'Dalek' Story Code 1.6 by Rob Sherman

“If the Dalek gets out it’ll murder every living creature.” – The Doctor

When the TARDIS is drawn off course by a distress signal, it materialises in the year 2012 inside a museum filled with alien artefacts, located half a mile under the desert plains of Utah. As the Doctor and Rose examine the display cabinets - which contain such items as a Slitheen hand and the head of a Cyberman - the Doctor inadvertently sets off an alarm; the two time travellers are immediately arrested by armed guards and brought before the collection’s owner, the wealthy and arrogant businessman Henry van Statten. After a clash of personalities, van Statten decides to show the Doctor his prize exhibit: a living alien life form that he calls a “Metaltron”. However, when the Doctor enters the secure room containing the creature, he is terrified to discover that it is in fact a Dalek, badly damaged and chained to the floor. As van Statten and his assistant, Goddard, look on, the Dalek attempts to kill its old enemy, but its power cells are depleted, and its gun arm is ineffective. The Doctor’s terror quickly turns to glee, and he gloatingly reveals that it was he who destroyed the entire Dalek race after the metal creatures wiped out the Time Lords in the Time War. Furious that he and the Dalek share a bond by being the last of their races, the Doctor attempts to kill his adversary, but is stopped by van Statten; when Goddard informs the Doctor that the Dalek crash-landed on the Ascension Islands, the Doctor surmises that the creature must have somehow fallen through time. Meanwhile, van Statten’s assistant, Adam, shows Rose the workshop where he renovates the alien artefacts he secures for his boss. Realising that the Doctor is also an alien, van Statten carries out a brutal examination to determine the Time unique physiognomy; much to the Doctor’s disgust, the collector then reveals that he uses the extraterrestrial technology he has accumulated to make his fortune; he stubbornly ignores the Time Lord’s warnings of the destructive nature of the Dalek, refusing to let his prize possession be damaged in any way. Rose is appalled to see the torture that van Statten’s employee, Simmons is subjecting the Dalek to, and she and Adam visit the creature to help; however, when Rose touches the Dalek’s casing, the alien extrapolates her DNA and uses its time-travelling properties to re-energise itself. After the Dalek breaks free of its chains, kills Simmons, and then opens the secure door to its chamber, the guards attempt to shoot the creature, but their weapons are completely ineffective. The Dalek taps into the base’s power systems, draining its energy and that of the entire West Coast of America, absorbing all data on the Internet at the same time. As Rose and Adam head for the surface level where the Doctor and van Statten are located, the Dalek follows them, slaughtering everyone in its path – even stairs prove no hindrance, as the creature is able to levitate into the air. van Statten re-routes the base’s power into its blast doors, enabling each section of the base to be locked down; Adam is able to slip under the last bulkhead, but to the Doctor’s horror, Rose is too late, and is locked in with the Dalek. However, the creature finds that it now shares an affinity with the young girl, and is unable to kill her; instead it uses her as a hostage, and forces the Doctor to open the blast door and allow it access to the base’s upper levels. While Adam shows the Doctor his collection of alien weaponry, the Dalek makes its way to the surface level, where it shoots a hole in the ceiling and lets in a shaft of sunlight; wrestling with its new-found emotions, the Dalek then opens its casing, allowing its withered physical form to bask in the sun’s rays. The Doctor arrives with a gun and prepares to kill the Dalek, but Rose’s compassion makes him realise that the creature is now changing into something new, and is no longer the killer he believed it to be. Shocked that he almost became a killing machine himself, the Doctor backs down; the Dalek then begs Rose to give it the order to kill itself. Knowing that she really has no choice, Rose reluctantly instructs the creature to self destruct, and as she and the Doctor look on, the Dalek uses its in-built explosives to atomise itself. Goddard instructs the surviving guards to apprehend van Statten, so that the collector can be mind-wiped and left homeless as retribution for his selfish actions. A short while later, as the Doctor and Rose prepare to leave, Adam informs them that van Statten has escaped, and that the base is about to be completely filled in with cement. Rose asks the Doctor if Adam can travel with them, and so the young man joins the crew of the TARDIS…

Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Steven Beckingham (Polkowski), Corey Johnson (Henry van Statten), Anna-Louise Plowman (Diana Goddard), Bruno Langley (Adam Mitchell), Nigel Whitmey (Simmons), John Schwab (Bywater), Jana Carpenter (De Maggio), Joe Montana (Commander), Barnaby Edwards (Dalek Operator), Nicholas Briggs (Dalek Voices)

Directed by Joe Ahearne
Produced by Phil Collinson
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young
A BBC Wales production

TX:
30th April 2005 @ 7.00 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Ninth Doctor and Rose, and introducing Adam

*Working titles: 'Return of the Daleks' and 'Creature of Lies'

*Bad Wolf sightings: van Statten’s helicopter is designated Bad Wolf One. On the BBC’s fake Geocomtex website, there is a list of the company’s products and services, and one of these is “Node Stabilised (Lupus and Nocens variants)” - ‘lupus’ is Latin for ‘wolf’, while ‘nocens’ means ‘harmful’ or ‘injurious’ – or ‘bad’. On the support section of the site, someone asks: "I've got a brand new RH-390 S12. The pins aren't properly set." The reply says "Whoops! Our mistake. There was a transposition when the manual was printed. The correct sequence is: -... .- -.. .-- --- .-.. ..-." which is morse code for "bad wolf" (although it originally said "TWATS!" - someone must have been told off...) Finally, the company's toll free number is 555-236-801, the last seven digits can be seen several times in the episode 'Father's Day'. On the BBC's 'Who is Doctor Who' website, there is an interview with Van Statten, and a competition entitled 'Why I want to meet an alien'; one of the entrants, 'Gothy' states "I want to know if there is an alien that looks a bit, well....wolflike."

*A prequel to 'Dalek' was specially created as an introduction to #TheMetaltron, the worldwide tweetalong of the episode on Thursday 30th April 2020, the 15th anniversary of its first broadcast. Written and directed by Andrew Ireland, produced by Emily Cook and starring Leo Flanagan as Sven, the three-minute-video was home-produced remotely during the 'lockdown' period of the COVID-19 outbreak. The tagline was: 'There's been a new arrival at Henry van Statten's museum...'