One thing I found frustrating as a kid was how stagnant the Daleks were. They were cool but limited villains, stuck in a repetitive loop of stories that rehashed all the same elements and added little. Good stories, mind you, but it felt like they could go further. Of course, one of the key traits about villains is that they are incapable of growth, instead doubling down on flaws.
One of my absolute favourite Doctor Who Classic stories is Genesis of the Daleks. This one retcons their origins, but it also moves them forward the furthest since their introduction. It also introduces Davros, an absolutely fantastic character, played to perfection by the fantastic Michael Wisher. Davros has been described as Hitler crossed with Stephen Hawking (basically, a physically crippled yet frighteningly brilliant mad scientist-eugenicist), although that's not how I'd put it.
Recently, Davies retconned Davros and made him physically abled. Why? Because he felt evil was being associated with disability. I don't agree, and find the retcon patronizing. Not to mention that, despite disability, Davros is one of the most dangerous and compelling villains to ever grace Doctor Who. That said, I get the sentiment.
Beauty as good and ugly as evil is a trope in the same vein, which runs through fiction and particularly fairy tales. Goblins, trolls, witches, demons, devils, monsters, etcetera are all evil and ugly. Elves and angels are beatific, and therefore good.
Underlying this logic are biological imperatives: beauty relates to youth and fertility, while the long noses, big ears, and wrinkles of witches and orcs code them as old. So favour the future generations, and discard the old and defunct. Old is dross, young is desire.
So, should we redo orcs and goblins as beautiful, and elves as ugly, to fight this trope?
Personally, I'd rather not mess with oodles of originals, and prefer just setting earlier work in context, rather than to 'fix' it.
I do enjoy NEW work that plays with all manner of tropes. Something I wanted to do more of in future volumes of Dragon Garage.
Anyway...
Mashing together WWI, space Nazis, eugenics, V2 rockets and body horror into a cracking good story, it also features Tom Baker at his dramatic best, supported by two of my favourite companions.
True, the effects can't, and don't, live up to the narrative ambition, and the attack of the immobile giant clams is somewhat less than convincing, but the acting and the narrative sell it for me. I don't think kids these days can appreciate it anymore, they're too dependent on glitzy special effects to consume narrative with a less slick surface, but the story really fuelled my imagination as a child.
Heck, I accepted dinosaurs that were obviously hand puppets.
Story editors rejected several Terry Nation scripts because they were repetitive, which pushed Terry to come up with Davros. Stories after Genesis relied on Davros like a crutch, leaving the iconic villains in the background as glorified minions.
And so, the Daleks remained one note villains: excellent at that one note, but little else.
No flesh on the bones, so to speak.
One of my goals with Universe of the Daleks was to flesh them out a bit, show the inner life of Daleks, while at the same time remaining true to their nature, and the thematic and moral purpose they serve in storytelling as villains.
One possible reason for their stagnation could be rights related: they're licensed from Terry Nation's estate, so what can be done with them may be very limited. On the other hand, the god-awful rainbow chiclet Daleks, Moffat's so-called 'new paradigm', would seem to refute that thought.
You can catch chapter three of Universe of the Daleks over at an Archive of Our Own here.
Give it a gander and let me know what you think.
I'm releasing a new chapter every Saturday afternoon, matinee time.
Seems appropriate.
It's a proper old Hinchecliffian tale in style, with (some) banger cliffhangers, and an admittedly slower pace than the more frenetic reboot.
Mind you, it does star the Tenth Doctor, who's fabulous fun to write for.
Did I succeed? Did I fail? You decide!
Universe of the Daleks.
It's admittedly not kinky (AOO's real jam). I may post it here eventually instead.
NOTE: I found out there's a Dalek Universe line of stories, so changed the title to Purity of the Daleks, only to find someone has a Purity of the Daleks story out there already, so I changed it back.
