# Doctor Who Series 7 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859 "2012-08-27T21:04:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/81 "2012-09-03T13:09:14Z")
When the Dalek PM said that they had a hard time killing the Doctor because of hatred, it meant the Doctor’s hatred of the Daleks, right? ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/82 "2012-09-03T13:43:41Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > When the Dalek PM said that they had a hard time killing the Doctor because of hatred, it meant the Doctor’s hatred of the Daleks, right? I assumed so. ---
**Author:** ![Jormungandr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@Jormungandr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jormungandr)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/83 "2012-09-03T14:10:36Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Because couples NEVER suffer from basic communication problems, totally unrealistic.😉 > > Since when do the Daleks “convert” other species into them, like the Borg or something. I thought they were space nazis obsessed with genetic purity, remember how the Dalek leader in the 10th Doctor run was considered so out there for making a desperate attempt to use human DNA it inspired a coup? > > :dubious: Maybe conversion is why the other Daleks considered them insane. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/84 "2012-09-03T14:29:57Z")
> [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](#): > > Are you forgetting [Martha](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Jones)? She was no slouch in the brains department. Theoretically with the character’s background she should have been a clever problem solver. But the way most of the episodes played out she was mostly “Rose lite”. ---
**Author:** ![Oswald\_Bastable](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oswald_bastable/32/214_2.png) [@Oswald\_Bastable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oswald_Bastable)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/85 "2012-09-03T14:57:42Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Since when do the Daleks “convert” other species into them, like the Borg or something. I thought they were space nazis obsessed with genetic purity, remember how the Dalek leader in the 10th Doctor run was considered so out there for making a desperate attempt to use human DNA it inspired a coup? > > :dubious: I assumed the converted were all a product of the Asylum’s neurobot security system (ie. they were aylum guards). I don’t think there was a suggestion that conversion was a standard Dalek tactic beyond this (although I doubt it’s the last we’ve seen of Dalek’s disguised as humans). OB ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/86 "2012-09-03T15:17:34Z")
The biggest problem I saw was these Daleks weren’t doing the purity test. They exterminate life forms that they don’t see as perfect. They even killed the bronze Daleks in Victory for being contaminated. It seems impossible that any Dalek could encounter a human without instantly vaporizing them. It’s been a long time since I watched classic Who. iirc the purity test has always been part of the Dalek story. They conquer space purging it of imperfect life forms. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/87 "2012-09-03T15:40:55Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I could just be pulling this out of my touchus, but Rory’s slo-mo wheel and slide escape from the room full of Daleks seemed to be a nod to his new status in the fanbase as a badass. The way he held his flashlight and spun around made him look like a Jedi with a lightsaber. Yes, I think so, and I loved it. But then, anytime Rory gets to act like a badass, it makes me overly happy. (((Rory))) A good, solid start, much better than the moon landing/silence two parter from last season. I agree with whomever said that the Daleks just aren’t scary, and I’m not sure how they were _ever_ considered to be scary. They seem like informed threats - everyone keeps telling us how dangerous they are, but most of the time (new series and old) they’re not terribly threatening. But then, I don’t watch Doctor Who because it’s scary, I watch it because it’s fun, and Daleks are always fun. Anyhow, I like new girl well enough - I guessed the twist probably ten minutes before they revealed it, and I’m NOT good at guessing twists, but I still thought it was pretty good. And I also thought Amy and Rory’s marriage issues were rushed, but we only half half a season with these characters, and I’d rather not spend it with them fighting. Amy and Rory’s love for one another is one of the Matt Smith era’s strongest points, so I’d like to soak in as much of that as possible before it’s gone. That said, for someone who _wasn’t_ turning into a Dalek, Amy sure did slap Rory around a lot this episode. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/88 "2012-09-03T17:21:39Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The biggest problem I saw was these Daleks weren’t doing the purity test. They exterminate life forms that they don’t see as perfect. They even killed the bronze Daleks in Victory for being contaminated. > > It seems impossible that any Dalek could encounter a human without instantly vaporizing them. > > It’s been a long time since I watched classic Who. iirc the purity test has always been part of the Dalek story. They conquer space purging it of imperfect life forms. _The Evil of the Daleks_ has the Daleks experimenting with extracting human essence to complement themselves, and that is a Troughton-era story. Unfortunately, it now only exists in audio form, with some pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/89 "2012-09-03T17:29:34Z")
> [@Monkey\_Chews](#): > > (The Daleks brought it. Maybe they thought he’d need it - they did after all bring some companions for him as well - or maybe they wanted it for themselves. Two posters have said that the TARDIS was on the Parliament spaceship from the get-go. Guess I just missed it. And yes, it’s odd for the Daleks to have a parliament and prime minister. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve suddenly become a representative democracy - their parliament could be a consultative body, like the Norse and Anglo-Saxon _things_ - but it does imply debate, negotiation and compromise. Which seem very alien concepts in Daleks. They are a hive mind, as this episode itself establishes - even if they didn’t have one supreme Dalek, it seems odd that they would require _external_ structures of governance to acheive consensus. Between the new government, the meat puppets, and the Doctor’s being wiped from their collective memory, it seems as if they’re being given a reboot. Which means, I guess, [sigh] more Dalek stories. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/90 "2012-09-03T17:31:20Z")
Is Amy still turning into a Dalek? She’d already been infected; the doo-hickey would only keep it from progressing, so unless there’s a cure to be found, there’s the constant threat of her losing it to keep in mind. I don’t know who gets messed about with more. Rory keeps getting killed, and Amy keeps getting infected or taken over in one way or another. Maybe next episode, they should reverse that. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/91 "2012-09-03T18:28:28Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > When the Dalek PM said that they had a hard time killing the Doctor because of hatred, it meant the Doctor’s hatred of the Daleks, right? This reminded me of of one of the making-of videos… A Dalek operator explains [what it’s like to play a Dalek](http://youtu.be/WUudhbibSVw): _“Try sitting in an office chair with a dustbin on your head. Once you’ve been in there for hours and hours on end the natural character of hating all of humanity just comes really naturally to you.”_ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/92 "2012-09-03T18:31:48Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Is Amy still turning into a Dalek? She’d already been infected; the doo-hickey would only keep it from progressing, so unless there’s a cure to be found, there’s the constant threat of her losing it to keep in mind. Were the nano machines controlled by the hive mind or were they autonomous? Maybe they “died” when the planet was destroyed. I don’t know. I’m thinking in keeping with the no-arcs theme of this season, we’ll see the giant reset button at the end of every episode. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/93 "2012-09-03T21:03:23Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > And yes, it’s odd for the Daleks to have a parliament and prime minister. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve suddenly become a representative democracy - their parliament could be a consultative body, like the Norse and Anglo-Saxon _things_ - but it does imply debate, negotiation and compromise. Which seem very alien concepts in Daleks. One does have to wonder how Question Time works in the Dalek Parliament. “THE SPEAKER RE-COG-NIZ-ES THE DAA-LEK FROM AN-TAR-ES THREE!” “PRIME MI-NI-STER, IS IT NOT TRUE THAT YOUR GOVERNMENT’S PLAN FOR CONQUEST OF THE EARTH SECTOR CALLS FOR THE EX-TER-MIN-A-TION OF THE LESSER RACES AT LESS THAN THIRTY PERCENT OF THE RECOMMENDED TIMEFRAME?” “I SHALL DEFER MY ANSWER TO THE MI-NI-STER OF FI-NANCE! MI-NI-STER, IF YOU PLEASE!” “THE DAA-LEK FROM AN-TAR-ES THREE WILL NOTE THAT RE-VE-NUE RECEIPTS ARE DOWN FOUR POINT THREE PER-CENT THIS QUARTER…” ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/94 "2012-09-03T21:56:36Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > One thing that really took me out of the episode, though, was when “Harry” realized his body hadn’t been decaying because he died outside in the snow. Google “Everest bodies” - ice mummies look more like the corpses inside the escape pod than someone who could pass for “not a Dalek husk”. A nanobot did it. Maybe they can’t keep regular corpses from decaying, but out in the snow they could keep it from turning mummyish. wibbly wobbly ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/95 "2012-09-03T22:05:15Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > _The Evil of the Daleks_ has the Daleks experimenting with extracting human essence to complement themselves, and that is a Troughton-era story. Unfortunately, it now only exists in audio form, with some pictures. Funnily enough I was thinking about this series yesterday. I remember the original, with the humanised daleks becoming very silly and spinning around chanting “Diz-zee daleks, diz-zee daleks.” I concluded it must be among the lost episodes as something so funny would surely be shown if it were possible." ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/96 "2012-09-04T00:11:30Z")
> [@grude](#): > > Since when do the Daleks “convert” other species into them [Since 1985](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Revelation_of_the_Daleks_(TV_story)). At least. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/97 "2012-09-04T01:45:52Z")
I do wonder if the humanoid woman at the start of the episode was a Kaled or a Thal. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/98 "2012-09-04T07:48:54Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > This reminded me of of one of the making-of videos… A Dalek operator explains [what it’s like to play a Dalek](http://youtu.be/WUudhbibSVw): _“Try sitting in an office chair with a dustbin on your head. Once you’ve been in there for hours and hours on end the natural character of hating all of humanity just comes really naturally to you.”_ 😃 That’s fabulous 🙂 Also, a rather amusing quote from the [Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/sep/03/doctor-who-companion-jenna-louise-coleman)about the Oswin/Clara issue: “Unless this is all a big setup to have a fully robotic, furious Dalek as the Doctor’s next assistant, because I’d be fully behind that decision. Especially if it kept trying to kill Matt Smith in increasingly complicated ways. Road Runner in space. Who wouldn’t love that?” ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/99 "2012-09-04T08:52:20Z")
> [@Cinnamon\_Imp](#): > > That’s fabulous 🙂 > > Also, a rather amusing quote from the [Guardian](http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/sep/03/doctor-who-companion-jenna-louise-coleman)about the Oswin/Clara issue: “Unless this is all a big setup to have a fully robotic, furious Dalek as the Doctor’s next assistant, because I’d be fully behind that decision. Especially if it kept trying to kill Matt Smith in increasingly complicated ways. Road Runner in space. Who wouldn’t love that?” Or an Inspector Clouseau and Cato dynamic. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2012, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/100 "2012-09-04T09:58:42Z")
OSWIN: EX-TER-MIN– DOCTOR: HI-YA! [Karate chops OSWIN’S eye stalk] Ha! You weren’t expecting zat, were you? You see, I happen to know zat as a dillek– OSWIN: I. AM. A. _DAAA_-LEK! DOCTOR: Precisely! And as I was saying, I happen to know zat as a dillek you are very vilnerable to– OSWIN: _DAAA_-LECK! _VULLL_-NERABLE! DOCTOR: Yes! Zat’s what I said! Why do you keep repeating what I say? Are you micking me? OSWIN: I. AM. A . _DAAA_-LEK! I. AM. _VULL_-NERABLE. TO. BLOWS. TO. THE. EYE. STALK! DOCTOR: Well, if you knew zat, you fool, why didn’t you take better care to protect your eye steuk? Zat was very careless of you! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859.md?page=6)