10 Doctor Who Fates Worse Than Death
3. Converted into a Dalek
The notoriously racially pure Daleks only sully themselves with inferior human DNA in extreme circumstances. We don't see the process in Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways but what we do see in Revelation of the Daleks is utterly horrific.
Doctor Who did itself no favours with the portrayal of poor Arthur Stengos, his one good eye peering out of a bulging purple mass of sores and gunge, crammed inside a glass Dalek. It's a genuinely horrible moment in a story that's crammed full of them. When the unfortunate Arthur pleads with his daughter to murder him, you start to think Michael Grade had a point about the increasing grisliness of the show.
Compare this to the portrayal of Oswin being converted in Asylum of the Daleks and it's far more affecting because of Moffat's tricksy narrative and the eventual reveal. She and the audience believe that she's a charming shipwreck survivor, right up until everyone realises the horrible truth - that she's been crammed inside a Dalek casing.
Given the choice between disgusting purple blob, complete psychological breakdown or a quick blast of a Dalek gun stick, you'd go for being exterminated every time, right?