DALEK

Place of Origin: Skaro

Description:

Evil, ruthless, devious and hateful creatures that cut a swathe throughout the galaxy, exterminating or enslaving millions on their path to universal domination. The Daleks were mutated blobs of hate with vestigal appendages housed in pepper-pot shaped shells, each with an eyestalk, plunger arm and gun stick. This species was created on Skaro by the Kaled scientist Davros during the Thal-Kaled war.

Davros deduced the final mutated form of the Kaleds and designed a transport module for them, thus enabling the remnants of his race to survive in the radiation soaked post-war atmosphere. However he also tampered with the mutant's genetics, eliminating all feeling, conscience and sense of right and wrong and installing an instinct to destroy and survive at any cost.

The transport modules were similarly built to last, being a polycarbide armour-plated shell fitted with a deadly neutraliser weapon capable of paralysing a man or scrambling his internal organs. This casing was also fitted with sensor plates and a distress beacon which was activated whenever the shell was opened.

The course of Dalek history is difficult to establish, but it is known that they turned on Davros before themselves being buried in the ruins of the Kaled city on Skaro. When the Doctor first encountered the Daleks they were still trapped in the city, relying on static electricity to power their silver casings. Conditioned to and dependant on radiation they proved to be brilliant technicians, but showed their terrible dislike for the unlike by attempting to exterminate the Thal survivors who shared their planet.

Sometime before this, during their 'middle period' the Daleks invaded Earth, using tactics that would become horribly familiar to many races. First they softened up the Humans by bombarding their planet with plague-laden meteorites that caused havoc with the Earth's governments.

Then they invaded, exterminating much of the population and enslaving others, processing many unfortunates into servile Robomen. These Daleks, powered by static electricity absorbed by collection dishes, tunnelled into the centre of the Earth, planning to turn it into a gigantic space vessel. In this instance the Daleks were led by the Black, or Supreme Dalek.

Thus they conquered many other planets, usually successfully, although sometimes coming up against more determined opponents such as the Moroks, who exhibited a captured Dalek in their space museum. They were also continually thwarted by the Doctor who became their greatest enemy.

After perfecting time travel the Daleks sent an assassination squad in pursuit of the Doctor, chasing him throughout time and space. When brute force failed they showed great flexibility in their tactics, resorting to the use of robotic duplicates to infiltrate and destroy the crew of the TARDIS. Despite their belief that they were the supreme beings, the Daleks were not above forging alliances with other races in order to further their plans.

For example, in order to conquer the Solar System they joined forces with the Outer Galaxies and the Human traitor Mavic Chen. Together this alliance built the terrible Time Destructor weapon. The Daleks were also shrewd and manipulative. When a crashed Dalek ship was discovered on Vulcan, the single reactivated Dalek easily took advantage of the Human colonist's greed and ambition. Within days it had fooled the colonists into giving it enough power and materials to build a secret factory and turn an army of Daleks off the conveyor-belt.

Time Travel was also used when the Daleks lured the Doctor to 19th century England, forcing him to partake in an experiment to discover the 'Human factor': the emotions, instincts and morals that enabled Humanity to defeat the Daleks so often.

Now led by a Dalek Emperor and still in possession of Skaro, the Daleks intended to use this knowledge to instill a 'Dalek factor' in Mankind. However the Human factor quicklly grew throughout Skaro, causing a seemingly fatal civil war. The Daleks were also to use their knowledge of time travel on other occasions. When an alternate timeline saw Humanity weakened by World War 3, the Daleks invaded earth once again, stripping it of resources to fuel their expanding empire.

In order to keep the enslaved population in check they used Human collaborators and brutal Ogron guards. In this period operations were led by a golden Dalek and their vulnerability to Dalekanium was discovered; knowledge that helped restore the timeline and avert world war on Earth.

When Earth and Draconia began to threaten Dalek expansion, the Daleks joined forces with the Master and attempted to set the two races against each other. In anticipation of the resultant power vacuum, a ten-thousand strong Dalek army was kept in cold storage on the planet Spiridon.

Again the Daleks used Orgon henchmen, and employed the tactic of weakening the enemy with bacteriological warfare before exterminating or enslaving the survivors. Ever the scientists, they also studied the Spiridon's use of invisibility, hoping to gain such abilities for themselves. In this period the Daleks were guided by high frequency radio impulses, used anti-gravitational disks and were led by a Supreme Council.

Even when lacking energy weapons the Daleks proved to be a deadly and cunning foe. When a Dalek ship crashed on Exxilon, drained of all power, the occupants were unable to use their weapons. However they quicky built and fitted projectile weapons and set about enslaving the native Exxilons, moving by psycokinetic energy. By now the Timelords began to sit up and take notice, forseeing a time when the Daleks would become the dominant lifeform in the galaxy and sending the Doctor back in time to interfere with their creation.

Perhaps the most serious barrier to Dalek supremecy was their war against the Movellans. With each side's tactics dictated by battle computers the protagonists found themselves locked in a logical impasse after centuries of fighting. The Supreme Dalek gave orders for the recovery of Davros from Skaro, intending to use his genius to break the deadlock.

Using slaves captured during raids, the Daleks burrowed into the Kaled city with high impact photon drills, eventually locating their creator. This proved to be a very costly mistake, as Davros had no intention of remaining a mere tool, and dreamed of leading the Daleks himself. The Supreme Dalek was forced to rescue Davros once again after defeat at the hands of the Movellans via a deadly virus. Davros was forced to find an antidote for this crippling weapon, but soon began to build a following of his own.

Thus began an interesting period in Dalek history as this once terrifying species splintered into two factions. While the Supreme Dalek led the grey Daleks, Davros fled to Necros and began to build a new race of Daleks with a white and gold livery from the mutated remains of the people held in suspended animation at Tranquil Repose mortuary. The heads of these unfortunates were conditioned and placed in transparent casings, eventualy growing into new Daleks.

Learning of his rival's actions, the Supreme Dalek landed a force on Necros and closed down the operation, taking Davros back to Skaro to stand trial. Ever resourceful, Davros somehow usurped the Supreme Dalek and became Dalek Emperor. With the tables turned, Davros improved his mutant creations, building a force of white and gold Imperial Daleks endowed with the ability to hover up stairs.

Meanwhile the Supreme Dalek was left with a handful of loyal renegades. Again civil war engulfed the Daleks as both Imperial and Renegade factions battled for the powerful Hand of Omega. The Imperial Daleks quickly wiped out the Renegades thanks to their new special weapons Daleks and wrested control over the Hand of Omega from them. However, unbenkownst to the Emperor Dalek, the Doctor had programmed the Hand of Omega to destroy Skaro's sun, taking Skaro and the Imperial Dalek mothership with it.

It seemed that the Daleks had been destroyed for good, along with their home planet, their creator and their emperor. However, as with all good villains the Daleks returned, redesigned and sporting several new features. The Daleks increased their hovering capability, being able to elevate several feet. They could also project a forcefield which caused projectiles to dissolve before making contact.

The bumps around the base of the casing could now detatch and orbit around a Dalek, generating an energy field which could be turned in on itself, thus creating a powerful self-destruct mechanism. The middle section of a Dalek's battle armour casing could also rotate independantly of the other sections and, along with the top section, could split open to reveal the mutant inside.

The Dalek mutant had also changed, the usual tentacled blob now having a large brain area and a single eye. These Daleks also had the ability to extract genetic material by touch, extrapolating the DNA and using the biomass to initiate cellular reconstruction, regenerating and repairing themselves. They also sported a more versatile sucker which could connect to other devices and drain power and information.

Being geniuses the Daleks could calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat. These Daleks fought the Timelords in the last of the great Time Wars, a war which saw their entire race and a fleet of ten million ships destroyed.

However a single soldier Dalek fell through time and crashed to Earth, screaming in it's burning crater for days before being discovered. Badly damaged this creature remained on Earth for the next fifty years, passing from collector to collector before finding itself in the private collection of Henry Van Statten. Defying all attempts of analysis it remained caged and silent until the arrival of a certain time traveller..

The Dalek Emperor also survived the war and hidden in the dark space, slowly began to build a new race of Daleks. By infiltrating Human systems and taking control of Mankind's news and media outlets, the Daleks remained undetected as they used Human genetic material to create new mutants and swell their numbers. Throughout the centuries they slowly gained in strength, patiently waiting until their plans for invasion were ready.

During this time however the Daleks also developed a kind of religious mania, perhaps exacerbated by the self-loathing caused by the Human material within them. As their fanaticism grew alongside their emperor's delusions of grandeur they assembled a fleet of two hundred ships.

Eventually, after centuries of preperation, an invasion force of half a million Daleks was unleashed upon planet Earth. Mankind, unknowingly retarded by Dalek controlled media was helpless against their continent-warping onslaught as the galaxy's greatest menace returned to claim the Earth and turn it into a paradise for their god.

Another group of Daleks survived the Time War by escaping into the nothingness between universes in a spherical void ship. This group was known as the Cult of Skaro, a team of four led by a Black Dalek. This secret order, which legend had it was above and beyond the Emperor, was endowed with greater imagination and personality than ordinary Daleks.

Possessing individual names, it was their job to imagine - to think like the enemy. They had the ability to time-shift and extract brainwaves of foes via their suckers to gain information. Eventually their void ship crossed back into the universe on planet Earth with the unwitting help of the Torchwood Institute, bringing with them a stolen Timelord artefact known as the Genesis Ark.

With this technology the Cult of Skaro would see the Dalek race reborn, spawning millions of their kind. Under the control of the Black Dalek this army swarmed into the air above London, preparing to fight not only the armies of Earth, but also the army of another alien invasion. For others had followed the Dalek's path through the Void and the universe wasn't big enough for the both of them...

See Also:

Dalek Battle Computer
Dalek Emperor
Dalek, Special Weapons
Davros
Kaled

Appearances:

The Daleks
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
The Space Museum
The Chase
Mission To The Unknown
The Daleks Master Plan
The Power of The Daleks
The Evil of The Daleks
Frontier In Space
Planet of The Daleks
Death To The Daleks
Genesis of The Daleks
Destiny of The Daleks
The Five Doctors
Resurrection of The Daleks
Revelation of The Daleks
Remembrance of The Daleks
Dalek
Bad Wolf
The Parting of The Ways
Army of Ghosts
Doomsday