Wednesday, September 30, 2009

So, this Dalek thing...

I'm not actually 100% how to do this as I never wrote any kind of outline for this one, and it was just a mess of apocalyptic ideas in my head with the vaguest of actual plots. It might not make any sense, but what do you expect for a proposed SCAD eBook? Hmm?

Trying to salvage the malodorous corpse of Empire of the Daleks, I locked onto the "rebooted history" idea. Why, I wondered, would this be a good thing? Who is to say a new history is better than the old? And if the Daleks knew they had a second chance, what if others twigged to this as well? If certain forces decided it was time to get off their celestial asses and start kicking ass. Another motivation was the flack RTD gets/was getting for always wiping out the Daleks and then bringing them back. The thing is, of course, that he doesn't really. I mean, Dalek has the Doctor - you know, the hugely traumatized manic optimist who repeatedly insists everything will sort itself out - insisting there are no Daleks left. Just like he did 45 minutes earlier. When he was facing the bloody thing in a darkened room. True, the Bad Wolf find-and-deleting every Dalek is a difficult one to get out of, since the Cult of Skaro's trick of not being in the firing line means that the Time Goddess didn't know or bother to change the events of the Tennant years. But we see the Cult of Skaro clearly escape, and Dalek Khan as well, the next story. It's only when Khan goes bonkers and determines to wipe out the Daleks absolutely forever that it starts to get silly the Eleventh Doctor won't have time to straighten his bowtie before bumping into the sods, but even then we get a fig leaf of Davros' cliched "demise" and all the void Daleks who escaped just like the Cybermen.

Basically, thought I, how could you really, properly write them out forever? Permanently?

Still not sure I have the answer, but that was a motivation.

OK, I'll be honest from the start that there's very little original material in this - much of it ripped off from the apocryphal-or-maybe-just-wildly-inaccurate 1960s Dalek Annuals and their pocket phrase book. Yes, Daleks have their own lingo, catchphrases, jokes and social taboos. Either that or Terry Nation was taking the piss like an emergency paramedic and a colostomy bag.

The plot starts with a bunch of cavemen being abducted by space aliens in sequences inspired by the Big Book of Conspiracies (with its brilliant observation that any conspiracy ultimately ends up being explained by aliens, even things like the Jonestown massacre, yet with the blunt admission that no one, really, has a better theory to explain these things). These space aliens are then seen in numerous Family Guy cutaways as scattered outposts of the Dalek empire are wiped out. The flying saucers appear, there's a flash and all the Daleks in the location fade away, their actions undone, the dead come to life. These aliens are slowly but surely erasing the Daleks from history, going from story to story and cancelling it out, for good or ill - for example, this means the galaxy starves to death without any Davros to sell off corpses as soylent green.

The Doctor and Dara are leaving the previous story when the TARDIS goes crazy and they watch freaky fractals on the scanner - blowing up all those time corridors the Daleks were using has had a longterm affect, and now all of time is being rewritten. The Doctor shuts the bitch up with a speech about alternate histories and such, and wires the TARDIS to fly through the time chaos to the last safe place in time, the place where the "old history" will remain the longest so he has a chance of reversing the planar shift and restoring the status quo.

Of course, that place is Skaro and in proper tradition, our heroes don't twig that until the end of the episode. In fairness, Skaro is a lot more than that quarry from B7: Games with a few Slythers and Varga plants (and this is where the annuals come in) as the planet is the size of Saturn, with HUGE continents, oceans and a permanent dark side. The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Dara to the Island of Gushing Gold, a kind of volcano that spews liquid gold, and so the beaches are littered with golden statues of all the unlucky prospectors that tried to pocket the stuff, kind of like Pompeii. In proper tradition, the volcano erupts and the TARDIS is turned into inaccessible bling, trapping our heroes on the planet. Actually, I have no idea how I was going to get around that obstacle... maybe the HADS would kick in or something.

THE TOURISTY REGIONS OF THE DEAD PLANET. AVOID THE BEEF.

But unsurprisingly the Doc and Dara aren't alone on this mysterious world. There's a bunch of humans on the planet acting as a survey team, using the old Dalek city as a base of operations (there aren't any Daleks here, needless to say). On a survey of a nearby island, one of the team goes mad and maroons the others, stealing their aircraft and flying off, only to land on the Island of Gushing Gold where it becomes clear that she's mutating into something nasty. The Doc and Dara manage to beat the mutant unconscious, bundle her into the aircar and fly off the island before it erupts, burying the TARDIS. They then manage to return the air car to the city to get the mutant "medical attention", and chat to the team leader over the radio. The team leader's called Tarrant. Yeah, I know.

The first episode would have reached something of a peak. The Doctor rapidly works out what planet he's on and why the metal city is strangely wheelchair-friendly, and Tarrant quite casually confirms they're on Skaro, and the only inhabitant they've met was in the city when they arrived and is now their scientific advisor (and has been providing a dry wit and Greek chorus from the shadows throughout the episode). The Doctor runs off to confront him as Dara wanders off and sees the medical attention that the mutant is getting - the team doctor is shoving her into a Dalek casing! The Doctor skids to a halt in the city control room as he meets the Scientific Advisor. I trust you're not going to be shocked to find it's Davros, in his Emperor Dalek casing.

The plot, such as it is, blurs from hereon in.

When the Daleks in Empire were trying to rewrite their own history, they realized pretty soon they needed to keep their creator safe and out of the way no matter how mad and annoying they found the bastard. So they rescued him from 1963 and dumped him on the deserted Skaro where he couldn't cause any trouble. Alas, between the Doctor and the aliens, the Daleks are buggered and none returned to protect Davros when humanity reached Skaro and put the planet up for real estate.

It turns out that something incredibly freaky is happening on Skaro, though. All the life on the planet is seeming evolving at an incredible rate, millions of years of development happening in days. The survey team, interested in this wierd phenomenon, investigate the strange life forms on the planet with Davros as their Lonely Planet Guide. It gets wierder since all the serpents and sand monsters and such are all seeming to be turning into the same creature - a kind of brainy octopus you'd normally see jammed into a Dalek. With every day that passes, more and more species lose any trace of their ancestry and turn into horrible green blobs with bad attitudes. Indeed, some of them are pure Dalek mutants.

EVOLUTION IN EASY STAGES...

For Davros, the implications are mind-blowing. The Daleks are the ultimate life form. Literally, the ultimate. No matter what, from jelly fish to rodent to smoothe chested archaeologist, it will evolve, sooner or later into a Dalek. It also means that, really, all that conquering and exterminating was a complete waste of time since EVERY "lesser race" is destined to turn into Daleks. What's more, when they reach the calamari stage, the process stops. The end result of life is Dalek and all they've managed over the years is to butcher their own relatives. Davros and the Doctor can see the irony, but it's not doing either of their heads any good. Especially as Davros assumed he was improving evolution, when all he had managed to do was peek at the end.

The Doctor points out that this evolution may only be local - life on other planets might not evolve the same way, but it's a feeble argument. More importantly, the Doctor wants to know why everything is speeded up on Skaro to the point even TREES are sprouting tentacles. Davros and Tarrant come to the conclusion that an artificial force is working on Skaro, turning the planet into some kind of laboratory. The genetic changes that occured to the Kaleds and the Thals were clearly the same force, but somehow the process has been cranked up to eleven for some reason.

Indeed, it's not just the native life that's evolving - the humans in the survey team are doing the same. That's why they've been going mad, then green, then slimy as individually they speed through their evolutionary cycle and turn into blobs. This is why the mutants get bundled into Dalek casings, which is the only hope to save the mutant's intellect and allow communication. This gets explained to Dara after she makes a complete fool of herself trying to stop it.

The Doctor, Davros and Tarrant do some research and the truth becomes apparent - Skaro is an artificially-modified planet, a giant laboratory to see how life develops. Those cavemen abducted by the aliens at the start were dumped here and evolved into Kaleds and Thals. They were united at first and when they were civilized and evolved enough they discovered the nature of the experiment and kicked out the aliens monitoring Skaro. But with their freedom, the two races began to fight until their civilizations began to collapse. In spite, the aliens turned up the "evolvotron" and the Kaleds and Thals began to evolve to adapt to the increasingly radioactive hellhole they lived in. Davros and his pals assumed it was the result of chemical weapons, not realizing that every generation on either side was a more evolved species than the one before.

However, the process has now got completely out of control and it won't be long before every living thing on the planet will be a Dalek mutant. The Doctor and Tarrant decide to try and work out where the "evolution" is coming from, leaving Dara and Davros in the city. Unsurprisingly, Davros isn't half as nice as he claims - he's got a plan, and what's more, has the body of a space alien in cryogenic storage. Meanwhile, the cliffhanger is either the Doctor or Dara realizing they are starting to mutate as well.

EGGS-STIR-MIN-HATE... THE DOCTOR STARTS TO THINK LIKE THE ENEMY

In the third episode, Davros takes over the 'human mutant Daleks' and thus the city. There are millions of new Daleks here just needing casings, and he sets the factories to work while the new Daleks are head off with butterfly nets to get the fresh mutants. Davros sees a new approach, with Daleks taking over planets and then shipping the natives for a brief stay on Skaro which will turn them into Daleks themselves. Whole populations transformed in hours with no drugs, viruses, time dilations... just acts of god. Davros knows that all life is destined to be Dalek, and he wants to be the boss of the Daleks. Dara's appalled and probably does something to justify her actions in the plot. Maybe she lets out the space alien or something.

After a whistle-stop tour of Skaro, the Doctor and Tarrant find an underground base where the 'evolvo' rays are spewing out of. The machinery or whatever isn't malfunctioning, but the controls have been locked. The Doctor suspects that this evolution isn't random at all and correctly guesses that Davros is the one behind the sudden increase in Dalek mutants. Alas, both the Doctor and Tarrant are now distinctly green and Tarrant becomes a violent, exterminating asshole. As the name would imply.

The episode cliffhangers when a fleet of Daleks descends on Skaro - these are the last survivors of the space alien jihad, who have fled their respective stories and come here in a last bid for freedom. They storm the city, exterminate the mutants and take Davros and Dara hostage. But the space aliens have followed them and it's time for one massive battle.

Things get even MORE foggy from this point.

The space aliens can't simply retcon the Daleks on Skaro. For some reason, here they have to use non-time-rewriting-stuff, maybe conventional weapons. The Daleks are spoiling for a fight and prepare for war. Some of the aliens break into the underground base and rescue/capture the Doctor. Meanwhile, Davros' own captive space alien is a bit pissed off at his treatment as well.

It turns out that the aliens who used Skaro were the Halldons, a truly awesome alien race who fought a time war with their enemies - whose name escapes me but they get a mention by RTD in his time war essay. The Halldons, accepting the truce the Time Lords declared between the two races, decided to take up a hobby of studying biology and used Skaro as a lab to study evolution. But the enemy were paranoid and convinced that the Halldons were trying to breed an army that could be used to wipe them out while the Halldons could have total alibi (after all, the Daleks want to wipe out everything, so no one would be suspicious if they exterminated the Halldon's enemies in the process).

Maybe they were right, I'm not sure, half of this I'm making up the second before I type, but Skaro was - at least at first - purely for educational purposes. But some faction of Halldon got to Skaro and decided that the Daleks WOULD be a pretty good army of assassins and deliberately tuned the machinery so all life would have to evolve into Daleks. Davros found this rebel Halldon and captured him, intending to use his evolving powers so Davros could become the one thing more powerful than a Dalek. The enemy, meanwhile, have decided to wipe out the Daleks from all of time to protect themselves.

Being a clever bastard, Davros pulls his ultimatum - I dunno, maybe he has a button that will blow up all the aliens so can force them to listen. Basically, he wants the Dalek Evolution ray turned onto every planet, like a searchlight that will turn every living thing into Daleks. The rebel Halldon then does something, maybe evolves Davros sooner than expected. I guess the Doctor would have to play a part in things too.

DAVROS SHOWS HIS TRUE COLOURS. QUELLE SURPRISE.

The end result would be the Dalek refugees staying on Skaro, waiting patiently in the belief that eventually all life will become Daleks and they must be ready to "lead" the universe when it catches up to their level. The Daleks basically decide to give up on the whole conquest of the universe and be patient. The twist of course being the Daleks have finally "grown up" yet not changed their DNA like everything else. Yeah, maybe the Dalek-mutated Doctor would be able to convince them of this - hey, if they can't trust the Bringer of Darkness, the Destroyer of Worlds, the Oncoming Storm, than who the hell can they trust? Besides, this will give the Daleks practice for what they would do AFTER they conquered the universe and ran out of people to exterminate.

The Halldons and their enemies make peace, while any surviving humans sod off and the Doctor and Dara leg it. And something happens to Davros. Not entirely sure what. He evolves though, he stops being a severed head and achieves enlightenment. That's what I was thinking of - Davros doesn't die or get blown up or anything that could easily be cheated out of with an escape pod or teleport. He stops WANTING to control the Daleks or take over the Universe. Maybe he gets de-evolved back to that young boy who loved nature and swimming or else turns into a Vorlon and finally "gets it" celestial intelligence wise.

So that was the epic end I wanted. The Daleks don't get nuked, they just get overthemselves. They finally see the funny side (so to speak) and even though they're still ruthless, unlikeable bastards, they finally realize they defeat their own desires going around killing people. They don't bang on about being superior because now they genuinely believe they are, and the maturity that comes with it. The schoolyard bullies finally grow up.

Plus the two high empires who agree to keep an eye on the Daleks to make sure they don't go back on their wicked ways, that'd be a help.

Of course, it couldn't end like that. Not for me. I'm too damn cynical. And pessimistic. So I'd probably add a scene when we find out that the enemies have been trying their own knife-in-the-back-weilded-by-a-race-we-created-accidentally-on-purpose, so the last bit would be a lab somewhere where the rival monster, the replacement Daleks would be created, Frankenstein style. I wonder what they would have been?



(throws back head and laughs like a madman...)

10 comments:

Youth of Australia said...

I think that may be the single greatest review I've ever had...

Hold me; I tremble.

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

Jared's Comment Parte the Firste, wherein he bitches about RTD:

Another motivation was the flack RTD gets/was getting for always wiping out the Daleks and then bringing them back. The thing is, of course, that he doesn't really.

You realise whatever argument that follows shall be HEAVILY scrutinized?

I mean, Dalek has the Doctor - you know, the hugely traumatized manic optimist who repeatedly insists everything will sort itself out - insisting there are no Daleks left. Just like he did 45 minutes earlier. When he was facing the bloody thing in a darkened room.

But, in narrative terms we're not meant to think that deeply into it - that piece of logic is never offered. Nobody cites the possibility that any other Daleks could have survived - even the Dalek itself is convinced that it is the last ever. So much is said about it being the last ever Dalek that it's a clear piece of authorial intent.

It's only when Khan goes bonkers and determines to wipe out the Daleks absolutely forever that it starts to get silly

Ah, there we go. Not even you can deny it gets silly.

I think it still counts as 'bringing them back and wiping them out again' if a ludicrously large number of Daleks appear and only 0.00001% of them survive. And I honestly say I didn't remember seeing the Cult of Skaro teleport away. I'm sure it was somewhere in that episode I can't stand and never watched again, but really it didn't stick in the memory enough for there to be no 'Huh?' moment when they were back in DiM.

Basically, thought I, how could you really, properly write them out forever? Permanently?

At this point I think it's totally impossible, as everything logical has been tried in the past four years to a ridiculous degree. The weird thing is that this same flexibility of mortality doesn't stretch towards the Time Lords at all. Not one TARDIS 'fell through time'? Even though that's actually what they're designed to do? *Sigh*

(Pre-pedantic strike: yes, that bullshit casket from Doomsday fell through time. The one that was a Time Lord 'prison', even though the Time Lord prison has been established as something completely different, and bizarrely does not have any form of warden like a typical prison and has been designed to spit Daleks out in random direction whenever a time traveller touches it. I have trouble accepting that ever happened on screen, for reasons I leave you to guess...)

These aliens are slowly but surely erasing the Daleks from history, going from story to story and cancelling it out, for good or ill - for example, this means the galaxy starves to death without any Davros to sell off corpses as soylent green.

I don't think that level of continuity will be comprehended by the DWAD folks..

Incidentally, thanks for reminding me of ANOTHER thing that pisses me off about RTD's Dalek treatment - until now Davros' incompetence and the good done against the Daleks actually made Genesis of the Daleks quite a positive story in it's conclusion - the Time Lords got it wrong and The Doctor can see the bigger picture. With events that have happened now, The Time Lords has it exactly right and The Doctor, by pussying out, has nearly condemned the universe to be wiped out at least four times over.

*Grumble, grumble, grumble...*

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

Jared's Comment Parte the Second, wherein he acknowledges the existence of a storye:

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Dara to the Island of Gushing Gold, a kind of volcano that spews liquid gold, and so the beaches are littered with golden statues of all the unlucky prospectors that tried to pocket the stuff, kind of like Pompeii. In proper tradition, the volcano erupts and the TARDIS is turned into inaccessible bling, trapping our heroes on the planet.

That is seriously cool.

maybe the HADS would kick in or something.

Landing it in front of somebody's palace, making them think it was a gift from the Gods and having dire consequences, naturally...

Hehe, Dalography..

Incidentally, isn't the idea of a planet being comprised of solid matter and the size of Saturn physically impossible? Ah, what the hell, I guess it's kinda cool...

The plot, such as it is, blurs from hereon in.

Hmm. I sometimes think the first part is the best one of a Dalek episode. And, yes, it's because I don't like Daleks that much so I enjoy writers finding ways to create 25-minutes worth of atmosphere sans-bathroom plungers. Capital effort here.

Alas, between the Doctor and the aliens, the Daleks are buggered and none returned to protect Davros when humanity reached Skaro and put the planet up for real estate.

Ooh, a new hook. Sounds good..

I'd probably be folowing it a bit better if I remembered exactly what retarded stuff had happened in Empire of the Daleks - I just vaguely remember the Emperor Dalek ordering his past self to commit suicide because he realised how useless he was (Rather than offering any sort of constructive advice...)

The space aliens can't simply retcon the Daleks on Skaro. For some reason,

Ah, the classical signs of an idea-in-progress..

And something happens to Davros. Not entirely sure what.

And again! Just ribbing you, man, I've written plenty of stuff like this myself. Sometimes in BF reviews, which is way less acceptable..

Of course, it couldn't end like that. Not for me. I'm too damn cynical. And pessimistic.

You already have the get-out clause, though - the timelines are so confused that this is the Skaro that the Doctor blows up in Remembrance. AHHHH, you boater-wearing fool! Where is your rice-pudding NOW?!?!?
(Erm.. Davros has crossed his timelines so often that there's two different versions of him going around. Or something. I DON'T KNOW!)

Seriously, though, I love this idea. It's a Dalek story that's only just a Dalek story. BF should make this. Even if it's an Unbound.

The only possible criticism I can think of is that I imagine a few fans wouldn't like the idea of an alien race creating the Daleks, but I was thinking that considering that every alien and his alien dog apparently has a hand in that of old Sol-Terra, it isn't much of a stretch... (and it's a creation story in a round about way..)

Youth of Australia said...

But, in narrative terms we're not meant to think that deeply into it - that piece of logic is never offered. Nobody cites the possibility that any other Daleks could have survived - even the Dalek itself is convinced that it is the last ever. So much is said about it being the last ever Dalek that it's a clear piece of authorial intent.
Mmm. Maybe. But the authorial intent was for Rose to use the gunstick to blow the Dalek up, but instead it does that funky self-disintegration thing. Even at the time, people were convinced it had somehow teleported away somewhere.

Ah, there we go. Not even you can deny it gets silly.
I mean, seeing every Dalek getting blown up isn't so much the problem, but when you've got a character (who must always speak the truth) rants "I'm killing every last motherfucking one you pricks, there will be NO survivors! I see all time and space and I am in a bitch of a mood!"

...

Well.

I think it still counts as 'bringing them back and wiping them out again' if a ludicrously large number of Daleks appear and only 0.00001% of them survive. And I honestly say I didn't remember seeing the Cult of Skaro teleport away. I'm sure it was somewhere in that episode I can't stand and never watched again, but really it didn't stick in the memory enough for there to be no 'Huh?' moment when they were back in DiM.
No, when the Daleks start to get sucked in, Dalek Sec screams for teleport and we see him vanish while the army gets screwed.

At this point I think it's totally impossible,
Gimme a chance...

Not one TARDIS 'fell through time'? Even though that's actually what they're designed to do? *Sigh*
Well, I've probably bored you with my theory that the Time Lords DID survive the war, but were so mentally fucked up by the carnage they didn't want anyone to think they were still around. So they brainwashed the Doctor to think otherwise and sent him off to do his emo last-of-the-Time-Lords speech and convince the universe they're all dead.

(Pre-pedantic strike: yes, that bullshit casket from Doomsday fell through time.
Actually the casket was stolen by the Cult of Skaro before the final battle.

I have trouble accepting that ever happened on screen, for reasons I leave you to guess...)
I could explain it, but you'd just get depressed.

I don't think that level of continuity will be comprehended by the DWAD folks..
Hence the story's abandonment.

Incidentally, thanks for reminding me of ANOTHER thing that pisses me off about RTD's Dalek treatment - until now Davros' incompetence and the good done against the Daleks actually made Genesis of the Daleks quite a positive story in it's conclusion - the Time Lords got it wrong and The Doctor can see the bigger picture. With events that have happened now, The Time Lords has it exactly right and The Doctor, by pussying out, has nearly condemned the universe to be wiped out at least four times over.
*Grumble, grumble, grumble...*

Well, my rewrite to Saward stories did TRY to fix that. Genesis WAS a victory, until Davros worked out what happened - if they'd stayed ignorant, it would have been happy.

Mind you, it could be that the Halldons were pissed off at the Time Lords mucking about with their masterplan and intervened...

Youth of Australia said...

That is seriously cool.
Maybe, but my imagination wasn't exactly taxed... it's all on the map.

Landing it in front of somebody's palace, making them think it was a gift from the Gods and having dire consequences, naturally...
I'd never have thought of that. You're a freaking genius.

Incidentally, isn't the idea of a planet being comprised of solid matter and the size of Saturn physically impossible?
Oh, sorry, it's not solid. There is a kind of wierd honeycomb of liquid ice and this sort of sponge fungus...

Hmm. I sometimes think the first part is the best one of a Dalek episode.
High praise indeed coming from you.

I enjoy writers finding ways to create 25-minutes worth of atmosphere sans-bathroom plungers.
Well, I didn't manage that, what with ever five minutes a cut to a kind of "Shitscared" Dalek-invasion-gone-horribly-wrong skit.

Capital effort here.
Neat...

Ooh, a new hook. Sounds good..
Probably should have put more effort into it, since all the characters would ultimately turn into 28-days-later zombies, grow tentacles and die...

I'd probably be folowing it a bit better if I remembered exactly what retarded stuff had happened in Empire of the Daleks
Basically, one bunch of Daleks makes a temporal twitter account with every other bunch, share spoilers and so begin to change their own history, until the Doctor disables their account and puts the leading bunch of Daleks in a time loop, leaving the others to sort themselves out.

This is apparently the greatest Doctor Who story ever, but I still maintain even Doomsday could wrest the title from EOTDs...

Ah, the classical signs of an idea-in-progress..
Ah, but Skaro is in the last bit of 'old' time, not the new, flexible part. Which I mentioned. Yes, it's only just occured to me. Or maybe they didn't want to blow their cover in front of Halldons...

I DUNNO!

Youth of Australia said...

And again! Just ribbing you, man, I've written plenty of stuff like this myself. Sometimes in BF reviews, which is way less acceptable..
Believe me it would not be having a panic attack followed by a shouting match about whether he or the Doctor is the bigger asshole.

FFS...

You already have the get-out clause, though - the timelines are so confused that this is the Skaro that the Doctor blows up in Remembrance.
Oh. Hadn't thought of that. Actually that'd be a great ending. The Doctor's all dusting his hands, saying this is a new beginning, peace in the universe, hope for everyone...

BLAMMM!!!

Skaro reduced to the contents of an ashtray.

"Ah... bugger..."

*whacky wah-wah-wah music*

(Erm.. Davros has crossed his timelines so often that there's two different versions of him going around. Or something. I DON'T KNOW!)
Big Finish did that already...

It's a Dalek story that's only just a Dalek story.
Indeed. I suppose I couldn't concievable come up with a traditional "THIS PLANET NOW BELONGS TO THE DALEKS" type tale where the Doctor and Davros are trying to outdo each other in the "that's not the truth, you can't HANDLE the truth!" competition. Plus, I had in my mind's eye a total B7-rip-off moment when the Daleks finally arrive in the story and go apeshit and the Doctor gets asked, "You REALLY want to save these things?" as all the supporting cast are mercilessly exterminated.

Maybe I was going for a Fires of Pompeii mood where the Doctor chooses history above everyone... except he changes it at the end. Which he also does in FOP.

Ah, fuck, another iota of original thought runs off, chuckling, into the night.

BF should make this. Even if it's an Unbound.
Ooh, that'd be interesting. Pity I couldn't get David Warner (since he just DID a story with Davros and the Daleks, mind you, Davros and the Brig are an interesting team up). And Geoffrey Bayldon has "Thaleks". And the Valeyard killed them all. And Martin Bannister's dead. So's the female Doctor, actually. That just leaves Nicholas Briggs... lord help me...

The only possible criticism I can think of is that I imagine a few fans wouldn't like the idea of an alien race creating the Daleks,
Yet, in another moment showing how unoriginal I am, it's TERRY NATION'S IDEA! In his magnum opus, We Are The Daleks, he writes all that - that the Daleks are super-evolved humans kidnapped by Halldons and put on Terminal to see what happens to their DNA!

Besides, it's all levels of cynacism. In 1963, they were Threads-type survivors in radiation suits. In 1975 they were genetically-engineered death machines by a mad scientist. And now the mad scientist was just another lab rat. As above, as below.

Jared "No Nickname" Hansen said...

instead it does that funky self-disintegration thing.

Which I hated. Don't know if I mentioned it, but I was pissed off because it makes no sense at all for Daleks to have a built-in suicide circuit. At least one that doesn't level 50 square miles as well...

No, when the Daleks start to get sucked in, Dalek Sec screams for teleport and we see him vanish while the army gets screwed.

Yeah.. I know. Not disputing the fact that it happened, just that even now I have no memory of that scene at all.

Well, I've probably bored you with my theory that the Time Lords DID survive the war, but were so mentally fucked up by the carnage they didn't want anyone to think they were still around.

Not ringing any bells. Makes sense, though.

Actually the casket was stolen by the Cult of Skaro before the final battle.

... so it was.

You can tell how much regard I have for Doomsday, huh?

Well, my rewrite to Saward stories did TRY to fix that. Genesis WAS a victory, until Davros worked out what happened - if they'd stayed ignorant, it would have been happy.

Didn't pick up on that subtext, actually. Might have to re-read..

I'd never have thought of that. You're a freaking genius.

Well, what else are you going to do with a renegade massive chunk of gold?

Oh, sorry, it's not solid. There is a kind of wierd honeycomb of liquid ice and this sort of sponge fungus...

Oh. Cool.

Basically, one bunch of Daleks makes a temporal twitter account with every other bunch, share spoilers and so begin to change their own history, until the Doctor disables their account and puts the leading bunch of Daleks in a time loop, leaving the others to sort themselves out.

...wait, I think I did remember it. I just assumed there must have been more logic to things than there was..

Believe me it would not be having a panic attack followed by a shouting match about whether he or the Doctor is the bigger asshole.

Good start.

Big Finish did that already...

God, it's getting a bit like "The Simpsons already did it" from South Park, isn't it?

"Okay, then, let's do a story where the Doctor transforms personality completely into a drunker version of Fran from Black Books and has nightmares of being stalked by Nick Briggs and vomits every 2.5 seconds."

"Erm, I hate to say this-"

"CHRIST!"

I suppose I couldn't concievable come up with a traditional "THIS PLANET NOW BELONGS TO THE DALEKS" type tale where the Doctor and Davros are trying to outdo each other in the "that's not the truth, you can't HANDLE the truth!" competition.

If I'm honest I'm getting a little sick of those stories by now. Okay, they keep finding cool variations but I think with Revelation and Terror Firma we don't really need any more.

Maybe I was going for a Fires of Pompeii mood where the Doctor chooses history above everyone... except he changes it at the end. Which he also does in FOP.

Hmm - in a roundabout way.

The Doctor does that a bit, doesn't he? I mean he does it in Spare Parts as well..

Yet, in another moment showing how unoriginal I am, it's TERRY NATION'S IDEA!

..wrote a fair bit about the Daleks, didn't our Tezza?

In 1963, they were Threads-type survivors in radiation suits. In 1975 they were genetically-engineered death machines by a mad scientist. And now the mad scientist was just another lab rat. As above, as below.

Sounds very fitting when you put it like that.

Also, the Thals get notably more tarnished as the years go on as well..

Youth of Australia said...

Which I hated. Don't know if I mentioned it, but I was pissed off because it makes no sense at all for Daleks to have a built-in suicide circuit. At least one that doesn't level 50 square miles as well...
I know. Hence the very reasonable assumption at the time it'd had teleported, and, batshit insane, called itself Emperor and started Weakest Link competitions to create MORE half-human Daleks.

Yeah.. I know. Not disputing the fact that it happened, just that even now I have no memory of that scene at all.
Pity. It was probably one of the few scenes you might have tolerated.

Not ringing any bells. Makes sense, though.
You heard it here first, so when Moffat rips it off, you'll know!!

You can tell how much regard I have for Doomsday, huh?
Yep. On the Sid and Nancy scale somewhere between Planet of the Dead and The Idiot's Lantern. Actually, watched POTD the other day and, amazingly enough, I'd completely forgotten that there's a bit just before the fly dudes get eaten where Christina gives her "word as a lady" that they can come with her on the bus and survive, and the Doctor actually has to hold her back when the stingrays eat her.

I can only conclude that, as the black lady's psychic powers are boosted on the alien planet, Christina is a nice companion only when free of Earth's gravitational pull.

Didn't pick up on that subtext, actually. Might have to re-read..
Wasn't actually subtext. In Resurrection, it basically goes
Davros: You son of a bitch! You changed history! I'm going to fuck you over AND the Time Lords!
Doctor: BRING IT ON, STRANGELOVE!
Davros: Sod this. Go and drain his brain or something.
Dirty Den: Right-oh, pater.

Well, what else are you going to do with a renegade massive chunk of gold?
In the DWADs? Remake Revenge of the Cybermen, I guess...

...wait, I think I did remember it. I just assumed there must have been more logic to things than there was..
Actually surprisingly less, with the suicide bids and stuff.

Good start.
I mean, in fairness, the actors made it work in the Torchwood Season 1 way of total superficial "cool!"-until-you-think-about-it way...

God, it's getting a bit like "The Simpsons already did it" from South Park, isn't it?
I love that episode, especially the philosophical stance justifying it.

"Erm, I hate to say this-"
"CHRIST!"

Well, that IS Exile...

If I'm honest I'm getting a little sick of those stories by now. Okay, they keep finding cool variations but I think with Revelation and Terror Firma we don't really need any more.
Yeah, it's why I had the Doctor listen politely then run away check things for himself.

Hmm - in a roundabout way.
The Doctor does that a bit, doesn't he? I mean he does it in Spare Parts as well..

God damn it! I can't come up with a single original thought, can I?

..wrote a fair bit about the Daleks, didn't our Tezza?
When he realized no one was going to make a Dalek TV series, he became more involved, yes. Funny story, actually, they were really, honestly going to make the TV series in 1968, but David Attenburough (yeah, THAT David Attenburough) cancelled the whole project! HAHAHAH! Maybe you had to be there.

Sounds very fitting when you put it like that.
I think I wanted it that way. Plot was incidental. It had to be FITTING!!

Also, the Thals get notably more tarnished as the years go on as well..
I know. In I, Davros, only he is actually more of a bastard than the Thals...

Miles said...

'The Final End'

The trouble is, no matter how many times you wipe out the Daleks or The Master 'forever', we always know that they'll be brought back, they suffer 'comic book deaths.' RTD may have had the Master choose to die, just to piss off the Doctor, have the Doctor burn his body, but then puts in 'the Flash Gordon bit', yeah, we all know the Master's gonna be back.

Of course, maybe there are a bunch of Time Lords who're trapped in the Time Vortex, or sat the war out. But that might be what happens in 'The End of Time', who knows. Maybe they become the Great Vampires, maybe they all turned human and became the first humans on Earth and they're the cavemen we meet in 'An Unearthly Child.'

Of course, we know that the Daleks still exist up to a point (see- Prisoner of the Daleks) and wouldn't it just be a lot easier to have the Doctor just encounter Pre-Time War Daleks all the time.

Youth of Australia said...

The trouble is, no matter how many times you wipe out the Daleks or The Master 'forever', we always know that they'll be brought back, they suffer 'comic book deaths.'
Which is why they weren't wiped out - they CHOSE to change.

RTD may have had the Master choose to die, just to piss off the Doctor, have the Doctor burn his body, but then puts in 'the Flash Gordon bit', yeah, we all know the Master's gonna be back.
Well, yeah. But that was more concerned with writing the Master out of the story than out of the series. It would have changed everything if he'd survived...

Of course, we know that the Daleks still exist up to a point (see- Prisoner of the Daleks) and wouldn't it just be a lot easier to have the Doctor just encounter Pre-Time War Daleks all the time.
But, as POTD goes to great lengths to explain, that was the Pre-Time-War UNIVERSE. Unless the Doctor wants to dangerously risk skipping out of his own reality...

Plus, Doc 11 makes it clear the Daleks he meets are post-TW.