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Daleks back for Doctor Who 50th: The 10 best Dalek stories

Doctor Who: The 10 best Dalek stories
The Daleks are set to return later this year in the 50th anniversary special (Picture: PA)

It didn’t take a genius to work out that the Daleks would be back for the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who, as announced by the BBC on Twitter.

It’s practically their 50th birthday too, first appearing in the series’ second storyline known simply as The Daleks in December 1963.

Daleks return in Doctor Who anniversary episode

Fast-forward 50 years and they’ll appear alongside unlikely villainous bed-fellows, the Zygons, in November’s feature length episode – which will also star the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant, and Matt Smith.

Let’s hope the anniversary special can live up to our pick of the best Dalek storylines. Here, we countdown our favourites.

10. Death to the Daleks

The third Doctor lands on a planet where the Daleks have lost the ability to fire – ‘total power failure’. Doesn’t make them any less deadly though. It’s also fan favourite companion Sarah Jane Smith’s first encounter with the eponymous villains.

9. The Dalek Invasion of Earth

We lose Susan at the end of this storyline when the Doctor, her own grandfather, double locks the TARDIS doors and leaves her on Earth. Meh! If only I had the clip of the amazing, semi-crazed, much-missed Barbara steamrollering a Dalek in a vintage truck. Perfection.

8. Revelation of the Daleks

There was so much stacked against Colin Baker’s tenure as the Doctor but two-parter Revelation of The Daleks proved what a fantastic Time Lord he could be. Despite some stinking casting (Alexei Sayle as a DJ?) this story set on a funeral home planet with Dalek creator Davros harvesting dead bodies to reinvigorate his army is chilling.

7. Dalek

Daleks with feelings? You bet. Whatever you think about the sympathetic ending, in this first episode of the re-booted series to feature the classic villains, it proved just how deadly one solitary Dalek could be. And neatly just how deadly one solitary Time Lord could be too.

6. Remembrance of the Daleks

The seventh Doctor’s sidekick Ace reminded us what we had been missing since the days of Sarah Jane Smith and ‘savage’ Leela when she took on a Dalek with a baseball bat and then jumped through a window. Er, ace! Add to that the legendary special weapons Dalek – the first time fans had seen a totally different Dalek design.

5. Asylum of the Daleks

‘A tsunami of insane Daleks’ declares the Doctor. What’s not to like about that? The Time Lord and the Ponds visit a planet which is basically a slag heap for Daleks who have gone cray cray x 100. We see Skaro, we see human/Dalek hybrids and we see future companion Clara/Oswyn for the first time (too tragic). Best bit? A delirious Amy Pond who halluncinates and imagines a bunch of madder than mad Daleks are actually guests at the best party ever!

4. Evil of the Daleks

Starts off with the TARDIS being stolen at Heathrow airport, visits the Victorian era then ends up on Skaro with a Dalek civil war about to break out. Not bad for a largely studio bound series from the 60s.

3. The Parting of the Ways

The ninth Doctor’s regeneration at the climax of this Dalek storyline, which also featured a supersized Dalek emperor, underlined exactly why they’re his arch-enemy. Maybe Rose got rid of the Daleks too easily but the emotional goodbye with Eccleston’s Doctor more than made up for any deficits.

2. The Daleks

The Daleks’ first appearance in 1963. Who knew sink plungers could be so terrifying?

1. Genesis of the Daleks

Our favourite couldn’t have been any other storyline. Whether you saw it live when it was originally broadcast in 1975, devoured the Target novelisation in one go (remember when it wasn’t so easy to get hold of Who episodes?) or, better still, were lucky enough to have it on vinyl Genesis is the starting point. Tom Baker is at the top of his game as the fourth Doctor tussling with an ethical dilemma – should he destroy the Daleks just as they’ve been invented by evil scientist Davros? Big themes for a family show are debated in Baker’s ‘Have I the right?’ speech and the gruesome backstory of how the Daleks came to be puts paid to any of that pepperpot villain nonsense. Tense, terrifying… nothing less than terrific.

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