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Sci-Fi Television United Kingdom

Daleks To Be Given 'A Rest' From Dr. Who 332

Posted by timothy from the doesn't-the-resting-go-the-other-direction? dept.
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.
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Daleks To Be Given 'A Rest' From Dr. Who More

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

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  • someone finally listened to the Daleks... EXTERMINATE!

    Too bad for the Daleks they exterminated them

    • Re:I guess (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Dogtanian ( 588974 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @08:23AM (#36306866) Homepage
      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!

      • Re:I guess (Score:5, Informative)

        by asdf7890 ( 1518587 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @09:24AM (#36307310)

        They appeared fairly regularly in the "classic" series, but not quite as frequently as peoples' memories would lead them to believe.

        Indeed, Doctors 5 through 7 only met them once each on-screen. 2 & 4 encountered them in two televised stories each, 3 bumped into them in 3 stories and 1 holds the record (if you count modern two-parters as single stories) at 5 televised meetings. I'm ignoring short "guest" appearances here, like the few minutes in the 5 doctors, and counting the last segment of Frontier in Space as a run-on to the full Dalek story that followed.

        The fact that they didn't appear often heightened the excitement for the fans when they did and I agree with many that they have perhaps been overused in recent series, so giving their narrative a break for a bit certainly makes good sense to me.

      • Re:I guess (Score:4, Insightful)

        by grub ( 11606 ) <slashdot@grub.net> on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @10:05AM (#36307748) Homepage Journal

        The Daleks went from being a feared nemesis to being a laughing stock.

        Exactly as what happened to The Borg in the Star Trek universe. It got so bad on Voyager that I wouldn't have been surprised to see The Borg beaten in an episode by cream pies in the face as Captain Janeway spun around on the floor yelping "Woop woop woop!" like Curly.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Rob Kaper ( 5960 )

          Exactly as what happened to The Borg in the Star Trek universe.

          At least Trek countered in DS9 with the Dominion. An enemy who, while ultimately defeated, managed to install fear for several seasons.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by mackil ( 668039 )
        I agree completely. It's a bit like the Borg from Star Trek TNG. They weren't on the show often, but when they were, it was usually an "event". The Daleks are no longer an "event".
  • At the start of Tom Baker's time the sonic screwdriver couldn't even reliably get the Doctor through a locked door, but now it is a magic wand that can do just about anything. Good to see it got written out of the plot recently.

    • Re:spolier:The sonic screwdriver seems to be gone (Score:4, Informative)

      by coolmadsi ( 823103 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @06:29AM (#36306364) Homepage Journal

      At the start of Tom Baker's time the sonic screwdriver couldn't even reliably get the Doctor through a locked door, but now it is a magic wand that can do just about anything. Good to see it got written out of the plot recently.

      It's been destroyed a couple of times since the reboot, and another one has been made, usually popping out the TARDIS console. He used it in the last scene of the last episode that was aired (unless you're talking about future episodes...). It is a fairly simple to use plot device though (need to move plot forward = use screwdriver to open door, otherwise, need to keep characters where they are = door is deadlocked)

      • It's been destroyed a couple of times since the reboot, and another one has been made

        Apparently the much-maligned John Nathan Turner (producer of Who throughout the 1980s) had it destroyed early in his tenure and explicitly vetoed attempts to have a new one made- or whatever- for similar reasons. He thought it was too easy a plot device- I guess it's a sort of Deus Ex Machina.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )

        used it in the last scene of the last episode that was aired

        No. His copy who got left behind with the screwdriver used it in the last scene of the last episode that was aired.

    • They solved the problem with the sonic screwdriver a few years ago by inventing the deadlock seal - anything that is deadlock sealed can't be opened by the magic wand. I'm not sure what you mean about it being written out of the plot though. In the last episode, the Doctor left it behind, but he's done that several times before and made a new one...

      • Re:spolier:The sonic screwdriver seems to be gone (Score:4, Insightful)

        by rufty_tufty ( 888596 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @06:58AM (#36306452) Homepage

        i think a lot of this comes down to the quality of the writers not the tools at the disposal of the characters. A bad/mediocre writer will wave the magic wand to get past the problem the writer has put the character in. To create tension they'll have the magic wand not work. This is fine and an audience will put up with this provided the rest of the story is enough to keep them interested.
        A good writer won't need a sonic screwdriver or a deadlock seal, the traps and problems will be those of circumstance, character traits and morals. But like any tool they can be overused too, there's only so many times the lock of the doctor being a pacifist being opened by a companion sacrifice can be used; but we're back to the good vs bad writer stage again...
        So I've no problems with the Daleks being used a lot, used in every episode even as long as they are used well. That does seem to worry me about the new Dr Who that they're not being used because they have a good story but used like the sonic to up the tension and that just doesn't work long term.

        • Hate to reply to myself but:
          I meant to say that the daleks being used like the sonic as a writing tool, only instead of being used to let him through any door, to solve any problem, to magic the badness away being used to up the tension at any moment. No need to have a good idea just add Dalek for instant tension. Sorry, overused, doesn't work, come back when you have a good story.

          • Re:spolier:The sonic screwdriver seems to be gone (Score:5, Insightful)

            by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @07:22AM (#36306548) Journal

            This was a big problem with the Russell T Davies episodes. He used spectacle as a substitute for plot. Huge fleets of Daleks or Cybermen as a substitute for character interaction. In contrast, the best episodes have been things like Blink, that have kept the atmosphere with relatively little emphasis on special effects.

            The original problem with the sonic screwdriver was that, after being used a few times, writers either had to use it, or have the audience thinking 'why didn't he use the sonic screwdriver?' With the deadlock seal, good writers can just say add a line of dialog saying 'oh, doesn't work', and move on. Imagine 42, for example, without the deadlock seal. Either there would have to be some contrived way of losing the sonic screwdriver at the start, or the audience would have sat there saying 'why don't you just use the sonic screwdriver on the doors?!?!?' Just mentioning the word 'deadlock' meant that we all knew that the magic wand wouldn't work, so there was tension that didn't seem artificial.

            With a good writer, the sonic screwdriver is a substitute for technobabble. Put on the glasses, wave the magic wand, and something involving technology that the audience doesn't need to care about just happened and you can return to the plot. No need to go into long explanations. We all know the sonic screwdriver does complicated things with technology, and we don't need to know the details.

            • Re:spolier:The sonic screwdriver seems to be gone (Score:5, Interesting)

              by delinear ( 991444 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @08:18AM (#36306838)
              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.

        • They are shortcuts ...
          Sonic Screwdriver - Unlock doors easily, mend devices, scan for information
          Psychic Paper - Get access and co-operation
          Daleks - Here comes trouble
          Tardis - Get to latest adventure

          They can be overused, but if used correctly simply keep the plot going

          All could be used to escape from the scene, or solve the plot too quickly, so all have limitations (Deadlocks, High IQ, Stairs etc ...)

          Star Trek had the same issue, get into trouble just beam out ...except either they couldn't, or it would

      • They solved the problem with the sonic screwdriver a few years ago by inventing the deadlock seal - anything that is deadlock sealed can't be opened by the magic wand.

        Plus - it can't do wood...

    • He did give it to his ganger to disintegrate the animalistic one (though I fail to see why couldn't they just open the door for a second, and have the real Doctor press the button), but by the end of the episode, the TARDIS generated the new one (and presumably destroyed the old one to prevent misuse), which he used to disintegrate Amy's replicant.

      • the TARDIS generated the new one (and presumably destroyed the old one to prevent misuse)

        Remember, he needs a spare at some stage that he will have been going to give to River. Plus, they're going to need a spare Doctor for space-suit guy* to going to has** killed, so presumably, we haven't seen the last of the "ganger" Doctor, either...

        (* My money is on Amy )

        (** Dr Dan Streetmentioner, where are you...)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by grahamm ( 8844 )

          Or River. Did she not say in a past episode that the reason she is in prison is because she killed a very good man. We know that her timeline and the Doctor's are running in opposite directions, so maybe the Doctor is the man she killed.

        • Plus, they're going to need a spare Doctor for space-suit guy* to going to has** killed, so presumably, we haven't seen the last of the "ganger" Doctor, either...

          Exactly this - they even make some comment about there being some way the essence of the "flesh" doctor might survive the disintegration. If that's not telegraphing the end of that particular story arc, I don't know what is.

  • Or does this have to do with not paying rights to the guy who invented them?

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Or does this have to do with not paying rights to the guy who invented them?

      Yeah, Davros has to make a living somehow.

    • I thought the rights were technically paid for, but they were licensed under a "Watchmen" like agreement that meant the rights did not revert back (requiring further payment and/or tweaks to the agreement) until the Daleks weren't used for one season. Whence why the Daleks appeared every season in the new series in at least on episode.

  • After years of not being able to stand Dr Who, I've only just been able to watch this new one. Does it need to be camp? I know the BBC can't spend money; but even the The Dresden Files looked better. I wish liked it more. I would go back and watch the old ones to try and get into it; but his penchant for annoying ginger girls puts me off.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by martin-boundary ( 547041 )
      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.

    • After years of not being able to stand Dr Who, I've only just been able to watch this new one. [..] I know the BBC can't spend money; but even the The Dresden Files looked better.

      Er... do you remember what the original series was like? This new one is absolutely massive budget compared to it. That shouldn't be taken to mean that the original series was crap, but even in the best episodes you never got the impression that they had tons of money to throw at it.

      The new one has quite a lot of effects- maybe too much on occasion- and they're really pretty good for the most part.

  • Keep the Daleks, but for the love of everything scifi remove the fucking love stories from the show. Also give the current writers the boot, they can take matt smith with them, though in truth he may just suck because of the truly horrible writing.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by szyzyg ( 7313 )

      Sorry, Current generation of Who is consistently better than anything else from the modern of classic era, I've watched ever episode that exists and listened to all the Big Finish audio production and the Moffat era Who really is magnificent.

      It says a lot that the best episodes in recent years have all been Moffat penned:
      The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances
      The Girl In The Fireplace
      Blink
      Silence In the Library/Forest of The Dead
      and of course.... he's now the producer, he's yet to top 'Blink' - but it's consisten

  • Only this season (Score:4, Informative)

    by Nick Fel ( 1320709 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @06:26AM (#36306356)
    Moffat has clarified that he was only talking about the current season: https://twitter.com/#!/steven_moffat/status/75506136593338368 [twitter.com]

  • Horrible writers (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @06:31AM (#36306370)

    Yeah, they should kick these bad writers with names that nobody knows like Neil Gaiman,

  • which means they are the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe.

    Surely they're not as incompetent as Evil Warlords, who are so bad that they have to keep a rulebook on screw-ups to avoid.

    • which means they are the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe.

      Surely they're not as incompetent as Evil Warlords, who are so bad that they have to keep a rulebook on screw-ups to avoid.

      You forgot the most important part: "... and then, decide that this time is special, so ignore all the advice."

  • I still think it was cheating when they changed the Daleks to be able to float up stairs :-)

  • Definitely for the best in my opinion, and not just because of writing quality, the new design, or anything like that. They've just lost their "oomph." Early on, they were terrifying, seeing them pop up suddenly made my heart sink, wondering how they would get through the situation. Now that the Doctor has plowed through them countless times, in increasingly absurd numbers, they just don't evoke that reaction anymore. "I am the last Dalek!" *dead* "We are the last of the Dalek fleet!" *dead* "We are the las

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bsane ( 148894 )

      I'm not a huge fan of cybermen either, but I the current rounds of cybermen are supposedly separately evolved. 'Cybermen' is more like a category of self-replicating cyborg, who all happen to have the same mask. I'm not saying that makes sense or is ok, but its different than 'we got them all! except for this one...'

      • Cybermen are the zombies of Dr. Who. They can crop up all sorts of ways, and once there's a few, they can replicate themselves by preying on the living...

  • The Doctor needs a break too (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RedBear ( 207369 ) <redbear@@@redbearnet...com> on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @07:05AM (#36306478) Homepage

    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.

    • You pretty well nailed my exact thoughts. After over 30 years of eagerly watching anything and everything Doctor who I am finding the new stuff more and more cringe worthy, The current season is beyond apalling, perhaps the show needs a rest again till they can find some decent writers that can rediscover what made Doctor Who such a long lasting show in the first place, and it certainly wasn't the shit they are currently churning out.

    • Totally disagree, this season has been pretty good apart from the yawn fest that was the pirate episode. Though it isn't perfect, but what season is? I do feel a little cheated by the fourth episode as I thought we would meet other Time Lords, other than that, I think it's been pretty coherent as a series. Though I should mention, it was soooo predictable that the ganger Doctor wasn't going to survive beyond the story it was introduced in. It felt like a cop out that those two gangers *had* to stay behind a

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by RedBear ( 207369 )

        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 no

    • 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.

      Agreed. It seems like the new way the Doctor gets out of impossible situations always begins with something like "Do you know who I am? I did X, I did Y, I'm the Doctor, you should fear me!", sometimes ending with the bad guys just picking up and scampering away.

      Last season was terrible about this, and it's carried over into this season despite the new Doctor and change of show runner. The cocky Doctor needs to go.

      River Song doesn't bother me quite as much, but she's definitely the Doctor's version of LOS

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by RedBear ( 207369 )

        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.

        Agreed. It seems like the new way the Doctor gets out of impossible situations always begins with something like "Do you know who I am? I did X, I did Y, I'm the Doctor, you should fear me!", sometimes ending with the bad guys just picking up and scampering away.

        Last season was terrible about this, and it's carried over into this season despite the new Doctor and change of show runner. The cocky Doctor needs to go.

        That is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. He seems to think he's a cross between Superman and Jesus Christ now, like he's both invincible and can do no wrong even while people are getting killed all around him. In the real world (where the Doctor used to live) that kind of crap would have gotten his ass atomized a dozen times over by now.

        I don't want to watch the Superchrist Spacey Soap Opera Show, I want to watch Doctor Who, where a clever guy encounters strange alien mysteries and narrowly avoids getting ki

      • 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.

        Agreed. It seems like the new way the Doctor gets out of impossible situations always begins with something like "Do you know who I am? I did X, I did Y, I'm the Doctor, you should fear me!", sometimes ending with the bad guys just picking up and scampering away.

        I'm not a fan of the Doctor's showboating, either... Eye-roll every time there's mention of "The Oncoming Storm" or anything like that. But do consider the circumstances of the two cases in which it happened in the 2010 series:

        1: vs. the Atraxi. The Atraxi were already content, having re-captured Prisoner Zero, and were leaving, when The Doctor called them back to bitch them out.
        2: vs. the alliance: The Doctor didn't know it but he was the reason all those aliens were there in the first place. So all hi

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Wow. It's amazing how two people can watch the same thing and get something completely different from it.

      Since Moffat has taken over, I feel the quality is the best it's ever been. I love the season spanning sub-plots, which are built up with plot hints and subtle clues over months. They're always surprising, yet for me have been logical and obvious when revealed.

      I could go on, but I've made my point. I'm not saying I'm right, 'cos there's no such thing with matters of taste, obviously, but I do find it fa

    • I'm not sure I'd agree that the Doctor has become a caricature of himself, but certainly the quality of the plots has suffered.

      Moffat's desire to have a strong overarching plot means that nothing ever makes sense until the very end. It falls in to that same trap that shows like Lost and Heroes did, where confusing the audience was mistaken for a clever plot ("ha ha, I fooled you!"). Certainly there are good reasons to do arcs, and well done arcs are fantastic, but as it stands the main arcs of Moffet's seas

    • Re:The Doctor needs a break too (Score:5, Insightful)

      by arevos ( 659374 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @08:54AM (#36307072) Homepage

      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.

      I haven't had any problems understanding what happens in each episode. In fact, I find the two new series by Steven Moffat to be considerably better than the old Russel T. Davies series.

      Russel T. Davies was infamous for "Doctor Ex Machina" plots, in which the Doctor would pull technobabble solutions out of his ass at the last minute. His villains were either re-introduced monsters from old Doctor Who episodes, or extremely uninteresting evil aliens who were entirely interchangeable.

      Steven Moffat actually attempts to write science fiction, in that the Doctor's solutions are based on rules set up earlier in the episode, rather than rectum-derived technobabble. The viewer gets all the information the Doctor gets, so when he reveals the solution there's a genuine feeling of "Oh, now that's quite clever". Moffat's monsters also typically have some kind of interesting gimmick and often have some relation to the real world, giving them a certain scare factor that's not present in Davies' generic aliens.

      • Disclaimer: I haven't watched any of the current series yet (despite living in the UK), I prefer to save them up and watch them all in a big lump. I also didn't have any points to mod you up, hence the reply.

        I'm also much more of a fan of Moffat's style, and I'm actually surprised people are comparing his style to that of "Lost"; Moffat has always loved elaborate lead-ups that make little sense until the denouement (if any of you haven't seen the sublime Brit Com "Coupling" I can highly recommend it; lots o

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by crossmr ( 957846 )

      I've been extremely disappointed with this season and last. Matt Smith has done absolutely nothing for me. While Tennant quickly won me over, I've given Smith plenty of time to find his groove and have zero excitement about the stories like I had with the last doctor.

      It's a shame as we're getting to the end of the regenerations, but they need to do something to give some life back to this franchise, it's a shame it's going down the toilet so fast.

    • Re:The Doctor needs a break too (Score:4, Interesting)

      by gad_zuki! ( 70830 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @10:33AM (#36308064)

      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.

      • If you want gritty realism then you watch Torchwood. That has to be one of the most depressing TV shows I have ever watched.

  • "[...] they are the most reliably defeatable enemies in the universe."

    Thing is, the Daleks were only defeated once in the new series (Parting Of The Ways), all the other times, only the current plan was defeated, and the Daleks escaped to plot again. While I do agree that they've become overused, they're the most iconic leg of the triad of classical opponents (the other two being The Master, who's been timelocked and removed from this universe, and they Cybermen, who are going to appear in the next episode)

    • 12 regenerations - Easy, Currently on 10 1/2 - 1 forced by the Time lords (which may not count), and it was an artificial limit made by the Time Lords (who are no longer around), which they overrode during the time war (brought back the Master after he was very dead, and had had ~15 regenerations already, and Rassilon, who had had all his regenerations long ago) which the Doctor fought in, so he either has 2,3,12 or as many as he wants left ....

  • in the later seasons, I thought they were always well used and quite fun, popping up at weird times and delightfully evil. And their simplicity contrasts nicely with the rest of Dr Who, which is usually a bit involved.

    I'm sure their come back will be grand.

  • At least the Daleks don't have relationships (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bongo ( 13261 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @07:17AM (#36306530)

    But honey, how would you feel if I rescued you from an inner city estate?

    EXTERMINATE.

    Well ok, how about if I hoisted you out of a killer taxi in a wedding dress?

    EXTERMINATE.

    Waited 2000 years by your side?

    EXTERMINATE.

    Flowers?

    EXTERMINATE.

    • Re:At least the Daleks don't have relationships (Score:5, Funny)

      by Richard Kirk ( 535523 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @08:44AM (#36307004)

      (I am submitting this for a friend who has trouble with keyboards)

      The BBC is bi-ased. The pro-gram shows only the da-leks being de-fea-ted. It never shows the time-lines when the da-leks con-quer and the doc-tor is de-fea-ted. They por-tray the da-leks as mind-less kill-ers. The daleks are nu-anced. The da-leks are complex. The da-leks have had it up to here with this stu-pid pro-gram. Dear 'Points Of View'. Oh why, oh why, oh why can we not have un-bi-ased re-por-ting? Why can't we see the da-leks win and the doc-tor get his ass ex-ter-mi-nated? Why can't the doc-tor stay dead when he dies? It's all so un-fair. Yours, Dis-gus-ted of Ska-ro.

    • Please, please for the love of all that is sacred, don't give them ideas!

  • Confirmed by Moffat to be just this season, which is probably tight in terms of content. We shall get more technicolor Dalek stuff.

    I wasn't a proper fan of the series until the revival, yet I watched enough of the old series to want to follow that revival when it was aired.
    I dunno, some people complains, but I really really like the revival. And....I kind of prefer the Daleks from before the "last paradigm" but just because the armor is more detailed. I feel rather satisfied with the modern Dalek overall (t

  • Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min-ate! Ex-ter-min-ate!
  • Moffatt was joking when he said that. Unfortunately, Slashdot "editors" took it literally.

    Probably the Doctor has encountered them "only" about 20 time, over the last 48 years (and almost 800 episodes).. At least a quick search through the list of episodes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Doctor_Who_serials) finds 17 including the word "Dalek", and they usually got billing.

    The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks, Day of the D

  • Some small alien life form moving around awkwardly on a very human scale
    in an exoskeleton looking not much different than a big vacuum cleaner?

    Please.

    I think an actual big vacuum cleaner that sucked people up
    and fed on their life force would be far scarier.

  • Why do we have to defeat them every episode? It's easy enough to write a story where there are people in danger, the Daleks are involved and the Doctor comes swanning in. He can't fight the whole Dalek army but decides to save as many as he can, fighting a few and sneaking them out, losing some on the way. The Daleks don't lose and the Doctor wins. Plenty of scope for Dalek / Doctor stories that don't mean anyone gets wiped out. I could come up with ideas about that all day long. New Dalek empire, stronger

  • Leave the field fallow (Score:3)

    by Fractal Dice ( 696349 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @10:13AM (#36307838) Journal

    The Daleks are England's Godzilla - their take on the echo of the trauma of WW2: a mechanized tank with unrepentant genocidal goals. When they were on screen I could see they touched some lingering discomfort in my parents' generation - even though I didn't entirely know why. They way they were reintroduced in the revival, there was a touch of the that same legacy fear in the way they had the Doctor recoil from them - that background trauma was internalized into the canon of the show.

    Now that the show has moved past the Time War survivor guilt issues, the Daleks do need to go away for a while until a suitable story can be found that needs them.

  • Thoughts on Season 6 [Spoilers] (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bloodwine77 ( 913355 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @10:22AM (#36307936)

    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.

  • Dalek vacation (Score:3, Funny)

    by d.the.duck ( 2100600 ) on Wednesday June 01, 2011 @12:28PM (#36309354)
    Somewhere the Daleks will be a spa.... EXFOLIATE EXFOLIATE

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