Sunday, May 02, 2010

Victory of the Daleks


moifs verdict; piss poor. The new Uber Daleks look like multi-coloured shit, the story is far beyond terrible, the acting was over done and the new Doctor (this is the first time I've seen him in action) didn't impress.

From beginning to end, this story felt like hysterical nostalgia running wildly out of control. I couldn't believe just how many liberties were taken, with so great a cavalier attitude; from Winston Churchill portrayed as a man nearly blind with fear over a few Luftwaffe bombers (his tenacious character sacrificed to make way for the Doctor's superior-than-thou-knowledge), to the absurd timing where by three Spitfires are retro fitted with 'Dalek technology' then fly into space to attack the Dalek mothership... in the space of mere minutes. And yet again, it all took place in London. Just as aliens nearly always attack the USA in American films, so aliens nearly always attack London in Doctor Who. Very lazy.

When the Uber Dalek's trundled out of their 'progenitor' already encased in their fair ground livery, I felt the urge to rant. The interior shot of the Dalek ship looked like a room in a terrestrial building. Very little effort had been expended on making the space craft interior actually look authentic and the gyrations of the camera indicated that all attention should be firmly fixed on the impressive Uber Daleks. The trouble was, these creatures, like the space-Spitfires, (and most of the plot) had been instantly created to fit as much story as possible into tightest possible time frame and there was no growth, or development. No casing fitting or training or education or programming. The machine hummed and hey presto, five brightly coloured Uber Daleks were fully operational, fully cognative and fully briefed as to what was going on around them. Even for space opera, this was weak. That the Dalek progenitor needed the Doctors voice print to identify the regular Daleks as actual Daleks was just the final straw. Why the Hell would the Daleks trust anything the Doctor said?

I get the distinct impression that the modern BBC is so suppressed by its own internal culture that is has become utterly devoid of creativity and must resort to rehashing old ideas in order to keep up appearances.

4 comments:

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Hated those new Daleks !!!!! :(

moif said...

They should have asked you to design them!

Unknown said...

The acting was brilliant! The story is far beyond brilliant! The New Daleks are the best Daleks ever! And the New Doctor is brilliant!

moif said...

Would you care to explain this amazing outburst?