Exterminate?

[andrewducker]

Some thoughts on moral actions and Daleks - provoked by watching the latest episode last night (and brandnewgun) and then copied to my journal, as her entry is friends-only.

The act of Rose telling it to kill itself because it asked for permission was entirely too rash, in and of itself.  It was the equivalent of handing a loaded gun to someone suffering a depressive attack.  It had changed into a new being about 5 minutes before - of course it was confused and depressed!

Now, admittedly, it's a Dalek - and  has just killed 200 people - but it's changed since then, into something else.

Two questions arise:
1) Can you forgive someone for horrific acts if they've truly changed? Personally, I'd say yes. But then I'm the kind of person who'd give Hitler a second chance if he was put on Prozac and turned out to be quite nice once the paranoia was under control. Also, the thought of a repentant Dalek doing community service in an apologetic manner amuses me.

2) If you have someone who may commit terrible acts in the future, but may not, should you act to prevent them from doing so? If you _do_ take the Dalek as a new person - how much can you trust this new person not to have a relapse and wipe out Salt Lake City? It's a not dissimilar problem to dealing with Paedophiles, who have a remarkably high relapse rate - do you lock them up 'just in case' - or do you just give them lots of counselling and hope it all turns out ok? "Dalek Counsellor" - now there's a job.

And while I'd like to hope that the Dalek would be redeemable, I can't see any way that they could leave the episode with it _manifestly_ alive. The outcry would be ridiculous. It may, of course, still actually be alive - I've never seen a Daled do _that_ before. But I don't think society is ready for "creature murders 200 people, walks free because it feels sorry." - maybe next century.

Comments

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

I just hope they go back in time and see the Daleks again - rather sad to see their demise!

[robhu.livejournal.com]

I miss the daleks :-( Then again I don't like the way they made the new Daleks virtually invincible :-| It was quite cool when we had the brigadeer and his men firing mortars etc at them :-)

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

We've not seen the last of them.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure. The Dalek was essentially invincible and had they not taken the chance when it was emotionally vulnerable and got it to commit suicide, it would likely have decided to float up through the hole in the ceiling and wiped out a million Americans just for spite.

I'm glad it was bothered about the 'contamination'. What we want is Daleks that are that cool, without the (cool for an episode) whining. It was a great return and I was enormously pleased with the episode.

Now how you sort out the Cybermen is more problematic. They haven't been decent since the 60s.

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

PLEASED! WITH! THAT! EPSIODE! HAVE! YOU! GONE! INSANE!

The bit where The Doctor was rummaging through the broken weapons and tossed one aside exclaiming "Hair dryer" was very good and I kind of liked the scarey invincible death machine feeling of the dalek but fuck me backwards at a KKK rally the acting and script was cheese and the plot made no sense.

The Doctor doesn't bother to warn Rose of the fact her time travelling particles could be absorbed by the dalek and the fact that the dalek could have got into the Tardis and gone off on a little adventure to resurrect his race. The dalek should have been off somewhere to be used in future plot development not laid out in the sun like a deflated Michael Howard lookey likey asking to be ordered to commit suicide. Lame lame lame.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

- WHO! IS! THERE!

DOCTOR!

- DOCTOR! WHO!

HAR! HAR! HAR! HAR!

- I! DO! NOT! GET! IT!

- EXTERMINATE!

- EXTERMINATE!

[andrewducker]

The Doctor didn't know Rose was anywhere near the Dalek - in fact, from the moment the Doctor knew there was a Dalek he didn't see Rose again until the very end of the episode.

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

Very convenient, you can prove anything you want with facts.

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

I thought the dalekes were wiped out from before their creation - they can't go back in time, as they've been erased from history. Of course, Time Travel + any attempt at continuity = fun, so we'll see.


I agree with the idea though. And I thought the creature itself looked cute.....

[broin.livejournal.com]

I did like the spidoe. Great start, weak middle, decent end. The opening 10 mins felt stronger than almost anything else in the series so far.

But when Rose and the Dalek started chatting, I had images of Rose and Dalek walking hand in... plunger along a beach, wind in her hair, his vent...

[opusfluke.livejournal.com]

Forget the moralising! The idea of Doctor going nuts over the genocide of his species and the Dalek going nuts under torture! But here's the point:
Daleks had to survive as a species. That was imperative.
Daleks designed to be "the Superior Species" ergo all others must be destroyed.
Last Dalek suffering mutation/"contamination" therefore is no longer a "true" Dalek therefore there is no Dalek race left. Suicide the only viable option but since the Dalek is conditioned against self-destruction unless under order we see the whole thing playing out.
They will be back. Requiem For The Daleks was supposed to be the last one ever and they still came back...

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

But how did the dalek know for sure there weren't other ones left? The Doctor obviously didn't know about that one so there could have been many others.

And it frickin chose to get infected. If it wasn't for Billy Pipers stunning acting performance that whole episode would have sucked.