For me personally, every story featuring the Daleks has been woeful since the parting of the ways.
The episodes with davros however were good, if you ignore some dodgy script.

Why is he so underused ?
Though I would hate to see him return for a mere 45 minute episode. Mainly as I really don't like the 1 episode story format.
The last series showed how it just doesn't work.

http://www.doctorwho.tv/50-years/monsters/davros

To be fair, his appearances in the classic series weren't exactly common until JNT's time. And even then, Daleks had been relegated to one story per Doctor.

IIRC, he was only in 1975, 1979, 1984, 1985 and 1988.

So, I think a return could be awesome!


Personally, i thought it worked well. #SueMe

Yes we will. When and quite exactly how I can't say, but it's inevitable that at some point Davros will return. *Hopefully* Twelve will get to face off against him, I'd imagine Capaldi would do a great job with that.

Well until 2005 every Dalek story from 1975 had included Davros, and while I think he's ace I would hardly have called him underused!

I think a conscious decision was made to make the Daleks scary in their own right, and then reintroduce Davros as and when.

Also, he was an integral part of the classic Who Dalek stories to explain the civil war amongst the Daleks, but in the new series he hasn't been needed, cool as he is. It did get a bit repetitive in the old days, him turning up all the time. Personally I don't think he was needed in Remembrance.

RTD also made the point that he didn't want to undermine the Daleks when reintroducing Davros. There's an interesting article about it in issue #2 of the figurine collection. He didn't want the daleks reduced to doing Davros' work when they're fierce enemies in their own right and he was concerned that it may weaken them if Davros came in and took control. Thus the decision was made that Davros would be the Daleks 'pet,' ie, the Daleks acknowledged his importance but he was not their leader. As stated in the article, Davros shot himself in the foot when creating the Daleks. He wants to be their master, their leader, but he's programmed them in such a way that they accept only Daleks as acceptable lifeforms, thus, they hate even their own creator.

Yup, RTD judged it right. A whole generation had no idea about Daleks and what made them scary - two really, because my first story was Genesis, I never knew the Daleks without Davros. So when Dalek came along in 2005 it was brilliant.

I was interested to note that they still made a massive impact on the new generation - you're never sure, and it just proves what a classically designed monster they are.

He is needed to give narrative

dont get me started on this, i have a real bee in my bonnet

we have a great doctor and companion (in my opinion), yet we were served up lacklustre, rushed crap for series 7b (again, in my opinion)

the only episode i enjoyed and would definitely watch again and again was the finale. it was as if they couldnt be bothered to write anything decent and just save it all for that one episode.
the cybermen story especially was just horrendous. oh how my heart bled.

One day, Davros shall come back. Yes, he shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to him that he is not mistaken in his.

I'm not much of a Davros fan for the same reason I'm not much of a Master plan — the arch-nemesis stuff is trite. Though Gatiss' typically awful take on the Daleks without Davros managed to be the episode with the most cringeworthy dialogue in that regard ("You! Are! My! Enemy! And I am yours! You are everything I despise! The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you. Time and time again, I've defeated you. I sent you back into the void! I saved the whole of reality from you! I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!"), so an occasional return wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.


My opinion is closer to this than the opposite. But only a little.

I think Davros was a superb creation, but I think it was a mistake after Genesis for him to appear in every Dalek story. I was glad that in the new era they felt able to Dalek stories without him. I don't feel we should never see him again, but I think he should be used very sparingly.

In the 80s all he did was rant directly towards the camera, usually completely to himself.

He became a large ham that the writers didn't know what to do with but thought if they wanted to use the Daleks they HAD to use Davros.

His fleeting appearance in series 4 was good, he seemed to really see into The Doctors way of life and realised that was the way to truly defeat him, not bombard him with weapons but try to show him the error of his ways and how many people HE himself had caused harm to.

But you can't just bring back Davros for the sake of it.
You have to sound out what his motivation is, what is the Dalek's motivation for tolerating him, why is this important, story wise.

To have Davros sitting there waving being there for the sake of it isn't really what Who is about.....you might get away with it in some celebratory kind of anniversary episode, but I don't know if we have any of them on the agenda so maybe he'll be resting in Silicon Hell with the other unused bad guys.

Yes he will appear again,the doctor will think,'hey i can go back in time when davros was a nice young man and exterminate him and there will be no time war and the time lords will be alive '

I was really hoping Davros would appear during Eleven's run. He, along with the Daleks, Master and Cybermen, is something that each Doctor should get a chance to fight. Hope he's in "The Day of the Doctor."

As for he is alive or not?

"Fools! You cannot kill me! I AM DAVROS!!!"

I hope he is in The Day of the Doctor. That would be awesome.

I am really hoping the Daleks are the main villain in The Day Of The Doctor, Matt hasn't had a massive Dalek episode yet

The Stolen Earth was brilliant, and the fleeting appearances from Davros were ominous but perfectly pitched.

Journeys End was a far weaker episode overall, but one of it's biggest strengths was Davros. It was an interesting and different slant for the main antagonist of the series - I was impressed how it was the creator of the Daleks, rather than The Master that seemed to figure The Doctor out, and really make a valid point about how he fashions his companions into weapons.

Davros' reality bomb plan might have failed, but I like to think to some extent that Davros got his "final victory" against The Doctor. After all to stop Davros' Empire, The Doctor lost Donna and everyone else he held dear. He travelled alone, refusing to take anyone with him, and spiralled out of control a little which indirectly led to the events of his regeneration. Since then, Eleven has always had a self-hating quality about him lying just underneath the surface... I like to think that Davros has been the most influential villain from Doctor Who since its return. And one day, I do imagine Davros will come back - I'd rather him than The Master any way

What about Asylum of the Daleks? And Victory of the Daleks? They might not have been great*, but to dismiss them is a bit remiss! They both had important Dalek aspects in them - VotD was the New Paradigm (love them or hate them, the new design was a big thing), and AotD was about the new heirarchical set up - a politica beast behind the Daleks (plus it wiped the Doctor fromtheir memories, and showed us a more human Dalek, and what their nanobots can do).

*YMMV - personally, I thoroughly enjoyed them both!

When Davros does come back, I'd prefer to see him in a different light. Perhaps minus the Daleks?

Now THERE'S an idea!! Davros without the Daleks! What would he do as an arch villain!!!

I think I enjoy Davros as the Doctor's foe more than the Master. I like the contrast between the two...one is a time traveler, the other is most certainly not. I believe it was Big Finish's "Davros" that really sold me on the contrast, how the Doctor can just go wherever he wants but Davros has to take "the long way" and live every second of it. Both are geniuses, inventors even. But what each comes up with is very different.

I thought his use in The Stolen Earth/Journey's end was total rubbish and a waste...Julian Bleach did a great job despite that. Pity they didn't hire someone from Big Finish to give him some better lines.

Still..for as much as I despise SE/JE, there was a sick logic to it. The Daleks wanted to nuke all realities so there would just be them alone...the corrupted Time Lords wanted to end time itself. There's a reason why the Doctor locked them all away. (But you won't see me popping in SE/JE anytime soon..I'd wather watch the End of Time, but only just.)

Please don't get me wrong, Asylum Of The Daleks is one if my favourite episodes and I don't hate Victory. I just feel that, even though I don't think they're superb or anything, the previous Dalek stories felt different, like they were on a bigger scale. Dalek doesn't count because is only features one, I like Parting Of The Ways, I don't like Doomsday much, Manhattan/Evolution are alright, Stolen Earth/Journey's End are fun but I just don't think they're that good. HOWEVER, I do feel like they're bigger, the Daleks seem a bigger threat and they're involved more.

I don't feel like I'm making sense so I'm sorry if my point doesn't come across clearly.

Davros with his own army of foot soldiers that aren't Daleks maybe?

I think the problem with that is that somebody's going to say "Davros in charge of... the cybermen!" and we'll get a tedious fan piece. Even if it was just because the cybermen costumes were already made.

I agree, I think he'd aim for the prefect being once again, better than the Daleks. Genetically engineered, of course, but they'd have to be master survivors, imaginatively aggressive, ruthless in their need to get what they want and have a propensity towards social hierarchies and worship (of Davros, in his mind).

Like, ooh, I don't know - humans?

I think I get what you mean. But I also think it's definitely one of those subjective views... I don't necessarily agree with you on it, either!