10 Things About The Daleks That Make No Sense

They’re Doctor Who’s greatest foe, and they’ve wreaked havoc across the galaxy in their never-ending bid to become the most powerful form of life in existence. From their lowly beginnings as the warmongering Kaleds on Skaro, to their evolution into little green blobs encased in polycarbide armor, the Daleks have certainly pulled themselves up by the bootstraps.

That doesn’t mean they’re the most convincing of villains when you factor in a few key questions, however. Here’s 10 things about the Daleks that make no sense, and why it gives us pause to question them.

10 NAIVE KALED SCIENTISTS

The Kaled science team working under Davros were, by all accounts, regular men and women with a conscience. When they learned of Davros’ true intention for the Dalek project, they quickly tried to have it shut down until Davros agreed to give them a conscience and a sense of morality.

The question is, why? Were the scientists too engrossed in their work to notice that Davros was a couple of olives short of a martini, or did they suddenly grow a conscience of their own at the 11th hour? Davros was not known for his patience, compassion or forgiveness, which should have raised a few red flags about the Dalek initiative!

9 DALEK EMPEROR VS. THE SUPREME DALEK

The Daleks have a strange hierarchy that usually revolves around the Supreme Dalek barking orders and shooting other Daleks that have failed him. He can usually be seen at the forefront of major offensives, including the jail-break of Davros from a human penal station.

What exactly is the Dalek Emperor doing through all of this? With over 50 years of lore at this point, we still know every little about the Dalek Emperor, what he does, or why he’s around in the first place. The character hasn’t been seen since the 2005 series one closer “The Parting of the Ways,” which paved the way for the Supreme Dalek to make a reappearance a few years later.

8 HUMANOID VS. BLOB

The Kaled race had been warring with the Thals on Skaro for generations, using everything from chemical and nuclear weapons to simple sticks and stones. The ensuing havoc would have long-lasting repercussions for the Kaled race, triggering a wave of mutants who were considered outcasts from society.

The Kaled’s eventual evolution into the traditional Dalek mutant was accelerated by Davros, but we fail to see why. Would such a creature retain superior intelligence after being reduced to a one-eyed pile of snot? It’s hard to imagine it.

7 THE SUCKER ARM

The traditional sucker appendage of the original Dalek design has been retained throughout the years (mostly due to budget constraints), but wouldn’t the Daleks have evolved their design at this point? We’ve seen them substitute this appendage in various media over the years, from a claw to a cutting torch, but they still revert back to the plunger aesthetic.

The 2005 Doctor Who series attempted to put some menace back into the sucker arm, but it’s still hard to take it seriously, especially when anyone with a high school level’s worth of rudimentary design would balk at the idea.

6 MOBILITY

Daleks are surprisingly adept at navigating terrain, which is a miracle given their case design. The Daleks didn’t learn to fly until 1988’s “Remembrance of the Daleks” serial, so how did they get about before that time? The Third Doctor encountered Daleks who utilized levitation discs to beat the vertical limit, but was that enough?

Are we expected to believe they brought in the same disc to ascend over a street curb, or a grassy hill? Primitive Daleks might have gotten away with this, but after thousands of years of plotting and scheming, did none of them stop to consider updating their design a bit?

5 TO BE (INDESTRUCTIBLE) OR NOT TO BE?

Dalek stories love to flip-flop on whether they’re invulnerable killing machines capable of wiping out entire cities with just one unit, or if they can be destroyed through simple methods. This is all quite confusing. The 2005 series one episode “The Parting of the Ways” shows Daleks who are so powerful that even bastic bullets (Dalek-killing ammo) can’t penetrate their force shield.

Meanwhile, other stories such as “Resurrection of the Daleks” show them blown to bits with a land mine, or cracked with open with a standard RPG launcher. Either way, the Daleks work best when they’re tough, but not invulnerable to conventional weaponry.

4 TIME IS NOT ON THEIR SIDE

The Daleks gained access to a crude version of time travel technology which allowed them to hatch a series of schemes, eventually catching the attention of the Time Lords, themselves. The Seventh Doctor once remarked that even the Daleks knew the dangers of mucking about too much with the timeline.

The question of course, is why? The Doctor interferes with galactic events like it’s a bodily function. The Daleks are less concerned with ramifications to the universe or other species, which begs the question of why they don’t just go back to the beginning and “exterminate” everything?

3 ORGANIC LOGIC

Dalek canon has contradicted itself a few times since the beginning. First, they were mutants placed inside Dalek attack shells, while “Destiny of the Daleks” referred to them as robots. This minor caveat aside, it does beg the question of why the Daleks are a purely logic-based lifeform, given their emotionally driven organic roots?

Their logic was so pure in fact, that a stalemate between the Daleks and the Movellans resulted in a century without a single shot being fired. This forced them to seek out Davros in order to inject an unpredictable element of intuition to counter their programming. Why would Davros have stripped out this intuition in the first place? He himself was anything but purely logical.

2 FAREWELL / NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN

The Daleks also flip-flop on extinction vs. a thriving society. Classic Who stories managed to maintain the Daleks as a constant threat to the galaxy, even if their numbers suffered heavily during certain campaigns or encounters. The 2005 series has never been able to accurately pin down whether the Daleks are gone for good, or whether they’re soldiering on without a care.

It’s high time the series either got rid of the Daleks permanently, or stopped throwing red herrings at the audience, only to bring them back again the following year.

1 WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST KILL THE DOCTOR?

The Daleks have had the Doctor in their suckers quite a few times over the years, but rather than exterminate the “oncoming storm,” their greatest enemy, they’ve always managed to bungle it up somehow. Usually they capture the Doctor and attempt to extract knowledge from his mind, which is unusual given the Dalek’s unwavering belief that they are the smartest cookies in the pantry.

Since the Daleks are a logic-based species, wouldn’t it make more sense to off the very guy that has reigned down cataclysm after cataclysm, over and over again? No, the Daleks see fit to take their dear old time, while giving the Doctor a chance to escape (usually with ease), and turn the tables once again.

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