The start of the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who brought about an enormous raft of changes and while most were well received, one that didn't catch on quite as well was the introduction of the New Dalek Paradigm in the Series 5 episode Victory Of The Daleks. Written by Mark Gatiss, the primary aim of Victory Of The Daleks was to pull the programme out of the continuous loop it had been in since 2005 where each Dalek story would end with them being definitely definitely being wiped out forever (other than one or two in some cases). And Victory most likely would have been lauded for fully restoring the Daleks apart from one thing: the new design. The redesigned Daleks split fan opinion with the major criticisms being that they were too far from the original Dalek design, that the bright primary colours diminished their image, and that the differently coloured variants were a merchandising ploy. Some fans also considered the redesign to be a case of change for the sake of change. An opinion given some credence by Moffat stating in Doctor Who Confidential that "What else havent we changed? Lets change the Daleks. There was also some derision in the media with comedian Chris Addison opining on Channel 4 panel show You Have Been Watching that...
"Those new Daleks are s***. Its like theyve mated the old Daleks with a bendy bus."
Though 2012s Asylum Of The Daleks seems to imply that Moffat took the backlash onboard with the New Dalek Paradigm being given a metallic respray (while the yellow and orange Daleks were conspicuously absent) and consigned to the background as the officer class while the 2005 models remained as the footsoldiers.
JG Moore is a writer and filmmaker from the south of England. He also works as an editor and VFX artist, and has a BA in Media Production from the University Of Winchester.
