The Power of the Daleks episode 6 discussion:
H: Well that was certainly apocalyptic
P: Why was the Doctor and company on immediacy killed when they first ran into the Dalek?
H: My only guess… is that either the Daleks hadn’t gotten their orders yet or they were consolidating their forces.
P: They had gotten their orders They indicated that after DR left they will be exterminated.
H: Its possible that they may have not been given the orders to start the Extermination
K: I think that the DR and company just ducked and dodged a lot
R: The Daleks biggest issue is that they are supremely over confident. They know that they are going get the doctor in time, and getting to watch him twist is just a bonus.
K: Notice last week we talked about the idea of Bragen telling the colony that the rebels had killed the old governor, and this week he did.
H: I enjoyed the Expositional Dalek scene, where they talked to each other about how the power was not complete, and that once the power was complete… blah blah blah.. How convenient and lucky that was for the doctor.
R: Blah blah Daleks super confident.. blah.
K: I thought all the shots of the dead people was incredible grim.
P: I thought the montage was very powerful, and I wondered just what it looked like in the regular showing.
H: I am pretty sure those were the tele-snaps that from the original montage of people lying dead. Apparently it is similar to the original.
P: I agree, everyone was dead in the shots.
H: They just re-used those at various points in the recon
P: I was caught off guard by the comment “The Law of the Daleks” was said.. all humans must be Exterminated.
E: That must be a really fun society to live in.
K: It maps to everything we know of the Daleks.
R: APE MUST NOT KILL APE, THAT IS OUR JOB.
H: Yes, why do humans kill each other line, I like that..
E: It gave me feels..
R: It gave you feels??? Uhh huhh..
K: <Singing INXS > Exterminate, Annihilate, Food on plate, we all rotate.
P: Ahhhh..
H: How about that Lesterson, and his continued decent to madness and death
E: That creeped me out.
Cz: Horrible
A: They had a perfect photo for that!
K: I loved that.
R: Bill Nye the mad Science guy!
P: I thought the same thing..
H: This episode and knowing how he ends up is why I defended Lesterson from the eating scenery thing last week, because it all pays off.
K: I like Lesterson last week, Spoo is the one who did not like him last week.
Cz: I thought it even worse this week, I have never seen a person lose it, but I don’t think it will go down like that.
R: It is a very 1960 television character breakdown, but I did like his madness this week, especially the line “I am your Servant”
<everyone agrees>
K: That one line made the long 6 week drag worth it.
H: I did not think it was a drag, man. Remember, this is the second time I have see a different recon of the same store, but hey, I am crazy..
P: I also think that the screaming of Daleks dying was quite a moment in the show, and really put a new light on the war between Doctor and Daleks.
Cz: Do they feel pain
R: <interrupting> I hope so!
K: Yes. They are organic in the casings.
P: And they go crazy
H: With the screaming, I thought when we heard Doctor and others, and you would hear screaming from people off camera in the battle being mowed down by the Daleks, it just gave the episode an apocalyptic feel.
P: I also that that historically I can not remember a time where they showed so many Daleks exploding
K: I can. The 12 parter, both the Master Plan, and “The Daleks” had that many exploding. I just wondered how they fixed them, as they only have 4.
R: I think part of the blowing up stuff was actually miniatures.
H: I don’t thing that miniatures was made part of this story. Making a Daleks casing that you explode is a lot cheaper than making a Dalek you can use. I think they had a couple that were unusable.
R: I liked Ben and Polly’s reaction to what happened around them.
K: What do you think they did in that closet.. eh? Eh?
R: Sobbed quietly I am pretty sure, Ben was stoic, but Polly was not. Both of them were really clearly affected by what is going around.
P: This is full out war..
Cz: Isn’t he in the Military?
H: He is in a peace time Navy.
A: how about that suggestion at the end where Ben seem to realize that the Doctor is being devious?
K: Or completely making this up as he went along.
P: Doctors response is “I do what I do. Did I do that? I did a lot of damage, did I?”
H: I think its meant to be up in the air, is the doctor devious, or did he just sort of get lucky? I mean Polly makes it sound like the doctor did not try to hard to stop things, so did he manipulate the situation or did it get away from him? I think we are meant to wonder that along with Ben and Polly because we still don’t know what this new personality is exactly.
R: I have drawn my own conclusion..
H: which is?
R:.. he is a doofus. I am not saying that I don’t like him, but I am firmly of the opinion that he is a doofus.
H: Lets do final thought not just on this episode, but the entire story.
E: Probably my favorite part of this entire arc is Lestersons decent into madness.
Cz: it was not a decent, it was a 90 degree angle.
E: Well, yes, it was more of a plummet than a decent. And I may be a bit bias, because madness is a favorite story telling tool of mine, but I particularly like how it was used here.
A: I like the madness thing too. Ezio sort of covered it.. I would like to have seen more of the doctor, there was so much going on that we did not get much screen time.
K: Yea, the doctor did not do anything until the end, and then it was not clear if he did it on purpose.
Cz: It was a six parter, but does not feel like it was 6 weeks. It went by fast, unlike jungles… Jungles everywhere… <Stares off into space>
P: I thought the story arc was very well done, there clear archetypes in the non main characters that at the end you could recognize, but during the actual showing took their time to appear.
K: Yea, I get it. And the hero was Quinn, the only one with a BRAIN!
R: One of two!
H: Bregan had a brain, but he just used it for evil.
R: I was actually thinking about Valmar.
H: We have not talked about Janely at all….
K: She was very “Number One” in regards to Bregan. You just waited for him to double cross her, but the Daleks did her in first.
H: Do people think she was being honest when she told Valamar that she had to had to go along with Branan right at the end?
K: Yes
R: No
P: No
K: I say yes, because of her line of “The Daleks are way more dangerous that Bregan thinks”.
R: Except for the fact that she never TOLD Bregan that the Daleks were so dangerous.
H: But she does tell Valamar that Bregan pulled a gun on her and was willing to kill her, which is absolutely true. I am not saying that she means that she is telling the truth.
K: Also, did she know how dangerous the Daleks were before she left Bregans office and escapes thru the Dalek fight to speak with Valamar?
H: Well she did see Daleks kill Resno. I think this is up to the viewer to decide if she is telling the truth.
K: does not matter, she is dead anyway. Any way, final thought. Liked it, but I thought it ran longer than needed. There is a time and place for a 6 part story, and this is not one of them.
H: Devious Daleks, Cringing companions,
E: I am allergic to alliteration
H: <ignoring comment>…manipulating Doctor, high body count, I think this is a Hell of a story. It is one of my favorite Dalek stories, I think it is almost perfectly paced, admittedly with dead spots in episodes 4 and 5.
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