What’s so scary about the Daleks, anyway?
Jun 26th, 2008 by Waffles
Okay, so they’re the master villians of the Doctor Who universe. And I’ll admit, they’re pretty awesome. It might’ve been the first, and still one of the only times a non-humanoid is a supervillian (eat your heart out, Borg Collective!).
But seriously, guys… Check out this bad boy: His one hand is a plunger, that originally has been used to suck people’s faces off, and the other hand is some sort of disruptor beam. On his head, you’ll see a single optical sensor. We’ve never had any indication that they have any way to detect what’s going on behind them as they move forward. So what’s to stop anyone from sneaking up behind him?
We know from shots from Doctor Who that a dalek’s peripheral vision isn’t all that great I could stand directly to his left and make a face, and he’d never see me!
And really. Here they are, these advanced cyborgs, and they communicate with each other through plain ol’ speech! No computer code like the Bynars from Star Trek, no wi-fi like my computer, or anything. They just talk to each other, in that stuccato rough voice of theirs. It takes forever to say anything!
Don’t get me wrong. But check out the teaser from this Saturday’s Doctor Who:
I’m sorry, Sarah Jane. You remember the daleks from the 70s, don’t you? The daleks before they had jets in their base, and a single stairstep could foil their movement. You should remember daleks more like these:
So what are you so scared of?
They have markedly improved since those days. The have the aforementioned thrusters in their base, their weapons seem to be more powerful, and frankly, they are smarter than they used to be. But they’re still encased in that really restrictive metal case.
I’m sure they’ll exterminate their hearts out this week, but settle down everybody. If they really were as bad-ass as everything things they are, the Doctor would be dead long ago.
That clip has Barbara! Barbara? Barbara? Barbara? Barbara… Barbara!
I kind of always figured they had some radar- or sonar-like sensors in those Dalek bubbles on their base, although the idiocy they showed in the early years seems to contradict this. But whatever the case in the past, what they’ve evolved into today—and I mean their IRL evolution, in the minds of the writers and producers—is the best sci-fi villain race (in a TV series, at least) ever conceived. Borg? Scary until Voyager showed them getting eaten by giant CGI bugs. (And their sense of what constitutes a response-worthy threat was always MAJOR FAIL.) Cylons? Maybe, except their kick-ass battle models are subordinated to the whims of their emo, religious, well-dressed humanoid masters. Terminators? If we ever saw an army of T-1000s, then maybe, but The Sarah Connor Chronicles hasn’t shown us anything like that yet (although it really is a fun show, and it maintains the continuity of T2).
No, the modern Daleks are this unique mix of camp, intentionally retained from the good ol’ days, and absolute kick-ass, made possible by tech goodies that are now (but weren’t yet in the early ’60s) sci-fi staples, like personal energy shields and teleports. I think it’s compelling to have a bad guy that bluffs its way into making its opponents relax their guard by its intrinsic goofiness.
Hello! You underestimate them….
Not only can the plunger suck people’s faces off, it can detect hearth rate (as seen in ‘Doomsday’) and is used to detect brainwaves, making the Daleks telepathic to some extent.
The ‘disruptor beam’ can be used to kill, obviously. However, in ‘Journey’s End’ a maximum exterminate setting is demonstrated, which converted a house to burning rubble in seconds.
The ’single optical sensor’ or eyestalk appears to be a Dalek’s only weakpoint. You said that it wasn’t capable of seeing what’s behind it, but Daleks can still hear and can turn their…(heads?) in about a 360 degress range of motion. Even if you do sneak up behind them, what are you going to do then? Their armour is really tough and they could still ‘EXTERMINATE!’ you after shaking you off by turning their body ’sections’. They have a shield around them that vaporises bullets!
The eyestalf is their only weakness, but it is small and hard to arm for. If you cover it with a paint or something, the paint can be vaporised as demonstrated in ‘Journey’s End’.
As for their voice…..it is SOOOO cool! I guess the characters in Doctor Who find it intimidating…
Daleks make look a little wierd, but I wouldn’t want to be stuck in a room with one…
I agree with Brent on this do not underestimate something tht can take out an army of cybermen and suck your face clean off its common sense
Daleks are SOO awesome. Don’t underestimate them, the reson The Doctor hasn’t been killed is because he has 13 lives and can regenirate!