Wacky Races

Let us take a moment to discuss some of the intracacies of Dalek Geneology.

There has been a tendency in recent years for Dalek Empires to come and go with a frankly alarming regularity. And we're not just referring to them as a political entity here. The Daleks as a SPECIES have been wiped out and then recreated time and again, such that we now have a number of distinct races of Dalek to discuss.

The first great race of Daleks is of course that which debuted in, appropriatly enough, The Daleks. Despite a certain amount of hopping around in the timeline we have here the original race, genetically reengineered by Davros from mutated Kaled DNA on Skaro. In fictional terms lasting right up to the end of the Time War, whereupon they all died.

The second race of Daleks are also from the original series. Genetically reengineered by Davros from Human DNA. These were Davros second go as it were, loyal to him rather than the Emperor or larger Dalek race. Here we get into the whole confusing Dalek civil war situation, with Davros apparently declaring himself Emperor and nobody really having a clue who was actually in charge of what anymore. Though they presumably sorted all that out before going off to declare war on the Time Lords. In story terms they only lasted for a couple of storylines, but then the series was cancelled. Who knows what may have happened otherwise.

After many long years the series finally returns. We get a glimpse of the Daleks again in the episode Dalek. One lone Dalek, the last survivor of the Time War. The final remnant of the original race. Well, last survivor until the Emperor turns up at the end of series one, and we get the Third race of Daleks. Genetically reengineered from human DNA by the Emperor. Quitely plotting away in the darkness of space, rebuilding their strength until they are finally wiped in a giant deus ex machina by that bad wolf buisness. The great and powerful Daleks return for about an hour and then are eradicated down to their constituent atoms. Ho hum.

So, whats next. Series 2 brings us yet more last survivors of the time war. More remnants of the first race of Daleks. Who also last about an hour before being erased from the face of existence. But their not really that interesting for the purposes of this article, so whatever. Next we get the abortive attempt to resurect the Daleks as a race of wooden extras in human form. But I don't count them. If it isn't a squid in a space tank then it frankly isn't a Dalek.

Then series 4 comes along, and brings with it the fourth race of Daleks. Genetically engineered from his own cells by Davros. A mighty Dalek empire, at the height of it's power we're told. This translates into lasting about an hour and a half before being eradicated in a mighty conflagration. But it's longer than any other race has lasted in the new series, so I guess they get points there.

And all of this has been leading us where? 4 races of Daleks, each raised from a different source, and each finally destroyed completely. Or at least mostly completely. And as we all know, mostly dead is slightly alive. And that's kind of the point of Victory Of Daleks. The crux of the episode is, basically, that the new production is aware of how silly it's been getting with the Daleks. They have been completely wiped out one time to many. So here, whilst we're introducing yet another race of Daleks, the point is that they're coming back properly. No being wiped out at the last minute only to return again next series. The purpose of the episode is to reestablish the Daleks as a credible threat. Those huge looming new cases roll out of the factory and we're given more than an obvious merchandising opportunity (I personally can't wait for the boxed set) we're given a formal political structure. Drones, Scientists, Strategists, A Dalek Supreme to run the whole show and an Eternal who's role is basically to do something cool at some point in the future. Even if nobody knows what yet. My money is on Deus Ex proofing.

So out with the old, in the new, in a fantasticly entertaining way. There's a lot to love in this episode. Some of it isn't even the Daleks. I mean, Spitfires in space. Fighting a Dalek saucer. That is SO Doctor Who. As with all episodes there's a couple of niggles. Interestingly we have a similar problem to the pevious episode, with a large glaring and possibly fatal issue left unresolved because it doesn't quite fit in with the fairy tale aesthetic. I mean yes it's lovely that the climax hinges on the establishment of a characters humanity, but at the end of the day he's also anachronistic alien technology and possess the power to destroy the entire earth should someone work out how to detonate him. It wouldn't have hurt to have his power supply replaced with something a little less deadly. Maybe with a limited runtime, thus providing a human life with a human death? But I guess we just didn't have time.

At the end of the day we have a nice well written episode, featuring some great performances and good ideas. At it's heart it is both a reestablishment of one of the series major villains and a declaration of intent. We're still seeing how differently it is that things are being done, and this episode serves very much as a line in the sand. As I suppose did both the preceeding ones. The new series has very firmly established it's new identity and intent. Perhaps now we can move on and see what it's really capable of.