A new documentary is hoping to definitively chart the history of the “world-famous interstellar migrants from the planet Skaro”.

One of the most distinctive voices on British TV, Victor Lewis Smith, is hoping to get one of his oft-rejected pet projects of the ground via a crowdfunding campaign. That project is The Undiscovered Daleks – “the world’s first definitive documentary for cinema about the Daleks”.

It will be produced by Lewis-Smith’s own Associated-Rediffusion company (he acquired the name and trademark in the 1990s), which also made the Radiophonic Workshop doc Alchemists of Sound.  Working on the project with Lewis-Smith will be Paul Sparks, a long-time collaborator who also co-wrote the ‘Gay Daleks’ section of the TV Offal series.

It promises to mix its creators’ irreverent take on pop culture with a comprehensive look at how the Dalek concept came about, and the impact it had.

The campaign page for the project goes into a little more detail, saying:

“ In 1963, the Daleks made their first BBC television appearance, and single-handedly catapulted the “Doctor Who” sci-fi series into mainstream British pop culture (their popularity rivalling even that of The Beatles). Throughout the sixties, ratings for Doctor Who soared whenever they appeared, and drastically declined whenever a storyline did not feature them. And whenever the Radio Times has held a poll of “scariest Doctor Who monsters”, the Daleks  usually won it.

They’ve been featured on hundreds of magazine covers, been manufactured as toys (full size and desktop models), have appeared in video games, and numerous sitcoms (from “Q6” and “Red Dwarf” to “Top Gear” and “The Vicar of Dibley”), yet astonishingly – despite the ubiquity of their fame – they have never been the subject of a full-length documentary. Until now.  It’s time to investigate the myths, misunderstandings, and unknown stories that surround these cybernetic monsters, as we separate fact from fiction in “The Undiscovered Daleks” 

The film, should it get made, is intended for a limited cinema release, digital download and DVD. The filmmakers also propose to produce a soundtrack of “Radiophonic-style music” to accompany the visuals.

You can see more about the project here…