Advanced aliens didn't invent/discover this one basic thing.

[u/HotUKTakes]

1. The Santi, from The Three Body Problem, are masters of dimensional engineering. They can build an AI computer the size of a planet, and fold it into the size of a photon.

But they never invented the concept of lying.

1. The Asgard, from Stargate, are an advanced civilization with FTL travel capable of spanning different galaxies. But they need the help of humans to fight their enemies the replicators, a mechanical lifeform comprised of replicating lego blocks, because human guns can blow the blocks apart, while Asgard energy weapons are just absorbed.

The Asgard say the idea to use chemical reactions to launch a blunt object at high velocity never occured to them.

1. Despite having the ability to build a simulated beach, complete with simulated earth atmosphere, The Eridians didn't discover relativity and radiation.

2. The aliens from War of the worlds just lick everything, clearly having no concepts of germs. Which is what kills them in the end.

3. Despite having FTL travel, the Havesters from Independence day, never invented network security, as they are hacked by a human macbook.

[u/Winsorclara]

https://giphy.com/gifs/BEoiu8chUsKC7LNjuu

Early Daleks had absurdly advanced weapons and space technology but could be stopped by... stairs

[u/Squid_of_the_Now → u/Winsorclara]

I will never forget the episode Remembrance of the Daleks (Sylvester McCoy) where the Doctor straight up runs up a flight of stairs to escape a Dalek, and the mortified look on his face when, for the first time ever, it generates a hover field and starts flying up after him.

[u/Simon_Drake → u/Squid_of_the_Now]

But there's also one of the old Doctors that defeats a Dalek by smudging mashed potatoes on the eye stalk and pushing it over.

[u/crapusername47 → u/Simon_Drake]

In ‘The Daleks’, the very first Dalek story, Barbara uses dirt taken from Susan’s shoe to blind a Dalek’s eyestalk.

In Doctor Who and the Daleks, the non-canon Peter Cushing film based on ‘The Daleks’, Ian uses whatever the alien space food the Daleks give them to blind a Dalek.

It is actually just mashed potato but it’s not supposed to be. 

[u/Simon_Drake → u/crapusername47]

I remember the Daleks getting power through the floor for some reason and they could defeat a Dalek by making it drive over a blanket or something on the floor. But they needed to smush mashed potatoes on the eye stalk as a distraction.

[u/crapusername47 → u/Simon_Drake]

Yes, that’s correct, it’s in both versions of the story.  They had overcome that limitation by their next appearance. 

Curiously, in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’, where we see the creation of the Daleks, the issue doesn’t come up, meaning it might have been an issue that they ran into later.

[u/KazzaraOW → u/crapusername47]

I'm pretty sure, could be wrong because doctor who lore is incredibly complicated, but the daleks were technically "invented" twice. First by Davros to win the war on Skaro, and then post war the surviving Daleks reinvented the Tank Armour thing again, but since they had less knowledge, and only lived on metal, they decided to do power delivery by floor.

[u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 → u/Squid_of_the_Now]

And they make a callback in the reboot with the episode Dalek

[u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 → u/Squid_of_the_Now]

And they make a callback in the reboot with the episode Dalek

[u/PyroIsSpai → u/Winsorclara]

ELEVATE!

[u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 → u/Winsorclara]

Originally, the daleks chasis were powered by floor panels that discharged static electricity due to having to adapt to a highly radioactive environment from Nuclear Fallout.

It was after the doctor's visit that they began to further their research into interplanetary conquest and genocide

[u/ThrownAway17Years → u/Winsorclara]

So they’re ED-209 kind of.