Taking Sides: The Daleks or The Cybermen

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Who are the more fearsome would-be conquerors of the universe?

and please don't trot out the old stairs chestnut, we've all seen how actually Daleks can levitate up stairs when they have to.

My vote goes to the Daleks, mainly because I've never had nightmares about Cybermen.

― DV, Friday, 8 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

EX TER MIN ATE new answers.

― DV, Friday, 8 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know Daleks, but please enlighten re: Cybermen?

I'd submit the Krofft's Sleestaks as potential contenders, but unfortunately the definition of 'conquering the universe' would then have to be constrained simply to doing crazy amounts of hissing, ensnaring folks in big nets, and then throwing them into deep pits in the floor of a cave. Being liz ard people with big spooky eyes is a plus though, you have to admit.

― Kim, Friday, 8 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have *no* idea how that space got in there.

― Kim, Friday, 8 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Daleks *diving behind the couch*

― ducklingmonster, Friday, 8 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the daleks! though, the Cybermen were scarier.

― jel --, Saturday, 9 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the cybermen! they replaced their entire bodies bit by bit with plastic to escape the twin curses of disease and feelings!! how hot is THAT? They were totally logical therefore they could be "just but never fair" (that's what it said in a Dr Who guide-to I read when 12 or so: to be honest I still don't quite understand it...)

Oddly enuff the cybermen could not go DOWNstairs...

― mark s, Saturday, 9 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cybermen got defeated by maths in the form of Adric's gold star. I think this makes them more rubbish than daleks, but I am not sure.

― RickyT, Saturday, 9 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cybermen beat Daleks BUT stories with Daleks in beat stories with Cybermen in (cos the writers had to work harder).

― Tom, Saturday, 9 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cybermen are NASTY.

― toraneko, Saturday, 9 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cybermen = emotionless so could always be beat by the stale old sci- fi logic versus irrrationality chestnut. (Or chest gold star). Allergy to gold = v.v.super rubbidge.

Daleks, a handful or swarvega in a pepperpot with emotion. Said emotion was one of kill kill kill everything - though I wanted to see a Dalek in love story. Scarier voices, visual but easy to beat by putting a coat over their heads or hitting them with a baseball bat (= low point in Dr Who history).

The Rutans though. There was a reason the Doctor rarely tangled with them.

― Pete, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(The Rutans change via top of the pops special effect, therefore RULE.) Cybermen SHOULD be fantastic, what Mark said above about people replacing themselves with inorganic matter but by bit: mill it through a Pynchon view and you have CLASSIC. However mill it through piss-poor adventure plot for kiddies TV and you have inexplicable gold allergy and dull stories. ALSO Adric died because he thought he was great at maths = geek icon, but his star only killed one cyberman as such. Finally, Cher's "Believe" = proof that she is the cybercontroller.

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Adrics' star completely critical in Cyber defeat, even thoonly one cyberman actually killed by it.

Thing with the gold introduced of 'Revenge of the cy...", a hasty cut and shut of two planned Who episodes, and one of the poorest of the Philip Hinchcliffe produced stories (in general they were ace).

Basically they wanted to do a Nerva BEacon/Cyberman story, set in far future when cybermen in terminal decline. And they had planned to do a voga planet of gold story, and they just rammed the tow together, hence gold + fatal to cybermen. There was an attempt to justify it saying it was something to do with gold fragments plating their delicate respirator circuits. Pishpashpafoodle - surely superhard cyborgs would design Tuff respirators. But I liked the notion of a 'Glittergun', human designed anti cyberman weapon which somehow strung out gold particles along an ionised beam.

Early cybermen = ROWR. (Not tenth planet tho, they're crap) Invasion - cybermen emerging from london's sewers! Striding purposefully through Westminster! Tomb of the Cybermen - Absolutely BRILL. Beautifully designed Aztec style Cyber logos on their tombs.

I also fantasize regularly about the Special Weapons Dalek.

― misterjones, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I much prefer Sontarans anyway

ps sorry about my poor typing today

― misterjones, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the Special Weapons Dalek is FAN-BLOOODY-TASTIC!!! oh come ON people of COURSE the Daleks are better than the Cybermen! Pepperpots with plungers that charge around EXTERMINATING everything (including members of other Dalek families that they don't get on with) vs. basically blokes in bacofoil suits? the Daleks win every time man!

― katie, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sigmund freud to thread!!

― mark s, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hmm...

Cyber-telosian vs Cyber-mondasian anyone?

or Imperial vs Renegade daleks?

― misterjones, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cybermen from Telos kick the asses of Cybermen from Mondas. However, the Imperial Daleks are way cooler then the renegade Daleks. Gotta agree with Ptee about the Rutan being fookin' SCARY, though; I'm amazed the Sontarans lasted as long against them as they did.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

and please don't trot out the old stairs chestnut OK then...the Daleks get my vote coz they could unblock sinks.

― MarkH, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sontarans had the Rutans, Daleks had the uber-disko Movellans, Cyberman had small pieces of inert precious metal, Daleks had ?? Rula Lenska and Chloe Ashcroft. Pick your enemies well.

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Who was the sleek silvery 'man' who popped up in 'The Five Doctors' (or it might have been 'The Three Doctors')? He was hopping around near a cave and was v.fearsome indeed, as I recall.

― N., Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I remember him, he used to disappear didn't he, and reappear elsewhere ready to strike.

― chris, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

AARGH. What was he called? The Raston Warrior Robot? He was GREAT what with the spears of doom that he would extrude from his hands and hurl at everyone... (I almost called him the Dastoor Warrior Robot, heh.)

― Dan Perry, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

he used to disappear didn't he, and reappear elsewhere ready to strike.

Yes, you're right. That's what my memory had distilled/corrupted into 'hopping around'.

― N., Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think there was a thing on tomorrow's world about it and the 'state of the art' special effects involved. No doubt developed by Kjarten Posckett (sp?). Why on earth do I always remember that bloke's name, even if I don't remember how to spell it.

― chris, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

chris may be confusing the raston warrior robot (man in lycra and plastic egg mask) with the hideous abomination that was "Chameleon" (briefly a companion) an animatronics dud that apparently impressed John N-T, but NOBODY ELSE EVER.

If you google it I'm pretty sure you'll find someone has made a family tree of all the various cybermen, and the raston warrior robot is in there somewhere. (despite the fact that no reference to said relationship is ever made in the show)

― Alan Trewartha, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

don't forget the Cybermats. The Daleks didn't keep little pet Dalek versions of animals, did they?

― DV, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i had a hideous nightmare abt the cybermat aged [small]: we were eating its brain, or it was eating ours, or something...

― mark s, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

On Class of 1987, the mystery guest was the bloke who did the voices of George, Zippy AND the Daleks! They showed a clip of Tom Baker vs. Dalek. Tom put his hat over the Dalek's eye and it exploded, just like that. Come on, now, that's a bit pish really, isn't it? Also, you know when you bite all the biscuit off a jaffa cake, then suck off the chocolate and you're left with a floppy bit of orange jelly? That's what a Dalek's brain looks like and it will attach itself to your neck and kill you with its stickiness or something. Really.

CYBERMEN RULE.

― Madchen, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this was in "Destiny of the Daleks".

― DV, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

actually Madchen, I think you'll find it exploded because it also had a bomb stuck onto it.

this was in "Destiny of the Daleks".

― DV, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

nyerrrgh, fucked that up really badly.

― DV, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DV is very correct. This does not change the fact that "Destiny Of The Daleks" is CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP, though.

― Dan Perry, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

b-b-but the daleks are cuter!!

― katie, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, but looking cute is hardly a big part of fearsomeness.

― RickyT, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bok!

― DG, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I AM FEARSOME AND CUTE

― N., Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

[I wish I hadn't posted that]

― N., Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

index of crapness = the head of the man playing davros is too small for the latex head-mask

― mark s, Monday, 11 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two weeks pass...

Is the whole Mondas/Telos Cybermen dichotomy largely a creation of Doctor Who fandom? my suspicion is that if the Cybermen were to invade and you were to ask them whether they were Mondas or Telos Cybermen they would reply: "Your question is illogical. You must be eliminated".

They would then procede to walk up and down those steps from St. Pauls to the river.

As for Daleks being cute, there is the famous time some Daleks were (for no obvious reason) reprogrammed with The Human Factor and took to playing trains with each other and the Doctor.

― DV, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not really a dichotomy as much as it is geeky Doctor Who continuity, largely because Mondas was blown up at the end of "The Tenth Planet" and because the Cybermen that appeared in "Tomb Of The Cybermen" looked radically different from the ones in "The Tenth Planet".

Cybermen are definitely scarier than Daleks, but the Daleks are more effective. Although, you'd expect them to spend less time screeching about mowing people down with their weapons and more time doing it...

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know I'm going to seem like and uber-geek, but continuity niggles get in the way of my enjoyment of things like Who.

Important thing about dichotomy Mondas and Telos cyberchaps is that Mondasians not only looked radically different, they were also dependant on Mondas as a Power source for their nefarious activities, and indeed their existence. Cyber Telosians of all stripes, from Troughton era onwards have a much greater degree of autonomy.

When Mondas blew up all cyber mondasians went with it.

― misterjones, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's times like this I look at my postings and weep for a life and a brain wasted.

― misterjones, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

let go of the continuity obsession and you will feel reborn. Right, so the UNIT stories were set when...?

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

EXTERMINATE!

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was way more scared of the cybermen. However far more scared of Triads or Wurzel Gummidge.

― Ed, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm sure there's a mention of the nineteen eighties. In Day of the Daleks maybe, as that has people and daleks from further up a time line being sent back to an UNIT defended earth.

― misterjones, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

So in Mawdryn Undead when the retired brig is attending the 1977 silver jubilee...

― Alan Trewartha, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

bad stories aren't part of continuity.

I basically approve of continuity, or at least approve of not going out of your way to mess it up.

― DV, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It's times like this I look at my postings and weep for a life and a brain wasted.

at least you're not one of those people who drones on about football all the time.

or maybe you are.

― DV, Tuesday, 26 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three years pass...

They're back you know. Well one of them is.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 11:57 (twenty-one years ago)

what was that cybermen story in the colin baker era, where they were tuning men into cybermen? that made me very scared as a wee chillun...

― stevie (stevie), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 12:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Help a newbie out: what is that sink plunger thing on the daleks supposed to be/do?

― David Merryweather (DavidM), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Clear blockages in kitchen drains.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 13:31 (twenty-one years ago)

"Attack of the Cybermen", the second CBaker story! The one where he fixes the chameleon circuit and the TARDIS becomes a running gag for the entire episode!

Cybermen beat Daleks BUT stories with Daleks in beat stories with Cybermen in (cos the writers had to work harder).

Tom was completely OTM 3 years ago.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 13:37 (twenty-one years ago)

THe plunger thing is supposed to be some kind of arm. I think they may be retconning it to be more useful than it looks in this week's episode.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 13:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a disturbing dream the other day - I was in a hotel in Glasgow that was secretly being run by the Daleks. Their plan was to come around in the morning and EXTERMINATE everyone in their beds. It was especially disturbing as I had to fly to Glasgow and stay in a hotel there the next day.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 16:10 (twenty-one years ago)

"The new Dalek can also spin its torso independently of his head, so creeping up from behind is no longer an option. Its trademark "sink plunger" attachment also reveals a terrifying new function."

Erk!

― Si Carter (Si Carter), Tuesday, 26 April 2005 22:40 (twenty-one years ago)

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