Dr Who, Daleks Kiss And Make Up

Dynamoo writes "The BBC is reporting that the creators of the new series of Doctor Who due next year have reached an agreement with the estate of the late Terry Nation to include the Daleks in the new series. This means that I'll definitely be watching.. although whether from behind the sofa or not remains to be seen." We previously reported on the apparent exterminate-ion of the lovable pepperpots from this new version.

Comments

Yeah but...

[Chordonblue]

I'm still going to miss Tom Baker... Best scarves on T.V... ;)

So really, why do we need, *need* them?

[gordgekko]

I loved the good Doctor as much as any other geek but do we absolutely have to have Daleks in the next series? Some of the best episodes ever -- like Pyramids of Mars -- had no Daleks.

Rather than take the series in an interesting and new direction, we're essentially getting the same series but with better F/X. Why not just have The Master and the Daleks in every episode?

Don't get me wrong, I love the Daleks but it was the occasionally very superb writing that got me, not any specific villians.

Better F/X? But wouldn't that ...

[antispam_ben]

Rather than take the series in an interesting and new direction, we're essentially getting the same series but with better F/X.

But wouldn't that ruin it? I'm not a True Fan, but I thought "camp" was an integral part of the show.

Re:Better F/X? But wouldn't that ...

[BoneFlower]

Better effects would be good up to a point. Perhaps improve the effects to the level of the original Star Trek series or even Battlestar Galactica. Effects would still have a primitive feel, but not be totally backwards which would kill a large part of the potential new fanbase that *didn't* fall in love with the old show.

As long as they don't bring them to the level of the later Star Trek series or Stargate SG-1... I'll be happy with it.

Re:Better F/X? But wouldn't that ...

[Wildfire Darkstar]

By and large, the original series was not especially lacking in the FX department. It was generally on par with any science fiction show during its time, really. The show only managed to gain a reputation for being done "on the cheap" because of two basic reasons. First of which was that what was probably the single most famous season of the show (season 17, the season where Douglas Adams served as script editor) did have the tendency of being cheaper-looking than was probably healthy. This is also just about the only season that qualifies as being truly campy (thanks, in part, to the Adams connection). There were other moments, here and there, but, even at its worst, it's not "Rocky Horror," and by and large the camp value is overstated.

The other reason is that there was a bit of a delayed reaction at work in the way the show was recieved in North America. The earliest years of the show, from the early-to-mid 1960s, didn't reach the United States until the late 1970s at the earliest. Taken in the correct context, it's not bad. Certainly, it wouldn't be winning awards, but it's more than passable. By the standards of the late 1970s? Yes, it looks weak. But the show itself had long since moved beyond that, anyway.

Don't get me wrong: it's not overwhelming, and the strength of the series really never has lied with the special effects. But it's not the sub-"Plan 9 from Outer Space" mess that its reputation would lead one to believe. It holds its own fairly admirably with its contemporaries, keeping in mind that the series was ending just about the time when "Star Trek: the Next Generation" was beginning. And the first two seasons or so of that show look rather cheap, too.

The other thing is, it's was a very long-lived program, which had many different show-runners at various points in its history. Different producers/editors brought very different sensibilities into play. Depending on what time period and what producer you look at, you could easily come away believing the show was predominantly campy space opera, spy thriller, hard-edged military sci-fi, magical realist period drama, or hard science fiction, straight up. Which is, after all, part of the charm of the premise, and part of the reason why the show lasted twenty six seasons to begin with. Not to mention why it, as much, if not more, than Star Trek did, managed to persevere so long after its cancellation....

Why would you WANT to bring the Daleks back?

[sunspot42]

There hasn't been a good Dalek story since the mid-'60s. Pertwee's encounters with the Daleks were hardly the highlight of his career as the Doctor in the late '60s and early '70s. During his 7-season run as the Doctor Tom Baker had one mediocre, overlong Dalek serial (1975's "Genesis of the Daleks", redeemed only by Michael Wisher's fantastic performance as the Dalek's crazed creator, Davros), and one truly awful Dalek 4-parter, "Destiny of the Daleks" in 1979. Peter Davison's Doctor encountered the portly pepperpots half a decade later in 1984's lamentable "Resurrection of the Daleks". Colin Baker's Doctor runs into the Daleks the next year in the silly "Revelation of the Daleks". I've never seen Sylvester McCoy's Doctor's 1988 Dalek serial "Remembrance of the Daleks", but the general consensus seems to regard it as no better than "Genesis of the Daleks" at best.

The Daleks were an idea that ran out of gas after the initial Dalek craze of the early '60s ran its course in the UK. Since then, a Dalek serial has been a guaranteed bad time. They're more a curse to Doctor Who than a blessing, and the real challenge for any new Who series would be trying to reinvent them into something truly chilling and remotely plausible to a contemporary audience. It's possible I suppose, but Who's past producers tried and failed for almost 20 years to produce a Dalek serial as engaging to modern audiences as original Dalek adventures like "Dalek Invasion Earth" were to audiences in the early '60s. I think they'd be better off ignoring the Daleks - and particularly the Davros character, who has been unnecessarily and ludicrously dredged into every Dalek adventure since 1975's "Genesis" - and concentrating on creating compelling new enemies for the Doctor to fight.

And if they must revisit the past, they'd be far better off reimaging more plausible Who adversaries, like the Sontarans (reptilian clone warriors) and the Cybermen (televised sci-fi's original Borg).

Re:Why would you WANT to bring the Daleks back?

[kamawell]

"Genesis of the Daleks" is a classic and infinitely better than "Remembrance..." but I guess it's just a matter of taste. I'd have to disagree that the Sontarans or the Cybermen are more plausable enemies - the first a race devoted to war but unable to do anything about that little vent on the back of the neck and the second vulnerable to any opponent that can rustle up some gold and a cheesegrater.

Dalek = Nazi !

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, in case anyone was wondering...the Daleks were modelled after the Nazis, kinda like Godzilla was the personification of nuclear danger for the post-nagasaki japanese.

Anyway, as memories of WW2 were still "fresh" with the poms the daleks really struck a chord in 1960'2 viewers I expect. Anyway, for the terminally stupid, here goes:

Daleks are the master race
Inferior races must be subjugated or EX-TER-MINAT-ED....
They have the out-thrust right arm (think Nazi salute)
It's a funny ol' world huh ?

Re:Nitpicking for the Brits...

[Tom Veil]

The story should read "The BBC are..."

BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation

"The British Broadcasting Corporation are"?

I'm pretty sure the original wording were correct. ;-)

Re:News ?

[Wildfire Darkstar]

Considering the amount of money/publicity the BBC is dumping into this project? It's potentially one of the biggest things BBC TV has done in years, and I would argue it matters as much as any entertainment news does to a site like Slashdot.

Although, to be fair, it certainly is also "stuff by/for nerds"....

Re:Terry Nation probably thought....

[jeremyp]

Except, being British, he'd have thought "rubbish bin" not "garbage can". :-)

A friend of mine had a theory that the whole upside down rubbish bin/garbage can thing was crucial to the popularity(?!) of the daleks. Any kid could put a bin on their head and *be* a dalek.