Daleks and the First Doctor

[dbskyler]

I'm currently watching the First Doctor story "The Daleks" and enjoying it quite a lot. The Daleks have never been my favorite monsters, but I think I "get" them now for the first time. They really are creepy with the way they glide around, and the way their eyestalks move to look at you when they talk. Plus, it's so fun to see the "firsts":



-- The Daleks use the word "exterminate"!
-- A Dalek is blinded by putting something on its eyestalk (mud, in this case)!
-- We get a hint of what's inside! (I'm glad to learn that right from the beginning, Daleks were not machines, but creatures inside the machines.)

I'm looking forward to the rest (I'm right in the middle of part 4 right now), but I just had to stop here and post because guess what the Doctor just said? The Thals are walking into an ambush, Susan wants to warn them, and the Doctor said, and I quote:

"The Thals are no concern of ours. We cannot jeopardize our lives by getting involved in an affair which is none of our business."

I'm like, who is this???? Because it's certainly not the Doctor! It's fascinating to see how much his core character has changed since these very early days.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

*nods* Time and experience change his PoV immensely.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'm more curious in the RL production side of the change. It seems like the writers/producers started out with the idea that Ian would be the moral conscience of Team TARDIS, and I'm wondering when that started shifting to the Doctor. (Not that the Doctor is always moral, even -- or especially -- now, but he's cared about the lives of strangers for as long as I've known him, and it's very weird to learn that the character didn't start out that way.)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

You might find answers to that query in the About Time volume(s) for the First (and Second) Doctor(s)...

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of those books! I just Googled them, and they sound very intriguing.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Oh - I did waffle about a couple of them - must be more than a year ago, on my LJ - I've got the Third and Fourth Doctor ones (I think).