"Resting" the Daleks

[Allyn Gibson]

According to a new interview with Moffat for Radio Times, we've seen the last of the Daleks "for a while."

Thoughts?

Personally, I'm more than happy with this. Bring them back when there's something new to do with them.

 

[Worf2DS9]

Daleks to be given a rest

Source: Daleks to be given a rest

The Daleks are to be given "a rest" from battling Doctor Who, writer Steven Moffat has told the Radio Times.

Moffat, who is also the BBC television show's executive producer, said: "They aren't going to make an appearance for a while. We thought it was about time to give them a rest."

The Daleks were voted the scariest villains in the history of Doctor Who in a poll of fans in 2007.

Moffat said they had been defeated by the Doctor "about 400 times".

Created by Terry Nation, the Daleks are the Doctor's hugely popular enemies who have made regular appearances in the long-running science fiction show since first appearing in 1963.

Moffat said: "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."

Recent episodes of the show, which stars Matt Smith as the timelord, have been criticised for being "too scary for children".

But Moffat said: "It is horror, but horror for children. It's scary in the way that a fairy story can be scary."

 

[Worf2DS9]

^ Arrgh, you must have posted your thread while I was doing mine.

 

[Worf2DS9]

Re: Daleks to be given a rest

Mods, you can delete this one, as another thread was created almost simultaneously.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'm happy with them being put to rest for now. At least until The Moff can come up with a really bad ass story with them I see no reason to use them.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Re: Daleks to be given a rest

Or merge them. Merging is cool.

 

[Saul]

I don't think they'll be away for too long. A year maybe. What's the point of spending money on redesigning them unless you're gonna use them.

 

[Worf2DS9]

^ Maybe by then they'll have had some work done and gotten rid of that silly hump.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I do like what Moffat said about them being constantly defeated by the Doctor each time they encounter them. Even a Time War that destroyed both species home planets couldn't keep them away. Using them for the sake of using them is becoming redundant. I wouldn't mind if we didn't see them for one or two series, perhaps longer.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Excellent news. They definitely need a break and Moffat is absolutely right about them being the most reliably defeated (and therefore not nearly as interesting, but that's my own supposition).

 

[David cgc]

That's a little odd. Didn't Moffat say in an interview last year that they were caving to fan pressure, and using the redesigned Daleks just as the leadership, but that the proletariat Daleks would have the RTD casings again?

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

Appearing once a season is too frequent -- unless they have a really clever idea for the Daleks that advances them as a species/concept and not just another big Dalek fight.

Good Dalek Episodes of Nu-Who: Dalek, Daleks in Manhatten, 11's Dalek story

Bad Dalek Episodes: Parting of the Ways, Doomsday, Journey's End

"Dalek" made one single Dalek scary -- something the Bad Dalek episodes couldn't do with billions of Daleks. (Doomsday was a pretty good episode but it could have been any two alein species fighting each other -- the heart was on losing Rose.) Daleks in Manhatten had a special Dalek who was created to consider new ways for them to adapt and survive -- and he decided they needed to be a little more human. 11's Dalek story had the Daleks at least make an attempt at trickery. The other ones' plots can just be summed up as "OMG there's like a gazillion Daleks! What is the Doctor going to do?" HINT: He's going to find a Deus-Ex Machina to beat them because he can't beat a gazillion Daleks on his own. I guess maybe Journey's End has some extra points going for it because it manages to be a cross-over special for all of the Nu-Who spin-offs, but it was the third Dalek invasion in four years.

I guess that what I'm getting at that Dalek stories are engaging. If they're completly mindless and bent on destruction then that's not enough to really cut it any more; it's been done. You have to think of new things to do with the Daleks ands ways to paint them as mindlessly bent on destruction in an intellignet way. (Like the Dalek in Dalek -- it stops to consider the most efficient way to kill the humans and takes out a room's worth of soldiers in one manuever instead of blasting wildly.) I'll concede that I realize writing for Daleks is hard in that so much has been done already but it's not impossible. Someone once called them "Angry Little Tanks", or something to that effect.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Moffat did say that there were plans to use the RTD Era Daleks again but didn't say when that would be.

 

[PorthosShadow]

It's kind of funny that he wipes out RTD's Daleks, creates his own, uses them one more time and now that might be it for a while. I think it's good and if for no other reason than without The Daleks we'll get more original adversaries for The Doctor.

 

[23skidoo]

I've got no problem with resting the Daleks. I think they're great, and they're classic monsters, but I do agree they were being used a bit too much, and Moffat, wisely, has noticed that familiarity was breeding contempt. In the original series the Daleks were rested for 5 or 6 years at one point - Tom Baker only met them twice in his 7 years. The Cybermen disappeared from 1968 to 1975 and then disappeared for about 8 years after that. So this would be nothing new. And it would open the door for maybe the return of, say, the Draconians and the Ice Warriors, or any number of returning monsters if they want to mine the history of the show.

Alex

 

[O'Dib]

It's been said around these boards that BBC must use them every year so as not to have the rights revert to whoever invented them?

 

[StCoop]

It's been said around these boards that BBC must use them every year so as not to have the rights revert to whoever invented them?

Many things are said on the Interent that aren't true. (People like to talk about Matt Smith having a cast-iron three-year Contract with an Option for two further years too.)

And is there anyone who thinks that if the Fatleks had been a big hit we wouldn't have been seeing them again soon as opposed to keeping off screen long enough to bring back a more traditional design without any fuss?

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Fatleks? I've not heard that before lol. I prefer calling them Power Ranger Daleks. The Matt Smith three year contract thing does seem like an internet urban myth.

 

[JoeZhang]

It's been said around these boards that BBC must use them every year so as not to have the rights revert to whoever invented them?

There is a long complex answer to that, the short answer is that it's bunk.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I love the Daleks, be they grey, gold or multicolored, and i love size and look of the new ones......but for me personally i cant get enough of them....so if this is true i will miss them.