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Before the Last Great Time War, Black Daleks were senior ranking Daleks within the Dalek hierarchy and the most common rank to take up the role of Supreme Dalek or Supreme Controller, (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Chase, Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan, Resurrection of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks) although neither of these titles were exclusive to their rank. (TV: Day of the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks, AUDIO: "Death to the Daleks!", Blood of the Daleks) There was a distinction made between a Black Dalek and a Supreme Dalek. Those that did not hold the title of Dalek Supreme were subservient to the existing Supreme Dalek. (AUDIO: Brotherhood of the Daleks, Daleks Among Us, Masters of Earth, COMIC: Fire and Brimstone) They outranked Silver or Grey Dalek drones, Blue Daleks and Red Daleks but were in turn outranked by Gold Daleks after their introduction, as well as the Dalek Emperor or the Dalek Prime. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
After the end of the Time War, the Dalek race was crippled and facing extinction. (TV: Dalek, The Parting of the Ways, The Day of the Doctor) With the exception of Dalek Sec, Black Daleks disappeared from the ranks of the Daleks altogether, serving no part in the New Dalek Empire (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End) or the early stages of the New Dalek Paradigm. (TV: Victory of the Daleks, The Pandorica Opens, COMIC: The Only Good Dalek, GAME: City of the Daleks, Evacuation Earth, Return to Earth, The Eternity Clock) By the time of the formation of the Dalek Parliament, Black Daleks were eventually reintroduced but they were subservient to the blue Strategist, orange Scientist, yellow Eternal, white Supreme and red drone Dalek officers. (COMIC: The Dalek Project, TV: Asylum of the Daleks, GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek)
History
Early history
The Black Dalek was summoned by the Dalek Emperor to deal with Zeg after he challenged the Emperor's authority. The Black Dalek's weapon was unable to penetrate Zeg's metalert casing. (COMIC: Duel of the Daleks)
When the Daleks developed space travel, the Emperor led an invasion force off Skaro to conquer other planets, (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge) leaving the Black Dalek in charge of the Dalek City. When the Daleks were threatened by the outbreak of a rust plague, the Black Dalek was infected in such as way that it could be used as a vessel to transmit the plague to other Daleks. The Emperor returned to Skaro to deal with the situation and found the Black Dalek rusting away, resigned to its fate. The Emperor claimed the Black Dalek was too valuable to lose and sent it to the recasting furnace to be repaired. (COMIC: Plague of Death)
Later, after its recovery, the Black Dalek led a force of Daleks to the planet Phryne in search of new technologies as war with the Mechanoids became evermore certain. They successfully occupied the planet. (COMIC: The Archives of Phryne)
The Emperor called a meeting with the Black Dalek and a Red Dalek when the presence of the One in a Million Dalek threatened to cause a civil war. (COMIC: Shadow of Humanity)
Expansion of the Dalek Empire
The invasion of Earth in the 22nd century was commanded by a Black Dalek with the title of Supreme Controller. It was killed when the Bedfordshire mine exploded and the invasion failed in the 2160s. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Other subordinate Black Daleks also participated in the invasion. In 2163, one Black Dalek interrogated the Sixth Doctor before it was killed by the Daleks' Varga plant virus. (AUDIO: Masters of Earth)
After the failure of the invasion, the Daleks identified the Doctor and a Black Dalek, under orders from the Dalek Prime, (PROSE: The Chase) ordered an assassination squad to pursue his TARDIS in a Dalek time machine. The squad failed. (TV: The Chase)
The same Black Dalek acting as a Supreme Dalek oversaw the Dalek operations on planet Kembel in the year 4000. It was wiped out when the Doctor hijacked the Time Destructor. (TV: Mission to the Unknown/The Dalek's Master Plan) This was a massive blow for the Dalek Empire as the Dalek Prime considered both the fleet and the Black Dalek irreplaceable. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time)
During the Dalek Civil War which ended the Great War, Black Daleks fought alongside the Emperor's guards to put down the rebelling humanised Daleks threatening the Emperor. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks, TV: The Evil of the Daleks) They successfully crushed the rebellion despite the devastation it caused. (COMIC: Bringer of Darkness, Children of the Revolution). In the aftermath, Black Daleks became outranked by the introduction of Gold Daleks into the Dalek hierarchy. (TV: Day of the Daleks, Frontier in Space, PROSE: War of the Daleks) A Gold Dalek acted as the Supreme Dalek in an alternative timeline in which the Daleks reconquered 22nd century Earth but according to one account, a Black Dalek was also present, acting as the Gold Dalek's second-in-command. The plan failed when Shura blew up Austerly House with a Dalekanium bomb as the Daleks invaded, saving the Second World Peace Conference. (PROSE: Day of the Daleks)
The Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War
At the beginning of the civil war between the Imperial Daleks and the Renegade Daleks, another Black Supreme Dalek led the expedition to find Davros and have him develop a cure for the Movellan virus. The Supreme Dalek planned to use a duplicate of the Fifth Doctor and his companions to send to Gallifrey and assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords. Stien, a rouge Dalek duplicate, set the space station to self-destruct and the Black Dalek was one of many resulting Dalek casualties. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
Black Daleks lead Dalek assault forces or operations, including the invasion of Gallifrey, (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element) capturing the Sixth Doctor to prevent Davros from building the Juggernauts, (AUDIO: The Juggernauts) and the attack on Bliss. Black Daleks could self-destruct with such power to destroy a base. (AUDIO: Enemy of the Daleks)
During the Shoreditch Incident, the Renegade Daleks were commanded by a Black Dalek. It was the last remaining Dalek of the incident and killed itself after the Seventh Doctor convinced it it had no purpose. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
After the end of the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, forces within the Dalek Empire were divided on who to support - Davros or the Dalek Prime. Only the Gold Daleks remained fully loyal to the Dalek Prime while the Black Daleks, along with the Red Daleks, Blue Daleks and drone units, were split. The Dalek Prime organised for Davros to be placed on trial in hopes his supporters would reveal themselves and this proved successful as a Black Dalek attempted to assassinate the Dalek Prime before Davros could be executed. Davros's supporters were believed to have been destroyed in the ensuing battle. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
A Black Dalek was present on the planet Azimuth. (AUDIO: Daleks Among Us)
53rd century
A Black Dalek assisted the Supreme Dalek to lead the invasion of the New Earth System aboard the Dalek Hive. It was destroyed by impure Daleks. (COMIC: Fire and Brimstone)
The Time War and later history
During the Last Great Time War, Black Daleks were among many ranks of Daleks and Skaro Degradations present at a temporary base on Moldox in the city of Andor. They were overcome in a prisoner revolt instigated by the War Doctor and Cinder. (PROSE: Engines of War) All Black Daleks were among countless Daleks destroyed in the final battle of the War when "all thirteen" Doctors moved Gallifrey into a pocket universe. The Dalek Fleet, firing on the planet from all directions, blasted itself into oblivion after its target disappeared. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
When the Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm reintroduced the bronze casings previously used in the Second Dalek War and the Last Great Time War, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) Black Daleks were also reintroduced as lower-ranking officers. One such Dalek oversaw the progression of the Dalek Project and was connected to Survey Ship Sigma before the ship's destruction in a battle of the First World War. the survival chamber survived and the Black Dalek was destroyed when the Eleventh Doctor overloaded the Dalek ship in 2017. (COMIC: The Dalek Project) Its position was very similar to that of the earlier Chief Strategist. (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek)
Black Daleks, accompanied by Red Daleks, had occupied the Starbane when the Twelfth Doctor and Lumpy arrived with the intention of destroying the vessel along with the Orb of Fates. All Black Daleks were destroyed when Statbane exploded. (GAME: The Doctor and the Dalek)
Other Black Daleks
Davros's chair, on which the Dalek design was partially based, was black. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
A Dalek working in a Dalek Test Chamber had a casing which alternated between black and white. (COMIC: Eve of War)
Dalek Saucer Commanders which oversaw saucer operations during the invasion of Earth had a casing which alternated between black and silver. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, COMIC: The Threat from Beneath)
The Dalek Emperor's guards and other elite guards had black domes and were even referred to as Black Daleks. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, The Parting of the Ways, PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks, GAME: The Eternity Clock)
A half black, half gold Dalek arrived on Spiridon on the eve of the Second Dalek War and was believed by the Thals to be a member of the Supreme Council. (TV: Planet of the Daleks) Another such Dalek, the immediate subordinate to the Emperor, was part of a mission on Kar-Charrat to obtain information from the planet's Library. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine)
During the Second Dalek War, Dalek X, the Dalek Inquisitor General, had a gunmetal black casing decorated with gold. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks)
Mikkith, a humanised Black Dalek, was present on the planet Kyrol. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution)
The Chief Dalek had a black dome. (COMIC: Return of the Daleks)
A Supreme Dalek commanded the invasion of Gallifrey. This Dalek had a bronze casing with black dome and globes. (AUDIO: Extermination, Ascension)
Dalek Sec, the leader of the Cult of Skaro, could be easily identified by his distinctive solid black metalert casing prior to his evolution into a Human-Dalek hybrid, after which he abandoned it. (PROSE: Birth of a Legend, TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks) It was practically identical to the casing later used by the Black Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)
Behind the scenes
- In both Dr. Who and the Daleks, the remake of The Daleks which itself did not feature a Black Dalek, and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., the remake of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, a Black Dalek is present.
- Black Daleks have featured much less prominently in revived series media than in classic series media. It was not until The Dalek Project in 2012 that a Black Dalek was seen again as a rank, Dalek Sec and Dalek X before it being individuals with a unique position rather than a shared rank. 2014's Engines of War followed this up by including some Daleks with black casings, though only briefly, and The Doctor and the Dalek later showed multiple such Black Daleks present aboard the Starbane.
- Both The Dalek Chronicles and Volume 2 of John Peel's novelisation of The Daleks' Master Plan imply that there was only one Black Dalek in existence for much of the Daleks' early history, although neither of them seem to factor in the Black Dalek from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Masters of Earth later confirmed that more than one Black Dalek was involved in the Earth invasion.