Doctor Who's Infamous Rainbow Dalek Episode 

Quality of the episode aside, the dalek asking "would you care for some tea?" is always very funny to me. I'm easily pleased though :p

I think Moffat's biggest error with this was just abandoning the story he likely had for the Daleks because people didn't like it.

The "YOU! ARE! MY! ENEMY!" line gets me everytime. Matt Smith could really deliver the anger in the few moments they went there during his run.

Fun fact about the Paradigm Daleks, one reason they were so tall was so that they were the same height as Karen Gillan, whereas the Bronze Daleks were the same height as Billie Piper.

I never hated this. I am just annoyed that the paradigm Daleks were pretty much just erased from the show.

I know that Amy not remembering major world events is part of the bedroom crack storyline but I kinda wish for once we got a companion recognising the Daleks because they remember a previous finale, rather than always contriving to preserve the status quo and having humans not know that aliens exist.

I like this episode for one reason, Smith. It's his 3rd episode and the rage he shown to the Daleks and how defeated he looked at the end. It felt like he's been playing this character for years.

This episode for me has always been a 5/10. In the middle of “deeceenntttt, Matt Smith can hold his own” and “ergh.. the cliché power of love saves the day instead of something proper”

The Time War Daleks look like military equipment to me, even without their Ironside repaint. The Paradigm Daleks look plastic in comparison. They look like they had the same design team as the modern Mini, right down to the selection of body colours. There's some good stuff there and the later repaint some of them got does help, but they don't work for me. Combined with the fact they apparently forgot to build a set for the spaceship interior and just shot the scene in an empty section of a BBC office building somewhere and that whole bit just falls flat to me.

And so, the Eternal Dalek remained eternally mysterious...

After the mediocre mess that was Beast Below, this episode was an improvement. I'm pretty much in agreement about most of Harbo's points, though Churchill's characterisation doesn't bother me as the end of the day, this is purely fiction. As for the Smarties Daleks, yeah they're terrible and a bad idea, though I quite like the blue strategist Dalek. As for Amy not remembering the series 4 finale, I have to say, I dislike how Moffat threw away RTD's world building in one dismissive sweep. I think maybe in later episodes it should've been established that Amy's memories of that invasion were restored after the Doctor rebooted the universe in The Big Bang. Next week it's the turn of the mixed bag Weeping Angels two-parter. It's gonna be interesting to see Harbo's views on that. Looking forward to it!

I'm pissed off still, I wanted the Paradigms to get their own stories! Do not listen to the fans when there is a backlash because you Moffat could've made the Paradigms great, a lot of people have come around to liking them now.

"Only below Sleep no More and Night Terrors" damn Harbl talk about damning with faint praise

I hate it when people call those Daleks "skittles". Especially when they compare the eternal Dalek (my favourite) to Banana flavoured ones! Like seriously, Lemon flavoured was right there.

I actually really like this epsiode it's a clever concept that really only falls apart at the end. It's a shame the paradigm daleks where so poorly received since the idea of daleks with different ranks and functions is a cool concepts. Also it makes sense that bracewell embracing love makes sense when you consider that he is Dalek technology. Daleks only understand Hate, Fear, and Pain. They would count on Bracewell's "human nature" to be the only mindset he could maintain but because AI is a bit of a crapshoot bracewell was able to develop other emotions it would make sense that an emotion as incomprehensible as love would shut down the dalek tech even if it was a bit of an eye roll moment.

I feel like the episode has too much hate. No it’s not a good episode, but it’s not bad either. I only thought it was a little bland. The Skittle Daleks are laughable but there are some good character moments.

For someone who would use every chance to beat the Nazis it's kinda weird Churchill forgot he has SPACE SPITFIRES WITH LASER MACHINEGUNS. Unless there was a scene where the Doctor says "Also, I took away your SPACE SPITFIRES WITH LASER MACHINEGUNS" that I missed.

I agree with what you say about resting the Daleks for a season so it wouldn't take away from Journey's End, but they had no choice, part of the agreement between the Nation estate and the Who team was that, if they wanted to have the Daleks, they HAVE to use them every year

I was thinking last night how this episode is probably the reason why even Chibnall, the guy who retconned nearly 60 years of the show, is too afraid to change the Daleks permanently.

It feels like this episode was meant to be in Series 6 or later in 5. Amy Pond seems like she’s already been with the Doctor a while and like you say bringing back the Daleks so soon was weird. There’s a parallel reality where this episode was really good and the Daleks were more threatening and had better designs and a better spaceship which then led to a myriad of great Moffat era Dalek stories 🤔

The opening is actually really good, as you said. I never thought about that before but it definitely has that classic Doctor Who opening kinda feel. Super nostalgic and epic.

My husbands favourite line from all of Doctor Who is the WW2 Dalek saying "I am your soldier" 😆 He thinks its adorable, and I tend to agree! :3

"Dalek-brand skittles" Ooooh, so THAT'S where the 3rd rainbow dalek group from discord writes who went

The RTD era had some great filmmakers who improved with the show. Graeme Harper, James Hawes, Joe Ahearne (Dalek), James Strong (Partners in Crime has a crazy dolly zoom shot), Hettie Macdonald (Blink), Dan Zeff (Love and Monsters), Charlie Palmer (Human Nature), and Euros Lyn. In Series 5 I think there’s a huge step up in the filmmaking. Adam Smith just does undeniably PHENOMENAL work on the Eleventh Hour and the angels two parter. However, in Victory of the Daleks and The Beast Below, it’s Andrew Gunn who lights everything quite brightly and seems to have less an eye for composition in these episodes. Not to be insulting to Gunn but for whatever reason- these episodes don’t have the same filmmaking quality as if someone like Graeme Harper (or later in the Moffat era we have the BRILLIANT Rachel Talalay) was working on these two almost great but kinda mid episodes. Maybe Andrew Gunn was rushed for time or something or maybe it was weirdly edited who knows.

The opening was pretty good but it all went down hill after it became very clear that the entire episode was designed to re-establish the Daleks as a galaxy wide threat and remove the need to explain where they had come from each and every they reappeared. Case in point: Asylum of the Daleks, no explanation forthcoming. The Daleks are just there, because Daleks are an established feature of the universe again. This is all well and good, but it harms the original episode. It should have been incidental, rather than the central focus. And this is without even mentioning the botched redesign. As Harbo says, it ain’t broke don’t fix it. And the bronze Daleks were a great design. The Ironsides were also a brilliant design. Redesigns are all well and good, but not when the narrative is saying, these are crap, this new one is far superior (especially when they clearly are not.) I don’t have a problem with how Churchill is portrayed here. It’s always a cookie cutter version of historical figures you see in these sorts of shows. The problem, is that considering this is supposed to be the Winston Churchill, celebrity historical, it barely has anything to do with Winston Churchill. In all other celebrity historicals the celebrity figure is central to the episode, in this one, Churchill is almost a background character. He may as well not be there, his role could have been served by a random General and the episode would have been unchanged.

There was a lone dalek saucer sort of listing to the right of the screen as the fleet was blowing up back in series 4 jorneys end, this apparently was the saucer in victory of the daleks. man the daleks sure as hell keep their saucers short staffed, they can hold up to 2000 daleks each

I just felt like, with the Russell t Davies era he took the daleks from being something people laughed at to this really extravagant scary monster. Everytime the daleks came back (other than Dalek S1) it was a two parter and something big always happened. The finale with the daleks and davros was such a climax and huge. When moffat brought the daleks back, especially with a new design it should have been more vamped up. I felt like he took russel t Davies work with anticipation and the fear factor and made them less scary and impactful again. The storyline had such potential, but it just flopped, the climax of the reveal of the daleks was such a let down and lasted around 5 minutes. For the impact they had it should have had more emphasis and most definitely been a two parter.

There is no way the Daleks in Series IV would’ve known it was the meta crisis Doctor? Yes they would!, the doctor explained in front of the Daleks that it was a meta crisis

This was a decent episode, and a decent dalek episode, but it was let down by every dalek episode that followed it, making it feel out of place and forgotten about.

I actually like the idea of the Paradigm Daleks. I just wish these things were different: A: The Dalek Supreme actually having a unique design instead of being just white. B: Having the Darker Metallic that Asylum of the Daleks had for them. C: If they were fleshed out more in their debut episode with different capabilities compared to their Bronze cousins. That's what made Dalek so great and my personal favorite Dalek story. D: 9 year old me not despising sudden change. I think we are why Moffat's Dalek stories are amongst his weakest stories as his time as showrunner. We did this to ourselves people, we didn't allow Moffat to expand his creativity for future Dalek stories to his fullest potential.

I’m one of the few people who actually likes the paradigm Daleks and prefers them to the time war designs. I like how huge they are, as well as the eye stalk with the black spikes coming out of it, and the orange eye with the long black pupil, which makes them look like a demonic squid. Also, when they appeared again in asylum, they had that shiny, metallic sleek look to them. To me, they’re the only Daleks design that doesn’t look cute in some way.

I wouldn't say Churchill talking about weaponizing the Tardis is "war mongering", he was a patriot and a wartime leader, he had the entire safety of the free world on his shoulders and needed every advantage, the ability to end the war is one thing but the power to prevent it in the first place would be a better option to someone in his position.

I actually love this episode, and I know this one is extra controversial, but I really like the dalek redesign. Yeah they are a bit toyish hit I think they are fun and outlandish whish I think sometimes the daleks need that. I also love the doctors anger towards the daleks in this story.

Okay, but like, the Ironside Daleks look amazing!!

My big issue with this is that I don't understand why the older design daleks acknowledge themselves as inferior and resign themselves to death. It makes no sense from a storytelling standpoint since they belonged to Davros's "true" daleks, which were referred to by both Davros and the Supreme Dalek as "the true dalek race", as though to imply that they were the perfected form of dalek and that which came before cannot be considered "true". On the basis of that characterisation, it makes no sense to me that these daleks would have perceived themselves as inferior to those created using "pure dalek DNA", when "pure" daleks would not have been "true" daleks under their own definition. If anything, they should perceive themselves as superior, and the New Paradigm daleks as lesser results of an imperfected design.

It's been 11 years And I only just now realized that the Dalek ship was supposed to be the same as the series 4 one.

I want the "you changed history you bampot" Reapers to return. IF the Daleks blew up Earth, surly the Reapers would be like "Nah man, nah" 9th: "Time has been damaged, and they're here to sterilise the wound" Blow up Earth in WW2, you lose ALL of the Doctor's companions and their interactions. He may very well be on his first regeneration. Thus none of this could have happened.

Davis: "oooh remember that from 50 years ago, why don't we put it in an episode?" Moffat: "oooooh remember that from 50 years ago, let's put it in an episode, ooooh remember that too, and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one and that one AND THAT ONE AND THAT ONE AND THAT ONE AND THAT ONE!!!!!! Chibnall: "remember that from 50 years ago.... it was shit, let's not bother!"

I actually love the New Paradigm Daleks, technicolor and all. I wish they'd been giving more time to breathe and flesh themselves out, _especially_ the Eternal, since we still don't know for sure what that one even _does_. I think this story would've worked a lot better in Series 7, maybe even as a Clara episode.

Ugh, let's talk about Churchill. I'll try to steer clear of casting judgement on the man himself, and stick with his portrayal in popular culture in general, and in this episode specifically. Yes, it is true that Churchill was not a simple man, he was a man capable of both good and evil and he demonstrates this throughout his long political career. However, whether you drink the Churchillian Kool-Aid or not, everyone in Britain is at least aware of the mythologised version of Churchill - the man who saved Britain in its darkest hour. That's the reason he's stuck in the popular imagination for so long. (Indeed, without that popular image there wouldn't be an anti-Churchill backlash either, just as nobody talks incessantly about the crimes of, say, Herbert Asquith.) Now, it must be asked, what is Winston Churchill's role in this story? Well, it's to be the Churchill of national myth, the one who will do anything to defeat the Naz*s. (Apologies for the self-censoring, don't want to trigger YT's moderation algorithms.) That characterisation is what drives the narrative of him forming an alliance with the Daleks etc. That's the Churchill that *most* British people imagine, and it's the one we're presented with here. Now, should *every* media depiction of Churchill be like this? No, there is definitely room for a less rose-tinited appraisal of a flawed individual in pop-culture depictions. But I think those sort of depictions are best left for works which are explicitly about Churchill. If you want to do a proper warts-and-all analysis, that would have to be the main focus of your work. It would be clumsy indeed for such a focus to be secondary to the main story of a time-travelling wizard bashing up some homicidal pepperpots. More broadly, I do think media leans too heavily on the sainted Churchill of national myth, rather than actual human who existed. But I don't think Doctor Who is the best place to tackle that imbalance, at least not directly. However... ...what science fiction is very good at is using alien species to act as allegory for human societies. With regards to the accusation most commonly levelled at Churchill, we arguably already have such a species in Doctor Who. In my mind the Sontarans are very clearly a take on British colonialism - the conquering of other worlds "just for fun", the viewing of all other races as inferior, and above all the Queen's English accents make this obvious to me, at least. (Even their skin colour is reminiscent of white men tanned by tropical weather.) And while not an alien species, Torchwood One had even less subtle parallels to the British Empire. And I think that within the confines of the show, these are better vehicles for seriously examining colonialism than shoehorning such a message into a story where Churchill appears only in a supporting role.

This episode killed my love for doctor who as a child. I was about 13 and had been with it since 2005, I adored the show. When the playmobile Daleks rolled out of that door I was furious. They looked stupid, disrespected the previous finale, and looked like they were just there to sell toys. I didn't tune in again until the end of Capaldi's run. As an adult I see what Moffat was trying to do... but it's still so incredibly cheap.

No matter how meh this episode was as a hole, "its a jammie dodger" will always be my favourite line from doctor who.

Sorry for keeping commenting but I wanted to say I love Bracewell. The Daleks creating an android that thinks it’s human is so cool. It’s like an added dash of Blade Runner, they should expand on this idea in the future of Doctor Who.

11:07 It wasn't "You're a dalek!" that activated the device, it was "I am The Doctor!".

I legit loved the new designs and hate that they never really got used.

"Worst Dalek story?" Not now the Chibnall Dalek stories exist. Hartnell met famous faces from history years before RTD's 2005.

I have to say, the inference to the Doctor's relationship with Churchill seems to be based on what ideas they are against, not what they agree on. From memory, there is dialogue to this effect.

This episode was poor - other than 11 being angry at the daleks. Smith's performance is good and in that moment he felt like the 9th doctor, actually being angry and bitter at the space fascists that killed so many of his people. I missed the doctor being angry and resentful to the daleks during 10's tenure. 10's ultra moralising passivism got old and the doctor's dynamic with the daleks works best for me when he's angry at them. This is why the daleks in s1 work so well. Good characterisation here, but poor executing. Plus I hate Churchill in this episode and as a figure.

Fun Fact: The voice of the Daleks Nick Briggs had to try to stop himself from cracking up from saying some of the lines of the Ironsides such as the line “Would you care for some tea?”

I like the idea of the daleks having castes/roles. It gives the daleks a sense of culture.

Back in 2016, my mom and I watched a few episodes of this series of Dr. Who. Naturally, I watched this one. I vaguely knew what the Daleks were but I had no idea of the context. Until today I completely forgot about everything in this episode except for one thing: "I AM THE DOCTOR AND YOU ARE THE DALEKS!". Matt Smith was too good for Morbius.

Man I just couldn't with the planes in space. When I saw that happen I went back like 5 times to make sure I didn't miss some important detail explaining how the doctor and professor that possible in such a short period of time. There was no good explanation, and it was dumb. It was even dumber when the pilot came back in the series finale to help.

when i rewatched the whole series i thought amy not recognizing the daleks was really clever and served the story arc so well...until bill had to get the standard dalek rundown, and i realized that they just didn't have a new excuse to re-explain daleks after amy

“They all died” Flashback to ten saying that

I guess I’m in the minority but I really like the huge bright coloured Daleks, apart from the colours which seems to be the only problem have with them, there’s nothing wrong with them, another reason there’s nothing wrong with them is people forget Doctor Who is a kids show

I really liked the creepy, scary "Are you my mummy?" episode and the twist ending. -- But this ep, with Churchill et al., was OK, if not great. -- The bright, cheerful color Daleks didn't make sense. Oh, a few colors, maybe as automotive or militaristic in color scheme, might have made sense, but we never really got an explanation o why we suddenly had candy-colored or Apple store Daleks. :shrugs: I would expect job function or training / intelligence level...some reason. -- Churchill's portrayal, I don't know. I could believe he'd go for tanks or robots, but I think he would have distrusted an "invention" like the Daleks (posing as an invention by Earth scientists, that is). He was apparently a very sharp man, a good judge of character.

The Paradigm Daleks were a great idea, and perfect for selling toys to kids. It's one of the worst examples of 'fan' gatekeeping that Paradigm Daleks were basically never seen again.

I remember when I first watched this episode with my dad and he was going on about how they ruined the Daleks and I didn't get it, but then I watched the reboot from the beginning and I realised what he meant. The 'you are my enemy' scene was amazing, and the idea of daleks infiltrating the British military was fascinating but yeah they shouldn't have gone rainbow mode...

Hot take but I like the paradigm dalek design, really sad they faded into the background and just vanished

Who makes the metal shells the Daleks live in 🤔

First third of this is really good. A nice twist on the Power of the Daleks playbook. It loses something when the Daleks have revealed themselves and then it gets worse and worse. Yes the paradigm Daleks aren't good but when the episode ends with them yelling "we will RETURN!" like saturday morning cartoon villains I don't think a less colourful design would have fixed everything. And I have no idea what the resolution was going for. It would have been better if the Doctor's speech had been the one to fix Bracewell- yes humanity being restored via embracing their pain is a bit emo but it at least relates to the rest of the episode (war, the pain the Daleks have caused for the Dr and Bracewell).

So two points. 1, the reason they couldn’t be rested is because the Terry Nation estate had a stipulation that for the BBC to have daleks, they must be shown at least once per year, even in the smallest capacity (eg wedding of river song) it’s why Jodie’s era had the New Year’s Eve dalek trilogy, because Chib didn’t want them used in the series but the BBC had to use them once a year. 2, the reason the powerpuff daleks look so ridiculous is because the top half was designed in centimetres and the bottom half was designed in inches. And they didn’t have time/money to correct the error

Loved the "Ironsides" - fantastic redesign, the multicoloured paradigm overweight daleks - yeaah, not so much.

I always thought the pitch for this episode was spitfires in space.

Ayy, a review that gives this episode some props. It's not the best episode in the world, but I'd definitely say it's middle of the road, 5/10. Not the piece of poop some claim it to be; the power of love ending sucks though and I think Matt Smith shines, though I don't think his Dalek outburst is the best example for his best acting.

These new Daleks made me think of an explosion in a Smarties factory

This episode is so disappointing based on how close it is to being incredible. I feel that the dalek redesign actually looks alright if you get rid of the colour schemes, but it also doesnt really work as a design for every dalek. I feel it would have worked better if this design was basically a replacement for the supreme dalek design, and then regular daleks were just a recoloured time war design or something. Also in terms of the chest bomb, i feel your criticisms of this could have been fixed if what had happened was Amy was left alone to deal with the bomb while the doctor was trying to take down the daleks. Have these scenes take place alongside the doctor talking to the paradigm daleks. Then it also acts more as a scene of amy proving her value to the doctor after the messy ending of beat below.

I quite like the Paradigm design, but yes they need to keep the Metalic look if we do ever see them again

5:44 Except there’s only been “one” Orange Ranger. His name is Boom and you don’t know him

I've always had a soft spot for this episode. As an American, I didnt know churchill well enough to be angry the first time I watched the episode. The second half is a bit weak but everything set in world war 2 is wildly fun

lol almost forgot about the pride daleks

No. That would be that abomination called, “Asylum of the Daleks”. Also I really loved the Paradigm Daleks. They remind me of the ones from those Peter Cushing movies. Although I didn’t know they were intended to replace the standard bronze ones, I thought they were just going to be high ranking Daleks. Which they said they were going to do after the backlash but they never did anything with that. They appeared in “Asylum of the Daleks” (a horribly written mess) and then never appeared again. Apparently they along with the Parliament was destroyed in “The Time of the Doctor”.

I had that poster, too. Had to leave it behind when moving flats. Seems it's not in production anymore.

There’s been Historical specials since 1963

Every time someone mentions the Paradigm Daleks, I’ve gotta mention that I like them.

They looked way better when they appeared in Asylum of the Daleks. Definitely shouldn't have just abandoned these designs but improved them over time

Lots of good things to note in this review of yours Harb, very forgiving of this one unlike the majority of reviewers I see.

I think we would have gotten used to the fat arsed daleks if they ever used thrm again. How many different cybermen types have we had over the years, and we accepted that. The spaceship set was unfitting, certainly, but the real issue is they never used this design in the show again - not to get us used to them, or have some kind of dalek civil war, to reinstate the original design again. We could have done with something.

VOTD wasn't bad at first. But when the rainbow Daleks showed up, I switched the set off.

I'm pretty torn on this episode. I love the ironside, WW2 part of the episode but the paradigm daleks are pretty blah. perhaps they could've redeemed themselves with another episode starring them or perhaps this episode should've been a 2 parter but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

0:08 - If only Chibnall followed that advice...

I find it odd that they abandoned the Paradigm Daleks due to backlash but continued to stick with the Nightmare in Silver Cybermen design in spite of the backlash. Which makes the abandonment of the Paradigm Daleks even more annoying to me. How can Moffat be a coward about some things and then completely ignore the fan base about others? “Explain! Explain! Explain!” - Supreme Dalek

I love how one of doctor who’s most controversial moves was making neon dalek’s. Takes the sting away from the rampant sexism and conservatism that is rife within the fandom right now.

I think the pushback against the paradigm Daleks comes from a place that due to only the supreme dalek being shown in the trailer the expectation was that we would have modern imperial Daleks from McCoy's era, I remember back in 2010 that rumor was EEEEEEEEEEVERYWHERE and the theory that we were getting a Remembrance Of The Daleks part 2 with the "new Imperial" Daleks vs the RTD era ones

Imagine if the Paradigm Daleks were smaller but ever so slightly slightly bigger than the bronze daleks with design from Asylum Of The Daleks with that chrome-metallic finish with a slightly darker cherry red for the basic default Dalek seen at 11:44 with a black secondary colour covering the rest of the design alongside a chrome-metallic black Dalek with a silver secondary colour for its supreme keeping that uniformity. To top it all off, the eye stalk colour would be a burnt orange giving this dalek a hellish vibe. That alone would have been *SO MUCH BETTER.*

I’d love to see an episode where The Doctor goes back and meets Alan Turing.

A very fair review Harbo. I 100% agree, personally. For me, though, it is definitely the weakest Dalek story we had gotten at that point, but it is probably my favorite Dalek story of the Moffatt era nevertheless, because, as you pointed out, it still remains consistent with the characterization of the Daleks and their relationship with the Doctor from the RTD's era (Well, RTD's *FIRST* Era XD). After this that goes away real fast. Also, side-note, I really respect Moffatt admitting since redesigning the Daleks was a mistake. Overall, not the worst Dalek episode.

Thumbnail: ‘The Worst Dalek Story?’ Me: Have you seen ‘The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar?

I think the darker, more metallic recolour that appeared on later paradigm Daleks would have been better. Especially on the 2005 props if they were recolours of the sensor globes. Maybe not as many versions and other progenitors could contain different types, leading to an subplot for the Daleks where they search for the other variants.

"Early Learning Centre Daleks for ages 3 and up" 😂

The paradigm daleks just look like they were made to sell toys, they don't look scary at all

Spitfires in Space is 1 of the top 11.38 Doctor Who moments.

There is speculation that the presence of a dalek story in every season is a contract stipulation, which would explain why some dalek stories feel misplaced, particularly in Matt Smith's era.

I remember liking this episode when I was younger, but I never really wanted to rewatch it, I wonder if it'll hold up

Maybe that metal room was a kitchen in the big spaceship

I know the thumbnail is a bit clickbait-y, but to my mind Resolution is the worst dalek story, and comfortably so at that

The Doctor and the Brigadier had quite a few differences over things too, but the Doctor saw beyond those... plus the Doctor may have thought he could 'nudge' Winston in certain areas...

Since i was s child when this came out and i just saw the big colourful daleks as apart of the daleks. Like they stood out and I just assumed that was the point. But basically I just don’t blink an eye when they appear

The colour Daleks remind me of the coloured shirt rankings in Star Trek

I think it's safe to say that I'm the only person who actually likes the paradigm daleks