10 Doctor Who Moments That Will Haunt You Forever
8. Game Station Massacre (The Parting Of The Ways)
One mistake people often make when talking about the Daleks is describing them as robots. Even some of the show's writers have fallen into this trap, with episodes like Destiny of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks hinging their plots on the idea that Daleks are creatures of pure logic, and can get stalemated by other logic-driven robots.
But the Daleks aren't unthinking, unfeeling automatons that carry out orders coldly and efficiently. The truth is much worse. Daleks are driven entirely by one single emotion: hatred.
Nowhere is this more evident than in The Parting of the Ways. During the Daleks' climactic assault on the Game Station, all of the contestants not willing to fight are hidden away on the station’s bottom floor, as far as possible from the battle. But in spite of this the Daleks opt for one hell of a bloodthirsty detour and send down a squadron with the express intention of massacring every last one of them.
In other words the Daleks saw a room filled with scared, defenceless humans, and they thought, "You know what? We need to fix that."
It was a perfect way to demonstrate to a new and unfamiliar audience the lengths Daleks will go to satiate their endless hatred. And for those who watched as children in 2005, it never fails to bring back the shock and horror of realising just how utterly evil the Daleks truly are.