Dalek Time Strategist (The Shadow Vortex)
- You may be looking for Dalek Prime Strategist.
A Dalek Time Strategist, reconstituted from the Dalek duplicate Adelaine Dutemps so as to replace the Dalek Time Controller, (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness) served as second-in-command of the Dalek Empire during the Last Great Time War. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex et al)
Biography
Origin
Following its defection from the Dalek Empire, the Dalek Time Controller's consciousness became part of the Eminence. Shortly afterwards, the Dalek Supreme that led the Dalek Empire at the time commissioned the creation of the Dalek Time Strategist from the remains of the Dalek duplicate Adelaine Dutemps. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness)
The Last Great Time War
The Dalek Combat Training Manual, published by the Time Lords during the Last Great Time War, filed the Time Strategists and their predecessor, the Time Controller, as potentially apocryphal "anomalies", with one Time Strategist reported to have been the mastermind behind the Dalek victories during the war. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Indeed, the Dalek Time Strategist became a major player in the Time War. Two months into the War, it informed the Dalek Emperor that there was a secret Time Lord base in a pocket dimension which was vital to Project Revenant. The Emperor approved its strategy to seize the facility. After the base was destroyed by the Celestial Intervention Agency, eliminating the Dalek invasion force as the pocket dimension collapsed, the Emperor ordered it to appoint a new Supreme and devise a new strategy. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures) During the course of the conflict, the Time Strategist rose to become the Empire's second-in-command. (AUDIO: Temmosus)
Opposing the Master
After the War Master used the Anti-Genesis codes to completely rewrite Dalek history, (AUDIO: From the Flames, The Master’s Dalek Plan) the Strategist commanded a single Dalek timeship, the only remnant of the original Daleks. It rescued the Master of a parallel universe and ordered him to help the Daleks stop his counterpart. The parallel Master attempted to find the progenitor of the disturbances, but every suspect proved incorrect and the Daleks' resources were diminishing with each attempt. (AUDIO: Shockwave) Instead the Strategist and the parallel Master targeted the Master himself, stocking his paranoia that his Daleks would turn on him. The Master was eventually convinced and helped them find his past self prior to altering Dalek history. The Masters attempted to convince the younger Master to abort his plan whilst the Strategist simply exterminated his assistant Crazlus, who was vital to the Master's Anti-Genesis plan, restoring the timeline to normal. The Strategist ordered the restored Daleks to capture the fleeing Master. (AUDIO: He Who Wins)
Opposing the Eighth Doctor
Thellian and Grahv
The Daleks that operated an interrogation base on Sangrey followed the orders of the Dalek Time Strategist after imprisoning the Eighth Doctor, Bliss and the Twelve. (AUDIO: In the Garden of Death)
Following a "spectacular" defeat by the Time Lords, the Dalek Time Strategist began exploiting multidimensional temporal irregularities, (AUDIO: The Famished Lands) intending to locate a parallel universe where Davros was still alive and recruit him to strengthen the Daleks in the Time War, after the Davros of N-Space was "lost" to the Nightmare Child earlier in the War. (AUDIO: Palindrome)
The Dalek Time Strategist oversaw a Dalek mission to Thellian to acquire a genetic modifier created by Shonnath, the last of the Helixara, that she had used to prevent herself from being erased from history like the rest of her species. As the Daleks were unable to land their ship due to the large quantity of crashed spaceships orbiting Thellian, the Dalek Time Strategist ordered for a Dalek agent that had crashed on the planet sometime previously to fix the transmat inside Shonnath's laboratory and link it to the transmat systems of the Dalek ship so that the Daleks could transmat themselves onto Thellian and acquire the genetic modifier. However, they were defeated by the Eighth Doctor, who acquired the genetic modifier and used Shonnath's transmat to escape, briefly arriving onboard the Dalek Time Strategist's ship before transmatting back into his TARDIS. (AUDIO: Fugitive in Time)
The Dalek Time Strategist was present on Grahv when the Daleks had created a new super weapon to erase the Time Lords from existence. The Time Lords sent the Valeyard to Grahv and he managed to turn the weapon against the Daleks, erasing them from existence instead. Shortly before the weapon erased the Daleks, the Time Strategist swore to the Valeyard that "this [was] not the end" and escaped through a dimensional portal. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard)
Restoring the Daleks
The Dalek Time Strategist's dimensional portal connected to a similar portal created by an alternate universe Davros on a parallel Skaro, allowing the Time Strategist to escape. Explaining his original plan to Davros, and how it had evolved into a resurrection scheme for the Daleks, the Time Strategist convinced Davros that the Eighth Doctor, whom Davros had previously encountered via the same portal, intended to eradicate the Kaleds of Davros's universe. The Dalek Time Strategist ordered Davros to wire his dimensional portal into the Time Strategist's mutant body, combining their expertise on time, space and the multiverse to merge echoes of Davros's selves from across the multiverse together, using the Davros of this Skaro as the template. The Time Strategist extended this merging to include echoes of the different Daleks created by Davros's alternate selves, (AUDIO: Palindrome) so that by the time they returned to N-Space via the Gulf of Ithon, the Daleks were infinite in number, allowing the Last Great Time War to begin again.
After travelling to Koska to harvest data from Davros to complete the restoration of the Daleks, the Dalek Time Strategist travelled with the Eighth Doctor to the Time Strategist's enclave between universes. The Dalek Time Strategist explained to the Doctor that, despite scouring every universe, he could not locate the original Dalek Emperor, and so decided to complete the Daleks's restoration by resurrecting the Emperor of N-Space instead. When questioned by the Doctor, the Time Strategist explained that he had kept the Time Lord alive due to his complex involvements with the Daleks' timeline; having seen the Doctor's future, the Time Strategist attempted to persuade the Doctor to destroy Gallifrey by offering him a cryo pod containing an alternate universe version of his great-grandson, Alex Campbell, (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks) whose N-Space equivalent had been killed previously by the Daleks. (AUDIO: To the Death) Despite the Time Strategist's advice, the Dalek Emperor ordered the Daleks to capture Davros from Koska to execute him directly; when Davros triggered a civil conflict between the Daleks concerning who should lead the restored Dalek Empire, between Davros and the Emperor, the Dalek Time Strategist desperately attempted to stabilise the Emperor when Davros's actions terminated the Time Strategist's multiverse matrix. As it lost its infinite Dalek reinforcements, the Dalek Time Strategist frantically performed an emergency temporal shift as its enclave was destroyed by an isomorphic bomb brought to the enclave by Major Tamasan. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks)
The Emperor's gambit
The Time Strategist approached the Emperor with a new strategy. (AUDIO: Dissolution) Using null zone technology, they flew a saucer to Gallifrey's orbit, bypassing the Time Vortex and Kasterborous' defences. The Strategist had the captive Romana used as a spokesperson, having prevented the Emperor from simply exterminating her upon her capture, to issue an ultimatum whilst the null zone technology recharged so the saucer could land in the Capitol. As the Daleks fought off Time Lord counterattacks whilst waiting for the recharge, the Emperor asked the Strategist on their likelihood of success but he claimed the timelines near Gallifrey were impossible to predict. When Narvin and Livia detonated a Battle TARDIS by the null zone power source, causing the saucer to break apart, the Time Strategist arranged the escape of the Emperor and itself, (AUDIO: Homecoming)
Opposing the War Doctor
The time eradicator
The Time Strategist oversaw the assassinations carried out by the Time Eradicator Dalek, one of its engineers now connected to the Time Vortex, from a facility on Atherea. It interrogated the War Doctor when he was captured and deduced his identity. The Strategist reluctantly allowed the eradicator to meet the Doctor and stopped it targeting the Doctor’s timeline. When Gallifreyan forces attacked, the Strategist feigned sustaining major damage to attack its captors when their guard was down, only to be destroyed by Commodore Tamasan. After the Doctor erased the eradicator from existence, the entire assassination program was erased along with the battle on Atherea, restoring the Strategist to life. (AUDIO: The Shadow Squad)
Rivalry with the Red Fleet Commander
The Time Strategist's position as the Emperor's aide was coveted by the Commander of the Red Fleet, leading to a rivalry between the two Daleks. Discovering the Commander had secretly negotiated with a Thal, the Strategist had it tortured until it revealed details, ignoring its demands to see the Emperor. After it revealed the true location it had lured the Thals' ship Temmosus to, the Strategist took the Commander before the Emperor and declared it a traitor, for which the Emperor praised the Strategist.
The Strategist ordered the capture of the Temmosus in defiance of the Emperor's instructions to destroy the vessel, however the Daleks boarding encountered the War Doctor who used his TARDIS to transport it back to Time Lord space. (AUDIO: Temmosus)
Gambit for leadership
During the Barber-Surgeon's campaign, the Time Strategist sought to manipulate events for its own benefit. Learning from Dalek intelligence that the War Doctor had been assigned by the War Council to assassinate the Barber-Surgeon, the Strategist secretly ordered a Dalek Hunter-Killer to pursue him to find the Barber-Surgeon and his factory for its own ends. (AUDIO: The Mission) When the War Doctor was captured on Skaro attempting to steal the Daleks' intelligence on the Barber-Surgeon he was brought before the Strategist. The Strategist chose to let him escape, claiming it was because he stood the best chance against their mutual enemy the Barber-Surgeon, but subsequently raised the alarm so as not to raise suspicion. (AUDIO: The Abyss)
After the Hunter-Killer found the portal to the Barber-Surgeon's dimension on prehistoric Earth, the Strategist ordered it to follow the Doctor there, in defiance of a Dalek admiral's orders. The Emperor learnt of the Strategist's secret plot and dispatched a group of Special Weapons Daleks to destroy it for its insubordination.
After the Barber-Surgeon erased himself from history, these events were undone. (AUDIO: The Horror) The Time Strategist would indeed return and continue to be a vital part of Dalek operations as the War dragged on. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex et, al.)
Recruiting Case
When Case defected to the Time Lords, the War Doctor brought her to Memnos to try and restore her barred memories. The Time Strategist, seeking to infiltrate Time Lord systems, reconnected Case to the pathweb and spoke with her through it, trying to convince her to rejoin the Daleks. Though Case initially rejected the Daleks, the Strategist was able to recruit her when the Time Lords teleported the Doctor away, leading Case to think she had been abandoned. (AUDIO: Memnos [+]Loading...["Memnos (audio story)"])
Eventually bringing Case to its private enclave on Skaro, the Time Strategist continued its efforts to fully convert the cyborg to the Dalek cause. At the urging of a simulacrum of the Eighth Doctor, Case signalled the Dalek Emperor of the Doctor's presence, alerting the Emperor to the large amount of pathweb data that the Time Strategist had barred off. Decrypting the data, the Emperor deemed it antithetical to the Dalek cause and revoked the Time Strategist's independence, slaving its mind to the Emperor's own. (AUDIO: Exit Strategy [+]Loading...["Exit Strategy (audio story)"])
Attacks on Earth and Rovidia
Later in the Time War, the Dalek Time Strategist sent Lara Zannis to Earth to capture the Shadow Vortex. The Time Strategist wanted to invade the Earth in order to destroy it and stop the Doctor from meeting his companions, hopefully erasing him from history. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex)
Later, the Dalek Time Strategist sent the Daleks to Rovidia to capture Cardinal Ollistra, intending to steal her knowledge of Time Lord secrets. The Sontaran General Fesk tricked the Time Strategist into meeting him and took the Time Strategist prisoner, disarming it. The Time Strategist was placed with Ollistra where they talked about the starting of the Time War. In the chaos caused by the rescue attempt of Ollistra by the War Doctor, Heleyna and Kalan, the Dalek Time Strategist was recovered by the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage)
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The Dalek Time Strategist ordered the destruction of the Rovidian fleet after the Doctor left the planet. The Time Strategist believed that the Doctor had given the Daleks the means to win the Time War. It used Heleyna to gain access to the Eye of Harmony chamber within Vassarian's Battle TARDIS and planned to use the Dalek Time Squad to attack the Eye and cause it to collapse to destroy the Time Lords. The Doctor stopped the Time Strategist's plan by destroying the Eye of Harmony Chamber. After the Battle TARDIS disappeared from the Time Vortex the Dalek Time Strategist ordered that all the timelines be scoured to find the Doctor and destroy him. (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony)
The Obsidian Nebula and the Enigma
The Dalek Time Strategist ordered the destruction of the space station the Doctor had landed on as a way to kill him. Later, after he had saw Schandel's news report on the Doctor he ordered the complete destruction of Beltox. (AUDIO: Pretty Lies)
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Learning that the Doctor had gone to Grend, the Dalek Time Strategist ordered the Dalek fleet to go there regardless of the threat at the Obsidian Nebula. It later ordered the destruction of Rosata Traxter's ship in order to destroy the Doctor. When this failed the Time Strategist ordered the search of the Obsidian Nebula for the Doctor. After one of the Dalek Hunter Drones disappeared, the Time Strategist went into the nebula, where Skaul gave him an ultimatum; the Time Strategist decided to give him the coordinates of where they were heading as the Daleks had to go back to the Battle at Grend. When it realised that the Time Lords weren't originally supposed to be there, the Time Strategist ordered them to leave as its prime objective was now ready. (AUDIO: The Lady of Obsidian)
The Dalek Time Strategist went to a dimensional sphere to start its final plan. It had sent the Enigma to Gallifrey to destroy the Time Lords. When the Doctor took his TARDIS to the same dimension as him, the Time Strategist thought that doing so wasn't possible. He had threatened the Enigma to do his work. When the Daleks' powered up their weapon to destroy the Enigma, the Time Strategist realised that the TARDIS was absorbing energy from it. (AUDIO: The Enigma Dimension)
Legacy
A survivor of the Time War, Dalek Caan broke through the Time War time lock and retrieved Davros, who founded the New Dalek Empire in the post-Time War universe. Through this act, Caan was exposed to time and so could see and influence the timelines, with Davros valuing his prophecies whilst the Supreme Dalek dismissed him as insane. Having come to believe that the Daleks must be destroyed, Caan ultimately engineered the destruction of the New Dalek Empire. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End) The Time Strategist, who had itself been tasked with seeing the future during the Time War, became aware of Caan and denounced him as "the False Prophet". (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks)
The pathweb held data on the Dalek Time Strategist and its many gambits, including the Shadow Vortex but this data was largely discarded by the early New Dalek Paradigm as they had no way to verify any of it.
Human historians were aware of a theory which claimed that the New Paradigm's Eternal Dalek served as an advisor by seeing every possible future at once, that the Dalek mutant was kept forever out of sync with the rest of time, thus linking the Eternal directly into the Time Vortex in order to see what the future held. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Appearance and personality
Unlike the Dalek Time Strategists created by the Dalek Time Controller, (AUDIO: The Monster of Montmartre, Master of the Daleks) this Dalek Time Strategist possessed a casing similar to that of an upgraded Dalek Supreme active during the Second Dalek War, (AUDIO: Out of Time) a Dalek Supreme active elsewhere during the Last Great Time War, (COMIC: Ambush) the Supreme Dalek of the New Dalek Empire, (TV: The Stolen Earth / Journey's End) and the Supreme Dalek who controlled a Dalek City on Skaro, (TV: The Magician's Apprentice / The Witch's Familiar) albeit coloured indigo where these Supreme Daleks were coloured red. Similar to the Dalek Time Controller, the Time Vortex was visible inside the Dalek Time Strategist's extended grating section, which also featured diagonal rings similar to on the Time Controller. In addition, the Dalek Time Strategist's voice varied; while often sounding calmer than those of regular Daleks, though in a deeper pitch, (AUDIO: Eye of Harmony, The Enigma Dimension) the Time Strategist's voice sometimes sounded closely similar to the deep voices often possessed by Supreme Daleks, (AUDIO: Shockwave, He Who Wins, TV: The Stolen Earth et al) and sometimes similar to the voice of the Dalek Time Controller. (AUDIO: Palindrome, Restoration of the Daleks, Patient Zero et al)
Behind the scenes
Information from invalid sources
The Dalek Time Strategist once addressed at least 2 Bronze Daleks, stating that "Daleks [would] be victorious in every reality". (NOTVALID: He Who Fights With Monsters)