Who made Daleks talk?
QUESTION
How were Dalek voices created in early Doctor Who episodes?
The Daleks are The Doctor’s longestrunning enemies. Created by writer Terry Nation and designer Raymond Cusick, they are beings filled with hatred, driven by the desire to destroy everything non-Dalek.
The Daleks were created by genocidal mad scientist Davros on the planet Skaro. They are very fond of the word ‘exterminate!’ delivered in a chilling electronic manner.
Peter hawkins and David Graham voiced every Dalek in the William hartnell era of the show, from 1963 to 1965.
They devised the Daleks’ other-worldly electronic speech in collaboration with members of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, including Dick Mills.
The threatening, low monotone interspersed with the harsh staccato employed by an angry Dalek was created by passing the actor’s voices through a device known as a ring modulator. This remains the case today.
A ring modulator multiplies two signals together to create two new frequencies, which are the sum and difference of the input frequencies. Combining the actor saying ‘exterminate!’ with an electrical tone generated at a certain frequency produces the famous Dalek sound.
Keith Summers, Brighton.
QUESTION
When was the single railway track through the jungle from Butterworth towards Kuala Lumpur upgraded to the modern double track featured in Michael Portillo’s TV railway journey through Malaysia?
TRAiN lines in Malaysia run on narrow or metre-gauge track, not the european standard gauge of 1,435mm.
Much of it is single track and curved, a legacy that dates back to 1885 when railway services were introduced to transport tin ore from the mines to smelting centres.
For many years, travellers would have to take a slow sleeper train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur or Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth (named after Major-General William John Butterworth, a 19th century governor of the Straits Settlements, a group of British held territories in South-east Asia).
Today, a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Butterworth takes just four hours and 18 minutes in a comfortable electric train.
in 1989, the Malaysian government embarked on a major programme of double-tracking and electrification under the auspices of Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) or Malayan Railways Limited.
electric trains run at up to 100mph, making them some of the fastest on a metre gauge in the world.
The KTM eTS service was inaugurated on August 12, 2010, with services running north from Kuala Lumpur to ipoh and south to Seremban. The service was extended from ipoh to Padang Besar, via Butterworth, in July 2015.
Martin Whitmore, Knebworth, Herts.
QUESTION
Joan of Arc was excommunicated, so how was she later made a saint?
JoAN was exonerated by the Church on July 7, 1456 — 25 years after she was burnt at the stake. her prosecutor Bishop Pierre Cauchon was excommunicated.
The story of how a simple peasant girl rallied the French during the hundred Years’ War is fascinating.
By 1429, the english had captured most of northern France including Paris. They had laid siege to orleans, the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire. into a defeated French court at Chinon came 17-year-old Joan. She claimed that visions of St Michael, St Catherine and St Margaret had told her to drive out the english and deliver the French Dauphin to Reims for his coronation.
This is exactly what she did. Charles Vii was crowned on July 17, 1429.
on May 23, 1430, Joan was captured by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who ransomed her to the english. She was brought to trial at Rouen, which was under the control of the earl of Warwick.
her trial was overseen by Pierre Cauchon, the pro-english Bishop of Beauvais, because she had been captured in his diocese.
After prolonged, intensive questioning, she failed to provide any answers that could constitute heresy.
however, she was caught out on a technicality. Joan had agreed to wear only women’s clothing, but towards the end of the trial, she resumed wearing male clothing, perhaps as a defence against rape.
She was charged as a relapsed heretic and excommunicated by Cauchon. on May 30, 1431, she was burnt at the stake in the marketplace of Rouen.
By 1450, Charles Vii was finally secure on the French throne. he ordered Guillaume Bouille, a theologian at the University of Paris, to inquire into the ‘faults and abuses’ committed by Joan’s accusers, whom Charles accused of having ‘brought about her death iniquitously and against right reason, very cruelly’.
A posthumous retrial opened in 1452. Pope Callixtus iii authorised this nullification trial at the request of the inquisitor-General Jean Brehal and Joan’s mother, isabelle Romee.
A panel of theologians analysed testimony from 115 witnesses. Brehal drew up his final summary in June 1456, which described Joan of Arc as a martyr and implicated the late Bishop Cauchon with heresy for having convicted an innocent woman in pursuit of a vendetta.
The court declared Joan innocent. Pope Callixtus iii excommunicated Cauchon posthumously in 1457 for his role in her persecution and condemnation.
Joan was canonised as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church on May 16, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV.
Marianne Kelly, Belfast.
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