Daniel Powell

[THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION] [Please note anything in square brackets is by the page's author for future reference, as they have a memory like a sieve]

Daniel Powell
Aliases	Dan Powell
Nicknames	Sport (Davenport) Little Buddy (Davenport) Boombox Fuckboi (Cynthia) 87.9 (Cynthia) Decker (Cynthia) Jonny-5 (Cynthia) Radiohead (Cynthia) Videodrome (Clara) Human Boombox (Clara) Mr. Boombox (Clara) Mapmaker (Rat, Clara)
Pronouns	He / Him
Affiliation	LMG (former)
Occupation	Temporary Archivist (former)
Biographical information
Species	Human ([Weird People
Family	Unnamed Parents
Status	Alive
Meta information
Portrayed by	Daniel Powell
First Appearance	01 - A Body in a New Place

"I, Daniel Powell, a temporary archivist for the Housing Historical Committee of New York State, give complete verbal consent to be recorded"

Daniel Powell is the protagonist of the first two seasons of Archive 81, and a minor character in season 3.

Dan is employed as a temporary archivist for what he believes to be The Housing Historical of Committee of New York State, where, in an isolated archive in the woods, he begins the task of digitising the tapes in Archive 81, recorded all the while as he does so. The Tapes in Archive 81 house the audio logs made by Melody Pendras, a survey of the Visser building.

Personality

Dan is intelligent in many respects but also quite gullible. He is always willing to try to stand up for himself, but is not particularly assertive, and with any resistance struggles to hold any ground in an argument. As a result, he finds himself pushed around a lot.

Dan is very learning-driven and naturally curious to the point of being nosy and obsessive. He has a tendency to be outwardly vague, which he does not seem to be aware of, often calling other people out for the exact same thing. Dan is an inherently kind person, and cares a lot for the people around him, but has difficulty showing it. He takes a very "treat others as you'd like to be treated" attitude, and is willing to put himself in danger to help relative strangers, but is somewhat stumped by emotional matters, rarely getting further than "are you okay?", and "do you want to talk about it?". He seems comfortable with animals, quickly befriending a wild rat, and asking Tanya to say hi to her dog for him.

Despite his tendency to be loud and sweary on tape, he is overall a quiet person who spends a lot of time in his own head. He can be quite emotional and is prone to short outbursts, which seem to resolve fairly quickly as he becomes embarrassed or gets distracted. Although rage often results in him breaking things, he has a hard time directing it at other people, and is never physically violent. He has a keen interest in music and all things audio, showing decent knowledge of equipment, music composition, and musical artists. His sense of humour is quite silly, he seems to enjoy puns and often jokingly teases people. He gets quite sarcastic when annoyed.

Dan's personality is affected somewhat over the course of season one as he is forced to hold a piece of Visser, and becomes lost in its story. It is possible the extended isolation is a contributing factor to this change as well. Dan becomes vague, detached, and obsessive beyond the normal degree. Much of this seems to resolve when the piece of Visser is pulled out of him, though as we do not see much of him beforehand, it is difficult to make accurate judgement.

After his operation in season 2, Dan's personality remains remarkably unaffected. In contrast to many other Weird People, Dan's self remains intact, with no major changes in personality and only a minor effect on his personal memory. The Boatwoman notes Dan's personal memories are "unattached", the only outward evidence of this is misremembering Tanya's name, later realising his mistake. Interestingly, this does not seem to extend to anyone else, as he recalls an array of other people, events, and personal interests with no issues. Dan has possibly been affected in two other respects; he is always fairly vague, but progressively becomes more outwardly cryptic, both in season 2 and 3. After the operation, he also develops a far more "may as well happen" attitude, taking fairly significant events to shake him up, where a simple power-cut could in season 1. In all other respects, he seems internally unchanged.

Appearance

Season 1

Dan himself is not described in any detail, though is not long out of college, so probably in his early-mid 20s. It is implied he is not unattractive, and gives off the air of being a bit of a hipster.

Season 2

At the start of season 2, Dan is forcefully modified by Rat on behalf of LMG, becoming a self-described "tape-cyborg". His machinations, "tape body", "new body" or "new flesh" replace around a third of his previous body, though the exact amount is not specified, stated as a little as a quarter and as much "almost half". The new body is quite fragile, parts often coming lose with minor impacts, and hinders his movement; Dan finds extended walking exhausting, and initially also very painful. The surgery makes him useful on several levels; as a "Weird" individual, Dan is more "in-tune" with the city, and able to handle the effects of the tapes even better. Rat also takes the opportunity to incubate a new leviathan within Dan's body, with neither Dan's knowledge or consent.

The modifications extend over half his chest, and seemingly to his abdomen as well. They also replace his left arm (now mechanical) and parts of a leg. He retains a human shape, still able to wear boxers, an open shirt, and shoe(s), sitting and lying normally. At one point he jokes about passing the changes off as intricate tattoos. It is implied his flesh parts are still in good condition, but the modifications are obvious enough that he could not completely hide them if he wanted to. His wrongness seems to come primarily from being anatomically impossible, rather then overtly monstrous. His appearance in the mirror is alarming enough to make him ill, (though this may be shock), but not enough for him to assume his co-workers would treat him as inhuman.

He is implied to move wrong at first, his movements becoming more natural in sound, and comfortable for him, as he adjusts to his body. It is unclear if this is individual parts or his body as a whole, and it's quite possible his brain and body are initially still "syncing up" with his new flesh, causing his awkward mechanical movements. It seems to become a degree less natural sounding when he has been exerting himself.

Dan's main organ area is clearly modified, and Clara notes it is clear he is missing organs. He can't, and doesn’t need to eat, but it seems he may still be able to drink, taking tea with Melody (who offers him a refill), though he clearly doesn't need to in order to survive. It's implied he needed to use the bathroom at some point after his operation. His junk is unaffected, but it is implied the modified parts extend close. His heart is still fully functional, and he has at least one lung. Dan's breathing becomes somewhat mechanical in pattern when asleep, relaxed or deep in thought. It is unclear if his face is affected, but it seems all his major facial structures are intact, though his voice is not entirely disconnect, with his body echoing him (and nobody else) in episode 11, and he is able to shatter glass by using his voice and device in tandem in episode 19.

Dan's new body has two tape recorders: a main one, the Master tape, near his heart, which is always recording, and a secondary lower down for playing tapes. The second has a pullable "flesh button" that makes a meaty sound when opened. Similarly, the sound when he tries to rip out the first would indicate it is also flesh adjacent. In addition to the recorders, the tapes appear to play binaurally, possibly from two speakers. Cynthia and Clara both refer to him as "boombox" at some point, and Dan quips "What is he gonna do, cut me open and stick a goddamn boombox inside of me?", so he may also have boombox-like speakers. The rest is various other radio parts, audio equipment, and unspecified objects, and enough of his torso and abdomen has been replaced that he could appear to be able to theoretically "warp around" a bullet. He receives an additional piece later on, which rings when the mother radio is called, allows him to connect with it, and later, allows him to receive calls without it. It's noted to reverberate in his bones, so it may be hooked up to his ribs. When Dan is walking after surgery, Rat notes wanting to check his cartilage is synced up to the wires. This could be a knee, ribs, shoulder or, most likely, spine. Audibly, it seems at least one left side joint is replaced; probably from the shoulder, though possibly the hip.

At the end of the season, Dromen cuts the master tape from Dan's body, leaving the rest in Dan, and Dan in a space between Earth and The City, until he can figure out away to make him "normal" again.

Season 3

During season 3, Dan retains the majority of his tape body, Dromen having cut out the master tape. In episode 32, Dan is able to use the ██████ Ritual to regain his human appearance, and it has been confirmed this carries over to Earth. Dan notes that "in this particular bubble you don't get a weird cyborg", which may imply that the tape body is not entirely gone, and in other bubbles, would reappear.

History

[TO BE WRITTEN]

Early history

Dan went to college, presumably studying audio engineering and archival studies, or some equivalent. At some point, he and his advisor catalogued the University’s Ethno-musicological archives. Before his archival job, he lived in Brooklyn with a room-mate, who "played 80's influenced synth-pop at 3 in the morning".

Season 1

Dan gets an archival job with what he believes to be The Housing Historical Committee of New York State, digitising Archive 81, a collection of interviews from a high-rise apartment buildings from the mid 90s. [Insert brief summary of events important to Dan]

After opening The Visser Portal, Dan sends Mark all his recorded audio, and goes into hiding.

Season 2

After being in hiding for at least nine months, (but almost certainly over a year) Dan is discovered and captured by LMG.(SELF NOTE: Calculate exact bracket of time. I suspect a year is a reasonable minimal upper assumption)

Season 3

Some time after March of 2017, after being trapped in an in-between space for somewhere between 5 and 14 months (on Earth, it is unclear if time runs the same for him), Dan is able to rework the ██████ Ritual to return home, complete with an apparently unmodified body. Melody has given him a list of errands to do when he gets home, and he seems to think he'll be able to contact her again. He intends to return to a normal life.

Skills and Abilities

• Archival Skills: While inexperienced, Dan seems to be a relatively competent archivist [NOTE: CHECK THIS WITH AN ACTUAL ARCHIVIST, PLEASE]
• Shortcut: Dan employs Visser's signature teleport when fleeing the outpost, before his piece of Visser is pulled from him completely. He also seems to jump ahead in time slightly, as when he lands, The Archive is under some kind of attack in the background. Without his piece of Visser, it is doubtful he could ever do this again.
• Tough Soul: Dan naturally has a high tolerance for "weird shit", and is able to handle a large number of tapes, or weird stuff without significant damage to his psyche. He also does not suffer headaches the same way Melody does. His tolerance for it increases again after his operation in Season 2, when he becomes weird in part himself.
• Accelerated Healing: While his new body is fragile, Dan heals abnormally fast from his operation, and recovers quickly from other taxing events.
• Tape Recorder: Dan's new body can play tapes, and is always recording.
• Recall: Dan seems to take in and recall information from tapes played in his body with greater accuracy and ease than would otherwise be expected.
• Walkie Talkie: With the aid of Rat, Dan is able to connect to short range communication devices, such as walkie talkies, cutting through interference a standard device would not. It seems to be a taxing process.
• Broadcasting: While asleep, Dan is able to broadcast to radios and recorders, even when they are switched off. He can listen and speak through radios, but only listen on a recorder. He can also turn on recorders remotely. With a strong enough emotional connection, Dan can also enter people's mindscapes, as demonstrated in The Contest. While broadcasting, he can hear everything around him, and move outward to explore the immediate surrounding area, but cannot see anything. While broadcasting, the master tape records what Dan is hearing, rather than his physical surroundings. He may also be able to record what he hears to tapes, as he is able to acquire a tape recording of Xkryxx's song somehow. Broadcasting is, however, quite exhausting to do.
• Receiving Calls: Dan is given a piece later that rings when the mother radio receives a call, allows him to connect with it, and later, to receive calls directly to his body without it. It hurts when it rings, feeling "like [his] bones are being scraped together".
• Tuning: Dan can be "tuned" to emit certain sounds, as demonstrated when breaking the glass of the Outpost windows.
• Sending Tapes: From his space between worlds, Dan is able to send Christine Anderson tapes remotely, via her Vomiting them up. The connection to do this is made when he breaks into the ██████ Ritual, Chris drowning herself in the bucket after a cleansing ritual does not go as planned. It is unknown how Dan accesses these tapes.

Relationships

Mark Sollinger

Mark and Dan are friends from college. Dan considers Mark his best friend, for good reason, as Mark is consistently shown to go above and beyond to help Dan. The two are very close and care about each other a great deal.

Mark knows Dan very well, being very in-the-know about Dan's life, including his personal projects, and has known Dan well for long enough to make of his dating history. Dan seems to know who Mark's coworkers are, and thinks of him when making terrible jokes. He is the first person Dan calls when he needs help, and is clearly someone Dan trusts and can rely on a great deal. In season 2, Dan suspects Mark is the reason he got captured, not intentionally, but a lack of security when releasing the podcast, and is somewhat frustrated with him for it. Mark goes so far as to become Dromen in order to get Dan out of the city, and even after becoming Dromen, Dan still considers them his best friend. Dromen is also still incredibly fond of Dan; Static Man taunting them with Dan's voice about an apparent betrayal is a more painful thought than seeing more members of The Cult killed, and they are willing to let Chris and Nicholas go in order to free him, despite all the destruction they have caused.

Tanya Molova

Tanya is Dan's girlfriend at the start of Season 1. The two seem quite close, she understands his bad habits and tries to look out for him, sending him off with a sunlamp, and checking he is eating and exercising right. He has been helping her with a renovation project, and she even agrees to save some painting to do together. Tanya understands Dan quite well and is eager to look out for him, but at the same time, is willing to cut him off when he fails to maintain their relationship on his end. She worries about him even after this, but not enough to see him again.

Ratty

Dan's little buddy. [TO BE WRITTEN]

Liam Davenport

Excited for his new job, Dan initially attempts to impress Davenport, but quickly realises Davenport is untrustworthy and does not have his best interests at heart. Despite this, Davenport manages to continually manipulate and steamroll Dan.

Dan is still shocked and upset at Davenport's death, though this is more of a reflection of Dan as a person, than their relation. [INCOMPLETE]

Rat

Dan seems to find Rat generally exhausting and a bit frustrating, and although initially very unimpressed, Dan can't seem to bring himself to actively dislike him, either. On face level, Rat seems to care about and try to be a good friend to Dan, though it becomes quickly apparent his affection is mostly for his "finest creation", and partially as a fan of the podcast, rather than for Dan as an actual person. Rat also has remarkably little room for Dan's own worries or opinions, often dismissing them out of hand, and about as much consideration for Dan's bodily autonomy. He seems to also frequently withhold useful information, ensuring Dan becomes better aquainted with both The City and his new body in order to find it.

His affection may be misplaced, but still offers Dan some comfort in an otherwise hostile Outpost; their trip to the theramin room is one of Dan's only positive experiences in The City, or with Weird Stuff at all. Once it becomes clear something is wrong at LMG, and having no real reason to stay at the outpost, Rat agrees to leave when Dan does. Rat is determined that Dan learn to love and appreciate his new body, and connection to The City, to approve of the hard work Rat is so proud of. Thinking Dan is like him, Rat often wonders why Dan bothers worrying about "the humans" (Clara and Lou). While he seems to worry about Dan, this does not extend to his mental or emotional health, instead just his physical well-being, worried his prize project will be damaged.

This is not to say Rat is not affectionate for Dan, he has been noted to love him "like a creator loves its creation" (exactly what this is), calling him cute, and taking joy at Dan calling him by his nickname. Rather, he does not have affection for who Dan is as a person, and the two are never really able to connect interpersonally.

Because the way in which Rat is affected by his weirdness, it is unclear if he's able to understand what he's done to Dan is wrong, and whether he is capable of forming human friendships in the conventional sense, but he does call Dan a "good friend", so he has some version of it. Dan feels Rat is confused, and has a hard time blaming him for the awful things he's done, simply trying to treat him "kindly". While Dan does not return Rat's affection, he does seem to progressively develop a care toward him, though this may simply to be pity, stating "he's been kicked around enough". [TO REVIEW]

Suit/Caroline

Dan has a lot of sympathy for Suit and is often checking on them. While Rat insists Suit is an "it", Dan takes offence to this, using "she" and "they", and protesting when Rat is unkind to her. Dan tries to look out for them, rushing over to help when hearing her "malfunction" (sing), trying to make conversation, and asking them to leave the outpost with him. As Caroline begins to surface, Dan returns her name, and Suit seeks out Dan's help to remove her finger, to release her in part from LMG. After this point, Caroline looks out for Dan as well. She understands Dan is gentle by nature, not trusting that he'd be able to use The Boatwoman's knife, and scalding him for his kindness to the people who've wronged him. [INCOMPLETE]

Clara

Though not immediately obvious, of everyone in the outpost, Dan's situation is closest to Clara's, both trapped in The City and forced into the expedition under threat. Dan and Clara do not start off on very good terms, both thinking the other is there willingly, and Clara having a hard time conceptualising Dan's status as a person.

Clara is wary of Dan from their first meeting, refusing to shake his hand, and asking other people invasive questions about him, right in front of him. Dan has no reason to like her; she is constantly rude, and does not hide her disgust of his modifications or thoughts about his supposed obsessions. Clara has a tendency to get cruel when scared, and it's pretty clear that Dan freaks her out. She seems to see him as obsessive, driven by the need for secrets and stories, and assuming he's willing participant in both his own modification and LMG's expedition. Closed off and hostile, Dan has a difficult time getting any sense of what Clara is actually like. After discovering Clara is debt to LMG, and witnessing Cynthia threaten her family, Dan understands that she's there about as willingly as he is, becoming sympathetic and trying to get her to open up. Misreading this as intrusive curiosity, she initially rebuffs him, the two growing increasingly frustrated with each other.

Eventually, Dan confronts her about the way she treats him, explaining his situation, convincing her he's still a person, and promising to get her home. Clara relaxes and the two bond over music and get to know a bit more about each other. They become fast friends and her attitude to him changes quite dramatically, no longer just seeing him as a part of the weirdness, but another person affected by it, and Dan is relieved to have someone who actually understands his position. Of everyone in the Outpost, Dan is eventually able to become closest to, and is most comfortable with, Clara. This may be true for Clara as well, and although she warmly admits Dan still weirds her out, she grows more comfortable around him over time, and seems to make casual conversation with Dan more easily than she does with even Lou. The two quickly develop an "emotional connection" enough for him to connect with her while broadcasting.

Once friends, he finds Clara's behaviour changes in other ways, too; after previously being very cagey with information, Clara seems to actively start collecting and sharing more, including details she thinks are not only useful, but also interesting. She expresses genuine concern for his wellbeing and emotional boundaries, checking he's alright and dropping topics when he seems uncomfortable. She quickly defaults to asking him questions over everyone else, frequently taking his opinions with more consideration than she does for Lou.

Another major change is trust; once friends, they never outwardly doubt the other's intentions, no matter how bad things get. After The Contest, Clara and Lou could have easily gotten their boon and left The City without so much as telling Dan, but he instead (correctly) assumes they are in danger, and likewise Clara (correctly) assumes Dan is trying to contact them, but is being blocked somehow, and has not just left them to die.

As is his nature, Dan worries about Clara and Lou from the first time he meets them, but once friends, becomes a significant degree more distressed when she is in immediate danger. Dan has repeatedly proved uncomfortable with causing any harm, but goes so far as to join Clara in The Contest, knowing he'll have to help her kill someone, as he is unwilling to be partially responsible for helping one of his only friends get herself killed. Their friendship isn't perfect, however. When scared, Clara has a tendency to lash out, going so far as to call Dan a monster at one point, and the two can get frustrated with each other's vagueness and poor communication. While they both care a great deal for the people close to them, neither seems to have a good grasp on emotional or interpersonal matters, and attempts at comfort from either are rarely successful.

The two part on good terms, Clara thanks Dan with a hug, and gives him her real name, so they can meet up again up for coffee when he gets back.

Lou

Lou and Dan never become close but are never actively hostile, either. While Lou initially has trouble with the idea that Dan is human, surprised to learn he went to high school, and later stating "told you he was a hipster" (the original script clarifying "was" to "used to be"), he does make some effort to be polite, accepting Dan's handshake and often trying to make conversation. Dan is, on occasion, a bit taken aback by this, surprised by his overall familiarity. During the incident at Vining Towers it becomes clear that until this point, Lou has little to no actual trust in Dan's motives, though once Dan gets them out this changes, Lou trusting Dan to do right by him, and confiding in him on occasion. Dan seems to find Lou's lack of self-control tiring, but a little amusing. The two seem to have little in common, both in terms of general interests and motivation. Lou's goodbye to Dan is kind, but reflects the lack of understanding they have for each other.

In Season 3, Dan expresses his first personal sentiment to Chris and Nicholas, "If you see Lou again, say "hello" for me". He also notes Lou's matured a lot since knowing him, and trusts him to be able to help Chris out.

Green

[TO BE WRITTEN]

Mr. Brown

Dan seems to find Mr. Brown tiring and tedious, and resents his lack of concern for Clara and Lou. Mr Brown is unconcerned with much but productivity, and so is neither kind nor especially cruel to Dan, though has little patience for other people, and dismisses his concerns and attempts to gain information.

Cynthia Closer

From the moment they first meet, Cynthia is awful to everyone in the outpost, and, refusing to provide her name, quickly earns the title of "The Asshole". When expressing concerns to her, Cynthia not only shuts Dan down but strips him of his humanity, calling him a monster and telling him to "stop trying to pretend [he's] a person... Monsters are cool". Overall, she's awful to everyone, and really doesn't seem to consider his being human to be important in the first place, just targeting him where it hurts most. It does notable damage to Dan's self esteem, however, and although he does not question his status as a person, he does begin to think of himself as a monster on some level as well.

[NOTE: CONSIDER REVISION]

Nicholas Waters

Dan misunderstands Nicholas' priorities and projects his own desire for a normal life, which produces a surprisingly hostile result from Nicholas Nicholas returns Dan to New York, and in return Dan promises to try to leave him alone. [INCOMPLETE]

Christine Anderson

Dan is able to send Chris tapes via her vomiting them up. The two only interact very briefly, but Chris does not see Dan as a threat, trying to get Nicholas to relax around him, and supporting Dan's story. [INCOMPLETE]

Appearances

Season 1

• 01 - A Body in a New Place
• 02 - A Night At An Opera
• 03 - A Story In Cycles
• 04 - A Collection of Disparate Strangeness
• 05 - A Spider in a Web
• 06 - A Conversation Without Record
• 07 - A Face in a Crowd
• 08 - A Chemical Experiment
• 09 - An Implosion of an Idea
• 10 - The Ending, Perhaps

Season 2

• 11 - Body, Recorder
• 12 - Fly, Honeypot
• 13 - Song, Doorway
• 14 - Water, Leviathans
• 15 - Aurora, Cello
• 16 - Vines, Contest
• 17 - Reflection, Retaliation
• 18 - Collection, Composition
• 19 - Escape, Birth
• 20 - Portal, Ending

The Golden Age

• 22 - The Golden Age, Part 2 (Mentioned)

Season 3

• 23 - Anoint his forehead with rabbit's blood (Message, mentioned)
• 24 - Sleep on a pillow of swanfeathers (mentioned)
• 25 - Sacrifice three bunnies on the stump of an oak tree to stop moderate to severe throat irritation (Message, mentioned)
• 27 - Mix the crushed lead with three drops of your own blood (Mentioned)
• 28 - Exist in the place you are currently occupying (Message, mentioned)
• 29 - A secret that will make the other think less of you
• 30 - Lay a tarp upon the ground (Message, mentioned)
• 31 - Whatever is in the pond...kill it (Message, mentioned)
• 32 - Are we going to have a problem here?

Left of the Dial

• 33 - The Passenger (Mentioned)

Trivia

• Like his namesake, Dan is a big fan of the band Death Grips.
• Unlike in much classical horror, Dan neither rejects his new body in disgust (as Caroline does), nor becomes engrossed with his new flesh (as Rat does), instead retaining his humanity and relative normalcy, while becoming physically comfortable with his new Other aspect. While he resents what was done to him, and that it would prevent him from living a normal life, in the end he does not seem to resent the body itself.
• Dan was once a big fan of canned peaches.
• He played tennis in high school, but overall does not much like sport, and from Tanya's reminders, does not seem to exercise much.
• Dan has only heard the first couple episodes of the podcast.
• Some of Dan's favourite movies include Troll Hunter, Burden of Dreams, and Aguirre.
• Dan was lead singer in a band at some point.
• His hobbies include reading, writing, music, and watching Netflix.
• His go-to casual outfit is blue jeans and a plain black t-shirt.
• Post-operation, Dan is not allowed to wear t-shirts (it would "interfere with the recording"), but aquires an open shirt some time between episode 11 and 17. From soundscaping, it seems to be episode 12, and his footsteps also indicate the addition of shoe(s).
• It is unconfirmed whether or not he gets shorts, jeans, or trousers, but not an unreasonable assumption to assume he does.
• The master tape is the same recorder Dan carries around in Season 1.
• Dan hears all main-season episodes, carrying the recorder for season 1, being the recorder in season 2 and being sent the contents of Chris and Nicholas' tapes in season 3.
• Since he knows what happened to Mark, he may have heard The Golden Age as well. Alternatively, Dromen may have explained it to him.
• Dan dislikes other people fiddling with his new body, requesting he "do it himself".
• While in The Outpost, Dan is the only member of the team to use his real name.
• Dan seems fairly familiar with the layout of Alister's house, so it is a reasonable assumption he can broadcast there. This is likely through the two-way radio Alister leaves in the first room (which Chris immediately destroys), and Nicholas' recorder.
• Dan is named for the real Daniel Powell, but at some point Marc offered to name him Don (Donald) Powell instead.
• As with all characters, Marc imagines Dan to look like his voice actor, in this case, the real Daniel Powell.
• The real Daniel Powell has described Dan's personality as an exaggerated version of himself.

Quotes

• "Being a part of these kinds of stories, even by listening… it’s not a good idea. It changes you in ways that you aren’t prepared for"

Theories and Speculation

• On the basis of Dan's anatomical impossibility, mechanical breathing (when asleep/relaxed/deep in thought), initial mechanical movement, need to "sync up with the wires", and walking around right out of surgery, it's possible he has some kind of assistive technology with his movement, that would come into effect when tired or 'out of it'. Unlike his regular movement (which sounds more natural), Dan's pained and tired movements seem more inorganic, and are likely offputting/uncanny. This could explain Clara and Lou's discomfort at his initial movements ("Why does he move... like that?"), and why he freaks Clara out so much when deep in thought.
• The Master Tape is originally implied to have to keep running for Dan's continued survival, though this is not true, Dan surviving after it is cut from him. In actuality, it is probably needed for the successful incubation of the Leviathan Dan is carrying.
• It is unclear if Dan retains any powers after returning to Earth, but is generally speculated that he would, though to a milder degree. The implication his tape body would return in other spaces lends to the idea it, and by extension, the connection to his power, still exists in some capacity
• While unclear exactly who The Train Recordist is, he is generally speculated to be a possible future version of Dan.