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The Progenitor device was a piece of Dalek technology designed to create new Daleks. It stored pure Dalek DNA. Thousands of such machines were created by the Dalek Empire in the past and all but one were lost.
Following a previous Dalek invasion that was stopped by the Doctor, a Dalek saucer managed to survive but was severely depleted by its hardships and badly damaged. The crew managed to locate one of the last Progenitor devices, but, as these Daleks had been created from the DNA of Davros, the machine refused to activate for them, as it did not consider them to be "pure". It was programmed to recognize the Time Lord known as "the Doctor" as an enemy. Thus, the Daleks went back in time to World War II where they created an android called Professor Edwin Bracewell who was completely unaware of his true origin. Masquerading as Human, he "created" military robots in the Ironside Project for the United Kingdom for use against the Nazis. The Daleks waited for the Doctor to discover them.
When the Doctor arrived, the Daleks pretended to be simple human weapons, which caused the Doctor to become frustrated to the point that he declared them to be Daleks. With the testimonial recorded, the group of Daleks transmitted the recording to the progenitor which recognised the Doctor and thus accepted the command to activate. Within moments, the New Dalek Paradigm was created. The New Paradigm quickly exterminated the forebears who willingly offered themselves for extermination. The New Paradigm intended to escape through a time corridor to the future so that they could rebuild their empire. Despite the Doctor's best efforts, the Daleks managed to escape. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
Behind the scenes
- According to Mark Gatiss in the DVD commentary and a Doctor Who Magazine Special on the production of the Matt Smith episodes, it was originally stated by the Daleks that thousands of progenitors were created and dispersed throughout the universe, to ensure they would never become extinct. The one featured in this episode was the last one in known existance. However since this dialogue was cut, its canonicity is open to interpretation.
- Another cut line had the Doctor stating that the Daleks had been altering their DNA in order to keep surviving for a long time, indicating other, older incarnations of the Daleks wouldn't be recognised by the Progenitor either.[source needed]