Thirteen weeks to go! Our countdown of the greatest adventures featuring Skaro's deadliest inhabitants...Every fairytale needs a good old fashioned villain. Jim Moriarty's fateful assertion in Sherlock is equally true within the realms of Doctor Who, where the world's most famous Time Lord regularly faces off against charismatic, crazed or Candy-themed antagonists on a weekly basis.
While the question of just who the Doctor's arch-nemesis (or indeed arch-nemeses) is remains a topic of ongoing discussion among fans, few could contest that the Daleks are the most persistent and dangerous enemies that the character has battled in the past fifty years. As we move ever closer to the 50th Anniversary Special, a revelatory episode which will again feature these genocidal travel machines, it's time for a definitive shortlist of the best Dalek adventures produced in Doctor Who's history...so far:
5. ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS (2012)- Something that remains of key interest regarding fandom debate on Asylum is just how far we can classify it as a 'true' Dalek tale. At the heart of this controversy is Oswin Oswald, the first televised incarnation of Jenna Coleman's fractured time traveller Clara. While much of the story's focus is rightly on Jenna's beautifully portrayed new character, there's plenty of stellar Skaro material within too, the Parliament of the Daleks an intriguing conceptual teaser, the appearance of classic incarnations of the robotic foes a glorious bout of nostalgia, and the decision by writer Steven Moffat to completely wipe these adversaries' memories of the Doctor from their databanks a potentially revolutionary one in narrative times. Regardless of the prominence of a one-off Pond dilemma and the Oswald series arc, Asylum remains a stunning re-establishment of the menace, the layered moral apathy and the sheer strength of the Dalek regime for a new generation...
4. REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS (1988)- Too often, the Sylvester McCoy era is seen as a totally destructive period of Who due to its culmination resulting in the temporary cancellation of the programme. If newcomers to the classic series need evidence of the growing strength of this all-too-brief incarnation of the Doctor, then Remembrance is a sublime place to start. From the first on-screen hovering Dalek to the rather grand battle between two Skaro factions and the mass military power of the Special Weapons Dalek, there's little in the way of disappointment to be found from these arch-nemeses' final appearance in the original incarnation of the series. Sure, Terry Molloy's Davros could have ideally been afforded a little more time to flourish in his return, but Remembrance more than compensates with a strong balance of action, wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey distortion and surprising emotion to boot.
3. GENESIS OF THE DALEKS (1975)- Prior to Doctor Who's return in 2005, Genesis was once voted the show's greatest story by fans in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, and it's not difficult to understand why this was the case. Michael Wisher's debut as the Daleks' uncompromising creator Davros is nothing short of gripping, his exchanges with Tom Baker's Doctor in the midst of the latter's incarceration providing a fascinating insight into the complete and utter conviction this scarred individual holds in his own beliefs and the manner in which he intends to act upon them. In one of the show's most famous scenes, the Doctor is forced to contemplate whether he can truly justify destroying an entire race, even the Daleks, but given all that we learn of the complete lack of sympathy and compassion these foes and their creator hold for the universe at large here, we're left in no doubt as to the immense danger of the Time Lord's decision to reject the mission his race has bestowed upon him!
2. DALEK (2005)- When we as fans initiate any kind of retrospective regarding the evolution of the Daleks since Robert Shearman's acclaimed 2005 adventure Dalek, it's vital to bear in mind that once was a time where Terry Nation's creations were set not to feature in the new series at all. Instead, Russell T. Davies would have tasked Shearman with integrating a lone Toclafane into his mid-season tale, with these Series Three adversaries then likely to be integrated into Russell's Series One finale. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, and with Dalek any fear of Nation's finest conceptions that had been lost by questions of stair-flight or vulnerability was reignited with a bang, as a lone survivor of the Time War wreaked havoc upon an entire human establishment with ease. Most fans have tried to remove the memory of Bruno Langley's Adam from this adventure, but to be frank that's simple, seeing as the return of a newly golden Dalek onto our screens is television history in the making, and the shocking pathos this seemingly last resident of Skaro evokes just as shocking and simultaneously effective.
1. THE STOLEN EARTH/JOURNEY'S END (2008)- Here's the most important fact surrounding the success of Russell T. Davies' climatic Series Four two-parter Stolen/Journey's: it could all have gone so wrong. To some, an over-indulgence in nostalgic narratives seemed to be the cause of Doctor Who's temporary demise during the 1980s, so alarm bells might rightly have been ringing as the marketing for this ambitious Dalek adventure began to roll out. Such bells were needless, though, because with this glorious adventure the viewer was presented with perhaps the ultimate balance of structured nostalgia and equally innovative thrills. Julian Bleach makes for an absolutely stunning Davros, his realisation of Sarah-Jane's return all those years after the events of Genesis pitched perfectly, and his deconstruction of the Doctor's tormented and guilt-ridden psyche an unexpected yet sublime diversion from the main action. There are so many landmark moments in this intelligent, intricate Dalek adventure that it would be churlish to recount them all, but it's that reinstatement of the genuine fear these beloved antagonists can enable in the viewer's living room, the thrilling tension that could send 1960s fans behind the sofa without any prior warning that proves the most memorable, a lone Dalek's sudden and brutal interruption of the Doctor and Rose's long-awaited reunion sending the internet into a frenzy for an entire week as a supposed regeneration commenced. Witness that fantastic Who moment for yourself once more below:
NEXT WEEK: TOP 5 BEST CYBERMEN ADVENTURES
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