Series 1 (2005)
Episode title: DalekFeaturing: Ninth Doctor
Companions: Rose Tyler
First shown: 30th April 2005
Related articles: Daleks
Guide:The TARDIS lands in Utah, 2012, after homing in on a distress signal from an underground bunker in Salt Lake City. The Doctor and Rose find themselves in the Vault of Henry van Statten, who collects alien artefacts and is seen to have, among other items, the arm of the Slitheen, the head of a Cyberman and the decayed head of a Sea Devil. The duo is intercepted by Statten’s guards but he allows them to be taken on a tour of his collection. Rose is shown round by technician Adam Mitchell, while the Doctor is taken to see Statten’s only living artefact, the Metaltron, housed in a part of the Vault called the Cage. The Doctor is horrified to discover that the Metaltron is actually a Dalek, the last Dalek to have survived the Time War. The Doctor believed all the Daleks died in the Time War, but reasons that if he, the last Time Lord survived then perhaps one last Dalek also survived. The Doctor laughs when he discovers the Dalek is weak and chained down in the Cage by Statten. With the Dalek unable to fight back, the Doctor tries to destroy it, but is stopped by Statten’s guards and forced to return to his offices.
Rose is also taken to the Cage by Adam to visit the Dalek. Rose takes pity on the creature and reaches out to it, touching its casing. The Dalek absorbs her DNA and the time energy radiation she has picked up from her travels in the TARDIS. Meanwhile the Doctor is examined as Statten realises that he is also an alien. The Dalek is then able to draw power from the whole of the South-western United States to re-energise itself and breaks free from its bonds. The Dalek uses the Internet to learn that it is the last of the Dalek race, and escapes from the Cage, exterminating guards as it goes. The Dalek communicates with the Doctor, explaining how it regenerated. But the Doctor states that as the last Dalek, there is no command structure for it to receive orders from, making it useless and suggests that it kills itself to remove the Daleks from the universe once and for all. The Dalek refuses, stating that it will follow its primary objective of exterminating all non-Dalek life forms. The Doctor becomes aggressive and orders it to kill itself, to which the Dalek replies that the Doctor would make a good Dalek before cutting communications.
Rose becomes trapped in the Vault as Statten seals it off, infuriating the Doctor as the Dalek nears closer to Rose. But because the Dalek also absorbed Rose’s DNA, it shows sympathy for her and spares her life, demanding its release in return for her life. The Doctor feels compelled to allow the Dalek to be released, where it begins to head for Statten’s office to exterminate its captor. Rose reasons with it, finding out that what it really wants is freedom, so the two head to the highest point of the facility where the Dalek blows a hole in the roof, allowing sunlight to fall onto its casing. The Dalek opens its casing to reveal the mutant inside and experiences the sunlight directly. The Doctor arrives with an alien gun ready to destroy the Dalek but Rose stops him, showing that the Dalek isn’t the same as the Doctor thinks. The Dalek, ashamed at what he has become, asks Rose to order its destruction, which she does and the Dalek annihilates itself. At the end of the episode, Statten is arrested and ordered to have his mind wiped and the Vault is to be filled in with cement, sealing off the alien artefacts. The Doctor tells Rose that he now wins the Time War, being the last survivor. Rose asks if it was possible for any other Time Lord to survive, but the Doctor says that he would be able to feel them if they did. Adam rushes in to tell the duo that the Vault is being filled in so they have to leave, so the Doctor and Rose step into the TARDIS, where Adam is also then invited by Rose, much to his bewilderment.