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Doctor Who Kept The Daleks’ Return A Secret With A Hilarious Codename

After a full season without any returning monsters, Whovians the world over when the Daleks made a comeback in Doctor Who's New Year's special "Resolution." Well, technically one Dalek did, as the tale saw a lone Dalek creature possess a human body in an attempt to make itself a new casing and take over the Earth. 

Dalek-Doctor-Who-Resolution

After a full season without any returning monsters, Whovians the world over were overjoyed when the Daleks made a comeback in Doctor Who‘s New Year’s special “Resolution.” Well, technically one Dalek did, as the tale saw a lone Dalek creature possess a human body in an attempt to make itself a new casing and take over the Earth.

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Impressively, it was only revealed that the evil pepper pot was the main villain of the episode when the BBC featured the iconic “Exterminate” soundbite in a trailer. So how did the production team keep the secret? Well, smartly, the Dalek was referred to by a codename in the script. And it was a hilarious one.

Apparently, the codename used for the deadliest monster in the universe was simply Kevin. In a recent interview, guest star Nikesh Patel revealed to Doctor Who Magazine (via RadioTimes.com) that the codename made the script a “confusing read,” saying:

“It was a really tense horror thriller, but this buried, ancient tentacled evil was only referred to by a codename! As someone who’s not a die-hard Who fan, I thought, ‘That’s a step too far, surely?’”

“In the read-through, Jodie [Whittaker] stuck with the codename,” Patel continued. “Although with hindsight she did it with a wry smile.”

In response to the article, his co-star in the episode, Charlotte Ritchie, revealed on Twitter that the codename used was Kevin, which the actress admitted “took away a lot of the drama.”

https://twitter.com/Charitchie/status/1093595790046572544

No doubt the Dalek’s codename produced a lot of laughter and confusion, but the end result proves that it was definitely a smart move as fans didn’t expect that the Doctor’s nemeses would be making a surprise return. Kudos to the production team for hiding the actual Dalek prop, as well, as we’re surprised that set photos of it didn’t leak online – as they did with the redesigned TARDIS.

Hopefully when Doctor Who returns for season 12 in 2020, we’ll have more codenamed classic monsters to look forward to. How about a Cyberman named Brian?

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