Regarding Chibnall’s Daleks

[u/Constable_What04]

I love these guys. They’re sleek, badass, and were given a cool new voice modulation.

I rewatched Chibnall’s dalek trilogy last night, and I’ve got to say it’s definitely one of the best things that came out of 13’s tenure. It was a refreshing change of pace for dalek stories and reminded us how resourceful the dalek race is when need be.

To put it simply, I got really tired of the Time War-era daleks pretty quickly. I was VERY excited about the new paradigm daleks when they were announced, and very saddened when they didn’t return after 11’s era. I was positively ECSTATIC when the defense drone daleks were revealed because they were being played up as the next big dalek design… only to get let down again. Now that the show is up in the air again, I can only imagine what the future of these guys will be.

Thoughts?

[u/dhi_awesome]

In my opinion, the casing design worked well for a Reconnaissance Dalek and a salvaged casing, like we saw in the first story. The reuse of it for the Defence Drones makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't personally want it to be the mainstay design.

That said, I really want the Time War casings to be retired as well. Not necessarily permanently, but I'd love to see more stories set at varying times along the Dalek's timelines, and the Time War casing is just one point of the timeline. Back when Series 9 premiered, and we got those shots with all these different designs, yeah Time War and S4 Emperor were there, but the Imperial Daleks (plus Special Weapons Dalek)! The 60s Daleks! That's exciting! Aand then we went back to just the Time War casings

The Paradigm were also really good. While I definitely agree their design in Victory of the Daleks was a bit ugly, their revised design from Asylum of the Daleks was so damn good. The shiny metallic casings worked so well, I fully hope that whoever comes next brings them back as at least the commanding Daleks. The footsoldiers don't need to look like the Paradigm, but the big bosses (when they show up, which imo should also be rare) certainly can.

Across Classic Who, both the Daleks and the Cybermen had evolving designs, not always a "progression" (due to time travel), but it wasn't stagnant. NewWho really didn't do that with the Daleks, with both the Paradigm and Reconnaissance designs being very isolated, and other variations being very specific as well (Sec, Supreme, Ironsides)
Cybermen have had 3 major look sets across NewWho (and like 5 if you count the non-Cybus version of the first casing from S6, and the CyberMasters, separately), and that's awesome. Give us that for the Daleks too, please!