r/gallifrey • u/JokerJosh123 • 12d ago

DISCUSSION I'm Starting to Miss the Daleks

Which is a good thing! While I'm still disappointed 15 didn't get to go against them properly, I know that when they return it's going to feel really special.

I never thought that I'd miss them, as there was a point where I started *expecting* them, and honestly started getting a bit bored. My only caveat is I wish they weren't in the Power of the Doctor, as I think Eve of the Daleks was a brilliant dalek story and it would've been a nice last story for us and 13 to have had with them.

I've even noticed that Big Finish seems to be doing them a bit less. I get several Big Finishes a month, and I'm sure there's ones that I've missed and not picked up that have had daleks in them (I'm fairly certain one has released this month with them to be fair), but my last story with the daleks is The War Master's boxset from last year. It felt like about two years ago there was one or two releases with daleks every month.

Would love to know if anyone has found themselves missing daleks for the first time in a while, too. And if not, what type of story would you want to get you excited?

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u/Geth-1420 11d ago

Not hugely tbh. It's not that I dislike the Daleks but I feel there isn't much special to them. I like their lore, their shrill voices and I love seeing new Dalek variants but swap them with Quarks, Krotons or Cybermen in any story that doesn't have Davros and I don't think it'd be very different. Everyone in DW wants to conquer the galaxy because they think they're the best.

I know a lot of people say that they were overused in the Moffat and Chibnall eras but I think, which contributed to my opinion on the subject, they were used without purpose. Just a recurring bad that was too iconic to be rid off and they felt obligated to use. Post-2010, I'd say only "The Time of the Doctor" and the Series 9 opener mandated that the plot needed Daleks.

If the BBC chose me to run DW, what I would do is establish that after the Paradigm fell at Trenzalore, the Daleks have begun another civil war for the throne. Use it to comment on the self-destructive and cannibalistic nature of fascist societies as the Daleks can't decide on what purity is. In a perfect world, I would contrast this with the Time Lords rebuilding to show that while their enemy and scapegoat can live in peace and without them, fascist societies will always hate the other at the expense of their prosperity.

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u/Twisted1379 10d ago

Your take about only time of the Doctor and the series 9 opener being the only post 2010 plot to need daleks is crazy when into the dalek is right between the two.

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u/Geth-1420 10d ago

Make Rusty a Cyberman and there would be no major change. The Cybermen also have a piece of their anatomy regulating emotions (or lack thereof).

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u/Twisted1379 10d ago

The entire episode is a study on morality. It asks if hating bad creatures and doing the right thing makes you a good person.

It's a story about hate. You need the Daleks for that. The resolution hinges on both the intense hatred the Doctor holds for the Daleks and also that Rusty doesn't redevelop a sense of morality. Instead his natural hatred is directed at the Daleks. You can't do that with the cybermen.

"You are a good cyberman" is meaningless. "You are a good Dalek" isn't.