They're not really robots. They're deranged genocidal squid blobs encased in mechanical battle suits.

He has done a number on their suits on multiple occasions though.

 

Dalek!Clara's reprogramming of their memory banks suggests such changes are possible, though.

 

True. But the thing about Daleks is that they're genetically predisposed to hate everything.

You could probably wipe a Daleks memory and fill it with memories of pretty pink ponies... and it would still probably try to kill shit. And I think that was the point of this episode. You can change what's in the memory bank, add or take things away, and it will still only see hate.

 

Heh, murderous pink ponies.*

Wait, do Daleks exterminate other Daleks? Maybe reprogramming would be possible, if they saw everyone as just another Dalek? As in, the universe would be as if they had successfully exterminated everyone else.

Have they ever tried that angle?

*I never thought I'd be linking mlp, but here I am.

 

Wouldn't work. Daleks will kill other Daleks if they don't match up to the idea of 'perfect' that the individual Dalek holds to.

 

Sigh. I'm kinda getting tired of Daleks.

 

No, but I get that. Once per 1 or 2 seasons would be more than enough.

 

Apparently they're contractually obligated to show a dalek in every season with the Nation estate

 

Doesn't mean it needs to be a full episode. This 40 second scene was the only time a Dalek appears in series 6, for instance.

I do think the Daleks work better in 'smaller' episodes like this though. It allows for a little less predictability. When you have them as the big set piece villains then we all know the Doctor's going to win in the end. When it's just a random episode, no stakes beyond that particular adventure, then it could go either way - see 'Victory of the Daleks' as an example. At the same time, there's only so much you can do with them now. I know I'd struggle to think of anywhere new and intriguing to take the Daleks beyond cackling space invaders.

Incidentally, did anyone else pick up on the Dalek being called Rusty, aka a fairly common fan nickname for RTD?

 

A bit of a plot error: in Genesis of the Daleks, Davros made alterations to the later dalek mutants (the "late prototype" pre-mass production abominations) that caused genetic defects: the daleks would be incapable of love, mercy, friendship, etcetera.

They didn't need some sort of "inhibitor bank" to make them hate everything, or to stick to the ideals of being a "good dalek" -- they're like that on a genetic level.

Also, I get the feeling that "Missy" is either a regenerated River Song/Melody Pond (which, I'm sort of confused on, since her ultimate fate is to be in the Library, right?), or is a regenerated Rani, who apparently now has a "yandere" thing going on with the Doctor.

Or Romana. Hm...

 

Going to say no on River and yes to the Rani or some other Time Lord.

Why?

Because her garden is a flippin' TARDIS control room.

 

Oh damn. It is.

 

It is the exact garden that was used in the episode "The Girl Who waited", the one where Amy get's trapped in a hospital manned by robots. Noticed it yesterday when I was re-watching some episodes!
There they say that it's a perfect replica of the Shill Governor's mansion on Shillana, whatever that is.

Dunno if this means anything or if they've just reused the same garden for shooting but interesting nonetheless.

 

Day-um. Well spotted you two.

 

That was awful, just really fucking awful. The best part about it was the preview of next weeks episode.

 

Probably easily weakest episode of the three so far. Story was meh, effects were sub-par even by Who-standards and whilst I like the idea of Gatiss's meta-esque commentary, it came off a bit too pretentious.

Spoiler

And entirely too reminiscent of the end of The God Complex (which in itself was a bit of a Pandorica ripoff) and the opening sequence of Good Man, where the writers pull the same 'talk about one, it's actually the other' trick. I know it's an effective storytelling technique, but it's starting to sound like this one party trick everyone knows you can do.

Capaldi's cynical bastard Doctor is refreshing, by the way.

 

Yeah, I'm honestly getting close to dropping Doctor Who entirely. Which is a huge shame because I absolutely loved it back when it was at its best.

 

This was an incredibly enjoyable episode for me. I don't watch this show for hard sci-fi or epic galaxy-spanning stories. I watch it for the time traveler who can banter with Robin Hood and kill some robots in the past. Just turn your brain off and have fun!

There's really no other show that can have stories with this premise, and I love episodes like this.

 

That was one of the dumbest episodes in several seasons. For shame, Gatiss. For shame.