How to make the Daleks scary again

Show advantageous ways their form is useful

  • moving on flat surfaces (like starship floors) should appear quick and effortless

  • the plunger has been shown to be a computer hacking interface in the classic series. Show it hacking into things more.

  • have a needle extend from the whisk, show the whisk spinning as the needle lobotomizes a prisoner through its eye socket. because it doesn't kill the patient (but does cause a zombie like attitude) lobotomizing the Doctor a couple of episodes before a regeneration would be a very scary win for the Daleks, yet not fully kill the Doctor.

  • show the domes on the lower body spin if they make contact with something to push obstructions from their path or push the legs of an enemy away and push it down to the floor in a submissive / incapacitated position.

  • show gas emitted from the fencing below their head domes and put a hole room full of enemies to sleep.

  • it's been shown that the Daleks can fly to go up stairs, but show them doing this very rapidly. So rapidly that the stairs look like a disadvantage to the humans they are pursuing.

  • show that the Daleks that are disabled or partially destroyed when the Doctor escapes can be quickly repaired. It's much easier to repair a machine body than a human one.

  • show that Daleks can communicate with each other by direct contact of plungers. Give them quiet, distinguishable voices (male and female) with minor vocoder tweaking (like Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' alteration) but make it clear the sound is their conversation with each other and others can not hear it. Daleks need to be able to whisper, at least to each other. Their intimidating "Exterminate" voice should be used to dominate or strike fear in others; this is unneeded with others if they are very close to each other.

  • show the eye stal k able to spin completely around 360 degrees, and the body able to follow (albeit slightly slower) if a threat or item of interest is seen behind it.

True, all of this makes the Daleks very difficult to defeat, which means that the ways the Doctor wins should be more about outsmarting them that merely with physical force.

/r/doctorwho Thread