Victory of the Daleks (TV story)

Victory of the Daleks was the third episode of the fifth series of BBC Wales Doctor Who. In it, the eleventh Doctor first encountered the Daleks and Winston Churchill, both of whom he had met several times in past incarnations. Like Daleks in Manhattan before it, it involved the last Dalek units in the universe desperately trying to rebuild the Dalek race in a famous period in Earth's past.

The episode was notable for its redesign of the Daleks into multi-coloured units, each with its own specific functionality. Writer Mark Gatiss acknowledged the controversial nature of this redesign in his in-vision commentary on the DVD box set. In conversation with principal Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs, and Dalek operator Barnaby Edwards, he opined that the new shape of the Daleks, especially in the dorsal region, was not particularly to his liking. Briggs agreed, but, with Edwards, swiftly noted that in their experience of taking the new Daleks on live exhibition to the public, British kids universally loved the new design. The decision was revisited in DWM 431 with critics voicing their opinions on the design. A comparison was made with the RTD-era Daleks but no conclusion, as to the better, was made.

Synopsis
The Doctor and Amy are called to London during World War II by an old friend of the Doctor: Winston Churchill. To the Doctor's horror he finds the Daleks posing as a manmade "secret weapon" that Churchill calls "ironsides" and hopes will win him the war.

Plot
The TARDIS materializes in the Cabinet War Rooms during World War II, in response to Winston Churchill's call for help at the end of The Beast Below. The Doctor is greeted by the Prime Minister, with whom the Doctor recounts past experiences, revealing to Amy that the two men are friends. They soon learn that they have arrived one month after Churchill called, due to the newly-reconfigured TARDIS still being rather innaccurate. When a Luftwaffe squadron approaches London, Churchill takes the Doctor and Amy to the roof in order to show them his latest weapon. As the squadron of Stukas comes into view over Blitz-torn London, they are shot down by energy weapons with amazing precision by the "Ironsides". Professor Edwin Bracewell, the man in charge of the "Ironside" project, reveals at the Doctor's request a camouflaged, Union Flag-wearing and obedient Dalek.

Although the Doctor says they are alien, the Professor insists that he invented the "Ironsides". They appear docile, offering to help their human colleagues and serving them cups of tea. Churchill defends them, thinking of the victories he could have. The Doctor tries to get Amy to tell Churchill about how the Daleks invaded Earth, but Amy has no recollection of any planets in the sky or the Dalek invasion, with no reason why she would have missed those events.

The Doctor, intent on proving the Daleks' evil, goes to the Professor, their "creator". The Doctor asks Professor Bracewell how he came up with the idea for the Daleks. To answer this the Professor shows the Doctor several other highly advanced inventions he came up with. When the Daleks and Churchill enter the room, the Doctor repeatedly strikes a Dalek with a large, heavy wrench, trying to make it react. He tells them how he has defeated them, how he is their greatest enemy, and eventually that "I am the Doctor, and you are the Daleks!", before kicking the Dalek across the room. The Dalek recovers and reverts to its true personality, and revealing its true identity. The other Dalek then replays what the Doctor said, before transmitting the "testimony" to the Dalek ship, behind the moon. As two soldiers run in to stop the no-longer-obedient Daleks, they are exterminated. The Professor yells at them to stop, as "I created you!". One of the Daleks blasts his hand, leaving only exposed wiring, revealing Bracewell to be an android. It retorts "No, we created you!" and then teleports away with the others.

The Doctor runs to the TARDIS, telling Amy to stay behind as it is too dangerous. He then materializes in the Dalek ship. The Doctor pretends to be brandishing a TARDIS self-destruct control (a Jammie Dodger biscuit), so the the Daleks do not exterminate him. The Daleks reveal that one ship survived the destruction of the Dalek race during the War in the Medusa Cascade, and that it went after the last remaining Progenitor device, a genetic archive containing pure Dalek DNA. The Doctor figures out that they built Professor Bracewell because the Progenitor Device did not recognize them as Dalek (as they were created from the DNA of Davros). If the Daleks became part of the army, Winston Churchill would lure the Doctor in, and the Doctor would confirm them as Daleks. The Progenitor accepted this testimony as proof, because the Doctor is the Daleks' greatest enemy, and he would certainly be an expert on the subject.

The Daleks then tell the Doctor to leave, or they will destroy London. The Doctor says they do not have that power. The Daleks then activate a device that turns on all of London's lights, making the city an easy target to the incoming German bombers, and rendering London's blackout efforts ineffective. Then the Progenitor completes its process, and creates a "new paradigm" consisting of five "pure" Daleks, larger, more imposing, and presumably more powerful than their antecendents. The new Daleks promptly label their creators inferior, and proceed to disintegrate the original Daleks, who willingly offer themselves for extermination. In the Cabinet War Rooms, Amy and Churchill realise they can use Professor Bracewell to fight back against the Daleks. Stopping him from committing suicide, they convince him to use anti-gravity technology on adapted Spitfires to help them attack the Dalek ship in Earth orbit, equipped with Dalek laser cannons. The new Daleks are not fooled by the Doctor's "self-destruct device", and prepare to kill him, just as the Spitfires begin their attack. The Spitfires destroy the Dalek transmitter, assisted by the Doctor who manages to use the TARDIS to disrupt the saucer's shields. The Daleks then tell the Doctor to stop the attack on their ship or they will destroy the Earth using an "Oblivion Continuum" bomb concealed inside Professor Bracewell.

The Doctor reluctantly calls off the attack and escapes back to earth, leaving the Daleks to escape, but the cruel Daleks, commenting that the Doctor's empathy is his greatest weakness, activate the bomb anyway as they flee. Upon arrival back on Earth, the Doctor reveals the charging bomb inside Bracewell. Realizing that the only way to stop it exploding is to convince Bracewell that he is a human, not a bomb, he tries to remind the Professor of all his memories and how they hurt, but he cannot seem to stop the countdown. As the Oblivion Continuum approaches detonation, Amy steps in and asks him if he has "ever fancied someone [he] shouldn't". Bracewell remembers a girl named Dorabella, and the way she made him feel. While dwelling on this, the countdown retreats to zero, canceling the detonation. The Daleks then escape through a time corridor declaring that "they will return". The Doctor immediately dashes to stop the Daleks, but he is told by Bracewell that they have escaped. For a few moments, he feels that he has lost, but Amy reminds him that he saved the Earth.

After surreptitiously allowing Bracewell to "escape", and bidding farewell to Churchill (who is chagrined by the fact that the Doctor has removed all the alien technology, to prevent England from gaining a major advantage in WWII and changing history) and his staff, the Doctor is puzzled and worried that Amy did not remember the Daleks from their previous attack over London or the Medusa Cascade incident, and the TARDIS dematerializes. Where the TARDIS once stood, a shining crack is seen...

Cast

 * The Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan
 * Winston Churchill - Ian McNeice
 * Bracewell - Bill Paterson
 * Blanche - Nina De Cosimo
 * Childers - Tim Wallers
 * Dalek 1 - Nicholas Pegg
 * Dalek 2 - Barnaby Edwards
 * Dalek Voice - Nicholas Briggs
 * Lilian - Susannah Fielding
 * Todd - James Albrecht
 * Air Raid Warden - Colin Prockter
 * Civil Servant - Jamal Nasir (uncredited)
 * Spitfire Pilot - Mark Gatiss (uncredited)

Story notes

 * This episode had the working titles of The Dalek Project and The Dalek Tea Party.
 * In this episode, each Dalek was given a different title, which corresponded with their armour colour; namely, "Scientist" (orange), "Strategist" (blue), "Drone" (red), "Eternal" (yellow) and "Supreme" (white). In Doctor Who Confidential, Mofatt and Gatiss both admit they don't know what the title "Eternal" means yet ("but it sounds cool").
 * The red, blue and yellow Daleks were first revealed in the Radio Times and the colours were used to symbolise the different colours of the three major British political parties: Labour (red), Conservative (blue) and Liberal Democrats (yellow).
 * Colin Prockter previously appeared as the Head Chef in DW: The Long Game.
 * Like DW: The Unquiet Dead in Series 1, this episode is the third in the series, is a pseudo-historical, is penned by Mark Gatiss, and is both preceded and followed by two episodes by the head writer.
 * Ian McNeice previously portrayed Winston Churchill in the Royal National Theatre's 2008 production of Never So Good.
 * This is the second Dalek episode in the new series to use the infamous "___ of the Daleks" title scheme, the first being DW: Evolution of the Daleks.
 * Mark Gatiss said in the Radio Times: "They're bigger than they've ever been; and in technicolor!" This would show that the new Daleks shall be different colours like the 'classic' Daleks of the earlier eras.
 * This is the third time in the new series that the Daleks have featured mid-way in the series, following DW: Dalek in series one and then in series three two part story DW: Daleks in Manhattan and DW: Evolution of the Daleks.
 * The Daleks seen since series 1 were designed so that the eye stalk lined up with Billie Piper's eyes. The new Daleks are designed to match Karen Gillan's height.
 * For narrative and filming purposes, the Cabinet War Rooms in the episodes are far larger than the real ones and have an RAF "spotter" table that was not really present.
 * The Dalek model on the "spotter" table appears to be a Character Options Dalek toy painted grey, likely the "mutant reveal" Dalek figurine with the removal front given the visible separation lines on the front of the model.
 * This episode holds the record for the most non-CGI Dalek models used in a single story, with no less then eight Dalek models on-screen at the same time.
 * The Doctor mentions how the Daleks always manage to recognise him despite his regenerations, as they first did in DW: The Power of the Daleks with his second incarnation. However, this has not always been the case: in DW: Revelation of the Daleks, only Davros' Daleks recognised his sixth incarnation, with the other faction disbelieving that he was the Doctor. Furthermore, in DW: Doomsday, the Cult of Skaro failed to recognise the Tenth Doctor but acknowledged that he registered as an enemy.
 * It is not clarified whether these Daleks were part of the half-human faction from Parting of the Ways or members of the New Dalek Empire from Journey's End, implied to be from the latter but never openly stated. The Progenitor won't recognise the gold Daleks, the ones seen thus far in the series, because (according to The Doctor) it doesn't recognise their DNA as Dalek anymore. This could mean that these Daleks are either part of the fleet developed by the Dalek Emperor from human DNA or part of Davros' Medusa Cascade fleet developed from his own Kaled cells. The latter seems more likely, as Rose, empowered by the Time Vortex, was able to wipe out the Emperor's fleet in an instant, through mere thought, making it extremely unlikely that one Saucer would be able to escape.
 * Amy refers to the Daleks as the Doctor's "Arch enemies".
 * This episode aired on the same day as the K9 episode, Jaws of Orthrus was first broadcast on Disney XD in Britain. It also aired on the same day that The Korven was first broadcast on Network Ten in Australia.
 * Although Terry Nation originally based the Daleks on the Nazis, this the first time the race has appeared in World War II - ironically, helping the British fight against the Nazis.
 * This is the very Dalek episode of the new series to not show any Daleks in flight.

Ratings
6.2 million - First broadcast

7.82 million - Final BARB ratings

Filming locations
to be added

Rumours

 * Adolf Hitler was rumoured to make a brief appearance. He was mentioned, but not seen.

Production errors

 * In the scene where the Doctor and Amy are discussing Bracewell's possible deactivation, editor John Richards fails to match the frontals of the Doctor with the reverses looking at Bracewell. In the frontals, Matt Smith clearly has his hands in his pockets or clasped together in front of him. On the reverses, his right hand is seen dangling rather lifelessly at his side.
 * At the end, when Churchill is talking to the Doctor and Amy, he bends down to light a cigar, and puts it in his mouth. When he gets up, it is no longer anywhere to be seen.
 * When the Doctor was talking to the Dalek Supreme on the "actual" shot he was further away from the Dalek but on the screen provided by Bracewell the plunger is nearly touching him. The Supreme Dalek was also seen moving towards the Doctor after the 'cleansing' of the old Daleks, but immediately after seen starting to move, it is back in its original position and immobile.
 * There were numerous points in the episode where the 'earlights' of the Daleks did not light when a Dalek was speaking.
 * Before the Doctor arrived, a Dalek states "Commencing stage two!", but, its earlights aren't on. The next Dalek that speaks speaks with another's voice instead of its own.
 * Before the new Daleks emerged, an old Dalek states that they had succeeded, but none of their earlights were on.
 * The Supreme Dalek had numerous incidents; when it ordered the extermination of the Doctor, and stating that the Daleks would return, its earlights weren't on.
 * The Scientist Dalek's earlights didn't turn on when it was monitoring the energy pulse and the shields. Also notable is that its earlights were on, when it wasn't speaking, when the Supreme Dalek ordered the Doctor to 'explain'.
 * The cockpits of the spitfire pilots glow green when firing their lasers, but they fired red lasers.
 * When the TARDIS dematerializes and causes wind to blow against Churchill and Amy their clothes are affected but the cigar smoke in the air is unaffected and actually drifts towards the TARDIS.
 * In many scenes, the Doctor will see a Dalek in one room, and then more in the next room. This is impossible, because there are only three Daleks that survived the backfire of the Reality Bomb in DW: Journey's End, and they are not fast enough to move that quickly from one room to the next.

Continuity

 * The Doctor mentions sending the Daleks back into the Void (DW: Doomsday) and saving the whole of reality from their efforts. He further states that Amy should have remembered (but doesn't remember) them from when there were "planets in the sky". (DW:The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)
 * Subservient Daleks is also the theme of the first Second Doctor adventure. (DW: The Power of the Daleks)
 * The end of DW: The Beast Below directly leads into this story.
 * The Dalek Saucer seen in the dogfight with the Spitfires is similar to those from DW: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways and DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
 * The Doctor has had a group of soldiers point weapons at him shortly after or while exiting the TARDIS before, in the Torchwood Tower and in Albion Hospital (DW:Army of Ghosts, Aliens of London).
 * The Doctor mentions that his TARDIS is a Type 40 TARDIS. (DW: The Ribos Operation)
 * The new Daleks use a Time corridor to depart from the era. The last time a Time corridor was used on-screen was in DW: Resurrection of the Daleks.
 * Another one of the cracks can be seen on the wall of the Cabinet War Room after the TARDIS dematerialises.
 * In Doctor Who Confidential, Gatiss confirms that the brightly coloured restored Daleks are a nod to the 1960s Amicus films.
 * Churchill remarks that the Doctor has changed his face again, implying that he has encountered at least two other incarnations of his. The Doctor had already met Churchill in his Sixth Incarnation in PDA: The Shadow in the Glass and both his Second and Sixth Incarnations encountered him in PDA: Players.
 * The Dalek saucer is hidden on the dark side of the Moon. The Cybermen hid a craft there in DW: The Invasion.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after: DW: The Beast Below
 * This story occurs before: NSA: Apollo 23

Home video releases
BBC Video - Doctor Who Series Five - Volume One was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 7th June 2010 (UK only), featuring The Eleventh Hour, The Beast Below, Victory of the Daleks, and the featurette The Monster Files.