"Dalek" is the sixth episode of the revived

first series First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of the British

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

programme ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. It was first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

on 30 April 2005. This episode is the first appearance of the

Dalek The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrial race of extremely xenophobic mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by writer Terry Nation and first appeared in th ...

s in the 21st-century revival of ''Doctor Who''; it also marks the first appearance of

Bruno Langley Bruno Langley (born 21 March 1983) is an English musician and former actor. He is known for his roles as Todd Grimshaw in ''Coronation Street'' (over 700 episodes between 2001 and 2017) and Adam Mitchell in ''Doctor Who'' (2005). In October 2 ...

as companion Adam Mitchell. The episode is set in Utah in the year 2012, in the underground bunker owned by

Henry van Statten "Dalek" is the sixth episode of the revived first series of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 April 2005. This episode is the first appearance of the Daleks in the 21st-cent ...

( Corey Johnson), a rich collector of alien artefacts. In the episode, the alien

time traveller Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

the

Ninth Doctor The Ninth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Christopher Eccleston during the first series of the show's revival in 2005. Within the serie ...

(

Christopher Eccleston Christopher Eccleston (; born 16 February 1964) is an English actor whose work has encompassed Hollywood blockbusters and arthouse films, television dramas, Shakespearean stage performances and science fiction, most notably the Ninth Doctor, ni ...

) and his travelling companion

Rose Tyler Rose Tyler is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. She was created by series producer Russell T Davies and portrayed by Billie Piper. With the revival of ''Doctor Who'' in 2005, Rose was intro ...

(

Billie Piper Billie Paul Piper (born Leian Paul Piper; 22 September 1982) is an English actress and former singer who is best known for her portrayal as Rose Tyler in ''Doctor Who'' (2005–2006, 2008, 2010). She initially gained recognition as a singer a ...

) encounter the bunker's only living exhibit: a Dalek, which breaks loose and attempts to exterminate everyone in the bunker after repairing itself. This episode's mention of the Series wide arc of "Bad Wolf" comes in the form of Henry van Statten's Helicopter call sign, which is "BadWolf1".

Plot

The

and

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

are drawn by a distress signal to a massive bunker beneath Utah in 2012, filled with alien artefacts collected by the bunker's owner, Henry Van Statten. Rose is offered a tour of the facility by Adam Mitchell, a man who buys and catalogues artefacts for van Statten. Van Statten takes the Doctor to show him a living alien being that he has in captivity, which the Doctor recognises as a

, a race thought to have been wiped out in the Time War. The Dalek is seriously wounded and weakened, and unable to break its bonds, but when the Doctor attempts to destroy it, van Statten orders his guards to restrain the Doctor and return him to his offices. There, van Statten has the Doctor secured, noting that not only does he collect aliens, but also tortures them to gain information, and proceeds to invasively and violently study the Doctor's body to learn more about his physiology. Meanwhile, Adam has taken Rose to the Dalek. Rose takes pity on the weakened creature and touches its casing; the Dalek promptly absorbs her DNA extrapolating the

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

of a time traveller, and is able to re-energise itself. It escapes its bonds, kills several guards, and repairs its casing. Connecting to the Internet, the Dalek finds no information relating to the Dalek race and realises that it is the last surviving Dalek. With no other purpose, it returns to the Daleks' prime directive: to target and exterminate all non-Dalek life forms. Van Statten is forced to release the Doctor to help stop the Dalek, but the Dalek refuses to cooperate, and continues killing all those left in the Vault. The Dalek prepares to kill Rose but is unable to, realising in horror that it can now feel fear after absorbing Rose's DNA, and begins to question itself. The Dalek is tempted to kill van Statten out of revenge, but Rose instead convinces it to spare his life. The Dalek tells Rose it wants freedom, and blows a hole in the ceiling so that it can feel sunlight. The Doctor arrives and prepares to kill the Dalek, but Rose stops him, convincing him he is becoming like a Dalek. The Dalek is unable to cope with its new emotions, concluding that its existence is "sickness". It asks Rose to allow it to die. Rose gives the order, and the Dalek self-destructs. Van Statten's assistant Goddard takes over the bunker, planning to wipe van Statten's memories and fill the bunker with cement. Rose offers Adam the chance to travel with her and the Doctor, since he will have no job after this. Adam accepts the offer.

Production

Conception

Rob Shearman Robert Charles Shearman, sometimes credited as Rob Shearman, is an English television, radio, stage play and short story writer. He is known for his World Fantasy Award-winning short stories, as well as his work for ''Doctor Who'', and his as ...

, the

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

of the episode, had his first encounter with the revived series of ''Doctor Who'' in 2003 after he created the

Sixth Doctor The Sixth Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Colin Baker. Although his televisual t ...

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

Jubilee A jubilee is often used to refer to the celebration of a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term comes from the Hebrew Bible (see, "Old Testament"), initially concerning ...

''. Executive producer

Russell T Davies Stephen Russell Davies ( ; born 27 April 1963), known professionally as Russell T Davies, is a Welsh screenwriter and television producer. He is best known for being the original showrunner and head writer of the revival of the BBC sci-fi seri ...

drew heavily on ''Jubilee'' to create "Return of the Daleks" for his pitch to the BBC, a story with which Davies hoped to recreate the menace shown by the Daleks in their 1963 debut ''

The Daleks ''The Daleks'' (also known as ''The Mutants'' and ''The Dead Planet'' is the second serial in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC TV in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to ...

''. The adventure changed the setting from the alternate Earth in ''Jubilee'' to 2012 Utah, with the lone Dalek featured being held captive by businessman Henry Van Statten, a caricature of Microsoft's chairman

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

. According to Shearman the script went through 14 revisions. The story itself was initially called "Creature of Lies", and Van Statten was originally called Hiram Duchesne. For a short period of time, Adam was the villain's son, but Shearman decided against it. The most notable change to the script happened when the Nation estate, holders of the rights for the Daleks, blocked the use of the Daleks due to the BBC licensing them out too much. The changed story contained an alien akin to a child who kills for pleasure, which eventually evolved into the Toclafane from " The Sound of Drums" and " Last of the Time Lords". Finally, the BBC was able to secure the rights from the

Nation A nation is a type of social organization where a collective Identity (social science), identity, a national identity, has emerged from a combination of shared features across a given population, such as language, history, ethnicity, culture, t ...

estate, and at the same time gave the episode its final name, "Dalek". Davies wished for the episode to be emotional rather than "rely on people running down corridors". Shearman expressed a desire "to take all those things people find funny about the Daleks and turn them into something people would find memorable."

Filming

The episode was placed in the third production block, along with "

Father's Day Father's Day is a day set aside for honoring one's father, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. "Father's Day" complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Mother's Day and, in som ...

" and " The Long Game", the latter taken out due to delays in special effects creation. Filming of the episode began on 25 October 2004 at the

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff (), formerly known as the National Museum of Wales, is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Wel ...

, before moving to the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

the following day, where most of the episode was filmed. Most of the filming finished on 3 November 2004, with pick-up shots completed at the show's studio space in Newport throughout the remainder of the month.

Critical reception and awards

When the episode was released on DVD, the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of films exhibited ...

(BBFC) gave it a 12 rating, because of the scenes where the Doctor is seen to torture the Dalek. The BBFC stated, "We are concerned about role models for children using the sort of tactics that Doctor Who used against the Dalek. If that was transferred into the playground it would be something we would want to tackle." Reception to the episode was positive. The episode's overnight ratings were 7.73 million viewers with 46% of the audience share, later finalised to 8.64 million viewers. The episode received an Audience Appreciation Index score of 84. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' stated that the episode was an "unqualified triumph". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' commented that "Shearman's script bamboozles expectations", and the episode "should hopefully show 2005's kids what was always so wonderful about the iconic tin-rotters." ''

The London Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free of charge in London, England. It is print ...

'' found the lack of surprise (namely, calling the episode "Dalek") the only disappointment, and ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the tit ...

'' simply stated that "for 30 pant-shittingly wonderful minutes, BBC1's new Doctor Who was the best thing on telly. Ever." In 2010 Den of Geek placed the episode as number 2 in their list of the Top 10 Dalek stories. The episode was nominated for the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form along with other ''Doctor Who'' episodes "

" and "

The Empty Child "The Empty Child" is the ninth episode of the first series of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 21 May 2005. It was directed by James Hawes, and was the first canonical episo ...

"/"

The Doctor Dances "The Doctor Dances" is the tenth episode of the first series of the revival of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 May 2005. It is the second of a two-part story, following t ...

". The stories came third, fifth, and first, respectively.

Commercial releases

In print

novelisation A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent of ...

of this story written by Robert Shearman was released in paperback and digital formats on 11 March 2021 as part of the ''

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

Collection''.

Notes

References

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. Founded in 1880, ''The Stage'' contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at thos ...

'' about the multicast test leak
GeoComTex.net
nbsp;— the website of Henry Van Statten's company * {{good article Ninth Doctor episodes Fiction set in 2012 Dalek television stories Doctor Who stories set on Earth Works by Robert Shearman Fiction about memory erasure and alteration 2005 British television episodes Television episodes set in Utah Television episodes set in the 2010s