Difference between revisions of "Accumulate! Accumulate!"
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Unlike the Turtles, Batman, the Thunderbirds, or He Man, the Daleks were monsters, not heroes. All the kids did Dalek voices, and you would have to be severely alienated to want to be like William Hartnell. As the imitations of their radiophonic speech indicated, they were the focus of their fans' fantasies, rather than, as has come to be the case with later regenerations, the Doctor himself. | Unlike the Turtles, Batman, the Thunderbirds, or He Man, the Daleks were monsters, not heroes. All the kids did Dalek voices, and you would have to be severely alienated to want to be like William Hartnell. As the imitations of their radiophonic speech indicated, they were the focus of their fans' fantasies, rather than, as has come to be the case with later regenerations, the Doctor himself. | ||
| − | The 1960s were the heyday of the classic monsters, with magazines like Famous Monsters and the glow-in-the-dark hobby kits issued by Aurora hailing the long-past days of Karloff and Lugosi, while Hammer Films busily and bloodily remade all the great hobby-kit monster movies. Today, we are at the very fag end of the cycle of monsterdom, wtih only Freddy Krueger (from the Nightmare on Elm Street series) attaining an equivalent popularity. But a | + | The 1960s were the heyday of the classic monsters, with magazines like Famous Monsters and the glow-in-the-dark hobby kits issued by Aurora hailing the long-past days of Karloff and Lugosi, while Hammer Films busily and bloodily remade all the great hobby-kit monster movies. Today, we are at the very fag end of the cycle of monsterdom, wtih only Freddy Krueger (from the Nightmare on Elm Street series) attaining an equivalent popularity. But a deep-fried child-molester in a striped jersey simply can't compare with giants such as Dracula, Dr Frankenstein's monster, King Kong, or the Phantom of the Opera. The Daleks were a non-repeating phenomenon, as the makers of Dr Who found when they tried to repeat it. Of the later monsters, only the Cybermen—silversuited robot men who have a lot in common with Daleks, but hiss rather than squawk—achieved anything like success. Several other distinctive creatures—the Yeti, the Ice Warriors, the Mechanoids, the Quarks, the Krotons—were introduced in the show, but models would sell only to the most committed Dr Who fan. The Daleks were actually atypical of the monsters of the 1950sand 1960s, and more in tune with the shape the genre would take in the 1980s. Often misidentified as simple robots, they are, more correctly, cyborgs. Like RoboCop, the Terminator, the androids of Blade Runner and Alien, and many other recent nightmares, they area fusion of human tissue and high-tech, soft and slimy flesh inside a streamlined metal carapace. At once primordial and futuristic, with their type's characteristic lack of emotion, the Daleks earn their place in a monster pantheon. |
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| − | deep-fried child-molester in a striped jersey simply can't compare with giants such as Dracula, Dr Frankenstein's monster, King Kong, or the Phantom of the Opera. The Daleks were a non-repeating phenomenon, as the makers of Dr Who found when they tried to repeat it. Of the later monsters, only the Cybermen—silversuited robot men who have a lot in common with Daleks, but hiss rather than squawk—achieved anything like success. Several other distinctive creatures—the Yeti, the Ice Warriors, the Mechanoids, the Quarks, the Krotons—were introduced in the show, but models would sell only to the most committed Dr Who fan. The Daleks were actually atypical of the monsters of the 1950sand 1960s, and more in tune with the shape the genre would take in the 1980s. Often misidentified as simple robots, they are, more correctly, cyborgs. Like RoboCop, the Terminator, the androids of Blade Runner and Alien, and many other recent nightmares, they area fusion of human tissue and high-tech, soft and slimy flesh inside a streamlined metal carapace. At once primordial and futuristic, with their type's characteristic lack of emotion, the Daleks earn their place in a monster pantheon. | ||
In its 25-year run, Dr Who brought back the Daleks many times, and also experimented with almost every conceivable manner of monster. The whole-body horror vogue characterised by the work of David Cronenberg and Alien was prefigured by an unusually explicit 1974 serial, The Ark in Space, about parasitic giant insects incubating inside cryogenically frozen astronauts. That came at the beginning of the show's third or fourth wind, when Tom Baker's harp-in-space Doctor tackled a succession of pleasingly disgusting scenarios that inevitably earned the opprobrium of Mary Whitehouse and company, leading perhaps to the clownish decline of the character and the show. Occasionally, as in [[broadwcast:The Monster of Peladon|The Monster of Peladon]], [[broadwcast:The Brain of Morbius|The Brain of Morbius]], or [[broadwcast:The Curse of Fenric|The Curse of Fenric]], the show would even revert to Gothic type and abandon its SF trappings for haunted castles and classical monsters. More rewardingly, as in [[broadwcast:The Celestial Toymaker|The Celestial Toy-maker]] and [[broadwcast:The Mind Robber|The Mind Robber]], it would become completely surreal and play games with itself more daring than almost anything else on television. With an exhibition at Monti and a flood of sell-through videos, the Doctor and the Daleks remain part of our cultural furniture even after the probable death of the show. | In its 25-year run, Dr Who brought back the Daleks many times, and also experimented with almost every conceivable manner of monster. The whole-body horror vogue characterised by the work of David Cronenberg and Alien was prefigured by an unusually explicit 1974 serial, The Ark in Space, about parasitic giant insects incubating inside cryogenically frozen astronauts. That came at the beginning of the show's third or fourth wind, when Tom Baker's harp-in-space Doctor tackled a succession of pleasingly disgusting scenarios that inevitably earned the opprobrium of Mary Whitehouse and company, leading perhaps to the clownish decline of the character and the show. Occasionally, as in [[broadwcast:The Monster of Peladon|The Monster of Peladon]], [[broadwcast:The Brain of Morbius|The Brain of Morbius]], or [[broadwcast:The Curse of Fenric|The Curse of Fenric]], the show would even revert to Gothic type and abandon its SF trappings for haunted castles and classical monsters. More rewardingly, as in [[broadwcast:The Celestial Toymaker|The Celestial Toy-maker]] and [[broadwcast:The Mind Robber|The Mind Robber]], it would become completely surreal and play games with itself more daring than almost anything else on television. With an exhibition at Monti and a flood of sell-through videos, the Doctor and the Daleks remain part of our cultural furniture even after the probable death of the show. | ||
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The Doctor Who exhibition is at the Museum of the Moving Image, South Bank, London SEl, from 5 July, with a weekend of special events on 6 and 7 July | The Doctor Who exhibition is at the Museum of the Moving Image, South Bank, London SEl, from 5 July, with a weekend of special events on 6 and 7 July | ||
| − | Caption: Home for hideously mutated humans encased in robot shells | + | Caption: Home for hideously mutated humans encased in robot shells (and some Daleks) |
}} | }} | ||
