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Daleks Return to Dr Who
Jim Hall writes "An article on the BBC says that a Dalek will return to Dr Who, in an episode titled simply 'Dalek'. The Doctor discovers that a Dalek has been collected by an unsuspecting billionaire. Many of the perceived weaknesses of the Daleks have been addressed: Stairs have not been a problem for Daleks since 1988, when they first levitated towards Sylvester McCoy in Remembrance of the Daleks. The new Dalek can also spin its torso independently of his head, so creeping up from behind is no longer an option. Its trademark 'sink plunger' attachment also reveals a terrifying new function. 'Dalek' is on BBC-1 on Saturday, 30 April."
> Its trademark 'sink plunger' attachment also reveals a
> terrifying new function.
Is it just me or does that sound terrifyingly sexual?
"But there were a lot of shots which had to be re-done because the Dalek got stuck in a doorway."
Well there's an enemy that has me scared.
"We have taken all the perceived weaknesses of the Dalek and made them deadly" - Mike Tucker, miniature effects supervisor
Well, they used to be deadly, too. It's just they were deadly for the Dalek, not for it's opponent.
The Daleks can rule the world....
Hang on a minute... What if we made all the doors just that bit too narrow for them to get through!!!
Ha ha! Foiled again!
Deleted
Reminds me all the times there's "Dalek" in the title but they still tried to build suspense by making the Daleks appearance a surprise at the end of Episode 1.
What is it about the typical English psyche that finds the image of giant saltshakers so horrifying?
Dude, didn't you see it? Not only is it a giant salt shaker, it's made of gold. GOLD! Nothing can stop gold! And what are those little bulbs on the outside? Those could be anything! They might be filled with death itself, for all we know. That giant lever? I'm going to assume that plays a random clip from Walker, Texas Ranger.
But even Cordell Walker himself couldn't stop these things from shaking the salt of death on it's enemy. Oh, no. Maybe Walker could take a Dalek, but only if he enlisted the help of that black Texas Ranger and possibly the younger man & woman Texas Rangers, too. But that's only if the Dalek hasn't taken Walker's wife hostage.
I predict: many drop kicks in the next Dr. Who episode.
Well I don't know about you, but I for one welcome our new... aaah crap, that one actually makes sense.
- They're symbolic of the results of nuclear war (particularly terrifying in 1963 when they were introduced, just after the Cuban Missile Crisis proved how close nuclear war could have been).
- General fear of the unknown; what mutant lurks inside the Dalek travel machine. It took a few stories before they were shown. Even then, they're generally only seen briefly.
- Fears of biological and genetic engineering, classic Frankenstein losing control of a creation story.
- Stories involving Davros also add the fear of fascism, the seductiveness of evil and warns of the dangers of logic and self-preservation over ethics and humanity.
- The 'next generation' seen in Revelation of the Daleks added the question: what if you went to sleep and woke up with only your head and turning into a Dalek hybrid?
Unfortunately, not a lot of that was seen in the Tom Baker era, apart from Genesis... just a lot of Tom causing them to get confused and explode by dropping a hat on their eye-stalk, or yell "Exterminate!" a lot, which really cheapened them as villains.