Howling:Blinovitch Daleks


 * This content was moved from Talk:Dalek. Please go there to view its early history.

Is it reasonable that the Dalek gunstick's discharge is related to the Blinovitch limitation effect?

-In NSA: Touched by an Angel, Blinovitch limitation fields were characterized by arcs of blue light, electromagnetic interference (enough to short out all of the appliances and electronics in penthouse and cause a house fire), and physical contact with one could leave one charred.

This appears to match the physical description of a Dalek's weapon discharge:

-The beam is normally blue -It's ability to conduct through metal and water suggests electromagnetic properties -Victims may be left charred

Being a time-capable species, the Daleks would know about the Blinovitch limitation effect, and their time-travel related power source seems like it would be compatible.

Also, being a species with the technological might to challenge the Time Lords (who wield weapons that delete people's time streams from the universe), it seems unlikely that they would be using technology as comparatively primitive as plasma. A Blinovitch limitation weapon firing time energy seems more appropriately "timey-wimey" to engage the Time Lords in a time war, as a weapon firing time energy may also have properties that affect peoples' time streams that have not been explored.


 * It's possible, especially for Daleks of the Time War era and later. But unless there's something explicit making that connection in a valid source, we can't say it in an article here. It's just speculation. —Josiah Rowe talk to me 01:46, June 19, 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you. It was only intended to be speculation (I hope I didn't misunderstand the purpose of the talk page). I just want to see if it sounded reasonable. And thank you for pointing out the implicit assumption of Time War and Post Time War Daleks. Those are the ones I was thinking of, but I hadn't noticed that I was accidentally making a statement that was meant to apply to a subset of Daleks instead apply to all Daleks.


 * No problem. Generally, the talk pages are for discussion of changes to the article at hand; general discussion can be found at The Howling. And you can sign your posts by typing four tildes, like this: ~ . That will produce something like this: —Josiah Rowe talk to me 15:40, June 19, 2012 (UTC)


 * OK, Thank you. 68.205.81.11talk to me 18:46, June 21, 2012 (UTC)

A Blinovitch discharge is an unlikely weapon. It requires 2 instances (from separate points in the timestream) of the same thing/person & there's a full discharge of the temporal energy. The problem is not that the Daleks couldn't arrange those conditions, it's that there are all kinds of easier ways to power a weapon, especially if the thing is to be as controllable & rapid-firing as the gunstick.

That, however, should not be taken as meaning the Daleks couldn't have used "timey-wimey" weapons in the Time War. They could have & probably did. The gunstick is a general-purpose weapon, though, not one developed especially for that war or for use specifically against the Time Lords. --2.96.18.176talk to me 22:50, September 4, 2012 (UTC)


 * The Daleks didn't weren't seen to develop time travel until The Chase, so in Genesis of the Daleks, The Daleks, and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the Daleks would not have had the capability to take advantage of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. As 2.96 said, it is quite likely that the Daleks used some kind of timey-wimey weapons during the Time War, but their gunstick probably just use plasma or electricity or lasers or something. Since those weapons are perfectly effective at exterminating, there is no good reason for the Daleks to start using somehing much more complicated, and which much more room for malfunctions.Icecreamdif ☎  00:27, September 5, 2012 (UTC)


 * The Daleks probably have a different name for it but Murphy's Law will hold for them, too: "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." One reason the AK47 is such a popular weapon -- far more so than many that, on paper, seem better -- is that there's very little that can go wrong with it, so it's highly reliable. Considering how embarrassing it is for a Dalek when its gunstick doesn't work (Dalek, Journey's End, &c.), reliability is going to be a high priority in its design. --89.242.79.53talk to me 15:00, September 5, 2012 (UTC)


 * Don't forget the best example of a Dalek's gunstick not working, Death to the Daleks. "A Dalek without the power to kill". That episode actually proves that even the Daleks are willing to recognize that simpler is oftentimes better, as they used bullet-guns throughout most of that episode.Icecreamdif ☎  18:33, September 5, 2012 (UTC)

I always thought the Dalek weapons emmited Radiation. That would explain how the early gunstick managed to take out any number of people caught in the immediate vicinity of the shot, and it would also explain why the new weapon causes the person who gets shot to glow bright green and reveal the skeleton underneath. 87.102.83.33talk to me 19:37, September 5, 2012 (UTC)

Icecreamdif: I had forgotten Death to the Daleks (which I really shouldn't have) & "you're quite right" (to use a Pertwee -- not Doctor -- phrase). As I recall, the Daleks were pretty quick to recognise the need to use a lower-tech type of weapon, even if they weren't greatly pleased by it.

87: "Radiation" includes an enormous variety of things, from the harmless (like the neutrinos that pass through us all, all the time) to the utterly lethal. Since (except, as Icecreamdif reminded me, in Death to the Daleks) the gunstick is a directed-energy weapon, it must fire some kind of radiation. The question is what kind? --89.242.79.32talk to me 02:33, September 6, 2012 (UTC)