40. The Gruesome Genesis Of The Daleks - Journey's End
Some of the very best Dalek moments are those that repel us by demonstrating how disgusting the Daleks really are. This scene from 2008 is one of the best of this kind, courtesy of our old pal Davros. Retrieved from the Time War, Davros has built a new army of Daleks. But how, when there was only one Dalek left in existence? The answer: each Dalek was grown from a single cell in his body, which he demonstrates by showing us his fetchingly ravaged torso. It may be a simple, good old-fashioned use of body horror but it acts as a reminder of how gruesome the idea of creating a Dalek really is.
39. 'Love From Gallifrey, Boys!' The Time Of The Doctor
Now, there's a big unsaid truth about the Daleks. We all know that they are the Doctor's arch-enemies and that they will always return BUT, in turn, they are also the enemies he has defeated the most, and part of the fun in a Dalek adventure is trying to work out just how the Doctor will defeat them this time. The recent The Time of the Doctor provided one of the most cataclysmic climaxes of the Daleks ever seen. Granted a new regeneration cycle by the Time Lords, The frail Eleventh Doctor finally stops the Daleks who have been hanging over the planet Trenzalore for hundreds of years with his 'whopper' of a regeneration; volcanic energy bursting out all over the place and blowing up the Dalek spaceships to smithereens. This may not have been one of the Daleks most successful excursions, but you have to admit they went out in style.
38. The Daleks Gather Their Delegates Mission To The Unknown
Here's an oft-forgotten curio from the show's early days. 1965's Mission To The Unknown, a single episode story, has the distinction of being the sole adventure in all of Doctor Who to feature neither the Doctor, his companions or the TARDIS. The stars are, instead, the Daleks. Acting as a prequel to the upcoming epic 12-part adventure The Daleks' Master Plan, Mission sees the Daleks at their most scheming. Here, they team up with delegates from across the galaxy to enact their most insidious plan yet to destroy the Solar System itself! With an episode all to themselves, this proved that the Daleks are as much an audience-grabbing fixture of the show as the Doctor himself. I think they'd rather like that.
37. 'My Vision is NOT Impaired.' The Stolen Earth
Amongst the grand stylings of the cross-over jamboree The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, there comes this entertaining scene where Donna's loveable granddad Wilfred Mott stands up against a lone, mighty Dalek with a paint gun. With a shot in the eyestalk, Wilf thinks he's done it but the paint soon simmers away. With a witty play on a Dalek's usual saying, it quips 'My vision is not impaired!' Who says the Daleks don't have a sense of humour? Clearly, they just don't often get a chance to use it. Maybe they swap jokes to pass the time between conquering worlds?
36. A Human Woman Becomes A Dalek I Am A Dalek
As the Doctor Who universe has been expanded so thoroughly in every medium you can think of comic strips, audio dramas, novels it stands to reason that Daleks would also feature as a major part of these adventures. The 2006 novella I Am a Dalek, by future TV writer Gareth Roberts, provides one of the most intriguing Dalek ideas both on and off screen. Hit by a bus, ordinary human woman Kate Yates strangely survives the ordeal. However, there is one side effect. She has started to think like a Dalek... One of the elements that make the Daleks such compelling monsters is how different they are from ourselves, or at least our vision of ourselves. This story, though, deals with the question; 'what would happen if, one day, you started to become a Dalek?' Brr.
