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In the Asylum of the Daleks (Dr. Who - Series 7), Oswin guides the Doctor and Rory through the Asylum planet maze through the voice speakers (megaphone). It is eventually revealed in the end that she is a Dalek herself, and what the viewer saw throughout the episode was her "dream state".

Why doesn't her voice sound like a Dalek when she was communicating with the Doctor or Rory over the speakers?

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    It seems that Asylum of the Daleks may not have been the last we hear of Oswin, so more may be forthcoming. Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 16:14
  • yup, she is supposed to replace Amy, and will premiere as a Companion in the Christmas special episode. My question is unrelated to those events (in the past or future). It was more of a technical nature.
    – Anup
    Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 16:33
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    Because having her sound like a Dalek for the entire episode completely ruins the ending of the episode where the Doctor (and the viewer, if they hadn't already guessed) discovers she is one? Sometimes you have to forego what's logical in order to tell the story to an audience. Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 20:56

2 Answers 2

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First point: Oswin was not completely transformed into a Dalek, she was converted. This means that there is a part of her that is still purely Oswin. That is the part that has deluded herself that she is in her ship because she cannot handle being a Dalek.

Second point: Oswin was a genius and actually did hack all those systems within the Dalek defenses. She was not using a conventional intercom, she had taken over the speaker system and transmitting as she desired.

Therefore, because she was not communicating via an intercom, she was constructing the sounds passed through the speaker directly, and therefore could choose how she sounded. It makes sense that she would project the voice that she is most comfortable with. She seems to have gone through great lengths to maintain her humanity, and her projection of humanity. It only makes sense she would project her actual voice and not the Dalek voice she rejected.

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  • It does not make sense to me. When did she "hack" into their system - before or after being converted to Dalek? If she was converted into a Dalek, then she should have shared hive-mind, and not thinking at all, hence she shouldn't be able to "hack" anything. If she "hacked" into their system before she was converted, then she should have been able to overpower or disable them, given that she can make them "forget" things. Anyway, that still doesn't explain why then she still sounds like Dalek when the Dr meets her. If she was able to manipulate the way she sounded, why not sound like a human?
    – Anup
    Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 16:32
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    The speaker systems were completely different from the speakers used in her Dalek body. The Doctor was surprised because he heard a human voice over the speaker systems only to find a Dalek body and voice once he was inside the room with Osric. As for hacking the Daleks, she was such a genius, after being converted by the nanites on the surface, she was completely converted into a Dalek frame. However, her mind was so disciplined she maintained her individuality even in the Hive-mind and she was able to 'hack' the Daleks. Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 18:31
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    Right but the whole "we meet a character at the moment of her death" thing has been done with River, I am still hoping for a redemption given how much of Oswin is maintained. My wife has another theory that he has to undo something that saves her but causes the Daleks to remember him again. We will have to see!
    – Ashterothi
    Commented Sep 9, 2012 at 23:35
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    I believe the character in the Dalek is called Oswin Oswald, and the new companion is called Clara Oswin. I guess we'll have to wait and see if they are the same person?
    – NiceOrc
    Commented Sep 10, 2012 at 0:49
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    As I'm sure everyone is aware by now, the answer to "Are Oswin Oswald and Clara Oswin the same person?" is "It's complicated".
    – Martha
    Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 20:32
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Remember when Clara went into a dalek in S9? What if oswin was in a casing similarly, just sleeping and living in her dream, but she was still using her own mouth to speak. This would explain why she sounded like herself in the speakers, because it wasn't going through the dalek casing, but it sounded like a dalek in the room because then it was just going through the casing. As to why she wasn't speaking the same way as in S9, maybe the casing was just malfunctioning? After all the daleks who put it together were all nuts.

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