The Daleks As A Threat
rhynoGB
Posts: 4,278 Forum Member
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The Daleks in the classic series were always scary and always seemed a genuine threat to the Doctor and those around him.
Since the series came back in 2005, they seem to have lost their edge. They always seem to just pop up in episodes, then vanish at the end without much of a lasting impression.
In my opinion they need to kill the doctor to get their mojo back. I love the Daleks as much as everyone else but for me they don't have the fear factor they once had.
Have they lost their edge?
Since the series came back in 2005, they seem to have lost their edge. They always seem to just pop up in episodes, then vanish at the end without much of a lasting impression.
In my opinion they need to kill the doctor to get their mojo back. I love the Daleks as much as everyone else but for me they don't have the fear factor they once had.
Have they lost their edge?
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The writing and direction is the problem, absolutely no sense of tension or peril, very disapointing.
That's what I was trying to say. They don't seem to be able to come up with anything that would put people in genuine peril.
I know they can't kill the Doctor or Clara, but killing nobodies doesn't make them scary or a threat.
If two Daleks silently sneaked up on you from both sides, like Velociraptors, that would be pretty frightening.
Not likely to happen, though. We know the Daleks like their catchphase!
What made them good.
The Parting of the Ways worked well in that same manner. Same encroaching threat, just more of theme. It helps that people react to them in such a horrified way as well. The Doctor was terrified of just one. The people in the basement
Then the Cult of Skaro came along, with the twist that they were Dalek deviants, open to new ideas and concepts. Meeting the Cyber-men was interesting enough for Doomsday, and I actually really liked Evolution of the Daleks, even if the human Dalek design was iffy.
Journey's End made the Dalek's effective with a world wide invasion. And again, its how people react to them that make them menacing. Pulling people out of their homes, and burning down that families house. It did a good job of making them look ruthless.
Victory of the Daleks was interesting if only for offering people tea. Wouldn't have minded more of that. It was just a bit weighed down by the flimsy testament plot, the controversial NPD designs, and talking a bomb out of exploding.
Where they got iffy.
Then Asylum of the Daleks came along. It introduced some interesting ideas, like the Dalek puppets, establishing the NPD as officer class Daleks and the Dalek parliament. Oswin's reveal was effective too.
It's big problem was that it promised a planet of insane Daleks, that even the parliament feared. But no-one seems remotely scared, and the Daleks are just old and rusty, if anything, less threatening that usual.
The story was more concerned with the threat of Amy and Rory becoming Daleks.
Then again, they continued to make incidental appearances, showing up in Day of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor not to be threatening, but to make the Doctor look cool when he killed them.
Into the Dalek
As long as Daleks aren't just a gimmick, they can be effective. An interesting story premise, a threatening presence or a compelling chemistry between them and the Doctor can make their stories really fun to watch.
Even evolution was ok.
But I know what you mean there seems very little genuine scared. But at least into the Dalek seemed very similar to Dalek in that they were going through the ship saying exterminate everyone. No prisoners etc etc.
ie. Time of the Doctor and to a slightly lesser extent, Day of the Doctor.
I'm not sure the stone Dalek in The Big Bang was totally necessary either.
Of course, it is important to keep the most iconic enemies of Doctor Who, but maybe it would be better to make them sth like supporting characters (like in Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang). Instead of craeting stories focused on Daleks.
I don't think that they are effective even in Dalek stories. I think the only way we could keep them is to include them in non Dalek stories as supporting characters.
The problem with the Daleks being less scary these days is their over use, by over using them, we have seen the Doctor defeat them quite a few times.
Really? I thought they were a bit wank from Destiny onward (and some of the older ones I've seen on DVD).
They used to wobble terribly when they used to trundle around on location. They were voiced by the guy who did Zippy so whenever they spoke all I heard was Zippy being really angry.
The operators inside seemed to be under the impression that just because they had appendages they all had to be in motion all the time.
Based on that I'm surprised they could look to aim with the eyestalk being whipped left and right, and up and down. Not to mention being amazed they could actually hit anything with their guns constantly waving about.. It was like the Daleks all had Parkinsons.
I'm sorry, but the old Daleks were terribly brought to life. They were a bit shit.
The rumour is that they have to appear in every series.
It's never been stated officially that this is the case but going back to 2006 people have been saying and repeating it and many now think of it as Fact.
The Fact that the Daleks cameoed in Waters of Mars and The Wedding of River Song meaning that they have appeared every year does lead some weight to the rumour.
That's what makes me believe the rumours to be true, ideally for the Daleks to be considered evil and formidable opponents, they need to be shelved for a while and come back with a bang.
EDIT - double post:(
Then as they work this out they communicate the fact their speech lights are giving their positions away and making them vulnerable they're continually destroyed until the one remaining Dalek learns how to shut up and fire for a change
Still, I've never really seen The Daleks as a big, scary threat. I do think the (2005+ era obv) Daleks are cool as hell and think they're fascinating to watch when they're on screen.
I wish we could see a lot more of them tbh, hoping they'll still turn up in the finale this year, though not exactly too hopeful on that one.
Also the Daleks have properly exterminated The Doctor twice since the return of the series. Sadly both Daleks in question didn't live long to tell the tale.
Pretty effective threat tbh, more than they managed in 30+ years of original series Daleks anyway
The second part of your username is a bit misleading.
I assume you haven't seen Daleks Masterplan.
Unless recovered we will never see it.
Did listen to the audio tapes though. Perhaps one of the best Dalek stories they did along with Evil.
And they were terribly hammy, darling.
And they looked down the lens a lot too, totally breaking the 4th wall.
Anddddd....they didn't do stairs.
Grrrr >:(
Research!