Victory Of The Daleks

[poliphilo]

Oh no, the daleks are back. Yawn.

But actually this was the best use of them in ages- in fact since NhoWho began. Daleks in khaki with their old kit-bags fastened round their shoulders (or is it their waists? As with Humpty Dumpty one just can't be sure) are not only cute but somehow appropriate. As Moffat said, quoting RTD, daleks are so WWII.

And by the end of the show they'd been rebooted- and are now taller, bigger and colour-coded. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing them again.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I think I still believe that using WWII this way is... what words are good. In poor taste. It's still recent enough that there are people alive who remember it, if very few. It feels irreverent in a painfully bad way, rather than in a 'helps us get over it' way. To me anyway.

As the internet says: "Too soon." :P

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's any amount of British comedy that bounces off WWII. TV shows like Dad's Army and Ello Ello, Spike Milligan's memoirs, lots and lots of movies involving people like Will Hay and Norman Wisdom. Silly stuff about the war was going into production even while the war was being fought. We laughed at the Nazis, we laughed at ourselves. It helped raise morale. I think this episode of Who is in that tradition- at once silly and patriotic and proud. Being silly about the war was one of the things that got us through it- and once you've started laughing at something it's very hard to stop.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

Perhaps if the episode had been written better I would have felt differently. But scenes wherein Amy looks at a sobbing woman and says brilliant things like 'I don't think she's okay'...

Well, no, dear. Crying women usually aren't okay. o_O

I thought the Beast Below was fun enough to ignore some of its problems, but this one was just painful.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I agree about the weeping woman. That was a mis-step. She seemed thrown in as an afterthought- as if someone had said, "Hey, we need to show the kids that war has its down side too."

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I did like the knaki daleks.

But I still think one of my favourite Dalek shows had to be Remembrance of the Daleks (I hope that's the right one). The Sylvester McCoy one with the little girl and the graveyard.

Ah, Sylvester McCoy. I liked his stuff...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I watched Sylvester McCoy with my kids. They adored him. I think he's under-valued. I particularly remember an episode where a Soviet submarine captain went round subduing vampires with the hammer and sickle because- see- it's not the symbol that counts, but the depth of your faith in it.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I remember it well. 'Curse of Fenric', with a wonderful Mark Ayres soundtrack (I've even got the CD...).

And, of course, starring Nicholas Parsons as the Doubting Thomas of a vicar who found himself confronting the Haemovores of Lulworth Cove...

Oooh... I'm really getting nostalgic now.

'Silver Nemesis' was good, too, with the maniac Civil War lady and her timid flunkie!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Curse of Fenric was terrific. I believe I may have preached a sermon on it. Perhaps I identified with Nicholas Parsons' doubting vicar.

I's be afraid to watch it now in case it didn't live up to my memories

yes!

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

McCoy was awesome, and the only celebrity I ever wrote a fan letter to. He wrote back with a signed postcard, which I treasured. No idea where it is now. With Dr. Who now I feel watching it is somehow being unfaithful. Also these new Doctors just seem so damn frantic all the time, which annoys me. It also raises the point, was McCoy frantic as well?

Also, the CGI in the Dr. now generally looks pretty cheap and video-gamey. In McCoy`s day it must have all been models.

Re: yes!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think they're frantic because the stories move so fast. In McCoy's day each story stretched over several episodes. If you watch very early WHO- that is to say, William Hartnell- the pace can be glacial.

I watched one episode where the characters were crossing a chasm deep underground. You know someone was going to fall in, but they spun the suspense out over something like twenty minutes. These days they'd deal with a situation like that in thirty seconds.

I'm not a fan of CGI. Even the very expensive stuff- in very expensive movies- looks fake to me.

[methodius.livejournal.com]

I watched the one with the faux Titanic in orbit.

I remembered "Dr Who" from visiting the UK 40 years ago, and seem to remember him as an old man with a white beard in the Gandalf/Merlin tradition. The new one didn't cut it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

White hair, yes- but none of the Doctors has ever had a beard. The oldest Doctor was the first- William Hartnell- who was in his early 50s when he took the role. He played the Doctor as a curmudgeonly old wizard- but he's the only one who has. All the others have been younger and given to running about.