Following his capture on Necros, Davros is rescued by the Doctor of all people. The Daleks subsequently revive Abslom Daak from his demise over Hell to discover where he has sequestered their rogue creator.
- Back from the Dead: Abslom Daak is brought back to have the Doctor locate Davros for the Daleks.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Benny and Daak’s crew are brainwashed to force the Doctor to locate Davros.
- Call-Back: When the Doctor returns to Hell, he finds Daak’s crew, who weren’t as dead as he assumed in his last visit.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Benny’s Martian joke doesn’t particularly make sense in English. Hama implies it’s a fairly juvenile gag by Martian standards.
- Chekhov's Gun: Davros uses the virus that corrupted the Daleks at his trial to weaken the defences on Skaro so he can easily conquer the planet.
- Continuity Nod:
- The Sixth Doctor takes credit for placing a mattress in Perivale to save his future self.
- Benny’s past trauma with the Daleks is brought up, with the source of her Heroic Willpower being the memories of her teddy bear who was with her mother during the latter’s death.
- Foreshadowing: As they land on the Planet Davros has been hiding on, the Seventh Doctor assures the Psych Dalek that “they won’t be seeing the natives”.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Davros suffers from this at the end, to maintain continuity. He forgets everything from the trial onwards, beyond a vague recollection of the term “Hand of Omega”.
- Retcon: The Emperor seen in "Nemesis" was intended to be Davros, but "Emperor" moves the story’s place in the Dalek timeline to before "Remembrance", and reveals Davros killed him to take the position.
- Ship Sinking: Daak’s crush on Taiyin is ended with her being rendered Deader than Dead, with his affections transferring to Benny.
- Sequel Episode: It functions as this to "Planet of the Daleks", "Revelation of the Daleks" and "Nemesis of the Daleks", in addition to being a prequel to "Remembrance of the Daleks" and receiving an Interquel in the form of "Up Above the Gods"
- Wham Line: As the Doctor reveals that he and the Star Tigers aren’t on Earth, like they thought.Emperor: Yes, Doctor! This is Skaro! And you are a prisoner of the Daleks!
- And another one, as the Daleks confront Davros, only to find that he now has an army.
Davros: You see I have learnt the history of this world, and have found the Dalek force that was lost here. In the year since I was rescued I have been most industrious. Let me tell you the name of this planet! It is called Spiridon, and it is home to my army of four million Daleks! Daleks completely loyal to me…
