From: rock@lakes.trenton.sc.us (rock)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: What Dalek book shoul
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 05:17:22 EDT
X-Maildoor: WaflineMail 1.00r

Re: What Dalek book shoul0/2u (The Trumpster.)
TT>
TT>In article <1992Aug26.133422.19330@cbfsb.cb.att.com> mfh@cbnewsb.cb.att.
TT>>I haven't read any novels about the Daleks, or about Dr. Who for that m
TT>>and would like to know which one is best.  I would like to learn about 
TT>>following things in the course of reading about the daleks :
>
TT>>1)  What was Davros' purpose in creating the daleks?  ie what did he wa
TT>>accomplish/hope to obtain?
TT>
TT>He didn't mean to create them. His people were suffering and mutating fr
TT>radiation, and he wanted to accelerate the process to see what the final
TT>form would be, and he was horrified to discover it was a hideously defor
TT>monster. His people were at war, and he decided to use them to fight. He
TT>removed all emotions from them and cased them in moveable exoskeletons.
TT>

WHAT?!  This is not true, not unless I am suffering from total brain crash!
Davros knew _precisely_ what he was doing.  He was a megolomaniac, and he
used the excuse of the war and the radiation to conduct horrible
experiments to produce his ultimate predator.  He finally pushed the
evolutionary clock forward on specimens of his own species to the very
limit, all supposedly to help them beat their enemies, but in actuality to
create his ultimate species.  He stripped them of any _weak_ emotions (such
as love or fear; I got the very distinct impression daleks can certainly
experience hatred or rage) and created his travel machine for them, the.
(The exoskeleton you referred to, which I prefer to call the Trashcan-Case)
But all of this was _no accident_.  Davros knew what he was doing, and he
did it on purpose.  Remember the scene between the Dr.  and Davros where
the Doctor asks Davros if he would release a virus that would kill everyone
in the Universe, and Davros starts screaming "Yes!  Yes!" and rants on
about being the creator of something that would dominate the universe.  I
think there is no question that Davros's creation of the Daleks was
deliberate and premeditated, down to the fact that he _approved_ of the
path that the Dr. implied the Daleks would take in the future.


TT>>2)  How did the schism between Davros and the daleks occur?
TT>
TT>Davros programmed the Daleks to kill all that they did not need or were
TT>inferior. They felt that he was inferior and they didn't need him. Davro
TT>wasn't really all that bad of a guy. He was a man of war, and his experi
TT>went wrong. He tried to destroy them at the last second, but they blaste
TT>

I still disagree with your assessment of Davros.  He knew what he had
created, knew that they would certainly try to destroy all that was not
Dalek, but he made the mistake of assuming they would defer to him as their
creator.  Davros tried to destroy them, alright, but I suggest it was out
of pure spite.

On this topic, do you know how Davros managed to escape Scarro? (sp)  He
shows up several other times, usually making new daleks.  Sometimes he is
cooperating with the Imperials, sometimes the renages. (Which are the
extras he made...weird)  Anyone have facts or a good theory on why this is,
how Davros escaped death on Scarro, etc?

TT>>3)  What kind of creatures are the daleks?  What do they look like?  Wh
TT>>they eat? etc
TT>
TT>Well, they have varying shapes. in The Daleks, the Doctor and his compan
TT>capture one and wrap it up in a blanket. Just at the end of the episode,
TT>see the blanket and it begins to move, and a strange claw appears. In Th
TT>Five Doctors, you see a large green lump with a lot of thin tentacles, a
TT>Rememberance of the Daleks, some soldiers blast a dalek, and the Doctor 
TT>inside. A huge green claw shoots out and grabs his neck. They beat it of
TT>with a baseball bat. Nothing has ever been mentioned about what they eat
TT>

Note that this is not all that unreasonable.  Davros has created Daleks out
of terminally ill humans.  How?  I don't know, but obviously he has a
process that can make Daleks from quite a few different creatures, which
would explain why they vary in appearance.

TT>>4)  Why must the daleks remain inside their robot-like casings?  I know
TT>>something to do with radiation but I want to read about it in a Dr. Who
TT>
TT>Their mutant form was so weak, they must stay inside at all times to liv

I've never seen anything to contradict this, but I always got the
impression they stayed inside their cases so that they could be armored, so
they could move, communicate easily with other Daleks, and have a
convenient weapon in case anyone refused to obey!  Where did you get the
info that they die outside the cases?

TT>Read Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks.
TT>
I think I will!  Thanks for the clue  (even though it was directed at
someone else.)  Could it be that the novelisation depicted Davros in a much
better light than the video?  'Twould explain why our opinions differ so
greatly on him.

TT>
TT>Frank Trumpy
TT>trump@iastate.edu
TT>                                                                        
---
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