Dalek

Roy Skelton

Oliver Gilbert

Peter Messaline

Michael Wisher

Brian Miller

Royce Mills

John Leeson

The **Daleks** were a warrior race made up of genetically engineered mutants (TV: *The Daleks*, *Genesis of the Daleks*). By most accounts they were originally from the planet Skaro. (TV: *The Daleks*) The mutants were encased inside an armoured travel machine built from polycarbide (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) and the metal Dalekanium. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*, COMIC: *The Humanoids*)

On many occasions, the Daleks openly acknowledged a single Time Lord, the Doctor, as their greatest enemy. (TV: *The Chase*)

Intensely xenophobic and bent on universal domination, the Daleks were hated and feared throughout time and space. Their goal was to eradicate all non-Dalek life, as programmed by their creator. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*)

## Biology

Although the Daleks looked entirely robotic, they were, in fact, cyborgs, with a living body encased in and supported by an armed and mobile outer shell of Dalekanium and polycarbide protective metal armour. In this respect, they were somewhat similar to a Cyberman; unlike them, however, the Daleks' bodies had mutated so drastically from their Kaled ancestors they had lost all humanoid appearance, save for one eye. (TV: *The Daleks*)

One Dalek creature remained alive even as it was dissected by the scientist Bryant Anderson. (PROSE: *We are the Daleks!*)

The Daleks had a strong association with static electricity; not only were their casings powered by it at some points in their history, (TV: *The Daleks*, *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*) but newly-bred Kaled mutants were brought to life by a static shock before they were put into their casings, and the Second Doctor once explained that static "was like blood to the Daleks". (TV: *The Power of the Daleks*) Theodore Maxtible's attempts to involve static electricity in his experimental time travel resulted in his time machine prototype summoning Daleks across time. (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks*)

## Anatomy

### Casing

#### Exterior Battle Armour

The Dalek casing could be separated into three sections. The top was the Daleks' means of vision and communication, a dome with a set of twin speaker 'lights' on the upper part of the sides, and a periscope-like eyestalk in the middle. This was attached to the midsection by a "neck", the grating section. On the Dalek's midsection, the weapons platform, the gunstick and manipulator arm were attached. These provided the Dalek's means of offence and operating capabilities. In later models, the midsection was capable of swivelling. Most of the mass of the Dalek mutant was located inside the midsection. The bottom, was the Dalek's means of mobility, consisting of a sturdy base with a skirt-like structure of plates studded with sense globes. This allowed movement and, in later models, flight.

The Dalek casings invented by Davros were originally called "Mark III travel machines". (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*)

Over the Daleks' history, the basic Dalek was first slatless and silver-white when using Dalek War Machines (TV: *The Daleks*, COMIC: *Genesis of Evil*) then given sensor plate slats to become the Silver Daleks, (TV: *The Daleks' Master Plan*) later replaced by Grey Daleks (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*) and eventually White Daleks following the aftermath of the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. (TV: *Destruction of the Daleks*)

The interdependence of biological and mechanical components made the Daleks a type of cyborg. The Imperial Daleks created by Davros during the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War were true cyborgs, surgically connected to their shells. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

The Dalek casing also functioned as a fully-sealed environment suit, allowing travel through the vacuum of space or underwater without the need for additional life-support equipment. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*)

Due to their gliding motion, earlier models of Dalek were baffled by stairs, which made them easy to overcome under the right circumstances. One time the Fourth Doctor and his companions escaped from Dalek pursuers by climbing into a ceiling duct. The Doctor even taunted a single Dalek before disappearing. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*) Some models were able to hover, or fly under their own power like small spacecraft and travel up the stairs, ending the original weakness. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*)

#### Power Sources

The power source of the Dalek casing also changed several times. During his first encounter with them on Skaro, the First Doctor learned that the casing was externally powered by static electricity transmitted through the metal floors of the Dalek City. Isolating a Dalek from the floor using a non-conductive material shut down the casing, although it was not immediately fatal to the occupant. (TV: "The Escape") The Daleks initially overcame this weakness by adding dishes to their casing to receive power, (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*) although even these were ultimately replaced by vertical rectangular slats around the midsection which absorbed other sources of power. (TV: *The Chase*)

Even quite late into their history, some Daleks originating on Skaro itself remained powered by static electricity: this was the case with the Daleks from the ship that crashed on Vulcan. (TV: *The Power of the Daleks*)

Even Daleks who did not visibly draw their power supply from static electricity retained some sort of association with it, as it was by involving static electricity in his experimental time machine that Theodore Maxtible accidentally summoned into his home Daleks who nevertheless could move freely along its wooden floors. (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks*)

Whatever the power source the Daleks used in the interim, it was (apparently uniquely) immune to being drained by the Great City of the Exxilons. Strangely, the Daleks retained motive power and the ability to speak even though their weaponry was shut down, which suggests the weapon systems had a separate power supply. The Third Doctor indicated that this was because the Daleks were psychokinetic and moved around through the power of thought alone, and the City was unable to absorb psychic energy. (TV: *Death to the Daleks*) This was later observed on the planet Kyrol, where the Ninth Doctor discovered an enclave of humanised Daleks who had, through years of meditation, developed psychokinesis to a remarkable degree. (TV: *Children of the Revolution*)

#### Speech

According to certain accounts, the Dalek creature had no visible vocal apparatus as such and their voices were electronic, as the mutant inside could barely utter a squeak. (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*) One incident showed that a human voice spoken from within a Dalek casing would gain the typical Dalek voice's metallic quality. (TV: *The Daleks*)

At any rate, Daleks spoke in high-pitched, stilted, robotic voices that were easy for others to mimic; (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks* et al.) their most infamous battle-cry was "EX-TER-MINATE!", each syllable screeched in a frantic-sounding, electronic scream (the last two syllables together). Other common utterances included "I (or "WE") OBEY!" to any command from a superior. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*) Daleks also had communicators built into their shells to emit an alarm to summon other Daleks if the casing was opened from outside. (TV: *Planet of the Daleks*)

Some Daleks were able to speak of concepts such as friendship, mercy and servitude, often to affect cunning deceptions, set traps and manipulate others to their will. (TV: *The Daleks*, *The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks, Destruction of the Daleks*)

### Interior

The inner casing, in which the actual Dalek mutant resided, also held a life-support system and a battle-computer for strategic and tactical knowledge. The Dalek mutant operated the casings manually. Once removed, other life forms could pilot one if they could fit within. (TV: *The Daleks*, *The Space Museum*)

### Mutant

The creatures inside true Daleks were Dalek mutants. In the first appearance of the mutant form, (TV: *The Daleks*) they were shown to have small hands that somewhat resembled the claws of a lizard, though the entire form was never shown. Later appearances of the mutants were very different, with the Seventh Doctor once describing them as "little green blobs". (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) According to one account, the creatures inside the Dalek casing were originally known as Dals, (TV: "The Ambush") though "Dal" may have simply been another name for the Kaleds. (PROSE: *The History of the Daleks*)

Despite their apparent lack of mobility, they were capable of defending themselves, as demonstrated when a Dalek attacked and killed a soldier. (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*)

Heavily mutated members of other species, including humans, also occupied the casings on certain rare occasions. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*, *Revelation of the Daleks*)

### Vulnerabilities

Although they were nearly invulnerable, Daleks had several exploitable weaknesses. Though these varied from type to type, their consistently biggest weakness was their eyestalk, which if damaged enough would leave a Dalek completely blinded. (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*, *Revelation of the Daleks*, *Remembrance of the Daleks*) A secondary weakness of the eyestalk was its lack of peripheral vision, making the Daleks very easy to hide from or sneak up on. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*, *Destruction of the Daleks*)

The vast majority of projectile weapons were near-useless against them, however bastic bullets (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*), high explosives such as Nitro-9, (TV: *Planet of the Daleks*, *Remembrance of the Daleks*), and weapons upgraded by the Hand of Omega (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) have been known to damage and/or destroy them. Most weapons capable of destroying Daleks are energy-based weaponry, including the Daleks' own weaponry. (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks*, *Planet of the Daleks*, *The Five Doctors*, *Resurrection of the Daleks*, *Revelation of the Daleks*, *Remembrance of the Daleks*, *Destruction of the Daleks*)

Daleks were also highly reliant on logic and had no imagination, leaving them in a stalemate with the Movellans, ended only when a virus was introduced against the Daleks. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*, *Resurrection of the Daleks*) The Daleks were also vulnerable to other viruses and sickness such as Light wave sickness, (TV: *Planet of the Daleks*)

As historically, most Dalek casings were incapable of flight, obstructions in their path, or vertical shafts, served to delay them. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*)

## History

### Description of the Dalek timelines

Based on the Fifth Doctor's definition of a generation as twenty-five years, (TV: *Four to Doomsday*) Dalek history, according to the Fourth Doctor, spanned a thousand generations, 25,000 years. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*) However, the Doctor went on to have more encounters with the exterminators, implying their history stretched beyond that limit. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*, et. al) Indeed, the Fourth Doctor had also stated the Daleks had expanded throughout "all eternity". (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*)

### Origins on Skaro

The Daleks were, by most accounts, native to the planet Skaro. (TV: *The Daleks*, et. al)

In one account, Ronson, a member of the Scientific Elite under the command of Davros, had never heard the word "Dalek" before the Fourth Doctor used it — hours later, Davros himself was first heard to publicly utter it in reference to his creations. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*) Other accounts still suggested that the race from whom the modern Daleks mutated were already known as "Daleks". (TV: *The Daleks*, COMIC: *Genesis of Evil*)

Whatever the origin of their name, there were several conflicting accounts over how the Daleks actually came to be. They were at any rate mutants, the descendants of a rival race to the Thals who had once had humanoid form. (TV: *The Daleks*) While most accounts stated this race was a species of black-haired fair-skinned humanoids known as Kaleds, (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*, et. al) dissenting accounts that later historians ignored held that this race may have been blue-skinned humanoids already known as "Daleks" (COMIC: *Genesis of Evil*) or even humans. (PROSE: *We are the Daleks!*)

Some accounts held that the mutants within the shells had come to be through unguided mutation following the neutron bomb detonation that destroyed both the Thals and the Daleks' forefathers' civilisations, (TV: *The Daleks*, COMIC: *Genesis of Evil*) the metallic "Dalek War Machine" having either been developed as an originally-unrelated weapon of war (COMIC: *Genesis of Evil*) or as an armour to protect the weak Dalek mutants from the background radiation still infusing their planet even long after the end of the war. (TV: *The Daleks*)

However, according to most accounts, the eventual mutation of the Kaleds into the blobby, impotent Daleks had been foreseen by the Kaled scientific elite before it actually came to pass, and the mad genius Davros, seeking to protect the Kaled race in any way possible, set about intentionally accelerating this process. The mad scientist made his own alterations to the Daleks' genome to make them into heartless warriors who would harbour innate hatred for all other living things, and similarly designing the Dalek travel machine as an impregnable minitank even as he led his superiors to believe it was only to be used as a life-support system for the Kaleds' sickened, radiation-poisoned descendants. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*)

Seeking to prevent a possible future where the Daleks had succeeded in their goal of exterminating all other life, the Time Lords sent the Fourth Doctor back through time to interfere with the Daleks' creation. However, because of his personal morals, the traveller found himself unable to do much, only delaying the Daleks, by his guess, for around a thousand years. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*) Several sources agreed that the Dalek Prime was the first-ever Dalek, (PROSE: *The Evil of the Daleks*) and the one who had made the decision to exterminate the Daleks' own creator Davros due to his being genetically impure by the very standards he had programmed into the Daleks' worldview. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*) The first Dalek then set itself up as Emperor of the Daleks, (COMIC: *Genesis of Evil*, PROSE: *The Evil of the Daleks*) and continued to experiment on its kin, further mutating them to its own designs. (PROSE: *The Evil of the Daleks*)

### Rise of the Daleks on Ameron

According to one dissenting account, the Daleks' home planet was Ameron. It had been the stage of an experiment by the Halldons, who transplanted a population of Earth humans there and used their advanced technology to accelerate the humans' evolution. Within 200 years, the Ameron humans had developed technology that frightened even the Halldons, including fearsome weapons. Realising the experiment had gone too far, the Halldons attempted to exterminate their test subjects, but the accelerated humans refused to bow down and destroyed their creators instead before continuing to evolve both in body and in technology at an accelerated rate, soon surpassing their Earthly brothers by millions of years. According to the scientist Bryant Anderson, who was later able to confirm via dissection that, to his great distress, the Dalek creatures were indeed a future form of *Homo sapiens*, the Daleks' great technology had only allowed them to express the true nature of humanity, "the most destructive force in the universe". (PROSE: *We are the Daleks!*)

### On Skaro

After their emergence, the earliest Daleks were directed by their first Emperor to build a city for themselves, which they achieved within two months. As a safety precaution, the Daleks also magnetised the metallic sand surrounding the city, allowing them to pull it towards the city at will, covering it in a large dune that concealed it from unwanted visitors. (COMIC: *Power Play*)

"Centuries" before the Daleks turned their minds to universal conquest, their City on Skaro was, most of all, a storehouse of inventions. The Daleks received a mysterious transmission which they feared might be a declaration of war. Shortly thereafter, Susan, having borrowed the Doctor's TARDIS and tried to make her way to Venus, happened to instead land in the petrified jungle on Skaro. Thinking she might be responsible for the message, or, at any rate, be able to decode it for them, the Daleks took Susan prisoner and brought her back to the City. As she stalled for time and food by decoding the message very slowly, one of the Daleks grew uncharacteristically fond of her, and even the others came to have a measure of respect for her.

Eventually, Susan realised the meaning of this message which had the Daleks so terrified: "peace and goodwill for all". She burst out laughing, startling and even terrifying many of the Daleks, who had never heard laughter in their lives. In the confusion, Susan took her chance to run off back to the TARDIS, and, despite the pleas of the lone Dalek she had befriended, she fled Skaro. The Daleks remained on a war footing for a while before finding the translation Susan had left behind and realising their error. (COMIC: *The Message of Mystery*)

When the Doctor first encountered them, the Daleks were stranded in their city on Skaro, as their casings were powered by static electricity channelled by the metal floors of the City, preventing them from leaving it. They eventually found that the Thals had also survived what was known as the neutronic war. After discovering that they had become dependent on the background radiation to the point of the anti-radiation drugs that Susan Foreman gave them being lethal to them, the Daleks attempted to vent radiation from their nuclear reactors into the atmosphere which would have left them as the only living species on Skaro. The First Doctor and his companions led a Thal assault and deactivated their power, believing that he had wiped out the Daleks altogether in the process (the necessity of which crime he lamented, though he saw no other way). (TV: *The Daleks*) One account suggested that this Thal-Dalek battle had taken place eighteen months prior to 31 July 2065, or in early 2064. (PROSE: *Peaceful Thals Ambushed!*)

The Doctor later theorised that they were able to return because the Daleks had other colonies on Skaro, which they did indeed, (PROSE: *Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth*) although he had also temporarily believed the Daleks he encountered on 22nd century Earth were from a point in history *prior* to the supposed destruction of the City's Daleks. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*)

Although account one depicted the City already existing "centuries" before the Daleks turned their minds to universal conquest, (COMIC: *The Message of Mystery*) another account stated that it was a short time after the construction of the Dalek City that Skaro was visited by a Krattorian spacecraft piloted by the slave-trader Kest. (COMIC: *Power Play*) The entry of the Krattorian spacecraft in Skaro's atmosphere was detected by the Space Agency, who reported upon it on 13 February 2065; (PROSE: *Fireball Surrenders!*) the Space News Agency would release more information on the "confused" Krattorian/Dalek conflict on Skaro seven days later. (PROSE: *Titan Declares War!*) As Kest was there to mine the metallic sand, he soon uncovered the hidden Dalek City, and the Daleks decided to take advantage of this to steal the secrets of space travel from him. Though the ship managed to escape Skaro, the Daleks were undeterred, and, in possession of its schematics, set about crafting spaceships of their own. (COMIC: *Power Play*)

The work was delayed by the lack of available materials, as space travel demanded that the ships withstand heat greater than what ordinary Dalekanium could bear. A scientist, Dalek Zeg, accidentally discovered a new and stronger Dalekanium alloy, Metalert, which could withstand a sun's heat; as his casing had been the first thing transmuted to Metalert, he became immune to other Daleks' death-rays, and, boasting that he was invincible, demanded to be made Emperor. The Emperor tried to have Zeg destroyed by the Black Dalek Leader's superior firepower, but as the scientist rebellious survived even that, they went to the Brain Machine, who ordered that the Golden Emperor and Zeg duel for the title. After numerous failed attempts, the Emperor succeeded in killing Zeg using liquid air, which was 312 degrees below freezing. From the ruins of Zeg's casing, the Emperor acquired the secrets of Metalert, but later declared that it was still flawed and they were not ready to build flying machines. (COMIC: *Duel of the Daleks*)

### Space Travel

#### Rise of the Dalek Empire

Still led by the Golden Emperor alongside the Dalek Council, the Daleks finally perfected the Dalek flying saucer (COMIC: *The Amaryll Challenge*) and forged an interstellar (and later intergalactic) Dalek Empire, (TV: *The Daleks' Master Plan*) their first target being Alvega, the planet closest to Skaro. There, they faced opposition from its plant-like inhabitants, the Amarylls. In the end, a scouting party of Daleks had to be sent to the planet's core to destroy it, which led to the explosion of the entire planet — with the Emperor observing that "what we cannot conquer, we destroy". (COMIC: *The Amaryll Challenge*)

Next, the Daleks headed to the planet Solturis, where the peaceful ruler Redlin the Wise ignored the warnings of the prophet Lurr about the danger presented by the Daleks. As the Solturians possessed a dangerous weapon known as the Pentaray which posed a threat even to them, the Daleks initially posed as "friendly explorers of space who detest[ed] war" to gain their future victims' trust and thereby learn about the full extent of their arsenal. Despite the Daleks' well-laid plans, the prince Jareth succeeded in regaining the Pentaray just in time to annihilate the Dalek forces who had landed; the Daleks still in orbit were recalled to Skaro before they could foil this counterattack, making Solturis the first planet the Daleks failed to vanquish. (COMIC: *The Penta Ray Factor*)

The Golden Emperor and the rest of his attack fleet returned to Skaro only to find the Dalek City plunged into chaos by a "plague of rust" that destroyed Daleks' casing within minutes of their catching it, usually killing the mutant in the process. It eventually surfaced that the rust germ was being carried solely by the Black Dalek Leader. Initially resigned to his fate, the Black Dalek was repaired by the Golden Emperor, who "could not afford to lose him". (COMIC: *Plague of Death*) Whilst the Emperor was distracted by the matter of the Plague, a warrior race known as the Monstrons attempted to take over Skaro using their robotic soldiers the Engibrains. Though they succeeded in destroying the Dalek City, they were unable to permanently subdue the Daleks, and were themselves exterminated when a Dalek sacrificed itself to set off the volcano in which the Monstrons had landed their spacecraft. The Daleks then set about rebuilding their City once more. (COMIC: *The Menace of the Monstrons*)

Shortly after completing the repair work on the City, the Daleks attempted to take over another planet, Oric, which they intended to mine for metals. However, as they were building a space station in orbit around Oric, the Daleks were attacked by the Mechanoids, who first tried to defeat the Daleks covertly by turning them on each other with suspicion rays before being discovered. The Mechanoids proceeded to wage war on the Daleks at full force, declaring themselves supreme and pledging to come to Skaro and destroy it. (COMIC: *Eve of War*)

Desperate for any edge against the Mechanoids, the Daleks scoured the skies with renewed fervour for any weapons or inventions to use to defeat their enemies if and when they finally came to Skaro. Thus they attempted to rob Phryne of its secrets of invisibility, though they were unsuccessful, only managing to subjugate the planet but losing the secret in the process. (COMIC: *The Archives of Phryne*)

Shortly thereafter, they had to deal with the threat of the "rogue planet" Skardal, a seemingly indestructible astral body set on a collision course for Skaro itself. Choosing to kill two birds with one stone, the Golden Emperor found a way to divert the planet's course and send it in the direction of the Mechanoids' home planet. (COMIC: *The Rogue Planet*) However, while trying to disintegrate a dangerous warhead before it landed on their planet, the Daleks ended up accidentally destroying Skardal before it hit the Mechanoids. By then, the android 2K had been sent by the Zerovians to avert a war between the Daleks and the Mechanoids, which the Zerovians believed would be disastrous for them in the long run, as whichever of the two powers survived would be able to turn its unmitigated attention towards the conquest of Zeros. The robot managed to trick the Mechanoids into believing that destroying the rogue planet had been an intentional declaration of non-aggression from the Daleks, thus averting the war. (COMIC: *Impasse*) The launch of the missiles disturbed a nearby Terrorkon, which broke through an electric barrier and destroyed several Daleks before trying to eat one of the missiles, which it found to be inedible and tossed away, inadvertently arming it. The Daleks managed to deactivate the missile, and the Terrorkon was attacked by a giant electric eel before it could strike again. (COMIC: *The Terrorkon Harvest*)

At one point the Daleks established a colony on Titan. This colony was eventually destroyed when the Daleks drilled too deep and ignited flammable gases beneath Titan's surface. This explosion destroyed the colony and created the rings of Saturn. (PROSE: *Dalek Saturn Probe*)

#### Targeting Earth

Some time later, mining operations on Skaro led to the release of three of the Daleks' humanoid forebears, the last three in existence — Yvric, Lodian and Zet, who had survived frozen in the mountains in life-support machines. Though mistakenly believing the metal beings now in possession of the planet to be the original robots built by Yarvelling, rather than the similarly-designed travel-machines of the modern Daleks, the humanoids realised that the Daleks were devoid of a conscience and, if not stopped, would eventually destroy every planet in the universe in their lust for conquest. Yvric tried to join forces with the "metal Daleks", offering to tell them a great secret (the location of the planet Earth, which he and Lodian had discovered before they were frozen), though he never got to reveal it, as the Daleks, not recognising one their own ancestors, mistook him for an invading android and obliterated him. Zet, having learned the secret of Earth from Lodian, tried the same thing and was met with more success, as the Golden Emperor had by then realised the truth. Before Zet could tell the metal Daleks how to get to Earth, however, Lodian caused an explosion which killed both himself and Zet, burying the secret. (COMIC: *Legacy of Yesteryear*)

The Daleks left on Skaro, meanwhile, had attempted to create an independent empire of their own; this faction, known as the Exterminator Daleks, had an Emperor of their own, who resided in the Dalek City of which they had taken control. The Exterminators believed the Daleks should devote their attention to the extermination of surviving Thals. They had some early successes which made them grow complacent, and were ultimately wiped out by a small but well-prepared Thal commando. (PROSE: *The Dalek Problem*)

A Dalek who saw value in beauty also briefly tried to seize power. This revolution was short-lived, however, as the Golden Emperor defeated the renegade and convinced his followers that beauty's short-lived nature meant that it was inimical to the Dalek ideal of everlasting power. (COMIC: *Shadow of Humanity*)

The Golden Emperor was later tricked by a Jevon space-crew into letting the Jevon ship leave Skaro. Upon realising they had been tricked, the Daleks swore to wage war on humanoids like never before, (COMIC: *The Emissaries of Jevo*) and paid particular attention to a human spaceship that crashed on their planet. Though three of the humans managed to make it back home alive, they left behind a scrap of paper with Earth's coordinates, leading the Daleks to decide to conquer the planet Earth. (COMIC: *The Road to Conflict*)

The Daleks did eventually conquer and occupy the Earth in 22nd century after unleashing a plague on the planet. The Dalek invasion force was led by a Black Dalek, known as the Supreme Controller, and each saucer was under the command of a Dalek saucer commander. They used Robomen for patrols and overseeing slaves. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*) London would survive the invasion, but it suffered some of the greatest attacks since The Blitz. (TV: *Illegal Alien*) New York City was totally destroyed.

Back in the 22nd century, the Daleks commenced a mining operation in Bedfordshire in order to reach the Earth's magnetic core, replace it with a propulsion system, and turn the whole planet into a massive spacecraft. Some time after their takeover of Earth, however, the First Doctor foiled the plan before its completion; the pit they had dug turned into an active volcano, the eruption of which killed the remaining Daleks and destroyed their base. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*)

#### Other Wars with Humanity

The Daleks continued to improve their technology: they developed factory ships for conquest, (TV: *The Power of the Daleks*) and the radio dishes which had originally been required to allow them to travel on surfaces without a static charge (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*) also vanished, enabling Daleks to move under their own power on any planet.

The Seventh Doctor once foiled a Dalek invasion of Earth in Earth's year 2254, which had been planned out by Davros and a Dalek Emperor different from the Golden Emperor on Skaro. Davros had stolen a Time Ring, for which crime he was tracked down by the Time Lords and frozen in time soon after the Doctor caused the destruction of the Davros-friendly Emperor on Skaro. During these events, large numbers of Dalek variants existed, both on Skaro and as part of the Earth invasion force. Among them were redesigned Daleks with radically different casings, who, for example, had no eyestalk but instead two large round eyeholes. (GAME: *Dalek Attack*) During this war, the Daleks obliterated the human colony of Phobos and experimented with human Drones before exterminating them when Davros failed to suppress their emotions. (PROSE: *An Incident Concerning the Continual Bombardment of the Phobos Colony*)

In 2400, the Emperor gave an address at the Great Council Chamber, ordering a Dalek invasion of the solar system, with Earth as their prime target; this was because, as the humans had created colonies on Mars and Venus, the Emperor was worried that they might try to land on Skaro someday soon and wanted to pre-empt such an attack. They were able to conquer Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn and captured mineralogist Jeff Stone, (COMIC: *Invasion of the Daleks*) who they set to work concocting paint that would protect their casings from rusting on Venus. Instead, Jeff used lead azide paint to incapacitate the Daleks before escaping with help from his brother Andy and going to find their sister Mary, who was also captured. (PROSE: *Red for Danger*) They tracked Mary to a Venusian slave camp, where the Daleks were harvesting oil to give them enough fuel to invade Earth. Mary successfully negotiated an agreement which lead to an increase in productivity, causing her to be placed in charge of all the oil mines on Venus. Her brothers meanwhile infiltrated the camp she was stationed at, blew up the oil well and armed the slaves to kill the surviving Daleks only to find Mary had been transferred to New Paris. (COMIC: *The Oil Well*) They later located Mary in the Dalek's Venusian headquarters inside the Churchill Mountains. In order to rescue her Jeff caused a power cut in the Dalek base, forcing them to evacuate and allowing the Space Army to attack suddenly, destroying the entire fleet and liberating Venus. (PROSE: *The Secret of the Mountain*)

The war against the Daleks continued, with Jeff going undercover in the Dalek City and discovering key information about Dalek technology. He also saw the Daleks taking control of humans using a Skaro mesmeristor, creating drones which they termed Humanoids. One Dalek detected Jeff and raised the alarm, but he escaped with the information. (COMIC: *City of the Daleks*) Armed with new information on the Daleks, the Stones proceeded to Mars, where Humanoids were sent to destroy their ship's spectroscanner so the Daleks could ambush them. They succeeded in this task but were captured, allowing the Stones to discover the impending Dalek attack and repel them with their ship's weaponry before escaping. (COMIC: *The Humanoids*)

An advance party of Daleks landed in Kent and attempted to lay a liquid metal runway to prepare for an impending invasion. Their attempts were derailed when a mole burrowing nearby damaged the liquid metal sprayer, causing it to spray the Daleks and freeze them in place. (PROSE: *The Small Defender*)

Andy and Mary Stone were captured on Gurnian by a Marsh Dalek patrol, who attempted to kill them by forcing them into the swamp where the horrorkons lived. They figured out that the horrorkons ate metal and used some to lure them out of the swamp, causing them to attack and eat the Daleks while Andy and Mary escaped in their ship. (COMIC: *Monsters of Gurnian*)

Eventually the Daleks were completely driven out of the Solar System and Skaro was blockaded by the Space Army, in a military action lead by the Stones and Vel Karneen. The Daleks set up a magnetic field around Skaro to keep the humans out, but the Space Army were able to close off one of the two access openings and prepared to use the other to draw out the planet's atmosphere, forcing the Daleks to surrender. (PROSE: *Break-through!*) With no other options, the Daleks agreed to a peace agreement forbidding them from ever leaving Skaro again and completely disarming them. One group of Daleks refused to this agreement and hid on Earth's moon, where they planned to detonate a cache of nuclear weapons to create millions of tonnes of debris which they would slam into Earth using a Megla-Ray. Mary Stone sabotaged the weapons so they detonated an hour early before the Daleks had time to evacuate, destroying them. (COMIC: *Battle for the Moon*)

### The Second Dalek War

#### Rearmament

By one account two hundred years of peace between the Daleks and humanity passed, with the Daleks disarmed, until a mysterious Mechanical Planet came which threatened both Skaro and Earth. The Emperor landed on Earth and made an offer to eliminate the threat in exchange for the return of confiscated Dalek weaponry, which the humans grudgingly accepted. Ultimately, the Daleks destroyed the Mechanical Planet and, with their weapons and power restored, the Emperor vowed to conquer "all the planets in every sky". (COMIC: *The Mechanical Planet*) The Daleks later discovered the Mechanoids had created the planet, and invaded Mechanus, where they wreaked revenge on the Mechanoids by destroying their city with an Atom divider. (COMIC: *The World That Waits*)

Soon after, the Daleks abducted Defence Minister Tal Yorke and his family and replaced them with Humanoids in order to have the humanoid Yorke undermine Earth's war effort by damaging critical alliances. However, Unispace Security agent Meric Scrivener discovered the plot and assassinated the robot Yorke before burning down Yorke's residence, killing the replacements of his family. Agent Arthur Lippert pursued Scrivener, but was kidnapped by a humanoid duplicate of journalist Tom Lytton and several enslaved humans and taken to The Octagon, where the Dalek overseeing the operation attempted to replace him with a humanoid. Scrivener arrived and shot the Dalek, killing it. The remaining humanoids were then arrested and deactivated. (PROSE: *The Secret Struggle*)

Two men, Borg and Zemmer, kidnapped Security Agent Brit and took her to Skaro, where they attempted to rob the Dalek Treasure House and leave her as the scapegoat. However, Brit managed to escape, leaving Borg and Zemmer, who were exterminated. Responding to the break-in, the Daleks re-inventoried their treasure house but found nothing missing except a diamond stolen by Brit during her escape. (COMIC: *Treasure of the Daleks*)

Having given him a tour of the Dalek City, the Emperor personally interrogated Irishman Pat Kelley, who had arrived on Skaro in the spaceship *Emerald Isle*. Believing him to be a spy, the Emperor ordered all the Dalek inventions and technology, which Kelley had praised, to be screened for flaws. Interpreting Kelley's advisement for the Daleks to grow out their five-leaf clovers as an attempt at sabotage, the Emperor had his ship refitted before sending Kelley back to Earth with the clovers, believing that it would bring Earth to ruin. Little did he realise however, Kelley had in fact been playing an elaborate ruse to acquire the clovers all along. (PROSE: *The Five-Leaf Clover*)

When the Skaro water plant was sabotaged, the Emperor initially believed that human slaves were responsible. Soon after, however, the Daleks caught an alien spy whom the Emperor ordered to be brought to him. The spy proved to be scout for an army of Birdmen that invaded Skaro. Though the invaders were ultimately exterminated, the Emperor lamented that their ability of invisibility, a potential asset to the Daleks, was lost with them. (COMIC: *The Invisible Invaders*)

A Dalek squadron began the construction of Interferer Beams on the planet Esmera in order to block all radio signals on Earth before abandoning the planet, leaving behind an Orbitus to finish the construction. The beams were completed, but the Orbitus was found by Rod Marlow, who re-programmed it to destroy them. (PROSE: *The Log of the "Gypsy Joe"*)

A group of Daleks established an underwater base on an uncharted planet and abducted Unispace Security agent Brit, hypnotizing her into helping them construct duplicates of Meric Scrivener and the Five Presidents of Earth in order to replace them and disarm humanity. This failed as the real Scrivener infiltrated the base, shot the Daleks guarding Brit and flooded the base. (COMIC: *Masters of the World*)

Space Pilot Commander Don Morais and his co-pilot Zec were abducted by Daleks while on a reconnaissance mission and forced to search for the rare mineral doranium in order to power Dalek missiles. They found a doranium vein in the Valley of Rocks directly beneath a Dalek space station and managed to trigger an electrical explosion which destroyed the doranium and the space station. (COMIC: *The Dalek Trap*)

Scientist Jim Hardwicke, creator of the Hardwicke Elixir, was kidnapped by the Daleks and forced to produce his elixir for them in order to render all of humanity unconscious. Jim provided the Daleks with a weakened version which only lasted a few weeks, after which the humans awoke and repelled the Dalek invasion. The Daleks managed to get Jim to produce a perfect version of the elixir only for him to drink it, rendering himself permanently unconscious and preventing the Daleks from ever using his formula. (PROSE: *The Living Death*)

#### Operation Divide and Conquer

By another account, the Daleks sought renewed war against humanity as early as 2540, when they allied with the Master to undermine the Earth and Draconian Empires and set them against each other and then take over with a huge army assembled on Spiridon. (TV: *Frontier in Space*) Despite the Master's failure to cause war, the army was prepared and the Daleks looked toward utilising the invisibility properties of Spiridon's inhabitants as a means of developing stealth technology. However, all of these plans were foiled when the Dalek army was frozen by the Third Doctor and a taskforce of Thals. (TV: *Planet of the Daleks*)

#### Further Strengthening of the Dalek Empire

A Dalek Saucer travelled to the planet Exxilon in search of Parrinium, where all of its power was taken by the Exxilon City. The Dalek task-force encountered the Third Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane Smith along with a human expedition. They attempted to gun down the humans, but discovered that the Exxilon City had also drained their power supplies, rendering their gunsticks useless and forcing the Daleks to form an unholy alliance with the humans. While their gunsticks didn't work, the Daleks replaced them with machine guns and enslaved the Exxilons in search for parrinium. When their power was restored, the Daleks revealed they were the cause of the Space plague and were about to fire plague missiles to kill the Exxilons and the Doctor as they made their getaway in their ship. However, it and its crew were destroyed by Dan Galloway, who had stowed away on the ship with a Dalek bomb, which he detonated. (TV: *Death to the Daleks*)

At some point, the Daleks invaded Trodos and nearly wiped out the Trods. They were defeated by the Second Doctor. (COMIC: *The Trodos Ambush*)

A Dalek outpost was located on an Earth-like planet. The planet was rich in the materials the Daleks needed to construct more Daleks. In 2135, the Second Doctor arrived on the planet, intent on fighting the Daleks' power. Using a home-made Dalek casing for a disguise, he infiltrated the outpost (leaving John and Gillian Who in the TARDIS) and learned that the Dalek Supreme was on his way to supervise the production of thousands of Daleks. He went to the mine to sabotage it, but was spotted leaving his casing and was forced to flee. The Daleks searched for him and, unable to tell which one was the impostor, began destroying each other. The Dalek Supreme contacted them from his ship and ordered them to stop, but the Doctor then impersonated the Dalek Supreme and ordered the Daleks to destroy themselves. The Doctor escaped in the TARDIS just before the Dalek Supreme arrived, having struck a devastating blow against the Daleks. (COMIC: *The Doctor Strikes Back*)

The Daleks established a base on an Earth-like planet and constructed the giant Exterminator which they intended to use to destroy the Earth. The Second Doctor, John and Gillian arrived on the planet and learned what the Daleks were up to. To defeat them, they derailed the train carrying the Daleks who had been trained to operate the Exterminator, and stole the weapon's instructions so the Doctor could learn to operate it himself. He then used the weapon to destroy all the Daleks on the planet. (COMIC: *The Exterminator*)

The Daleks invaded an unnamed Planet, where they attempted to construct tracks they could use to travel. The Second Doctor, John and Gillian arrived just as they were building the tracks and managed to escape before sending out an electrical current which destroyed the Daleks and their tracks. (COMIC: *Jungle Adventure*)

On an unnamed planet, the Second Doctor, John and Gillian tested the Doctor's pedal-copter, which crashed. When they got up, they ran into a group of Daleks, who chased them. They managed to keep them back by pelting them with rocks, then threw a boulder in the Daleks' way before escaping in the TARDIS. (COMIC: *Attack of the Daleks*)

The Daleks led by a Dalek saucer commander used a saucer to destroy Earth satellites during the Cold War, hoping the Americans and the Russians would blame each other and the conflict would escalate. The saucer landed at the bottom of the ocean, sealed within a pressure dome, where it was to wait until the Daleks saw the perfect moment to strike. However, it was infiltrated by the Third Doctor who contacted a submarine, the HMS *Pandora*, and ordered it to fire on the ship. The Daleks died as the ship flooded. (COMIC: *The Threat from Beneath*)

The Daleks invaded Ercos and enslaved the Klims to test the Dalek driller in order to destroy both Ecros and Earth. The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith foiled the Daleks' plans. (COMIC: *The Dalek Revenge*)

The Daleks invaded the New Earth System with Werelok henchmen they brought to the 25th century from "many years ago" and planned to destroy the system with neutron fire so that they could turn the system into a breeding ground for cloning Daleks by isolating the qualities of various creatures throughout Mutter's Spiral and breeding it into the new Daleks. The Fourth Doctor froze the Dalek battlecraft in one moment in time and space forever when he disconnected the time-space rationaliser of the Daleks' time transporter. (COMIC: *Doctor Who and the Dogs of Doom*)

### Time Travel

#### Early days of Dalek time travel

Thirsting for time travel which would finally even the odds between them and the Doctor, as well as generally enabling wider Dalek conquest of the universe, the Daleks allied themselves with the Renegade Time Lord Shazar. Shazar gave them the knowledge and the means to build a fleet of TARDISes to conquer the galaxy. The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith foiled the plan by having the Daleks damage their space station's cooling system, as it was very close to a sun. The Daleks escaped with their TARDIS fleet but all ships exploded by cirenium, destroying them. (COMIC: *Return of the Daleks*)

The Daleks managed to develop primitive time travel in the form of taranium-powered Dalek time machines of their own, which resembled cruder version of the Time Lords' own timeships. Under orders from the Dalek Prime, the Black Dalek Leader sent an execution squad (PROSE: *The Chase*) of Pursuer-Daleks (AUDIO: *The Daleks*) in a Dalek time machine to pursue the TARDIS throughout history and kill the First Doctor and his companions, seeking revenge for the liberation of Earth in the 22nd century (PROSE: *The Chase*) after deciding the Doctor was their greatest enemy. After the Doctor and his companions left the Space Museum of Xeros, the Daleks readied their time machine to exterminate their greatest foes. (TV: *The Space Museum*)

The squad chased them to the planet of Aridius, New York City in 1966, the *Mary Celeste*, the Festival of Ghana, and, finally, to Mechanus. The Daleks created a robot version of the Doctor to "infiltrate and kill" the real Doctor and his companions, but it was destroyed. Trying to hunt down the Doctor themselves, the squad ended up attacking the Mechanoids in their Mechanoid City, (TV: *The Chase*) kicking off a long standing riviarly between the Mechanoids and Daleks. (COMIC: *The World That Waits*) During the ensuing Mechonoid Incident, the Dalek Leader slipped away from the battle with the Mechanoids after it realised that the assassination squad had no chance of winning. As the last surviving Dalek and in an act of self-sacrifice, it hacked into the city's computer systems and set the whole place to self-destruct, hoping to kill the Doctor and his companions in the blast.

However, the Dalek squad had thus failed in its mission, as the Doctor and his friends escaped from the chaos. Two of the Doctor's companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, used the Dalek time machine to travel back to their own time before destroying it, (TV: *The Chase*, PROSE: *The Chase*) thus crippling the Dalek time researches until the Time Destructor Incident. (PROSE: *Mission to the Unknown*)

#### Conflict with the Space Security Service

A Dalek force on the way to invade the "Big Four" were diverted to the radioactive planet Barzilla after Sara Kingdom spread a rumor that a huge vein of gold had been discovered. Upon arriving the force was ambushed and destroyed by the Earth fleet. (PROSE: *The Outlaw Planet*)

Daleks abducted Professor Lomberg and imprisoned him in a slave camp on Vara. The Daleks wanted Lomberg to create an indestructible casing for them. Sara Kingdom rescued Lomberg and provided the Daleks with an unstable formula that lead to the destruction of the camp. (COMIC: *Sara Kingdom: Space Security Agent*)

In the year 4000, the Daleks formed an alliance with powers from the Outer Galaxies. Space Security Service agent Marc Cory discovered the alliance’s formation on Kembel however the Daleks exterminated him before he could send word to Earth. (TV: *Mission to the Unknown*) The Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen, joined the Daleks’ alliance and supplied them with an emm of Taranium, which was vital to the Time Destructor, which the Daleks planned to use to wipe out the Solar System. However the First Doctor, allied with Sara Kingdom, escaped with the Taranium, and the Daleks pursued him until he apparently surrendered it to them.

This turned out to be a fake, however, so a Dalek task force, with the Red Dalek Leader, sent from Skaro in another time machine by the Dalek Prime pursued him and his companions through time until the core was finally recovered in Ancient Egypt. They successfully recovered the core, although the Red Dalek was killed by rocks during the battle with the Egyptians. The Doctor activated the Time Destructor which destroyed the Daleks, their invasion fleet and left Kembel a wasteland. (TV: *The Daleks' Master Plan*, PROSE: *The Mutation of Time*) With the Dalek plans exposed, the exact situation the Daleks had wanted to avoid by taking out the heart of human space occurred. Several powers declared war against the Dalek Empire over the following millennium, beginning the Great War. (PROSE: *The Evil of the Daleks*)

The Daleks also invaded the Galactic Federation in the 4010s. (TV: *Legacy*)

#### The Great Dalek Civil War

Though it pained him to admit it, the Dalek Prime eventually realised that the Daleks were slowly and steadily losing their Great War: two hundred saucers were lost to the Thals in the Seventh Sector, half of the Dalek fleet had been annihilated on the Draconian frontier, and six planets had been won back from the Daleks' control by the Terran Federation. Faced with the computer prediction that the Daleks would be utterly defeated within eighty years if things went on this way, the Emperor took the decision to resort to time travel more fully than ever before: as the Doctor's interference had always been what threw a spanner in the Daleks' schemes, he reasoned that not only preparing for the Doctor's involvement, but drawing him out outright, might be the Daleks' path to victory. (PROSE: *The Evil of the Daleks*)

Hence, after Daleks under the leadership of the Emperor were eventually summoned to 19th century Earth by the human businessman and amateur alchemist Theodore Maxtible, who had devised a new form of time travel involving mirrors and static electricity, they took over Maxtible's techniques for themselves. Armed with this venue for time-space travel, they used it to trick the Second Doctor into a trap. They asked him to implant the Human Factor into three Daleks, claiming that they desired to become humanised Daleks allying the best of mankind and Dalek-kind. In truth, the Emperor's design was that the Doctor's experiment would, by contrast, also identify the Dalek Factor, which they would then spread through Earth's history — thus preventing their Great War with Earth from happening.

However, having realised the Daleks' plan, the Doctor encouraged the three humanised Daleks, Alpha, Beta and Omega, to defend themselves. Fearful of the implications, the Emperor ordered many Daleks through an archway that would re-implant the Dalek Factor. However, the Doctor switched factors so that all Daleks through the archway were humanised. A conflict between the normal and humanised Daleks inevitably broke out across Skaro, apparently ending the Daleks. (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks*, PROSE: *The Evil of the Daleks*)

According to one dissenting account, the Dalek Prime's Human Factor gambit and the subsequent near-destruction of the Dalek Empire actually occurred at a later point in Dalek history, postdating the revival of Davros and the Dalek-Movellan War. (PROSE: *The History of the Daleks*)

#### Restructuring of the Empire

The Dalek Civil War did not end the Daleks as the Doctor predicted it would; the humanised Daleks were defeated and the Emperor's forces began rebuilding. (PROSE: *Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks*) One account claimed the Doctor, in his personal timeline, would not confront the Daleks again until they had created a new command structure, involving grey Dalek drones and Gold Supreme Daleks. Now in their third incarnation, the Doctor reflected on how he was wrong to believe that the Daleks had been utterly defeated. (TV: *Day of the Daleks*)

The Daleks led by a Gold Dalek, invaded Earth in an alternate 22nd century after the World Peace Conference was destroyed by Shura from the future. World War III started as various global factions accused each other of having done so. They used Ogrons as enforcers. The Third Doctor and Jo Grant travelled to 1970s and undid that alternate timeline. Shura used the bomb to destroy the Daleks and Ogrons in the Auderly House. (TV: *Day of the Daleks*) One account claims a Black Dalek was present as a second-in-command and was responsible for much of the Gold Dalek's tasks while the Gold Dalek acted as an overseer. (PROSE: *Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks*)

Meanwhile, the surviving humanised rebels, led by Alpha, were forced to flee Skaro in a captured saucer. Alpha had a vision of a world where they could live in peace and seclusion, knowing the rest of their species would never stop hunting them. They settled on Kyrol in a subterranean city, Azhra Korr, beneath the sea bed. Here they created their own culture, making art, meditating, and developing the psychic abilities latent in all Daleks. The Ninth Doctor and his companion Lena Haigh helped the humanised Daleks defeat the Kata-Phobus, the last Kyrolian. The Kyrolian race became extinct when Alpha and the other Daleks self-destructed. (TV: *Children of the Revolution*)

#### Return to Power

A small group of Daleks spent three hundred years hiding beneath an Antarctic glacier waiting for humans to advance to a stage where the Daleks could use their technology against them to invade Earth. This eventually happened when a nuclear submarine, the USS *Jefferson*, entered the cavern and the Daleks enslaved its crew through mind control. They launched proton missiles into Sydney Harbour, and invaded Sydney. They planned to use factories to turn humans into Daleks and take over Earth. Discovering the Third Doctor, the Daleks chased him in the *Jefferson* to Sydney Harbour Bridge, where Lt Davis destroyed the Daleks by dropping a live cable on the submarine from above. (COMIC: *\*Sub Zero*)

The Daleks, having observed the destruction of their forces on Earth, used a time vector to transport the TARDIS to Skaro, where they planned to perform an operation on the Doctor which would mentally turn him into a Dalek. The Doctor and his companion Finney escaped into the jungle, where they used a herd of dinosaur-like creatures to destroy the Daleks. (COMIC: *The Planet of the Daleks*)

#### Further Battles

The world of Hyperon deployed war rockets against a Dalek invasion of Venus. By the time he was sent back to the creation of the Daleks, the Fourth Doctor knew of this battle, stating it occurred in the Space Year 17000. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*)

### Dalek-Movellan War

According to the Celestial Intervention Agency's research, during a time when the Dalek Empire was divided under the control of two Emperors, the Daleks were attacked by the Movellans. One Emperor was killed by the Movellans leaving the other, who had been based on Skaro, in charge of the entire empire. This hampered the Daleks' tactics, as the Emperor was unable to keep track of forces that had been under the other's control. (PROSE: *The Dalek Problem*)

During the war, the Daleks mainly used time corridors to travel through time, (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*) whereas Movellan ships used time warps. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*)

The conflict soon resulted in a centuries-long stalemate, with each side's purely logical battle computer keeping them in deadlock. To circumvent this stalemate, the Daleks returned to Skaro, which had been abandoned, to find Davros so his biological mind could reprogram their battle computers to win the war, being followed by a rival Movellan expedition. The Fourth Doctor saw to the defeat of both factions and Davros was taken by the Daleks' liberated slaves to stand trial. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*)

The war continued for another 90 years, until the Movellans developed a Movellan virus to defeat the Daleks. (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*)

### Imperial-Renegade Dalek War

#### The virus spreads, the schism begins

In 4590, (PROSE: *Resurrection of the Daleks*) a detachment of Daleks led by the Supreme Dalek went to free their creator to find a cure for the virus. They also used a time corridor and a Dalek duplicate called Stien to trap the Fifth Doctor to duplicate him and his Companions to assassinate the Time Lord High Council. However, the Doctor broke free of the duplication apparatus and turned Stien to his cause. Meanwhile, Davros turned several Dalek Troopers and two Daleks to his cause through mind control, only for the Supreme's Daleks to destroy the rebels. Both Davros and the Doctor unleashed the virus and the Dalek ship was destroyed by Stien. (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*)

Both Davros and the Supreme Dalek survived the event. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*, PROSE: *Resurrection of the Daleks*)

However, to avoid the virus, the Daleks had dispersed across the cosmos, (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*) which led to increased factionalism amongst the Dalek Empire. Davros's actions officially opened up a schism. (PROSE: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

#### Necros and the Trial

Davros escaped to Necros and began to turn intelligent cryogenically frozen people into Imperial Daleks to conquer the universe. However, Takis called the Renegade Daleks to take Davros to stand trial. The Renegades fought their way past the Imperials to take Davros. He tried to get them to take the Sixth Doctor, but they didn't recognise him. The Renegades' attempt to recondition the Imperials failed because of the Imperials' destruction by the Doctor and Orcini. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*)

One account claimed that Davros was put on trial for his life before the Emperor on Skaro. As part of a scheme with his future self, the Sixth Doctor rescued Davros just before the Daleks carried out their sentence of death. The Doctor took Davros to Spiridon, where he could lick his wounds and bide his time. The Doctor intended to lay the groundwork for a Dalek civil war and spoke to Davros of his future destiny as Emperor Dalek. When Daleks led by the Supreme Dalek landed on Spiridon with the Seventh Doctor, Davros set his new army of Imperial Daleks against them, along with a Special Weapons Dalek. The Supreme Dalek was killed. The Imperials then took over Skaro, seemingly exterminating the Emperor, and Davros was instated as Emperor of the Daleks. (COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*)

#### Open warfare

The Dalek Empire was eventually divided into two camps. With Davros as its Emperor, one faction developed into an Imperium of Daleks given white casings and mechanical upgrades, yet these "Imperial Daleks" were seen as impure by the Black Dalek Leader, which led a faction of Grey Daleks that came to be known as the "the Renegade faction". These two sides clashed in what became known as the "Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War". The Imperium secured control over Skaro. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*, et. al)

The Black Dalek Leader continued to lead the Renegade faction as the Supreme Dalek. However, the factionalism that had started after the Movellan war continued to divide the Dalek race, as the Renegade faction was not a united force, with some pockets of the faction not even declaring hostilities against Davros. During the war against Davros' faction, the Supreme hoped to find a way to unite its faction, eventually deciding it would need to kill the Doctor to bring about such a future. (PROSE: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

During the war, the Imperial and Renegade Daleks both headed to Earth in 1963 to claim the Hand of Omega. The Imperials controlled H. Parson, while the Renegades used Judith Winters as their battle computer and "allied" with the Association. The two factions waged a lengthy battle at Shoreditch. Aided by the Special Weapons Dalek, the Imperial Daleks won, almost wiping out the Renegades aside from the Supreme. The Imperial Daleks took the Hand of Omega, as the Seventh Doctor had planned all along. Davros plotted to detonate the second sun of the Daleks' homeworld Skaro with the Hand, giving the Daleks the power of unlimited time travel. In the Imperial Daleks' time zone, he did so, causing it to go supernova. This action, however, destroyed the planet and much of the Imperial fleet, as the Doctor had programmed the Hand to do. On Earth, the Doctor talked the last Renegade Dalek, the black Supreme Dalek, into self-destructing. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

The final battle of the war took place on Tethrak, where the Imperial and Renegade Daleks built bases around a Tethraki city. The two battled many times throughout the streets of the city, with many civilians being caught in the crossfire, (PROSE: *Destruction of the Daleks*) with the Imperials winning the final battle fought between the two on the planet. The Imperial Daleks stationed there intended to use a missile to destroy the Renegade Daleks and Tethrak. However, their plan was found out by Guinevere Hoult, who attempted to warn the Renegades after learning that none of the natives would survive the destruction of the planet. She succeeded in telling the Renegades, who hastily created their own missile to try and destroy their enemies first. Ultimately, the Eighth Doctor was forced to divert the course of the missile in order to set history on the right course, much to Guinevere's anger. The Renegades were unable to evacuate in time, getting caught in the blast and destroyed, allowing the Imperial Daleks to win the war. (TV: *Destruction of the Daleks*)

### A New Empire

#### From the ashes of the Civil War

A factory ship from the Civil War crashed on Vulcan, where it lay for two hundred years until a human scientist named Lesterson recovered and penetrated the capsule. Once activated, the surviving Daleks in the capsule decided to pose as obedient robotic servant drones, claiming to be the colonists' willing servants. The Daleks took advantage of the colonists' naive trust to establish a reproduction plant - on a conveyor belt system - with which to increase their numbers. The Second Doctor eventually destroyed the Daleks by turning the colony's power source against them, but not before the Daleks killed a vast number of the colony's inhabitants. Additionally, several Daleks survived, with one raising its eyestalk as the Doctor's TARDIS departed. (TV: *The Power of the Daleks*)

In the aftermath of the war, a squadron of Daleks stationed on another planet encountered the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown. (TV: *Destiny*) The Doctor managed to rouse the humanoid locals against them, forcing many other Daleks off the planet. (PROSE: *Destiny*) Upon cornering the Doctor and Peri, the Daleks were engaged by a platoon of Cybermen, who were under orders to destroy the Doctor's timeline. The Daleks ultimately ended up victorious but suffered numerous casualties. Bernice Summerfield took advantage of the fight to prime explosives in the chamber the Daleks were based in and usher the Doctor and Peri out. The chamber was then blown up by Bernice, killing the remaining Daleks inside. (TV: *Destiny*)

As part of a plan to eliminate the Thals before the Thousand Year War could take place, a squadron of Davros' personal bodyguards were brought back in time by the Monk, who increased the reach of his TARDIS to allow them to survive the butterfly effect that the genocide would cause. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*) Some Daleks were sent out at various points to see if the time to attack was right, (PROSE: *Paradox of the Daleks*) one of which was spotted and destroyed by the Eighth Doctor, Bernice Summerfield and Norman Manning. Following the Doctor's incarceration, Davros had his Daleks mobilise onto the streets of the main city of Skaro. The gambit was ultimately defeated when Benny and Norman were able to escape from prison and start a Thal uprising. Bernice eventually revealed to the Thals the true nature of the Daleks' creation, which inadvertently started a conflict between the Kaleds and the Thals. Bernice and Norman were forced to retreat to the TARDIS after the uprising turned against them. After they piloted it to Davros' headquarters, they distracted him and the Monk, allowing the Doctor enough time to lower the reach of the Monk's TARDIS, removing the Daleks present from existence. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*)

## Society and Culture

The Daleks were best-known as a warlike race who waged war across whole civilisations and with races all over the universe. (TV: *The Daleks*)

### Appreciation of Beauty

The One in a Million Dalek's willingness to protect the perishable beauty of flowers was seen as an aberration by his Emperor, (COMIC: *Shadow of Humanity*) however the Thals knew that the Daleks' forefathers had been "great thinkers and philosophers". (TV: *The Daleks*) Some of the more elaborate Dalek battle cries had an almost poetic quality about them (for example, "Advance and Attack! Attack and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!") (TV: *The Chase*)

### The Doctor

The Daleks saw the Doctor as their greatest enemy. (TV: *The Chase*, *Destiny*) Even though he once referred to the Master as his archenemy, (TV: *The Deadly Assassin*) when talking about the Daleks to Guinevere, the Eighth Doctor's voice developed a hard edge that unsettled her. (TV: *Illegal Alien*)

### Psychology

The most fundamental feature of Dalek culture and psychology was an unquestioned belief in the superiority of the Daleks. Other species were either to be exterminated or enslaved, and then exterminated when no longer necessary. The default directive of a Dalek was to destroy all non-Dalek life forms. (TV: *The Power of the Daleks* et al.) They interestingly tended to project a similar mindset on other species; they found it difficult to understand that humans sometimes destroyed members of their own species. (TV: *The Power of the Daleks*)

Daleks even regarded Daleks whose DNA deviated from their race's standard genetic makeup as their enemies and worthy of extermination. They would be willing to go to any lengths to exterminate such beings, even attempting to erase them from history. (TV: *Paradox of the Daleks*) The civil war between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks was an example of this. Each faction considered the other a perversion despite the relatively minor differences. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*, *Destruction of the Daleks*)

Another result of this superiority complex was their complete ruthlessness. This was due to genetic modifications made to the original Kaled mutants by Davros. It was because of this that it was nearly impossible to negotiate or reason with a Dalek, and it was this single-mindedness that made them so dangerous.

Their reliance on logic and machinery was a weakness, albeit one that they recognised. Daleks considered illogical actions impossible. (TV: *Destiny of the Daleks*) They transferred emotions from other life-forms twice, in one case humans, having refined the Human Factor with the help from the Second Doctor to create humanised Daleks. (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks*) In another instance, they refined slyness from the Xxarqon, cruelty from the Tentrax and insane hatred from the Glarosus. (COMIC: *Doctor Who and the Dogs of Doom*)

Additionally, the Daleks used the greed of Theodore Maxtible to make him their ally. However, Daleks never formed permanent alliances; once their allies outlived their usefulness, they were usually exterminated on the spot. (TV: *The Daleks' Master Plan*, *The Evil of the Daleks*)

The Eighth Doctor described the Daleks as "the cruellest killing machine ever devised". (TV: *Destruction of the Daleks*), whilst the Sixth Doctor stated that Daleks were "ruthless" and "ever poised to attack". (TV: *Destiny*)

### Children of Davros

The Daleks were willing to kill their creator, Davros, on a number of occasions. (TV: *Genesis of the Daleks*, *Resurrection of the Daleks*)

### Legal System

The Daleks put their own creator, Davros, on trial on several occasions. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*, COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*) Accounts differ as to whether some of these instances were "trials" in the criminal sense. (COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*)

The Daleks on Vulcan once referred to the precept of Daleks' supremacy of humans as "the Law of the Daleks", which they would have to "teach" to the human colonists when they made their move. (TV: *The Power of the Daleks*)

### Dalek Hierarchy

Although they saw their entire species as superior, the Daleks had a hierarchical system. This included a wide range of ranks bestowed upon selected Daleks. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*, *The Evil of the Daleks*)

### Dalek Writings

The Daleks were able to read human numerals and words, even using them upon occasion. (TV: *Planet of the Daleks*)

### Names

In the early days of the Daleks' development on Skaro, some individual Daleks had actual names, as evidenced by the scientist Zeg. (COMIC: *Duel of the Daleks*) However, by the time of the Dalek Emperor's scheme to isolate the Dalek factor and implant it in all of humanity, it was a mark of the Humanised Daleks' oddness that they took on names — starting with Alpha, Beta and Omega. (TV: *The Evil of the Daleks*)

In place of names, Dalek soldiers could be designated with a number by their superiors; the newly-created Daleks on Vulcan were referred to by the original three by designations such as "Dalek 9" and "Dalek 10". (TV: *The Power of the Daleks*) Daleks also referred to each other as such during their invasion of Trodos, (COMIC: *The Trodos Ambush*) and one one of the Daleks participating in the conquest of another planet was known as DK3. (COMIC: *The Defeat of the Daleks*)

### Culturual Effect

Upon arriving in 1966 and seeing the Post Office Tower that contained WOTAN, the First Doctor remarked to Dodo he had felt like that when the Daleks were near. (TV: *The War Machines*) The Second Doctor used his encounters with them to warn Zoe Heriot of what she might encounter. (TV: *The Wheel in Space*) The Second Doctor also later used a mental projection of a Dalek to show the Time Lords of his enemies. (TV: *The War Games*) A Dalek was one of many fears that assaulted the Third Doctor in the Keller Machine. (TV: *The Mind of Evil*) When he approached his fourth regeneration, a vision of a Dalek came to the Fourth Doctor. (TV: *Logopolis*)

Their danger was on occasion negligible compared to a greater threat; when speaking of his fellow Time Lords at his trial, the Sixth Doctor stated that the Daleks were "still in the nursery" compared to them. (TV: *The Ultimate Foe*)

## Dalek Technology

The key item of Dalek technology was the casing, derived from the Mark III Travel Machines built by Davros. The casings of Davros' Imperial Daleks were made out of bonded polycarbide. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

Dalek gunsticks could kill almost any sentient being (TV: *The Daleks*, et al.) and could paralyse their victims temporarily or permanently. (TV: "The Survivors")

The Daleks' gunstick evolved alongside other aspects of Dalek technology. When the First Doctor met them in the Dalek City, the gunstick seemed to have the same qualities as a human gun. Daleks could also change the effects of their guns' energy projectiles; at the lowest level, they would merely temporarily disable an individual in the area the projectiles struck. (TV: *The Daleks*)

On the surface of Skaro, within the confines of the Dalek City, the machines ran on static electricity fed from the city floor. They were incapacitated if removed from the floor. The casing technology changed over the years. The first Daleks to emerge from the bunker in which they had been entombed built a city and power from those. (TV: *The Daleks*) Those occupying Earth during their 22nd century invasion had dishes on their backs. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*) Later models of Dalek casing had internal power supplies, and even repulsor systems that allowed them to hover. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

Throughout time and space, there were many Dalek variants that sported different casings. A Dalek's ability depended on what features its casing offered. (TV: *The Daleks*, *The Evil of the Daleks*) The default manipulator arm could be replaced with the likes of flamethrowers and seismic detectors. (TV: *The Chase*, *The Daleks' Master Plan*)

The Daleks were also experts in biological warfare, and used (or attempted to use) biological weapons on several occasions. (TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*, *Planet of the Daleks*, *Death to the Daleks*)

They were also able to hack into virtual reality systems, creating attack ships in Puterspace, although they were not particularly good at it. (TV: *Love and War*)

The Daleks also developed time travel capabilities, usually in the form of time corridors which allowed limited transport between one era and another. (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*) The Daleks also developed their own kind of time machine of similar capacities to the Doctor's TARDIS; though they could not change shape, they were also dimensionally transcendental. (TV: *The Chase*, *The Daleks' Master Plan*)

### Dalek Weaponry

The Dalek gunstick and manipulator arm could be re-purposed depending on what task was likely to face a specific individual. The alternatives were far ranging in the different functions they performed. (TV: *The Chase*)

## Other References

The Daleks were filed in the Fourth Doctor's memory files. (COMIC: *Doctor Who and the Iron Legion*)

## Behind the Scenes

### Other Appearances

Two *Doctor Who* movies starring Peter Cushing featured the Daleks as the main villains: *Dr. Who and the Daleks*, and *Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.*, based loosely on the television serials *The Daleks* and *The Dalek Invasion of Earth* respectively. However, this wiki only considers the original televised stories by Terry Nation as valid sources. The movies used brand new Dalek props, based closely on the original design but with a wider range of colours. Originally, the movie Daleks were supposed to shoot jets of flame, but this was thought to be too graphic for children, so their weapons emitted jets of deadly vapour instead.

Outside of *Doctor Who*, Daleks also made an appearance in the film *Looney Tunes: Back in Action* and the *Star Wars* comic strip, *Fett Club*. A Dalek-based Transformer that would transform into a Mark III Travel Machine features in an issue of Marvel UK's *Transformers* comic, as well as the Decepticon Starscream picking up Dalek transmissions while flying over a field in England. Spike Milligan wrote a sketch which featured a working-class Dalek with a family of his own, and a Dalek-spoof race (known as the Deacons) made an appearance in a *Futurama* comic.

### Story Titles

Beginning with the 1965 stage play *The Curse of the Daleks*, the best-known title format for stories featuring the Daleks has been "... of the Daleks". This was first used on television in the 1966 serial *The Power of the Daleks* and was used most recently on TV in 1993's *Destruction of the Daleks*. In fact, if comic strips, audios and novels are included, more stories exist that do *not* use this title format, but "... of the Daleks" is considered ubiquitous enough that the spoof film *Myth Runner* includes a joking reference to an apparent future Who story entitled *Deuteronomy of the Daleks*.

The word *Dalek* has been titular to more *Doctor Who* televised *story* titles than any other noun, although *Planet* and *Death* are more ubiquitous if Hartnell-era adventures — which originally did not have story titles as such — are identified only by their episodic titles. Indeed, in the whole of the Hartnell era, *Dalek* was used exactly once as an onscreen title — for episode two of the adventure later re-christened as *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*, "The Daleks".

### A Nazi by any other name

As he grew up during World War II, Terry Nation had vivid memories of the war and, in particular, the Nazis. The Daleks share many characteristics with the Nazi party deliberately. They both believe in the superiority of their race, whether it means the entire species, like the Daleks, or their ethnicity, like the German Nazis. *Genesis of the Daleks* is the most clear depiction of this parallel, with the Kaleds showing dedication to their cause and near-complete conformity. It also showed the killing of any opposed to their ideology; in this case, the Kaled scientists. Their shrieking voices were designed to parody the loud repetitive chanting and rants associated with Nazi rallies. The casting out or forced labour of the Mutos is comparable to the Holocaust, as is the Kaled consensus of them as lesser beings. Another comparison to the Holocaust appears in *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*, in which Daleks refer to the destruction of Earth as "the final solution", a phrase associated with Nazism. They even greet each other by raising their plungers vertically in a way reminiscent of the Nazi salute.

Contrariwise, other writers have pointed out the flaws in comparing the Daleks to the Nazis. John Peel noted in the introduction to *The Official Doctor Who & the Daleks Book*:

> They have been compared over the years with Nazis, but this is a tenuous connection at best. Certainly there is a lack of individuality, an unquestioning obedience of orders and a willingness to die for the race - all of this epitomised the Nazi stormtrooper ideal. It isn't hard to see, though, even in the most evil member of the Nazi hierarchy, some spark of buried humanity. Even the elite had their fears and superstitions. The Daleks had none of these.
>
> John Peel, The Official Doctor Who & the Daleks Book

In *AHistory*, Lance Parkin expands on this idea:

> Real life analogies quickly fail when applied to the Daleks. At times they're compared to the likes of Nazis, but in truth they're literally lacking in humanity. Even "conquest" as we generally understand the term doesn't really interest them - sometimes they put foes to work as slaves (as in *Death to the Daleks*), but this is almost inevitably in the interest of facilitating new atrocities and exterminations. The point is that one can (and should) hope to use reason against real-world governments, but there is virtually no chance of diplomacy succeeding against the Daleks. ... Basically, the Daleks collectively remain united behind one goal: kill everything that isn't a Dalek.
>
> Lance Parkin, aHistory

### The Catchphrase

The single word most associated with the Daleks is "*Exterminate!*", which has been uttered by generations of British children impersonating the creatures. However, although a variant of the word, "exterminated", can be heard from the very first appearance of the Daleks, it was not until the final episode ("Flashpoint") of their second story arc, TV: *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*, that a Dalek finally was heard uttering the word "*Exterminate!*"

### Cameos

Due to the popularity of *Doctor Who*, Daleks feature briefly in many other shows, movies, and popular culture. In *The Simpsons* episode "Holidays of Future Passed", for example, a blue Dalek briefly chases a woman in and out of a revolving door at the "Benny Hilton" Hotel, accompanied by the theme song from the Benny Hill Show.

In the comedy film *Looney Tunes: Back in Action*, the characters visit "Area 52", a government facility where numerous extraterrestrials (most of them modelled after 1960's theatrical and televisual aliens) are held. Among the most prominent are two Daleks (in a design based on the alternate-continuity film *Dr. Who and the Daleks*), who join the other aliens in trying to attack the protagonists, but end up blasting each other instead as their quarries escape.

In the David Walliams novel *Grandpa's Great Ecscape*, kids dress up as Daleks, along with Cybermen and Sontarans, using costumes stolen from a *Doctor Who* exhibition, and pretend that there is an alien invasion of Earth.

In the game LEGO Dimensions, they act as enemies who serve Lord Vortech. their design is different due to the greyish colour casing and golden eye stalk (while the physical figurine is the exact colour). Other Dalek's have appeared such as the Emperor and Rusty. In the Lego Batman Movie story mode, they replace the paradigm Daleks and have different built fenders.

In *The LEGO Batman Movie*, a number of Daleks can be seen among the inhabitants of the Phantom Zone, alongside many famous villains from a number of fictional franchises. Like the others, they are unleashed upon Gotham City by the supervillain known as "the Joker" at the climax of the film, only to be defeated and sealed back inside the prison dimension.

A Dalek appears in the movie *Ted 2*, where it fought Robby the Robot.

### Other Matters

* As of 2020, the Oxford English Dictionary includes the word Dalek in it, where it describes it as - "a member of a race of hostile alien machine-organisms which appeared in the BBC science-fiction serial *Dr Who* from 1963. [invented word, named after an encyclopedia volume covering the alphabetical sequence *da-lek*].

## Appearances

### Season 2

* *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*
* *The Space Museum* (cameo)
* *The Chase*

### Season 3

* *Mission to the Unknown*
* *The Daleks' Master Plan*

### Season 4

* *The Power of the Daleks*
* *The Evil of the Daleks*

### Season 10

* *Frontier in Space*
* *Planet of the Daleks*

### Season 30

* *Destruction of the Daleks*
* *Destiny* (cameo)