Goodbye to the Master of Horror

‘Listen, if somebody who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that the child would grow up totally evil... To be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives. Could you then destroy that child?’

-The Fourth Doctor in Genesis of the Daleks, 1975

BBC site reported the death of David Maloney. David Maloney was probably not known to some people or to my compatriots but the Whovians will always remember him as the director of the classic episodes of Doctor Who in the more "violent" era of the production. The words violence and horror were commonly used by the anti-TV series campaigner Mary Whitehouse, because she thought the series diverted from its original "more for kids" theme. It was true that some stories directed by Maloney could be considered not suitable for children but that sort of dark theme was started in the Pertwee era, so it was nothing new on her claims.

But this director did have a unique way of filming and used slow-motion death scenes, freeze frames on bloody scenes, dark-colour and claustrophobic scenes...just remember classics like The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Deadly Assassin and one of the all time favorites Genesis of the Daleks. Also let's not forget his earlier work on Patrick Troughton's The Mind Robber, The Krotons and the Second Doctor's ten-parter epic and the final story The War Games, as well as Frontier in Space and the Planet of the Daleks in the Pertwee era.

It's also worth to mention his work as a producer on the first three seasons on another classic sci-fi series Blakes' 7.

Goodbye Mr Maloney, you'll be missed...