#thals

[dailyclassicwho]

DOCTOR WHO (1963) — 10.20 "Planet of the Daleks: Part Six"

[doctorwhogirlie]

Doctor Who - Planet of the Daleks

[fanonical]

my weird want for doctor who is that they return to the thals to find out what was going on with skaro’s other genetic mutants

it’s just striking that the original daleks serial was more about the thals than the daleks, but we’ve never really seen them again, and i know there’s some interesting things that could be mined there

[hansolostrickedoutweedvan]

Doctor Who: The Daleks

Coming hot off the heels of An Unearthly Child comes “The Daleks”, debuting way earlier then originally intended and forever damning Doctor Who to be a scifi adventure over the fun historical edutainment it was conceived as. Having left caveman times, the Doctor, still a horrendous person, decides to take the crew to a far future distant planet blanketed in radiation. Despite knowing it’s full of radiation, they all merrily leave the TARDIS and go around a petrified forest, marveling at metallic lizards and stone flowers, increasing their risks of tumours by 2 percent every second. They see a city, which the Doctor wants to explore, but he’s overruled by Ian and Barbara who point out, quite fairly and patiently, that they’d really like to go home and leave, since, you know, he kidnapped them and all.

So the Doctor fakes a mechanical failure, in order to force them to go to the city to look for replacement mercury. There they discover the Daleks, are imprisoned by them while they rapidly start dying of radiation sickness (WOW!) and Susan comes into contact with the Thals, a race of incredibly beautiful blonde, oiled humanoids who are just so peaceful and perfect. The Daleks want to leave their city, which they’re trapped in by the nature of their biology and machinery, purely so they can exterminate the Thals for being different.

Theres a lot of back and forth, with some fun escape sequences in episode 3, and a dramatic conflict in the final episode, but the serial is let down by episodes 4 and 5 which, outside of a scene of Ian convincing the Thals that pacifism is the choice of the delusional when confronting facism, are largely taken up with a slow, repetitive journey through some caves.

All in all, it’s pretty good, and the Daleks are genuinely threatening, with their eerie monotone, and fully inhuman being. A lot of the lore established here about the Daleks won’t make a lot of sense compared to things we find out later (this serial shows the very small number of Daleks, implied to be the entire population wiped out, with no space travel, time travel, or the ability to travel outside of their statically charged metal floors.) There have been numerous attempts to justify this in extended universe material, with some suggesting these are a population of prototype Daleks created by Davros and abandoned in favour of newer models when they left Skaro, as well as the truly wild claim that they are merely a convergent evolution of Dalek, another instance of the same form emerging- Skaro doesn’t have carcinization, it has Dalekization. That actually sounds like a modern Doctor Who story, thinking of it.

In any case, as the blueprint of the Daleks, virtually every key element is here from the minute go: the design is immediately recognisable as virtually identical to a modern Dalek, the voice, the use of “rels” as a measure of time, the xenophobia and xenocidal tendencies, the (not shown but described) form of the horrible mutant inside the casing. This story is probably one of the most Dalek stories out there, without the grotesquely huge scales of conflict they’d later be associated with, and I think that works very well.

Notable First: The Daleks, the Thals,

Rating: Sylvester McCoy and a half out of David Tennant

[rassilon-imprimatur]

GANATUS: "If only there'd been some other way." 

THE DOCTOR: "There should have been another way."

[reachingforthevoid]

Dr Who: Planet of the Daleks

I rewatched this serial on 19 February 2023. Of note, it’s the first Terry Nation script in a while.

We continue on from the ending of Frontier in Space, with Jo getting the Doctor back into the TARDIS. He falls unconscious, effectively leaving Jo in charge. Following his instructions, she updates the TARDIS log with a lot of information about the Doctor’s alien physiology. Rather bravely (other words are applicable), Jo heads outside into the studio jungle. This is, I think, the first time we’ve been on such a planet since the series switched to colour - the greens are particularly lurid.

Anyway, Jo finds a crashed space ship and three young blonds. They tell her to stay behind while they head off to the TARDIS. Introductions made, it turns out they are Thals. The Doctor is legendary to them, which means they don’t readily believe him. 

And, lo, the Daleks turn up. A lot of Daleks, in fact. 

Watching Dr Who in the truncated manner that I am, the repeating themes are obvious. Despite that, I enjoyed this serial with the icecanos (they are a real thing), clever escapes, daring missions, and invisible Spiridons made visible by giant purple fluffy throws (they are also a real thing). 

And, in the end, we get a taster for the next serial with Jo hankering for home.

[kcdahippie]

Not Susan accidentally spilling the entire history of the Thals to the Daleks, who could not give a fuck about anyone but themselves. LOL

[deadsetobsessions]

I just really like the trope of Danny getting summoned, alright?

——

After he shoved Pariah Dark in his coffin shaped locker what what Danny hoped to be for all of eternity, the half unfortunately inherited all of Pariah’s responsibilities.

“What was it again? With great powers comes great responsibilities?” Danny let his head hit the table with an audible thunk. He’s in his “office,” the ghost zone’s approximation of where he might be able to do work seriously. The house- the extension of his haunt- had added the room right next to his bedroom. Danny had to lift all of the paperwork from Pariah’s castle (that’s now also a part of what’s considered Danny’s but he doesn’t think about that) and move it to his main haunt.

He prayed to the universe at large to let him off. Danny hated doing homework- science not withstanding because at least he understood that- let alone an asshole’s centuries worth of work. Danny bemoaned the fact that he was elected the King. He didn’t even defeat Pariah all by himself, so why couldn’t the others do it?!

Like a wave of merciful fate, the beginning tugs of a summoning pulled at his core.

“Thank Ancients!”

Danny scrambled to grab a sticky note, unfortunately glowing green as things tended to in the Ghost Zone, and scribbled down that he’s been summoned and to not look for him until his vacation work was done.

With that note done, Danny decided to bring his A game to the summoning. Allowing his secondary form to wash over him, Danny quickly checked the mirror to make sure he was presentable. A bright glowing ice crown- not the crown of fire, because it was essentially useless without the ring and Danny wasn’t keen on being a king, let alone a near infinitely powerful one- settled across his brow showed his status. A cape, this form’s best feature, made of an expanse of galaxies, nebulae, and frost cling at the end was swept over his shoulders and pinned together with a cloak pin made of clusters of black holes.

A couple of additions to his normal hazmat suit and his trusty thermos at his side, Danny all but dove into the summoning magic with an excited whoop of glee.

As Danny got closer to the magic-made portal, he could hear the whispers of the living presences beyond it.

His summoners! Hopefully it’s not a cult again, even if he thought they were pretty funny trying to summon the king of the dead to kill more people. Not funny “haha,” funny weird.

How should he do this…? Scary? Funny? Oh! Or maybe he should ditch the crown!

Danny grinned, waving his hand to dispel the crown of ice. It was nice, but he was in a dungeon critter mood today.

“Oh, this is going to be gooood.”

Danny cracked his knuckles and put on the most dead-inside-and-outside expression he could manage, modeling it off of the Nasty Burger workers during closing shift. The halfa stepped through the portal.

——

“The ritual is completed! You will all face the might of Pariah Dark, the eternal king of the dead!” The villain of the week cackled as his cult cheered. Wonder Woman, scuffed and injured from the magical bolts these magic users had shot at her earlier, grimaced and raised her sword.

“We will defeat Pariah Dark,” she proclaimed. Her allies rallied at her proclamation and readied themselves for another fight. “This world will not bow to the likes of you!”

“We are all but mere ants before the king of the dead! Pariah Dark will bring forth the reckoning this shitty world deserves!”

“Actually, Pariah Dark’s kind of busy, so you’re gonna have to leave a message.”

Green Arrow’s arrow jerked towards the new voice. Batman paused, hand holding batarangs at the ready. He, out of all of them, knew better than to underestimate a young voice.

A gloved hand shoved through the green portal, using the edges like a door frame to heave itself through. A humanoid shape, with sharp ears all but crawled out of the Lazarus green portal. Batman wondered if this was what Jason saw when he came back to life.

"Lord Pariah Dark is busy?!"

The figure- a boyish not-human- heaved a sigh. "Do you people seriously think that the High King of the Infinite Realms isn't swamped with work?"

"And who are you supposed to be? His secretary?" Hal asked, Ring glowing and at the ready. Wonder Woman tensed and mentally struck Hal away from the list of people to consider for diplomatic missions.

"Me? I'm a glorified paper pusher." The being turned back to the cultists, his cape containing the universe swished behind him. "Did you have a message for Pariah Dark?"

"He was meant to rain down death and destruction!"

"Okay, first of all, I feel like you guys are missing a really important point." The being pointed at the cult leader. “It’s not called the King of the Dead for no reason, you know. Death comes for everyone eventually. Also, I have to do a seriously giant amount of paperwork every time one of you fruitloops gets the bright idea to cause an influx of deaths.”

Danny stomped across the circle, grabbed the collar of the cultist leader’s cloak and yanked him down. He shook him. “Do you people have any idea how annoying it is?! Huh?! Do you know how long the A-354 Form is?! Stop trying to get Pariah to kill people! I’m sick of the paperwork, dammit!”

"How- how did you get out of the circle?!"

The cultists and the heroes squared up, ready to fight the possible common enemy: Danny.

Danny is having the best time of his half life. Screw kingly dignity, Danny’s gotta de-stress somehow! He had a whole bag of complaints!

"You wrote the circle wrong, idiots! Ancients, are you people even literate? What even are those scribbles?" Danny kept shaking the cultist. Wow, what an amazing stress ball!

“Uh- hey, he looks kind of sick…” The Flash said, trying to be a good hero and mediate before escalating. Danny snarled and Flash held up his hands, gulping in fear as Danny’s eyes narrowed at him. “Did I… do something?”

“You,” Danny hissed. “You mother- fruitloop! Stop screwing with the timeline, you giant red-! Do you know how annoying it is to readjust the death count every time one of you little merry red jesters takes a jaunt through time and space?! Do you even know how many complaints I had to field?! Oh, boy you’re all going to regret summoning me today, because I’ve had a long time to think about what I’d do to everyone who made me work overtime!”

Danny bared his teeth, eyes sparkling with mirth as he froze the cultists.

"We're not letting you take over the world," Hawk-Woman said, raising her mace that pulsed with electricity.

Danny snorted to hide his wince. "I'm not interested. Just let me punch him once. Just once." Danny pointed at the Flash.

"Honestly, I can't even blame you," Black Canary muttered, fists raised.

"Wha-! Canary! That's so rude! You traitor!"

"Shouldn't have put skittles in my shoes then. Those hurt, Flash."

"Enough." Everyone shut up at the sound of Batman's command. "What do you mean they wrote the circle wrong."

Danny, who was watching the byplay with interest, shrugged. "They wanted to summon the Ghost King, right? We've had a... change of leaders recently."

"Who is the leader now?"

Danny waggled a finger at Batman. "Nuh-uh. I'm gonna collect my over-time compensation, which is punching the Flash, and then we can negotiate for information."

"Flash."

"I don't want to get punched, Bats!"

"The alternative is that I let the current Ghost King have a go at you."

"Flash."

"Oh my god, just get punched, Barry!" Danny heard Green Lantern Hal Jordan whisper.

"Ugh, fine. No one video this."

Immediately, three phones go up to record the Flash getting decked by a teenage looking ghost. Danny floated closer and wound his fist back, letting loose some of the ghost strength he normally keeps restrained. "This is for my overtime and for Clockwork, you jerk."

The halfa slammed his fist straight into the Flash's face, knocking him clear into the air. Superman catches him but Danny no longer paid attention to the Flash, petty vengeance enacted.

"Honestly, I don't have a problem with you as a person. You're kind of cool. Break the timeline again in the next three months, though, and you're on my shit-list."

"What do you want in exchange for information?"

Danny hummed. "Depending on the level of information, and I reserve the right to not answer any questions. For the name of the current Ghost King..."

He did want that new gaming console. And Jazz could use some help with her rent.

"I want $5,000 and a plate of really good spaghetti."

"I have cash."

Danny nodded at the Dark Knight. "You just carry $5,000 in cash on you? Who does that?"

"I like to be prepared."

"And he's rich," Superman chimed in.

The Flash reappeared with a plate of spaghetti from an Italian place he teleported to. "Here you go. Fresh, and pleasedon'tscrewwithmyafterlife."

Danny shoveled the spaghetti into his mouth, jaw unhinging like a particularly disturbing snake right before he dumped the whole thing- plate and all- down his throat. "Thanks! The food didn't even try to kill me this time! You're good."

"Does your food try to kill you all of the time?!" The Flash- Barry, apparently- asked.

Danny nodded as he took the cash from Batman's gloved hands. "Totally. It sucks."

"Identity." Batman demanded.

"Oh, yeah. The current ghost king is me."

"...What."

"You have been swindled. Bamboozled. Outwitted and outsmarted," Danny snickered, shoving the bundle of cash in his chest. "But seriously, I'm the king. We got rid of Pariah a while ago."

The crown of ice materialized.

"You said you were a glorified paper pusher!" Hawk-Woman chortled.

"I am! I'm pushing so many papers across my desk, it's unending, I swear!"

Batman growled. "You tricked us."

Danny smirked, "You got tricked." Red Robin, in the corner, snorted quietly. "Anyways, if you've got more interesting things around here, I'll considering busying myself with that instead of sentencing you to an afterlife of paperwork."

The adults straightened, grimacing. "Beast Boy is green," Hal offered up.

"Hey!" Beast Boy shouted, offended at the easy way Hal offered him up. He turned to Danny. "But have you ever seen a green chinchilla? Super cute. Watch!"

"Woah!" Danny clapped. Yes, he'll hang out with them before dragging himself back.

[underwaves]

gonna make 2024 a good year for underwaves let's go!!! ᕦ⁠(⁠ò⁠_⁠ó⁠ˇ⁠)⁠ᕤ

[dawntrailing]

『エオルゼア十二神 • THE TWELVE OF EORZEA 』

[dailyclassicwho]

DOCTOR WHO (1963) — 1.10 “The Ordeal”・The Daleks: Part Six

[doctorwhogirlie]

Doctor Who - Thals

[asavapatr]

Gun Atthaphan by Best Jeera (MUA)

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

In honour of William Russell's passing, here's one of those moments that I constantly come back to, time and again: That time Ian, without explicit words (because in 1963 no explicit words were needed) tells you exactly what he was doing 20 years before the episode's airing, and in so doing becomes one of the first people to actually challenge the Doctor to improve his morals:

[theshadowsong]

Got myself a screenshot and scribbled over it out of boredom, but I actually like it now lol

[swevenfox]

Fanart

FF14 - Nald'Thal

Under arid sky

With silk veils we weave a rainbow.

Voices lifted high,

Dreams upon our backs we carry.

When day beckons night

As desert resident's time may slow.

Drifting hand in hand,

Life, death, will follow.