I've been watching Doctor Who for quite a while now, and I'm wondering what the meaning of The Doctor's greatest enemy is. Are they a serious threat? Or just hilarious boxes with death rays?
Are Daleks comedic characters?
- Thread starter Thetwistedendgame
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I'm not a Who fan, but from what I can gather, the Daleks have been around since the 60's, when television shows didn't exactly have great special effects.
Instead of rebooting the character designs, they just kept them. So while they are an enormous threat, they don't exactly look like one.
Instead of rebooting the character designs, they just kept them. So while they are an enormous threat, they don't exactly look like one.
At the time, they were terrifying, and within budget. Doctor Who's always had a low budget.
By the time the re-boot came around, they were so ingrained in UK pop-culture, they just left them.
It's similar to the Cybermen, but they didn't have such a unique design, so they were able to modern them up a little bit.
By the time the re-boot came around, they were so ingrained in UK pop-culture, they just left them.
It's similar to the Cybermen, but they didn't have such a unique design, so they were able to modern them up a little bit.
Davros is a Hitler/Thatcher analogy. Daleks aren't as much.giant enemy spycrab said:
The main "fear" about a Dalek is giving a death ray to a toddler. It may not be scary in itself, but what it can do is terrifying.
And there are always more to take it's place.
Series 1, with Christopher Eccleston, they were scary.
After that...no. They just became an utterly retarded threat.
Also, captcha, what the hell?:
After that...no. They just became an utterly retarded threat.
Also, captcha, what the hell?:
The Daleks are a metaphor.
They represent the absurdity of bigotry.
The Daleks hate anything that isn't themselves, but they themselves are horribly mutated squid things that used to be people and are basically jealous of all other life forms, so call them "inferior" and seek to commit genocide.
So basically Daleks are everyone who ever bullied someone they were jealous of.
They're meant to be pathetic.
They represent the absurdity of bigotry.
The Daleks hate anything that isn't themselves, but they themselves are horribly mutated squid things that used to be people and are basically jealous of all other life forms, so call them "inferior" and seek to commit genocide.
So basically Daleks are everyone who ever bullied someone they were jealous of.
They're meant to be pathetic.
I think it's more to do with how every episode they are in, The Protagonist needs to come up with some Deux Ex Machina to beat them:
Season 1: Dalek: 1 Dalek manages to kill an entire facility worth of people, just showing that 1 Dalek is an army in and of itself, Commits suicide because of contamination with Rose.
That is what a Dalek is capable of, where as the other episodes, well, TVTropes called it ConservationOfNinjutsu . Basically the idea is if 1 of them is hard to beat, then an army of them should be unstoppable (but instead the army is considerably nerfed to accomodate the main character having a chance to win)
Season 2's Daleks Vs Cybermen had the same problem.
For those that haven't seen it basically the Cybermen invade from a parallel universe and attack, then a group of Daleks come out a spaceship designed to keep them locked away to keep the species from going extinct and begin fighting the Cybermen, one of the Cybermen's leaders asks
''We have 5 million Cybermen at our command.You would defeat us with 4 Daleks?''
Then one of them replies''We would defeat the Cybermen with ONE Dalek''
See, after that, the open this prison Ark that houses millions of other Daleks at they start pouring out into the streets of London (Just as the Doctor pops up and destroys both armies with a plot device), Long Story short, yes, the Daleks probably would have won had they stuck with their 4 man army, but because they made an army of themselves, that just gave the writers an excuse to make the vast majority of them next to no threat to any character that had a name.
Season 1: Dalek: 1 Dalek manages to kill an entire facility worth of people, just showing that 1 Dalek is an army in and of itself, Commits suicide because of contamination with Rose.
That is what a Dalek is capable of, where as the other episodes, well, TVTropes called it ConservationOfNinjutsu . Basically the idea is if 1 of them is hard to beat, then an army of them should be unstoppable (but instead the army is considerably nerfed to accomodate the main character having a chance to win)
Season 2's Daleks Vs Cybermen had the same problem.
For those that haven't seen it basically the Cybermen invade from a parallel universe and attack, then a group of Daleks come out a spaceship designed to keep them locked away to keep the species from going extinct and begin fighting the Cybermen, one of the Cybermen's leaders asks
''We have 5 million Cybermen at our command.You would defeat us with 4 Daleks?''
Then one of them replies''We would defeat the Cybermen with ONE Dalek''
See, after that, the open this prison Ark that houses millions of other Daleks at they start pouring out into the streets of London (Just as the Doctor pops up and destroys both armies with a plot device), Long Story short, yes, the Daleks probably would have won had they stuck with their 4 man army, but because they made an army of themselves, that just gave the writers an excuse to make the vast majority of them next to no threat to any character that had a name.
They could be a lot scarier, but their design is too ingrained into the mythos to change it. The Cybermen are a more legitimate threat to me, because they actually have a decent idea every once in awhile. And let's not even get into the Weeping Angels or the Silence.
I've seen some of the comments, and want to notify of a scene I saw at the last episode of the 1st season, The Parting of Ways. The scene with all the Daleks flying in space. That wasn't treatening, it was hilarious.
Edit: And even though they are the most hated archenemies of The Doctors, they can't even dream of having as much power as Weeping Angels, or the Reapers. Think about it, almost every serie you can find around the world has the returning nemesis character that always screws up when they seem victorious.
Edit: And even though they are the most hated archenemies of The Doctors, they can't even dream of having as much power as Weeping Angels, or the Reapers. Think about it, almost every serie you can find around the world has the returning nemesis character that always screws up when they seem victorious.
I object, the 1st season episode Dalek's Dalek only killed himself because he mutated into something else, MEANING that it was not a Dalek.Josh12345 said:
Yeah, I reckon they were still scary in the first (new) series with Christopher Eccelston but it went down hill from there. The Last Dalek was pretty scary in that it was a legitimate threat that was virtually unstoppable but also had a degree of pathos and more importantly, cunning. It did after all trick Rose into reactivating it before it started lasering everyone in the face. Later on when they introduced the Emperor of the Daleks that was still pretty intimidating due to the degree of insanity on display. After that it all went downhill, partly due to how spectacularly stupid they became. They never seemed to have plans and when they did those plans were retarded.
"Let's create a horde of pigmen!"
"Let's cross a Dalek with a Human, to create something with no advantages over either species!"
If they want to make them scary, they need to make them smart again. After all, there is virtually nothing in more recent series that suggests an army of Daleks would have a hoope against an army of Time Lords.
And yes, they were always Nazi anaologies.
"Let's create a horde of pigmen!"
"Let's cross a Dalek with a Human, to create something with no advantages over either species!"
If they want to make them scary, they need to make them smart again. After all, there is virtually nothing in more recent series that suggests an army of Daleks would have a hoope against an army of Time Lords.
And yes, they were always Nazi anaologies.