#dalek sass

[ayosdesignz-blog]

I don't think I'll ever get over the absolute sass and snark 2 primarily robotic alien species had against each other in Doctor Who.

You know the scene...season 2 episode 13...

Honestly they should have given us more of that.

Why didn't they give us more of that???

[forgottenbones]

You make your incompetence sound like an achievement.

[pizzacade]

The Twelfth Doctor got bored while caretaking Coal Hill, so he snuck into the library and vandalized an Earth history textbook with his own corrections, complete with illustrations and taped on paragraphs.

As seen in A History of Humankind: The Doctor’s Official Guide.

This isn't the first time he's done this, as he was caught doing this at York Central Library during his Ninth incarnation, leading the incident to be passed along to Clive Finch via his website "Who is Doctor Who?"

(Take that, Thatcher!)

[kyriefae]

"The Fam" from 13's run may not have been what fans thought they wanted from the show but as someone who knows the personal pain of a unit that would otherwise call themselves this word but fails to hold even an ounce of the empathy and dignity these three fictional characters offer to a fictional being known as a Lord of Time...I can confirm they hold significance.

They matter in the long run. They mattered more than a lot of people were willing to admit when they were around.

This is to you, "fam".

A TARDIS Team that brings me warmth and courage and sass. I'll get space coupon deals, I'll be discouraged from popping the bubble wrap, and I'll know what to do with a microwave that is also an oven if a Dalek has snuck on board.

Just in case people are still too caught up on "the writing" being the reason they didn't like Jodie's era... I'm here to reinforce what made her time unique and powerful.

Also classically hilarious. Seriously, the plot of Orphan-55 moved forward because of Graham assembling space coupons for a discounted vacation. That's so stupid it's fun. That IS DOCTOR WHO! ✨🥰🤓 Get WITH IT, GURRL!

[companion-showdown]

Who is your favourite companion?

TOURNAMENT MASTERPOST

Propaganda

K9

Who doesn't love a talking dog with sass?

Sara Kingdom

Shakespearean tragedy of a character. She was doomed to die. Conscripted into working for the SSS a space secret police for despotic earth empire by her father at the age of eight after her mother (who was also conscripted) died on mission. Watched as one of her brothers was taken away by the Daleks forever never to been seen again trapped with the question of what if she had been faster. Killed her other brother on the orders of the Dictator of the Solar System. Only to find out that the dictator was evil and her brother was trying to save the universe from an invasion by the same people who took her first brother, and it is her fault that Earth will never be warned of this coming invasion. And so she joins those she was just trying to kill to try and make up for the death’s of both her brothers. She watches them suffer and she suffers they are all tortured and then when the Galaxy is saved she runs back to save one of those people for no reason as he could have survived the time that was following through him but she can not and is aged to death in a futile act to save a life that did not need saving. She was doomed from the start.

[leikeliscomet]

Who's Afraid of Tenmartha?

Chapter 2 - Bad Girls Club

The Doctor isn’t a good person.

I don’t say this to say I don’t like the Doctor but to say their morals aren’t as squeaky clean as how the fandom and sometimes the show make out. They’ve destroyed dalek and cyberfleets, neglected companions, manipulated people and even killed before. Pre and post-Time War, the Doctor’s always been a timey wimey disaster. And yet, we love them all the same. Characters don’t have to be morally good in order to be likeable and in fact, it’s fully possible to enjoy a character and/or piece of media with morally grey representations and without that being a reflection of your own morals too. The Doctor isn’t the only character in the problematic fave section for a lot of fandoms. People can’t get enough of the Master and Missy. There’s Tommy Shelby of Peaky Blinders, Five Hargreeves of The Umbrella Academy, James from TEOTFW, the Roy family of Succession and even the fans who unironically stan Homelander from The Boys. Fandoms love bad boys. Always have and always will. But the concept of what’s problematic vs what’s morally grey is selective. And when you notice how selective this is, qwhite a pattern emerges. As addressed in Chapter 1, what fandom and society considers acceptable romance doesn’t exist in a vacuum and neither does its ideas of acceptable moral codes and when it’s time for them to break.

The sapphire trope/angry Black woman trope is another archetype of Black women. The sapphire is irrationally angry, controlling and dominant. This trope rebranded as the angry Black woman trope, with plenty of sass and finger snapping to go around. This trope isn’t just Black woman who’s angry, but a Black woman who’s angry for no real reason. Her fury is unjustified and something the audience makes fun of or is intimidated by. She’s the antithesis of the white, pure, Christian woman, who’s quiet and respectful. She is loud and disrespectful. She has low and poor moral character. When it came to the Fugitive Doctor, a lot of people were quick to clutch pearls at her gun despite the fact she never used it. She was called one of the most violent incarnations for her self-defence against the Judoon when, again, the Doctor has always used some form of violence, especially in self-defence. Plus the fact she never killed anyone as Gat used the gun on herself despite Fugitive telling her not to. In many other fandoms in TV and film, morally grey Black women are rarely given grace by their respective fandoms and make it into the problematic fave stan section. Harper Stern of Industry instantly comes to mind. The bank of Pierpoint is toxic and corrupt to the very core, yet, the Industry fandom sees her as uniquely evil and conveniently has more grace for Yasmin and Rob, despite their own manipulative antics. Uma from Disney Descendants is treated as uniquely the cruellest whilst protagonist Mal is the baddie with a heart of gold, even though it’s a film franchise about literal villains. From my old RWBY days, there were plenty of posts and videos making fun of Emerald for following around Cinder like a lost puppy as if she wasn’t a victim of Cinder’s abuse, carrying out her villainous orders in exchange for an escape from poverty. Even if Martha Jones was written as a morally grey character, written as jealous and aggressive as fans think she is, I very much doubt fandom would be able to handle it. 

The Doctor Who fandom isn’t shy when it comes to toxic and problematic shipping, let alone supporting its #messyfaves. Whilst Tenmartha is the only ship where misogynoir plays a role in the dynamic, you can make the too-problematic-for-shipping-purposes argument about any Doctor pairing. Twelve and Clara consistently manipulate and betray each other. River was psychologically conditioned to become obsessed with the Doctor since birth and the main reason they got married was to fix the universe, not out of love. Thirteen was closed off from Yaz and didn’t let her in until it was too late. Ten and Rose were insensitive to the death and destruction that happened around them leading to the creation of Torchwood and the Battle of Canary Wharf, causing the deaths of hundreds. ElevenAmy means Amy cheating on her husband Rory. The Master is a whole murderer and abused Lucy Saxon. And yet, Tenmartha holds the crown of ‘most problematic�� out of all of these. This begs the question of why Martha isn’t allowed to have her toxic ship moment. Why does she always deserve ‘better’ than moral complexity? Martha is always held to a higher moral standard than any other companion in this show. When Rose is jealous it’s because she’s just 19, but when Martha is jealous she’s trying to replace Rose’s spot in the TARDIS. When Clara challenges the Doctor she’s the greatest companion in Doctor Who and a feminist blueprint or something, but Martha is entitled and whiny. When Donna snaps at the Doctor she’s funny, loud and brash but Martha pulling up a chair makes her aggressive and annoying. When Captain Jack is openly flirtatious he’s breaking barriers in queer representation and normalising attraction but Martha is a creep overstepping Ten’s boundaries. When Amy literally rubs herself on the Doctor’s body it’s only because she’s scared of her marriage but Martha simply being sexually attracted to the Doctor makes her perverted. River Song is sexually liberated but Martha Jones is a predator. Every other companion is messy and that’s why they’re loved, but Martha’s ‘mess’ of having a crush is what’s holding her back. I used to think Martha’s crush was a flaw that held her back from being a better companion, but as I’ve gotten older I had to stop and think why. Was her crush a flaw or were we just conditioned to see it as one because the ‘ideal woman’ for Ten according to RTD1 was Rose Tyler and Rose Tyler alone? Joan Redfern, Madame de Pompadour, Queen Elizabeth I, Lady Christina, River Song and Astrid Peth all hold the sin of crushing on Ten but this attraction is acceptable because it falls into the standard of acceptable romance; white masculine man, white feminine woman.

Romantic attraction to someone isn’t inherently wrong. How a person or character acts because of their attraction is what we can attach moral value to. For example, if a character starts to manipulate people to get their love interest, acts dismissive towards other characters to get with their love interest or considers themselves as more valuable than their love interest’s current or past partners, then we could logically make the argument for Martha’s crush being a moral bad. But Martha never did any of this. She was rightfully upset with being compared to Rose, but she never fought to replace her, called herself better than her or forced Ten to choose her instead. She stopped flirting and sucked it up and was even happy when Ten and Rose reunited. But because of tropes like the sapphire and low moral assumptions attached to Black women, Martha is seen as more morally bad than she actually was. Every discussion about Martha involves the constant lament of how she could have been a good companion and could’ve been a good character if it wasn’t for her flaw of romantic attraction. She must repent from the sin of liking the Tenth doctor and her penance is moving on with another man whether it be Tom Milligan or Mickey Smith. Only when she moves on from Ten, like her role in Torchwood and her engagement in series 4, is she then clean. Let women be messy and toxic. Just not if they’re Black. And not if they’re Martha Jones.

Moral codes and love intersect because due to amatonormativity, the idea that romance is a necessity to give characters purpose because romance is ‘intrinsic’ to the human experience, it’s common to see how romance is used as a way to establish humanity and morals in TV/Film. It’s usually a binary of a loving, romantic hero and an unromantic, cold villain. Doctor Who reinforces this heavily in RTD1 and Moffat Who as loss of romantic love tends to correlate with a character’s loss of morals and humanity, especially the Doctor’s. Ten’s bad boy antics in series 3 are justified as a result of his loss of Rose. He murders the Racnoss children in The Runaway Bride and we’re taught this is the extreme of what happens when Rose is gone from the Doctor’s life. Contrast this with the Christmas special we got post-Martha. In Voyage of the Damned, Ten’s living his best life on the Titanic and gets lipsed by another young, perky blonde called Astrid Peth. He’s rightfully upset about losing Astrid, he’s upset at the dutty capitalist antics of Max Capricorn and he hates Rickston Slade (but let’s be real, who didn’t?). But in terms of pain for Martha, he seems pretty much okay. Unlike Rose or Donna, Martha’s absence isn’t given the big dramatic loss as her white peers but is simplified by Donna’s ‘that Martha did you some good’. Whilst Martha does leave an impact on Ten’s life and it is a positive one, RTD didn’t pull out the big stops for her like he did the others. Look at the 60th specials. Rose’s psyche is imprinted in the Doctor’s brain now apparently so Rose Noble names herself after her. Donna’s back, memories and all and gets her own David Tennant to keep at home. And nothing for Martha Jones! Not even a vague name drop. Across three whole episodes. She wasn’t traumatised or loved enough to get a single line apparently. I wrote a year ago that Martha was a threat to the ideal romance of RTD1 and so she became collateral damage for the sake of Tenrose. I still stand by this. Tenrosers glorify Ten’s angst fully aware it’s at Martha’s expense because it’s an acceptable price to pay for the sake of their love. The moral complexity of Tenrose is earned because the ends justify the means. Martha is considered undesirable so she’s undeserving of love but also moral complexity. She’s romantically undesirable and so, morally impure and undeserving of grace and nuance in her character. She’s now just the bitter Black rebound. From the lens of misogynoir and the disposable Black girlfriend trope, Black women as collateral damage for shipping is justified by wider fandom as an extension of the Black woman as a ‘stage’ in white men’s romantic development. She had to be collateral to develop Ten’s moral greyness with an acceptable target to take aim and to reaffirm Rose as the ideal, desirable woman of this m/f dynamic worth causing harm for. And as long as the Doctor Who fandom was well-fed, what was the problem? Why stop the machine from running because one of the cogs complained? Love hurts, after all.

On the other hand, there’s moments in Tenmartha’s defence that feed into misogynoir but in a different way. As addressed in Chapter 1, BWWM isn’t a fix-all solution to the poor representations of Black women in romance. Whilst Tenmartha is praised for being an entertaining toxic ship, the toxicity of Tenmartha is one-sided as Ten is predominantly the instigator of their problems, contrary to RTD1 popular belief and that of RTD stans. He chose to bring up Rose constantly aka ‘Rose would know’ and ‘Not that you’re replacing her!’, he called Martha a novice, he held her knickers despite saying he wasn’t interested, he hugged her then told her off for it, he’s the reason she ended up in 1913 (John Smith notwithstanding) and yet Martha having a crush is considered just as bad or worse than any of Ten’s actions. Ten’s actions can be justified because he misses Rose, he’s grieving, he’s just a smol bean having a tough time in the TARDIS. But Martha? Bitter, jealous and non-Rose. She just doesn’t get it. The Tenth Doctor is morally grey, but Martha Jones is problematic. Along with the historic mistreatment of Black women in representations of romance, specifically, the idea of a disposable Black woman who exists for a non-Black usually white man character’s growth before he returns to his white female endgame, it’s hard for me to see Martha getting treated like this and see this solely as the spice for a toxic ship or fodder for it’s non-Black shippers. I can’t see misogynoir as toxic and messy shipping material. 

Constant comments that are sometimes used to defend Tenmartha like ‘well it’s not like Martha was abused’ and ‘well it’s not like Martha died’ rub me the wrong way because Black women’s pain is consistently minimised and seen as irrelevant, largely due to the strong Black woman trope or the disposable Black girlfriend trope. When Eleven said he felt grief for Martha, the Doctor Who fandom never knew why. She’s got her life and Mickey what could she be upset about? Martha was negatively compared to her predecessor, was left to fend for herself against racism and murderous aliens in 1913, she walked the Earth in a hellish year across wastelands and countries collapsed from genocide, her family was imprisoned and tortured and she can’t say anything about the last two because the hellish year in question doesn’t even exist anymore. No, Martha Jones didn’t get an easy ride. No, Martha Jones not being domestically abused by Ten doesn’t mean there was 100% nothing wrong with the way he treated her. And no, Martha Jones didn’t need to die to experience ‘real’ suffering. Even then where cases Black women actually do die like Bill Potts, that’s minimised too. There’s loads of jokes about the massive gap in Bill’s chest plus any commentary on why Bill had to go through such extreme trauma is easily brushed off as a necessary evil for the sake of her getting with Heather. Grace was killed off right at the start of Chibnall Who to give Graham a storyline. The mistreatment of Black women is considered minor compared to what is major and when Black women’s mistreatment is major, it’s always seen as minor anyway.

How morals and ethics are applied to our faves doesn’t exist in a vacuum. In two ways I’m torn on Tenmartha. On one hand, I can’t get behind the misogynoir needed in order to make it so ‘fun’ and messy. In that sense, Martha, but also Black women as a collective, deserve better than to be punching bags and disposable love interests to feed the character development of white characters. But on the other hand, morally grey mess is what draws me to these characters and I won’t act like every character dynamic I personally like is 100% healthy. If we’re all getting behind our flawed girlbosses then why must Martha be the woman of virtue? Why does Tenmartha have to be pure in a fandom that loves its toxic little ships? The easy middle ground here is that Tenmartha doesn’t have to be either. There’s a third option between nonexistence and Martha getting the short end of the stick. This brings me to the final question - can an ‘ethical’ Tenmartha exist?

<- Chapter 1 Chapter 3 ->

[patrice-bergerons]

Call me a basic bitch but to this day I love the cybermen v. dalek face off of Doomsday to bits.

"You would destroy the cybermen with 4 daleks?" "We would destroy the cyberman with one dalek."

The burn. The sass. The fascist tin machine on tin machine violence.

"You are only superior in one respect." "What is that?" "You are better at dying."

[fifteenandcounting]

Did the robots’ behavior remind you of any past foes? Maybe a certain metal pepperpot?

Ohhh, babes. Let me tell you -- I’ve seen ambition, but when a toaster starts monologuing about utopia?

That’s when you know you’re back in Dalek-adjacent territory (or was it the Cybermen?).

Just with better design and more sass. And no plungers, thankfully.

[notthewriteryourelookingfor]

The fact that 9 didn't have a companion like Ace is so rude to me.

Mr leather jacket anarchist and Miss "I make my own explosives that I carry in my backpack" would be the BEST duo ever.

And Im so mad it wasn't a thing.

I love Rose but I want more 9.

Also mad 9 never met Martha or Donna, he'd love Martha he'd think she was Fantastic.

And he and Donna would be able to sass a dalek into killing itself.

Also I think Martha would have been great with 3 & 4, she's so smart & 3 did really well with that professor chick, she was amazing.

Also just thinking about Martha sharing 4's scarf with 4 and Sarah Jane. They're using it like one of those leash backpacks to keep 4 near them.

[magical-grrrl-mavis]

Thinking about Daleks. A video essay on a completely different thing made the point that, considering they were created based on the Nazis, the Daleks have kinda lost that aspect, or at least it's been pretty muddled, and it got me thinking, and. Yeah.

The Daleks don't feel like Nazi's anymore, half the time they don't even really feel all that menacing. Especially compared to Classic Who where they were kinda the ultimate evil.

So now I'm just thinking of every Dalek story in NuWho and how they mess it up.

And I've written about them. Under the cut. I doubt anyone will read it all but I'll put it here anyways.

(Obviously this is all my opinion and if you disagree please be civil about it. Also I'm not saying that every classic Dalek story is perfect they just mostly were better and even the imperfect ones were generally better at showing us what the Daleks were about)

Also, I realize I sound like I'm being overly negative and hating on the show here but I do still watch and enjoy most of these episodes, I'm just looking at them with a critical lens here.

S1E6 - Dalek

The first episode with a Dalek in NuWho and most people's introduction to them does a good job establishing how deadly they are but the real villain kinda feels like that rich asshole, with the Dalek just kind of a faceless monster to run from and even a victim itself in some ways.

Until the end, where the Dalek kinda turns good and the Doctor isn't allowed to kill it. Interesting idea, definitely not how I'd introduce the biggest baddies to a new generation.

Was it a Nazi? Eh. Kinda. Was it menacing? Yeah but not in a really interesting way.

S1E12/13 - Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways

The Daleks have secretly been hiding in the shadow of humanity for years! They control us through trashy reality TV! Very Y2k! Ok but for real the reveal honestly was surprising and kinda scary, they felt like a threat. I'll give them that.

How did they survive the Doctor's genocide though? Well, only one did. He's been using human cells to make new Daleks. Very evil, except- hold on. Daleks are racial purists. They believe they are the "master race" and every other species is inferior. Hell, there's an audio story where a human scientist creates his own human "Daleks" like this and the "true" Daleks slaughter them.

Daleks doing this doesn't just not make sense, it undermines the whole scary-mutant-space-nazi thing. They wouldn't do this.

Honestly this should have been a Cybermen story. Like seriously, this could have been an amazing Cyberman story and god knows were need more of those.

Were they Nazi's? No. Were they Menacing? Absolutely.

S2E12/13 - Army of Ghosts/Doomsday

Honestly, I don't have a lot to say here. The Daleks are here, but they feel more like a villain of the week. At least they're actually Daleks this time and unambiguously evil, plus they do bring up their master race thing. I guess the Cult of Skaro was neat.

I enjoyed the sass battle--and it's not even unprecedented, one of my favorite Dalek lines from classic who is "you make your incompetence sound like an achievement."--but they really only existed as a foil to the cybermen here.

Were they Nazi's? Kinda. Were they menacing? No more than the average villain of the week, I feel like the cybermen were the real stars of the show this time.

S3E4/5 -- The Daleks Take Manhatten/Evolution of the Daleks

I just. This was bad. Like in general. Not even a "they did Daleks bad" thing I just didn't like it. Did anyone like this?

As far as Daleks go... look I'll forgive them trying to merge with a human because I guess weird ideas are kind of how the Cult of Skaro works but I'm gritting my teeth and mentally cussing as I do it. I'm painted into a corner because it FEELS wrong but Russel T Davies created an excuse for it in the form of the Cult of Skaro.

The human Dalek hybrid was offputting and gross and talked dumb.

Even with the heel turn later, the fact that the Cult of Skaro had that plan to begin with undermined their master race thing, and they never felt like much of a threat on screen. Turning people into pig hybrids was stupid and probably cost a lot in cosmetics they should have just done like a janky spare-parts version of the robomen.

This episode sucked, I'm sorry. I always skip it.

Were they Nazi's? I mean. They tried in the end. Were they menacing? The kidnapping and dronifying was kinda scary but no really.

S4E12/13 - The Stolen Earth/Journey's End

Now these are some Daleks! These space-Nazi's are SO Nazi that they would rather destroy the WHOLE universe than have other races in it. A twist that was built up through the whole season.

They did the "growing new Daleks from cells to explain how they survived" bit again but instead of using human cells like in season 1 (which was dumb) they used cells from Davros, a member of the species Daleks were before being mutated. Which I feel works and keeps their racial purist thing intact.

My biggest problem with this story (aside from a loss of a companion that broke my heart for 15 years) was that because the Daleks were not presented properly for the first three seasons, Sarah Jane and Jack's reactions to realizing Daleks took earth seemed dumb and melodramatic. We didn't have to context of how big a threat they were in-universe.

Were they Nazis? Absolutely. Were they menacing? Very much.

S5E3 - Victory of the Daleks

The skittle colored Daleks were dumb and you know it. There's a reason they were all but dropped that after this episode.

Having the Daleks pretend to be robots to infiltrate the human military was an interesting idea, but I'm kind of over Daleks hiding in the background and having other people do their bidding. These are the big bads, damn it!

The rainbow Daleks exterminating the previous Daleks because they were impure felt right. Very Dalek.

There's not really much to say here. It was alright.

Were they Nazi's? Sure, but they were also skittles. Were they menacing? They were skittles.

S5E12/13 - The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang

Look they weren't a big part of the episode but I'm gonna talk about it.

This paragraph isn't completely relevant, but the episode was kind of the embodiment of what I hated most about Moffat's writing, he wanted the Doctor to be this godlike force of nature rather than a just some wandering time lord that just wants to help. Personally not my cup of tea. It probably directly led to people thinking the timeless child was a good idea.

The Daleks in this were just as silly as any other monster in this, "the Doctor's so tough all the evil things ever make a pact to trap them" sounds neat until you realize that wouldn't work and also is dumb.

Were they Nazi's? No, they were chilling with like 20 other races. Were they menacing? You wouldn't even remember they were there if it weren't for that one begging River for mercy, which. You decide if that felt right, my judgement is clouded by gay thoughts about River.

S7E1 - The Asylum of the Daleks

STOP. MAKING. HUMANS. INTO. DALEKS.

Aside from that nonsense, the weird Dalek human-puppet things were very interesting and felt like a sort of evolution of the Robomen. We got to see what a Dalek-conquered world looked like which was interesting.

The idea that Daleks don't kill the Daleks that go crazy because "that much hate is just so beautiful" KINDA works. Kinda. Personally I don't like the idea that they fetishize hatred as a concept, it feels like their hatred should just be a byproduct of their fascistic superiority complex. Plus if we're trying to make Nazi parallels I think they'd just kill the mentally ill ones.

"The Predator of the Daleks is the Dalek word for the Doctor" No. *hits Moffat with rolled up magazine*. Just a continuation of Moffat's stupid portrayal of the Doctor as some sort of demigod.

You know what the Daleks used to say when they found out they were tangling with the Doctor? "Yes, we have records of a shapechanger who goes by that name and has a history of interfering in our cause."

Now they shit their pants. Very threatening.

Were they Nazi's? No. Were they menacing? Aside from the predator thing, yeah. You never felt like the characters were safe in that asylum.

S8E2 - Into the Dalek

Look I say this as someone who loves redemption arcs and believes in restorative justice, no more "good dalek" stories. Please.

The idea of the characters shrinking down and wandering around inside a Dalek suit was pretty neat. Very Magic Schoolbus.

Establishing that it's the mech-thing that makes the Dalek evil by hiding certain memories doesn't sit right with me and I feel like it doesn't mesh well with how Daleks have been described before.

Idk not much to say here.

Were they Nazis? Rusty wasn't. Was he menacing? No.

S9E1/2 The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar

This felt more like a Davros and Missy story, and I really loved both those plots.

The Daleks were mostly minions in this story meant to serve the real big bad, half the time they were more like set dressing. They attacked Clara and Missy and tried to kill our heroes but they weren't really central to the plot.

There was some fun worldbuilding for Skaro which I appreciated.

The fact that the Dalek's guns are activated by saying Exterminate is fun.

Were they Nazi's? They didn't really get into it but they didn't do anything that actively undermined it. Were they menacing? Sometimes.

S11 New Years Special - Resolution

Mid. Mid and weird. The junkyard chic Dalek was visually interesting but the reconnaissance Dalek being a thing and somehow being SO MUCH MORE DANGEROUS than a regular Dalek felt dumb.

The Dalek possessing someone like a symbiote felt especially silly.

Why did Chibnall kill UNIT?

I'm gonna be honest I watched this once, I don't remember a lot.

Was it a Nazi? I think kinda? Was it menacing? Not as much as the dialogue tried to convince me it was.

THAT'S ALL

I'm gonna be honest I didn't watch the rest of Chibnall's run, I kinda just skipped it because I didn't wanna hear about the timeless child (I'll get around to it) so that's all I got for you. Do I have a closing statement? Go watch The Genisis of the Daleks. It's probably on Dailymotion.

[denimbex1986]

'The moment Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor regenerated will go down history as one of the great rug-pulls of modern Who.

There she was, standing on a rocky outcrop, ready to hand over the mantle to the next in line. But this time there was an extra twist for those watching. Instead of regenerating into Ncuti Gatwa, who was announced as the next Doctor in 2022 after rising to fame in Netflix's Sex Education, people instead saw David Tennant standing in his place, ready to reprise the role he’d last held thirteen years ago.

To quote the Doctor, as he reacted to this change of plans: what?!

With that catchphrase (can a word be a catchphrase? With Tennant, anything is possible), he was back in the TARDIS, and I was immediately reinvested – catapulted back in time to a version of my teenage self where long scarves were sacred and Converse magically looked good when paired with pinstripe suits.

I wasn’t around for original Who, but watched from behind the sofa as my father (a lifelong fan) turned on the telly for the reboot in 2005. Terrifying as the Daleks may be, this show is catnip for kids: the monsters; the prospect of entering a magic box and going for adventures in time and space; and above everything else, the knowledge the Doctor will ultimately save the day.

Heading up the first rebooted series, Christopher Eccleston came and went, with a brooding kind of mystique to him – a bit too dour for my nine-year-old self, but the baddies kept me hooked: the gas-mask zombies, the Slitheen, even (shudder) the return of the Daleks. And just as I was getting properly into the show, along came David Tennant.

For millions of fans like me, Tennant wasn’t just a version of the Doctor: he was the definitive Doctor. Taking the reins from Eccleston after the show’s excellent but troubled first season (Eccleston has talked about how leaving the show put him on a BBC blacklist and almost destroyed his career), he immediately breathed fresh life into the character.

Alongside the showrunner Russell T Davies (who himself has an impressive list of credits to his name, including It's A Sin and Queer as Folk) Tennant helped launch Who into the stratosphere: suddenly, watching the show was (wait for it) cool, something that both kids and adults would tune in for. In its prime, Doctor Who under Tennant pulled in as many as 13m viewers - a world away from Jodie Whittaker's swansong, which only pulled in four.

Davies’ combination of grounded characters – he always took the time to flesh out the companion’s families and make their lives feel meaningful – and tightly plotted episodes was a winning combination. Think The Parting of the Ways, where the Doctor and Rose tearfully bid farewell on a bleak beach in Norway; or the haunting Midnight, which must be among his bleakest.

Of course, a great script is one thing, but selling it is another. As the face of the show, Tennant could switch from cheeky chappie to ultra-serious blaster of baddies in a nanosecond; yes, Eccleston had the gravitas, but Tennant had that, plus sass. And clearly, he loved playing the Doctor: a lifelong fan himself, he once told GWR FM, "Who wouldn't want to be the Doctor? I've even got my own TARDIS!" It’s a fair point.

Needless to say, I lapped it up; even more so when Catherine Tate came on board as the permanently furious Donna. It was a golden era, but alas, all good things must come to an end. When both Davies and Tennant left in 2010, the show struggled. Matt Smith was charismatic and chirpy, yes, but the writing, under Steven Moffat’s tenure, was blander, the plots more slapdash. Where were the classics: the Blinks, the Empty Children?

As the years progressed, I stopped watching entirely – as did many others. Doctor Who was no longer cool; it was once again the domain of nerds and dedicated fans who were invested enough in the show's lore that the fiendishly complicated scripts made sense (or indeed the show's revolving catalogue of rebooted monsters from the original series). For some, the bad patches were worth toughing out. Which is fine, of course; I’m a nerd myself.

Something was missing; a spark, perhaps. Both Jodie Whittaker and Peter Capaldi’s tenures suffered as a result of poor scriptwriting; the plots were shoddy. The Doctor suddenly started sprouting mysterious incarnations. Why were the Weeping Angels suddenly everywhere? I would read the series reviews and roll my eyes at the screen, longing for the good old days.

I was just about ready to hang up my sonic screwdriver for good - at least until I heard that Russell T Davies was coming back as the series’ showrunner once more, along with Tennant and Catherine Tate as his companion Donna. The classic gang, back together again, and returning for one more bite at the apple before passing on the mantle to Gatwa.

Bringing Tennant back was a masterstroke from Davies. If my ears pricked up, so too did the ears of thousands of ex-Whovians, hungry for some sweet nostalgia. And we’ve been amply rewarded: that first sight of Tennant strolling around London in his revamped Tardis made me squeal like a child. As did the first mention of “Allons-y!”, his old catchphrase.

Watching him bounce around the universe with old companion Donna has been a joy; even better, this is a Doctor brought firmly into the modern-day universe. He’s still recognisably himself, but this time around he has crushes on Nathaniel Curtis’ Isaac Newton (“He was so hot... oh! Is that who I am now?”) and lets Donna and her daughter Rose (Yasmin Finney) school him on pronoun usage. You can sense the mischief in Davies’ pen, as well as the clear love he still has for the series, peppering his scripts with Easter eggs galore.

So as the third and final special approaches, I’m not ready to let Tennant go yet. How could I be? We've only just gotten him back, but wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey rolls on, and it's been a joy to see the show looking more invigorated than it has in years.

Job done? With Davies in charge, I'm optimistic that the soft reboot he and Tennant have kick-started will continue in style. Gatwa has big shoes to fill, but one thing's for certain about Doctor Who: it's all about change. Roll on the future... but if Tennant ever decides to make another guest appearance, I'll be there in the blink of a Weeping Angel's eye.'

[luckyxring]

📌 PINNED POST

"Somewhere between the stars and the heartbreak, I remembered who I was."

ᵃⁿ ᵒʳⁱᵍⁱⁿᵃˡ ᶜʰᵃʳᵃᶜᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃˢᵉᵈ ᵒⁿ ᵇᵇᶜ'ˢ ᵈᵒᶜᵗᵒʳ ʷʰᵒ | ᵖᵒʳᵗʳᵃʸᵉᵈ ᵇʸ ᵐᵃʸᵃ ʰᵃʷᵏᵉ | ᵒˡⁱᵛⁱᵃ "ˡⁱᵛ" ᶜʰᵃⁿᵈˡᵉʳ | ˢᵉˡᵉᶜᵗⁱᵛᵉ, ⁱⁿᵈⁱᵉ ᵃⁿᵈ ⁱⁿᵈᵉᵖᵉⁿᵈᵉⁿᵗ | ᵐʸ ¹⁵ᵗʰ ᵈᵒᶜᵗᵒʳ ʳᵖ ᵇˡᵒᵍ: ᶠⁱᶠᵗᵉᵉⁿᵃⁿᵈᶜᵒᵘⁿᵗⁱⁿᵍ

Hullo! I’m Liv Chandler -- former(?) companion, current cosmic mystery, and part-time menace to continuity. Once called the TARDIS home, now I just make the universe my overly dramatic scrapbook.

💫 She/her | Immortal-ish | Knows too much | Remembers too little ✨ Time scars, TARDIS fragments, and just enough sass to argue with a Dalek.

💌 Want to ask a question? Drop it in my Livline (like "lifeline," but with ✨Liv✨)

📁 Looking for info? Try the tag directory or timeline.

🛸 Want to write? Send a transmission or a TARDIS key (whichever’s easier).

“The Doctor said I was impossible. The universe said I was unfinished.” Well, guess who's back?

[ivandra-winters]

I will say this: if Missy and Fifteen somehow end up encountering each other in the next series, there would be some much flirting between them and the sass would be astronomical. A Dalek would show up, and get promptly eviscerated by their combined strength-

[not-mary-sue]

Do you ever think about how much weight Nicholas Briggs had to pull in Doomsday. Delivering iconic lines as both the Cyberman AND the Daleks. The entire sass off between them, all Nicholas Briggs. That man deserves way more credit.

[davros42]

Rewatching Classic Doctor Who, some episodes I haven't seen in years, some of the animated reconstructions I haven't seen at all.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth AKA Daleks Threaten Earth AKA The Invaders AKA The Daleks (II) AKA The Return of the Daleks AKA The Daleks in Europe AKA Serial K

In February, 1964 Dalekmania hit Britain. The Daleks was immediately popular, spiking ratings and drawing big attention to this new show, Doctor Who. The donation of two of the original Dalek props to a children's charity drew attention and interest in the Daleks remained high. In March a sequel story was commissioned from Terry Nation for the second season, based on the strength of both The Daleks and The Keys of Marinus.

And what a sequel it was! It made use of extensive location shoots, the sight of Daleks chasing the TARDIS crew around London were instantly iconic. It also features the first quarry shoot for the show and probably one of the few times a quarry appears as an actual Earth quarry in Doctor Who history. The original 4 Dalek models were joined by 2 new ones, to flesh out the ranks of the invading army, which led to some impressively complex shoots in and around the Dalek saucer. During one of these complex shoots, William Hartnell was injured and had to sit out for an episode. The less said about the slyther, however, the better. And despite the best efforts of the crew to step up their games, some of the sets feature some obvious backdrops.

The story opens with an fantastic hook, a man with some kind of strange apparatus on his head, lurches about, tearing the mechanical apparatus off his head, and throws himself into the river. The TARDIS arrives and everyone is excited to have apparently returned to Earth. They very quickly realize, however, something is amiss. Susan injures herself and the TARDIS is blocked by rubble, the party separates once again displaying absolutely no degree of genre savvy. Barbara and Susan are discovered and "rescued" by some human resistance fighters. The Doctor and Ian come face-to-face with the unexpected... a Dalek, rising from the Thames. It's quite a cliffhanger!

It turns out that the Daleks have bombarded Earth with meteorites, infected them with a plague, and then invaded. Some of the survivors were enslaved, others were turned into Robomen: cyborg servants of the Daleks who eventually go mad and kill themselves. The Doctor immediately starts sassing the Daleks, who do not realize they have made a grave mistake in invading the Doctor's favorite planet. The Daleks don't recognize the Doctor (or Ian). The Doctor assumes that their previous adventure with the Daleks is "millions" of years in the future, which seems like the Doctor making stuff up again. The Daleks are running a mining operation for reasons unknown and the Doctor and Ian are taken aboard a Dalek saucer and come face to face with the Black Dalek, first seen in the Dalek comics. Of course, he's not entirely black yet, he needs another episode or two to finish his paint job.

The human resistance attacks. The Doctor escapes, Ian stays behind, Barbara is hurt and separated from Susan who escapes with David, a member of the resistance. Upon recovery Barbara goes off with Jenny, another member of the resistance, to find bomb making materials and killing a Dalek by running it over with a truck. Amongst Barbara's many talents, she apparently has her CDL (or whatever the UK equivalent is). One wheelchair bound member of the resistance shows some limited ability to move without his mobility device, which, to judge from recent critique, some people think is the most unbelievable thing to ever happen in Doctor Who. The Doctor meets up with Susan and David, third wheel on their extended date. Ian and another escapee make their way toward the Dalek's mining operation, meeting Mr. Rumbold from Are You Being Served? along the way (Nicholas Smith in his first speaking role).

Barbara and Jenny get sold out to the Daleks by two old women and are taken to the mine. After a series of adventures and romantic moments: The Doctor, Susan, and David also arrive at the mine. It turns out the Daleks are going to mine out the core of the Earth replace it with an engine so that they can pilot the planet as they choose, like some kind of Death Star. Which is either the dumbest thing I've ever heard or the most brilliant, I'm not sure. The Daleks are in the process of dropping a bomb down into the Earth's core when The Doctor and Barbara force the Robomen to turn on the Daleks through the power of impressions and everyone escapes, except the Daleks who are caught in the explosion. The Earth's core survives intact, but England gets a new active volcano.

The TARDIS is freed from debris and while Susan is busy debating leaving David, the Doctor makes her mind up for her, leaving her behind (with only one shoe?) to help rebuild the Earth, becoming the first companion to leave. Or be left anyway. Jenny was originally meant to become the new companion at this point but there were issues behind the scenes that prevented the character from being more than a one-shot. Personally I rather like Jenny, she would have made a much more interesting companion than Vicki.

It's a wonderful serial, using it's six episodes to the fullest and throwing almost everything into the mix to craft an impressive story, even alligators in the sewers. It feels more like Doctor Who than anything we've seen thus far. The Doctor taking a keen interest in upsetting the Daleks' plans and the crew firmly in the protagonist roles. William Hartnell gets at least three all-time classic lines including the famous speech at the end. It is a little convoluted, maybe, but almost everything is in service to the plot. There actually is a fair amount of effort put in to justifying David and Susan's relationship, more so than I remembered. They're actually kind of cute together? While it establishes the terrible "marrying off the companion to a guy she just met" standard exit, it is handled better here than in most other stories. Despite some cheap set backdrops (and the horrible slyther costume), there's some great camerawork and much more complex staging and scenes than we've seen previously. The Dalek Invasion of Earth spiked the Daleks' popularity even further leading to an avalanche of merchandising, comics, live appearances, and two feature films. And another sequel story, cementing the Daleks as the Doctor's only recurring nemesis in these early days. It also assured the popularity of the show, scoring high ratings.

Next up, The Rescue. The Doctor gets a new "granddaughter". For the first time, but not the last time.

[teetle-time]

donnie should get to dismantle a dalek. with explosives.

leo should get to sass a cyberman and be a menace also.

raph can accidentally become a mythological figure through the power of "ah crud that kid is in danger" and mikey can razz so much tazz you can see him from across the galaxy thank you and good night