix

That letter about getting rid of props at the Ealing Studios store is interesting - just imagine they'd said "Yeah, we won't be using the Daleks again"!!

This sort of attention to detail needs to be ‘officially’ part of the Dalek themed dvd collections. These vids are just amazing!

Another well crafted video..truly great..thank you !

during the 50th special in the shed on gallifrey, there are 2 odd bits of scaffolding that looks like two halves of a Mechonoid without any panels behind the war doctor as he chooses if he should push the red button.

Another great video. Many thanks!

Remarkable. Thank you! Incidentally I’ve recently seen that 1984 adaptation and the machine is used so well.

A hemispherical mould would lock even without those ridges! Not easy to laminate in there even if it didn't. The mould was probably made in three sections bolted together. Love the graphics of the pristine casting magically and gently levitating out of the perfect mould . Working with fibreglass is exactly like that.

Breathless as always from the dizzying amount of research that goes into these props. I remember seeing the Mechanoid in Blackpool. Nice to know it has a new home .

I hope the Mechonoids return to the series in the future

My favourite thing about Shawcraft is it’s literally 3-4 minutes walk away from the building that was later to be the Junior Gazette in Press Gang and, later still, destroyed and turned into a car park.

@2:54 That's an interesting take. As a small boy, I always imagined this living, breathing beast that had evolved out of metal... mercury for blood... this one having long been dead and immobile. That always stuck as it is such an alien and surreal concept... living, breathing metal things that weren't robots, but something that had actually evolved.

You know what. I actually have one of those, I don't know if it's screen used or not, I never knew what it was until I saw this video.

The Golden Dalek Emperor disliked this video....

Marvellous stuff, as always. A vid about Shawcraft would be fab! Looking forward to it already!

I actually emitted an involuntary noise when I'd seen you'd posted another video. ❤️❤️

You'll be cropping out the Big Finish ad when the offer expires? It was made perfectly to crop out 😊

They're in the new show: Daleks!

Brilliant stuff. I could watch one of these daily.

The music is lovely!

These videos only seem to come up in my suggestions when I'm stoned as hell, but every time I watch one I keep coming to the conclusion that Terry Nation was maybe, perhaps, on some level, kind of a tit and absolutely frustrating to work with

The original concept was always incredibly fun. Could've been on the same level as the Cyberman and Dalek if only they actually focused on it

Nice attention to detail there by Verity Lambert.

Another fantastically detailed labour of love.

What a wonderfully detailed documentary!