A brief overview of how Daleks build things

Have you ever wondered how Daleks are able to build ships and cities, when their casing only has a manipulator arm and gunstick? In this video, we are going to find out

All footage is the property of the BBC. Music by Frank Klepacki

[acropolismauve]

I’ve always loved the idea of worker Dalek variants with their own unique manipulator arm. Makes them less one note in terms of the complexity of their civilisation.

[FactionParadox]

I also want to hear Daleks singing "I've been working on the railroad" while doing theri stuff and the manager is like "silent, you will remain silent"-

[danielmobley]

I like the idea of a Dalek coming home after a long day only for his Dalek-wife to tell him a lightbulb’s gone out in the kitchen.

The wife glides away and, a moment later, trundles back in to find her husband suspended from the ceiling, hiking up a toolbelt with one of his tentacles with unscrewing the broken bulb with the other— his travel machine with the lid off in the corner of the room.

[AA_]

I have never noticed the daleks from stolen earth had those contraptions

[williamdonnellan]

My head canon is that the Daleks use their psychokinetic abilities (as seen in Death to the Daleks) to telekinetically build and repair things.

[codaboi]

So glad someone explored this topic!!! It's not something that would cross most people's minds when seeing the Daleks, but it's bugged me for years.

I'd love to see a worker Dalek with a forklift style rig mounted to the skirt and gun box, replacing the apandages. I imagine they'd have versatile multi jointed manipulator arms to perform fine machinery work but also heavy lifting. Almost like an add-on to the Dalek casing.

[anndra]

We must assume they have construction machines. However, it would be appropriate for the Daleks that construction might be a weakness

[bbqgiraffe]

I like the idea of daleks ourside their casings slamming energy drinks and welding together the assembly lines

[nickthepick]

You gotta love that the Daleks are fast builders. And if not that, they're efficient at it. I especially love the background thought of all Daleks being on the same page regarding resource allocation, as to what project would be better for the entire race. Instead of how other governments struggle to satisfy everyone's needs.

[swiftbird]

Fantastic ideas. I'd love to see more of this on-screen. I like the idea of construction or architect Daleks.

[oliverjroebuck]

I like to imagine that it's simply an amalgamation of all 3, depending on the situation.

[Lumibear.]

From clues in previous episodes that show them able to construct rough casings in their ‘blobby’ form but self-repair using only ingested energy in their final shell form, I’d imagine internal nanobot tech, able to ’3D Print’ whatever they can program fully detailed plans for using suitable raw materials, hence the need for slave miners.

[thomasgrove]

Mechmaster’s Second Empire comic featured a ton of specialized vehicles which could allow Daleks to load and carry heavy machinery, and even more dexterous Daleks with a bit more limb movement than normal

[Lukas-mkso]

Honestly I really like the idea that the Dalek has a more complex and deeper society with many parts of it - like historians, Workers, Artists and so on. The whole "Daleks are only killing machines" is to short thinked and there is often implied there is more behind Dalek Culture than that.

[KingofPotatoPeople]

I’ve just imagined a Dalek variant with two Swedish Chef style human arms

[fastertrackcreative]

It would be interesting to see more of the inner workings of Dalek cities. Like how the Doctor and co have infiltrated Dalek cities before in the classic series.

[patrick_j_lee]

We also know that Daleks have nano technology, so they could use nanite swarms to build large constructs as well.

[joshuagough]

Don't forget that all daleks have a level of telekinesis, so it is possible that early Daleks used this to build their initial structures and then moved to more efficient means! Personally all of these make 100% sense, you need specaliste to repair major damage and assemble specalised equipment, slave labour can be used to build structures and mining, and drones can be used for superficial damage, or to get to areas a standard dalek cant get. They wouldn't want slave labour to be apart of major technical construction (unless theyre specifically using intelligent people, like in Evil of the daleks, to construct something they cant themselves) due to the risk of information being leaked to the wider universe

[jesserizzo]

There's a 2nd doctor comic from the 90s i believe that has a small group of daleks stranded on a planet trying to use parts of their broken ship to create a communications device to call for help. In one panel a dalek is shown to have a projector like machine in place of its manipulator arm which it uses to make a bubble like force field to lift and move parts of the communications device. I assume the projector arm worked through some form of anti gravity and it's my favorite explanation for how daleks build things.

[FeliusSnepis]

Oh yeah the return of the command and conquer music to jam to while watching the video!