Change is in the air, or rather, in time and space. A new Doctor will soon be flinging the TARDIS around the cosmos, across multiple dimensions and through inter-galactic continuums, but for the first time the captain of the ship will be a lady. For fans of the long running and phenomenally successful serial Doctor Who, casting a female as the lead has generated considerable excitement. Many have applauded the move as a welcome balance of gender and look forward to how the character of the Doctor may be given further depth. A few traditionalists are less enthusiastic, citing the female casting as a loss of a role model for boys. Come on chaps, move with the times. Gender aside, the test of the Thirteenth Doctor’s mettle will come with each alien encounter, the majority of whom are malevolent. And I don’t believe any Time Lord’s tenure is entirely complete without confronting the most iconic and notorious of adversaries: the Daleks.
The Daleks have faced the Doctor on numerous occasions, so we have learnt a little more with each appearance. A potted history: The Planet Skaro was home to two races at war with one another, the Kaleds and the Thals. The Kaleds, seriously impaired by effects of biological and nuclear weapons, were reinvigorated by their chief scientist, Davros. Removing all emotions except hate, Davros took the mutant forms of the Kaled people and housed them in robotic chambers, thus the Dalek was born. When the tank-like casing of a Dalek opens, the Kaled mutants are shown to be generally squid like in appearance.
As the Doctor transforms from one body to another through the process of regeneration, so too have the Daleks evolved. The very first ones were capable of movement only on the metal floor of their home planet. Invasion of the cobbled streets of London necessitated the addition of a satellite dish to explain their enhanced mobility. Present incarnations are fully capable of flight. This development finally resolved what up until now had been a very embarrassing problem with steps. Some things however, have not changed despite obvious drawbacks. I grew up in the era of the Fourth Doctor. Tom Baker on a Saturday evening, with his mass of unkempt curly brown hair and maniacal grin, all goggle eyes and teeth, is imprinted on my childhood memory. In one particular episode The Doctor outwitted his Dalek captor with a deft flick of the wrist, tossing his hat over the eye-stalk and rendering it completely blind. Perhaps more successful Dalek victories have been won with species that did not wear hats. And then we come to the other white elephant: the plunger. For many years the Daleks were known for two things; they couldn’t climb steps and had a plunger as an appendage. Davros, what were you thinking, Man? You mastermind the conception of a super-race which conquers countless life forms throughout the universe, and then stick a plunger on one arm. This is puzzling. I have contact with plumbers very often during the course of my day job. Most are quite amiable. You do find the odd one with an inflated opinion of his own self-importance, but not to the extent that he wants to wipe out all other trades who are not plumbers.
We see the Daleks again and again. They are the most persistent of the Doctor’s enemies. The Cybermen, too make a nuisance of themselves on a regular basis, but they just don’t seem to have the same waspish menace. So to borrow from Monty Python, what have the Daleks ever done for us? Well, they have demonstrated tenacity, self-discipline, developed time-travel and are available in a very fetching range of colours.
But throughout their many battles with the Doctor, they usually find themselves on the losing side. Would life be any better if Davros had given them something a bit less daft? Some models have been seen with a claw; so much more useful for picking things up. What if they had gone further and incorporated fingers with an opposable thumb? Circumstances could be very different and for the mavericks amongst their ranks it would now be possible to hold a cake sale or take up the ukulele and deal with those anger issues. And if there were some sort of emergency with a blocked toilet and they were without the ideally suited implement, they would still have the other arm to blast it to smithereens.
– Anthony Brum
Please check out my space adventure for middle-grade/ 9-12 year olds- “Imbrium City: Rise of the New Defenders,” available on Kindle now.
Cadet Kiera Austin, young and extraordinarily gifted, is a student of the Stellaris Academy, in the lunar city of Imbrium. Resentful at the choice of her new partner, android Leo Silver, the pair are called to an emergency on a remote outpost of the Moon: a fire, that Kiera suspects was deliberate and is somehow linked with Leo’s past. Driven by a desire to find the truth, Kiera’s investigations arouse the attention of some powerful and very dangerous forces, who will stop at nothing in their pursuit to hunt the cadets down…
Happy Dr Who Day everybody!!!