Very sad to hear the news of the passing of
Ray Cusick tonight. Ray designed the Daleks from the BBC television
series DR WHO. Peter Cushing appeared in two Dr Who / Dalek movies in
the 1960's..
RAY CUSICK: The pepper pot detail came from a lunch with Bill Roberts, the special effects expert who would make the Daleks, when Mr Cusick picked up a pepper pot and moved it around the table, he told Roberts,: "It's going to move like that - no visible means'
'Ever since then people say I was inspired by a pepper pot - but it could have been the salt pot I picked up! When I'm asked what I was inspired by I suppose it was really a system of logic because I realised that you've got to have an operator to operate them. If you had anything mechanical, 10 to one on the take it would go wrong, so you've got a human being in there who would be absolutely totally reliable...I then thought 'Well, the operator's got to sit down', [so I] drew a seat, ergonomic height, 18in, got the operator down, and then drew round him. That's how the basic shape appeared.'
Ray Cusick, the man responsible for one of the most iconic designs of television sci-fi.
RAY CUSICK: The pepper pot detail came from a lunch with Bill Roberts, the special effects expert who would make the Daleks, when Mr Cusick picked up a pepper pot and moved it around the table, he told Roberts,: "It's going to move like that - no visible means'
'Ever since then people say I was inspired by a pepper pot - but it could have been the salt pot I picked up! When I'm asked what I was inspired by I suppose it was really a system of logic because I realised that you've got to have an operator to operate them. If you had anything mechanical, 10 to one on the take it would go wrong, so you've got a human being in there who would be absolutely totally reliable...I then thought 'Well, the operator's got to sit down', [so I] drew a seat, ergonomic height, 18in, got the operator down, and then drew round him. That's how the basic shape appeared.'
Ray Cusick, the man responsible for one of the most iconic designs of television sci-fi.
