Gunstick
The gunstick (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness) was the standard personal Dalek weapon. Though it was removable, it almost always occupied a space in the left socket of the weapons platform opposite the manipulator arm. Though the Daleks sometimes replaced the manipulator arm with a more specialised tool, they almost never replaced the gunstick, except with another kind of weapon.
It was also known as a radiation gun, (AUDIO: The Daleks) a gun-rod, (PROSE: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks) ray-gun, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth) exterminator, (COMIC: The Doctor Strikes Back, Attack of the Daleks) blast-gun, (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks) energy gun, Dalek neutraliser, (PROSE: Engines of War) neutraliser, (TV: The Chase) beam distributor, Dalek beam gun or simply Dalek gun. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
The gunstick was controlled by armament circuits. (TV: Death to the Daleks)
In one instance, the gunstick was the right arm of the middle section, whilst the manipulator arm was the left. (COMIC: The Threat from Beneath)
Development
A possible precursor to the gunstick was built by Davros on Skaro during the Thousand Year War. It seemed to be a larger weapon with a more devastating impact, but the sound matched that of the gunstick. (AUDIO: Corruption)
Following Davros' unarmed prototype, Dalek One sported a gunstick. (PROSE: Davros Genesis)
After developing the Mark III Travel Machine, Davros created the gunstick. He demonstrated this before the Scientific Elite and attempted to have the Dalek test the new device on the Fourth Doctor and Harry Sullivan, but Ronson interceded. He would later become the first Dalek victim when Davros had him exterminated. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) The effect of the gunstick remained standard throughout most of the history of the race from their creation onwards. (TV: The Daleks)
On Skaro, the gunsticks were easily able to exterminate insect "pests" such as the Zomites. (COMIC: The Daleks Destroy the Zomites)
During the Last Great Time War, gunsticks were devolved into swords on the Neverwhen planet front as a result of time phasing. (AUDIO: The Neverwhen)
Characteristics
Physical effects
As stated above, the gunstick was an energy weapon, (TV: The Five Doctors) specifically neutronic energy. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) Although occasionally the energy was invisible, (TV: The Daleks, Death to the Daleks) the discharge beam generally appeared blue. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, et al.) It had a "negative effect." Later models and variants exposed the skeletal structure of the victim. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, et al.)
Early sources of information about the Daleks described being hit by the weapon as akin to being struck by lightning, suggesting the energy involved was roughly analogous to an electric charge. Sometimes victims of the weapons appeared charred. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
Rachel Jensen, examining the body of a human killed by the discharge of a Renegade Dalek's gunstick during the Shoreditch Incident, said the cause of death appeared to her to be "massive internal disruption" (paraphrased by the Seventh Doctor as "his insides were scrambled"). (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) She later theorised that they might have been using plasma weapons. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks)
The Dalek factions present in the area at this time were using what appeared to be slightly different weapons, in that they fired bolts of energy rather than beams (and the weapons of the Imperial Daleks discharged yellow-orange bolts rather than blue). (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
During the massacre inside the GeoComTex Vault, the Dalek involved was able to use conductive substances such as metal and water to considerably extend the effect of its gunstick, strongly suggesting that these beams also possessed electrical properties. (TV: Dalek)
While the Tenth Doctor had to regenerate when grazed by a blast from a gunstick, (TV: The Stolen Earth) the Eleventh Doctor survived a direct gunstick blast, albeit with some injury. However, this blast originated from a weakened Dalek that wasn't at full power. Due to a Time Lord's resistance to electricity, this supports that it was composed of electricity in some manner. (TV: The Big Bang)
However, on a number of occasions Daleks showed a definite vulnerability to the weapons of their own kind. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks, The Five Doctors, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, Evolution of the Daleks, Victory of the Daleks, Into the Dalek, The Time of the Doctor, Revolution of the Daleks)
Settings
This weapon had a non-lethal setting which paralysed the target. The Daleks said that repeated exposure to the paralysis effect would result in permanent neural damage. (TV: The Survivors) As demonstrated by a pair of Bronze Daleks, two simultaneous blasts set to "level three" temporarily paralysed an adult human male. (COMIC: The Dalek Project) One Dalek once paralysed the Fourth Doctor with a single blast but he was quick to regain his full range of motion. (AUDIO: Genetics of the Daleks)
At full power, the gunstick was capable of disintegrating the victim. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks, TV: The Magician's Apprentice) During the Daleks' 2009 invasion of Earth, their gunsticks possessed a "maximum extermination" setting; three gunsticks at this setting were enough to destroy a medium-sized human dwelling. (TV: The Stolen Earth) Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm could disintegrate impure Daleks with a "total obliteration" setting. (TV: Victory of the Daleks) Daleks in World War I set their weaponry to level 3 to temporarily paralyse Edward Anderson. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
A Dalek could both reload and fire its gunstick by shouting "exterminate" repeatedly, as the weapons were keyed into their emotions. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
During the Second Dalek War, the Tenth Doctor observed that, while a gunstick at full power could blast a human into atoms in a split second, Daleks deliberately dialed down the power on their stick to the specific level to kill a human being, then lowered the power setting slightly further so that the beam burnt away the central nervous system from the outside in, meaning that every victim died within two to three seconds in agony.
As observed when a Dalek stationed on Arkheon was executed by two of Dalek X's Elite Guard Daleks, the Dalek mutant within was fried alive, while its casing was left blackened but otherwise intact and able to be recycled, as Dalek X ordered. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks)
Weaknesses
If removed from the Dalek, the gunstick could still be fired by an enemy (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, The Magician's Apprentice) or even at the Dalek itself, killing it. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks, AUDIO: Jubilee, PROSE: Engines of War) However, gunsticks were unable to penetrate the casings of certain Daleks such as the first Dalek Supreme, (AUDIO: Return to Skaro) or that of a Dalek Executioner. (AUDIO: Mutually Assured Destruction) Additionally, the beam could reflect back and destroy the user if it struck a reflective surface. (TV: The Five Doctors, The Witch's Familiar, GAME: City of the Daleks)
The earliest gunsticks needed multiple blasts to kill. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
During the Thal-Dalek battle, the gunsticks of the Dalek War Machines possessed insufficient power to kill a Thal in a single shot. (TV: The Daleks) 50 cycles later, the Daleks had rectified this. (AUDIO: Return to Skaro)
On at least two occasions, the Doctor's sonic screwdriver displayed the ability to interfere with and disable a gunstick's functionality, (TV: Resolution, COMIC: Defender of the Daleks) before the Dalek Executioners managed to overcome this weakness. (TV: Eve of the Daleks) The gunstick also demonstrated a historical inability to penetrate the TARDIS force field. (TV: The Chase, The Parting of the Ways, The Witch's Familiar, Resolution) The force field of Davros' chair was also able to withstand the impact of multiple gunsticks with no damage to its passenger. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
A gunstick was of variable utility against mechanical beings. The Mechanoids (TV: The Chase, WC: Day of Reckoning) and the Movellans were able to withstand multiple gunstick blasts before expiring. (PROSE: The Whoniverse, AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros) Other examples of mechanical life though, such as the Trods, (COMIC: The Trodos Ambush) Cybusmen, (TV: Doomsday) and the CyberNeomorphs fell to one blast of the weapon. (COMIC: Cyber Crisis)
The gunstick was also unable to do any real damage to a sentient oil creature beyond briefly disfiguring it. (TV: The Pilot)
During the Etra Prime incident, the Daleks found that certain Gallifreyan doors were resistant to their firepower, forcing them to use the eyes of a Gallifreyan soldier to bypass the retina scan. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element) In 2012 on Earth, the Metaltron found that its firepower could not penetrate the bulkheads of Henry van Statten's Vault. (TV: Dalek)
Given the Hond's regenerative properties and that they drew strength from suffering, a gunstick blast, while causing them pain, had no practical application as a weapon against them. (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks)
The Slave of the Hond displayed an immunity to gunstick blasts. (WC: The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy, The Deadly Ally)
During the Dalek-Movellan War, Davros managed to disable the gunsticks of the Kembel faction via a jamming field. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros)
Variants
Gunsticks could be made into rifles that could be used by human-Daleks. Multiple hits from these rifles were capable of penetrating the force fields of Dalek Thay and Dalek Jast, eventually destroying the two Daleks. (TV: Evolution of the Daleks)
The "Quasimodo Dalek", which was reconstructed by unfamiliar humans, had a gunstick mounted to its dome in the place of its eyepiece, while its two weapons platform "arm" sockets were fitted with an eyepiece each. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
Gunsticks were also used by the Daleks' humanoid Dalek puppets, emerging from their hand. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, PROSE: The Dalek Generation) These gunsticks could be used to render humans or Time Lords unconscious. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) However, after being converted into a Dalek puppet, Tasha Lem instead simply fired a gunstick blast directly from the palm of her hand. One hit from such a blast could destroy a bronze Dalek. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
The gunsticks used by a race of Daleks created by the War Master in an aborted timeline made a significantly lower-pitched noise upon firing, sounding more like a pulse than the instantaneous blast of traditional gunsticks. (AUDIO: He Who Wins)
The Daleks at the Siege of Trenzalore apparently used a massive version of the gunstick mounted onto a battlefield tank. However, it was not seen being fired because the tank with the armament in question had broken down. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
Executioner Daleks had a modified version of the gunstick in the likeness of a gatling gun that fired much faster than a normal gunstick. (TV: Eve of the Daleks)
Disarmament
The gunstick was a removable component of the Dalek casing, capable of being removed by the Daleks themselves or by others. Rusty removed his gunstick to prove to the Twelfth Doctor that he genuinely desired to help him, to which the Doctor quipped that he was the first Dalek that ever got "naked" for him. (TV: Twice Upon a Time) Nonetheless, Daleks had the telekinetic ability to quickly recall their gunstick back to their casing after removing it, which the Doctor remembered when Rusty did so, though he knew the brief moment of recovery would be long enough to find cover. Nonetheless, Rusty did not return his blaster to his casing while the Doctor was speaking with him. (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time)
Amongst the humanised Daleks who settled on Kyrol, gunsticks were afforded only to their leader Alpha, second Makkith and the Kodath Squadron of blue Daleks. The majority of the Daleks, coloured green, yellow, orange and purple, sported only manipulator arms, with the left slot of their weapons platform being empty. However, all of these Daleks were able to use psychokinesis to defend themselves. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution)
Missy once managed to rip a gunstick out of its housing with only minor difficulty. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) A group of ten Daleks that were captured and taken aboard Station 7 were disarmed of their gunsticks. (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek)
Alternative weapons
When their usual gunsticks were defective, Daleks could replace them with primitive ballistic weapons. (TV: Death to the Daleks)
The robotic Proto-Daleks, which were constructed by the British and Germans as part of the Dalek Project during the First World War, wielded contemporary machine guns in place of the gunstick. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
Prior to the reprisal of the Thal-Dalek battle, the Supreme Dalek sent ahead two Dalek drones who had two manipulator arm attachments to pose as emissaries of peace. When the ruse was dropped, one of the drones channelled its static electricity across its casing as a substitute for a gunstick. (AUDIO: Return to Skaro)
Individual cases
During the Last Great Time War, on a parallel Skaro, Bliss salvaged a gunstick from the casing of a dead, partially-reconstructed bronze Dalek. Two days later, she used the same gunstick to provide an alternate Davros and Charn with covering fire from an attack squad of fully-restored bronze Daleks. (AUDIO: Palindrome)
Whilst a prisoner of the Eighth Sontaran Battle Fleet, the Dalek Time Strategist was stripped of both its gunstick and manipulator arm. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage)
Towards the end of the Time War, Cinder wielded a gunstick, which had been ripped from the broken casing of a dying Dalek, lashed up to a power pack. While standard Daleks were destroyed in one hit, she found that the Skaro Degradations were more resistant. (PROSE: Engines of War)
When the Twelfth Doctor hired Lumpy as a companion, he upgraded his non-functioning gunstick, but modified it to only stun instead of kill. (GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek)
When brought to the Dalek City, the Twelfth Doctor, thinking Clara Oswald had died, claimed a discarded gunstick to try and kill Davros only to find it inoperable, instead using the weapon as a bluff against Dalek control. Missy later claimed a gunstick from a Bronze Dalek which she used to free the Doctor from Colony Sarff. She gave this gunstick to the Doctor to try and trick him into killing Clara, operating a Dalek casing, only for him to see through the ruse. The Doctor later used the weapon to save a young Davros from Handmines. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice, The Witch's Familiar)
Behind the scenes
Etymology
The more widely-recognised term of "gunstick" is difficult to pin down in terms of first usage. One of its earliest appearances in print is The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game supplement The Daleks. Published in 1985 by the FASA Corporation. A detailed anatomical dissection of Dalek mechanisms, psychology and history. Other terms such as "sucker arm" and "eyestalk" also originate in the supplement.
Invalid sources
According to the non-narrative material The Dalek Pocketbook and Space Travellers Guide, the gunstick was made from a metal called Silcronian which was heat-resistant and could repel laser rays or ruby heat which the Daleks used as ammunition.
In the video game The Last Dalek, based on the events of Dalek, the Metaltron's gunstick is accessed by the 60KHZ Energy Weapon, further enhanced by the 120KHZ Energy Ray and the Alien Weapon.
Focusing Emitters
- James Johnson rendered a Time War-era Reconnaissance Dalek model which was featured on the cover of Gallifrey: War Room 1: Allegiance.[1] Ahead of release, Johnson released a closer look at his designs, with one of the Reconnaissance Dalek's distinguishing features being a Focusing Emitter on the gunstick.[2] He clarified that the accompanying text wasn't in any way official, and that he added it "just for fun".[3]
Focusing Emitters were attachments that reduced audible noise and the radiation signature of death rays. They produced a stronger beam than the standard Dalek energy weapon, with the capacity to slice through most reinforced materials.
