NuWho Daleks vs. small arms

Cafe Society
1

NuWho Daleks Vs. small arms…

I’ve noticed some inconsistencies with the NuWho Daleks in regards to their susceptibility to small arms weapons fire…

Episode 1-6 “Dalek”; Dalek impervious to Pistol-Caliber Carbines (PCC) (H&K MP5 9mm), Dalek generates shield that vaporizes bullets

Episode 1-12 “Bad Wolf”; as above, impervious to PCC and handguns (.38 Special revolver)

Episode 2-13 “Doomsday”; Impervious to PCC and Tactical Rifles (TR) (M-16), susceptible to Cyberman energy weapons when hit by concentrated fire

Episode 3-4 “Daleks in Manhattan”; Impervious to PCC and WWI Main Battle Rifles (MBR) (Springfield 1903 .30-06)

Episode 3-5 "Evolution of the Daleks:; Impervious to PCC and MBR, susceptible to Dalek-Enhanced Thompson Machine Gun (DETMG) the DETMG has a Dalek energy weapon front end, heavy, concentrated fire needed to breach Dalek power armour casing (but don’t cross the streams, it would be bad…)

Episode 4-12 “The Stolen Earth”; Impervious to PCC, TR, MBR, susceptible to low-velocity paintball projectiles (not stopped by shields), but unaffected by the paint itself (easily vaporized off the eyestalk) the average paintball marker shoots the paint pellet at around 300-350 FPS

Episode 4-13 “Journey’s End”; Impervious to PCC, TR, MBR, handguns, no paintball hardware used

It seems that low-velocity projectiles (paintballs) have no problem breaching Dalek shields, whereas any higher-velocity projectiles are stopped by Dalek shields, .38 Spl generally travels at 1000 FPS, .30-06 generally travels at 2,600 FPS, 5.56 (.223) travel at 3,300 FPS, the most effective handgun cartridges, the .45 ACP and .357 Magnum travel at 945 and 1,800FPS respectively, 9mm generally travels at 1,400 FPS

It seems Dalek shielding has a weakness for lower speed projectiles, but is capable of defeating higher speed projectiles, the design of the projectile seems to make no difference, a paintball is spherical, 9mm, .45, .38 Spl FMJ rounds all have smoothly rounded noses, .30-06 FMJ are pointed projectiles, the shape of the projectile seems to be irrelavent

what would be needed is a low speed projectile that can carry decent kinetic energy into the Dalek armour, a slow, heavy projectile would be best, something that moves at paintball speeds (or slightly higher) but carries a lot of mass

Two possibilities that spring to mind would be a 12-gauge shotgun slug (70 caliber), or a large-caliber black powder ball (50+ caliber), of the two, I’d lean more towards the black powder rifle, a good long barrel rifle to build up decent kinetic energy and good knockdown power, the drawbacks being the long reload time and the plume of smoke that would give away the shooter’s position, black powder loads can range from 300-900 FPS depending on charge and projectile size

it seems that Dalek shields are potentially vulnerable to projectiles under 800 FPS, anything above is stopped or otherwise rendered ineffective, a big, slow blackpowder load might be more effective than the light, fast loads of modern weaponry

Hmm…maybe paint pellets filled with Xenomorph acid-blood might work (if I may mix sci-fi genres here)

2

So you’re saying the Kwisatz Haderach could take a Dalek in a fight?

3

Another option might be something like an old sticky bomb… if that still qualifies as “small arms”. Makeshift sticky bombs made from explosives, socks, and tar (?) feature towards the end of Saving Private Ryan. The non-makeshift kind could perhaps be fired from a rifle or grenade launcher to get extra distance.

The Dalek shields seem to be a distance from their hull, so getting a slow projectile through the field that then detonated would seem an option to pursue.

4

But Didn’t Jack and his resistance manage to blind one with some kind of techobabble bullet in Parting of the ways?

5

I’ve just cued up TPOTW, there is a scene in which Jack uses the “Defabricator” gun as a high-yield beam weapon, blows the top casing off the Dalek with no resistance, no evidence of shielding on the Dalek, the TARDIS materialized around Rose and a Dalek, and as it was attempting to shoot the Doctor, Jack EX-TER-MI-NATED the Dalek

The Final Defensive Line on Floor 499 (Jack and a few GameStation staffers) were only able to disable the eyestalk of one Dalek, no case breaching, and that was with concentrated 9mm HK MP5 fire (1,400 FPS projectile), it took a good 5 seconds of continuous, concentrated fire to achieve that

Jack makes his final stand with a 9mm Beretta 92 series, equally ineffective

6

Yeah, the Daleks appear to have used the baseline of The Round the Humans Will Use Against Us somewhere around WWII. Thus, the Stens wielded by UNIT are useless. It could be that they hold within their libraries other, LESS, (normally, but per the OP) or more effective , rounds, but there is little, beyond the loss of an insignificant Dalek, to suggest that a concerted effort using other rounds would be effective. The Daleks have been battling Humanity for centuries, before and AFTER the arbitrary “now.” Thanks to time travel, our current weapons are useless.

7

Another factor to consider is the fact that what the humans in the Whoniverse think is a Dalek is actually just the protective armour, they’re putting all their effort into attempts to damage the eyestalk, the dome, the energy weapon… when it’s the “squid” within the armor that needs to be destroyed, taking out the eyestalk merely results in a panicked Dalek screaming MY-VIS-ION-IS-IM-PAIRED spinning in a circle and firing it’s energy weapon randomly in the hopes of hitting something.

The most effective aiming point if the intent is to ex-ter-mi-nate a Dalek is to aim at the louvers just below the dome, as the “squid” needs to be destroyed to shut down the Dalek.

What is needed is a projectile capable of piercing armour plating, and reaching the “Inner Squid”, hollowpoint ammo would be useless, as it would mushroom on the outer casing, this is one situation where a FMJ projectile would be better, even better than that would be either an Explosive Armour Piercing round, or an Armour Piercing Incendiary round, EAP would turn the Dalek into SquidSpam, API would turn the Dalek into Intergalactic Calamari (mmmm…Space Calamari)

As long as we’re dealing with fiction, an ideal Anti-Dalek round would be something like an AP version of the “PIE” round from Max Brooks’ “World War Z”, a Pyrotechnically Initiated Explosive round, a round that would use a shaped-charge explosive tip to crack the case, then enter the case and burn up, frying the squid within, or maybe one of John Rambo’s infamous exploding-tip arrows from a decent recurve bow or crossbow

I just had a scary thought… Zombie Daleks!..
AS-SIM-I-LATE BRAIN!

8

I think what’s being missed here is the narrative aspect. The reason the paintball breaches the Dalek’s protective shield is not due to it’s speed, or any physical property of the paintball itself, but because it’s the set-up for a joke. Clearly, the Daleks – having no sense of humour whatsoever – have no defence against comedy-based attacks.

It follows that the most effective weapons against Daleks would be banana skins and falling pianos.

9

Ah, the famous Toon/Dalek war.

10

The Daleks have been wiped out, and then a new race of Daleks created, twice in NuWho. The fact that they have slightly different technology is not an inconsistency.

11

Nor is the fact that writers don’t apparently masturbate to “Guns and Ammo”.

-Joe

12

Which bad guys had a device that defeated copper jacket ammo? The good guys use ammo without a jacket to shoot them.

13

The Sontarans in nuWho had one of those copper expanding gadgets IIRC.

I fanwanked the Dalek vulnerability away by assuming the eye stalk just popped outside the area of the shielding. Going back to Who of old, other weapons that are tried and fail against the Daleks are RPGs and acid bombs.