Moffat to "rest" the Daleks

by **The Co=Ordinator** Tue May 31, 2011 1:38 am

From BBC Website.

Makes the Fatlek re-design even more stupid then.

by **Dave Webb** Tue May 31, 2011 3:07 am

We all know the redesign was motivated by marketing.

Although everything is better with Daleks, I'm more than happy to have no Daleks for a while. They've undergone serious Villain Decay.

by **The Co=Ordinator** Tue May 31, 2011 3:47 am

Aha. Moffat has tweeted that he only meant this series! Laughing

http://twitter.com/#!/steven_moffat

by Rich Flair Tue May 31, 2011 4:56 am

I was gonna say why the stupid redesign if he's never going to use them, but never mind.

by Starfighter Pilot Tue May 31, 2011 9:31 am

I wouldn't have minded a longer break to be fair!

The Almost People speculation:

Spoiler:

by **Zoltar** Tue May 31, 2011 10:53 am

Well, my initial thought was that the Daleks should be rested till they have a great story to tell, not just trotted out for the obligatory Dalek episode. Of course, if you asked them, I'm sure they'd say DA-LEKS HAVE NO NEED OF REST!!!. Dalek

Anyway, we'll see what happens. It must be all those years with Uncle Rusty's fibbing that leads me to distrust the showrunner's claims a bit. If they don't appear this year, that's all right with me.

by **Patrick** Tue May 31, 2011 11:25 am

Dave Webb wrote:We all know the redesign was motivated by marketing.

Although everything is better with Daleks, I'm more than happy to have no Daleks for a while. They've undergone serious Villain Decay.

That's a neat little site you linked to Dave. In fact, using the villain more sparingly is one of the ways they recommend to off Villian Decay. But it does have some pitfalls of it's own:

Overshadowed by Awesome
Becoming the Artifact
Can't Catch Up

by **Dave Webb** Tue May 31, 2011 3:59 pm

Patrick wrote: In fact, using the villain more sparingly is one of the ways they recommend to off Villian Decay. But it does have some pitfalls of it's own:

The best aversion of the whole Villain Decay process is Dalek.

We really needed to see the Dalek at it's best. Alas, once that door was opened it wasn't closed properly.

The new Dalek paradigm isn't looking too shabby in terms of beating the Doctor, which is what they need to do. To re-create the Daleks as a credible antagonist they need to do two things:

1: Avoid Davros, who immediately attracts attention away from them. (Not his fault as such, because Michael Wisher, Terry Molloy and Julian Bleach made him bizarrely charismatic).

2: Win.

Of course, it helps that they have now killed the Doctor twice. The Doctor cheated death by cheating, both times, and in the last instance he had to recreate the universe in order to deny the Daleks their victory. So they've got that going for them.

I think they should be rested until someone has an actual Dalek story they want to tell. A proper, dalekcentric, can't be told without them story.

by **Zoltar** Tue May 31, 2011 5:07 pm

Dave Webb wrote:The best aversion of the whole Villain Decay process is Dalek.

Yep. One truly great Dalek episode and they'll be looking good again I think.

by andrea Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:48 am

Dave Webb wrote:...I think they should be rested until someone has an actual Dalek story they want to tell. A proper, dalekcentric, can't be told without them story.

I really, really agree with this. Used sparingly and in stories which 'need' them Daleks are terrifying. Used all the time they cease to be so. Fortunately, Moffat does seem to be able to think up some pretty terrifying villains of his own so hopefully...

by Rich Flair Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:04 pm

They should use them once a year. If they haven't got any stories for them then they need better writers.

by **The Co=Ordinator** Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:26 pm

IMO they really should try to do some sort of reworking of Power as a 2 parter. It would work brilliantly, the Daleks scheming, and manipulating things, in the background until the last half hour when all hell breaks loose.

by The Browncoat Cat Thu Jun 02, 2011 7:55 am

Dave Webb wrote:Although everything is better with Daleks, I'm more than happy to have no Daleks for a while. They've undergone serious Villain Decay.

I suppose that was the plan with Victory of the Daleks. The Doctor gets beaten by the peppers, who get a make-over in the process. The naffness of the BMW Daleks put a spoke in that. They are to big, Daleks are supposed to be bad tempered pepperpots with a Napoleon Complex. If the BMW Daleks had been the same size as the RTD era Daleks Coopers.

by **Patrick** Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:10 am

I think the Daleks should go off and win themselves a couple of private battles we know nothing about that are part of some new plan, on that legitimately increases their numbers and makes them a proper threat.

When they do come back, don't have the words "... Of The Daleks" in the title, or have the title in any way make reference to them. In fact, when it comes to promoting the story with trailers, don't even show clips with them in it. And don't give an advance screening to the press so as to keep a lid on the surprise.

And now that I've written all that, my disclaimer is that is that this strategy in no way bears any similarity whatsoever to one concerning a recurring Doctor Who foe in 1982. At least that will be my straight-faced claim.

by **The Co=Ordinator** Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:01 pm

Patrick wrote:
When they do come back, don't have the words "... Of The Daleks" in the title, or have the title in any way make reference to them. In fact, when it comes to promoting the story with trailers, don't even show clips with them in it. And don't give an advance screening to the press so as to keep a lid on the surprise.

Ain't gonna happen Patrick. For all of Moffat's whinging, the publicity for the next Dalek story will be as strong as ever.

by **Dave Webb** Fri Jun 03, 2011 4:36 am

The Browncoat Cat wrote:They are to big, Daleks are supposed to be bad tempered pepperpots with a Napoleon Complex. If the BMW Daleks had been the same size as the RTD era Daleks Coopers.

One of the reasons for the redesign is that they cast an Amy Pond who turned out to be eighteen feet tall. The RTD design placed the Dalek eyestalk at the same eye level with Rose. The redesign puts them eye to eye with Amy without them needing to stand on a box to achieve it.

Also...Napoleon complex? Where did you get that from? See what I mean about Villain Decay? We can go from "Do you know what hate looks like, Amy? It looks like that..." to "bad tempered pepperpots with a Napoleon complex", which suggests that the Daleks are out to rule the universe in a peevish desire to stop people looking at the tops of their heads.

by Hacky Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:42 am

Dave Webb wrote:We all know the redesign was motivated by marketing.

Although everything is better with Daleks, I'm more than happy to have no Daleks for a while. They've undergone serious Villain Decay.

I know not to click a link to TV Tropes or I will waste several hours.

Patrick wrote:I think the Daleks should go off and win themselves a couple of private battles we know nothing about that are part of some new plan, on that legitimately increases their numbers and makes them a proper threat.

I'd like to see a universe where the Daleks have not just won a few battles, but have established an empire. With the multi-hued pepperpots, I find myself thinking that it would be cool if the look of it borrowed a little from the sixties comics with vibrant retro-futuristic Dalek cities. It could just be that I'm just getting a little tired of the visual darkness so far in this series.

Of course, building something like that would cost almost the entire series budget. I'm willing to kick in $50 if that would help.

by **Zoltar** Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:04 am

Hacky wrote:I'd like to see a universe where the Daleks have not just won a few battles, but have established an empire.

I'd like to see two or more empires myself, factions. I like the idea of Daleks even looking down on other Daleks, so nasty they can't even get along with themselves. Also, I think showing Daleks fighting other Daleks is an excellent way of allowing them to cut loose at full power.

Hacky wrote:With the multi-hued pepperpots, I find myself thinking that it would be cool if the look of it borrowed a little from the sixties comics with vibrant retro-futuristic Dalek cities. It could just be that I'm just getting a little tired of the visual darkness so far in this series.

I'd like that as well, perhaps unsurprisingly.

Hacky wrote:Of course, building something like that would cost almost the entire series budget. I'm willing to kick in $50 if that would help.

I'll kick in a 50, where's the donation plate?

by Hacky Fri Jun 03, 2011 11:23 am

Zoltar wrote:
I'll kick in a 50, where's the donation plate?

I don't know. What are they doing with all that money I spend on classic DVD's anyway?

Maybe they can set all of series 7 on New Skaro so the cost of the sets and effects are spread over 13 episodes. Or maybe half New Skaro, half Cardiff? It's a good thing I'm not showrunner.

BTW, here's a panel from that Dalek Chronicles series.
Moffat to "rest" the Daleks Dalekchron-pentaray

Moffat to "rest" the Daleks Dalekchron-pentaray

Somebody posted them the whole thing to a Flickr set.

by **Zoltar** Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:09 pm

Hacky wrote:I don't know. What are they doing with all that money I spend on classic DVD's anyway?

And the cash paid for my collection of sonic screwdrivers...

Hacky wrote:Maybe they can set all of series 7 on New Skaro so the cost of the sets and effects are spread over 13 episodes. Or maybe half New Skaro, half Cardiff? It's a good thing I'm not showrunner.

Skardiff?

Hacky wrote:BTW, here's a panel from that Dalek Chronicles series.

Somebody posted them the whole thing to a Flickr set.

Yep. I was fortunate enough to track down scans of the comic myself a while back, I really like the look of it.

by Rich Flair Fri Jun 03, 2011 1:50 pm

Hey chaps, have you seen this?

http://www.mechmaster.co.uk/cg-lair/daleks_page1.htm

by **The Co=Ordinator** Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:01 pm

That looks seriously cool. Some great perspectives, brilliant daleks, and seriously impressive detail.

Oh yes, and awesome lava lamps!

by Hacky Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:23 pm

I've only gotten through about four pages (enough to see the lava lamps), but wow, that's fantastic.

by **The Co=Ordinator** Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:35 pm

Have stopped at page 28 for now. It's great stuff!

by Rich Flair Fri Jun 03, 2011 3:26 pm

Oh yes, I read it last year, but he's added more pages since so I'll have to start again. It's very funny with some great characters (the spy cleaning Dalek and the scientist) and seems to take place between the TV Comic stories and Evil of the Daleks.

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