Tuesday, 8 September 2026

What's Wrong With... Dalek


Let's get the Cyberman out of the way first. There is a head in Van Statten's museum. The plaque states that it was found in the London sewers in 1977, implying that it's from The Invasion. But the design is actually the one seen in Revenge of the Cybermen, with the thicker ridged "handlebars".

Once upon a time we could have ridiculed the notion of a tech businessman owning the internet and having the power to influence Presidential elections... But not anymore. 
And talking of the internet, just think of all the stuff that Dalek has absorbed. It ought to be overloaded with cute puppy and kitten videos, as well as all the naughty stuff...
It should also know all about, and have access to, things like nuclear or biological weapons systems. Is it the Daleks' intention to go round exterminating people individually, when it could simply wipe out all the humans at once with these weapons?

Henry Van Statten gets the "Metaltron" at an auction, and it is stated that it has gone through several buyers already. Surely an organisation such as UNIT, which has had dealings with Daleks and knows exactly what they are, would have noticed this and intervened.
A problem with setting the story so little ahead in time (2012) is that no-one knows what a Dalek is - despite the Battle of Canary Wharf, invading the planet in The Stolen Earth, being around during World War II, and fighting UNIT in England in the early 1970's. There's a limit to what Steven Moffat's Crack in Time can cover, without the entire programme's history collapsing completely.

The Dalek was said to have been found on the Ascension Islands - which is a single island by the way, not a group. It was capable of making someone burst into flames just by getting close to it, so Van Statten has it imprisoned in a cell which has a stock of liquid oxygen right next door - a substance which can cause other materials to self-ignite if released into the atmosphere.
Van Statten places the Doctor in the cell in order to observe via CCTV how his pet reacts to another alien - but he then turns the lights out.
It is also odd that whilst someone like Clive in Rose can know something about the Doctor, and Mickey begins blogging about him, the man who owns the internet - and who claims to be an expert on aliens - doesn't know the first thing about him.

Van Statten's museum is in Utah, and the Dalek drains all the power from the western seaboard of the United States - but not that of the state it is actually in or the one in between it and the area affected.
Van Statten might just possess a rubbish map, as five of the New England states have been merged into one, and half of Michigan is missing.
The Dalek has a gun. When it gets to the bottom of the stairs it stops and thinks for a moment before levitating - but why didn't it use that time to simply shoot the people in plain view who are taunting it from the landing above?
Later on it gets stopped by a closed vault door - despite having the firepower to blast a hole through reinforced concrete only a few minutes later. It has been seen to be able to tap into the complex's CCTV - so why not simply override the door controls?
Once upon another time, a Dalek shell was supposed to be a life-support system as well as an armoured travel machine. From this episode onwards they will be popping out of their shells with alarming frequency, as though they no longer need them to survive.
(Personally, I think the episode shows too much too soon, and would rather they had held back the appearance of the mutant for another time. They feel they have to explain everything. The plunger does this, the balls on the skirt do that, this is what's inside...).

Finally, what's the timeframe at the end? The whole complex is about to be flooded with cement, but Adam still hasn't evacuated yet. It looks like the Doctor and Rose have gone straight to the TARDIS after the destruction of the Dalek - so where did all that cement spring from if no time has passed?

No comments:

Post a Comment