The Idea: Daleks convert a young girl into one of their own. She suppresses the pain and horror of this conversion so far, that she doesn't even realise it's happened. It was one of the most heartbreaking and mind-boggling twists of the show: the new companion had in fact been converted into a Dalek. It was all a dream. Were we going to see a Dalek travel with the Doctor? The way the camera panned across the room, revealing the chained Dalek asking where it was, has become an iconic image; but just how disturbing is this storyline? Oswin could remember her human life, and she dreamed of it because she was too distressed to come to terms with her state. The man she was going to run away with to escape this hell, was physically disgusted with her; she had become everything that he despised, and in the scene, Matt Smith plays a wonderful mixture of sorrow, pity and revulsion. There are stories littered throughout Who of people becoming monsters, and this is a fantastically executed example. It just goes to show that if you ever plan to meet up a girl via radio transmission, you should always swap pictures first.
