From Doomsday: 8 July 2006 The Daleks square up to The Cybermen. It is something we always wanted to see and Russell T. Davies nailed it when he said just that at the time he dreamed up this classic confrontation. This moment's satisfaction does not lie in the episode as a story. Incidentally I found that satisfying enough, but it was the pure comedy gold as two of the show's most pragmatic killing machines exposed their basic weakness. It became clear that neither would ever be capable of understanding the other. The foremost strength of Russell T. Davies' writing is his ability to take two massive themes, condense them into a few lines of script then smash them together so that sparks fly. That is the basic premise of the Rose Tyler / Tenth Doctor story arc; impossible love meets unfailing duty. In 'Midnight' the goblin-like, almost mythological entity inhabiting Sky Silvestry could be seen as a direct challenge to the ultimate scientist as represented by The Doctor. In Daleks and Cybermen two very different ideologies come up against each other. It reassures us that despite their best efforts later when The Pandorica opened, the baddies will never ever be capable of getting it together. What we see precious little of in the show is when baddie meets baddie. Davies shows us that The Daleks could never ally with the Cybermen, because the Cybermen would always be seen as racially inferior. The Cybermen are always going to be confused by this, because there could never be a case in their universe where two powerful beings joining forces cannot represent an "upgrade". Just prior to the 'negotiation' itself there is also the classic 'identify yourself' routine in which Cybermen and Daleks fight not to be the race that identifies itself first to the other. The stakes are so very small at this point that it almost reminds you of two academics arguing passionately about nothing that anyone could ever care for! How do these two alien psyches react in that situation? The best script-writing usually holds up a mirror to our own lives while we watch and this exchange tells us more about ourselves than it does two fictional races in a TV show.
Hello, I'm Paul Hammans, terminal 'Who' obsessive, F1 fan, reader of arcane literature about ideas and generalist scribbler. To paraphrase someone much better at aphorisms than I: I strive to write something worth reading and when I cannot do that I try to do something worth writing. I have my own Dr Who oriented blog at http://www.exanima.co.uk
