Daleks To Be Given 'A Rest' From Dr. Who

donberryman writes "Steven Moffat told the BBC 'There's a problem with the Daleks. They are the most famous of the Doctor's adversaries and the most frequent, which means they are the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe.'" And so, 400+ encounters later, both the Doctor and the daleks will take a break from each other.

Re:I wish I was a Dalek

[martin-boundary]

Camp is cool. What the show really needs though is more people wearing fezzes. If the new Daleks had worn fezzes, they'd never have been shitcanned.

The Doctor needs a break too

[RedBear]

Unfortunately the Daleks aren't the only thing that needs a break. So does the Doctor. He has become a bad charicature of himself.

This new season is sort of like being forced to watch a Jerry Bruckheimer film every weekend, with all of the ludicrously over-dramatic theme music and gag-me-with-a-spoon melodramatic themes. Already last season the new Doctor was a little too full of himself, but I was quite shocked to find that it got infinitely worse this season. And the ridiculous "mysterious" River Song character that keeps being forced into every episode for some unknown reason just makes me want to vomit. Every time she smugly says her signature line I want someone to punch her in the mouth.

The plots, and the Doctor himself, are so incoherent that even I barely know what the hell just happened at the end of an episode, and I'm normally the guy in the room who is explaining the plot twists to others. The new episodes make almost zero sense, like they're using some random plot element generator to write the stories for them. The behavior of the characters no longer rings true, so the stories fall flat. The new Doctor comes across as a gibbering moron who doesn't pay attention to anyone or anything besides himself and yet magically finds his way out of every possible situation without seeming to have the slightest clue what he's doing.

I've managed to find and watch nearly every episode of the old series (thanks Pirate Bay!) and thoroughly enjoyed almost every single episode, from the first Doctor right up through all the David Tennant seasons. But this newest stuff has pretty much made me stop wanting to watch the show, at least until they get new writers. It takes some real talent to screw up a show that has been pretty entertaining for decades already using a very simple formula. They should really just rename the show to "The Something Horribly Bad Happens to the Tardis Every Week Show" which seems to be the common theme now.

Re:Daleks don't make sense

[itsdapead]

I think the problem is that R.T. Davis wrote the Daleks to be the ultimate, unstoppable enemy of the Time Lords because they were one of the most well-known elements of the brand and useful for marketing..

There's a far better plot-driven reason: in the classic "Genesis of the Daleks" Doctor #4 was sent back to wipe the Daleks out before they were created. So, basically, he fired the first shot in the Great Time War.

This just doesn't fit well with their retro design.

But the Daleks are also fanatical racial supremacists, so they would never accept that the design cobbled together by Davros in a bunker was anything but perfect.

Re:The Doctor needs a break too

[RedBear]

You're reply is quite amusing, probably unintentionally. You like the show except for all the boring, predictable, nonsensical and annoying parts? Perhaps you just haven't reached your saturation point yet for those elements like I did from the very first episode this season. I gave it a couple more tries hoping it would get better, but it didn't. I didn't even bother watching the second part of the episode you're referring to, because I was thoroughly disgusted by the time the first half was over.

I have noticed the clues to some over-arcing theme that will certainly be wrapped up at the end of the season, but a grand finale won't save save something for me that has such awful individual episodes.

To each their own. By all means, enjoy the show as long as you are able.

Re:spolier:The sonic screwdriver seems to be gone

[delinear]

What I think works particularly well with the sonic is the fact that it's used so much, but much of the time appears to do little or nothing. The doctor will quite often point it at people or things and take a "reading" that he doesn't do anything with or about, which is a nice way of saying "this tool is always here but it's not always useful" - they've made mention in the past of how flaky it can be. The doctor uses it almost as an extension of his sense to probe situations in the same way as a human might use smell and sound to augment sight (and still sometimes come up with the wrong answer). Conversely using it less but only using it in situations where it always works to save the day would turn it from a tool into a miracle device. What we need is more of the screwdriver but not always more of it saving the day.

Re:I guess

[Dogtanian]

This strikes me as a somewhat sensible decision.

I mean, I like the Daleks and all that, but they seemed to pop up an awful lot in the new Who series (since 2005) to the point where you got the impression that people forgot Who wasn't all about them. They appeared fairly regularly in the "classic" series, but not quite as frequently as peoples' memories would lead them to believe.

Then again, I realised a while back that my earliest (and *very* faint) memories of Doctor Who at a very young age are of watching it mainly to see the Daleks- not the Doctor!- and being disappointed when they weren't on. And it's easy as an adult to forget that. But I still think that they've made the right decision- just easing off the Daleks a bit for a while. If kids want to see them, the "old" "new" episodes are still repeated countless times on BBC3 anyway!

Thoughts on Season 6 [Spoilers]

[Bloodwine77]

I think the Daleks will be back, but probably not before season 7. I suspect the rest of this season will involve Amy, her baby, and what ever alien race is involved.

Part of me thinks the Amy-having-a-timelord-baby story arc is borderline jumping the shark. I hate it when shows use babies as plot devices. It just feels too much like a cheesy soap opera gimmick. The other part of me is going to give it a chance because I can sort of see an overall theme emerging. Either her baby is a genetic experiment or it is hers and Rory's but since it could have been conceived on the TARDIS then due to all the time energy it could be part time lord.

We've seen TARDIS-like consoles in two episodes. The first was in the Lodger, in the "upstairs apartment" where people were being zapped while being forced to try to power the ship. The second time was in The Day of the Moon, in the sewers with the Silence. I do not think the Silence are responsible for the TARDIS-like ships, and we will see a new, different enemy that is trying to build a TARDIS and has kidnapped or engineered Amy's baby so it can power the ship. This is just my speculation.

I can see this story arc spanning many more episodes, so there isn't really any room for Daleks. I do think we can use a proper break from Daleks and Cybermen, so that it'll actually mean something again when they are re-introduced.

As for the 11th doctor, I like him more than I thought I would when I heard David Tennant was leaving the show. Matt Smith plays a very quirky doctor and the 11th doctor feels more vulnerable, quirky, and child-like. He makes mistakes and his technology is more fallible (e.g.: the sonic screwdriver doesn't work in every situation). As much as I love the 10th doctor, the writers made him too powerful and god-like and near the end I never really felt he was in much danger (with few exceptions). Moffat either had to tone down Doctor Who's invincible awesomeness, or he had to introduce ever-more-powerful enemies. There is more wiggle room if he weakened the doctor, so I think that was a good decision. My only real complaint about Matt Smith as the doctor is that he needs to be more intense at times. I love his quirkiness, but if he can add in some intensity to the mix then he has potential to be one of the best doctors.

I also like Rory, because he is a stand up guy that does the right thing. He is the best of humanity. I think he is a better person than Amy. He is a bit insecure, but wouldn't we all if we were standing next to the Doctor? I am happy the writers ended up making Amy and Rory be together and love each other without making her another wide-eyed lovesick Doctor groupie. I hate love triangles and I am glad that plot device is not being used ... for now.

Re:The Doctor needs a break too

[gad_zuki!]

Comments like yours just illustrate how art is subjective.

I love Moffat's work. Its incredible. The production is good too. The music you dislike, I feel is wonderful and cinematic. I find the stories incredibly engaging and the stories before Moffat's reign to be a bit of a cookie-cutter yawn-fest and drama that, frankly, just didn't work most of the time.

That said, I do find the show to be incredibly ridiculous and I'm not sure what 'gritty realism" people like you celebrate. Every episode of this show is incredibly shlocky. Its more "adult fairytales" than anything approaching sci-fi. I think Moffat understands this on a fundamental level and is really delivering the goods.