Why aren't Daleks going extinct yet or at least at incredibly high risk of that?

Considering how they started off looking like human aliens and are now hideous squirming monstrosities due to their xenophobic racist self-applied eugenics making them incapable of doing anything outside of their little tank suits, how long will it take before they start biologically breaking down, with high rates of debilitating birth defects, stillborn young, infertility and spontaneous organ failure leading to death?

Daleks don't reproduce. As I recall, at this point they're primarily genetically engineered clones. They are designed and created, not bred. Presumably, given their temperament, any clones that don't meet their standards are destroyed (or dumped in the -ugh, stupid Moffat- living sewer) and more grown in their place. They essentially designed what they wanted, perfected it, and they keep cranking out replacements as needed.

I assume you're being incredibly facetious but if you really want an answer.

The mutations weren't self-applied, they were the actions of an insane scientist who believed that them becoming that was the only way they could survive and win a catastrophic nuclear war that had ravaged their planet for years. He took everything away that made them human, genetically engineered them with the belief that they were superior and the end product was the Dalek. Then they turned their back on him because they were so fundamentally different.

As for the rest of your question, why are you applying human genetical logic to a alien race? They don't breed, they're genetically engineered to ensure that the race remains pure. Then (according to the most recent series) when their bodies start breaking down they go on surviving, incapable of being anything more than a conscious pile of sludge that can't do anything but hate.

Yeah, they have to be quite literally perfect. They've had civil wars over minor differences.

Ah. So then rephrased, how long until their clones start dying faster than they can grow them and the Daleks start facing exctinction by their own hands?

Well, alien biologies can vary drastically, but there's still standards for how life works that can't really be overlooked because "not from earth." Even earth plants try to avoid "inbreeding" or whatever the plant equivalent is. Well, at least when set up as physically comparable to humans in complexity, the Doctor might be able to Regenerate and travel time, but he's far closer to us humans than he would be to a mold spore.

Also, I'm honestly not trying to be facetious, the though popped into my head and I was curious if that ever would be addressed as a long game solution that such vain angry wretches like the Daleks would be too prideful to care about or even notice. And apperently how Daleks are made prevents inbreeding hiccups, while opening itself up to others.

Also if tiny, inconsequential differences can cause civil wars, how possible would it be for the Doctor to try and make the entire race kill itself by making each individual Dalek consider itself the most perfect Dalek and start trying to wipe the others out to ensure its own "perfection?" Or even for that to happen on its own?


Or am I just overthinking everything again?

Probably never. Daleks are masters of science so they've likely covered every life-extending trick they can (the casing itself will have some level of life support too) and the progenitors they use to make new ones can pump them out in at a ridiculous pace. Plus, they have time travel capabilties so aren't adverse to just plucking themselves out of time (or in some fiction) alternate universes.

It would be possible. He gave a load of Daleks the "human factor" which made them question orders and there was a civil war. Another time they just had a civil war between themselves because they're creator made another faction. Then another time a high ranking Dalek designed with more "imagination" realised they were doomed the way they were and tried to turn them into hybrid humans. The rest didn't like that and killed him. Most recently another Dalek malfunctioned and turned "good". However that "good" turned out to be just wanting to slaughter Daleks like the way Daleks slaughter everything else.

The general idea has always been that the Daleks will eventually be the ones to destroy themselves, but the problem is they'll destroy everything else BEFORE that. And the Doctor doesn't do genocide, so he won't take them out on such a grand scale.

Zeo is right on the money, I'd say. Also, they aren't going to have to deal with iteration degradation much. They aren't making copies of copies. They're smart enough to keep spinning off the original. For the most part, it can generally be assumed that each Dalek is a first-generation copy from the master template.

Radiophonic Workshop performance was great, well worth the delay to hear them yesterday :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36527188
Matt Lucas is coming back in Series 10 as a reprisal of his character from the christmas special. In addition, we know the writers of episode 1 and 2: Steven Moffat, and then Frank Cottrell-Boyce, otherwise known for In The Forest Of The Night.

Because that one was so great.

We also have episodes (unknown numbers, other than Block Two) from Sarah Dollard (Face The Raven) and Mike Bartlett (Writer of Doctor Foster)

Ugh, Matt Lucas. I wonder if Moffat will simply handwave away the fact the character got his head lopped off at Christmas and then pat himself on the back for being so clever.

Do you really need to ask yourself that? :lol Of course he will.

Well, at least I have Big Finish to look forward to. I'm all in for the new Jack/Ianto/Gwen Torchwood one.

Bump for comic-con. I really, really want that 13 Doctors set. Especially for War McGann and blue Colin.

I'm a bit ehhhh on it to be honest. I already have the 11 Doctor set so I don't know how badly I need the 13 one too.

Though I may pick it up if it goes on discount, but the 11 set shelfwarmed like hell.

I don't have the original 11 Doctors set, so that moight be why I'm happy for it.

They're doing an animated retelling of "Power Of The Daleks," the lost story of The First Doctors' regeneration.

http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/officia...tion-81016.htm



Remember, Remember- the 5th of November...

It's about time the BBC confirmed it. This was one of the worst kept secrets. I'm glad it's finally (and officially) coming.

Well, the regeneration is technically in The Tenth Planet, not Power. Power of the Daleks is the Second Doctor debut story.

Anyway YES. It's about damn time they did this. Absolutely cannot wait to finally see the story in some form after so many years of just listening to it. Hopefully this will lead to Evil of the Daleks and Dalek Master Plan getting done one day.

Yay! I've seen the Tenth Planet already, so it'll be great to se what that leads into, with the first Troughton story and all. And, as Zeo says, this will hopefully lead to more stories being recreated. Especially something like The Dalek's Master Plan

Another worst kept secret is finally confirmed, Capaldi will appear in the first episode of Class. It looks like the first two episodes will premiere on BBC Three online on October 22nd.

Source: The Telegraph (There's a trailer on the Telegraph article if you haven't seen it.)

Also, this is old news, but a reminder if anyone is going to NYCC: Doctor Who and Class will both have a presence there. Capaldi, Moffat, Minchin, and Mackie will be there for Who, with Minchin, along with Greg Austin, Fady Elsayed, Sophie Hopkins, Vivian Oparah, as well as writer, creator and executive producer Patrick Ness for Class.

Edit: Apparently the new issue of DWM includes the fact that Matt Lucas’ character Nardole will be back in the upcoming Christmas special (in addition to appearing in an undisclosed number of episodes in S10). This news does not delight me. The character was awful and Lucas wasn't funny, to my mind. I almost suspect Moffat is giving fans the finger on the way out the door.

The title of the Christmas special has apparently been revealed at NYCC as The Return of Doctor Mysterio.

Edit: And here's an image from the special featuring Justin Chatwin (Dragonball Evolution). I dropped it in as a link to avoid spoilers for those that wish to remain unsullied.

Edit 2: And here's a close-up of the chest logo. G.I. it seems. I wonder if that's just a red herring.

Isn’t this what the series was originally called when dubbed in Mexico?

Pretty much. It's spelled a bit differently, though: Doctor Misterio.

You know, I'm usually a lot more forgiving when it comes to Christmas specials because they're just a bit of festive fun.

This though? Pass. I'm not liking the look of this at all.

Thank god Time War 3 is out soon.

It looks like the animated Power of the Daleks restoration is getting a cinema release on November 14th here in the States. I would have to assume that this is happening in the UK as well.

BBC TO RELEASE COLOUR VERSION OF THE POWER OF THE DALEKS

Brb, cancelling my DVD order.
You know, it's stunts like this that make me want to watch it "by other means" until February. No excuse why they can't just release this from the get-go.

I'm right there with you. I really hate double dipping. Things like this and the half series sets are ridiculous, especially with the fairly high costs of the Doctor Who sets. It sucks that it seems the US isn't getting the Blu-ray, too. I'd rather have that than the regular DVDs.

I don't usually get so worked up about products, but I'm genuinely pretty angry about this. At least they had the decency to announce it before the DVD was released I guess.

This is like when they said Adventure in Time and Space wasn't coming out on blu-ray, and then they released it in an expensive 50th anniversary set with a load of other extras they could have easily thrown on the Day of the Doctor set.

Gah. I really hate the BBC sometimes.

That really sucks about the US getting shafted as well. There's no excuse to do that given Doctor Who's current position in over there.

Way to go BBC. Things like this is why people turn to piracy instead of supporting the official release.

You may love the actor (I don't know him personally, but I have not enjoyed any of his work), but that's no reason to torture your audience. Everything I read just makes me believe even more that Moffat is just giving everyone the finger on the way out the door.

That bolded bit reads like something from an April Fools' article. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part.

Source: Doctor Who TV

I'm just hoping that the trio works well together. I haven't seen Matt Lucas in anything else, so who knows?

Other than his last appearance on Doctor Who, I’m only familiar with Lucas’ work on Little Britain.

Eh. Just another reason why I can't wait for Moffat to go.

It's downright depressing that I've got to a point where I fail to be excited about anything Doctor Who-TV related.

Well, I thought that was much better than I was expecting. It was funny, it had action, the superhero stuff wasn't the big act 3 twist, which was nice to see (for some reason, I'm not sure why I liked that) and the romance stuff, though a bit cheesy, was sweet. And Matt Lucas was (imo) pretty good. Sure, there were some things that didn't work (that speech at the end from Lucas, which kind of ruined all of the nice subtle references throughout the episode), but I'll take it. Better than last years, so it gets a 7/10/ Enjoyable and fun.

It was alright. Largely inoffensive but absolutely nothing special about it whatsoever. You think in doing superheroes they'd try and do something clever with it but it was nothing but the most basic of cliches and pastiches. Not to mention the villains were underdeveloped to the point of being near non-existent.

Nowhere near as good as last year's.

It reminded me a lot of the Matt Smith Narnia-inspired Christmas episode: it was fun, had some good Doctor moments, but is ultimately pretty minor and forgettable in the end. The best part is not having to wait another year for the next episode.

Finally watched the special and I actually forgot who that bald dude was for the first few minutes. Thankfully, the year long wait was worth it since this was a very entertaining special. It isn't going to be anywhere near the best of the Xmas specials (the best is still A Christmas Carol), but it was a great one nonetheless. I loved how it started with the kid being a fan of Superman comics and ended up becoming essentially Superman. Not to mention it was done far superior than this garbage universe WB is currently concocting as this guy was actually heroic and hopeful. I can't wait to see what this final season brings. I also want to know why the Doctor was obsessed with the number 24.

It's how long he spent with River Song on Darillium, which is heavily implied to have happened just before this adventure.

Yeah, I remember that now. Man, to think that special was like 2 years ago.

Wha? I know it feels like the shows been away for ages but it was only last year's special :lol

That's what someone else said on TFW and I can not believe it. :lol I watched the library episodes in the first week of Jan after the special, which I could have sworn was Jan 2015 when I did that. Good god this year is taking forever.