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Davros - A Fan Creation?
The Daily Mail (on-line version) has a story about the BBC being sued over the use of Davros.
Steven Clark claims that he created the leader of the Daleks in a magzine contest in 1972.
He didn't win the contest but a couple of years later the character of Davros began appearing in the series of 'Doctor Who' in Genesis of the Daleks.
For the full details of the lawsuit you can see the original story here:
Daily Mail - BBC Sued over Who first drew the evil Dalek mastermind Davros
and the Doctor Who News Page has an additional story on the debate:
Doctor Who News Page - Fan Claims ownership of Davros
The Snowmen
The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
Yeah, I saw this story as well. My immediate question was what took him so long to take action. Yeah, he was young in 1972. But he was older when Davros was introduced in… what 1975? And then Davros made reappearances in the series throughout the 1980s. He had to be in his mid-20s at that point.
Why wait to take action now? I certainly would had remembered creating the character for a magazine contest for a series I enjoyed and when it first appeared on the series, perhaps I may had been young to realize any implications and simply may had been flattered, but as I got older I would had realized what had happened.
Now almost 40 years later he is suing? I am not implying he didn't create the character, I am trying to understand the wait.
A lot of things came into play for the delay in the case.
When the episode aired he had lost the drawings and bio he had created for the contest - he didn't recover the papers until fairly recently (about 20 years later) in an old set of encyclopedia. Without the proof he had no case.
When he found them he had mistakenly assumed that too much time had passed for him to go to court, but he later found out that he could still go to court and then that's the lawsuit was born.
Oh okay. It probably wouldn't had stopped someone in the US from going forward with the case (being as litigious as we are here).
Thanks for the info.