5

This may be a stupid question but I've been re-watching Doctor Who, so: in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, why were people needed to test the reality bomb?

As I understand it the 'bomb' removes the magnetic field holding atoms together, in which case you don't need to test it on people (you could use a toaster for all it mattered). What I mean is, everything is made of atoms so you don't need the test to be on something living.

I considered that the Daleks don't care about 'inferior life' and have no problems with experimenting on living things.

They obviously considered the Earth a possible threat (although minimal). If they hadn't there was no reason to destroy military installations or attack the population at all. They could have just let the activation of the full weapon kill them all. It was obviously dangerous to everything outside the Crucible, that's why the order was given later on ('all Daleks return to the Crucible to shelter from the cataclysm')

So why even bother attacking Earth? Everyone would die anyway, and they could have used anything to test the 'mini bomb' on.

Or have I missed something here?

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    As far as I can tell, they wanted to test it on prisoners (as opposed to a bunch of space rocks) for their own amusement.
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 28, 2016 at 22:03
  • I thought Daleks are supposed to only feel hate, so fun would be inefficient to there plan. They want to kill all life and become the only beings in existence. I see no evidence of them ever having or being concerned with fun
    – Matt
    Commented Aug 28, 2016 at 22:07
  • 3
    The Daleks maybe, but not Davros. He held a grudge against the Doctor, who was attached to humanity.
    – KutuluMike
    Commented Aug 28, 2016 at 22:38

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

The answer is two fold, the first is because you want to test that the bomb actually works, that's the whole point of a test chamber. The second is because The Daleks and Davros wanted to show the effects of the reality bomb to The Doctor. After both Doctors see what it does, they are horrified and realize how the bomb actually works. Simply put it wanted to be shown how devastating the bomb truly was.

This excerpt from the Tardis Wikia about the Reality Bomb states:

Once the weapon penetrated the time rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade, it would spread into every parallel universe and alternate dimension (even the Void) as well. The reality bomb was planned to destroy all other forms of life in every universe — except for the Daleks, allowing for them to be only race in all of existence.

This meant that not only would the bomb destroy the reality they were in, because of it's positioning it would destroy all life in every dimension and alternate reality.

Improve this answer
1
  • The Davros making the Doctor angry part makes sense, by demonstrating it on 'his precise humans', one last blow to the Doctor. I hadn't considered that and am I'm happy that answers the question. Thank you
    – Matt
    Commented Aug 29, 2016 at 11:28

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.