Doctor Who Club of Australia

[toberman]

Well....the boards are back up. Hello? Hello? Anyone here?

I guess we'd better start again then.

Umm....so Dalek eh? Good or what? I thought it was good, not great. Best of the series so far but not best overall. Some crackers coming up.

The best moment was the Cyberman head in the exhibit.

A million billion gazillion imaginary dollars for anyone who can tell me what the inscription on the Cyber-exhibit said. Did it say anything?

[Theta Sigma]

First of all glad this forum is back on.

I am sure no one expected to see the Cyberman's head in the beginning.
Adam mentioned "World War Three" which happens to be the name of the previous episode.
This episode was screened on the ABC between the second last and last installment of Space Odyssey written and directed by Dalek director Joe Ahearne.
Ahearne also created Ultraviolet (coincidentally I happen to see Ultraviolet star Jack Davenport in The Wedding Date before Dalek was shown) and Dalek certainly has an Ultraviolet feel to it.
Stargate fans would no doubt recognise Anna Louise Plowman (Diana) who was Osiris in SG-1.
Dalek is a superb reworking of writer Rob Shearman's own Big Finish story Jubilee.

[Theta Sigma]

Anna Louise-Plowman's appearance in Dalek gets a mention in Stargate News Australia:
"'Osiris' Turns Up In Dr Who Ep 'Dalek'

New Zealand born actor Anna Louise Plowman, best known to Stargate SG-1 fans as the wily and deadly Goa'uld Osiris and one-time Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks) love interest Sarah Gardner, showed her acting prowess in the Doctor Who episode Dalek earlier tonight in Australia

On Dalek Ms Plowman plays the part of the right-hand woman to the episode's bad-boy Henry van Statten. Dr Who airs 7:30pm Saturdays on Australia's ABC-TV"

[Liam]

I tried to get a closer look at the Cybermans head, but the quality is pretty average, we need to ask someone who has the DVD, try some digital zooming or something...

I thought this was an excellent Dalek episode, easily better than most previous Dalek stories, just watched a borrowed copy of Day and Destiny, which are far below Dalek. I loved the Dalek's independantly moving mid-section, and for once a Dalek that wasn't so easily dispatched.

[Greg]

I only have one substantial issue with this episode... 45 minutes?

In 45 minutes we get to learn a lot more about the Time War, what has changed for the Doctor (and perhaps why he's more inclined to blow things up), meet the man who owns the internet and collects alien artefacts, another man who collects them for him, and see the most startling transformation of a Dalek since, well, The Evil of the Daleks.

In 45 minutes, what should have been driven around several character interaction scenes became rather a rush.

It's a good story, but I think it deserved more room to breathe.

[the wheel]

i agree with greg and i have the same feeling about most of the single part NS stories i have seen, they cram too much into to little a space of time

it was good while i was watching it but once it finished i was left with an empty feeling.

still, rather good but I liked rememberance more.

p.s. i was annoyed about the whole thing with daleks flying, they flew in rememberance - still, the general public is unaware of many things that us hardcore who fans know

[Theta Sigma]

Last night just days after Dalek was on the ABC the Dalek ANZ ad was included in the Today Tonight report last night on the delay in responding to customer phone calls. There were a few snips of it with the last of the Dalek with its "Exterminate" rant ending the report.

[meglos]

Best since Genesis. But is hard to compare the old series to the new series. They are so different yet in someways the same if you know what I mean.

[Linx]

I don't think it's any secret that Terry Nation always intended for the Daleks to be an analogy of the NAZIs taken to their logical extreme. Certainly Genesis made this link quite explicit.

The thought came to me last night that Dalek is really a continuation of the NAZI analogy, but taken from an entirely new angle. Consider:
The War is over and cities like Berlin & Dresden (read: Skaro) lie in ruins. The Nuremburg trials have been and gone and those defendants who weren't executed have committed suicide. All that remains is Rudolph Hess, all alone, the sole inmate of Spandau Prison. The last NAZI….

[Linx]

And now that I come to think about it further, Hess also crashed over hostile territory, his sanity at the time was seriously questionable and he ultimately committed suicide after years of imprisonment in 1987.

[Nyder]

Definately the best Dalek episode since Genesis... but not for long.

I liked it, simply because it is so sharp. It's got a perfect build-up and a perfect resolution... with some simply amazing scenes in it. Eccles' confrontation with the Dalek at the beginning has got to be one of the best scenes of the series. And the final scene with the Dalek is probably the best scene with a Dalek EVER! Not to mention Rose's scene with the Dalek... almost made me cry!

Nyder

[the wheel]

this one was really emotional and i even (god forbid) felt sorry for the dalek

[Tom Baker's Scrotum]

I like Daleks. Daleks are good.

Yours Sincerely,
Everybody's Favourite Scrotum

[Hiruma]

I kinda feel sorry for Van Statten though. So many toys and now he thinks he is a homeless bum in a city starting with S. Whoever they got to play that character played it quite well. Being a long time stargate watcher I was perhaps expecting something agressive from Anna Louise Plowman.

and only 200 securities guys dead? Hed have thousands


Matt

[Ickabod]

I actually cried the 2 times I saw it more for the Dalek and the hopelessness of feeling from both the Doctor and the Dalek.....

[Liam]

Yeah I love when the Dalek says "we are the same". The two conversations it had with the Doctor and Rose before it regenerated itself were really good, I enjoyed hearing some intelligent dialogue from a Dalek, rather than repeating chants. Though they can be fun too...

[arturo]

The thing I loved most about this epsode was it took a pantomime villain and gae it some depth. It was a sad and pathetic creature when we were first introduced to it and it was easy to see why Rose would have empathised with it. I loved the Doctor's reaction to it, it shows that he has developed as a character also and is now an angry man with a grudge. The pleas of the dalek at the end of the episode brought tears to my eyes.

The dalek itself has never been such a cunning and deadly war machine, the extermination of guards using the sprinkler system was devestating. Yes we have seen flying before but this time it seemed convincing!

All in all a great episode, tears, giggles, cyber-cameo, thumbs up all around.

[Guest]

Rob Shearman's dialogue is so wonderful. Forget the Dalek. Forget the special effects. The banter between van Statton and the Doctor is magical.

However, I was slightly disappointed that Rob has ripped off his own work, namely, the Big Finish audio 'Jubilee'.

My favourite Shearman audio would have to be BBV's 'Punchline'. If you haven't heard that and you enjoy his work, you MUST have it!

[Nyder]

I heard Jubilee the other day, and I thought it was sooooooooo good!

I liked it alot more then Dalek. It was so much more meatier. It was such an interesting idea, and the characters were all so great! The humour was fantastic. Colin Baker was superb in this... so much so, that I may need to re-consider my opinion of him.

The episode 2 cliff-hanger was also one of the best cliff-hangers ever!

If anyone can get a hold of this, please do so.

Nyder

[Greg]