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Dalek card says "if the Doctor is anywhere on the table, during your turn you can discard both him and this".

So player 1 has Doctor #2, player 2 has Doctor #3, I have the dalek. Can I discard the dalek and both Doctors?

Does The Doctor and him mean all the doctors on the table? After all, they are all "The Doctor". (I would read it differently if it said "if a Doctor is anywhere on the table, during your turn you can discard both him and this", but it doesn't).

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    I am not a Fluxx expert (which is why this is a comment and not an answer) however the use of singular nouns leads me to believe you trash a single Doctor and not all of them.
    – Veskah
    Sep 6, 2018 at 2:28

2 Answers 2

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The text on the Dalek creeper is not exactly clear: "if the Doctor is anywhere on the table, during your turn you can discard both him and this". But all doctors are "the doctor" (The third doctor, the nineth doctor etc..) so you can safely assume this counts for a single "the doctor" card.

If you look at the the FAQ:

Q: Can I trash someone else’s Doctor to get rid of my Dalek, instead of my own?

A: The Dalek says you can discard the Doctor from anywhere on the table. You’re not required to kill your own Doctor first, so, it makes the most sense, strategically, for your Dalek to target someone else’s Doctor.

There is no indication that you can discard both. It just discards one instance of "the Doctor". It is up to you to decide Who.

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Common English Answer The effect on the Dalek says "Both." In common usage, and as it is defined, both means two items. Since you may discard both The Doctor and the Dalek card having the Effect, considering that the Dalek is one card, you may only cause 1 The Doctor to be discarded.

2 - 1 = 1

Esoteric Answer You only get to target one of The Doctor's in play with the Dalek effect.

Corroborating Evidence
The Player is required to have "The Doctor" and a "Dalek" to win with the Goal "EXTERMINATE!" The image for the Card shows only a Silhouette for The Doctor and a Dalek. The silhouette matches the same in the bottom left corner of each Doctor card. From this, any of the Doctors and a Delek would satisfy the Win condition.

Comparatively, the other Goals list a specific doctor.

Continuation: Consider the FAQ, which covers the situation in which you have the option of multiple Doctors with which to discard with the Delek. If it was required to discard all Doctors with the Delek, the FAQ wouldn't provide you with the strategic option of targeting your opponent's Doctor.

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    I agree that it's reasonable to read the "EXTERMINATE!" goal as being satisfied by any Doctor card and a Dalek (although I haven't seen any official designer statement confirming this). But how, exactly, does that corroborate your claim that the Dalek's (optional) effect can only target one Doctor card? Sep 12, 2018 at 15:50
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    Wording mostly, and an observance of card interactions elsewhere in the Fluxx Franchise. Separately, I have a theory that despite the randomness of Fluxx, they wouldn't put in a card that completely stilted card advantage towards one play within a deck. If the Dalek is broadly read to destroy all The Doctor's you want to, it would be an insane advantage to the player, and unbalance the power of each of the Daleks. However, that bit is just a theory. Sep 12, 2018 at 17:32
  • Regarding your edit, note that the English word "both" is also commonly used to refer to members of two groups, or to an individual and a group, as in "both cats and dogs" or "both you and your friends". Sep 12, 2018 at 20:27

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