From: trump@iastate.edu (The Trumpster.)
Subject: Re: What Dalek book should I read???
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 21:02:36 GMT

In article <15163@umd5.umd.edu> jblum@hamlet.umd.edu (Hi ho -- Kermit the Frog here...) writes:
>In article <1992Aug26.224732.17786@news.iastate.edu> trump@iastate.edu (The Trumpster.) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug26.133422.19330@cbfsb.cb.att.com> mfh@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (mitchell.hansinger) writes:
>>>1)  What was Davros' purpose in creating the daleks?  ie what did he want to
>>>accomplish/hope to obtain?
>

>You seem to be missing out on the subletly of Davros, and the reason why
>he's one of my favorite Doctor Who villains.

Then you're also missing out on the sublety of the Master, who wanted to
turn Earth into the Pickle Planet.

>Sure, he created the Dalek travel machines... but why do you think he
>created them in the form he did?  One arm, no legs, one eye in the
>center of the forehead?

Davros did NOT create the Daleks. The Daleks are his people with the mutations
accellerated. Thats what they would look like in the future.

>He was mirroring his own deformities from the bomb blast that nearly
>took his life.  He was re-creating his race in his own image, like the
>god he wanted to be.  To compensate for his handicap, he made the Daleks
>into the ultimate fighting force, and convinced them -- and himself --
>that this form was the best.

He found the form digusting and dispicable. He never altered the physical
structre of the Daleks, only the brain patters.

>Of course, this arrogance that he gave his creations turned back upon
>him.  Even the Daleks looked down on him as a lesser being.  Deformed.
>Useless.

Thats what I said, but he wasn't arrogant. See below

>>>2)  How did the schism between Davros and the daleks occur?
>
>>Davros
>>wasn't really all that bad of a guy. He was a man of war, and his experiment
>>went wrong.
>
>No.  It went right, and that's the irony of it all.  The Daleks found an
>existance outside of being an ego-boost for him -- they were more
>successful than he ever dreamed.

Wrong. The Daleks were not a right or wrong situation. Like I said before, he
wanted to see what his people were going to look like after the radiation had
done it's work. He was horrified at his race's prospects, and decided enough
was enough. Davros was a brilliant man, and he was at WAR. His society and
people were threatend, and he used the Daleks to fight the war. It was his
job and duty to create the monster known as the Daleks.

>And I question the idea that Davros "wasn't really all that bad".  He
>might have started out working for the glory of his race, but by the end
>he betrays them and lets them get massacred so that only the Daleks can
>go on.

That may seem rather cruel hearted, but it's a good strategic decision. His
people were dying and muatating. He knew what they would become, and saw no
future for them. I mean, would you pump billions of dollars/pounds into
something you KNEW for a FACT would fail? The Daleks would survive, the
Kaleds would die.

>All that mattered to him was his creation, his Daleks.  He was
>a creator in the image of Victor Frankenstein, but instead of betraying
>his monster, it betrayed him.

Well, yes...That's probably true. He did make them a little too good.

>> He tried to destroy them at the last second, but they blasted him.
>
>Well, he tried to destroy them BECAUSE they were about to blast him.

Yeah, I know that. I wouldn't have  blown them up unless they tried to
nail me either.

>He never wanted to wipe out the Daleks -- look how satisfied he was
>just before then, when he had crushed all opposition and was going on
>as the Daleks' sole leader.  It was only when they didn't need him that
>he turned against them... but, as later events show, only to start over
>with his new breed of Daleks in the Davison years.

Well, that's one of those bits where one writer picks up and distorts another.
Davros was a VERY intelligent and non-bad guy until the Davison writers took
him over. He was the victim of his own intelligence.


The of course, we could go into the Dal and Thals...

Dals fight Thals, Dals get peeved, go hide in pepper pots, and decide they
will dedicate their lives to family, music, sport, and the obliteration
of all other life-forms.,

Frank Trumpy
trump@iastate.edu

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