No, that’s the Cybermen’s schtick. AFAIK this is the first time the Daleks have “Borgified” people, although they have worked with other species when need be. Usually, though, they’re too busy with extermination for assimilation.
Same thing happens in “Family of Blood,” where the final twist / reveal is the Doctor didn’t run & hide from the Family out of fear, but to give them a chance to save themselves…from his wrath. It was also one of the few times someone calls out the Doctor on his tactics, when Joan asks him if anyone would have died had he not hidden among them.
The way I see it, the Doctor tries to be a man - err, Time Lord - of peace, but you do not want to back him into a corner or piss him off.
Let’s just say that the BBC hasn’t ever really had a problem with the Doctor just straight-up murdering people.
PeterK
1603
What about robomen? Wouldn’t they qualify? (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Roboman)
Wow, First Doctor era - that’s old-school. Congrats, you rolled higher than me on your “Lore:Doctor Who” skill check.
That’s quite a twist at the end.
Daleks have done full conversions before.
I can remember one conversion during the Colin Baker era. Revelation of the Daleks was the episode.
I just remember seeing the persons head inside a Dalek casing, casing was clear so you could see the head.
The Doctor was talking to the head and it would now and again screech something Dalek-ish.
I really enjoyed Dinosaurs on a spaceship.
Rory, his dad, and the Doctor as a group were really enjoyable.
Doctor Who killed all the Timelords to defeat the Daleks, right? He’s not exactly a stranger to darkness. Lots of the Eccleston stuff was about reeling him back from the brink.
Well the latest episode , despite being so-so in other respects,does shed more light on his confused feelings about crime an punishment.
They’ve even done them in NuWho. That’s how the Daleks replenished the race after the Time War (see Eccleston’s final episodes). The introduction of the technicolor, Volvo-sized Daleks in Smith’s first season was the “pure” race that saw the others as an abomination to be destroyed. Which is where I thought they were going with the “Save us” bit – since they were all the gold Daleks – until I saw one of the newer models standing off to the side.
(Lore check, please: I thought the Seventh Doctor destroyed Skaro, though I know it was mentioned in the opening voiceover to the Eighth Doctor’s TV movie. Was this ever explained?)
As for Dinosaurs, I thought it was a pretty strong one-off episode, mixing the lighter tone that Moffatt has tried to bring to the series with the darker elements that have been prevalent since the 2005 relaunch. I could have done without the triceratops escape, though, especially since it looked like running would have been faster.
I also like how the texture of the show logo now reflects the episode’s setting in the new opening credit sequence. Nice touch.
He did. It got better.
According to some of the semi-canon books (War of the Daleks), one of the future timeline of Daleks found out about the destruction of Skaro, and went back and terraformed a different planet (Antalin) as a decoy to be destroyed in place of the real Skaro during the episode. Or at least, this is what the Dalek Prime claimed in the book, though the Doctor apparently didn’t believe a word of it.
With their involvement in the Time War, the Dalek history changes throughout the series, so damn near anything you make up works. Their creation is altered (but not halted) by the 4th Doctor in Genesis of the Daleks, Day of the Daleks has the Doctor changing one of the future Dalek invasions of Earth, etc.
Even the idea of “pure” Daleks gets wonky. There were the originals created by Davros, but the Daleks faced on Skaro by the 1st Doctor are actually leftover units taken over by other mutants on the planet when the originals left on their time and space war. The originals eventually became known as the Renegade Daleks when Davros created a new Imperial Dalek faction out of dead bodies, then there are the religious fanatic Daleks in NuWho. We have no real idea if the colorful new Progenitor Daleks are as “pure” as they claim.
hepcat
1611
I quite liked A Town Called Mercy. It had all the components of a good Who story without most of the soap opera that has become Rory and Amy thrown in to clog things up.
I also really appreciate it when they emphasize the reason why the Doctor needs companions (and usually human companions). He’s incredibly old and oftentimes needs to be reminded of just what kind of being he really is.
Also, I’ll take any chance I can get to see Crichton in action. God I miss Farscape. :(
The Doctor started out as an antihero, so it’s a theme that’s 50 years old. The 1st Doctor coldly kidnapped his first set of human companions to keep his presence a secret.
During that first series, the Doctor had to be stopped from using a rock to murder an injured man that was slowing down their escape. Most of his early stories involved the companions being the ones to spring to action to help those in need. You can see the progress he makes across those stories, as Ian and Barbara’s actions awaken a sense of humanity in him.
In many ways, all the good the Doctor has ever done, every life he’s saved, stems from his companions bringing him from the darkness within.
David Tennant Years DVD collection is $70 at Amazon.
Pros:
- Everything Tennant for ~$15 more than one of the individual series collections
- Nifty book packaging
- 65% off MSRP and $30 less than the lowest price I’ve seen
Cons:
- Some report that nifty book packaging scratches the discs
- Blu-ray specials from his final year come on DVD instead
- Who in this crowd doesn’t already have these?
hepcat
1614
The entire thing is dvd, not blu ray.
Correct. The Tennant stuff only ever came on DVD because it wasn’t shot in HD. The exception are the specials from his last year, which were released on Blu-ray. Unfortunately, they are also on DVD in this collection.
I’ll edit my post to clarify.
hepcat
1616
Interesting, I didn’t know that. So Matt Smith’s run and the latter specials from Tennant’s years are the only things available in blu ray?
Yep. Eccleston’s run is DVD only, too. :(
Daagar
1618
Eccleston’s run was low-budget enough that blu-ray would make it look… even worse, I think. I was really worried about getting my kids into it with that first episode, but thankfully they realized story > props.
hepcat
1619
So I take it no one really cared for A Town Called Mercy? I was pretty ambivalent myself. Though, for some reason, I always find Western-themed science fiction episodes disappointing (no, Firefly fans, I’m not talking about that).
