Victory of the Daleks might not be one of the most popular Doctor Who stories. But did it in fact do some good towards the Daleks and the show’s mythology?
One of the more maligned stories from Series Five is Mark Gatiss’ Victory of The Daleks. The element that garnered the most negative response is the now infamous New Paradigm Daleks. The first time the modern series had attempted to give the Daleks a re-design.
Many features drew heavy criticism from the fan base – the bloated structure, the plastic-looking material and of course, the bright ‘CBBC’ colours. This mass backlash forced this re-design to be relegated to brief cameos, whilst the now ubiquitous bronze Time War Daleks continued their reign as the universe’s evil exterminators.
Whilst the re-designed Daleks have been pushed into obscurity, the actual narrative framework of the New Dalek Paradigm has persisted to this day. In this way, Victory of the Daleks paved the way for an improved mythos and continuity in Doctor Who.
Throughout the Classic era, we saw manifestations of a singular Dalek Empire. This empire fell during the events and ultimate conclusion of the Time War. New Who, before Victory of The Daleks, continually used survivors of the Time War, the last vestiges of the former empire.
The lone Dalek in Dalek, the Dalek Emperor in The Parting of the Ways, the Cult of Skaro in multiple stories and all leading up to the return of Davros. This served as a great narrative parallel to the Doctor, the sole survivor of the Time Lords.
This long-running parallel created poignant emotional drama. Two surviving parties, two wholly differing ideologies uncovered the bubbling trauma and survivors’ guilt the Doctor encapsulated. The relationship between the Doctor and the Dalek survivors served as deft an exploration of the Doctor’s own morality and personal responsibility.
It was an arc that initially worked well, but would soon start to stale. Especially due to the fact that Russell T. Davies intended to largely wrap up the arc of the Time War with The End of Time. Instead of constantly having a Dalek being a surprise survivor whilst the race as a whole was extinct, a new status quo for the Daleks was being created.
By the time we got to Asylum of the Daleks, the Dalek Empire was back in full force. Did Victory of the Daleks help pave the way for that?
(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
A fresh start for the Daleks
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Enter Steven Moffat as new show runner and Mark Gatiss as writer for Victory of The Daleks. The events that transpire lead to the creation of the New Dalek Paradigm. Now the Doctor Who universe would once again have a fully-fledged Dalek empire as a constant presence.
This was a genius move. It streamlined storytelling in relation to the Daleks, freeing writers from constantly sticking to the burden of having it be based on this surprise survivor. The personal growth and exploration was covered during the RTD era, to keep beating the same narrative tune would have lead to staleness and repetition in Moffat’s era.
This does not undermine the Doctor’s relationship with the Daleks post-Time War, however. The ideological difference still fiercely remains, after all. But now we have the New Dalek Paradigm as a consistent force, removing unnecessary back-story and explanation.
Whilst the original New Dalek Paradigm design wasn’t looked on favourably, it’s fair to say that their narrative concept has improved the Doctor Who mythos – moving on instead of being chained to the events of the Time War.
Do you agree that Victory of the Daleks helped to revive the Doctor’s oldest enemies? What did you think of the story itself? Were you a fan of the New Dalek Paradigm? Let us know in the comments below.