Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks (S04E030)

; Date: Sat Oct 04 2008

Tags: Doctor Who

Hey, who's that guy and what has he done with the Doctor? That's what Ben and Polly are asking themselves having witnessed the first Regeneration. It's nigh on impossible for the Doctors face to change like that, so it has to be somebody else, some usurper. But they quickly discover it really is the Doctor, somehow changed form, as they remember his words just before about his body being worn out. In the meantime they've landed on a strange planet, which they learn is Vulcan. The TARDIS has landed them in the midst of "mercury swamps". Pretty soon the Doctor witnesses a man be murdered, and he has a moment to search the man and retrieve a badge which declares him to be The Inspector and that the bearer is afforded all access. This rank will prove useful in the adventure to come.

They are found and brought to a colony of Humans. They've just discovered a capsule and inside is a Dalek. These humans do not understand the danger of the Daleks, and they proceed to wake it up. To the great alarum of the Doctor. Over the course of this adventure the Dalek, and soon Daleks, pretend to be servants, but very demanding servants. Their demands grow to include resources the Daleks use to build more Daleks. An added complication is some of the humans are plotting a rebellion, and hope to use the Daleks as soldiers in their rebellion. Foolish humans.

Eventually they commit the rebellion and the Daleks start killing all the humans. Of course their plan is, as always, to EXTERMINATE everything other than themselves. But the Doctor pulls some kind of magic trick on the power supply control panels which feeds them incorrect power or too much power or something and they start spinning and screaming and blowing up. Yay, everybody's saved!

A detail about the Daleks is explained, their use of 'Static Electricity'. This power source is mentioned in other episodes.

About the Author(s)

(davidherron.com) David Herron : David Herron is a writer and software engineer focusing on the wise use of technology. He is especially interested in clean energy technologies like solar power, wind power, and electric cars. David worked for nearly 30 years in Silicon Valley on software ranging from electronic mail systems, to video streaming, to the Java programming language, and has published several books on Node.js programming and electric vehicles.