Evolution of the Daleks (2007)

Trying to survive...

Dalek Caan be like

What if the cult of skaro was a polycule? What then?

So that's a thing.

The Dalek Dictionary, The Dalek Book (1964):

"J" is the forbidden letter of the Dalek language. To precede a word with this letter is a great insult. For example: "J'Galkor" would mean "Follow me, weakling, I am your guide." (See Galkor).

*sad Dalek Jast noises*

Dalek Caan

as seen in “Journey's End” (S4x13)

Name : Dalek Caan

Other Aliases : The Abomination

First Appearance : Army of Ghosts (S2x12)

Latest Appearance : Journey's End (S4x13)

Place of Origin : Skaro

Dalek Caan is a bronze Dalek and member of the Cult of Skaro. Before he was picked to be a member of the cult by the Dalek Emperor, he was the Attack Squad Leader of the Thirtieth Assault Group. Unlike most Daleks, Dalek Caan was known to disobey orders from his Superiors and make his own decisions. However, Dalek Caan belived in Dalek purity and superiority to such extremes that he was willing to lead the rebellion against Dalek Sec when he believed Sec had given up his Dalek purity, convincing the others to join his betrayal of Sec.

During the battle of Canary Wharf Dalek Caan joined his fellow cult members in releasing the Dalek army from the Genesis Ark aswell and fleeing with them when the Doctor opened the void. In 1930 New York City it was Caan that served as the Daleks communicator with Mr Diagoras, he was the one to bring him to Sec for the Final Experiment. After Sec became the Human-Hybrid he began to doubt the Dalek way of life. The rest of the Cult, especially Caan, thought that Dalek Sec was unfit to be their leader as he has lost his Dalek "purity" and overthrew him taking him prisoner. Dalek Caan made himself the new Dalek Controller and sent Jast and Thay on a mission to exterminate the Doctor. This did not end up happening as the Dalek-Human hybrids ended up killing both Thay and Jast, aswell as Thay killing Sec, this left Caan as the last remaining Cult member and Dalek alive. Dalek Caan used an emergency temporal shift to escape when the Doctor tried to offer him help. This shift took Caan to the first year of the timewar - making him the first to breach the time lock! It is here he saved Davros from the Nightmare Child making him the "Saviour of Davros". Caan however had to pay the price for this, in doing so he saw the whole of time and space driving him insane while also allowing him to see the past and future in great detail. Seeing all of this made him realise how wrong his race was and he intended to have them destroyed at the hands of the Doctor. Although Caans insanity had him regarded as an "abomination" not even the Supreme Dalek would dare to contradict his prophacies. During the Medusa Cascade incident Caan foresaw and even caused some of the events that lead the Doctor and Donna together in order to bring the defeat of the Daleks. He belived that the Daleks needed to be forever destroyed and blasted the Dalekanium power feeds, exploding the Crucible, telling his last prophacy to the Doctor that “one will still die” referring to his companions. Dalek Caan is destroyed along with the Crucible making no attempt to save himself.

what are your thoughts about martha in the stolen earth/journey's end, the osterhagen key storyline, her ending up with mickey? and what would you do differently if it was up to you to write her in those episodes?

I know the doctor destroying gallifrey and the osterhagen key are parellels between him and martha. to end the war against the daleks. but due to this story being over-stuffed, it's never dealt with properly. martha is the only one in the tardis team who is still on earth at this point. sarah jane, mickey, jack, rose, donna and the doctor are all on the dalek ship. so if martha goes down, everyone left behind will die. wilf, sylvia, luke, francine, everyone. it's a terrible decision, and it's supposed to show the lengths that martha will go as a member of unit to not surrender to hostile aliens. and if people were evacuated which i highly doubt they would have time for, the daleks would have pounced on the fleeing ships. a lose lose situation.

in my opinion, this is way too big a thing just to drop it. in one of my favourite tenth doctor stories, 'prisoner of the daleks' we see what the osterhagen key does. the doctor sees a planet completely destroyed, on fire, it's countries melting like lava and he nearly throws up. i honestly think it's too much, way too much especially for rose just to say "oh she's good." i'm on the doctor's side on this one.

also, mickey ending up with martha made me grimace. because it just seemed like it was just done to kill two birds with one stone, and get the doctor saying goodbye to mickey and martha out of the way. only he doesn't say goodbye, he says nothing actually. it seems too convenient, how do i focus on things i care about more. you get a frankly insulting scene with a call back to joan redfern with emotional weight and nothing for martha, except pair her up with someone she has barely interacted with. not to mention how every single love interest martha has ever had has been a white man. shakespeare. the doctor. riley. tom milligan. if tom ellis wasn't available that's fine. but to pair the two people who were ditched by rose and the doctor felt insulting honestly and stereotypical, and purely for scheduling purposes for filming convenience. and the fact that she is the first one we see him *say goodbye to* feels like they wanted to get it out of the way, as she is forgotten under all the plethora of other goodbyes. but considering all the doctor and martha have been through, for her to be just met with silence is awful to me. especially as he saves her life. it speaks for itself i suppose, but not in a good way.

one of my main issues with martha and it happens in almost all her stories is that she is seperated from the main action and has to go it alone. and i think at this point, she shouldn't have to. i don't see why she couldn't have been right there on donna's street with everyone else.

so if i were to do it differently, i would change her entire plotline for series 4. martha's plot would be that she knows the dalek invasion of earth is coming, and it's because of 'the year that never was.' maybe she is reluctant to tell the doctor because of just how well..badly he handled the master in the previous season because let's be real. he got a lot of stuff wrong. the daleks want to wipe out everyone and they don't sucee, but series 3's finale still had a bigger amount of damage than 4. 10% of the worlds population decimated, russia turned into a shipyard, the nile frozen over, caspian sea poisoned, london turned into slums and overcome by wild dogs. if the daleks had wanted to steal the earth and use the reality bomb, it probably would have ended up happening still in that timeline, only with more difficulty because they would have to face the master and toclafane. with time reversing and restoring earth without all these enemies, their plan is put back on track. or maybe martha tries to warn the doctor and is sidetracked by this project indigo. or maybe the daleks interfere and take her out of the picture themselves because they know she revived the master, saved the world, they see her as a threat. and martha escapes, trying to find the doctor to warn him but ends up in the wrong timeline - 'turn left'. maybe in a big secret reveal, martha came across dalek caan in 'the year that never was' before he found davros. they remember each other.

make her go missing all season, have her be the one trying to get the doctor's attention on the screens, then have her return in 'turn left' with the even bigger rose tyler reveal bombshell at the end of the episode.

maybe martha realises she doesn't have to go it alone anymore (remind you of anyone?). that she has people looking out for her. hell, if she's been missing for so long, have her reunite with people, have rose be the one who found her or something. have her interact and speak with the daleks more. bring up the master, the 'year that never was'. show how the stories link. i would have martha be the one next to the doctor to directly speak to them. she remembers when they were so desperate not to be wiped out that they made human hybrids. martha saw the remnants of the cult of skaro. i think she should have a more central role.

and her story to end with her more settled back into life on earth, with her real fiance. how many people she has looking out for her, just like the doctor. and for martha's goodbye to be way more poignant. maybe have the doctor give her something, that shows the similarities between the two, something really meaningul. not sure what that would be, but a much better goodbye than what we got.

i think series 3 should be much more closely linked with 4. it was way too big just to be forgotten.

Thanks for your ask!

hm. dalek civil war era cult of skaro.

obviously, this is sec, but I’m tempted to have the rest of the cult be all different (as opposed to renegade grey), and I have no idea what.

The Book of the Snowstorm – Readthrough/Review Part 5

Framing Story (Scenes 12)

David Tennant? And the TARDIS Data Core?

Only one scene this time so not much review but Coloth is still fun.

Trauma and Tinsel

Poor Miara, I’m glad they got through to her in the end. (Also fascinating condition, effectively perpetual regular forced regeneration but obviously not actually that). Dionus is a character I’m familiar with by name, because of BBV’s Dionus’s War audios, but this is my first actual experience with them as a character. They seem nice. Also saw references to ‘V-Time’ and ‘Ulysses’ in there too. But the main thing is the piece was sweet.

Love & War

Not to be confused with the VNA Love and War or the BF adaptation Love and War of the VNA Love and War.

Ok so this is literally an immediately pre-War Cult of Skaro Dalek story. How did you get away with this? Explain. Literally had the Genesis Ark and void ship in it and everything.

Also the citations, direct citations to real books (Including one to my work which I was not expecting).

Mathematical Bureau lore and FASA War Chief lore aside, this weighs in on literally everything from ‘which homeworld is the main one’ (Romana IIIs is the ‘First’ but War King’s is the ‘Prime’) to ‘When did the Doctor and River Song marry?’ (With this story implying Dionus and Susit got married after Dionus resurrected Susit using some of his regeneration cycle).

Short review session this time, but I got cut off, just under half way through the book now.

Something based on an old thing I said in the Dalek server

Evolution of the daleks rocked. They have got to get the dalek sec hybrid back somehow, some kind of counter Davros.

Yes I know it was sixteen years ago and yes I know the bbc can’t look after props for shit.

[Dalek Laboratory]

DOCTOR: Now what?

DALEK: You will be exterminated.

DOCTOR: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just think about it, Dalek what was your name?

DALEK: Dalek Caan. 

DOCTOR: Dalek Caan. Your entire species has been wiped out. And now the Cult of Skaro has been eradicated, leaving only you. Right now you're facing the only man in the universe who might show you some compassion. Because I've just seen one genocide. I won't cause another. Caan, let me help you. What do you say?

DALEK: Emergency temporal shift!

(The cables fall off and the Dalek disappears.)

MARTHA: Doctor! Doctor! He's sick.

(Tallulah and Martha help the wheezing Laszlo.)

MARTHA: It's okay. You're all right. It's his heart. It's racing like mad. I've never seen anything like it.

TALLULAH: What is it, Doctor? What's the matter with him? He says he can't breathe? What is it?

LASZLO: It's time, sweetheart.

TALLULAH: What do you mean, time? What are you talking about?

LASZLO: None of the slaves survive for long. Most of them only live for a few weeks. I was lucky. I held on because I had you. But now, I'm dying, Tallulah.

TALLULAH: No, you're not. Not now, after all this. Doctor, can't you do something?

DOCTOR: Oh, Tallulah with three Ls and an H, just you watch me. What do I need? Oh, I don't know. How about a great big genetic laboratory? Oh look, I've got one. Laszlo, just you hold on. There's been too many deaths today.

(The Doctor starts working with coloured liquids.)

DOCTOR: Way too many people have died. Brand new creatures and wise old men and age old enemies. And I'm telling you, I'm telling you right now, I am not having one more death! You got that? Not one. Tallulah, out of the way. The Doctor is in.

Based on the design by KaijuBuildz on Flickr, I present my current Dalek army, the Cult of Skaro, and the creator of the Daleks, Davros!