7 July 2006: Exterminate

Just one day to go before the season finale of Doctor Who...

So what is in the Genesis Ark? What's going to happen between the Daleks and the Cybermen? How will Rose die? Will Captain Jack make a pre-Torchwood appearance? And why has series creator Russell T. Davies already told us there will be a cliffhanger ending, given that we're not going to have any more Doctor Who before Christmas?! (How frustrating is that going to be?)

Lots of websites with lots of theories, as usual floating around the idea of 'which old character will they bring back' (Davros, Cassandra, The Master, take your pick). Personally I don't know, but I know what I would like to happen...

Firstly, while the Cybermen and the Daleks are both clearly nasty, deadly enemies of The Doctor, it is equally clear that the Cybermen are no match for the Daleks. The Cybermen are upgraded humans who want to upgrade the rest of humanity (and, from the trailers we've seen this week, they'd also like to upgrade the rest of the universe); the Daleks are extremely fascist ethnic-cleansers whose mission originally was to rid Skaro of their enemies, the Thals: in doing so, they were programmed to exterminate all non-Daleks, which has been their mission ever since. So, in essence, the Cybermen have no beef with the Daleks and are really more interested in humanity, while the Daleks are going to be wanting to destroy the Cybermen because they're not Daleks. So, I don't see an alliance forming like the Cybermen propose in the trailer.

Then there's the question of technology: the Cybermen, stated The Doctor last week, don't have the technology to create anything like a void-travelling sphere. The Daleks do. The Daleks also mastered rudimentary time-travel (time corridors rather than the full 'Eye Of Harmony' Omega stuff that the Time Lords have/had), teleportation, collective consciousness and a bunch of other stuff. They're way beyond the Cybermen. Flat-out no contest who would win in a special Doctor Who edition of Celebrity Death Match.

But then, and this is my favourite idea, is the question of where these Daleks came from. It seems to me that the phrase 'Genesis Ark' will refer in some form or other to Davros (whether or not he personally appears) since 'Genesis of the Daleks' was the story that introduced us to Davros and told us the history of how the Daleks came about. Has to be linked. But: are these Daleks a bunch from 'our' universe that hid in the sphere in the void to avoid destruction in the Time War (and by Rose at the end of the Bad Wolf stuff last year)? Or, given the 'cannonball' analogy from last week's episode, are these Daleks from the 'other' universe (the universe of Cybermen, Rickey, living Pete Tyler etc) who blasted through to this one? If that is the case, then that would mean Daleks exist in that universe. Meaning no Time War. Meaning the Time Lords still exist there too. And that's where I'd like the story to go.

I doubt it will. I expect the Daleks are void-hiders and the Doctor will have to sacrifice Rose to destroy them, same as he had to sacrifice the Time Lords to destroy them in the Time War. Wouldn't surprise me to see Captain Jack come along to help out, and also be the companion in the Christmas episode. We shall see, tomorrow evening.

And to give this blog entry some PhD relevance: had an idea last night about using modified h-factors as a more effective means of measuring influence. Also, the latest SPARQL web service I made responds to the standard question 'search names: All' by returning one paper, "Using Robotic Tele-Embodiment to Bring Insects Face-to-Face with Humans", authored by someone named Stacy All.

A little reprogramming required, methinks.