The best Dalek stories ...

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Well the Victory of the Daleks has split Doctor Who fans ...

But if you had to choose the 3 best Dalek stories - which would you choose?

I know for me ...

1) Genesis of the Daleks

Kind of obvious, and would be most people's first choice. A very dark story of the origins of the Daleks, the desparate war which was their background, and the twisted creator who made them.

2) Remembrance of the Daleks

A great period setting story, with lots of war between Daleks.

3) Journey's End

Well I was tempted to say the Peter Cushing Dalek Invasion of Earth - which would have ruffled some feathers.

But I really liked this resolution to the 4th season, with some great interaction from Davros, and Donna finding her destiny, finally having to have her memories erased and returned as a pre-Doctor, somewhat vacuuous Donna.

[shada pavlova]

Personally, I would plump for Genesis, The Mutant Phase, and The Apocalypse Element.

The former for its all-round excellence, and the latter two because they're written by fanboys, for fanboys.

[Si Hunt]

"The Mutant Phase" was awful, IMO.

I would say the three best are probably "The Stolen Earth" for being the single most exciting Doctor Who episode ever, "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Eye of the Daleks".

Si.

[Jason Thompson]

The Daleks' Master Plan, The Power of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks.

[Paul Monk]

I would say the three best are probably "The Stolen Earth" for being the single most exciting Doctor Who episode ever, "Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Eye of the Daleks".

How nice of you!

[Rob McCow]

Dalek - A work of blistering genius.

The Daleks - The only story where the Daleks behave as believable intelligent aliens.

Eye of The Daleks - http://www.planetskaro.org.uk/creati...o/eyeindex.php

[Jon Masters]

I'm going for stories which are great and which the Daleks are great in as well (which rules out Journey's End or Death to the Daleks straight away), so

1. Power of the Daleks - sneaky, ruthless and quite happy to let the humans destroy themselves.

2. Jubilee - chosen over Dalek reluctantly, but even though its a greater visual feast Jubilee has an infinitely superior story.

3. Genesis - where Daleks won as they should do.

[Paul Monk]

Evolution of the Daleks - A story I wrote and designed when I was 16 featuring Charles Darwin.

The Happiness of the Daleks - In which the Doctor accidentally lands on Skaro, only to find his deadliest enemies singing and dancing and playing catch.

The Reign of the Daleks - In which a dalek is crowned King of England in the English Civil War.



(All possible, slightly fleshed out, sequels to Eye of the Daleks)

[Paul Monk]

I'm only kidding by the way.

[Anthony Williams]

Evolution of the Daleks - A story I wrote and designed when I was 16 featuring Charles Darwin.

You are Russell T. Davies, and I claim my £10

Ant x

[Paul Monk]

It wasn't that Evolution of the Daleks! Mine was much better.

[Anthony Williams]

It wasn't that Evolution of the Daleks! Mine was much better.

On a serious note.... the best Dalek stories, in my opinion:

1. The Daleks
Simply the original, and the best. Even almost 50 years on, this story seems so fresh and new. It's exciting, mysterious and absolutely terrifying in parts. Even at 7 episodes in length, it's not too long.

2. Remembrance of the Daleks
Extremely exciting - the Daleks at their most dangerous. The fact that they've split into two factions gives them an added dimension - two different lots of Daleks fighting it out over racial supremacy, with the Doctor and humanity stuck in the middle. I don't think anyone other than Aaronovitch has understood the Daleks so well, other their creator.

3. The Evil of the Daleks
Daleks at their best - cunning and thoroughly devious, in an epic storyline. It's SUCH a shame that it no longer exists

Ant x

[Andrew Curnow]

"The Mutant Phase" was awful, IMO

And IMO as well - it was the first BF I ever heard and put me off for a l-o-n-g time!!

[Andrew Curnow]

But my top three would be...

1. Destiny of the Daleks
OK, a big part of this is a sense of nostalgia, but even putting that aside I think it's a tight little story. In hindsight we got fed up with Davros coming back again and again (and again) but at the time in 1979 it was a new idea, and a totally unexpected mid-story twist. The Daleks may look tatty in the photos of filming, but on screen I think they still look pretty darned good. A story packed with atmosphere, and a superb part 1 cliffhanger.

2. Remembrance of the Daleks
I'm glad to see so many people picking this one, as it's (IMO) one of the all-time greats. So watchable in 1988, still superbly enjoyable now, and the Daleks had probably never looked as good (arguably still don't).

3. Dalek Invasion of Earth
Such a neat twist on the 'aliens invading earth' storyline - here, that's already happened and the Daleks are firmly in charge. It still packs a punch now, being in places such a grim story - and the moment where the Dalek heads into the camera chanting, "We are the Masters of Earth" is chilling.

[WibblyWombly]

I chose three:
1. Evil of the Daleks- The Daleks at their most evil and most scary. Their plan was brilliantly cunning plan and this was the first apperance of the emperor dalek. The childish Daleks were brilliant as was the amazing civil war at the end.
2. Dalek- a supurb re-introduction for the Daleks. Their new design was brilliant IMO and you really got a sense of how completely ruthless and unstoppable the Dalek was. Murdering an entire base full of people without recieving even a scratch was just terrifying. It was awesome to see the Dalek fly, to finally get a proper view of the mutant inside and to see a darker side of the Doctor. He was genuinely afraid. Also good to hear info about the time war and the Dalek killing itself at the end was a very powerfull image IMO.

3. Power of the Daleks- sneaky, deceptive, apparently servile daleks is always good to see. You just know they're gonna start killing any minute.

Although I like Genesis of the Daleks I didn't choose it because its more about Davros really. The Daleks are only basically his mindless slaves until the last episode. Also its a bit annoying how much this story contradicted the Daleks which I personally prefer as an origin story.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

The Reign of the Daleks - In which a dalek is crowned King of England in the English Civil War.

Well not quite. However it might be interesting to take a similar premise to say the French or Russian revolutions. As they were such bloodthirsty regimes that followed. Public exterminations instead of the guillotine?

Actually the Russian one would work best. You could use the Tunguska crash of a sole surviving Dalek, and have them working with Stalin years later in Sibera. Stalin is using the purge to send millions to death camps in Russia where the sole Dalek is using them as genetic material to try and rebuild a Dalek race of some kind.

[Dino]

Death To The Daleks was seriously the first Dalek story I thought of. I rate it highly despite the clanging Dalek conference in front of the Doctor's party?
Sentimental reasons too, for always mishearing the "Con-Tin-Ue Sea-rch!" at the Exillon city enterance for "God's a nusiance!" I like how calculating the Daleks can be. Plus the panic they go through being unable to properly Exterminate? I pretend the "I have failed! I have failed!" bit doesn't happen.
Terrific guest actung as well as a different side to Sarah Jane from The Time Warrior and Planet Of The Spiders? There isn't much of her journalist, instead she, expecting a holiday gets thrown into a sequence of events that although minor compared to her other episodes, are still life threatening if thought about? So I am the first to delcare Death To The Daleks love!

Rememberance Of The Daleks has got to be up there for me, for not only have you got Daleks that can hover, you also had two factions of them to be menaced by. It isn't just sentiment for this one, people are agreeing! It stands up as a drama.

And finally Dalek, as it was the story that both brought back and also destroyed the Daleks for the rest of the series until Journey's End.
I really, really was going to put The Daleks here? But if I did that, it would mean the new series hasn't really produced any good Dalek stories? Of course I know they have as I've seen this one.
I haven't seen of heard the missing episode Daleks because I can't sit through the audios! I'm sorry! For me they are gone until discovered and I can still call myself a fan.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Rememberance Of The Daleks has got to be up there for me, for not only have you got Daleks that can hover, you also had two factions of them to be menaced by. It isn't just sentiment for this one, people are agreeing! It stands up as a drama.

It does - rewatching it again last week I was amazed how well it was written. It has it's iffy moments, but it's a lot better than I remembered it.

I do think sometimes Sylvester McCoy was given an unfairly harsh treatment by fans. His first season I thought was quite poor, and his companion Mel really badly written. But stories like Curse of Fenric, Remembrance of the Daleks and The Happiness Patrol (once you get over the robotise Bertie Bastard) are stories which are part of classic Who.

Classics of Classic Who? Oh you get the jist ...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

1) Power of the Daleks - Because, apart from the slightly rabbit-out-of-a-technobabble-hat ending, it's probably one of the best stories ever, not just the best Dalek story. From what I seem to recall, received wisdom in the 80s was that it was rubbish, and that Evil was the "good" Troughton Dalek story. But really it's great.

2) Death to the Daleks - Okay this will just be because it was the first Doctor Who video I ever bought (at the same time as Revenge of the Cybermen actually, so for a while I thought the music was ALWAYS like that back then). But, despite being quite cheesy a lot of the time, it's actually not that bad a story either and has lots of atmosphere in places. And I think the Daleks look really good in it too, shame it was a one-off look.

3) Remembrance of the Daleks - Mainly for the explosions if I'm honest