How Should the Daleks be Depicted?

[TedShatner10]

After RTD played them to death and had one last blast with them in "Journey's End" that was a little too much, how should the Daleks be depicted in the Moffat era? While the Daleks were more menacing in "Journey's End" than in "Evolution", their assembled fleets and armies getting wiped out in one go yet again is starting to get old.

I'd say the Daleks should be depicted as a rolling threat like the Gou'ald Empire was in the first eight years of SG-1 and not have them all get destroyed-resurrected-destroyed-resurrected like in the RTD era.

A 'small scale' Dalek story would be the Doctor and some companions escaping from a planet converted into a Dalek mining and factory world, but it is one Dalek stronghold among hundreds of thousands, and they don't destroy it, just escape.

We could see Dalek superiority demonstrated like the Asgard were, with one small Dalek saucer destroying an entire Sontaran battlegroup with ease and show similar capabilities to the TARDIS (bigger on the inside than on the outside, can travel through the Time Vortex and detonate anti-matter bombs from several millennia away etc).

We could also have an ongoing story of the Daleks attempting to build an improved Reality Bomb as well, but it isn't used to erase the Multiverse, but to rewrite it in their own image.

 

[Nedersong]

They should never be depicted ever again.

Period.

After all they were all wiped out to the last Dalek.

However, we probably will see them again. Maybe a few stragglers will be trying to rebiuild the empire.

 

[Demonland]

Maybe Alternate Reality Daleks that are good or are they

 

[The Nth Doctor]

NO MORE ALTERNATE REALITY!

 

[Candlelight]

Honestly I had wished RTD had a little more of an idea with how to end Journey's End, preferably the red dalek reporting there are a few saucers still not back yet, Davros orders the reality bomb activated but it all goes pear shaped.

The saucers that don't make it back scatter to the distant parts of time and gradually the Doctor will find them.

Maybe the Doctor finds New Skaro... or New New New New New New New New New New New New New Skaro.

 

[Cutter John]

NO MORE ALTERNATE REALITY!

Except of course for hot female alternate reality Doctors.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

NO MORE ALTERNATE REALITY!

Except of course for hot female alternate reality Doctors.

Pft, just bring back Romana.

 

[Thrall]

Maybe Alternate Reality Daleks that are good or are they

Not a bad idea. And have the Time Lords as evil and led by Tom Baker.

 

[Captain Pike]

They should never be depicted ever again.

Period.

After all they were all wiped out to the last Dalek.

However, we probably will see them again. Maybe a few stragglers will be trying to rebiuild the empire.

Like it or not, the Daleks and the Doctor have always had a symbiotic relationship. In it's premiere season (in 1963), the show wasn't a serious hit until the first Dalek story aired. They are one of the better designed monsters - they are clearly not just a man in a rubber suit like so many. But more than that they captured the public imagination at the time in a way that seems difficult to fully fathom now, and because of that they will remain forever a part of the Doctor Who experience. They are as iconic (if not more so) as the TARDIS itself.

I'm all for a year or two off, but if the producers of Doctor Who ever make the decision to axe them completely it would be the worst possible decision they could make.

Period.

 

[Jim Steele]

I'd rather see them axed than overused and de-fanged. Journey's End did a pretty good job of neutering them Voyager style.

Of course, I want them to be used sparingly for maximum effect. Give them 2 years off, and have Moffat the Messiah do something spectacular with them and the end of his third series.

But yeah, Captain Pike is absolutely right. Like it or not, they are an integral part of the show's DNA.

 

[TedShatner10]

I'd rather see them axed than overused and de-fanged. Journey's End did a pretty good job of neutering them Voyager style.

How can a neutered race steal planets from across millions of lightyears and millennia of time and space? With some of the said planets haboring highly dangerous races like us and the Pyroviles. And they were pedantically following Dalek Caan's prophecy, a loon who betrayed them from the start, even if they were holding all the cards until the DoctorDonnor blundered in.

The Daleks have always lost and often stupidly, except in "Genesis of the Daleks".

 

[Jim Steele]

I'd rather see them axed than overused and de-fanged. Journey's End did a pretty good job of neutering them Voyager style.

How can a neutered race steal planets from across millions of lightyears and millennia of time and space? With some of the said planets haboring highly dangerous races like us and the Pyroviles. And they were pedantically following Dalek Caan's prophecy, a loon who betrayed them from the start, even if they were holding all the cards until the DoctorDonnor blundered in.

The Daleks have always lost and often stupidly, except in "Genesis of the Daleks".

Good point, but they wouldn't have been holding all the cards without Davros, bringing them dangerously close to being little more than his pawns. Again.

Also, the final fang-removal came when they were completely fucked over by some bint pressing buttons on a conveniently placed computer terminal, resulting in (among other things) The Companion Squad pushing them around like the real world wooden props they are.

 

[Irvy]

If the Daleks have been done to death then so has all this time travel malarky. No more alternate realities? I suppose you'd want the TARDIS to be retired too and have the doctor travel around in a DeLorean?

 

[Jim Steele]

If the Daleks have been done to death then so has all this time travel malarky. No more alternate realities? I suppose you'd want the TARDIS to be retired too and have the doctor travel around in a DeLorean?

I'm getting so sick of the cylons.

 

[Irvy]

Obviously, I blame the Americans (don't I always?). But never mind, 2010 is nearly here, and the Second American Civil War, and then they'll blow themselves out of significance in 2012. And no, the Doctor won't be popping in to help, it's a fixed point in time.


Ooops, I've said too much....

 

[Winterwind]

I've no doubts the Daleks will be back but I hope it's on a less "epic" scale.

One Dalek, in "Dalek" was menacing. We don't need millions and billions of them. A handful can be just as threatening.

 

[Mr Light]

I love the Daleks in the RTD era, though I did think it lame how the heroes could obliterate their massive space fleet in a single blow twice in a row. They should take a step back for awhile, and when they come back they shouldn't be defeated, merely avoided or delayed, as was done with the Gou'ald for the first years of the show as someone above said.

But man I just love seeing tin cans shouting at each other for no reason

 

[The]

If the Daleks have been done to death then so has all this time travel malarky. No more alternate realities? I suppose you'd want the TARDIS to be retired too and have the doctor travel around in a DeLorean?

If the Daleks have been done to death then so has all this time travel malarky. No more alternate realities? I suppose you'd want the TARDIS to be retired too and have the doctor travel around in a DeLorean?

I'm getting so sick of the cylons.

Obviously, I blame the Americans (don't I always?). But never mind, 2010 is nearly here, and the Second American Civil War, and then they'll blow themselves out of significance in 2012. And no, the Doctor won't be popping in to help, it's a fixed point in time.


Ooops, I've said too much....

I'm not certain I get it. Are you saying that the reason people are tired of the Daleks and alternate realities, is because of the seriousness of Battlestar Galactica? And, BSG is like that, or is desired to be so, because of Americans and/or America? I'm curious to hear this. Elaborate.

 

[Jim Steele]

I can't speak for Irvy, but my (slightly facetious) comment could be expanded to:

"why are people so down on the Daleks appearing once a season when the Cylons have been in every episode of Galactica without so much as an eyelid bat?"

Of course, the answer is because they're totally different shows and while BSG is telling the specific story of the colonial struggle against the machines, Doctor Who has a much wider scope to fill.

I have no idea what inspired Irvy's American tangent, but I suspect it may contain an obscure reference to the internet legend of John Titor.

 

[The]

Yeah, I got the Titor stuff. However, I appreciate your elaboration on the BSG stuff. And, you know, for already writing out my own response to that.

As for Irvy, who knows?