‘It had to be . . . mechanical. And then in order to make it non-human what you have to do is take the legs off. That’s the only way you can make it not look like a person dressed up. I had seen the Georgian state dancers, where the girls do this wonderful routine. They wore floor—brushing skirts and took very tiny steps and appeared to glide, really glide across the floor. That's the movement I wanted for the Daleks.’
Also: 'Wishing to create an alien creature that did not look like a "man in a suit", Terry Nation stated in his script for the first Dalek serial that they should have no legs. He was also inspired by a performance by the Georgian National Ballet, in which dancers in long skirts appeared to glide across the stage.'
The Cybermen could be redesigned and still obviously be Cybermen (especially since the originals were really cheesy) -- after all, they're human-form robot-men, which is a very loose idea. But the Daleks were and are something specic to Doctor Who: not just a mechanical menace, but one with a specific, unique and immediately recognisable form. Attempts to redesign them, other than very minor tweaks to accomodate improved materials and filmmaking technology, wouldn't work, and I'm quite relieved that it hasn't really been tried. Compare the TARDIS: the inside can be redesigned, even completely and radically changed, as long as the outside is kept the same.
The Daleks have antigravity and better special effects now, but they still have that same silhouette, the silly plunger arm, and the eye-stalk. Thank heavens.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-18 06:43 pm (UTC)‘It had to be . . . mechanical. And then in order to make it non-human what you have to do is take the legs off. That’s the only way you can make it not look like a person dressed up. I had seen the Georgian state dancers, where the girls do this wonderful routine. They wore floor—brushing skirts and took very tiny steps and appeared to glide, really glide across the floor. That's the movement I wanted for the Daleks.’
Also: 'Wishing to create an alien creature that did not look like a "man in a suit", Terry Nation stated in his script for the first Dalek serial that they should have no legs. He was also inspired by a performance by the Georgian National Ballet, in which dancers in long skirts appeared to glide across the stage.'
The Cybermen could be redesigned and still obviously be Cybermen (especially since the originals were really cheesy) -- after all, they're human-form robot-men, which is a very loose idea. But the Daleks were and are something specic to Doctor Who: not just a mechanical menace, but one with a specific, unique and immediately recognisable form. Attempts to redesign them, other than very minor tweaks to accomodate improved materials and filmmaking technology, wouldn't work, and I'm quite relieved that it hasn't really been tried. Compare the TARDIS: the inside can be redesigned, even completely and radically changed, as long as the outside is kept the same.
The Daleks have antigravity and better special effects now, but they still have that same silhouette, the silly plunger arm, and the eye-stalk. Thank heavens.