What do the Daleks want in the Doctor Who 2022 New Year’s special, Eve of the Daleks

With the Doctor Who 2022 New Year’s Day special, Eve of the Daleks, on air just hours ago, what a true time for all the family to sit together it really was. We had thrills, spills and for some, maybe, times for hiding behind the sofa. If you’ve still got questions about it all, we’re going to look at the villain of the special episode, one of the Doctor’s greatest enemies, the Daleks and what they want this time around.

There has been a vast history of the Daleks. Hopefully, though by the end of this episode look back, you’ll have a greater insight on what their goals and motivations were in this special; as we’ll be discussing the Daleks’ purpose and how they link within the overall story arc.

Overview

The Daleks are the perfect sci-fi villain, from their very creation by Terry Nation and their first appearance back in 1963. And even in Chris Chibnall’s last two New Years specials; 2020’s Resolution and 2021’s Revolution of the Daleks. The Daleks are driven by their own programmed goal, set by their in-story creator Davros, which is to achieve full domination of the universe and enslavement or purge of all “inferior” lifeforms.

The Dalek’s are truly violent, merciless and pitiless cyborg aliens. At the same time, their programming dictates that their race’s actions are correct, that they would be making the galaxy better if all were exterminated.

If we’re being brutally honest, to non-sci-fi watchers, you probably shouldn’t expect this all to make perfect sense, because the reality is that when you break it down, it does have to be a bit over-the-top. And you shouldn’t expect anything else in a world with a time-traveller and a Tardis.

It’s important to go with your imagination and a large pinch of salt. And overall for sci-fi we’re not going to be too tough on the Delaks’ creator Terry Nation or the new episodes from writer Chris Chibnall. We’re just glad we got such spectacular New Year’s Day escapism.

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Episode insight

From the 2022 New Year’s Day Special Episode, we’ll be discussing what the Daleks wanted to achieve, as well as looking at their motivation for once again wanting to cross paths with the Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker. Obviously, it’s going to be impossible to lay out the full details of the episode, if you’re actually reading this before seeing Eve of the Daleks, you may want to rethink your time and come back once you’ve seen the special, as time here can’t be rewritten. As with all true Doctor Who fans, no one wants to give away any spoilers, so this is your last warning.

The Daleks’ motives in Eve of the Daleks can be placed into two main categoris, which we’ll be travelling into further below:

Motive 1 – Revenge!

As with many episodes featuring the classic sci-fi villain, the Dalek arrive in the New Year’s day special episode with a driven aim to ‘exterminate’ one of their biggest enemies, the Doctor. But this time there’s more to it than just attacking the Doctor merely because they can, as for the Daleks there is a sense and meaning to this attack.

The Dalek, here, are seeking to exterminate her Doctor, due to her involvement on the Flux (Series 13 episode 6 – The Vanquished) which saw the mass extermination of their race.

We start with one lone Dalek arriving within a self storage unit, because the Dalak has sensed the Doctor’s presence. And to make sure the Doctor stays in this location they seal the main entrance, meaning the doctor is trapped.

In the events of this episode, the 13th Doctor finds herself trapped, the lone Dalek uses its newly designed weapon to exterminate the Doctor. The audience gets to see the Doctor for a second fall to the floor, dead. And yes for a few seconds the audience, as the intro plays, were left wondering what… what… what???

However, as you will have seen in the episode, the damaged Tardis, even though the doctor was trapped and exterminated, had placed them in a time loop. Meaning, with a great sigh of relief, as it is said in the episode “Here we go again!” it is revealed that the Doctor isn’t dead and even though back at stage one.

She is hoping to stay alive and to save not only her companions, but the two other individuals trapped in these events. It also meant, though, that the Dalek quickly became more driven in their extermination of the Doctor, as one lone Dalek was joined by a second and then quickly by a third Dalek.

With no spoilers of the end/outcome of the episode; the overall gist of what the Dakels’ are doing is one out of revenge. A revenge solely pointed to the Doctor, putting the Doctor’s companions Yasmin ‘Yaz’ Khan (Mandip Gill), and Dan Lewis (John Bishop,) as well as bystanders Sarah (Aisling Bea) and Nick (Adjani Salmon) at grave risk.

Motive 2 – Warped idealism?!?

As stated above, the Daleks are driven by the call of “exterminate,” a word stated brilliantly by Nicholas Briggs, an overall narrow and blinkered mindset. This warped idealism is seen throughout the episode. First with the Daleks not thinking twice, or should that be eighth as by the end of the episode they point their newly designed weapon at first Nick and then Sarah, exterminating them again and again and again.

Second, the Daleks place the location under their control right off the bat. Both instances are a continuation of their call and drive to wipe out all who don’t match them and their views of purity. And although the Dalek can learn and upgrade, as stated and shown throughout the episode getting the better of the Doctor and the humans on multiple occasions, they ultimately don’t seem to be able to deviate greatly from Davos’ initial dictates to this mutated race of armoured attack units.

With this programmed mindset, this grand Doctor Who villain considers the extermination of all who are inferior to them to be the price to pay to achieve their purifying main aim.

Eve of the Daleks villain – unanswered questions

The main questions in the events of the 2022 New Year’s day special are this;

If the Daleks had taken full control of the building and as the Daleks had stated they have learnt in battle, e.g not allowing the Doctor’s trusted Sonic Screwdriver from jamming their weapons and the Dalek itself stating that “Dalak strategy is supreme!”… Then why in the grand scheme of things didn’t the Daleks also lock the other doors to the storage facility, which did ultimately give the opening for the Doctor to, in the end, build her overall plans around?

Our only “go to” answer is that the writer, Chris Chibnall, needed a way for the good guys to escape. Looking back, there just doesn’t seem to be a logical explanation for the Dalek’s mistake. Although, another option is that they were so fixated on exterminating the Doctor that they didn’t compute all of the eventualities, but that again seems more emotional then the Daleks are known to be.

The other outstanding question that comes from Eve of the Daleks is whether or not there are more Daleks out there in the galaxy after the events that happened in the Flux? Knowing the world of Doctor Who, it’s not going to be a no. The future show running Russel T Davies will no doubt have an excellent and intriguing way of bringing this iconic and deadly character back when this classic character is needed.

If you have any more questions about the Dalek or the episode, you can drop us a comment over on Twitter. You can also check out our TV news section to see other big releases, or visit the Doctor Who website to see more on the show at https://www.doctorwho.tv/.

The next special episode of Jodie Whittaker’s run is called the “Legend of the Sea Devils.” The episode looks set to have some kind of link to the return of a classic Doctor Who villain, the Sea Devils. Who hasn’t been in a Doctor Who television episode since 1984’s “Warriors of the Deep!” The director will be Haolu Wang and the episode will be written by both Chris Chibnall and Ella Road. This will be Ella’s debut writing for Doctor Who. The episode is set to air in early spring 2022, which could mean an Easter episode.