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| The '''Daleks''' (pronounced "DAH-lecks"; ]: {{IPA|'dɑːlɛks}}) are a ]al ] race of ]s from the ] ] series '']''. The mutated remains of the ] people of the planet ], they travel around in ]-like mechanical casings, and are a race bent on universal conquest and destruction. They are also, collectively, the greatest alien adversaries of the ] known as the ]. | |||
| {{R with history}} | |||
| This article is about the fictional '''history of the Daleks''' in the television series. As is common in long-running series whose backstories are not mapped out and which are also the product of many different writers over the course of years, Dalek history has seen many ] and these have caused some ] problems. | |||
| For a more general overview and the conceptual history of the creatures, please see the main ] article. | |||
| ===Origins=== | |||
| ]''.]] | |||
| When the Doctor first encountered the Daleks in ''The Daleks'' (1963), they were the product of a ] war between the Dal and ] races, and were more or less confined to their city, their motive power being ] conducted from metal walkways. At the end of this serial, the Daleks were seemingly wiped out, a fitting conclusion because it was not intended that they should be a recurring adversary for the Doctor. However, the popularity of the Daleks ensured their return. | |||
| They did so in '']'' (]), which showed the Daleks conquering the ] in the ]. The sight of the Daleks amid the familiar landmarks of ] made their presence doubly effective by bringing the threat to home ground. The Doctor explained the presence of the Daleks by saying that the events were taking place "a million years" before ''The Daleks'', and that what they were witnessing was the "middle period" of Dalek history. However, these Daleks as an invasion force were able to move without the need for metal paths, presumably drawing power through the use of what appear to be radio dishes on their backs. The question of why in the future the Daleks would be ''less'' advanced than these Daleks is never explained. | |||
| Over the course of their next few appearances, the Daleks developed, variously, ] ('']'', ]), an ] ('']'', 1965) and factory ships for conquest ('']'', ]), growing more powerful and further removed from the (by comparison) almost pathetic monsters of the first serial. The radio dishes also vanished, and Daleks were able to move under their own power. Given the time travel nature of the series, whether these stories took place chronologically in the order they were transmitted is uncertain, and debate continues as to their proper sequence. | |||
| A second attempt to end the Dalek saga was made in '']'' (]), which also introduced a ]. In that story, the conflagration caused by a Dalek civil war was declared by the ] to be "the final end." This was because Terry Nation was in negotiations to sell the Dalek concept to ] television. The sale did not succeed, but the Daleks did not appear again for five years. | |||
| The Daleks returned in the ] serial, '']'' (]), where once again they used time travel technology. The Daleks were re-established as a species bent on universal conquest, as seen in ] '']'' (which led directly into '']'') and later on in '']'' (]). The Dalek Emperor was not in attendance, the Daleks being led by a ] instead, with references made to a Dalek High Council. | |||
| It could still have been plausible that all this was taking place prior to the events of ''The Daleks'', and that the creatures seen there were the remnants of a once great empire. However, ''Planet of the Daleks'' had Thals who had become a spacefaring race and also remembered legends of the Doctor's first encounter with the Daleks. Since the Daleks were an expansionist, interstellar power at this point, it marked a significant change to the "end" of the race shown in 1963 and contradicted the Doctor's reasoning in ''The Dalek Invasion of Earth''. | |||
| ===Genesis of the Daleks=== | |||
| ], creator of the Daleks.]] | |||
| In ], Terry Nation revised the Daleks' origins in the serial '']'', where the Doctor was sent to the moment of the Daleks' creation by the ]s (or possibly their ]) in order to stop the Dalek race before it could begin. In that story, the Dals were now called Kaleds (an ] of Dalek), and the Dalek design was attributed to one man, the crippled Kaled chief scientist and evil genius ]. | |||
| Instead of a short nuclear exchange, the Kaled-Thal war was portrayed as a generations-long war of ], fought with nuclear, ] and ]s. The resulting mutations from the fallout were accelerated by Davros and placed in ]-like "travel machines" whose design was based on his own life-support chair. The ]'s appearance on the scene (to try and prevent the creation of the Daleks or at the very least lessen the damage they would do in future) led to the other Kaled scientists trying to shut down the Dalek project. To prevent this, Davros arranged for the Thals to wipe out his own people. The Daleks were then sent to exterminate the Thals, but later turned on Davros and apparently killed him. | |||
| Much fan debate has revolved around pre- and post-''Genesis'' Dalek history: what was changed, how it affects what was seen before, or even if the Doctor's involvement changed anything to begin with. An examination of the various theories is beyond the scope of this article, but suffice it to mention, many of the debates revolve around time travel, especially given that the Daleks themselves have tampered with time. In any case, it is accurate to say that ''Genesis of the Daleks'' marked a new era for the species, with most of their previous history either forgotten or barely referred to again. Future stories, which followed a rough ], would also focus more on Davros, much to the dissatisfaction of some fans who felt that the Daleks should take centre stage, rather than becoming mere minions of their creator. | |||
| ===Post-Genesis history=== | |||
| In '']'' (]), it was revealed that Davros had survived the Daleks' attack and lived on, buried in a bunker in ]. During the time Davros was sleeping, the Daleks had abandoned the ruins of Skaro and established a vast interstellar empire, eventually encountering a hostile race of ]s called the ]s. The Dalek and Movellan warfleets were very evenly matched, and neither side's purely logical battle computers could find a successful strategy for an attack against the other. As a result, the two fleets remained locked in a standoff for centuries, constantly manoeuvering and probing for an opportunity to break the ] but without either side actually firing a single shot. | |||
| The Daleks sent an expedition to the ruins of Skaro to recover Davros and seek his help to upgrade their designs in the hope of finding a way through the impasse, and the Movellans sent an expedition to stop them. The Daleks succeeded in reviving Davros, who theorised that the extreme intelligence and rationality of the battle computers were to blame and that the first side to take a seemingly reckless gamble would tip the balance in their favour. However, the Doctor intervened and prevented either the Dalek or Movellan expeditions from returning with this insight. Davros fell into the hands of a Human space empire and was put back in suspended animation for indefinite imprisonment. | |||
| This impasse continued for nearly a century until the Movellans finally developed a weapon capable of breaking it — a highly virulent biological agent that targeted Daleks. In '']'' (]), having lost the war, the Daleks rescued Davros from the Human prison station where he had been frozen for ninety years and demanded that he develop a defence against the disease. This time it was Davros who double-crossed the Daleks, deciding to take personal command of the Dalek race rather than merely serving it. Davros's continuing influence eventually led to a schism among the Daleks, with one faction following Davros's leadership and another rejecting their creator to instead follow the ]. | |||
| By the time of '']'' (]), Davros was in hiding at the Tranquil Repose funeral facility on the planet Necros, experimenting with physically transforming humans into Daleks. He was also placing those Daleks loyal to him into white and gold casings to distinguish them from the usual black and grey Daleks, but his plans were undone when a worker at the facility contacted the original Daleks. These Daleks arrived on Necros, exterminated the white and gold Daleks and captured Davros, who was returned to Skaro to face trial. | |||
| ===The final end?=== | |||
| Davros made his last televised appearance in the serial '']'' (]). Apparently, events had taken place off-screen, as he appeared in the guise of the Dalek Emperor, leading his gold and white ]. Davros had at this point modified the Imperial Daleks, adding cybernetic enhancements to their organic components. A new model "]" was introduced with an enormously powerful cannon and armour capable of deflecting regular Dalek weaponry. Also for the first time, a Dalek was clearly seen on screen to hover up a flight of stairs. | |||
| Pitted against the Imperial Daleks were the ], led by a black Supreme Dalek. The name "renegade" suggests that the tables had turned and Davros' side had the upper hand. Both Dalek factions became aware that the ], a ]an stellar engineering device, was hidden on Earth in the year 1963. Both factions sent expeditions to Earth, battling each other to retrieve it, hoping to use the Hand to create a power source that would refine their crude time travel technology. | |||
| Ultimately, the Imperial Daleks succeeded, not knowing that the Doctor had inserted a booby trap into the Hand's programming. When Davros activated it, Skaro's sun went ], and both the Dalek homeworld and the Imperial Dalek fleet were destroyed. Davros, however, apparently escaped his flagship's destruction in an escape pod. The Renegade Dalek Supreme itself self-destructed when the Doctor informed it that it was the last surviving Dalek. | |||
| ''Remembrance of the Daleks'' also marked the last on-screen appearance of the Daleks in the context of the programme until 2005, save for charity specials like '']'' and the use of Dalek voices in the ] in ]. | |||
| ===Return of the Daleks=== | |||
| ]''.]] | |||
| When a new ''Doctor Who'' series was announced for ], many fans hoped the Daleks would return once more to the programme. After much negotiation between the BBC and the Nation estate (which at one point appeared to completely break down), an agreement was reached. | |||
| '']'', written by ], the sixth episode of the new series, was broadcast on ] on ], 2005. The new Dalek exhibited abilities not seen before, including a swivelling mid-section that allowed it a 360-degree field of fire and a force field that dissolved bullets before they struck it. In addition to the ability to fly, it was also able to regenerate itself by means of absorbing electrical power and the ] of a time traveller. The "plunger" manipulator arm was also able to crush a man's skull in addition to the technology interfacing abilities shown by earlier models. A more sophisticated model of the Dalek mutant was also shown. | |||
| In ''Dalek'', it was revealed that the Daleks and the Time Lords were involved in a ], in which the Doctor obliterated the entire Dalek race — all ten million ships of their fleet. The same war destroyed the Time Lords as well, with the Dalek that appeared in the episode and the Doctor the only apparent survivors. The Dalek had somehow fallen through time, ending up on ] in the ]. By ], it had passed into the hands of American billionaire ], who dubbed it a "metaltron" and kept it in a secret underground museum called the Vault along with other alien artifacts. | |||
| ] | |||
| The Dalek was damaged, remaining silent and helpless until the ] arrived at the Vault. Absorbing DNA from the Doctor's ] ], it regenerated itself and went on a killing spree. However, having absorbed Rose's DNA, it continued to mutate and found itself beset with unfamiliar, human feelings. Realising it was now "contaminated," the mutant asked Rose to order it to destroy itself, rather than continue to live in that way. It then disintegrated itself with an energy field created by the spheres along its lower casing. | |||
| The two-part ] series finale, comprising '']'' and '']'' revealed that this Dalek was, in fact, not the sole survivor of its race. The Emperor Dalek's ship had also survived, falling through time much as the lone Dalek did. Hidden, it began to rebuild, infiltrating Earth society over the course of centuries and using human genetic material to create a new Dalek race. This Emperor — evidently not Davros — also came to see itself as a god, and built its new society around the Daleks' worship of itself. | |||
| ] | |||
| Subtly manipulating the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire of the year 200,000 by means of news programmes transmitted from Satellite 5 in Earth orbit, the Daleks installed the monstrous ] as mankind's keeper. The Doctor removed the Jagrafess in '']'', but was unaware that the Daleks were behind it. Over the next hundred years, the Daleks continued their scheme, recreating Satellite Five as the Game Station, acquiring more humans for mutation by subjecting them to twisted ] games. The station's Controller was able to transport the Doctor and his companions into the station, where the Doctor discovered the Dalek presence. The race, now numbering close to half a million, were poised to invade Earth with a massive fleet of ships. | |||
| The Doctor built a Delta Wave projector that would wipe out the Daleks, but would also eliminate all life on Earth as well, and found himself unable to trigger it. However, Rose had absorbed energies from the spacetime vortex by staring into the heart of the TARDIS and used those energies to reduce the Daleks and their fleet to atoms. | |||
| At the end of the ] series, Executive Producer ] announced that the ] would face the Daleks at some point. However, ] has stated that they will not appear in Series 2 (]), so this would seem to suggest that they will return in Series 3 (]). | |||
| ==Other appearances== | |||
| The Daleks have appeared in many ], sometimes opposing the Doctor and sometimes on their own. All these spin-offs are of uncertain ], and not all of them can be easily reconciled with the television series or with each other. Where they fit in the Dalek timeline is also unclear. | |||
| ===Comic strips=== | |||
| ]The first appearance of the Daleks beyond the television series was in ''The Dalek Book'' (]), an illustrated volume written by Terry Nation and ]. It told the story of a Dalek invasion of Earth's solar system. In ], the comic book '']'' began publishing ''The Daleks'', which was written by Whitaker and included an account of the Daleks' origins (the comic strip was, years later, collected together in an edition titled ''''). | |||
| The ''TV 21'' strips portrayed the opposing sides in Skaro's war as the Thals and the Daleks, shown as diminutive blue men with large heads somewhat similar in appearance to ]'s ]. According to the comic, these humanoid Daleks built neutron bombs which were accidentally detonated by a meteorite storm. The Daleks' chief scientist, Yarvelling, had built Dalek casings as war machines prior to the nuclear holocaust. After the neutron bombs exploded, Yarvelling and Zolfian, the warlord of the humanoid Daleks, discovered that a mutated Dalek had survived in the war machine casing. This Dalek persuaded Yarvelling and Zolfian to build more Dalek casings for their mutanted descendants. Before the last two humanoid Daleks died, it declared itself the ], and had a new casing built to reflect its new rank, slightly shorter than the other Daleks, with a disproportionately large ] head section and in gold rather than grey. | |||
| Later stories in the Dalek comic told of the expansion of the Daleks' empire. In the last published comic in this series, the Daleks learned the location of Earth, which they proposed to invade. Although much of the material in these strips directly contradicted what was shown on television later, some concepts like the Daleks using humanoid duplicates and the design of the Dalek Emperor did show up later on in the programme. | |||
| ===Novels=== | |||
| The ] novel ''War of the Daleks'' by ] was set after the apparent destruction of Skaro in ''Remembrance of the Daleks'', and revealed that the planet had not, in fact, been destroyed. A convoluted explanation included the revelation that the planet Antalin had been terraformed to resemble Skaro and destroyed in its place. It was also revealed the Dalek/Movellan war (and indeed most of Dalek history before the destruction of "Skaro") was actually faked for Davros' benefit. Davros was put on trial by the Daleks under the Dalek Prime and disintegrated at story's end. Critically, ''War'' was badly received by some fans, who even disavowed it within the continuity of the novels. Others welcomed ''War'' for having the Daleks reassert their original independence from Davros. | |||
| ===Audio plays=== | |||
| The Daleks also appear without Davros in many of the ] by ]. The first four ''Doctor Who'' audio plays starring the Daleks were released under the "]" banner, and portrayed a territorially expansive Dalek army under the command of the Emperor (who did not appear to be Davros). In '']'', the Daleks invaded the Kar-Charrat Library to learn information they eventually use in '']''. In that play, the Daleks invade the Time Lords' home planet, ], but are eventually defeated. They also use the eponymous "apocalypse element" to burn an entire galaxy, Seriphia, and plan to conquer the now-empty galaxy and use it as a new base for their empire. The third play, '']'', had few links with the others in the series, except the presence of the Dalek Emperor; the events of this story were ] at its conclusion. The final story, '']'', showed that the Daleks had gained knowledge of time travel from their invasion of Gallifrey. | |||
| The Big Finish audio '']'' depicted an alternate Earth in which the ] had helped defeat a Dalek invasion in ]. Most of the story is set a hundred years later, in a world in which Dalek technology and ideals have been used to create a ] and ] "English Empire". This timeline is largely erased at the story's end, but the Sixth Doctor warns that this nightmarish history will "live on, in the shadows." | |||
| Davros has also appeared in several Big Finish audios. He appears without the Daleks in the eponymous '']'', set between ''Resurrection of the Daleks'' and ''Revelation of the Daleks''. In '']'', set between ''Revelation'' and ''Remembrance of the Daleks'', the Daleks manipulate the Sixth Doctor for the purpose of recapturing Davros (who had escaped his Dalek captors after the end of ''Revelation''). Davros adds human nervous tissue to robotic ] to create the Juggernauts of the play's title; he hopes to use these as an army to destroy the Daleks. At the end of the story, the self-destruct mechanism of Davros' life-support chair explodes, destroying an entire human colony. It is not clear how Davros survives to become the Dalek Emperor, as seen in ''Remembrance''. | |||
| By the time of the ] audio play '']'' (set after ''Remembrance''), Davros is commanding a Dalek army which has successfully conquered the Earth. His mental instability has grown to the point where "Davros" and "the Emperor" exist within him as ]. His Daleks recognize this instability and rebel against Davros. By the story's end the Emperor personality is dominant, and the Daleks agree to follow him and leave Earth. How this can be reconciled with ''War of the Daleks'' is uncertain, and may support the proposition that the various spin-off media take place in their own respective ]. | |||
| ] | |||
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