Writer: Robert Shearman
Director: Joe Ahearne
Script editor: Helen Raynor
Producer: Phil Collinson
Doctor Who – Christopher Eccleston
Rose Tyler – Billie Piper
Polkowski – Steven Beckingham
Henry Van Statten – Corey Johnson
Goddard – Anna-Louise Plowman
Adam – Bruno Langley
Simmons – Nigel Whitmey
Bywater – John Schwab
De Maggio – Jana Carpenter
Commander – Joe Montana
Dalek Operator – Barnaby Edwards
Dalek Voice – Nicholas Briggs
Responding to a distress signal the TARDIS brings the Doctor and Rose to the Utah desert in the year 2012. They find themselves in a vast underground chamber full of extraterrestrial artefacts, including the stuffed arm of one of the Slitheen, the mileometer from the Roswell Space Craft and the head of Cyberman, each one in it’s own individual glass cases. The Doctor sets off the alarms when he reaches out to touch the case of the Cyberman, and he and Rose find armed security guards in dark uniforms surrounding them.
‘If someone’s collecting aliens then I guess that makes you exhibit number one!’ says Rose helpfully as the guards close in.
They have arrived at the underground museum of Henry Van Statten, whose helicopter Bad Wolf One arrives, bearing him and his entourage. It is his birthday and one of his lackeys informs him that the President has conveyed his congratulations.
‘The President is ten points down I want him replaced!’ snaps Van Statten in reply. When the aide dares to quibble with him Van Statten tells him he isn’t paid to have an opinion and orders him dragged off to have his memory wiped. As he continues his breathless pace down the corridor a young blonde woman sidles up. Van Statten asks her which party she thinks the next President should belong to, when she replies ‘Democrat sir’ he and his entourage come to a stop and he asks why. ‘Because they are so funny sir!’ she tells him, much to his amusement. She introduces herself as Diana Goddard and is about to tell Van Statten something else when he demands to see ‘the English kid’. A dark haired young man called Adam appears on his left and announces that he has secured some more interesting artefacts at an auction. Van Statten is keen to see these new toys but Goddard insists that he has to deal with two intruders who have appeared fifty floors down near ‘the Cage’.
Van Statten cracks a corny joke about the intruders coming through windows that everyone laughs at and then orders Goddard to let Simmons know he is wants to see his ‘little pet.’ We then cut to point of view shot of Simmons who is down in the Cage with a drill torturing a creature, whose screams are heard off screen. Goddard wants to know if the creature is talking to which Simmons tells her it is not.
The Doctor and Rose are brought in to see Van Statten in his study. The Doctor shows him how to play a musical instrument that Adam has shown him. Van Statten is impressed and is curious to know how the Doctor and Rose have managed to find themselves half a mile under the Utah desert near his only live exhibit. The Doctor asks him what that living specimen is to which Van Statten agrees to show him. Adam is ordered to take care of Rose whilst the Doctor, Van Statten and Goddard go down to the Cage.
Simmons has just come out of the Cage as they arrive, Van Statten explaining that despite great efforts to communicate over the years the creature had remained dumb, though there were definite signs of life ‘inside.’ Without knowing the creature’s real name Van Statten referred to it as a ‘metaltron’, a name he was proud of coming up with by himself.
The Doctor enters the darkened Cage, and begins by introducing himself and saying that he is there to help. The creature responds in a grating, familiar screech repeating his name (”Doctor…the DOC-TOR?!”), synchronised with flashing lights. Outside Van Statten is delighted to see that the Doctor has at last elicited a response from the metaltron and orders that he not be released until they have more.
The Doctor is shocked at the what is revealed as the lights come up; a Dalek, in chains, declaring him an enemy of the Daleks and crying its intent to exterminate. The Doctor, panicked, bangs on the door and demands to be let out, until he realises that the Dalek’s casing is cracked and worn and its weapon does not work. Delighted, the Doctor rounds on the Dalek, who is demanding orders. The Doctor says that no orders will be forthcoming; the Dalek race is dead, all ten million ships of its fleet burnt and the Doctor was the one who destroyed them. The Dalek asks what happened to the Time Lords, and the Doctor grimly acknowledges that all of them are dead as well, casualties of the last Time War. The two of them are the last of their kind, but he is going to finish the job. In a fury, he pulls a lever, sending electricity coursing through the Dalek, but Van Statten sends his guards to stop the Doctor.
Demanding that the Dalek at least acknowledge him, Van Statten’s temper is piqued by the Dalek’s resumed silence. He therefore orders Simmons to continue his torture of the creature.
In the lift up from the cage the Doctor explains to Van Statten and Goddard that the metal casing of the Dalek is only its battle armour and that a genetically engineered mutant sits inside. He pleads with them to have the Dalek destroyed. Goddard points out that the creature came crashing to Earth fifty years before on Ascension Island where it burned in a crater for three days before anyone could touch it. The Doctor explains that the Dalek must have fallen through time and now that it knows he is here then no one is safe.
The mention of the Time War reminds Van Statten that the Dalek is not the only live alien in his possession and so the Doctor is stripped to the waist and subjected to an examination. As Van Statten gleefully observes that he can patent the Doctor’s binary vascular system, the Doctor realises that Van Statten is not just a collector. He scavenges technology from the artefacts and then sells them. Van Statten proudly admits this, revealing that broadband was derived from Roswell technology, and that recently his scientists found the cure to the common cold in bacteria recovered from the ‘Russian Crater’. The Doctor is scathing in his response, stating that the Dalek is better than Van Statten because at least it is honest; it is programmed to survive at any cost.
Meanwhile Adam has been showing off his collection of alien objects to Rose and boasting of his genius. She persuades him to let her have a peek at Van Statten’s live alien and he smugly agrees to hack into the security camera network so that they can get a live feed from the cage. Rose is horrified to see Simmons torturing the ‘pepper pot thing’ as Adam describes the Dalek. Together they make there way to the Cage where Adam uses what must be a forged document to gain access to the Dalek. Rose approaches the chained creature, her eyes full of pity as she introduces herself. Inexplicably the Dalek says ‘yes’ and raises its eyestalk to Rose as she mentions the Doctor. The Dalek tells Rose that it is in pain and that it is being tortured; ‘yet still they fear me’. It asks whether Rose fears it, to which she says no and the Dalek is ‘glad’ to meet a human that does not fear it. With what seems like genuine sadness it explains that it is dying, that it is the last of it’s kind and that it welcomes death. Overcome by the instinct to touch a fellow being in pain Rose reaches out for the Dalek’s casing, too late for Adam’s warning. Her hand leaves a bizarre scorch mark on the Dalek that is absorbed into the casing as the Dalek extrapolates from her genetic material, using the energy contained within a time traveller’s DNA to regenerate itself.
Rose reaches out to the Dalek
The Daleks bursts from its chains and kills Simmons with its sucker arm. Upstairs word reaches the Doctor and Van Statten and the Time Lord orders the billionaire to release him. Rushing to the Van Statten’s study the Doctor addresses the guards down in the cell via a video link. A guard reassures him that the creature cannot break out when there are a billion combinations to the locks. The Doctor tells him that the Dalek is a genius and can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat. This the Dalek duly demonstrates, using its sucker arm to manipulate the door lock and scroll through the combinations. Within seconds it is loose from the Cage and moves around ignoring the guards who pump bullets into it uselessly.
The Dalek kills Simmons with its sucker arm
It then smashes a computer terminal with its manipulator arm, absorbing electricity from the Vault and seven states in the Western United States to completely repair itself, as well as absorbing the collective information of the Internet. Rose and Adam are evacuated from the level as Van Statten’s guards surround the Dalek, firing at it. However, a force field melts the bullets before they hit its casing, and its middle section can swivel around, giving its energy weapon a 360-degree field of fire. Van Statten shouts over the guards’ communicators that he does not want the Dalek damaged, but there is no answer ? the Dalek has killed all of them. The Doctor tells Diana to have weapons distributed to everyone.
Adam, Rose and a female guard named De Maggio are climbing the stairs to the upper levels, hoping to escape the Dalek, but it hovers up after them, killing De Maggio. Van Statten still thinks the Dalek can be negotiated with, but the Doctor bluntly tells him that the Dalek will kill everyone who is different from a Dalek, because it honestly believes they should die. It is the ultimate in racial cleansing, and Van Statten let it loose.
In the Vault’s weapons testing range, another group of guards takes up a firing position. Once Rose and Adam are clear, they open fire on the Dalek, but it sits there, impervious, even allowing the Doctor to see this on the monitors to prove it. It then hovers in the air, triggering the sprinklers. With one shot, it electrifies the water on the floor and kills the guards there. A second shot runs through a metal walkway, taking care of those guards. It demands to speak to the Doctor, and reveals that absorbing Rose’s DNA ? the genetic code of a time traveller ? allowed it to “extrapolate her biomass” and regenerate itself. Its search through the world’s satellite and radio telescope systems revealed no Daleks anywhere, and without orders, it intends to carry out the default Dalek function ? to destroy and conquer. The Doctor suggests, with almost uncharacteristic venom, that if it wants an order, it should just kill itself and rid the universe of its filth. The Dalek observes that the Doctor would make a good Dalek.
Van Statten has managed to restore some power to the bulkheads, but not for long. The Doctor holds off activating the doors for as long as he can to allow Rose and Adam to get to safety, but the power is failing, and he has no choice but to shut them. Adam makes it to the other side, but Rose is trapped. Over her super phone, Rose tells the Doctor it was not his fault, and the Doctor hears the Dalek cry, “Exterminate!” and the sound of the Dalek weapon firing. Furious with grief, he blames Van Statten for all the deaths that have transpired, especially Rose’s.
The Dalek, however, has not killed Rose. The DNA it absorbed from her is making it hesitant, and it can feel Rose’s fear, something that a Dalek should not be able to do. It contacts the Doctor, holding Rose hostage and demanding that the bulkheads be opened or it will kill her this time. It taunts the Doctor, saying, “What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?” The Doctor tells Van Statten that he already killed Rose once; he cannot do it again. He then unseals the doors. Adam informs the Doctor that, while the alien weapons Van Statten has collected are down in the lower levels, there are some uncatalogued ones in his laboratory. Van Statten mind wipes his employees after he terminates their service, and Adam wanted to keep some aside in case he had to fight his way out. The Doctor sorts through the pile and, after finding them all “broken” and one a “hairdryer”, locates a large gun not unlike a handheld cannon.
The Dalek reaches Van Statten’s office, and threatens to kill Van Statten for torturing it. Rose stops it, and the Dalek hesitates once more. Rose tells the Dalek that it does not have to kill anymore and asks it what it wants. The Dalek replies that it wants freedom. They ride up to Level 1, and there, the Dalek blows a hole in the roof of the Vault, letting the sunlight stream through. It opens up its casing to reveal the mutated creature inside, a tentacle outstretched to capture the warmth of the Sun. The Doctor appears, weapon in hand, telling Rose to get out of the way, but Rose refuses to let the Doctor kill it. The Dalek did not kill Van Statten ? it is changing. But what, Rose asks, is the Doctor changing into?
The Doctor, appalled at his own actions, lowers the weapon. Thinking on Rose’s words, he realises that the DNA the Dalek absorbed from Rose is mutating it further. The Dalek also realises this, as its mind is filled with so many new ideas, and it cannot reconcile it with the Dalek notion of species purity. It asks Rose to order it to die, which Rose reluctantly does. The Dalek rises into the air, the globes on its shell disengaging to form a sphere formation around it. The spheres emit energy and it implodes, completely disintegrating. Goddard orders the guards to mind wipe Van Statten for causing the events that resulted in the death of 200 people. She also orders the Vault to be filled in with cement.
The Dalek creature reaches for sunlight
Rose and the Doctor make it back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor ruefully observes that the Time War is finished, and as the last survivor he “wins”, although this obviously does not fill him with joy. Rose asks whether it is possible, since the Dalek survived, that some of the Time Lords did as well, but the Doctor says he would feel it if they had, and it feels like there is no one. Adam comes by, saying that they have to leave as Goddard is sealing the base, and Rose hints to the Doctor that they should take Adam along, as he always wanted to see the stars. The Doctor is sceptical, but does not object. Adam, not knowing what they are really saying, follows the Doctor and Rose into the TARDIS with a puzzled expression, and it dematerialises.
Synopsis by Andrew Panero and Wikipedia.
This was the first Dalek story to be broadcast (not counting ‘The Curse of Fatal Death’) since ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ seventeen years earlier. It nearly didn’t happen at all when negotiations between the BBC and Terry Nation’s estate broke down over the issue of editorial control. (BBC Doctor Who ‘Daleks Defeated’ 02/07/04)
Robert Shearman, whose Big Finish audio ‘Jubilee’ was the basis for this story went through several drafts for the screenplay: in earlier drafts Van Staten’s wife played a significant role and Adam was cast as his son. When negotiations with Terry Nation’s estate broke down Shearman submitted a draft entitled ‘Absence of the Daleks’. As a substitute for a Dalek a new creature was envisaged with a child-like malicious sense of humour whose catchphrase before it killed people was ‘let’s play.’
Following a concerted campaign by ‘The Sun’ and general dismay in fan-circles the BBC and Terry Nation’s estate eventually came to an agreement (BBC Doctor Who ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ 04/08/04) and the creature was rewritten as a Dalek.
Two Dalek props were used in this episode, one in a state of disrepair and the other one with a shiny gold/brass colour scheme. One represented the dying Dalek at the start of the episode; the other represented the rejuvenated Dalek after it has tapped into the electrical grid of most of the West Coast of the USA.
A CGI Dalek was also created for the first time in the new series by the Mill for the sequences where the Dalek flies up the stairs and self-destructs at the end.
Much of the filming for this episode was done under the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which also serves as the location of Torchwood’s secret base in the Doctor Who spin-off series of the same name.
Adam Mitchell only travelled with the Doctor and Rose for one more episode (‘The Long Game’) before being unceremoniously dumped by the Doctor in his own time-period. From an interview with Robert Shearman on the BBC site it appears that originally he was intended to be a much more permanent member of the TARDIS crew.
Set dressing in the form of Pizza boxes on the BBC site bears the name ‘Jubilee Pizzas’ in homage to Robert Shearman’s audio. This later became the name of a Welsh Pizza company featured in ‘Torchwood’.
Helen Raynor, who would later go on to script Series Three’s Dalek stories (see ‘Daleks in Manhattan’) came up with the name of GeoComTex for Van Staten’s company after careful research to make sure it didn’t match the name of any existing companies. (DWM 361).
Although set in America the keyboards Van Statten and co. use are of British design.
The use of the Daleks’ sensor globes as a self-destruct mechanism was a first for the show, rather than half-spheres it seems they are actual spheres imbedded in the Dalekanium frame. This would again be seen in Helen Raynor’s story ‘Daleks in Manhattan.’
After too long an absence from our screens the Daleks finally made a come back in the new series of Doctor Who in 2005. Given their rather wobbly past it was no mean feat to bring them back in a convincing way that would capture the imaginations of a new generation of children brought up on video games and big budget sci-fi.
They seemed to have succeeded in most things with this story, although the slow pace of the Dalek as it chases after Adam and Rose in the corridors of GeoComTex didn’t impress my teenage son very much at the time. Strange how the Dalek was in no hurry to catch them it seems, especially when it now had the ability to glide after them at some considerable speed.
The new design for the Daleks owes a lot to the AARU films of the sixties, with a high base fender and bat-like ear lights giving the Dalek a much more massive ‘chunky’ feel. The same extermination effect first seen in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ is reintroduced here, but the CGI is now much more sophisticated so that we see fully articulated skeletons wriggling around in real time as the poor unfortunates meet their grisly deaths.
Joe Ahearne keeps up a cracking pace throughout the story, the set piece battles between the Dalek and it’s human captors being excellently realised. A lot of close shots of the Dalek itself adds to the menace the creature exudes.
Nicolas Brigg’s voice captures the emotional complexity of the creature inside the machine, something that no previous voice artist for the Daleks seems to have been able to do. When the Dalek talks to Rose about the wretchedness of its situation is we really feel for the poor thing. Moments later the same being is busting its chains and crushing skulls with its sucker arm, neatly turning the tables on its former captors.
Billie Piper and Christopher Eccleston perform admirably, Eccleston outdoing himself in portraying the degree of malevolence the Doctor feels towards his oldest enemies. We learn for the first time whom the Time Lords were fighting in their Time War and the Doctor’s part in the destruction not only of the Daleks but his own people as well. His inner torment and confusion, beautifully conveys the nature of the Ninth Doctor’s survivor guilt and his own vulnerability. Bizarrely enough this is mirrors the position of the Dalek itself, which like the Doctor is also vulnerable and dangerous at the same time. Perhaps that is why it seems to sting so much when it tells the Doctor that he would make a good Dalek.
The supporting cast do a fine job at providing grist for the mill; Corey Johnson’s Van Statten is suitably egomaniacal, clever and stupid in all the right places. That his fate is to be mind-wiped and dumped on the roadside somewhere by his second in command is a classic piece of poetic justice and nicely rounds off a near perfect episode. Bruno Langley’s Adam comes across as a totally smarmy git from first time we see him running to keep up with Van Statten in the early scenes of the show. Why Rose, who otherwise seems like a fairly perceptive kind of girl convinces the Doctor to bring him on their travels, when he had already abandoned her to the Dalek earlier on, is a complete mystery. I guess there was a wonderful opportunity to create a kind of ambiguous Turlough type companion here, an opportunity that was passed up by RTD and company in favour of having the Doctor dump a companion instead. (Something that had apparently never happened before in the series or since).
Eccleston’s Doctor seems at times overtly macho and sometimes just downright cruel not only in his dealings with the Dalek in this episode but also with Adam in the next. This was a source of irritation for some fans who no doubt craved the more pacifistic and humane Doctor that most of us remember from his fourth and fifth incarnations. However for a pacifist the Doctor has certainly wiped out a fair few alien species in his time and the Daleks on practically every occasion in which he meets them. Small wonder than that in subsequent Dalek stories it is the Daleks that cower from him when he arrives and not the other way round.
With a great script and pretty well rounded characterisation (with perhaps the noticeable exception of Van Statten who comes across as a pretty irredeemable person at the end of the day) ‘Dalek’ still remains one of the strongest episodes of the new series if not the show’s entire history. It served to give the Daleks their best ever reintroduction to the public that loved them so much.
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