Overexposed Daleks to Take a Break from Doctor Who

[Logan Westbrook]

Overexposed Daleks to Take a Break from Doctor Who

The show's executive producer has decided to give the Daleks some time off after a few too many failures.

You won't be seeing perennial Doctor Who villains the Daleks for a while, as executive producer and head writer Steven Moffat has decided it was time to give the xenophobic killing machines a rest. Terry Nation created the Daleks in 1963, and since then they have appeared in dozens of episodes of the show.

Moffat said that of all show's myriad monsters, the Daleks were the ones who had been beaten the most. He joked that after so many defeats at the hands of the Doctor, the Daleks would just pack up and "trudge away" when they saw the TARDIS appear. "There's a problem with the Daleks," he said. "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."

Rather appropriately, considering that he was talking about one of the scariest villains in the show's history, Moffat also addressed the accusations that the show had become too complicated and frightening since he took over. He said that it was a show that you had to pay attention to, but didn't think it was too complicated for children, which are ostensibly the show's target audience, to follow. He admitted that the show was frightening in parts, but said that it was scary in the way that fairy tales were scary and said that it would never go beyond a certain point, as it had to be a "level of horror that a man with ridiculous hair and a bow tie [could] deal with."

As popular and iconic as the Daleks are, the decision to leave them on the bench doesn't seem like a bad one. Doctor Who is the kind of show where pretty much anything a writer can dream up is fair game, so going back to the same villains over and over again seems like a waste. In the first five seasons of the relaunched show, the Daleks have popped up time and time again with some new scheme to get back to their former glory. That doesn't include their countless appearances in the show before its original run was cancelled in 1989. A new villain, or even the return of a minor one from yesteryear, seems much more appealing right now.

Source: Guardian [http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/may/31/doctor-who-daleks-to-get-a-rest]






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[Varya]

Seems like a good idea. Hopefully then when the DO return, the fans will have had time to miss them and we will welcome them back with open arms

 

[Anachronism]

He joked that after so many defeats at the hands of the Doctor, the Daleks would just pack up and "trudge away" when they saw the TARDIS appear.

Thank the Maker that the writers are aware of the problem. I'll be very glad to see them gone for a while. Especially those stupid bloody technicolor Daleks. I mean seriously, what the hell? There is no reason for their existence other than their increased ability to sell toys when compared to gunmetal Daleks.

To sum up my comments in another thread on this matter: (EFF!)ING YES! For my more detailed opinion, see here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.288125-Daleks-retired#11399009].

 

[A Pious Cultist]

Daleks: Defeated forever in the time war... then retconned back to life... then erased not only from time and space but from all possible times and spaces... retconned back to life... remaining daleks sucked into void for all eternity... retconned back to life.

About fucking time they gave up.

 

[maantren]

I thought Russell Davies and Steven Moffat were a great counterpoint to one another: you got big, fantastical optimism wrapped up with scary fairy tales. Now that Moffat's piloting Dr Who alone, I wonder if his tendency towards cleverness is being allowed to run a bit too free.

Cheers

Colin

 

[The Bucket]

Maybe i'm wrong, but I thought there was some clause that if the Daleks don't appear in a season the BBC loses the rights to them or something?

But anyway, this is great. Not that I don't like the Daleks, but it'll be all the more kickass when they return.

 

[Captain Pirate]

Good, I was thinking along similiar lines myself recently.
I was a fan of them when there was just the 'last one' in the time of the 9th Doctor, and then when they came back I instantly knew they'd be defeated. That's just a given with them. I was only, what, fucking 9-10 years old, and I clicked in a heartbeat, as did all my friends who watched the two-parter, that they'd do some crazy shit, but it would all be fine in the end.

On top of that, [begin rant] I always saw them as outdated. It always seemed, to me at least, that the BBC had tried desperately to modernise them, and it just never really worked for me. I don't think they were ever designed to be timeless, just something to be iconic of a period, and not re-done over and over.
Them and the Cybermen just don't fit, in my opinion, in the new Doctor Who starting from Eccleston's run.

They have this weird thing about them; you can count on them to be unpredictably predictable. In that, I mean you never know what they'll do, but you can guess fairly well that it'll be along the lines of some interplanetary, all-over-time superplan, that will have some equally over-the-top solution that will be realised by the Doctor or his companions at the last minute.
With every other new villain in the most recent series, and in 9 and 10's series', I've always been wondering 'How the fuck will he get out of this one?', but the Daleks and Cybermen just don't give off that feeling. Daleks haven't since it was that 'last one in existence', and the Cybers never have. [/end rant]

 

[TimeLord]

Good things. I'm enjoying the new enemies like the Silence and Weeping Angels.

Although I want to see more Sontarans!

Edit: Where are the obvious puns?

"Daleks Exterminated from Doctor Who" was the article title in the Daily Express.

 

[Moriarty70]

I still don't see why they can't do a story where the Daleks win for once. Not kill the Doctor or anything like that, but accomplish their goals and cause some real devistation while the Doctor fails to stop them.

 

[Nerf Ninja]

More likely the overwhelming negative response to the technicolour Daleks made them have a rethink.

There's no way they went to all the expense of remaking them for a single episode, especially considering the fact that Doctor Who continuously gets their budget decreased.

 

[Blind Sight]

Fingers crossed for the return of the Master...I thought The End of Time messed up his character a lot, very disappointing considering how well John Simm plays him. Plus his back-and-forths with David Tennant were brilliant, I'd love to see how Matt Smith's Doctor would handle it.

I'm glad they're ditching the Daleks for a bit, they seemed to lose their ability to be threatening villains after the Manhattan episode. Plus I really like the new enemies Moffat is making, the Silence was the best mix of threatening and alien.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Let's face it the iDaleks from the last series fucked em up good and proper!

 

[luvd1]

Never understood people's reaction to the multi coloured daleks. It's only recently thing them being mono coloured. The daleks were always colourful before.

 

[KarmicToast]

I mean, the Daleks just don't work well. The Doctor is always coming up with some goofy reason for them not to just one-hit-kill his ass with their standard one-hit-kill laser. It's completely incredulous at this point. Daleks: shoot to kill no matter what when you see the Doctor. Case-closed. That's why they don't work narratively.

 

[scw55]

The Silence and the Angels as a grown mad are the only doctor who monsters who have given me nightmares =)

I don't like the critism that the new Dr Who is too scary. The darleks used to electrocute people with lazers and people kept having horrific deaths. They made monsters out of the mundane (like the autons).
A fair critism is that it may be "too saucy" for young viewers. But then again, that sort of implied thing goes over the heads of kids.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

You know, in the original Doctor Who, aside from the really early seasons, you could go for five years without bumping into a Dalek episode. They were this rare treat you got once in a blue moon.

As much as I love all the great Dalek episodes in the new series, there are now more new Dalek episodes than old ones (at least that haven't been destroyed by the BBC archives dept). That means that the Daleks have shown up more in the past 5 years than they did in the 25 years before that. That's... overkill. No pun intended.

So I'm glad the Daleks are going to be sitting out a season or two. It will make them that much more awesome when they do return.

 

[TimeLord]

You know, in the original Doctor Who, aside from the really early seasons, you could go for five years without bumping into a Dalek episode. They were this rare treat you got once in a blue moon.

As much as I love all the great Dalek episodes in the new series, there are now more new Dalek episodes than old ones (at least that haven't been destroyed by the BBC archives dept). That means that the Daleks have shown up more in the past 5 years than they did in the 25 years before that. That's... overkill. No pun intended.

So I'm glad the Daleks are going to be sitting out a season or two. It will make them that much more awesome when they do return.

Just so you know, the new series Daleks have appeared in 13 separate episodes (12 if you take out the Waters of Mars), but have appeared in 17 separate stories in the old series.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

blame RTD

One of the worst TV writers I can think of.

 

[Professor Cubbage]

If only the "last" Dalek in the first new season really was the fucking last one. I really hate it how they were there in 4 out of 5 season finales. The season 3 finale was the best simply because the writers finally thought of something else to do.

I also think that the Time War should have really been the end of the Daleks. The idea of the Doctor sacrificing all the Time Lords in order to stop the Daleks loses impact when you see millions of them in every season finale.

 

[TimeLord]

If only the "last" Dalek in the first new season really was the fucking last one. I really hate it how they were there in 4 out of 5 season finales. The season 3 finale was the best simply because the writers finally thought of something else to do.

I also think that the Time War should have really been the end of the Daleks. The idea of the Doctor sacrificing all the Time Lords in order to stop the Daleks loses impact when you see millions of them in every season finale.

It's more a play on the Doctor's conscience and guilt that he sacrificed his entire race to stop them and he didn't have to. Eccleston's Doctor says as much in 'The Parting of the Ways'