page_title: Dalek (Doctor Who episode)
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Dalek (Doctor Who episode) / Plot
caption_attribution_description: 260506-033 Doctor Who Experience
context_page_description: "Dalek" is the sixth episode of the revived first series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 April 2005. This episode is the first appearance of the Daleks in the 21st-century revival of Doctor Who; it also marks the first appearance of Bruno Langley as companion Adam Mitchell.
  The episode is set in Utah in the year 2012, in the underground bunker owned by Henry van Statten, a rich collector of alien artefacts. In the episode, the alien time traveller the Ninth Doctor and his travelling companion Rose Tyler encounter the bunker's only living exhibit: a Dalek, which breaks loose and proceeds to start killing everyone in the bunker after repairing itself.
context_section_description: The Ninth Doctor and Rose are drawn by a distress signal to a massive bunker beneath Utah in 2012, filled with alien artefacts collected by the bunker's owner, Henry van Statten. Rose is offered a tour of the facility by Adam Mitchell, a man who buys and catalogues artefacts for van Statten. Van Statten takes the Doctor to show him a living alien being, which the Doctor recognises as a Dalek, a race thought to have been wiped out in the Time War. The Dalek is very weak and unable to break its bonds, but when the Doctor attempts to destroy it, van Statten orders his guards to restrain the Doctor and return him to his offices. There, van Statten has the Doctor secured, noting that not only does he collect aliens, but also tortures them to gain information, and proceeds to invasively and violently study the Doctor's body to learn more about his physiology.
  Meanwhile, Adam has taken Rose to the Dalek. Rose takes pity on the weakened creature and touches its casing; the Dalek promptly absorbs her DNA and the remnants of time energy she has from travelling in time, and is able to re-energise itself. It escapes its bonds, kills several guards, and connects to the Internet where it learns of the fate of the Daleks and realises it is the last surviving member of its race. With no other purpose, it proceeds to target and exterminate all non-Dalek life forms. Van Statten is forced to release the Doctor to help stop the Dalek, but the Dalek refuses to cooperate, and continues killing all those left in the Vault.
  The Dalek tries to kill Rose but it cannot, having found compassion embedded in itself from Rose's DNA. The Dalek is urged to kill van Statten, but Rose instead convinces it to spare his life. The Doctor arrives and prepares to kill the Dalek but Rose stops him, convincing him that the Dalek has developed emotions. However, the Dalek is unable to cope with these emotions, and, now aware of the hopelessness of its situation, it asks Rose to order its own self-destruction. Rose agrees, and the Dalek implodes.
  Van Statten's assistant Goddard takes over the bunker, planning to wipe van Statten's memories and to fill the bunker with cement. Rose offers Adam the chance to travel with her and the Doctor since he will have no job after this.
caption: The Dalek's open casing, as shown at the Doctor Who Experience
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