Doctor Who: 10 Worst Things The Daleks Have Ever Done
The metal pepper pots have committed some of the worst atrocities in the Whoniverse.
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00:00 Doctor Who's first monsters have plagued the Hooniverse time and time again.
00:05 Now these pepper pots first appeared in 1963 and from the very beginning were a chilling
00:11 force to be reckoned with.
00:13 The Daleks have one of the most iconic looks in sci-fi culture and whilst the designs have
00:18 altered slightly over the years, the core design remains the same.
00:23 Every Doctor has come across the Daleks many times during their time on screen, with the
00:27 exception of the criminally short-lived Eighth.
00:30 Now due to the depth expanded media has gone with these characters, we will be covering
00:36 moments beyond just that of the TV series.
00:40 And so with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Who Culture here with the 10 worst things
00:45 the Daleks have ever done.
00:47 Number 10.
00:48 Only the monstrous The Thousand Worlds.
00:51 In 2015, Big Finish acquired the right to knew-who content and their first exploit into
00:58 this era was a series for The War Doctor venturing into the Time War.
01:03 Now the first audio adventure for The War Doctor saw the Daleks invade a planet called
01:08 Kesska, along with another ruthless race, the Tarleans.
01:11 Now on the surface, invading a planet and enslaving the locals is a pretty generic thing
01:16 for the Daleks to do, but this particular invasion is part of a much larger plot.
01:21 Kesska is one of a thousand planets, all invaded by the Daleks, and all with engines being
01:28 placed at the centre of those planets.
01:31 Now of course we have seen the Daleks trying to place engines in planets before, but we'll
01:36 talk a bit more about that later.
01:38 But what is the purpose of these planet engines?
01:42 Well it's pretty simple, they're going to fire them at Gallifrey to try and win the
01:46 Time War.
01:47 Now that's one hell of an offensive against the Time Lords, to invade a thousand planets,
01:52 enslave all those populations and then make those people drill to the core of their own
01:56 planet.
01:57 It's all one very sick scheme.
01:59 But thankfully the Doctor and co manage to stop this particular plot and the war rages
02:04 on and the Daleks go on to commit even more atrocities.
02:07 Number 9, Dark Eyes, the Dalek time controller.
02:11 The Big Finish 16 part epic Dark Eyes starring the 8th Doctor sees a unique kind of Dalek
02:17 take centre stage, the Time Controller, and it's no exaggeration to say this is one of
02:23 the worst Daleks out there.
02:25 Having made various appearances in Big Finish before this story, the Dalek Time Controller
02:30 has proved a force to be reckoned with, but Dark Eyes is their big moment.
02:35 Using the Doctor's companion Molly, who's infected with retrogenitor particles, he planned
02:40 to undo the Time Lords past, wiping them out.
02:44 But thankfully due to a paradox this is unsuccessful in the first part of the series.
02:49 But the Time Controller still vows to wipe out the Time Lords.
02:53 After these events he is exiled by the Daleks and allies himself with the Master.
02:59 In the end the Time Controller seeks out the origins of the Eminence, a psychic force that's
03:04 a comparable threat to the universe as the Daleks and wishes to become one with it.
03:10 Only for the Hooniverse this plot is foiled by the Doctor and his companions.
03:14 But if the Time Controller had succeeded, then the Time Lords could have been wiped
03:18 out before the Time War even began.
03:21 If there is a Big Finish audio adventure that you should sink your teeth into, it's this
03:25 one.
03:26 Number 8.
03:27 The Magician's Apprentice, and which is familiar, tricking the Doctor.
03:31 The latest reunion between the Doctor and Davros sees the Time Lords summoned to the
03:36 planet of the Daleks, Skaro, to meet with their dying creator.
03:41 After long chats between these two arch rivals, the Doctor is made to feel sympathy for Davros,
03:46 who is unable to open his own eyes to watch the sunrise on Skaro one last time.
03:52 To fix this, the ever kind-hearted Doctor elects to give the creator of the Daleks some
03:56 of his regeneration energy, thinking it enough to allow him this final moment.
04:01 When the Doctor unleashes his Time Lord gift into the cables connecting Davros to the rest
04:05 of the Daleks, Colony Sarf, a snake-like being, secures him in place, siphoning off even more
04:12 regenerative energy.
04:13 This energy is taken and transferred into every single Dalek, renewing them, including
04:19 Davros, allowing him to regain his strength.
04:22 However, once rescued by Missy, the 12th Doctor reveals he knew the plan all along, including
04:28 the Daleks in the sewers, who revolt, destroying the Daleks in the Skaro city.
04:33 This resulted in us once again being led to believe Davros has been destroyed, although
04:38 we all know that's most likely not the case.
04:41 The evil of this plot, even if the Doctor did know what was coming, is that the Daleks
04:45 try to use the Doctor's kind-hearted nature against him, even for his worst enemies.
04:51 Number 7, Asylum of the Daleks, Oswin Oswald the Dalek
04:56 Now we've seen cyber-conversion many times in Doctor Who, but that seems like nothing
05:01 when compared to Dalek conversion.
05:04 With cyber-conversions, the process puts the participant into the cyber-armour, but then
05:09 removes all feelings, whereas the horror of the Dalek conversion is that hatred and anger
05:15 are channelled in order to make the machine go.
05:18 In the series 7 opener, when venturing into the Dalek asylum, Oswin Oswald ends up captured
05:24 by the Daleks inside, and goes through the horrific conversion into a Dalek.
05:29 This reality is so horrific for her that she imagines herself a different version of events.
05:34 Trapped within the cold metal shell, Oswin believes herself to be hiding within her crashed
05:39 ship making souffles.
05:40 It's not until the Doctor turns up that she sees the true fate that has befallen her.
05:45 The moment in which Oswin learns the truth is soul-crushing, and the following flashback
05:49 of her being forced into the process, whilst not graphic, still feels gruesome.
05:54 The only positive in the end is that Oswin manages to fight the process, allowing and
05:59 assisting the 11th Doctor to escape.
06:01 Granted, this isn't some huge invasion that puts countless lives at risk, but the ordeal
06:06 that Oswin goes through is horrific.
06:09 Number 6, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Time Destructor
06:13 The huge 60s epic, The Daleks' Master Plan, was exactly what it said on the tin.
06:19 William Hartnell's last encounter with the Daleks came in the form of a 12-part serial,
06:24 in which the Daleks had created a new weapon, the Time Destructor.
06:29 Their intention was to conquer the solar system.
06:31 The device would reverse or accelerate the flow of time with devastating consequences,
06:37 exhausting its terranium core, a mineral only found on Uranus.
06:41 Whilst this is thankfully going to become a repetitive trend, the Dalek plot is halted.
06:46 However, the device is still used.
06:49 Not only does the serial feature the first and second companion deaths in the franchise,
06:54 they are also both equally two of the grimmest fates befallen to who characters.
06:59 Katrina's death technically does not involve the Daleks, however, during the series she
07:04 is awfully sucked into space.
07:06 But Sarah Kingdom falls victim to the Time Destructor itself, basically aged to death,
07:12 decaying to nothing.
07:13 Now, this device is actually later used by the Time Lords against the Daleks in that
07:18 previously mentioned Big Finish War Doctor series in the opening moments.
07:23 But it does represent the huge threat presented by the Daleks if not stopped.
07:30 Number 5, Planet of the Ogrons, the Overseer.
07:34 Another slightly altered Dalek appearing in Big Finish here, the Dalek Overseer is a monstrous
07:40 scientist who appears in the 8th Doctor's Time War series.
07:45 Based on the titular planet of the Ogrons, the Overseer creates dreadful experiments
07:50 in order to create weapons to win the Time War.
07:54 Now, the Daleks have done some pretty gruesome things in their history, but none so bad as
07:59 this abomination.
08:00 One of the experiments revolved around inserting Ogron brains into battle TARDISes to bypass
08:08 their controls.
08:09 Another one of the Overseer schemes was the insertion of Ogron armies into events of the
08:15 past, such as Day of the Daleks.
08:18 But thankfully, these events remained unchanged, but the aim was to try and increase the Daleks'
08:23 chances of victory through temporal manipulation.
08:27 A final major creation is Doctor Ogron, where he augmented an Ogron with the personality
08:33 of the Doctor.
08:34 Now, while he did make a lovable character here, this guy is still bad news, and this
08:38 particular experiment did lead to his downfall.
08:42 In the end, he was deemed an insult to the Dalek race, and was exterminated by the other
08:47 Daleks.
08:48 Number 4.
08:49 The relationship with their creator.
08:51 1975's Genesis of the Daleks debuts the Pepper Potts creator Davros.
08:56 Through his various appearances throughout the show, we've seen the Daleks treat their
09:00 creator with varying levels of respect.
09:03 The end of his first appearance, after having just created the Daleks, a squad of them come
09:07 and exterminate Davros.
09:09 But by the next serial, they want him back, with him thankfully for them having survived
09:14 within the depths of Skaro.
09:16 Across the remainder of his classic appearances, Davros starts the Imperial-Renegade Civil
09:20 War, where the Imperials side with him against the Supreme and the Renegades.
09:25 When Davros returns for New Who, the Tenth Doctor even mocks that he has chucked away
09:29 into the basement, with them simply using him once again, without him running the show.
09:34 The lack of respect is therefore a running trend in Davros' character, and in the previously
09:39 mentioned series 9 opener, it is clearer than ever that he is only ever used when they wish
09:44 to use him for their own gain, rather than out of any loyalty to him.
09:49 Now we know the Daleks are evil, but showing no respect for, for want of a better word,
09:54 your father?
09:55 That's just truly nasty.
09:58 Even if Davros is just as evil, if not worse.
10:01 Number 3.
10:02 The Soul on Earth and Journey's End, the Reality Bomb.
10:05 When Davros returned to Doctor Who for its new series, he brought with him the Daleks'
10:10 most horrific plot to date.
10:13 Already in the serial, Davros has recreated the Daleks using his own cells, which is pretty
10:18 bleak as it is, but with this new army, he created the Reality Bomb.
10:22 The device would result in untold devastation, killing all that wasn't protected by the
10:27 Crucible.
10:28 Basically a very extreme version of wiping out all non-Dalek life.
10:31 Using the Z-Neutrino energy of the Dalek Crucible and the transported planets within the Medusa
10:36 Cascade, the Reality Bomb would cancel out the electric field of atoms, turning everything
10:42 to dust.
10:43 This plot would not just wipe out the main Who universe, but the life of all other universes.
10:49 But we won't get into the potential plot holes of that.
10:51 The recreating an entire Dalek army and moving 27 planets is a testament to the lengths the
10:57 Pepper Potts were willing to go for this scheme.
11:00 And while this plot does fail, we do see the devastation that this device is capable of
11:06 when it is tested on a group of humans, who, as mentioned, quite literally turn to dust.
11:11 Number 2 - Revelation of the Daleks using the dead of Necros
11:15 1985's Revelation of the Daleks sees the sixth Doctor and Perry encounter Davros and the
11:21 Daleks on a planet called Necros, the location of Tranquil Repose, a space funeral home.
11:28 However, at its core, Davros was creating a new race of Daleks from the dead humans.
11:34 Revelation, through and through, is a very bleak story, but Davros using the corpses
11:38 within the facility is the most appalling aspect.
11:41 In this story, the dead are used for two things - the previously mentioned new Daleks, as
11:46 well as being formed into a new type of protein to solve the galaxy's famine problem.
11:51 That doesn't seem a very marketable product.
11:53 These new Daleks become the ranks of Davros' previously mentioned Imperial Daleks.
11:58 This plot is an interesting one, as using humans, like the case with Oswin years later,
12:03 to create Daleks seems to go against their quest for racial purity.
12:07 Now, we could argue that this shocking Dalek moment could take top spot, but there is one
12:14 more Dalek moment that just about takes the trophy.
12:18 Number 1 - 22nd Century Dalek invasions of Earth
12:22 In the 22nd century, the Daleks invade Earth, twice, crippling the planet.
12:27 The first Dalek sequel brings the creatures from Skaro to Earth for the first time, and
12:32 years later, Big Finish brings them back for round two, 20 years after their first attempt.
12:38 The strategy for invasion involved bombarding the planet with meteorites, unleashing a plague
12:43 from within the meteorites, which wiped out the majority of people in Africa, Asia and
12:47 South America.
12:48 Once the population was weakened, the Daleks moved in for conquest.
12:52 This may seem kind of run of the mill compared to previously mentioned entries, but the Daleks
12:57 occupied Earth for 10 years, causing insurmountable pain to humanity.
13:02 Recent Big Finish adventures following the Doctor's granddaughter Susan after the first
13:06 invasion claim Earth's technology is set back 200 years.
13:11 Similar to the Thousand World plot, the Daleks aim to reach the centre of the planet and
13:15 replace it with a propulsion system to use as a massive, movable base of operations to
13:21 conquest the galaxy.
13:23 When they return for their second invasion, led by the Time Controller, the plot is fairly
13:27 similar, but instead they use a time warp engine to create a plague planet, capable
13:33 of moving through time and space to weaken and infect other worlds.
13:37 The Daleks are the most pure evil force in Doctor Who, and the Who universe should be
13:43 thankful that most of these plots were stopped before the Daleks reached their goals.
13:48 And that concludes our list.
13:50 If you can think of anything we missed, then do let us know in the comments below.
13:54 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
13:58 Also head over to Twitter and follow us there @whoculture, and I can be found across various
14:02 social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
14:05 I've been Ellie with Who Culture, and in the words of River Song herself, goodbye,