People forget so easily. Barely a moment since they vanished from reality -- still I get asked all the time: Why were the daleks so terrifying?

Well -- it's not the shape, is it? they've been fiddling with that since the start. Nor the choice 'constipated cybory' won't inspire dread on its own.It's not the weapons, not the gadgets -- nothing physical at all.

No -- it's what they represent. Casting off flesh and emotion like snakeskin -- because fascism's easier without distractions.

It's the purity of their hate. It's their obsession. Stamp them down, wipe them out, seal them away for a thousand years -- they'll still bubble back up, same as before.

Y'see Alice, even at their most insane, their minds are strings, threaded between the present moment, and a promise of annihilation. What makes the daleks truly vile --

...is that they think in straight lines.