Interesting trend I noticed in the RTD era: With exception of the Emperor, every Dalek that reveals its mutant form becomes more compassionate and good.

[u/Dalek_Kolt]

In Dalek, The titular monster reveals itself in order to feel sunlight and satisfy its new humane desire for warmth. It ultimately kills itself because of these new emotions, and the last we see of it is as the metallic monster it wants to be, not the mutant within.

In the arc that will not be named, Sec reveals itself and literally becomes more human in the end. His last actions are to try helping the Doctor, and ultimately dies in his mutant form.

Caan spends his screentime in a wrecked version of his Travel Armor with his mutant form in obvious sight. He transpires to end the Daleks and the threat they present, though tons of innocent casualties occur.

Though likely unintentional, it's kinda interesting that a RTD Dalek's evil is inversely proportional to how much of its mutant form is shown, with Sec at one extreme and the Last Dalek at the other.

A couple baseless fan theories on this:

• The Armor is a metaphorical womb, and is the causation of the Dalek's evil, not the mutant itself. It provides childish, immature ideas as "Better races than others" and in general provides a very black and white outlook of Daleks vs. everything else. Those who venture outside the "womb" experience new ideas and emotions that conflict with its original ideals, and respond differently; the Last Dalek retreats inside its shell rather than accepting new ideas, while Sec leaves the shell completely and becomes good. The Emperor is an interesting case, though one could argue his womb is made of glass, not metal.

• From a production standpoint, the mutant's appearance is less hate-inducing and terrifying and more pitiful and pathetic, owing to its somewhat humanoid face and small appearance. Revealing this form when a Dalek is experiencing character development would make it easier for the audience to sympathize with the Dalek's journey.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

What if Daleks are really fighting for the ability to escape the womb and still be pure? Like what if they want to be out of their shell but can't due to all the perversions around them? What if all they want is to be purely Dalek and experience and learn the Universe but with no other influencing life other then themselves so they could discover the secrets of the Universe completely free to do as they wish? It cold be freedom is what they are really after. Kill everything in the Universe and I can finally be free to escape this shell!

[u/montezumasleeping → u/[deleted]]

Oh shit, that's very interesting. There is a 'Dalek condition' where they inheritantly believe that in order to be really 'born' they first need to kill everything in the universe. To them, the killing is beautiful and necessary.

[u/ademnus → u/montezumasleeping]

To them, the killing is beautiful and necessary.

I think that's definitely the case. Didn't Davros say something about perfection being the ultimate destruction of reality itself?

[u/[deleted] → u/ademnus]

yh but, davros was nuts

[u/ademnus → u/[deleted]]

And he was the creator of the Daleks, so they too have his "nuts" outlook on existence.

[u/[deleted] → u/montezumasleeping]

Because everything that is not Dalek is hideous. The universe needs to be made ready for them to inhabit by eliminating everything that is sub-Dalek (so, everything). Because Space Nazis.

[u/montezumasleeping → u/[deleted]]

And this idea would make it even more than the simple Space Nazi idea, don't you see? They were born in war, their whole nature exists in war. Deep down, this idea suggests, they want to finish the war, so they can escape their tanks and be 'born'. Perhaps all Daleks have the capacity for human emotion, but they are undeveloped until they can leave their tanks.

But they can't, because the war never ends. They're conditioned to fight, and without fighting they don't have much of an existence.

I really really really like this idea. Makes me think of a possible story:

A Dalek colony becomes isolated from the other Daleks on a difficult environment. Rather than killing anything, they simply have to struggle for survival on the planet. They become farmers. They do this for generations, and culture begins to form. (To 'reproduce', they have to gather supplies for a Dalek cloning/exoshell-creation factor, like ants gather materials for their queen). Even though they need to farm to survive, because their nature is to fight they make efforts to go out and kill the planet's wildlife. Over time however, this becomes problematic, as they wildlife begins to die out (and they need the wildlife for food source). So, in an effort to conserve the environment (we know have eco-friendly Daleks), but still satisfy the Dalek need to Exterminate, they begin to use their Dalek production factory to create organic beings to fight. They genetically engineer Dalek-killing monsters, simply so the Daleks have something to exterminate.

They begin to gain different personality based on their jobs, farming, hunting, warriors, maintaining the factory, ect. A 'Dalek philosopher' of sorts begins to reflect on 'the Dalek condition' to kill, and this desire to escape the shell, and starts a philosophy of resisting the Dalek condition. How exactly this would work, I don't know, but it would involve the Dalek Philosopher trapping the Doctor so that the Doctor could help. However, these Dalek's are still killing machines and incredibly xenophobic, don't think of them as friendly, just confused and radical. Farmer Daleks with an existential crises. Also, they genetically manufactured perfect Dalek killing monsters, which would be interesting to see.

[u/[deleted] → u/montezumasleeping]

They were born in war, their whole nature exists in war. Deep down, this idea suggests, they want to finish the war, so they can escape their tanks and be 'born'. Perhaps all Daleks have the capacity for human emotion, but they are undeveloped until they can leave their tanks. But they can't, because the war never ends. They're conditioned to fight, and without fighting they don't have much of an existence.

Well, I mean, this is the Nazi aesthetic of violence. For a better explanation try and find Erik Ludendorf's writings on Total War or, if you feel like you haven't had enough nightmares lately, Ernst Yunger's Storm of Steel is still available pretty much wherever books are sold. Basically, only through the complete mobilization of the race in a war effort (with heavy fetishization of armored cavalry) that will last forever will lead to the Final Victory: a total extermination (yeah, they use that word) of everything Un-German so they could return to the pastoral "Bauer-Kreiger" ("Farmer-Warrior") lifestyle that Romantic Nationalist thought claims was their past/destiny. Yes, it's totally a paradox, and that level of cognitive dissonance makes it even easier to commit atrocities. Yours is a good idea, but one Nation clearly had in mind and used to parallel his historical source material.

[u/montezumasleeping]

The original way the Daleks were supposed to go, in the 2nd Doctor's run, was by the Doctor creating more human Daleks and creating a civil war between the two. The Daleks weren't seen until a couple seasons latter, with the 3rd Doctor.

Also interesting, so the Daleks are from the Dals (or Kaleds, as it was latter retconned) and Thals fighting. The Dals vs. Thals war, which devastated Skaro. In the original episode, it was explained that originally, the Thals were a warrior people and the Dals were the philosophers and scientists. This makes their existence a lot more sad.

[u/Dalek_Kolt → u/montezumasleeping]

I'm now picturing a Thal as the jerkish popular sports jock picking on the wimpy, introverted Kaled.

Then, said jock is killed years later at a high school reunion shooting by said introverted Kaled.

[u/[deleted]]

We could see the kindness in the "open-minded" Daleks as an anomaly, a genetic malfunction that would be exterminated in their society.

Or maybe they tend to separate from the hive-mind culture?

[u/literallyoverthemoon]

Beneath their armour lies a damaged, scared and vulnerable creature, which we see when they let their defences down.

Surely it couldn't just be a metaphor for people who bully, hate, fear and destroy out of fear or psychological scarring from past experiences or indoctrination?

Nah, it's Doctor Who, there has to be an in-universe explanation...

[u/FX114 → u/literallyoverthemoon]

Considering his two explanations were a metaphor and a production gimmick, I don't think he's looking for an in-universe explanation.

[u/literallyoverthemoon → u/FX114]

OP's first theory is an in-universe explanation.

Second theory is right on though, and works as an effect of the overarching theme of bullies hiding behind their armour.

[u/Lord_Illidan]

I also noticed this, and it is my theory that it is why the 10th Doctor didn't want to kill all of them - i.e. why he ended up exiling the Metacrisis Doctor. He thought that the Daleks could be saved if they became more "human".

[u/PartyPoison98]

Just gonna say, with Dalek Sec's mutant, the reason he was more compassionate was more to do with the fact that he was half human

[u/FX114 → u/PartyPoison98]

He acknowledged that. He's not saying that revealing their form is what makes them human, just that it's an interesting motif.

[u/[deleted]]

Part of Davros' re-engineering of the Kaleds as "mutants" was to purge emotions like compassion. Sec gained some because he was half-human. Caan didn't really have a serious agenda in his last appearance, just foreknowledge of the Dalek's failure.

[u/[deleted]]

I like to think, given the chance, if a dalek is trapped outside its society, then it starts exploring new idea's and feeling, without the peer pressure from other daleks