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The Dalek Civil War, also known as the Skaro Civil War (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks) or the Great Civil War, (PROSE: Aliens and Enemies) was a civil war fought on Skaro between the Daleks loyal to the Dalek Emperor and the humanised Daleks, who had been implanted with the Human Factor by the Second Doctor.
- You may be looking for Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War or 2021 Dalek civil war.
Dating[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Dalek Survival Guide was unable to identify the date of this event on Skaro. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide) One account dated Operation Human Factor and the ensuing Dalek Civil War as taking place over 1000 years into a Great War which began with the Dalek defeat in the Time Destructor Incident of the year 4000. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) However, the Time Lords' time scale of Dalek activity placed these events following the 41st century but before the recovery of Davros during the Dalek-Movellan War in the 46th century. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Origins[[edit] | [edit source]]
While known as Genetic Variant Two-One-Zero and in a period of testing, the Dalek Emperor encountered Steven Taylor. Intrigued by his behaviour, the Emperor gave the Daleks a prime directive to discover, study, and understand the human factor. (AUDIO: Across the Darkened City)
The direct origins of the Dalek Civil War could be traced back as far as the year 4000, over one thousand years before it took place, with the Daleks' attempted invasion of the solar system via use of the Time Destructor. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) The failure of the invasion alerted several galactic powers, Earth among them, to the threat of the Daleks and numerous war forces were assembled to go to war against the Dalek Empire over the course of the following millennium, sparking the Great War which threatened to destroy the Daleks. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
Civil War[[edit] | [edit source]]
Human Factor experiment[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Main article: Operation Human Factor
In a last-ditch effort to prevent the Daleks' defeat in the Great War, the Dalek Emperor tasked the Supreme Council the responsibility of capturing the Doctor so he could be blackmailed into discovering the secrets of the Human Factor. From that, the Daleks could discover the Dalek Factor which they could spread throughout human history and prevent the Great War from ever happening. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
Making contact with Theodore Maxtible, a scientist in 1866 researching time travel, the Daleks promised to give him the secret of alchemy in return for his aid. To gain the obedience of his colleague, Edward Waterfield, Maxtible helped them take his daughter, Victoria hostage. On the Daleks' instructions, in 1966 Edward arranged the theft of the the Doctor's TARDIS from Gatwick Airport and subsequently lured the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon to the Daleks' time machine, using it to take them back to 1866.
Using Jamie as an unwilling subject by studying him whilst he attempted to rescue Victoria, the Doctor was able to isolate the Human Factor. He subsequently implanted it into a group of Daleks who became friendly to the Doctor and whom he named Alpha, Beta and Omega. In identifying the Human Factor, the Doctor had inadvertently enabled the Daleks to identify the Dalek Factor. With the experiment successful, all the Daleks returned to Skaro and Maxtible was ordered to bring Waterfield, the Doctor and his friends too. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
The rebellion[[edit] | [edit source]]
The three Humanised Daleks returned to their duties on Skaro. At the same time an archway to implant Dalek Factor was tested successfully on Maxtible and subsequently utilised on the Doctor. Unknown to the Daleks the arch had no effect on the Doctor as he was not human, however he pretended it had in order to sabotage the arch so it would implant the Human Factor instead.
After his guards began to report incidents of the Humanised Daleks beginning to question orders, the Doctor suggested the Emperor have all Daleks pass through the conversion archway to quell the unrest. The Emperor accepted his suggestion, unaware every Dalek that passed through the archway had the Human Factor instilled instead. Those Daleks who passed through the archway began to question orders from their superiors, prompting violent retaliations from the Emperor's guards. The Humanised Daleks defended themselves, urged on by the Doctor who encouraged them to seek explanations from their Emperor personally. As the Doctor rallied them, one of the Emperor's guards attempted to kill him. Edward Waterfield pushed him out of the way, taking the blast himself. As he died, the Doctor promised to look after his daughter and then fled the City whilst the Humanised Daleks pushed on into the throne room.
The fighting spread to the throne room amid the Emperor's protests, as his guards defended him from an onslaught of Humanised Daleks. The Emperor himself sustained significant damage, although a blinking light on his casing may have indicated his survival. The Dalek City was devastated by the conflict and began to explode. Observing the destruction from nearby cliffs, the Doctor believed this battle to be the Daleks' "final end." (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
The Doctor was ultimately proven wrong as the Emperor's forces defeated the rebels, (COMIC: Bringer of Darkness) with the surviving Humanised Daleks forced to flee Skaro. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution) The civil war brought the Great War to an end. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
Aftermath[[edit] | [edit source]]
Info from The Death of the Daleks and The Final Beginning needs to be added
In the immediate aftermath of the battle, the Emperor encountered Bernice Summerfield as she moved through the Daleks' timeline. The Emperor questioned her on why the Civil War had occurred and why the other Daleks questioned him. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro)
According to The End of the Daleks, an account of the conflict taken by Dokktor Whit-Arkker, the war was fought around the same time as the defeat of the Seventh Dalek Armada at the [[Battle of Gurnian. The warring Daleks were depicted as being bronze Daleks capable of flight, with the Emperor occupying the Emperor Type II casing. (PROSE: Daleks vs Daleks!)
Some 5000 years prior to the 101st century, the Time Lords were known to have been involved in the Dalek Civil War, after which they were believed to have retreated from the "galactic arena". (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus)
The surviving humanised Daleks found a new home on the planet Kyrol. Alpha was one of them and acted as their leader. They would ultimately destroy themselves to prevent the telepathic parasite Kata-Phobus from feeding on them. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution)
The Time Lords believed that the humanised Daleks were the first instance of a Dalek splinter group, and that the civil war resulted in a temporary absence of Daleks from Skaro. They were aware that, at some stage, Dalek Command established dedicated death squads skilled at neutralising any rogue Dalek factions, operating spacecraft modified with sensors and weaponry optimised to track down "deviant manifestations" of the Dalek race. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) Following the Siege of Trenzalore, some human historians, whilst aware of the humanised Dalek uprising, regarded the later conflict between the original "Renegade Daleks" and Davros' Imperial Daleks as the "First Dalek Civil War". (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Though the "Type I" Emperor was thought to be destroyed in the civil war, the Time Lords acknowledged the possibility that, given the Daleks' extraordinarily long lifespan, the organic part was retrieved and would eventually "form the basis" of the "Type II" Emperor whom they faced in the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) Indeed, the victorious imperial forces began rebuilding. At some point, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield returned to the Dalek City themselves; sneaking into the silent, darkened throne room, they were shocked to find that they had walked into the lion's den, with the Emperor alive and well, and more Daleks than ever standing guard above him, who triumphantly declared that "the Daleks [had] returned". (HOMEVID: Emperor of the Daleks) In his third incarnation, the Doctor first encountered a new Dalek command structure, involving grey Dalek drones in place of silver ones and Gold Dalek commanders as superiors to Black Daleks. (TV: Day of the Daleks)
At some point, the Dalek Civil War was displayed in the Dalek Dome as one of the greatest moments in Dalek history. (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- DWM 77's History of the Daleks dates the Human Factor Incident and the resulting Dalek Civil War to c. 7500, which is eventually followed by the Movellan Incident in 8740.
- Long before the Sixth Doctor suggested that Davros could become Emperor of the Daleks in Revelation of the Daleks, the original second volume of The Doctor Who Programme Guide (1981) suggested that the Dalek Emperor seen in The Evil of the Daleks was not only the "last Emperor Dalek", indicating the existence of a predecessor, but also "the final incarnation" of Davros before his Daleks were usurped by the Humanised Daleks created by the Second Doctor. This contradicted the original implication in The Evil of the Daleks, followed through in most other sources, that the Emperor seen in that story was the same character who had been appearing in the Dalek annuals and TV Century 21.
- The Terrestrial Index (1991), which stated that the Dalek Civil War was in fact the Final End of the Daleks, continued the claim that the Evil Emperor was the final form of Davros, achieved by self-inflicted mutations long following the so-called destruction of Skaro. Incidentally, Terror Firma would depict an Emperor Davros now with elements of The Evil of the Daleks casing.
- In the video game City of the Daleks, the Eleventh Doctor tells Amy that the last time he visited Kaalann, it was in ruins and the Daleks had fled, suggesting the civil war took place on Kaalann, although he may also have been talking about the Time War. The Dalek Handbook also states that the Dalek City was named Kaalann.
- Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe later affirmed that Kaalann and the Dalek City are the same location, though PROSE: The Day of the Doctor would establish that the Doctor visited the Dalek City during the Last Great Time War, establishing the Eleventh Doctor is not talking about the civil war in City of the Daleks.
The Discontinuity Guide[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Discontinuity Guide claimed that the Human Factor Incident and the resulting Civil War on Skaro occurred somewhere between the 19th century and the mid-22nd century, resulting in the departure of the Daleks from Skaro and leaving the Thals in peace, and that one of the ships that survived the destruction on Skaro crashed on Vulcan in the 21st or early 22nd century, preceding the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth. Eventually, at some point between the years 3500 and 4000, the Daleks returned to Skaro.[1] It is further noted that, since the Fourth Doctor inadvertently changed Dalek history so that Davros survived, this event would have occurred vastly differently if it happened at all in the new timeline.[2]
The Dalek Handbook[[edit] | [edit source]]
According to the non-narrative material the reference book The Dalek Handbook, Operation Human Factor and the subsequent uprising on Skaro took place in the 41st century following the Time Destructor Incident of 4000, with a Dalek timeship from this period fleeing Skaro before crashing on Vulcan prior to the 21st century.
The Dalek Emperor survived the conflict, the humanised Daleks were defeated by the Emperor's Daleks, and the race began to rebuild. As evident from Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space, a new command structure was put in place: grey Daleks replaced silver Daleks as drones and Gold Daleks replaced Black Daleks as Supreme Daleks. For a time, Ogron mercenaries were hired to compensate for the huge number of Daleks lost in the conflict.