Monday, September 3, 2012

A Complete History of the Daleks - The Davros Years - A Classical View




A Critical Analysis
by
Michael James Valdivielso


14. Genesis of the Daleks:
         The Time Lord once again founds himself on Skaro against his will.   The Time Lords has sent him thousands of years back to either stop the Daleks from being created, change them in some way or find a weakness that can be used on them.  This suggests that the Time Lords DAMN well that the Daleks are a product designed by somebody in the past.  We find out that the Daleks have been created by Davros, using machines to design their DNA and even making the shells and weapons they would ride in and use.  He made the Daleks, which he believed to be the final product of Kaled mutation, as a weapon to be used against the Thals.  The creatures inside would be without emotion, run totally by logic.  Solar panels and batteries run the first suits.  They work amazingly well for the planet that seems to be dark most of the time.  The planet itself is scarred and dead.  The landscape is covered with wire, trenches and mines. Mutants, the scarred remains of people, live in the no-mans land between the cities.   The Kaled City is destroyed by the great Thal rocket, which gives Davros the excuse he needs to send the Daleks across the mountain range to destroy the Thal City. In the end the Daleks return and kill all the Kaleds scientists, including Davros himself after refusing to obey him.  They CAN'T obey him, because they are following the very instincts he has coded into  their DNA! In the end, the Daleks are trapped by the remaining Thals in the Kaled bunker.

        How can this fit the older version of the creation of the Daleks?  Well, it fits very well.  After the events above the Daleks dig themselves out.  The Thals, few in number, continue to fight the Daleks as best they can.  The Daleks start to build a city out of the remains of their bunker, hunting down the few remaining Thals and mutants.  In the end the Daleks drop nuclear bombs, like a human trying to kill the bugs in his house by using bug bombs.  This forces the Thals to flee the area and forces the Daleks to go underground. Time passes and the land heals.  Swamps form between the growing Dalek City and the mountains.  By now the Thals have forgotten the Kaleds, but still remember the Daleks (or Dales as they call them).  The Daleks have not forgotten the Thals either and continue to hate them.

        Have the Daleks from 'The Daleks' forgotten about Davros?  No. But they refuse to accept the fact that he created them. We know they develop artistic ideals and emotions, such as hate and pride.  Dalek history is no doubt revised to fit their claim of being the supreme race and only the leaders would have kept the true information within their archives. 

15. Destiny of the Daleks:
        The Daleks, stuck in a deadlock with the Movellans, a race of logical robots, try to dig Davros out to help them.  The planet Skaro even worse than before.  Nothing but ruins and sand dunes.  The Daleks are still using living beings as slaves maybe because of the high background radiation, which would, do damage to advanced equipment.  The Daleks show no mercy; even killing some of their own labor force to force the Doctor to release Davros. An interesting statement is made by one of the Daleks.  It that the data and information presented to Davros was prepared by the Supreme Dalek.  This suggests one Dalek is in control of the race.  Were all the others killed for being failures?  For some reason the Daleks don't have a spaceship waiting on the planet or in orbit.  Are all of their spacecraft tied up in operations against Movellan ships?  One ship could have defended the planet from the Movellan ship which showed up or could have gotten Davros out of there within minutes.

    The Daleks are shown using infrared to scan for heat, tracking the Doctor and friends as they move among the ruins.  The ruins, by the way, don't look like the remains of Dalek architecture.  Could they be the ruins of a Thal City over the ruins of a Dalek City over the ruins of the Kaled ruins?  WHERE are the Thals? We know they developed space flight, so they could have fled the planet years ago, before the return of the Daleks.  A few remarks.  The Daleks willingly attach bombs to themselves and go on a suicide run.  Do they hate or fear the Movellans so much? What happened to the built-in bombs? Also, the Doctor calls the Daleks robots, suggesting that he is so old his memory is going. Poor guy. The over-all impressions I have is that the Daleks seem less flexible, maybe because of their lack of success in fighting the Movellans? 

16. The Five Doctors:
        A Dalek appears in the first episode.  One of the Doctors points out that Cybermen and Daleks were never before allowed into the 'Game' for they were too good at it. 

17. Resurrection of the Daleks:
        The Movellans have won the war against the Daleks by creating a virus that kills Daleks or at least kills the organic body within the shell. The Daleks try to get Davros away from a human prison ship to help them, but this time the Supreme Dalek is not so trusting.  Near the end of 'Resurrection of the Daleks' he even orders some Daleks to kill Davros.  Science might be their God, but Davros is NOT. The Daleks have developed interesting methods of travel.  The Dalek battle cruiser looks much more powerful and advanced compared to the old saucers.  The war with the Movellans may have forced them to develop such warships. The time tunnel used in these episodes only needs the equipment on one side of the tunnel, in this case the Dalek spaceship.  Whoever enters the spot on the other end is picked up after a few seconds and sent to the Dalek ship.

        A few remarks.  The Daleks are using cloned humans and hired mercenaries as soldiers.  What happen to the Ogrons?  No doubt the Daleks use them because the virus will not work on them. Some of the humans are even used as technicians.  For some reason, the samples of the virus the Daleks have captured have been placed on Earth for safekeeping.  When the Doctor releases the virus, it not only kills the Daleks on Earth, but also makes it impossible for them to invade Earth (for a short period anyway). Davros himself is exposed to the virus (and its his own fault) and starts to die right than and there.  Turns out the virus can't tell him from a Dalek.  In the end even the prison ship is destroyed by one of the Daleks' own cloned humans!  Yet surely the cloned humans, most of them that the Daleks trusted, could still be used to take over the Earth?  Also, one scene shows a Dalek, out of its mobile suit, being able not only live but also ATTACK a human soldier.  Have Dalek scientists been working on the race's DNA to make them more able to adapt to strange environment or are the Daleks just naturally changing, becoming stronger? 

18. Revelation of the Daleks:
        The Head of Davros has set up a factory where human bodies are turned to food for money and the left over brains used to make a new race of White Daleks loyal only to him. Later we find out the head is nothing but cheese, bait for assassins who come to kill him.  Davros is in fact well and still mostly in one piece, watching everything from a safe, unknown area.  The Gray Daleks, who are loyal to the Supreme Daleks, are told of his operation by unhappy employees and come running in a spaceship. The resulting firefight between the Gray Daleks and the White Daleks (with some support with human guards) seems a bit one sided.  The White Daleks get the stuffing beat out of them.  The factory on the planet is destroyed, so it looks like the Supreme Dalek won't get his grippers on the new Daleks after all. But in fact, a White Dalek is captured.  When the Grays pour into Davros' command center the last White Dalek fails to fire, maybe fearing Davros will be hit in the crossfire.  In fact the White is seen exiting stage left, a prisoner! Along with Davros, the White must have been taken back to Skaro, maybe to be studied?  Or maybe in the end the White Dalek helps Davros to the Supreme Daleks and takes command of the mainstream Daleks?

        A few remarks.  Davros seems to have a built-in hover device and can now shoot lightning bolts out of his hands and one eye.  I would guess that he needed parts of his body totally replaced from the damage the virus caused. 

19. Remembrance of the Daleks:
        Davros is back with the title Emperor Dalek and a huge ego.  He proves it by being tricked into blowing up Skaro's sun, the planet Skaro and any other planets in the system.  The Imperial Daleks, no doubt named so by Davros himself (but also called that by the Doctor) have a clean, crisp look, with white and coloring.  Their gripper is also slightly changed to allow them to handle the Dalek controls with more ease.  In fact they have new design, a Weapon Dalek, which is a Dalek with a big gun.  They need it too, because they get their butts kicked again in the first exchange of fire with the 'renegade' Daleks.  The big Weapon Dalek, who looks well used and has seen lots of action, swiftly evens the odds. The Imperial Daleks can even hover, moving up stairs without a problem. No doubt this is copied from the Davros’ own chair.  One, even after the suit was damaged, almost chokes the Doctor with a huge crab-like pincer.  The English scientist noticed that the White Daleks were attached to the equipment directly.  Davros has been improving on them in more ways than one. The 'Imperial' cruiser is also white and very advanced looking.  A tad too clean, the battle cruiser from 'Resurrection' looked more dangerous.  I assume, on the other hand, that the WHOLE ship can travel in time.  Too bad it blew up also, along with the shuttle, which is white on the outside but kind of gym-locker on the inside.  The Black Dalek in charge of the 'renegade' group is one of the most advanced looking of the Black Daleks I have ever seen.  I can only guess it is the last of the 'Supreme Daleks' but nobody calls it that. The 'renegade' Daleks not only have a time device, but also have found out how to brainwash kids and link them with a war computer to direct their Dalek in combat.  The girl who they use on Earth can also shot lightning bolts.

        One last remark. The Doctor, while exploring the Dalek shuttle, finds a map showing that the Imperial Daleks have returned to Skaro.  This must have happened in the future, as both Dalek groups are time traveling from the future to Earth's past to get the 'Hand of Omega,' a remote stellar manipulator. The map shows more than one planet and suggests that the Skaro system had vast amounts of material waiting for the first space going Daleks. The Doctor also lectures Ace about how she almost screwed up Earth history by leaving behind her radio and that not even the Daleks would do something as dangerous as that.  HELLO?  They reinvaded Earth in the 21st-22nd century and totally changed its history over a hundred year period before the Doctor put it back to right with the first version of the invasion.  Are we talking about the SAME Daleks who tried to take over Earth with clones in the 20th century?  The same Daleks who have visited New York and at one time had a battle with warriors of ancient Egypt?  The Doctor better stay away from squirrels because they might mistake him for a NUT! 

The best I can come to a Dalek timeline is:

                     The First Age: Pre-Space Travel
                          The Genesis of the Daleks
                          The Daleks
                      The Second Age: Space Travel
                      22nd Century:
                          The Dalek Invasion of Earth
                          Day of the Daleks
                          The Space Museum
                          The Power of the Daleks
                     The Third Age: Time Travel
                         The Evil of the Daleks
                      23rd-24th Century:
                          Day of the Daleks
                      26th Century:
                          Frontier in Space
                          Planet of the Daleks
                          Death to the Daleks
                      4000 AD:
                          Mission to the Unknown
                          The Dalek Master Plan
                      40th-41st Century:
                          The Chase
                          Destiny of the Daleks
                          Resurrection of the Daleks
                          Revelation of the Daleks
                          Remembrance of the Daleks


 

 

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