Doctor Who: 10 Huge Questions After The Power Of The Doctor
7. Is There Such A Thing As A Good Dalek?
The Doctor’s surprise at a Dalek asking for her help is a little strange, especially as she repeats Matt Smith’s "this is new" line from Asylum of the Daleks.
It’s strange because this is not the first time the series has toyed with the idea of a good Dalek. Caan, Sec, and Rusty all turn against their own, having seen the evilness inherent to their genetically-modified kind. But such Daleks are incredibly rare, to the extent that Rusty was regarded as a made-up myth. It’s also fair to say that a good Dalek is a broken or malfunctioning Dalek, as was explored in Into the Dalek.
The Doctor knows that it is far more likely that a good Dalek is a trap, like those in The Power of the Daleks and Victory of the Daleks. Her decision to take her chances is not born of naivety - after all, she doesn’t hold out hope that one reformed Dalek might save the lot of them. Instead, she is more than happy to gain intelligence that might help wipe them from existence.
It turns out that the Dalek was indeed a rebel, but that he had been allowed to be as such, and was used to lure the Doctor into the Master’s trap. So, maybe genuinely good Daleks can exist.