To the surprise of no-one, since the official reveal of the new Daleks from this years Doctor Who holiday special, Revolution of the Daleks (here), there’s been a lot of chatter online about how great/awful the new designs are (I hate them, sorry) and now showrunner Chris Chibnall has stepped up to explain where they fit into the overall Whoniverse.
Now, let’s be clear, they aren’t as truly horrendous that the Smith-era 2010 Paradign redesign, left, but they come pretty close.
These new designs come from last year’s New Year’s Day special, Resolution, which followed one lone Dalek that reconstructed its armour as best it could, but I don’t think anyone at that stage thought Jodie Whitakker’s Doctor would face off against more Daleks that looked that way.
And yet, here we are.
“There’s always a pressure when you refresh any Doctor Who monster,” says Chibnall, “But equally that’s part of the job and that’s part of what keeps it new and interesting.
“You’re never replacing what’s gone before, you’re just adding a new variant. It wasn’t like we were saying ‘these will replace the bronze Daleks!’.”
“It’s just this story is about these black and red Daleks, which light up at night and do all sorts of things.”
Hmmmmmm… this sounds like the old ‘these reboot doesn’t destroy your version’ argument, doesn’t it?
On the new designs, producer Matt Strevens added: “You want to contemporise them, and make them hold up to scrutiny under modern filming techniques, and to look as high-end as you possibly can.
“You can’t stray too far from the classic design – but then what can you do within that? How can you make them feel different and relevant, and sexy, and lethal as well?”
It looks more and more like this year’s special will once again be a New Year’s event rather than Christmas (I miss the Christmas episodes), so we’ll see soon enough how these new designs hold up on screen.
What say you all? Do you like the new Daleks? Will you be tuning in to the new episode? Let me hear it all…
Source: Radio Times
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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