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I've just been struck by a thought just now.
(partly inspired by discussions of The Timeless Child and the Doctor having some unique power that became the basis for the Time Lord race)
The Doctor has survived many encounters with the lethal, hair-trigger Daleks throughout the Classic and New Series. And it's become something of a cliche to poke holes in the question of why don't they ever just kill him on sight if they're meant to be so ruthless?
But I have to say, for much of Classic Who I could suspend my disbelief and buy that luck and circumstances are the reason the Doctor's still alive after running into the Daleks 15 times.
In the first story, the Daleks don't yet know him as their mortal enemy, and are curious enough about him and his companions to want to capture and study them, and need their help to get the drugs from the Thals.
In the second, the Daleks need slave labour. In The Chase and Daleks Master Plan, the Doctor is just able to evade them, or trade the Tarranium core for his survival.
In Power of the Daleks, the Daleks actually have to barter for their weapons back and win the humans' trust before they can kill him. Ditto in Death to the Daleks.
There were one or two occasions where it seemed a lazy convenience that the Daleks were either talked out of killing him (Frontier in Space), or too slow to fire or a rubbish shot (Remembrance of the Daleks). But those were generally exceptions to the rule. Most of the time I could genuinely believe that the Doctor managed to survive the Daleks simply by not being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like so many unlucky ones were.
Then in the New Series, because it was under the pen of fanboys, they seemed compelled to have to come up with an underlying thematic idea that the Doctor survives because he commands fear in the Daleks and leaves them too quaking in their boots to ever shoot him. That because the Doctor represents some Jesus-like divinity, the Daleks are insecurely fearful of him. Without weapons, with just the power of hope, he is someone they see as ever a threat because his ideals wreck their plans.
But this just further leaves me asking "why don't they just kill him on the spot?"
In the final shot of Evolution of the Daleks, the last Dalek even prefers to flee via teleport than take a perfect available shot at the Doctor.
The problem seems to be that the show is so penned by fanboys who think the Doctor's wonderful (or perhaps alternatively, are afraid that an audience that doesn't see him as wonderful, might either tune out or vote UKIP)... that there is no sense anymore that the outcome of these confrontations could go either way. The Doctor's going to win, the Daleks know he's going to because of his reputation and his skills, but even then they don't kill him.
(partly inspired by discussions of The Timeless Child and the Doctor having some unique power that became the basis for the Time Lord race)
The Doctor has survived many encounters with the lethal, hair-trigger Daleks throughout the Classic and New Series. And it's become something of a cliche to poke holes in the question of why don't they ever just kill him on sight if they're meant to be so ruthless?
But I have to say, for much of Classic Who I could suspend my disbelief and buy that luck and circumstances are the reason the Doctor's still alive after running into the Daleks 15 times.
In the first story, the Daleks don't yet know him as their mortal enemy, and are curious enough about him and his companions to want to capture and study them, and need their help to get the drugs from the Thals.
In the second, the Daleks need slave labour. In The Chase and Daleks Master Plan, the Doctor is just able to evade them, or trade the Tarranium core for his survival.
In Power of the Daleks, the Daleks actually have to barter for their weapons back and win the humans' trust before they can kill him. Ditto in Death to the Daleks.
There were one or two occasions where it seemed a lazy convenience that the Daleks were either talked out of killing him (Frontier in Space), or too slow to fire or a rubbish shot (Remembrance of the Daleks). But those were generally exceptions to the rule. Most of the time I could genuinely believe that the Doctor managed to survive the Daleks simply by not being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like so many unlucky ones were.
Then in the New Series, because it was under the pen of fanboys, they seemed compelled to have to come up with an underlying thematic idea that the Doctor survives because he commands fear in the Daleks and leaves them too quaking in their boots to ever shoot him. That because the Doctor represents some Jesus-like divinity, the Daleks are insecurely fearful of him. Without weapons, with just the power of hope, he is someone they see as ever a threat because his ideals wreck their plans.
But this just further leaves me asking "why don't they just kill him on the spot?"
In the final shot of Evolution of the Daleks, the last Dalek even prefers to flee via teleport than take a perfect available shot at the Doctor.
The problem seems to be that the show is so penned by fanboys who think the Doctor's wonderful (or perhaps alternatively, are afraid that an audience that doesn't see him as wonderful, might either tune out or vote UKIP)... that there is no sense anymore that the outcome of these confrontations could go either way. The Doctor's going to win, the Daleks know he's going to because of his reputation and his skills, but even then they don't kill him.
