Dalek

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For the 2005 episode, see Dalek (TV story). For the 1964 episode, see The Daleks (TV story).
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One of the Daleks as they appeared during the Doctor's first encounter with them on Skaro.
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A Dalek soldier encountered by the Doctor on 21st century Earth.
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Davros, creator of the Daleks.


The Daleks (pronounced "DAH-lecks") are a extraterrestrial race of mutated Kaleds from the planet Skaro. They travel around in tank-like mechanical casings, a ruthless race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse. They are also, collectively, the greatest alien adversaries of the Time Lord known as The Doctor. Their most infamous catchphrase is "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!", with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic electronic voice. Other common utterances include "I (or WE) OBEY!" to any command given by a superior.

Contents [hide] 1 Dalek Forms 2 Dalek Agents 3 Non-television Daleks 4 See also 5 External links

Dalek Forms

Externally, Daleks resemble man-sized salt or pepper shakers, with a single mechanical eyestalk in a rotating dome, a gun stalk containing a directed energy weapon (or "death ray"), and a telescoping robot manipulator arm. Usually, the arm is fitted with a device for manipulation that, to the amusement of generations of viewers, resembles a plunger, but various episodes have shown Daleks whose arms end in a tray, a mechanical claw, or other specialised equipment. The 2005 Daleks have suction discs that can morph in shape. The casings are made of a material that has been called dalekanium. The lower shell is covered with many hemispherical protrusions or "Dalek bumps" or "sensor globes". These have been variously described as some kind of sensor array, but were also seen in the episode Dalek to be part of a self-destruct system. The creatures inside their "travel machines" are depicted as soft and repulsive in appearance, but still vicious even without their mechanical armour.

Although the general appearance of the Daleks has remained the same, the colours and some details of the model have evolved over time. The following entries make mention of both television and non-television portrayals of the Daleks. It should be noted that the canonicity of these non-television portrayals is uncertain.

Standard Dalek

A standard, "renegade" Dalek firing its weapon, from Remembrance of the Daleks.When they first appeared in the 1963 serial, The Daleks, the standard Dalek models sported a silver band along their chest areas, but their mobility was limited to metal walkways in the Dalek City on Skaro, being powered by static electricity and governed by a ruling council. A popular myth is that a "glass Dalek" also appeared in Terry Nation's original story for The Daleks, but due to budgetary considerations did not appear in the serial. The concept of a "glass Dalek" first appeared in David Whitaker's novelisation, and was eventually seen in Revelation of the Daleks (1985).

In 1964's The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the size of the base of the Dalek was expanded, and radio dishes were mounted on their backs. These Daleks were more mobile, but still relied on external transmitted power, and were disabled when those transmitters were destroyed. In The Chase (1965), the Daleks were further modified by including what was termed a solar panel array, consisting of wiring and metal slats.

The Daleks of the 1960s serials were mainly silver coloured with blue Dalek "bumps". In The Evil of the Daleks (1967), certain Daleks had black domes. Also, the dishes on their backs had vanished, so presumably they now had independent motive power systems. In the movies based on the first two Dalek serials, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, the Daleks had larger bases as well as larger, jam-jar shaped ear-bulbs, and were painted in a variety of bright colours.

When the Daleks returned to the series in 1972's Day of the Daleks, the Daleks adopted a grey colour scheme, with the Dalek commander being painted gold. By the time of Death to the Daleks (1974), the Daleks returned to a silver colour scheme with black bumps, but once again reverted to greys in Genesis of the Daleks (1975). In Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) the standard grey-black Daleks were part of the Renegade Dalek faction, with the dominant Imperial Daleks sporting a white-gold colour scheme. 

Thousands of Daleks streaming through space towards 2002nd century Earth in The Parting of the Ways.Contrary to popular belief, Daleks can fly. Remembrance of the Daleks showed that they can hover using a sort of limited antigravity — first implied in earlier serials such as The Chase (1965) and Revelation of the Daleks — but their awkward forms still limit their mobility in tight quarters. Despite this, the Daleks' supposed inability to climb stairs is still frequently referred to for humorous effect by journalists covering the series and most press covering the new series in 2005 still said that the new series "finally showed Daleks climbing stairs". The 2005 series episodes Dalek and The Parting of the Ways featured hovering and flying Daleks.

The Daleks returned to the series in Dalek, with a lone Dalek that had somehow survived the Time War which had resulted in the mutual annihilation of both the Daleks and the Time Lords. There were no major alterations to the general Dalek design, except for an expanded base and an overall heavier, more solid look. The Dalek also had an all over metallic brass finish, similar to the gold Dalek commander of Day of the Daleks. The ear-bulbs also resembled the movie versions, and the the eye stalk glowed blue. This Dalek design exhibited abilities not seen before, including a swivelling mid-section that allowed the Dalek a 360-degree field of fire, and a force field that disintegrated 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 DNA 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.

There were unconfirmed rumours of a more radical redesign for the Daleks that might have appeared in a later story, but when an army of Daleks appeared in The Parting of the Ways, they featured no changes in design from the one seen in Dalek. It is possible that this rumour was referring to the new Dalek Emperor design.


Dalek Emperor

The Dalek Emperor from The Evil of the Daleks.Four different incarnations of the Emperor Dalek are known, three seen on the television series, and one in the TV Century 21 comic strip (a squat, golden Dalek with an enormous head-section). It is unclear whether any of these are the same Dalek, or up to four different Daleks.

The Dalek Emperor was first introduced in the TV 21 comic strip The Daleks, reproduced in collective format as the Dalek Chronicles . According to this comic strip version of events, the Emperor was originally a standard Dalek, one of the war machines created by the blue-skinned humanoid Dalek scientist Yarvelling. After the nuclear war that devastated Skaro, the mutants had survived in the casings. The only humanoid Dalek survivors of the war, Yavelling and the warlord Zolfian encountered a Dalek that persuaded them to build more Dalek casings for their mutated descendants. Before the last two humanoid Daleks died, a special casing was built for the Emperor to reflect its new rank. It was slightly shorter than the other Daleks, with a disproportionately large spheroid head section and in gold rather than grey. This origin story is completely different from that portrayed on television in Genesis of the Daleks. The description of the Dalek Prime in John Peel's novel War of the Daleks matches the TV 21 Emperor closely.

The Emperor first appeared on television in The Evil of the Daleks (by David Whitaker, who also wrote most of the comic strips) where it was an enormous immobile conical shell plugged into a corner of the control room in the Dalek City on Skaro. The novelisation of Evil (adapted 26 years later from Whitaker's scripts by John Peel) stated that this Emperor had originally been the Dalek who had apparently exterminated Davros at the end of Genesis of the Daleks (although Davros was later revealed to have survived). The Emperor was apparently destroyed as a civil war broke out amongst the Daleks, although a light was seen still blinking on its casing at the end of the serial indicating some kind of activity.

The next time a Dalek Emperor appeared was in Remembrance of the Daleks. The Emperor of the Imperial Dalek faction was actually Davros, greatly deteriorated physically and reduced to a head and partial torso in a customised Dalek casing similar to the TV 21 comic version of the Emperor. He was last seen heading for an escape pod just before his ship was destroyed in the wake of the supernova that consumed ==Skaro==.

The Dalek Emperor, from The Parting of the Ways.Another Dalek Emperor featured in the finale of the 2005 series, The Parting of the Ways, its ship having barely survived the Time War. After its ship fell through time, it went into seclusion and went on to rebuild a new race of Daleks. This Emperor was a Dalek mutant floating in a transparent tank of liquid, topped by a giant-sized Dalek dome, complete with eyestalk, and flanked by panels of armour dotted by Dalek "bumps". Because this Emperor had recreated the Dalek race, it saw itself as a god, and had transformed its Daleks from fascists to religious fanatics centred around them worshipping it. This Emperor was apparently destroyed with the rest of the Daleks by Rose Tyler after she had absorbed the energies of the time vortex.

A Dalek Emperor also appears in the Dalek Empire series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions. In the Eighth Doctor audio adventure Terror Firma, taking place after Remembrance of the Daleks, Davros's increasingly unstable mind is obliterated by a totally Dalek personality, that of the Emperor. This new Emperor then takes command of Davros's Daleks and departs. Whether this is the Emperor seen in the rest of the Big Finish Dalek audios is unclear.

A Dalek Emperor, described similarly to the Emperor in The Evil of the Daleks, appears in the Telos novella The Dalek Factor by Simon Clark. It is referred to as "an" Emperor, implying there was more than one at that time.

Dalek Supreme

A Black Dalek, from The Dalek Invasion of Earth.Also sometimes referred to as the Supreme Dalek, the type of Dalek originally simply designated as a Black Dalek and later identified with the Dalek Supreme served in the role of an elite or commander Dalek. It first appeared in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, where a Black Dalek (called a Supreme Controller) is seen directing the Bedfordshire operation. It had a terrifying pet called the Slyther which it used to let roam free around the mines at night killing those it found. A black and silver coloured Dalek referred to as the Saucer Commander is also seen in this serial. A Dalek Supreme also led the Daleks in The Daleks' Master Plan, as well as dispatching the Dalek execution squad at the beginning of The Chase.

The Black Dalek was replaced by the Dalek Emperor in The Evil of the Daleks, which used black-domed Daleks as lieutenants. During the Third Doctor's era, the Black Dalek appeared to have been replaced by a Gold Dalek (in Day of the Daleks), but the field commander-type Dalek returned and was now positively identified as the Dalek Supreme in Planet of the Daleks (1973). In that serial, a movie-style Dalek in black and gold trim was used to represent a member of the Supreme Council of Daleks (which had apparently supplanted the need for an Emperor), with an eye-stalk that lit up when it was speaking. In Destiny of the Daleks, the Dalek Supreme was briefly mentioned as the supreme commander of the Daleks. A Dalek lieutenant, a Dalek of a darker shade of grey than the rest, is also seen as an intermediate rank in that serial.

The Dalek Supreme, as a Black Dalek, made further appearances as the leader of the Daleks in Resurrection of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks, as well as being mentioned in Revelation of the Daleks. In Resurrection of the Daleks, the Supreme Dalek was a fully black Dalek, with white bumps instead of the usual grey ones, and the voice a lot more hollow. In the former, a schism developed between the Daleks led by the Dalek Supreme and those still loyal to their creator Davros. In the latter serial, it was the leader of the Renegade Daleks that opposed the Imperial Daleks commanded by Davros, now calling himself the Dalek Emperor. The Dalek Supreme ended up as the last surviving Dalek on Earth and destroyed itself.

Command-level Daleks appear in the Dalek movies starring Peter Cushing as "Dr. Who". In Dr. Who and the Daleks it is a Black Dalek with gold trimming and alternating black and gold bumps. In Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, a dark gold Dalek with silver trimmings and black globes leads the invasion force.

In the TV 21 comic strips the Black Dalek acts as overall second-in-command of the Daleks, ranking below only the Dalek Emperor. John Peel's BBC Books Doctor Who novel War of the Daleks the Daleks are led by the "Dalek Prime", whose description matches that of the TV 21 Dalek Emperor. In the novel, the Dalek Prime is the judge at Davros's trial on Skaro and is stated to be the last survivor of the original Daleks created by Davros. As this was how Peel referred to the Dalek Emperor in his novelisation of The Evil of the Daleks, this suggests that they are the same Dalek at different points in its history. The novel also mentions Black Daleks as being high in the Dalek chain-of-command and being in charge of all lower ranks, being subordinate only to Gold Daleks and the Dalek Prime. The Dalek Prime is also mentioned in Peel's Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Legacy of the Daleks.

In the Big Finish Productions series of Dalek Empire audio plays, the rank of Supreme Dalek is equivalent to an Army General, subordinate to the Emperor Dalek on Skaro, and eventually rises to command the Daleks in the Emperor's absence, with a different Dalek Supreme taking over in the third series.

Four black-domed Daleks appear briefly in The Parting of the Ways, flanking the Dalek Emperor. These are very similar to the black-domed Emperor's guards seen in The Evil of the Daleks.

Imperial Dalek

A Special Weapons Dalek followed by two Imperial Daleks. From Remembrance of the Daleks.The Imperial Daleks are a faction of Daleks loyal to their creator, Davros, rather than the Dalek Supreme. They first appeared in Revelation of the Daleks. The Imperial Daleks had white livery with gold bumps, and high-pitched voices. These Daleks were not descended from the original Kaled mutants, being instead made from the modified heads of human corpses infused with the Dalek factor. They were destroyed along with Davros's laboratory in the Tranquil Repose funeral home on Necros by the original Daleks. The glass Dalek also finally made an appearance in Revelation — a prototype Dalek with a transparent casing that revealed the mutated head inside.

In Remembrance Of The Daleks, Davros had somehow escaped whatever fate the Daleks had in store for him and had gained control of Skaro, becoming the Emperor. He recreated the Imperial Daleks by grafting bionic appendages onto the bodies of Kaled mutants. Their casings now had golden eye-stalks and a lozenge shape on the front of their casings, and their gold plungers were slotted to fit into machinery. Imperial Daleks could also hover up a flight of stairs.

A civil war, ostensibly over racial purity, broke out between the original, now Renegade Daleks, and the Imperial Daleks. Although their firepower was weak, Imperial Daleks augmented their battle tactics with the Special Weapons Dalek. It is not clear if any Imperial Daleks survived the conclusion of the serial, as both Skaro and the main Imperial Dalek warfleet were apparently destroyed by the Hand of Omega.

In the Big Finish Productions audio play Terror Firma, Davros survived the destruction of Skaro and created a new army of Imperial Daleks from Earth's population by releasing a virus that turned humans into Dalek mutants. Davros's mind was taken over by a completely Dalek personality, and this new Emperor assumed control of the Imperial Dalek army. It was not stated if the Imperial or Renegade factions were dominant at this point or after.

Special Weapons Dalek

The Special Weapons Dalek is a heavily-armoured Imperial Dalek first seen in Remembrance. Unlike a conventional Dalek, the Special Weapons Dalek has no manipulator arm or eye-stalk. Instead, it has an enormous energy cannon mounted on the front of the armoured casing in place of the usual small gunstalk and several red squares around the dome in place of the usual eyestalk. Special Weapons Daleks do not appear to be able to speak, but do have massive firepower, said in the BBC Dalek Survival Guide to be up to 50 times more powerful than a blast from a regular Dalek gun.

In Remembrance the Special Weapons Dalek's firepower was so great that one shot completely vaporised two conventional Renegade Daleks, leaving only a pair of burn marks, and the armour was sufficient to deflect conventional Dalek energy weapons without suffering any apparent damage. Like the other Imperial Daleks, its livery was white with gold bumps, but with sections of metallic grey armour covering most of the upper portion with much battle scoring. The Special Weapons Dalek was also mentioned in the novel War of the Daleks, and the Big Finish audio The Genocide Machine.

In Ben Aaronovitch's novelisation of Remembrance it was stated that the enormous power source required for its weapon resulted in high levels of radiation being released and altering the structure of the Dalek's brain, resulting in insanity. It was only used in extreme situations and was unofficially known among the Daleks as the "Abomination."

Special Weapons Daleks would have been featured in the aborted 30th anniversary film The Dark Dimension. According to the BBC Dalek Survival Guide, Special Weapons Daleks also come in both Marine and Airborne forms.

Non-television Daleks

The following Daleks have never featured in any television appearances:

Spider Dalek

Spider Dalek concept drawingSpider Daleks were a proposed design by John Leekey for an early version of the Doctor Who television movie to be produced by Amblin Entertainment in 1994. The script was rejected and it was the Matthew Jacobs-scripted television movie that saw production in 1996. The Spider Daleks ultimately appeared in John Peel's novel War of the Daleks, depicted as creations of Davros. Spider Daleks are slightly larger than normal, but with eight legs. They are more manoeuvrable than standard Daleks, but more vulnerable at their joints. In the novel, the Thals believed that this design had been abandoned for centuries. Giant-sized versions, known as Striders, are ten times larger than the standard Spider Dalek.

In the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip story Fire and Brimstone (DWM #251-#255), a faction of Daleks from a parallel universe resembled Spider Daleks, and were viewed as abominations by the Daleks of the "main" universe. The comic strip Spider Daleks had a square font in their speech-bubbles, rather than the regular angular Dalek font.

Marsh Dalek

Only featured in the 1964 Dalek annual written by Terry Nation and David Whittaker, these were large, bipedal Daleks that were used to control the Horrokon Monsters on the Planet Gurnian. They appear to be a forerunner of the Striders referred to in John Peel's books.

Marine Dalek

Marine Daleks, also introduced in War of the Daleks, are torpedo-shaped with their eyes at the front, and have their gunstalk and a grappling arm parallel to their bodies. They are also larger than the standard Daleks.

Scout Dalek

In Ben Aaronovitch's novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks the Imperial Dalek faction use a type of scout Dalek which is more streamlined than standard Daleks, with overpowered motors.

Dalek agents

An Ogron, (from Day of the Daleks) despite their penchant for racial purity, the Daleks are not averse to using other species in subordinate roles, or as ostensible allies, although they are usually exterminated once they have served their usefulness (like Mavic Chen in the 1965 serial The Daleks' Master Plan).

They routinely enslave planetary populations, putting them in labour camps and using them as operatives, willing or otherwise. In The Dalek Invasion of Earth they converted selected humans into Robomen overseers, using oversized mind-control helmets. However, these Robomen were mentally unstable and eventually went insane, then turned suicidal. By the time of Remembrance of the Daleks, the control device had been refined and reduced to the size of a microchip implanted behind the subject's ear which could also shut the agent down when they were in danger of being compromised. More advanced versions of the Robomen based on this technology appear in the Dalek Empire series of Big Finish audios. In the alternate future of Day of the Daleks humans who willingly served the Daleks supervised slave labour.

The Daleks also use mercenaries. In Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space (1973), the Daleks used Ogrons to police their slaves and as foot soldiers. In 1984's Resurrection of the Daleks, the Daleks used human mercenaries as Dalek troopers (who wore helmets resembling the domed head and eye-stalk of a Dalek) as well as human duplicates known as Dalek Agents.

Dalek battle computers were mentioned in 1979's Destiny of the Daleks. It was their completely logical nature that caused the centuries-long stalemate in the war with the android Movellans. As a result, the Daleks decided to harness human creativity by using them as part of their battle computers, as seen in Remembrance of the Daleks. In that serial, the battle computer was a brainwashed human child sitting in a Dalek-styled chair and wearing a helmet similar to that of the Dalek troopers. The child was also capable of attacking with bolts of energy emanating from her hands, although the Dalek control (and presumably, the offensive capability) finished when the Dalek Supreme on Earth was destroyed.

Physical characteristics

Externally, Daleks resemble man-sized pepper shakers, with a single mechanical eyestalk in a rotating dome, a gunstalk containing a directed energy weapon (or "death ray"), and a telescoping robot arm. Usually, the arm is fitted with a device for manipulation that resembles a plunger, but sometimes this is replaced with a tray, a mechanical claw, or some other piece of specialised equipment like a flamethrower. The plunger can be used as a bludgeon (Dalek (TV story)). The casings are made of a material that has been called dalekanium.

In the alternate future of Day of the Daleks, dalekanium is an unstable explosive that can penetrate Dalek casings. The two may be the same, or the term may simply be a neologism to describe a product of the Daleks. The lower shell is covered with many hemispherical protrusions or "Dalek bumps". These have been described as being a sensor array, and as being part of a self-destruct system (Dalek (TV story)).

The creatures inside their "travel machines" are soft and repulsive in appearance, but still vicious even without their mechanical armour. During a 1984 incursion into London, a Dalek creature, separated from its casing, attacked and killed a human soldier (Resurrection of the Daleks). The Doctor has described the Daleks as "little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour." However, as the creature inside is rarely seen, the misconception that Daleks are wholly mechanical robots exists. The interdependence of biological and mechanical components makes the Daleks a type of cyborg.

The voice of a Dalek is electronic, the Dalek creature having no vocal apparatus as such. Daleks also have a radio communicator built into their shells, and emit an alarm to summon other nearby Daleks if the casing is opened from outside. The Dalek's eyepiece is its most vulnerable spot, and impairing its vision often leads to a blind firing of its weapon.

Due to their gliding motion Daleks were notoriously unable to tackle stairs, which made them easy to overcome under the right circumstances. For example, at one time the Fourth Doctor and his companions escaped from Dalek pursuers by climbing into a ceiling duct. He then called down, "If you're supposed to be the superior race of the universe, why don't you try climbing after us? Bye bye!" (Destiny of the Daleks) The Daleks generally make up for their lack of mobility with overwhelming firepower. Also, the newer models appear to be able to hover, using a sort of limited antigravity. (The Chase, Revelation of the Daleks, Dalek (TV story))

The Daleks appear to be amphibious to a degree. (The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

History

Main article: History of the Daleks

The Daleks were the product of a generations-long war between the Kaled and Thal races. (Genesis of the Daleks) They were created by the crippled Kaled chief scientist and evil genius Davros. The mutations produced by the fallout from the nuclear and biochemical weapons used in the war were accelerated by Davros and placed in tank-like "travel machines" whose design was based on his own life-support chair.

Over the course of their history, the Daleks developed, in no particular order, time travel (The Chase), an interstellar empire (The Daleks' Master Plan) and factory ships for conquest (The Power of the Daleks). The radio dishes which had originally been required to allow them to travel on surfaces without a static charge also vanished, enabling Daleks to move under their own power.

Only a few Daleks appear to have survived the Time War which they fought with the Time Lords. One of them was the Dalek Emperor, who rebuilt the Dalek race. This Emperor came to see itself as a god, and built its new society around the Daleks' worship of itself. In the end, the Daleks and their fleet were reduced to atoms.

Culture

Daleks have little to no individual personalities and a strict command structure, conditioned to obey superior orders without question. Ultimately, the most fundamental feature of Dalek culture and psychology is an unquestioned belief in the superiority of the Daleks. Other species are either to be exterminated immediately, or enslaved and then exterminated later once they are no longer necessary. The default directive of a Dalek is to destroy all non-Dalek lifeforms.

This belief is thought to be the reason why Daleks have never significantly modified their mechanical shell's designs to overcome its obvious physical limitations; any such modification would deviate from the Dalek ideal, and therefore must be inferior and deserving of extermination. The schism between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks is a prime example of this, with each faction considering the other to be a perversion despite the relatively minor differences between them. It also means, however, that Daleks are intolerant of such "contamination" even within themselves. (Dalek and The Mutant Phase)

Another offshoot of this superiority complex is their complete ruthlessness and lack of compassion. It is because of this that it is nearly impossible to negotiate or reason with a Dalek and it is this single-mindedness that makes them so dangerous and not to be underestimated. However, their reliance on logic and machinery is also a weakness that they recognize. As a result, they also make use of non-Dalek species to compensate for these shortcomings (see Dalek agents).

As noted above the Daleks that were resurrected through the manipulation and mutation of human genetic material by the Dalek Emperor were religious fanatics that worshiped the Emperor as their god. (The Parting of the Ways)

Although the Daleks are well known for their disregard of due process, there have been two known occasions on which they have taken enemies back to Skaro for a "trial" rather than killing them on the spot; the first was their creator Davros (Revelation of the Daleks), and the second was the renegade Time Lord known as the Master (Doctor Who: The TV Movie). It is not clear what was actually involved. The Master's trial presumably took place before the destruction of Skaro. The reasons for the Master's trial, and why the Doctor would be asked to retrieve the Master's remains, have never been explained.

The Daleks are known to write poetry (The Also People), and some of the more elaborate Dalek battlecries have an almost poetic quality about them (for example, "Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!" (in The Chase).) In an alternate reality, the Daleks show a fondness for the works of Shakespeare. (The Time of the Daleks)

Due to their frequent defeats by the Doctor, he has become a sort of bogeyman in Dalek culture. They have standing orders to capture or exterminate the Doctor on sight, and are occasionally able to identify him despite his regenerations. This is probably not an innate ability, but rather because of good record keeping. The Daleks know the Doctor as the Ka Faraq Gatri, (meaning "The Bringer of Darkness" or "Destroyer of Worlds") (e.g. in the novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks). The Doctor claims that the Daleks call him "The Oncoming Storm" (The Parting of the Ways) — this name was also used by the Draconians to refer to the Doctor (Love and War).

The Doctor, in turn, has grown to be almost monomaniacal in his belief that the Daleks are completely evil and unworthy of trust or compassion. This contrasts with some of his earlier dealings with the Daleks; for example the Second Doctor attempted to instil a "human factor" in Daleks (The Evil of the Daleks) and the Fourth Doctor hesitated when presented with the opportunity to destroy the Daleks at the point of their creation (Genesis of the Daleks). His conviction of the irredeemability of the Daleks motivated a venomous outburst by the Doctor (Dalek (TV story)), leading the mutant to observe that the Doctor "would make a good Dalek."

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 AD, based on the television serials The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, respectively. However, the movies were not straight remakes. Cushing's Doctor is not an alien, but a human inventor, and is literally named "Doctor Who." 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.

Nation also authorised the publication of the comic strip The Daleks in the comic TV Century 21. The one-page strip (written by David Whitaker but credited to Nation) featured the Daleks as protagonists and "heroes", and continued for two years, from their creation of the mechanised Daleks by the humanoid Dalek scientist Yarvelling to their eventual discovery in the ruins of a crashed space-liner of the co-ordinates for 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. In 1994, the UK arm of Marvel Comics reprinted all the TV 21 strips in a collected edition titled The Dalek Chronicles.

Marvel UK was publishing Doctor Who Magazine at the time, which included comic strip stories in its pages. Aside from meeting up with the Doctor in them, the DWM strips also introduced a new nemesis for the Daleks, the Dalek Killer named Abslom Daak. Daak was a convicted criminal in the 25th century who was given the choice between execution and being sent on a suicide mission against the Daleks. He chose the latter and, when the woman he loved was killed by the Daleks, made it his life's purpose to kill every Dalek he came across.

The Daleks have also appeared in the Dalek Empire series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions, of which three mini-series of 4 CDs each have so far been produced and saw the return of the original Dalek Emperor. They have also returned to bedevil the Doctor in Big Finish's Doctor Who line of audio plays.


Major appearances

Television episodes

Comic Relief special (parody)

Stage plays

Original novels

Audio plays

Doctor Who

Professor Bernice Summerfield

Dalek Empire (series)

  • Invasion of the Daleks
  • The Human Factor
  • Death to the Daleks!
  • Project Infinity

Dalek Empire II: Dalek War

  • Chapter One
  • Chapter Two
  • Chapter Three
  • Chapter Four

Dalek Empire III

  • The Exterminators
  • The Healers
  • The Survivors
  • The Demons
  • The Warriors
  • The Future

See also

External links

References

  • Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (2003). The Television Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to DOCTOR WHO (2nd ed.) Surrey, UK: Telos Publishing, ISBN 1-903389051-0.
  • Haining, Peter, (1988) "Doctor Who and the Merchandisers", Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years London, UK: W.H. Allen, ISBN 0-31837661-X.
  • Davies, Kevin (director) (1993). More than 30 Years in the TARDIS London, UK: BBC Video.
  • Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (1994). The First Doctor Handbook London, UK: Virgin Publishing, ISBN 0-426-2-430-1.
  • Finklestone, Peter (producer) (2003). "Talking Daleks" featurette, The Dalek Invasion of Earth London, UK: BBC Video.
  • Seaborne, Gilliane (director) (2005). "Dalek", Doctor Who Confidential BBC Wales.
  • Nation, Terry (ed.) (1979). Terry Nation's Dalek Special, Target Books.
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