Series 1, Episode 6 | First broadcast: 30 April 2005 | Writer: Robert Shearman | Director: Joe Ahearne
Cast
- Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor
- Billie Piper as Rose Tyler
- Corey Johnson as Henry van Statten
- Bruno Langley as Adam Mitchell
- Anna-Louise Plowman as Diana Goddard
- Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Dalek
Summary
Set in an underground bunker in Utah in the year 2012, the Doctor and Rose encounter the private collection of Henry van Statten, a billionaire who hoards alien artifacts, including a single, seemingly inert Dalek, a creature the Doctor believes to be the last survivor of a species he thought he had wiped out in the Time War. When the Dalek is tortured and absorbs some of Rose’s DNA, it breaks free of its restraints, gaining new capabilities and going on a rampage through the facility. The Doctor’s genocidal fury at seeing his oldest enemy alive forces Rose to confront a darker side of him, while the Dalek itself, altered by contact with Rose, begins to question its own identity and purpose before choosing to destroy itself rather than continue killing.
Interesting Facts
- This episode marks the first appearance of a Dalek in the revived series and was pivotal in reintroducing the show’s most iconic monster to a new generation.
- Writer Robert Shearman adapted the story from his own Big Finish audio drama “Jubilee,” reworking it substantially for television.
- Bruno Langley’s Adam Mitchell is introduced here as a new companion, the first character to join the TARDIS crew alongside Rose in the revived series.
- The episode was widely praised for humanizing the Dalek and is frequently cited by fans and critics as one of the best episodes of Series 1.
- Because the BBC did not yet have full rights to use multiple Daleks together at the time of filming, the story was deliberately written around a single, isolated Dalek.
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