Halldon

The Halldons were a race of powerful beings and, according to one account, responsible for the creation of the Daleks.

History

On Ollendorf 2, the Doctor discovered the unpublished writings of a human scientist, Bryant Anderson, next to Anderson's own corpse and the remains of a Dalek. The papers revealed that shortly before his death, Anderson had discovered the supposed true origin of the Daleks. In ancient times, the Halldons, as part of a scientific experiment, had transplanted Earth humans to the barren planet Ameron and artifically accelerated their evolution. Within two hundred years, the Halldons' test subjects had advanced to such an extent as to build fearsome weapons which frightened even their Halldon masters.

Realising the experiment was spinning out of control, the Halldons attempted to wipe out the Ameron humans, only for them to defend themselves and retaliate to the point of completely exterminating the Halldons. Free to advance unhindered, the evolved humans, determined to ensure their own survival, continued to evolve and eventually became the Daleks whom the Earth humans feared so greatly. (PROSE: We are the Daleks!)

However, other accounts of the creation of the Daleks existed and did not involve the Halldons. Most accounts stated the Dalek race had been created on the planet Skaro by the scientist Davros out of the Kaled species. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, TV: The Witch's Familiar, etc.)

The Halldons engaged in a temporal skirmish with the Eternals, which ended with the Time Lords stepping in to put an end to the universe-threatening hostilities. According to one account, this was one of the only two time wars in which the Time Lords had engaged before the start of their Great Time War with the Daleks themselves, which would end in their destruction. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor)

Behind the scenes

Doctor Who: Monsters and Villains claims that the Halldons were the ancestors of the Brothers of Hame, who created the Forest of Cheem, initially mentioned in Meet the Doctor as one of the "higher species" who were aware of, and wept at the sight of, the Great Time War.