Double-post for update on newest episode "Victory of the Daleks".
SPOILER ALERT:
So I am NOT a fan of the new Dalek design. Like, not one part of it. The new color scheme is just stupid. They're a weird bulky shape and their new "eye" and "arms" are dumb too :[
I have to say, in general, this episode was not appealing, and I'm pretty sure it's the writer, Mark Gatiss. He just happens to be the writer for three of my least favorite episodes: The Unquiet Dead, The Idiot's Lantern, and now Victory of the Daleks.
How could they fuck with the Daleks? There was no call for them to go through such a change. The only reasoning I can think of is that in order to justify bringing them back yet again, they'd change something about them. But the way they did it and the result just doesn't do it for me.
For a second I was all excited about how they coerced the Doctor into giving them that testimony and then quickly let down when I realized it was for somehow allowing a small machine (the Progenitor) in a big room to use the testimony to generate a "new paradigm of Dalek". Usually the writers have a sufficient explanation to some of the stranger technical concepts that come up, but not this time. Also, the shit where they talked the android scientist guy into somehow overcoming the Oblivion Continuum bomb from exploding inside him. They didn't explain how using his manufactured memories and emotions to convince the guy he was just like any other human had anything to do with the bombs detonation.
They pretty much wasted their time trying to convey how much more powerful these new Daleks are, too. It's been well-established how compelling their strength is individually AND in numbers. For them to be any more powerful would either mean they're only so much that it doesn't matter, or they're so incredibly strong that it's unrealistic (within the standards of realism in Doctor who, of course).
I'm going to give the new Daleks a chance though. I tried really hard to like them before I decided I didn't, but even then, things can grow on you.