It has been quite surprising just how many angry, frustated and critical comments have literally flooded Doctor Who forums - particularly the DWM Facebook page, over the last week. I don't recall such a backlash in recent years, ever! All because they changed the Daleks!! Surely that proves that they are still the nation's favourite villain, and that they are still as popular today as they have ever been. They're still as big as the show itself.
And I do believe these comments are from long-time genuine fans - as I'm one of them! It's not a case of criticising for the sake of it, and nobody is deliberately being a "hater" (to coin a rather sad internet expression...). We love the Daleks and their legacy; they are as fundamental to the show as the TARDIS or the theme tune! So to see them changed in a way in which so many of us deem completely un-necessary is a bitter pill to swallow. In that case, the Doctor might as well become a transexual android!
But not liking the new Daleks doesn't mean we no longer like the show - that's just nonsense! I still believe SM is the right man for the job, and I don't miss RTD's overblown stories one jott. I applaud SM for casting Matt Smith, as for me, he feels like the most "Doctory" Doctor since McCoy or McGann. I applaud him for revamping the music, titles and TARDIS (whether for the better or not) - it's all part of the dynamism of change which has always driven the show forward.
Yet the Dalek change was one too many. In fact let me correct myself - the new colour schemes are good. The new detail, such as the guns and eyestalk, are good. What utterly ruins them and takes away the "Dalekyness" is the shape, and that dreadful hump back. Had the detail and colour simply been applied to the existing design, they would have looked superb. But start to tamper with that shape (the base isn't even as angular), and you're starting to loose the Daleks.
Despite that, I'm still excited about the rest of the series and seeing what SM has got in store for us. This was just one mistake (albeit a rather huge one). So far this series for me feels like the most true to the spirit of the show since series 1 in 2005, and I'm really looking forward to the rest.
But as a Dalek fan - this is simply unforgivable! I did meet them for real yesterday though, at a promotional event at Sheffield station for the new BBC computer game. Seeing them "in the fibreglass" did make me appreciate them a little more - but there's still nothing better than a classic Dalek; the original and best.
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