The Doctor Who universe has always been well represented at Supanova Pop Culture Expo. Each year, fans dress as their favourite iteration of the Doctor, build makeshift Daleks and get a chance to meet the stars of the show. This year, it's Terry Molloy — best known for his role as the villainous Davros — who'll be waiting to meet them.
“It's kind of like being part of a very large extended family,” says Molloy, no stranger to Doctor Who fan conventions, “of people who have been in the program, people who watch the program, and people who have worked on the program. There's common ground there. It's the fans who keep the program going, and always have. Certainly in the years when Doctor Who was off screens, they were the ones who kept the faith, if you like. I've met a lot of interesting people and made a lot of friends by going around the world and meeting the fans.”
An evil scientist responsible for creating the Daleks and intent on becoming the supreme ruler of the universe (despite being confined to a life support chair), Davros is one of The Doctor's most popular and enduring enemies. Molloy wasn't the first actor to play the role, but since making his first appearance in 1984's Resurrection Of The Daleks, he has been the most iconic. Not only did he play the role on-screen a number of times, but when the TV series went off the air for some time, he continued to appear as Davros in a number of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions.
In 2013, Doctor Who celebrates its 50th anniversary; Molloy has been part of the family for 29 of those years. “The actual concept of the show itself is brilliant,” Molloy says. “[The Doctor] solves things with a bit of Sellotape and a Sonic Screwdriver. You look at the big, flash stuff that goes around; some of the effects on a lot of the other series... they were never there in Doctor Who. Not in the classic series, anyway. Obviously they have the ability to use CGI to create effects now, but they still don't over-use it. The stories come before everything else. When you have those strong storylines, that's what makes it work. That's what makes the fans want to watch the program.
“With the Daleks, it's one of those amazing things... you've got these little metal pepperpots that somehow create absolute fear in people. I suppose it's the unrelenting paranoia and demand for domination that they've got. With Davros, the appeal is actually the intellectual game he plays with The Doctor. He and The Master are on the same intellectual level as The Doctor, and they know it. They both know it! They know that they're of a kind.
“Rather than always trying to bump each other off, they enjoy the intellectual chess game of their meetings. Who's going to come out on top? That's something we've drawn on a lot more in the audio plays than they've been able to do on TV, which a lot of fans have picked up on and really, really enjoyed.”
The Doctor's adventures will continue in 2014 with Peter Capaldi (best known for his role as sharp-tongued spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It) in the lead role. Molloy is confident the franchise is in the right hands. “You know full well that Peter Capaldi's going to deliver,” he says. “He's been a fan since he was 15, and he's a superb actor, a supremely good actor. If anyone was fated to be The Doctor, it was him. I just trust he's not going to be quite as foul-mouthed as he was as Malcolm Tucker! It'd be lovely to have an interaction between Davros and him, you know, just cussing each other out.”
