Imperial Dalek

The **Imperial Daleks** (known as the **gold sphere Daleks** or *Ven-Katri Davrett.*) were a faction of Daleks loyal to their creator, Emperor Davros, and the Imperium-led Dalek Empire, rather than to the Dalek Supreme and the rival Renegade Daleks in the Imperial-Renegade War.

Though acknowledged as Imperial Daleks by the Dalek Supreme's battle computer, (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) the faction had started as rebels to the Dalek Prime's followers, the original Imperial Daleks, before Davros usurped his position as Emperor and ruler of Skaro. (COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*)

## Characteristics

### Appearance

In contrast to the drab grey and black Renegade Daleks, the sleeker Imperial Daleks had casings with white livery with gold sense globes and high-pitched, scratchy voices. The prototype models built by Davros on Necros retained the classic eyepiece and plunger manipulator arms, but also featured rounder bases. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*)

The definitive Imperials created by Davros on Spiridon (COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*) boasted golden eye-stalks and appendages and a lozenge shape on the centre of their weapons platform, while the dome's luminosity dischargers became transparent rings around opaque, flattened gold discs. The ends of their manipulator arms also became slightly funnel-shaped and slotted on two sides to fit into machinery. The base units of these new Imperial casings were also slightly less tapered than was traditional - a change mirrored by their Renegade counterparts. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

### Power of Flight

The Imperial Daleks could hover and fly (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*, COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*, TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*) like Davros himself in his chair, before he assumed the title of Emperor. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*, COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*)

## History

### Early Prototypes

In the aftermath of the Dalek-Movellan War, Davros owned an injection-type mind control device which he used on a small group of Daleks. These became the first Imperials, but they were subsequently destroyed by the Dalek Supreme's forces and the Movellan virus. After surviving Daleks retreated to different parts of the universe to avoid the virus, (TV: *Resurrection of the Daleks*) the overall Dalek Empire began to suffer factionalism, with different sector commands holding control over their own isolated remnants of the shattered empire. Davros' actions opened the schism. (PROSE: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

Some Daleks believed Davros deserved no loyalty, instead remaining loyal to the Supreme. Davros experimented with a new kind of Dalek, which became his Imperial Dalek prototypes, at the Tranquil Repose funerary complex on Necros, using parts from cryogenically frozen bodies. Some, like Arthur Stengos, he decapitated, modified and placed — still living — into a Glass Dalek casing. During the conversion process, Stengos' personality alternated between that of a human and that of a Dalek. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*)

Davros created several thousand of these Daleks. (PROSE: *Revelation of the Daleks*) Orcini set off an explosion in Davros' bunker, killing the army of prototype Imperials. Other Daleks loyal to the Dalek Supreme then apprehended him to take him to Skaro for trial, taking the surviving Imperials to be converted into drones loyal to the Supreme. (TV: *Revelation of the Daleks*)

### Beginning of the Civil War

Accounts differed as to how Davros went on to being placed on trial on Skaro to being at the head of a whole army of Imperial Daleks loyal to him.

According to one account, as part of a long-term strategy, the Sixth Doctor himself rescued Davros so that he could further develop the Imperials and cause the eventual Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. Taking him to Spiridon, the Doctor showed Davros the cache of four million Daleks (COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*) whose freezing the Third Doctor had witnessed. (TV: *Planet of the Daleks*) Davros began reanimating this army and spent a whole year experimenting on them, giving them new, improved casings as well as programming them to be loyal to him rather than the Golden Emperor.

When the Golden Emperor's Daleks, led by the Black Dalek himself, were directed to his hideout by the Seventh Doctor, Davros unveiled his new army and demanded all other Daleks switch allegiance to him. After their refusal, he made short work of the Dalek task-force which had tracked him down to Spiridon and set a course for Skaro, where he exploited a computer virus created by the Doctor to cause every non-Imperial Dalek's casing to malfunction and eventually explode.

The newly-minted Dalek Emperor Davros and his Imperial Daleks were left to resettle the depopulated, ruined Skaro in the aftermath of this first battle, which had also seemed to cost the Golden Emperor his life (although he had initially managed to resist the effects of the virus), while the Black Dalek, stranded on Spiridon, sought to rectify the situation and was left to found the Renegade Dalek faction. (COMIC: *Emperor of the Daleks!*)

### Civil War in full swing

At a later stage in the war with the Renegades (as he called them) Davros improved the capabilities of his Imperial Daleks (but, from the Renegades' point of view, made them even more impure) by grafting bionic appendages onto the bodies of the Dalek mutants. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

### Conclusion of the War

Davros led the Imperial Daleks to Earth in 1963 to get the Hand of Omega. They secured Coal Hill School for a base, controlling the head teacher with a chip in his head and placing a Transmat station in the basement. When this was destroyed by the Doctor with Ace's baseball bat, they landed a shuttlecraft in the school's playground. They engaged in a battle with the Renegades, who seized the Hand, but interference by the Seventh Doctor led to the Imperials acquiring it. The Doctor tricked Davros into using the Hand of Omega. which caused Skaro's to turn supernova and destroy Skaro. Davros escaped his burning mothership in an escape pod. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

#### Defeat of the Renegade Daleks

A squadron of Daleks were sent to Tethrak to defeat the Renegades stationed there. (TV: *Destruction of the Daleks*) After engaging the Renegades in several battles, (PROSE: *Destruction of the Daleks*) they created a missile primed to destroy the Renegade base, at the cost of destroying all of Tethrak along with them. Their plans were briefly hindered by the actions of Guinevere Hoult, who told the Renegades of their plans. The Imperial Daleks remained unfazed, and began evacuating the planet after firing their missile. Their plan succeeded following the Renegades' missile being diverted by the Eighth Doctor in his TARDIS. Since the Renegades were unable to evacuate in time, the Imperials' missile ended up winning the war. (TV: *Destruction of the Daleks*)

### Reformation of the Empire

The Imperial Daleks were quick to rebuild the Dalek Empire. One planet that had previously been under Dalek control had a squadron sent there after human uprisings prompted by the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown forced many Daleks to evacuate. (PROSE: *Destiny*) The Daleks managed to track the Doctor and Peri down to an old religious building, but their attempt to kill them was interrupted by the sudden arrival of the Cybermen, who engaged the Daleks in combat. Bernice Summerfield, who had been sent by the Eighth Doctor to save his previous selves from the Cybermen, took advantage of this conflict to plant explosives in the chamber. When she had gotten the Doctor and Peri to safety, she detonated the bombs, killing both the Daleks and the Cybermen inside. (TV: *Destiny*)

## Behind the Scenes

### Props

Four props were constructed to portray Davros' Daleks in *Revelation of the Daleks*. Ironically, these were later repurposed to function as Renegade Daleks while four new props portrayed the Imperial Dalek drones in *Remembrance of the Daleks*.

## Appearances

### Season 30

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