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Librarian-bot β NDP - The Eternal
Published: 2010-12-28 19:18:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 9176; Favourites: 73; Downloads: 209
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Several people mentioned in comments the idea that the 'Eternal' (eg Bright Yellowy Yellowness of the Marigolds) of the on-screen New Dalek Paradigm might be in charge of Dalek genetic heritage. Last night, that idea crashed into several random concepts from the audios and comics and TV serials (the production line in Power of the Daleks, the Psyche Dalek, the Dalek Time Controller) and produced this little concept. And I think it works, so I decided to act on it.Hope you all agree!
The Daleks belong to the BBC and the Terry Nation estate.
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Comments: 25
i think that the eternal dalek just messes around with the progenitorΒ
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You should send this idea to the BBC. They said that even they don't know what the Eternal should do, and this is awesome enough to be on the Doctor Who TV show.
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Probably the best explanation I've seen of what "Dalek Eternal" could mean. Presumably the Cult of Skaro could be thought of as a thematic forerunner to this entire caste.
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Or perhaps they were an off-shoot of it. I think it's reasonable to assume that the different castes have always existed within Dalek 'society' - the progenitor Daleks simply make it explicit.
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Me too. It would suit their mindset and, given that their culture is basically one vast military force, explain some of its necessary complexity and functionality beyond the basic "grunt Dalek" and "leader Dalek" differentiation we tend to see on screen.
(A caste system is also discussed in John Peel's "War of the Daleks" - but, I mean, *REALLY*. There's slashfic I'd sooner take as canon over the novels of John Peel...)
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John Peel didn't invent a caste system, he cobbled together a heirarchy. And in all fairness, I used it for a while. Buuut...the caste system is more interesting, with more potential and has the advantage of not coming from one of John Peel's Dalek novels. Terra Firma, for me, is the only sequel to Remberance and that's the end of it.
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You heard the doctor: "since when have the daleks had a concept if blasphemy ?"
Daleks are not suposted to be religious zealots they are xenophobic creatures that hate the world outside just because the rest of the world gets to enjoy the rest of the world when they are just sealed in thier little cold dark casing.
Also yellow and black may be the most dangerous colour known to man (how many murders are committed by colour each year?) but they certainly are not the most threatening. The eternal are suposed to be a support caste, working from the shadows to quietly ensure the survival and dominance of the Dalek race.
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Hmm, cool idea. I can't believe how you made Moffat's Daleks actually not look stupid!
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My Big brother has a theory that the Eternal Dalek is like a kinda pope-ish figure in the Dalek hierarchy. Y'know, a religious figure. Also, Yellow and Black are supposedly the most dangerous colours known to man. Coincidence? I think not.
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It's not. That was the reasoning behind the colour scheme, at least according to the interviews I've read/watched.
Not sure about relgion though. It's perhaps the wrong word to use in connection to the Daleks. It would probably be closer to the propoganda officers of despotic regimes...
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s/LaSH and Scholar and a Brutalman on rpg.net had some ideas for what hypothetical dalek religious beliefs might consist of.
Daleks are very fond of All That Is Dalek, but like any purity-based fanatics, they cannot agree on who is the proper Dalek and who is merely a blasphemer and abomination ripe for extermination. And perhaps that is the root of my fundamental Dalek identity:
To be Dalek is to search for the truth of the Daleks.
No Dalek will admit to it, but their driving impulse is to measure themselves against an ephemeral ideal. They don't even have a unified set of standards for this ideal; it's passed on as fables and figures of speech, inferred in a thousand fragments by every new generation. Secretly, each Dalek suspects they don't measure up, and has pretty much confirmed that their fellows do not either. This makes it very easy for brutal schisms to break out if the Dalek in charge doesn't rule with an iron plunger.
The true Dalek is described in many ways. It rules the universe; it has conquered fear; it has endured all opposition. In general, the true ideal of the Dalek is safety - pure personal safety, unthreatened by any external force. It's a state of utter paranoid isolation, absent all love and hate, all connections, all need of thought; a kind of awful solipsistic nirvana. All the murder and domination is simply a means to this end.
On some level, many Daleks subconsciously reject this ideal. They feel connections to the universe, and are unwilling to give them up. On a perverse level, they even love their slaves, because it gives their machinations some meaning. Most of all, of course, they love to hate. And no faithful Dalek would ever embrace weakness such that it would willingly abandon the hard-won safety of its shell. Their thoughts are in conflict, just like everybody else in space and time.
This gives Daleks an explicit motivation, no matter where they are. How are they pursuing the truth of the Daleks? What hideous form of safety do they architect?
"Most Dalek religions are based around the worship of two divine figures:
- Davros, who made the Daleks and told them that they were the perfect life form and that it was their destiny to rule the universe by exterminating all imperfect creatures,
- The Doctor, who appeared on the day of their creation and began to test them to see whether they were truly perfect. When he found them falling short he exterminated almost all the Daleks then alive, but he always carefully left a few survivors to learn from the failures of their forebears.
Some Dalek prophets hold that they are obviously one entity, whom they call "The Davros". Other thinkers hold that the dualism is obviously a metaphor for the flesh/machine dualism inherent to the entire species."
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Black and yellow is the natural colour of Wasps and Bees, their pretty dangerous.
The religion thing was just a theory we had. Guess we'll never really know for sure, huh?
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Well, until they decide on the official made up explanation!
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If it meant the preservation of the Daleks, could the Eternals EXTERMINATE the Supreme Dalek, or even Their Emperor?
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Hmm...would Daleks give anyone that kind of power given how dependent on authority they are? I doubt it, somehow. The Emperor at least is probably some sort of ultimate template for what a Dalek should be...
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It's just that you said that if it meant to preserve the Dalek species, they had the authority to destroy hundreds or thousands of Daleks, So I was wondering, if the Daleks suspected that the Emperor or the Dalek Supreme were acting in what they presumed an irrational manner, they could remove them.
Like how the Cult of Skaro had decided to remove Dalek Sec, because he was acting against the Dalek Way, even before he became half human.
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Oh, yeah I get that. I'm just not sure you'd ever get a Dalek Emperor that could act irrationally from the point of view of the Daleks that serve it...
Hmm...that said...I suppose it might be a neat idea to have the Eternal replacing Emperors over time but not being obvious about it. You could have what looks like one Dalek Emperor for ages but in actual fact the Eternal have been replacing it over and over again, to make sure the prime specimin is always in charge...
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Love this one! My theory was always that the Eternal was somehow connected to the Dalek race's relationship with the Doctor, dedicated to finding ways to defeat him or predicting his actions. Still, this seems more likely and very in the Dalek personality or lack thereof)
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Thanks!
Hmm...not a bad theory. Well, idea. Theory suggests that there is an actual answer and as far as I know, no one on the actual show team knows what the Eternal's for either! I think though that defeating the Doctor is a goal to which all parts of the Dalek race is deidcated!
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It would explain why the Eternal was present at the opening of the Pandorica, to record the occassion.
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Nice touch with the cabbage in the clone masters holdall
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Skarosian stew, anyone?
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