Moffat: Female Doctor? and Other Topics

Steven Moffat has refused to rule out the possibility of there being a female Doctor one day. 

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival he said, "[Attitudes to that idea] have been changing, it is a part of Time Lord lore that it can happen - a Time Lord could potentially turn into a woman. The more often it's talked about, the more likely it is to happen someday, I suppose."

He also spoke about the story arc, saying, "Last year we did an arc, next year we will do something else, every year we have to go in a particular direction. It shouldn’t feel like good old cosy Doctor Who.”

Also he spoke about the possibility of there being a Doctor Who movie someday. "There’s often been talk about a movie, I’m sure we should do one. What I keep saying is it can’t ever be allowed to interfere with the television show, that’s the mothership, that’s the thing that will go on forever.

On picking writers for the show, he said, “If it’s your first television show you have written you are going to screw up royally, I tend to favour highly experienced television writers for the sake of my sanity. We do go outside of the circle … it’s a tough old job. No brand new TV writer should be tackling this one. It’s hard.”

Finally, he spoke about the Daleks being scary again. "Kids are supposedly frightened of Daleks but they take them to bed. Is there a way we can make them scarier, get them back to being more 'monstery'? I hope they will leave them outside their bedroom doors, was my response to that. There is a tremendous temptation to go kitch and sweet with the Daleks. You shouldn’t. They are insane tanks.”

Character: New Dalek Figures

Character are to release 6 new Dalek figures in the autumn, based on versions throughout the history of the show. Each will come with speech and sound effects from their individual eras.

The eye catching Bronze Dalek is a timely release for 2012 but actually first made an appearance in a much loved 2005 episode. The equally current silver Daleks are more at home in the swinging Sixties, first being seen in the episode ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’ and again at the height of another sporting celebration, during the 1966 episode ‘Power of the Daleks’.
The Daleks of the Seventies and Eighties have not been forgotten either. Two silver and grey characters emerge from the 1970s episodes ‘Planet of the Daleks’ (1973) and ‘Death to the Daleks’ (1974) while a gold and white fiend is recreated from the ‘Revelation of the Daleks’ episode in 1985.

The figures will be available from the usual retailers in the autumn.

Best Dalek Story Countdown

As the Series 7 opener is going to be a Dalek spectacular, I thought I'd countdown what my favourite Dalek stories have been since the revival and what we're hoping for in Asylum of the Daleks.

So lets re-cap...

The Dalek stories (so far) since the revival...

1. Dalek
2. Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways
3. Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
4. Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
5. The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
6. Victory of the Daleks

I'm not counting episodes like The Pandorica Opens and Wedding of River Song as the Daleks only made minor appearances. Although The Big Bang did have quite a bit of Dalek action in it, the Daleks weren't the main enemy and the story wasn't Dalek orientated.

Let the Countdown Begin...

6. Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks

This story was probably the most unpopular Dalek story since the revival but I think it still had some good points. Although most of the actions completed by the Daleks were 'un-Dalek', you have to remember that the purpose of the Cult of Skaro was to not just conquer and destroy but imagine new ways of not only killing, but survival.

5. Army of Ghosts/Doomsday

You may have expected this story to be at a lower number in the countdown as the story was fantastic and as I felt it did need the Daleks, I don't think the Cult of Skaro showed who they really were. As expressed by themselves, they were brought together to think of new ways of killing yet all they done in this story was kill using their standard ray gun.

4. Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways

Like Army of Ghosts/Doomsday this story was fantastic and so was the Dalek involvement and they were showing to be true Daleks which are the kind of stories that I love, but what put this story lower in the countdown was their cheated demise. Although I feel that it all made sense with Rose being the Bad Wolf spreading the letters throughout time, I don't think she could have just destroyed an entire Dalek empire by a wave of her arm. I think this made the Dalek's seem powerless and not so much the Supreme beings they should be made out to be.

3. Dalek

The introduction of the Daleks into the 21st century saw them re-designed to their best form yet (although they do have to look up to their foes...). The story made a huge step in finding out about this Time War that everyone was so eager to find out. The thing that did get me about this episode was the fact that the Dalek wasn't shown to be the killing machine as it's DNA was being manipulated by Rose and I feel that the Dalek should have been defeated a much better way than actually destroying itself. But overall, a very good story!

2. Victory of the Daleks

I know, I know, the redesign of the Daleks was very highly criticized by fans but I feel that they look more like the supreme beings now (they are larger and can now look straight at their enemies, their guns are bigger, bolder and stronger as they can destroy a Dalek in one shot but as shown in Evolution of the Daleks the old guns took LOADS of shots and that only blew up half the casing, their casing looks much stronger than the bronze Daleks and they seem much more dealier, even destroying their own species because they weren't pure enough!). As a story, I felt it was very good with Churchill and I feel that this episode should be much more highly praised.

1. The Stolen Earth/Journey's End

I don't think the audience of the revival were really shown a proper Dalek story until The Stolen Earth/Journey's End where the Dalek's plan for once actually would have resulted in them getting what they finally wanted (the whole of creation wiped out, with nothing in it but Daleks), something no Dalek story has ever done before. The return of Davros was good and I liked how the Supreme Dalek locked him in the 'cellar' and I think the Daleks would have killed Davros in the end as well as he isn't actually Dalek is he? And what is the Dalek primary purpose: destroy all things not Dalek. Although this story was great, it had a cheated end with just the press of a few buttons and the destruction of a species like the Daleks.

What can we expect from Asylum of the Daleks?

I can't wait until Doctor Who returns in a few weeks time but it's got me thinking... how is every Dalek 'known to man' going to be in it? Presumably all the classics got destroyed in their respective stories back in the classic series of Doctor Who, the bronze Daleks were finally wiped out by the New Paradigm and the New Paradigm Daleks should be the only one's still out there. Although the New Paradigm Daleks could easily have created all these Daleks, why would they bring back all their previous forms as they would seem inferior... So I hope Steven Moffat has come up with a great answer to that question and I really, really hope we aren't cheated in yet ANOTHER Dalek story, that has happened too many times in the past, because to be honest the only end to a Dalek story I actually love is Victory of the Daleks where as you can tell by the title, the Daleks actually won! The Doomsday end is good as well but I feel it was still a bit cheated with the Void just able to suck everything in like it did.

Another thing we're hoping for is something to do with the mysterious snowy planet seen in the trailers for the episode. Dalek saw the return of, well, the Daleks, The Parting of the Ways/Doomsday saw the return of the Dalek Emperor and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End saw the return of creator of the Daleks, Davros! So we hope that Asylum of the Daleks might bring the return of the only thing Dalek that hasn't been re-introduced into the revival and that is... Skaro! Although, it's supposed to be time-locked, we all hope the Moff can think of something brilliant and bring Skaro back!