Victory of the Daleks

Victory of the Daleks is the third episode of Series Five. It marks the re-appearance of the Daleks and the Eleventh Doctor's first encounter with them.

Synopsis
The Doctor and Amy are called to London during World War II by an old friend of the Doctor: Winston Churchill. To the Doctor's horror he finds the Daleks posing as a manmade "secret weapon" that Churchill calls "ironsides" and hopes will win him the war.

Plot
The TARDIS materializes in the Cabinet war rooms during World War II, in response to Winston Churchill's call for help at the end of The Beast Below. The Doctor is greeted by the Prime Minister, who the Doctor recounts past experiences with, revealing to Amy that they are friends. They soon learn that they have arrived one month after Churchill called, due to the new TARDIS still being rather innaccurate. When a Luftwaffe squadron approaches London, Churchill takes the Doctor and Amy to the roof in order to show them his latest weapon. As the squadron of planes comes into view over Blitz-torn London, they are shot down by energy weapons with amazing precision by the "Ironsides". Professor Edwin Bracewell, the man in charge of the "Ironside" project, reveals at the Doctor's request a camouflaged, Union Flag-wearing and obedient Dalek.

Although the Doctor says they are alien, the Professor insists that he invented the "Ironsides", and that they are docile, offering to help their human colleagues and serving them cups of tea. Churchill defends them, thinking of the victories he could have. The Doctor tries to get Amy to tell Churchill about how the Daleks invaded Earth, but Amy has no recollection of any planets in the sky or the Dalek invasion, with no reason why she would have missed them.

The Doctor, intent on proving the Daleks' evil, goes to the Professor, their "creator". The Doctor asks Professor Bracewell how he came up with the idea for the Daleks. To answer this the Professor shows the Doctor several other highly advanced inventions he came up with. When the Daleks and Churchill enter the room, the Doctor repeatedly strikes a Dalek with a large, heavy wrench, trying to make it react. He tells them how he has defeated them, how he is their greatest enemy, and eventually that "I am the Doctor, and you are the Daleks!", before kicking the Dalek across the room. The Dalek recovers and reverts to its true personality, and revealing its true identity. The other Dalek then replays what the Doctor said, before transmitting the "testimony" to the Dalek ship, behind the moon. As two soldiers run in to stop the no-longer-obedient Daleks, they are exterminated. The Professor yells at them to stop, as "I created you!". One of the Daleks blasts his hand, leaving only exposed wiring, revealing Bracewell to be an android. It retorts "No, we created you!" and then teleports away with the others.

The Doctor runs to the TARDIS, telling Amy to stay behind as it is too dangerous. He then materializes in the Dalek ship. The Doctor pretends to be brandishing a TARDIS self-destruct control (a Jammy Dodger biscuit), so the the Daleks do not exterminate him. The Daleks reveal that one ship survived the destruction of the Dalek race during the War in the Medusa Cascade, and that it went after the last remaining Progenitor device, a genetic archive containing pure Dalek DNA. The Doctor figures out that they built Professor Bracewell because the Progenitor Device did not recognize them as Dalek (as they were created from the DNA of Davros). If the Daleks became part of the army, Winston Churchill would lure the Doctor in, and the Doctor would confirm them as Daleks. The Progenitor accepted this as proof, because the Doctor is the Daleks' greatest enemy.

The Daleks then tell the Doctor to leave, or they will destroy London. The Doctor says they do not have that power. The Daleks then activate a device that turns on all of London's lights, making the city an easy target to the incoming German bombers, and rendering London's blackout efforts ineffective. Then the Progenitor completes its process, and creates a "new paradigm" consisting of five "pure" Daleks, larger, more imposing, and presumably more powerful than their antecendents. The new Daleks promptly label their creators inferior, and proceed to disintegrate the original Daleks, who willingly offer themselves for extermination. In the Cabinet War Rooms, Amy and Churchill realise they can use Professor Bracewell to fight back against the Daleks. Stopping him from committing suicide, they convince him to use anti-gravity technology on adapted Spitfires to help them attack the Dalek ship in Earth orbit, equipped with Dalek laser cannons. The new Daleks are not fooled by the Doctor's "self-destruct device", and prepare to kill him, just as the Spitfires begin their attack. The Spitfires destroy the Dalek transmitter, assisted by the Doctor. The Daleks then tell the Doctor to stop the attack on their ship or they will destroy the Earth using an "Oblivion Continuum" bomb concealed inside Professor Bracewell (see picture right).

The Doctor hurries back to Earth, in order to stop the detonation but leaving the Daleks to escape. He reveals the bomb inside Bracewell, realizing that the only way to stop it exploding is to convince Bracewell that he is a human, not a bomb. He tries to remind the Professor of all his memories and how they hurt, but he cannot seem to stop the countdown. As the Oblivion Continuum approaches detonation, Amy steps in and asks him if he has "ever fancied someone [he] shouldn't". Bracewell remembers a girl named Dorabella, and the way she made him feel. While dwelling on this, the countdown retreats to zero, canceling the detonation. The Doctor immediately dashes to stop the Daleks, but he is told by the Professor that they have escaped. For a few moments, he feels that he has lost, but Amy reminds him that he saved the Earth.

After bidding farewell to Churchill (who is chagrined by the fact that the Doctor has removed all the alien technology) and his staff, the Doctor is puzzled and worried that Amy did not remember the Daleks from their previous attack over London or the Medusa Cascade incident, and the TARDIS dematerializes. Where the TARDIS once stood, a shining crack is seen...