Black Dalek Leader
The Black Dalek Leader, (COMIC: Plague of Death) usually just referred to as the Black Dalek, and briefly as Searcher One Leader, (COMIC: The Archives of Phryne) was the earliest Black Dalek in existence and the second-in-command of the Dalek race, after the Dalek Prime. (COMIC: Plague of Death, The Secret of the Emperor; PROSE: The Mutation of Time, The Evil of the Daleks)
Serving as the Daleks' warlord, (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor) the Black Dalek Leader also held the rank of Supreme Dalek. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) During its reign, the Black Dalek Leader did not remain the only Black Dalek in existence (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth; PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks; AUDIO: The Destroyers, Masters of Earth, The Curse of the Daleks, Return to Skaro) but was uniquely valuable to the Dalek Prime, who considered it "irreplaceable". (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) After becoming the last survivor of the Dalek Council of Supreme Daleks, it assumed the singular title of "the Dalek Supreme". (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Physical appearance
By the time it ordered the execution of the First Doctor, the Black Dalek Leader operated a predominantly black casing with silver slats and blue sense globes. (TV: The Chase) It was in this casing that the Black Dalek died in the year 4000. (TV: Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan)
Biography
Establishing power on Skaro
The Black Dalek Leader was summoned by the Emperor to deal with Zeg after he challenged the Emperor's authority. It's weapon was unable to penetrate Zeg's metalert casing. (COMIC: Duel of the Daleks)
When the Daleks developed a means of 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. The Emperor's guards chased the Black Dalek away to protect the Emperor. The Emperor then found the Black Dalek by the Brain Machine, rusting away, resigned to its fate, ashamed as it was of letting other Daleks die. 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)
Leading the early conquests
After its recovery, the Black Dalek led a force of Daleks in search of new technologies as war with the Mechanoids became evermore certain. The Black Dalek discovered an entire solar system hidden behind an invisibility shield and then directed the fight against Phryne. The Daleks successfully occupied the planet, although many Phrynians went into hiding to form a resistance movement. (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) Both were also present on the Emperor's ship when the Daleks first ventured into the Sol System (COMIC: Return of the Elders) after the Daleks discovered the location of Earth. (COMIC: The Road to Conflict)
In the 40th century, (COMIC: The Brain Tappers) the Black Dalek Leader presided over the re-election of the Dalek Emperor. The Black Dalek obliterated the entire Red Extra-Galactic Squadron when their commander denounced the Emperor for failure to defeat the humans. (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor)
22nd century Dalek invasion
In 2157, the Daleks began a decade-long occupation of Earth and its colonies. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) After the failure of the invasion, the Daleks identified the Doctor and determined the role he played in their defeat. (TV: The Chase) The Black Dalek, under orders from the Dalek Prime, (PROSE: The Chase) ordered an assassination squad to pursue the Doctor's TARDIS in a Dalek time machine and exterminate the occupants while the Black Dalek and the Dalek Prime awaited regular reports on the progress from Skaro. However, the squad failed. (PROSE: The Chase) Some human historians believed that the Supreme Dalek had only launched on that particular mission much later in its (and the Daleks') history, spurred to action by the destruction of its fellow Dalek Councilmember the Gold Dalek. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) At any rate, the same Black Dalek, acting as a Supreme Dalek, oversaw the Dalek operations on planet Kembel in the year 4000. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time)
Overseeing the master plan
Beginning in the 36th century, the Daleks began the conquest of hundreds of planets in the Ninth Galactic System and the Constellation of Miros, avoiding human space for hundreds of years. (TV: Mission to the Unknown) In the 40th century, they finally returned and began preying on human space in secret. A subordinate Black Dalek informed the Black Dalek Leader, as the Supreme Dalek, about the success of the Dalek incursion on M5. (AUDIO: The Destroyers)
In 4000, the Black Dalek oversaw the Dalek operations on planet Kembel. It led the conference which founded the Great Alliance with the emissaries from the Outer Galaxies, intent on invading the solar system. (TV: Mission to the Unknown; PROSE: Mission to the Unknown) It was, by then, the last surviving member of the Dalek Council, hence having adopted the title of singular Dalek Supreme. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Some months later, the Supreme Dalek held another conference as the Alliance completed preparations on the Time Destructor with the taranium supplied by Mavic Chen. The theft of the taranium by the First Doctor put the Black Dalek on edge, and it callously executed a number of its erstwhile allies, and even other Daleks, for failure during the recovery efforts. After the Daleks believed the core was recovered, the Supreme Dalek was informed it had been fitted into the Time Destructor for testing. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) However, the core was a fake. The Black Dalek called the Dalek Prime for assistance and a Red Dalek led the pursuit of the Doctor. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) After the successful recovery of the taranium core, the Black Dalek had the surviving members of the alliance locked up and prepared to complete the Time Destructor for the invasion fleet. However, the Doctor, Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom managed to hijack the Time Destructor itself. The active weapon wiped out all Daleks on Kembel, seemingly including the Black Dalek. (TV: The Dalek's Master Plan)
One account claimed that the Black Dalek Leader indeed died on Kembel, which 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) This was the Second Doctor's belief; when the Second Doctor returned to Skaro, he encountered another Black Dalek. He briefly wondered if it was the same one from Kembel, having survived, but there were many other Black Daleks throughout the City. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
However, as revealed in other accounts the Black Dalek had survived the Time Destructor's detonation, though it was badly damaged and left in critical condition, having been recovered by attendants and brought back to Dalek territory. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
After the Movellan campaign
The Dalek Supreme survived the Dalek-Movellan War, remaining the de-facto leader of the Dalek Empire, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) second only to the Dalek Prime. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) However, in the aftermath of the Daleks' losing the War with the Movellans, much of the Dalek Empire in Mutter's Spiral collapsed. Various Dalek commanders began trying to reorganise the remnants of their respective sectors, but they were isolated from each other, leading to increased factionalism. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks)
The Supreme Dalek planned to restore the Daleks to power through a series of ambitious schemes. Firstly, he planned to rescue Davros from cryogenic imprisonment and manipulate him into finding a cure for the Movellan virus. At the same time, he planned to capture the Doctor and his companions with a Time Corridor and create duplicates of them, which would be sent back to Gallifrey to assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords. Additionally, he also planned to use human duplicates to infiltrate key positions in Earth’s government positions, and cause their society to collapse in preparation for invasion. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
With Dalek numbers greatly depleted following the war, the Supreme Dalek was forced to bolster his forces with Dalek Troopers, (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) whose numbers consisted of hired humanoid mercenaries and mind-controlled duplicates. The Commander of the troopers, Lytton, worked closely with the Supreme Dalek, though the two often disagreed on strategy, and the Supreme found Lytton to be too arrogant.
Sparking the Civil War
The attempt to free Davros from the space station which served as his prison was successful, but the Supreme Dalek’s plan was put at risk by Davros’ insistence that he remain close to his cryogenic chamber, and his refusal to board the Dalek ship. Lytton tried to convince the Supreme Dalek that there was no time to cater to Davros’ demands, but the Supreme Dalek claimed to have a plan that would force Davros to leave with them of his own free will. In the meantime, he was determined that no harm come to Davros, as without his genetic expertise, the Dalek race had no future.
The plan to duplicate and Doctor and his companions was also a success, but Davros proved to be greatly unreliable, and it soon became clear that he had no intention of helping the Daleks cure the Movellan virus. Instead, he converted two Daleks and several troopers to his cause, and instigated a civil war against the Supreme Dalek for control of the Dalek race. Realising that Davros could not be trusted, the Supreme Dalek ordered Lytton to execute him. Lytton suggested simply shooting down the space station, but the Supreme Dalek, paranoid, insisted that he needed to see Davros dead.
When the troopers failed, he instead dispatched Daleks to carry out the task; however, these Daleks were killed by Davros, who had already released the Movellan virus onto the space station. The Supreme Dalek ordered Lytton to exterminate the Daleks and troopers loyal to Davros, and then dispatched a squad of Daleks to execute Lytton when he had outlived his usefulness. A battle ensued between the Supreme’s forces and those of Davros, which ended with more Daleks infected with the Movellan virus released by the Doctor. Lytton was one of the only survivors.
Although one of his plans had failed, the Supreme Dalek was confident that his duplicates on Earth would still bring about the collapse of society. Contacting the Doctor via the TARDIS scanner, the Supreme Dalek maintained that the Daleks could not fail. His gloating rant was cut off when Stien, an unstable Dalek duplicate, activated the space station’s self-destruct, which destroyed the adjacent Dalek Battlecruiser, seemingly killing the Supreme Dalek. which destroyed the adjacent Dalek Battlecruiser. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks) However, the Supreme Dalek had been transmitting to the Doctor from "a secret location", and survived the event. (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks)
Far from leading the Daleks back to power, the Supreme Dalek's conflict with Davros accentuated the existing factionalism which existed within the remnants of the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) Davros returned with his own race of Daleks and sought to claim the the title of Emperor of the Daleks by defeating the "renegade" forces. The result was the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks)
Civil War and demise
When Renegade Daleks captured Davros for trial, he tried to convince them he was their master, to which they responded they obeyed only the Supreme Dalek. Davros stated he could make them all Supreme Daleks but they would not release him. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)
In November 1963, it formed an alliance with the Association led by George Ratcliffe to obtain the Hand of Omega. It created a mind-link between itself and the human child Judith Winters to remedy its rigid Dalek mind's lack of imagination. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Its connection with Judith Winters caused the Supreme Dalek problems; the girl's human emotions would filter into the Daleks' mind when she was accessing the battle computer, treating each problem as nothing more than a game, and causing strange thoughts for the Dalek.
Physically, the connection also made the Daleks' sluggish heartbeat race beyond the safety parameters, forcing the life-support computer in its casing to increase the amount of tranquilisers pumped into its body, making it difficult for the Dalek to concentrate properly. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) The Dalek Supreme ended up as the last surviving member of the Renegade Daleks present at the Shoreditch Incident after a skirmish with the Imperial Daleks, where the Hand of Omega was taken by the triumphant Imperials. The Seventh Doctor convinced it that it had no purpose. At this point, in a state of confusion and distress, it destroyed itself, breaking the link with Judith Winters. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Legacy
Far from leading the Daleks back to power, the Supreme Dalek's conflict with Davros accentuated the existing factionalism which existed within the remnants of the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) Davros returned with his own race of Daleks and sought to claim the the title of Emperor of the Daleks by defeating the "renegade" forces, commanded by the a new Supreme (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) on behalf of the Dalek Prime. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) The result was the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks) The internal hostilities only truly ended when the Dalek Prime put Davros on trial, leading his remaining supporters to reveal themselves so they could be wiped out. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline in which the First Doctor never landed on Kembel due to a temporal collision with the Second Doctor, the Daleks successfully developed the Time Destructor. The Black Dalek, recognised as the Dalek Supreme, led the Dalek Fleet at the head of an unopposed campaign of galactic conquest and destruction. After the destruction of Baralda in the Third Galaxy as a show of force, the Dalek Supreme demanded the neighbouring Urbinia to surrender and its population submit to slavery.
Continued resistance and evacuation efforts organised by the Doctors dried up the Dalek Supreme's patience. Eventually it ordered the Time Destructor deployed to destroy the planet after the lack of a meaningful surrender, even sacrificing the Dalek ground forces for the failure. However, the Second Doctor escaped and averted the initial TARDIS collision with the fast return switch, resetting the timeline. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods)
Personality
The Black Dalek Leader was feared among the Daleks as the enforcer of the Emperor's will, scattering when the Emperor summoned the Black Dalek Leader to face Zeg. The Black Dalek Leader itself taunted Zeg by counting down to the moment of their confrontation, although its assurance in its own victory proved premature. (COMIC: Duel of the Daleks) Due to the Black Dalek Leader's enduring loyalty and leadership as the Empire's second-in-command, the Dalek Prime viewed it as "indispensable". (COMIC: Plague of Death; PROSE: The Mutation of Time)
The Black Dalek Leader utterly despised failure. When Dalek pursuit ships failed to capture the Doctor and recover the taranium core on Desperus, it ordered them to return to Kembel. Then, immediately after, it ordered its mission controller to destroy the pursuit ships without informing their occupants. After a subsequent failure on Mira, the Black Dalek Leader, by one account, organised a recovery mission to rescue the stranded Daleks, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) but, according to another account, it left the unsuccessful Daleks to their fate. (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown) In the alternate timeline on Urbinia, the Black Dalek Leader ordered the use of the Time Destructor regardless of any casualties suffered by the Daleks on the planet's surface. It reasoned that any such casualties were deserved, as, had the ground forces hsucceeded in achieving a surrender, the Time Destructor would not have been used in the first place. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods) The Black Dalek Leader viewed such displays as an incentive to its subordinates to work well and make no mistakes. (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown)
When the Black Dalek Leader oversaw the Dalek City in the Emperor's absence, it displayed a more vulnerable side. When it became a carrier for the rust plague, it was overcome with guilt once it realised it was causing the deaths of other Daleks. It deliberately exposed itself to the plague to let itself die before the Emperor ordered it repaired. (COMIC: Plague of Death) However, if there was no hope of saving other Daleks, the Black Dalek Leader was willing to leave them. During the battle against the Phrynians, the Black Dalek Leader ordered Searcher One to take off before it was struck by a kamikaze attack, sparing no thought to the other saucers which did not survive. (COMIC: The Archives of Phryne)
The Black Dalek Leader viewed all other species as inferior and measured the worth of any creature's life by the duration of their usefulness. This was true of the Dalek race as a whole, but, as the Daleks' representative on the Galactic Council, the Black Dalek Leader found it was necessary to adopt a certain degree of diplomacy until the Great Alliance had served its purpose. The Alliance existed primarily as a means for the Daleks to gather resources; none of the other members were trusted and the Black Dalek resented having to work with them. (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown)
The Black Dalek Leader scarcely hid its true feelings from the Alliance. Very early, it declared Zephon's usefulness over, grew impatient when he failed to show up to a key conference, and when Zephon was blamed for the theft of the taranium, the Black Dalek Leader had him executed in front of the other delegates. Later, the Black Dalek Leader selected Trantis as a test subject for the Time Destructor when it felt he was growing too ambitious; when the device failed to work and Trantis survived, the Black Dalek Leader had him killed anyway. Once the Alliance had served its purpose, the Black Dalek Leader broke up the surviving delegates' with a booming, "Silence!", and then locked them up. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
Before the incident on Kembel, the Black Dalek Leader had never met the Doctor, but knew of his reputation and knew him to be dangerous. Though frustrated by the Daleks' continued failure to recover the taranium core, the Black Dalek Leader considered that the development made sense once it learned of the Doctor's involvement. (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown)
Skills
The Black Dalek Leader was capable of critical strategic thinking. When it led the Daleks into an apparently-uninhabited region of space, its suspicions led it to uncover an entire galaxy hidden by the Phrynians' invisibility force field, precipitating the successful occupation of Phryne. (COMIC: The Archives of Phryne)
Behind the scenes
- The Supreme Dalek was voiced by either David Graham or Peter Hawkins in its original televised appearances of the 1960s. It spoke with a higher-pitched voice than most other Daleks. Nicholas Briggs provided its voice for the novelisation audiobooks, as well as the reconstruction of Mission to the Unknown by the University of Central Lancashire.
- The Black Dalek Leader first appeared in Duel of the Daleks and became a recurring character throughout The Dalek Chronicles. For years, whether or not it was ever intended, there was no definitive link made between the Black Dalek Leader, the Black Dalek which appears in The Chase, or the Supreme Dalek which features in Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan.The connections were made by John Peel in his novelisations: The Chase, Mission to the Unknown, The Mutation of Time and The Evil of the Daleks. Peel wrote these as interconnected works and established the Black Dalek from The Chase, Mission to the Unknown and The Daleks' Master Plan as one and the same in the process.
- Because The Dalek Chronicles went through frequent art shifts, the Black Dalek Leader often changes colour and design between stories. It is black and silver in Duel of the Daleks, black and gold in Plague of Death, and black, gold and silver in The Archives of Phryne making it resemble the Black Dalek from Dr. Who and the Daleks, who replaced the Glass Dalek as the leader of the Dalek City in this retelling of The Daleks starring Peter Cushing (which is not considered a valid source by this Wiki).
