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The Dalek timeline theory speculates that the Daleks have two timelines. The first, Davros really did die when exterminated by the Daleks after their creation.
In another, Davros only appeared to die, but lived, and his survival provoked the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, which weakened the Dalek species. The Fourth Doctor created the second timeline, inadvertantly, when the Time Lords sent him to Skaro in Genesis of the Daleks. Therefore, Dalek stories set prior to Genesis of the Daleks, and those set after, take place in different continuities.
In the Real World, Davros never appeared on-screen because up until Genesis of the Daleks, Terry Nation had not invented the character and the Daleks had had several accounts given of their creation which differed from each other to a greater or lesser degree.
The theory originated in the The Discontinuity Guide. Canon sources have, to date, neither confirmed or denied the theory. John Peel's "revisionist" War of the Daleks did come at the theory from a slight angle, however, and suggested that, in reality, the Daleks had put into motion a hoax which involved pretending to go to war with the Movellans and staging a fake Imperial-Renegade civil war, which would mean Davros had a much less disruptive influence over the Daleks than shown on screen.