View source for Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E03 Victory of the Daleks

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{{quote|''BEHOLD, THE RESTORATION OF THE DALEKS! THE RESURRECTION OF THE MASTER RACE!''|'''The last three Time War Daleks'''}}

{{quote|'''Doctor''': Call 'em what you like - the Daleks are death.
'''Churchill''': Yes, Doctor! Death to our enemies! Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich!
'''Doctor''': Yes, Winston, and death to everyone else too. }}

The Doctor and Amy arrive at [[The War Room]] under [[The Home Front|a Blitz-torn London]] at the behest of Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] (albeit one month after Churchill had called the Doctor). As a Luftwaffe squadron approaches London, Churchill takes the Doctor and Amy to the roof to meet Dr. Bracewell, a Scottish scientist who has invented a secret weapon called an "Ironside". These Ironsides obliterate the Nazi fighters and the Doctor recognises the weaponry used. He demands to be shown the Ironsides, which are revealed to be Daleks, dressed in tank-green paint and claiming to serve the British war effort. Bracewell claims to have invented them, along with many other technologies far beyond the capabilities of [[World War II]]-era Britain (or any country for that matter). The Doctor becomes more and more agitated by the Daleks' claims of servitude and lashes out at them, calling them by name. [[Unwitting Pawn|Which is exactly what they wanted.]]

High above, hidden behind the Moon, a battered Dalek saucer which somehow managed to escape [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E13 Journeys End|the Tenth Doctor clone's genocide]] and fall back in time records the Doctor's recognisance of the Daleks, activating a device called the Progenitor Device. The Daleks on Earth transmat back to their ship, but not before [[Robotic Reveal|revealing Bracewell as an android created by them.]] The Doctor gives chase, leaving Amy on Earth. He catches up with the last three surviving Daleks and threatens to blow up their ship with a TARDIS self-destruct remote. The Daleks respond by turning on all the lights in London, making the city a nice, bright target for the German air force. The Daleks reveal that the Progenitor Device contains original Dalek DNA to recreate the Dalek race but due to [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E12 The Stolen Earth|the remaining Daleks being born out of Davros' cells]], their DNA was not recognised by the machine. [[Batman Gambit|Thus they needed the Doctor's testimony that they were Daleks in order for the machine to work.]] On Earth, Churchill and Amy stop [[Driven to Suicide|a grieving Bracewell from committing suicide]] and get to work on shutting down the Daleks' radio-control dish in order to darken London.

The Progenitor Device opens and churns out [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|five new, brightly-coloured Daleks]], who promptly decide to [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|exterminate their inferior predecessors.]]<ref>Thus symbolically scrapping the [[Russell T. Davies]] Dalek props as new [[Steven Moffat]] props roll in.</ref> Said inferior predecessors response to this? "We're ready."

The new Daleks attempt to exterminate the Doctor ([[Crowning Moment of Funny|discovering the self-destruct button to be only a Jammie Dodger]]), but are stopped as [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|three space-worthy, laser-spitting Spitfires]] attack and destroy the radio dish, shutting off the London lights. The Doctor manages to escape to the TARDIS and orders the last remaining upgraded Spitfire to take out the Dalek ship, but is stopped by the Daleks, who reveal that Bracewell is a bomb powered by a contained wormhole. [[Sadistic Choice|The Daleks threaten to destroy the Earth unless they go free]]. The Doctor has no choice but to order the Spitfire to call off the attack, and speeds back to Earth anticipating that [[Batman Gambit|the Daleks are going to activate the bomb the moment they are out of danger anyway]]. There, the Doctor and Amy get Bracewell to [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|recognize his own humanity]], cutting off the Daleks' control over him and deactivating the bomb. [[Joker Immunity|The Daleks time-travel back to the future]] as the Doctor angsts over losing to his greatest enemy again, a funk shortly ended by Amy's good cheer. The Doctor destroys all alien tech (much to Churchill's displeasure) and leaves, but not before allowing Bracewell to live out a full human life. Before departing, the Doctor and Amy have a chat about how Amy [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E12 The Stolen Earth|should remember the Daleks]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E13 Journeys End|from their invasion on Earth]], but she doesn't. This disturbs the Doctor greatly, meaning something is wrong with the flow of time. The travellers depart, with another Crack revealing itself in the wall behind the TARDIS...

See also "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S4/E03 The Power of the Daleks|The Power of the Daleks]]", which has a similar plot.
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== Tropes ==

* [[Ace Pilot]]: Danny Boy. {{small-caps|[[Recycled in Space|In space!]]}}.
* [[Affectionate Pickpocket]]: Attempted by ''Churchill'' on ''the Doctor'' (in order to get the TARDIS key). Amy calls him on it.
* [[Amnesia Danger]]: Amy, [[Doctor Who/Recap/S31/E05 Flesh and Stone|owing to]] [[Arc Words|the cracks in the wall]]...
* [[Badass Boast]]: Subverted with; "I defeated you time and time again, I defeated you. [[Doctor Who/Recap/S28/E13 Doomsday|I sent you back to the Void]], [[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E13 Journeys End|I saved the whole of reality from you]]. I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!" The speech itself would be pretty awesome, but [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|the effects of the last line end up being anything but badass for the Doctor.]]
* [[The Bad Guy Wins]]: The Daleks are almost completely triumphant. <s> The Doctor</s> Amy does manage to get London's lights turned off, and does manage to disarm Bracewell, but the Daleks [[Xanatos Gambit|only enacted those scenarios in the first place to get him off their ship.]] Which worked perfectly. And he was only there in the first place because they wanted him to be.
* [[Batman Gambit]]: Why are the Daleks posing as robots created by a human in World War II? Why, for no other reason than to create a situation where the Doctor will come to investigate and end up saying "You are the Daleks!" in a loud, clear voice.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: The Doctor fails to prevent the five new Daleks from escaping to rebuild the Dalek race, but <s>he</s> Amy manages to save Earth and allow Bracewell the chance to have a normal life free from Dalek control.
* [[Civilian Villain]]
* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: The new Daleks - White Daleks are Supremes, Reds are Soldiers, Blues are Strategists, Oranges are Scientists and Yellows are Eternals. [[Shrug of God|Probably.]]
* [[Call Back]] / [[Continuity Nod]]:
** The concept of Daleks pretending to be servants goes all the way to the Second Doctor's seasons in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S4/E03 The Power of the Daleks|The Power of the Daleks]]".
*** Specifically the line "I AM YOUR SOL-DIER" is a direct [[Shout-Out]] to the Dalek's sycophantic "I AM YOUR SER-VANT" in that episode.
** The Progenitor Device itself was first introduced in The Power of The Daleks, as another one had crashed on Vulcan. This episode clarifies its intended purpose.
** The Doctor declares that this encounter will be [[Doctor Who/Recap/S4/E09 The Evil of the Daleks|"the final end" for the Daleks]].
** ''"The progenitor has fulfilled our new [[Doctor Who/Recap/S17/E01 Destiny of the Daleks|destiny]]. Behold, the restoration of the Daleks. The [[Doctor Who/Recap/S21/E04 Resurrection of the Daleks|resurrection]] of the master race."''
** Hmmm, the Doctor conversing with a Dalek in black and white? That seems... familiar, somehow.
** The Doctor beats a Dalek with a long wrench, comparable in length [[Doctor Who/Recap/S25/E01 Remembrance of the Daleks|to a baseball bat]].
** A Dalek using its toilet plunger to carry a tray full of nibbles for people? Surely this has never happened befo- oh wait, they did it in their [[Doctor Who/Recap/S1/E02 The Daleks|very first episode]].
* [[Cliffhanger Copout]]: Sort of; the end of "The Beast Below" has Churchill urgently calling the Doctor while a Dalek looms omniously in front of him, with the suggestion that he's in fairly immediate danger. The resolution? Apparently, that call was months ago, and Churchill's gotten used to having the 'Ironsides' around.
* [[Cool Plane]]: Spitfires <small>IN SPACE!</small> '''<small>WITH LASERS!</small>'''
** [[Cool vs. Awesome]]: '''''<small>AGAINST A DALEK SAUCER!</small>'''''
* [[Comically Missing the Point]]: A more heartwarming example than usual; when the Doctor and Amy go to say goodbye to Bracewell, they find him in his lab, preparing to [[Face Death with Dignity]] as he assumes that the Doctor and Amy are planning to deactivate him as a potential threat to the timeline. The Doctor, rather surprised (since they were actually just popping along to say cheerio before leaving), agrees but says that he has to go and do some stuff first, and it'll probably take him a while, hint hint. It takes Bracewell rather longer than it probably should to realize that the Doctor ''isn't going to be coming back''.
* [[Creator Cameo]]: Episode writer [[Mark Gatiss]] as [http://www.sfx.co.uk/2010/04/11/mark-gatiss-on-victory-of-the-daleks/ the Spitfire pilot, uncredited.]
* [[Death Seeker]]: Of a sort. The last three [[Russell T. Davies]]-era Daleks aren't looking to die per se, but they clearly realize that the resurrection of the pure Daleks would end in their extermination.
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: And lots of it.
* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: The Supreme Dalek has a much deeper voice than the others.
* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: The Daleks have an important victory here.
* [[Genius Bonus]]: Dr Bracewell is a sort of [[wikipedia:Bracewell probe|Bracewell Probe]]
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: It's [[Law and Order UK|George Castle]]! And [[Dune|Baron Harkonnen]]!?!
* [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: Look at the ''[[Power Rangers]]'' Dalek jokes above on this page. Now consider the ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'' episode "Green Courage", in which the space station Terra Venture passes through a meteoroid field [http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/factorialinfinity/prlggallifrey.jpg at coordinates] which should ring a bell with classic ''Who'' fans: those of Gallifrey as stated in "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S13/E03 Pyramids of Mars|Pyramids of Mars]]"...
** Furthermore, the three-part finale of ''Lost Galaxy'' is named "Journey's End" and of course, ''our'' "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E13 Journeys End|Journey's End]]" just happens to involve Daleks.
* [[Historical Domain Character]] : [[Winston Churchill]].
* [[Just Plane Wrong]]: The Spitfires used in the episode were Mk. IX's, which were introduced in 1942. They should have been Mk. I's or II's, which flew in the Battle of Britain. Then again, they were <small>IN SPACE!</small>
** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Maybe they were prototypes, and thusly incomplete and easier to modify?
*** Alas, no. Not quite. Although to be fair, the fact that they've been upgraded for space combat makes this relatively minor inconsistency handwavable.
** [[Fridge Brilliance]]: Considering Bracewell was inventing high-tech gizmos left right and centre, isn't it at least feasible that some of the other work he did somehow accelerated the development of Spitfires and made them arrive earlier than they did in our universe?
* [[I Did What I Had to Do|I'll Do What I Have to Do]]: Churchill repeatedly brushes off the Doctor's warnings with this.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Forcing all the lights in London to turn on at the height of the Blitz? That's an impressively dickish move, even for the Daleks.
* [[Kill'Em All]]: Subverted, surprisingly for a Dalek episode, this has a relatively low explicit body-count (two soldiers, about 12 planes shot down, and 3 Daleks). Compared to the decimation of Torchwood One, this is very low.
* [[Large Ham]] : [[Winston Churchill]] again.
* [[Light Is Not Good]] - Don't be fooled by the bright, shiny new paint jobs. The Daleks are still total bastards.
* [[Love Imbues Life]]: Bracewell.
* [[Metaphorgotten]]: "There isn't a sincere bone in your body. ...[[Starfish Aliens|There isn't a]] ''[[Starfish Aliens|bone]]'' [[Starfish Aliens|in your body.]]"
* [[My Greatest Failure]]: The Doctor considers his inability to stop the Daleks to be his, lampshading the ridiculous number of ways in which they always come back, but in a cruel way. Doesn't help that he just let five escape with a Dalek creating machine.
* [[Mythology Gag]]: The new Dalek designs were inspired by those of the Peter Cushing movies (the technicolouring in particular).
** One of the Spitfire pilots has the call sign "Jubilee". Part of "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S27/E06 Dalek|Dalek]]", the first Dalek story of the new series, was inspired by the [[Big Finish]] story ''Jubilee''.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]:
{{quote|'''The Doctor:''' "I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!"
'''Dalek:''' "CORRECT." }}
** Doubles as an [[Oh Crap]].
* [[Noodle Incident]]: It's never revealed how Churchill and the Doctor met or became friends, but they appear to have a friendly rivalry/RunningGag going regarding Churchill's attempts to get the TARDIS key from the Doctor.
** Unless you factor in the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]], in which case Churchill was acquainted with the Sixth Doctor in the novels "Players" and "The Shadow in the Glass".
* [[Old School Dogfighting]]: Did we mention Spitfires <small>IN SPACE!</small>?
* [[The Power of Love]]:  {{spoiler|It's Bracewell's memory of the woman he loved that enables him to break free of Dalek control and assert his humanity.}}
* [[Punctuated Pounding]]: While the Doctor beats on one of the Daleks with a giant wrench.
{{quote|'''The Doctor:''' [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|"YOU! ARE! MY! ENEMY!"]]}}
* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: One reason for the Dalek redesign was that the RTD Dalek props were built with [[Billie Piper]]'s height in mind, so the new Daleks were built to match [[Matt Smith]]'s height. [[Karen Gillan]] even says in the Confidential episode that they're taller than her.
* [[Reality Subtext]]: The new Daleks exterminating the last three RTD Daleks in existence. Old props out, new props in.
* [[Robotic Reveal]]: Bracewell getting his hand shot off.
* [[Rule of Cool]]: '''''Spitfires in space.'''''
** The names of the new Daleks. Originally, Moffat and Gatiss didn't know which Dalek had what name, but dammit they sounded awesome.
* [[Sadistic Choice]]: [[Heroes (TV series)|Save the Daleks, save the world.]] [[Batman Gambit|Naturally, after being saved]], the Daleks try to detonate their [[Earthshattering Kaboom|bomb]] anyway.
* [[Schizo-Tech]]: Remote surveillance of the Dalek ship displayed on a black-and-white monitor, and obviously, 1941 Spitfires that fly {{small-caps|in SPACE!}}
* [[Shout-Out]]: "Broadsword Calling Danny Boy", a reference to ''[[Where Eagles Dare]]''.
** The Doc says Bracewell's memories and personality was uploaded to a [[Isaac Asimov|positronic]] [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|brain]]. Can't be a very good one, though, seeing as the man designs [["Three Laws"-Compliant|war machines]].
** That whole Spitfires-in-space scene came across more than a little ''[[Star Wars]]'' to some reviewers...
*** In particular, a scene that was in turn inspired by the movie [[The Dam Busters]]
** Also on ''[[Star Wars]]'', [[Robotic Reveal]] by loss of a hand, later replaced with a [[Metropolis|classic]] [[Red Right Hand]]. Which makes approximately [[Running Gag|seven references]] in the first three episodes of the season.
** Not to mention the climactic scene of ''[[Independence Day]]'', in which a lone human aircraft takes on a large alien spaceship.
** "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil."
*** Amy, near the end of the episode, says to the Doctor: "So you have enemies?" This is part of a famous Churchill quote: "So, you have enemies? Good. That means you stood up for something once in your life."
** The new Dalek design is one big shout out to the old Doctor Who movies starring Peter Cushing, according to [[Word of God]].
* [[Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb]]: Subverted. Bracewell turns out to be a bomb, but the Doctor and Amy encourage his burgeoning humanity to deactivate the bomb... somehow.
* [[Tomato in the Mirror]]: The scientist, Bracewell, who didn't make the Daleks... the Daleks made him, an android. Another revelation exposes Bracewell to also be a bomb, which the Daleks threaten to detonate (and try anyway) to make the Doctor return to Earth. Turns out they [[Ridiculously-Human Robots|made him too]] ''[[Ridiculously-Human Robots|well]]''; his self-awareness and genuine emotions turn out to be the key to stopping them from destroying the planet.
* [[Trailers Always Spoil]] with a twist: [[Radio Times]] [[Doctor Who/Recap/S29/E04 Daleks in Manhattan|spoils new Daleks on a cover again.]] Unlike "Daleks in Manhattan" though, the new Daleks' cover appearance was explained away as the cover being themed around the 2010 British Elections<ref>With the red, blue and yellow Daleks representing the three main parties; the orange and white ones understandably do not appear on it.</ref> rather than them being an important development in the episode.
** Played straighter in a BBC news report which featured behind the scenes footage of the filming of the scene where the new Daleks are revealed the day before the episode actually aired.
* [["V" Sign]]: It's a Winston Churchill episode... Although it's actually done by the Doctor, and he seems to use it to wave at people.
* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: The Doctor falls for the Dalek plan twice throughout the entire episode.
* [[The War Room]]: The Cabinet War Rooms really existed during the [[Second World War]], although they weren't used for fighter control (an old emergency bunker in Swansea was used for filming). They're open to the public and are pretty awesome anyway.
* [[Wearing a Flag on Your Head]]: Two of the last three RTD Daleks have them in place of their usual identity tags.
* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]
* [[Weirdness Censor]]: Subverted; the Doctor quickly asks Amy to fill Churchill in about the Daleks, only to find she has no memory of them or the whole "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S30/E12 The Stolen Earth|planets in the sky]]" incident. He's very disturbed by this, and at the end of the episode declares that they need to find out what's wrong with her memory.
* [[Wrong Genre Savvy]]: Amy assumes that the bomb will contain a [[Wire Dilemma]], but her panicked babble just confuses the Doctor.
** Bracewell assumes the Doctor is there to deactivate him at the end. It takes him a while to catch on to the Doctor's mercy.
* [[The X of Y]]

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