A brief overview of Dalek 'Sense Globes'

It's been a long time coming - we're finally covering the Dalek bumps on Dalek Bumps. These seemingly hemispherical protrusions have been a longstanding aspect of the Dalek design, but unlike the eyestalk, manipulator, and gunstick, the function of these orbs has not always been consistent. So what are Dalek 'sense globes'?
All footage is the property of the BBC. Music by Jun Senoue and Teruhiko Nakagawa

[@corytem1994]

Finally. Dalek Bumps talking about Dalek Bumps

[@m.sharif_3d]

They're also known as *"Dalek BUMPS!"* 🤣

[@Wickedlullaby]

I hear they are incredibly firm.

[@superpenguinzzz]

or as Rory called them, "Eggs".

[@BalrogsHaveWings]

Oh, NOW I geddit!

[@vicwolfrin]

To quote the Master “and their very firm”

[@cillianennis9921]

& to quote the doctor after the Master explained what they daleks had given him "& I notice Breasts."

[@Squid1562]

I’ve always had the headcanon that the spheres are part of the life support system. Sensing the outside environment around the casing and adjusting the internal climate to keep the mutant alive

[@mcdaysalive6586]

I always assumed that they were ]a modular part of the Dalek, to swap out sensors, shields, etc, and could be equipped in any combination onto any standard Dalek model. This way Daleks could keep the mono singular style of Dalek casing while still having them be versatile enough for different operations, and would explain why for example some Daleks have shields while others do not.

[@STie95]

When you take the fact that Daleks exhibit a sense of agreeable designs over all of their forms, then take it in context with the proposition that "Daleks have no sense of elegance", it becomes a really fascinating look into Dalek psyche. Shared aesthetics emerge in every Dalek culture DESPITE their willingness or contrarian opinions.

[@rohanthomas4134]

I’ve heard your outro so many times now that I genuinely forgot but they were called anything other than “Darlek BUMPS!”

[@reeceemms1643]

How about Dalek globes that project an invisibility screen first a stealth dalek

[@drwhodudefan]

What about Dalek Lumps! Actually no you should get those checked out...

[@FactionParadox2090]

I wondered when this would happen, the irony is almost too much to bear.

[@justanaveragegamer8735]

Finally talking about your namesake

[@RealMagmaDash]

why are they referred to as "sense globes" then? since clearly they have much more purpose than just "sensing"?

[@paladinboyd1228]

I often thought they were used to cover hatches and ports that would allow a Dalek to be fed and connected to equipment like the controls of a ship. The sensor were that grill thing on the eye stalk.

[@madsteve9]

My first on screen Dalek story was "Genesis" in 1975. I always thought that they were a Sonar / Radar type system, giving an individual Dalek an extra sense. With them being a power module. It makes sense that they would later be used for projecting a Force Field / Energy Field around a Dalek. Also a containment field during self destruction. **** Colours. I prefer Matt / Satin Black. This also makes sense, as Radar cones on fighter planes are / were black. As the original colours of the Spheres was a Light Blue (an electric energy colour), to me the shift to Black was the Dalek race in a state of mourning for loss of the Emperor. And until "Planet of the Daleks" where a member of the Dalek Supreme Council turns up, only those 2 colours were used. Its also notable that Dalek Supremes, have had Silver, Pearlescent White, Metallic Steel Blue, Black and Gold Spheres. The only on screen appearances of the Prime (Prime Minister) in a containment suit, during the "Day of the Daleks" & "Frontier in Space". His / Its Spheres are Black. ***** You have also missed something. In the original Dalek story, the Thal's wear a capes/coats, with a similar pattern on them, but they are Hexagonally shaped. So, maybe, this is the original Kaled symbol/flag of 4 Circles/Spheres in a row ?

[@SuperEpicNiceGuy]

I thought they were the "dogs unmentionables" according to Missy 🤣🤣

[@Shadybish]

I always thought from the term “sense globes” they give the dalek a form a environmental awareness… so that they know something is behind them when they’re not looking

[@JackFroster]

The curse of fatal death being a source make me crack up

[@SpykeTheSU]

I mean if we’re gonna have the timeless child we may as well have Roman Atkinson be canon too.

[@MegaZeta]

@@SpykeTheSU If you're going to try and be a snob about it you should probably get the name right

[@SpykeTheSU]

@@MegaZeta I’m not trying to be a snob. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people liking the timeless child , I just don’t.

[@JRHainsworth]

I think they are an in-built part of Dalek design that they got from Davros, and his chair. Similar to how "mercy" was imbedded into the dalek's code from Davros after the 12th doctor let him go.

[@lunalass7767]

As Rory would call them eggs 🥚 🪺 😂😂

[@Silverwind87]

The late Ray Cusick did a redesign of the Daleks, which notably featured no bumps, save for two bug-like eyes.

[@SilverStormShadow]

Sonic Heroes is a fantastic game with an amazing soundtrack.

[@DalekGarf]

I do like the idea that they generate forcefields

[@Nigel-xp4rf]

I like the idea that the 'Exxilon' Daleks, the silver and black ones that are in Death To The Daleks (DTTD) were a mix of science and 'guards', as they were able to get around the City and, until the Antibodies turned up, capable of withstanding the defences within it. Very adaptable as well, as shown by changing their weapons when faced with the energy drain. So, I wouldn't mind seeing more of them, just not coming after me down a short corridor.

[@madsteve9]

I have always liked the Exxilon Daleks. I would class these as Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance Daleks. So probably they would be called Drones. Whereas the Scientist / Engineers that created the Invisibility Cloaks in "Planet of the Daleks", are a Blue Grey colour. (Blue with Silver, repurposed from the "Dalek Invasion of Earth" Movie, also appeared in "The Chase") Day of the Dalek/Planet of the Daleks/Destiny of the Daleks/Resurrection of the Daleks/Revelation of the Daleks/Remembrance of the Dalek, Warrior/Soldier's are in Dark Battle Grey.

[@Traykartheswift]

Personally, I think it would be cool if a lower tech dalek could grab a globe with its plunger, and then toss it as an explosive. Something else they could do is have the sense globes work as detachable drones, floating around an area and relaying information back to the main dalek.

[@grahamturner1290]

🐙

[@oliverc1790]

Video idea:what is the nightmare child

[@Мясникхохолов]

My god, Dalek Bumps is taking about Dalek Bumps, Will Dalek bumps show us his bumps 😳

[@dalekbumps]

And now Dalek Bumps is talking to you about Dalek Bumps talking about Dalek Bumps 😂

[@puffythedestroyer8878]

We were all building up to this. The ultimate tale of the namesake.

[@blockydude2253]

I’ve always imagine them as armour to deflect physical projectiles and shrapnel

[@tommyfox854]

I personally always saw those globes as a multi-purpose tool, a kin to a swiss army knife, for Daleks; and while I can't saw for certain what I view canon Dalek Bumps to be like, for me it just feels weird thinking that the casing is so limited in its functionality, I can say what I imagen their function to be. . . that is if anyone is interested in me rambling on bout the functions of Dalek disco balls.

[@timecontroller8800]

I do like the idea of the dalek globes being motion detectors as it does mean they aren’t completely helpless if there eye is destroyed and can still just as easily seek locate and exterminate u

[@duncankilburn7612]

Dalek Bumps generate their force field.

[@59rlmccormack]

Those are true DALEK BUMPS!

[@thomasjohnson8391]

What day will do the character options Dalek merchandise

[@speeddemon5339]

I had a theory that these DALEK Balls were made in universe to deflect any projectiles, kind of like how the WW1 stamp metal helmet would be shaped to cause bullets to ricochet off of it.

[@CleverCrumbish]

The notion that the Daleks consider aspects of their shell's aesthetic important enough to their identity to "grandfather" them in and repurpose them is a fun theory that neatly explains away the obvious contradictions of multiple writers finding their own cool purpose for the bumps without consulting each other (Or themselves? Helen Raynor script edited for Dalek where the bumps are globes used for shield projection/self-destruct containment but then wrote Manhattan/Evolution where they're very clearly shown to be hemispheres on the plates donated to the mast for the final experiment- maybe she didn't have enough oversight on the props dept to catch that), but it does run up against the problem that it's shown relatively frequently that daleks don't (or at least don't always) use casing recognition for IFF. If they did, there'd be a decent chance the death squad daleks and the paradigm daleks both would have experienced more uncertainty as to the legitimacy of the "impure" daleks they were assigned to destroy. But maybe there's a way of squaring that circle. After all, for all that characters (both on the Doctor's side and on that of the daleks themselves) love to *claim* on screen that daleks have no emotions, this is obviously untrue- or at least not true in the way that it's true of the cybermen. Daleks are definitely emotionally limited, but are obviously permitted to some extent to feel hatred, anger, disgust and possibly fear (in fact I don't know there's any "possibly" about it- daleks have been shown to experience fear or at least startlement at the sight of the Doctor or something they do enough times on screen that there's a choreographic grammar for how a dalek should express that). To that end- maybe Daleks have a kind of aesthetic pride? Maybe it's not that they think a dalek NEEDS to look a certain way to be pure, but that a dalek SHOULD look a certain way in a situation where they have access to the resources to do so and are functioning normally? It's no so outlandish an idea. It's no secret, after all, that dalek ideology is based on that of fascist movements like the nazis, and those movements frequently prize uniform aesthetic excellence as a propaganda tool- the original nazi uniforms were designed by Hugo Boss, as we are often reminded. Perhaps the daleks keep the globes around because they prize the traditional image of a dalek, including its silhouette, as a tool to proclaim their superiority and strike the fear of recognition into the minds of those they are coming to exterminate.

[@EthanDolan61101]

I like to imagine that each one of the spheres are in fact eggs that contain stable, infant Dalek Embryos. When a Dalek is injured beyond repair, the eggs release and fly off somewhere safe, where each one grows into a full Dalek. The Embryos grow into the fully grown Kaled Mutant, and the egg turns into a casing. So you can see there is a cycle that allows The Dalek Race to continue, and these eggs can act as a form of emergency backup in the case of a near Dalek extinction.

[@АртемПістунов]

I'd say that the dalek egg balls are mildly silly, but also kida weird.

[@android65mar]

Literally Dalek Bumps lol!

[@mudspud]

They're Dalek bumps.

[@nicholasdickens2801]

Dalek *BALLS* my good man. 😂😉

[@michaeltownley9144]

Surely you mean sense spheres? 😄

[@SpeedstersUnited]

1:49 careful mate, ThePrydonian might bite your head off for using his renders in a video. Nonethelesss, great look at Dalek BUMPS!

[@dalekbumps]

😂 I gave credit, so hopefully it should be fine

[@10thdoctor15]

They're nothing to do with the self-destruct. The Metaltron used the shield to contain the self-destruct, that's all.

[@dalekbumps]

I do mention that in the video - but they are somewhat related to the self-destruct, as we see the Metaltron use them to project a shield to contain the explosion during its self-destruct process. The unused footage of Rusty self-destructing at the end of Into the Dalek also used the same effect