Doctor Who Eve Of The Daleks: 10 Huge Questions After The New Year Special
7. Have The Daleks Been Upgraded?
After the debacle of the much maligned New Paradigm Daleks, minor
cosmetic upgrades has been the way forward. Chibnall has tinkered a fair bit with
their look, most dramatically with the reconnaissance Dalek and the ones modelled
after it (Resolution, Revolution of the Daleks). But here we are back to the
bronze Daleks that have been so effective since the series was relaunched in
2005.
The biggest innovation for Eve of the Daleks is the changes made to its weapon. It’s now able to shoot multiple blasts at once, machine gun-like. It’s still as useless as ever and sometimes unable to hit a moving target close up. To be fair, it’s a problem that isn’t unique to Daleks (the Sontarans and Cybermen were just as useless with their aim in Doctor Who Flux), but with this bigger weaponry on display, we ought to have seen a higher success rate.
Chibnall likes his purpose-made Daleks (scout Daleks, for
example), and this lot are an execution squad so the regular army are now doubt
still decked out just as we saw them in 2005. The effect of the deaths is still
the classic one, but it would have been fun to see something different to the
x-ray, one that would show the greater power of the new weapons.