Moffat: No daleks this series

[randomgirl666.livejournal.com]

Doctor Who's Daleks to "get a rest"

What do we think?

Comments

[loolaa.livejournal.com]

I'm actually kind of glad. I do love the Daleks and obviously I want to see them again. But because they're such special villains I think they need a special storyline and I don't think they've been getting them.
They're not scary. Yeah, the concept of them and their ultimate goal is scary, but it just isn't coming across any more. And I find that very disappointing. They've got so much potential but it's not happening. I actually find the cybermen/stone angels/silence scarier.
I want Moffatt to do a really impressive and terrifying Dalek story. I KNOW he can do it.

[rabiya-al-basri.livejournal.com]

Agreed on all counts.

[goldvermilion87.livejournal.com]

I think it's perfectly sensible. Daleks show up and you know they're going to talk big and EXTERMINATE and the Doctor is going to defeat them. You could argue that's what always happens... but at least there is variety if it's not all Daleks.

The biggest thing for me, though, is that the Daleks are hilariously funny. Their voices, the way they look, their attitude. They are really quite funny. (Cybermen, on the other hand, are really frightening, because of the whole part-human thing.) This series is getting quite serious, and I'm happy not to have them.

Finally, I was told by an old Who fan that this is not unprecendented. They've just been used a lot in the past five years.

[hilandmum.livejournal.com]

I was just telling Shelly that my husband, who isn't a DW fan like me or my kids, told me today that he'd heard that the Daleks were being 'laid off'. I guess the news has hit the general press.

Mum

[rabiya-al-basri.livejournal.com]

OMG YAY. I love the Daleks, but they were SOOOO overused under RTD, especially with the "destroyed forever" "they're baaaaaccckkkkk....destroyed forever....they're baaaccckkk...."--lost all credibility in, like, the 2nd season. (Also that 3rd season 2-parter about the human hybrid? SRSLY WTF WAS THAT.)

[rabiya-al-basri.livejournal.com]

ah hell, even last season they were still overused.

[mmgage.livejournal.com]

I'm fine with no Daleks. They've been around a LOT for the past several years and especially too involved in dramatic series finales. I was glad to see them used less last series and won't miss them this time.
This is history repeating itself, which I'm sure the Doctor would find amusing. The Daleks were heavily used for the first four series of Classic Who and then they were given a rest for a few years then as well.
It's a good call - let 'em freshen up a bit (I'm sure the new paint jobs are getting scratched as they rebuild their empire) and let them come back badder than before.

[randomgirl666.livejournal.com]

I think it's a good idea too. As a new series fan, I didn't really "get" the daleks until I went back to the classic series and watched "Genesis of the Daleks." Back then, they were creepy and genuinely threatening - particularly because the parallel with the Nazis was so obvious. In the new series, they've mostly been used to add dramatic weight to the end of the series finales or to explore ideas about humanity. That's understandable, but we've gotten away from what really makes them frightening. For me, the lone, decaying dalek in "The Big Bang" was far creepier than the legions of daleks we saw in "Journey's End." This is one thing a lot of people don't seem to understand - one lone dalek, wounded and cornered, can be far more effective than a whole shiny army of them. Less is more with these big iconic villains (I feel the same way about the cyberman in "The Pandorica Opens" incidentally).

I also feel it would be okay to occasionally have a story where the daleks actually win. I don't need them to destroy the universe or whatever, but if the Doctor always triumphs over them, were's the threat?

Hopefully once they've been rested, everyone will have had time to get over the new design (I don't love it, but it wouldn't prevent me from enjoying a good dalek story) and we'll be able to get back to what the daleks are actually all about.

[mmgage.livejournal.com]

"I also feel it would be okay to occasionally have a story where the daleks actually win. I don't need them to destroy the universe or whatever, but if the Doctor always triumps over them, were's the threat?"

That is the one thing I liked about "Victory of the Daleks" last series. It's still my least fave ep of series 5 but at least this time the Daleks got away clean. They won't return due to a flukey escape.