The Last Day

The guy in the minisode certainly makes them sound menacing enough-- where all it would take is just one Dalek getting through to lay waste to the entire city.

Unfortunately that's usually not what comes across in the episodes themselves. Mostly we just see them barking orders and sounding like a bunch of whiny children all the time. Which is the one thing I appreciated about the more serious-sounding New Daleks-- they actually sounded intimidating for once, and not so damn whiny and annoying.

 

I wonder if we'll see the Daleks regenerating themselves from physical contact with Time Lords, like this Time War Dalek was capable of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDGH3dKo90

 

Well to use a few quotes from episodes


"This is not war, this is pest control".
Rose: "Five million cybermen easy, one Doctor now you're scared"

The Doctor: "What's the nearest town?"
Van Statten: "Salt Lake City."
The Doctor: "Population?"
Van Statten: "One million."
The Doctor: "All dead. If the Dalek gets out it'll murder every living creature that's all it needs."


So it's not new that even one Dalek poses a threat. Is just that the Doctor manages to thwart them at nearly every turn, but not quite defeat them.

 

All I can figure is this is still early in the war, since for a race thats been around for millions of years, and have conquered time, those are some pretty feeble defenses. And they're still relying on their defense shields to make them invulnerable.

Not to mention having one recruit freeze up at the wrong moment dooming an entire city.

 

I'd imagine a simple guard freezing up at any point in the war wouldn't be that unusual, not when you consider that someone like The Master ran and hid from the Daleks, and that The Doctor at this time had to transform himself into a "Warrior Time Lord" to fight them. Hell, I guess we should mention that the Time Lords seemingly resurrected Rassilon to aid them in their fight against the Daleks, not the brightest of ideas I'd imagine.

 

I'm talking strictly about their design. Yes, in the story they are menacing and I can still suspend my disbelief, but it gets more and more difficult every time I have to look at them.

I did find some of them a little scary in "Asylum of the Daleks," namely the sleeping one that Rory accidentally woke up. I yelled at the screen, "Don't touch it!" And then Rory touched it, and I was like, "AH! Never touch a sleeping Dalek!"

 

I guess I'm in the minority because I quite enjoyed the mini-episode. It accomplished what it set out to do by giving a glimpse of the atmosphere of the fighting. Yes, "The Night of the Doctor" raised the bar by showing how to really utilize the format but not all of them have to be incredible experiences to be enjoyable.

 

Bt with ten million years of absolute power, they could have grown somewhat complacent.

 

Probably right. But I hope they weren't completely helpless, and it was only thanks to say, the Doctor, or even the Master being there to be terribly clever that they managed to survive at all.

 

One dalek breaks thru the sky trench and it's game over? wouldn't they have defenses that could oh, I dunno, FIRE at them?

 

I read a few anecdotes by people who watching the Daleks on TV as most of us do, found them maybe a bit less than intimidating. But upon seeing a Dalek prop/costume in person, especially when operated by a skilled performer, those same people were quite unnerved by the animated casings.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

Time Lord complacency. They have half-assed defenses because they don't believe anything can get through.

 

And normally they'd be right. They underestimated Dalek science apparently.

 

So is Arcadia the name of the city around/in the Citadel?

 

Yeah, they may get a lot of stick but I've seen Fatleck Dalek's in person (er...in Dalek?) and they were really impressive!

 

As soon as the "hallucinations" started, I could see where this was going. What was unnerving was seeing the character tell our POV character that it's nothing and certainly not a premonition. Anyone who believes that, well, I've got a bridge on Gallifrey I could sell you...

I do want to know what the full speech was, though. "Almost nothing in the universe can get through a sky trench. Nothing in history has ever gotten through two. Up there, they got 400 of them." Not really scary stuff, unless you count what, at the time, must have seemed to be a serious overreaction to the threat of the Daleks. So why was that speech the thing that scared the new recruits?

Speaking of overreactions, if all it would take would be one Dalek to lay waste to Acadia, why is there a swarm of them? Is this just Time Lord hyperbole to convince new recruits how serious their job is and not to ignore anything? Or, is this a case of the Daleks making a point and showing how they can easily overwhelm the Time Lords? It does make you wonder, if a seemingly unbreachable defense is easily overcome by the Daleks and the Daleks had enough manpower (Dalekpower?) to send that many to take out Arcadia, and the Time Lords had little to nothing in the way of firepower, how did the Time War last so long? Or, is this an example of how out-matched the Time Lord were that they would even consider resurrecting Rassilon? Was it his resurrection that turned the tide and put the Time Lords on equal footing as the Daleks?

I'm trying hard to base my judgment on this minisode on its own merits, since it cannot hold a candle to "The Night of the Doctor," but even if we had gotten this first or "The Night of the Doctor" never existed, this would still have been a weak effort. It really doesn't add anything to our understanding of the Time War, unless you count the Time Lords being complacent and ultimately, having laughable defenses. I wonder if this will have any relevance to "The Day of the Doctor," liek how other minisodes have served as prequels of sorts to certain episodes. I'm thinking of the Doctor destroying the alien ship while calling Amy and Rory in the prequel minisode to "The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe," where that Christmas special picked up immediately after the events of the minisode. Will "The Day of the Doctor," or at least the part focusing on the Time War pick up immediately after Acadia has been laid to waste?

 

Sounds about right to me. When we first saw timelords in The War Games, they seemed like uber-powerful beings who could do things with the power of thought, but by the Tom Baker era they seemed to have stagnated and become reliant on the matrix.

 

I think it was the prospect that they needed so many sky trenches to keep out the Daleks.

That's just Daleks for you. They seem to prefer the more direct approach than rely on their cunning. Which is weird when you consider it's the latter they have the most success with. I suppose being psychotic xenophobes means they "enjoy" personally zapping people.

I think the problem the Time Lords have isn't so much a lack of firepower, but a total lack of military prowess. The closest they had to a military was the chancellery guard... And lets face it, the "I hate guns" Doctor fired more weapons than all of them combined.

Prior to the heating up of the Time War, the Time Lord way of dealing with invaders was to sit smugly behind a forcefield and go about their normal business. When someone got past that they were conquered incredibly easily (see Invasion of Time). I'm also reminded of an audio adventure where the Daleks invade Gallifrey. The Time Lords were totally confident that their eye recognition locked bulkheads would keep the Daleks contained... Until the Daleks started ripping out the eyeballs of dead Time Lords.

So yeah, I'd agree that this is why they resurrected Rassilon, a Time Lord from darker times who actually had experience fighting monsters. Same goes for the Master.

I suspect it'll probably take place during the assault. At least that's the feeling I get from the trailers I've seen, where Daleks are seen moving through Gallifreyan streets.

 

I assume the Daleks bypassed the sky trenches by invading through Belgium.