Dalek Empire
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The Dalek Empire was an empire created by the Daleks which spanned much of time and space. With a goal to exterminate all life save the Daleks themselves, the Empire waged numerous interstellar wars, bringing it into frequent conflict with the Doctor. It was divided for a time during its civil war, but was eventually reunited. Ultimately, the entire Empire fought the Time Lords in the Last Great Time War, which was marked by unprecedented destruction across time. The Dalek Empire ceased to exist when the war ended, although remnants survived. One of the survivors of the Dalek Empire, Dalek Caan, went on to become the founder of the New Dalek Empire, which would later be succeeded by a third and fourth empire.
History
Origins
Inheriting the Kaled belief that Skaro was the only world in the universe that could support life, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) the earliest incarnation of the Dalek Empire was focused only on Skaro, intending to rebuild and fully colonise their ruined planet. Their first encounter with the First Doctor, who confirmed that other life existed in the universe, (TV: The Daleks) however led the Daleks to devote themselves to one day leaving Skaro and conquer other worlds. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro, Return to Skaro)
With the knowledge of constructing spacecraft lost to them, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) the Daleks first attempted to claim the Doctor's TARDIS as a means of reaching other planets, (AUDIO: Return to Skaro) but instead reverse engineered Krattorian blueprints. (COMIC: Power Play) Before their own spacecrafts were completed, it was believed that the Daleks had made alliances with spacefaring races, such as the Voord, to transport Dalek forces to desirable planets. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Daleks)
While the original Dalek Emperor journeyed with the newly-built Dalek conquest fleet, a new Emperor took control of a faction of Daleks on Skaro, which he named the Exterminator Daleks, by contrast to the spacefaring group, which he called "the Expansionist Daleks". The splinter-Empire of the Exterminators vowed to remain on Skaro and scour the planet to find any potential Thal survivors. They briefly took control of the Dalek City, only to be themselves annihilated by a small but well-prepared Thal commando, leaving the Expansionists as the only ruling Dalek Empire. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem)
Early expansion
After the construction of the first Dalek Fleet, the Daleks first attacked the planet Alvega, ultimately destroying it when it would not surrender to them. (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge) In building the Dalek Empire, the Daleks experienced a technological surge comparable to the Gallifreyans' own empire building. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) As the Daleks spread further out from Skaro, they developed the Pathweb to share knowledge and information across their race. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros)
In the early days of the Empire, Dalek factory ships were sent out by the thousands to quickly mass produce legions of Daleks on other planets. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) One of these capsules landed on the planet Vulcan where it would later be uncovered by human colonists who sought to exploit Dalek technology. The Daleks within worked to conquer the planet only to be destroyed by the Second Doctor. (TV: The Power of the Daleks) Reconnaissance scout Daleks were also sent out ahead of the main fleet to gather information of targeted worlds before the fleet would be summoned. (TV: Resolution)
The Daleks targeted Solturis for conquest however the planet's Prince Jareth saw to the destruction of their landing forces with the Pentaray. Solturis was the first planet the Daleks had failed to vanquish. (COMIC: The Penta Ray Factor)
After fending off an attack on the Dalek City by the Monstrons, (COMIC: The Menace of the Monstrons) the Daleks attempted to takeover Oric however came into conflict with Mechanoids who used a suspicion ray against them and warned the Daleks to stay out of their skies. The Emperor ordered that the Daleks prepare for war against the Mechanoids. (COMIC: Eve of War) In preparation for the war, the Daleks sought the secret of invisibility on the planet Phryne. Though they subjugated the planet successfully, the Daleks lost the secret. (COMIC: The Archives of Phyrne) The Daleks diverted a rogue planet, Skardal which was threatening Skaro on a course towards the Mechanoids' planet. (COMIC: The Rogue Planet) The Zerovians took advantage of this to avert the looming war, with their robot agent 2K manipulating the Daleks into destroying Skardal and then telling the Mechanoids this had been a deliberate act of non-aggression. (COMIC: Impasse)
After obtaining the coordinates of Earth, the Daleks decided to conquer the planet. (COMIC: The Road to Conflict) They launched an invasion however it met with defeat due to the intervention of the Elders. (COMIC: Return of the Elders)
By the end of the 21st century, the Daleks were scattered around the edges of the galaxy, working on building a stable galactic powerbase. (PROSE: Alien Bodies)
Conquest of Earth
- Main article: 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth
- Main article: 2180s Dalek invasion of Earth
- Main article: 2223 Dalek invasion of Earth
After the Dalek Empire had conquered thousands of worlds, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) they staged an invasion and conquest of Earth in the year 2157. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) The Daleks intended to use Earth to enact Project Degravitate, turning the planet into a massive warship to carry their forces across the galaxy, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests) but the interference of the First Doctor led to their invasion being overthrown. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Following this, other subjugated races began rising up against the Empire. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Decades later, the Dalek Empire launched a second invasion of Earth whilst being guided by the time-displaced Dalek Time Controller and aided by the Monk. The Daleks successfully occupied Earth again and planned to install a time engine to turn the planet in a plague world for Viyran viruses. This plan was foiled when Lucie Miller crashed a saucer into the engine, creating a time warp which wiped out the Dalek forces on Earth. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller, To the Death)
In 2223, by which time the Parliament of the Daleks governed the empire, a new invasion of Earth was launched. After an attempt by a Dalek Supreme to establish a forward base in London met with heavy resistance from the Bruce Master, the Parliament ordered the invasion be abandoned. (AUDIO: Vengeance)
Expanding the Empire
- As always, time travel makes the sequence of events here conjectural.
25th century invasion
- Main article: 25th century Dalek invasion
By 2400, Skaro had moved into Earth's solar system and the Dalek Emperor ordered the Daleks begin a new campaign of conquest. The Daleks first wiped out the primitive races on the moons of Jupiter and the monsters on the moons of Saturn. They then destroyed the small human colony on Mars in just three hours.
Several weeks later, the Daleks invaded Venus, reducing New Paris to ruins with the survivors rounded up and, after a brief protest during which several dissenters were exterminated, enslaved. (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks) The slaves were used to mine oil that the Daleks required to invade Earth. (COMIC: The Oil Well) Through the combined efforts of slaves led by Jeff Stone and the Space Army, the occupation of Venus was defeated. (PROSE: The Secret of the Mountain)
After a series of defeats, the Daleks were forced to retreat back to Skaro where they activated a force field to prevent the Space Army from landing. The Space Army discovered there were gaps in the force field at the poles to allow air in. After they threatened to sealed them both, the Daleks were forced to lower the force field and agree to peace talks. (PROSE: Break-through!) As the Emperor agreed to a peace treaty, the Stone siblings foiled a secret plot by the Dalek Black Fleet on the Moon to suffocate Earth. Under the treaty the Daleks were disarmed and confined to Skaro. (COMIC: Battle for the Moon)
This began the Age of Universal Peace in 2409, (PROSE: Break-through!) which one account claimed lasted until the 27th century when humanity allowed the Daleks to rearm to destroy a Mechanical Planet threatening Earth and Skaro. The Emperor subsequently proclaimed the start of a new campaign. (COMIC: The Mechanical Planet) Other accounts showed the Daleks armed and waging war with humanity in the 26th century. (TV: Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks, PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks, AUDIO: Out of Time)
Second Dalek War
- Main article: Second Dalek War
In 2540, the Gold Dalek, aided by the Renegade Time Lord known as the Master, attempted to provoke war between the humans and Draconians, leaving both species open for Dalek conquest (TV: Frontier in Space) whilst an army of ten thousand Daleks was assembled on Spiridon. (TV: Planet of the Daleks) The plan was known as Operation Divide and Conquer. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests) The Master’s scheme was exposed to representatives of the Earth and Draconian empires by the Third Doctor and Jo (TV: Frontier in Space) who subsequently aided a Thal expedition in entombing the army on Spiridon in ice. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
The exposure of the Dalek plot led to the Second Dalek War. (PROSE: Love and War) The war lasted for decades, (COMIC: Abslom Daak...Dalek Killer, Star Tigers, Nemesis of the Daleks, AUDIO: Out of Time) but ultimately resulted in the Dalek Empire’s defeat. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks)
Time travel campaigns
- Main article: Time Paradox Incident
- Main article: Mechonoid Incident
The Dalek Empire sought time travel, allying with Renegade Time Lord Shazar to develop TARDISes of their own. The effort failed due to the interference of the Fourth Doctor and the Time Lord High Council, (COMIC: Return of the Daleks) however the Daleks did eventually develop primitive time travel in the form of taranium-powered Dalek time machines of their own, which resembled cruder version of the Time Lords' own. (PROSE: The Chase)
Seeking to redeem itself for the failure of the alliance with the Master, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) the Gold Dalek attempted to use time travel to reconquer Earth, taking advantage of a paradoxical outbreak of World War III in the 20th century which left Earth weak. Despite the Daleks' effort to defend their new timeline, battling UNIT at Auderly House in the 20th century, the Third Doctor was able to avert the paradox. This deprived the Daleks of their opportunity to invade, erasing their occupation of Earth. (TV: Day of the Daleks)
By one account, the Black Dalek Leader took inspiration from the Gold Dalek's use of time travel and sent a taskforce of Daleks to assassinate the Doctor in his first incarnation, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) whereas others implied this event was earlier in Dalek history. (PROSE: The Chase, Mission to the Unknown) After a chase across time, the Doctor trapped his pursuers in a battle against the Mechonoids on Mechanus and his companions stole their time machine, which they destroyed in 1965. (TV: The Chase) The loss of the time machine crippled Dalek time travel for sometime. (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown)
The Dalek Emperor personally organised an invasion of Earth in 2415 using time machines. His time machine malfunctioned however, delivering him to 1415 instead, and in his absence the invasion was a complete failure. (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor)
Acting on the orders of the Emperor, a Dalek time machine, crewed by an Elite Guard Dalek and three subordinate silver Daleks, oversaw the conditioning of Caligula, Emperor of Rome, in the year 37 AD. When Caligula resisted Dalek commands, the leading Dalek deemed the mission a failure and they withdrew. (COMIC: Empire of the Daleks)
The Great War
- Main article: Great War (The Evil of the Daleks)
Over the course of five hundred years, the Daleks gained control of over seventy planets in Ninth Galactic System and forty more in the constellation of Miros, (TV: Mission to the Unknown) and conquered the Second, Third and Ninth Galaxies in a war across the Outer Galaxies. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
In the 40th century, the Daleks came into increasing conflict with the Space Security Service, (PROSE: The Outlaw Planet, COMIC: Sara Kingdom: Space Security Agent, AUDIO: The Destroyers) launching another invasion of Earth which met with defeat. (COMIC: The Brain Tappers) They attacked the world home to Mark Seven and his adoptive parents, inspiring the android to fight back against them by joining the SSS. (AUDIO: Cycle of Destruction) Mark was a founding member of the Anti-Dalek Force which fought the Daleks on multiple worlds. (PROSE: Terror Task Force)
The Black Dalek enacted a master plan in the year 4000. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) Forming the Galactic Council, made up of representatives of the Outer Galaxies, the Black Dalek attempted to lure all the major galactic powers to the solar system which it would then destroy with a Time Destructor. (TV: Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan) A group of human historians claimed the Black Dalek had launched the master plan at a point in time when it was the sole survivor of the Dalek Council. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
The formation of alliance on Kembel was discovered by SSS agent Marc Cory, however the Daleks exterminated him before he could send a warning to Earth. (TV: Mission to the Unknown) Another SSS agent, Bret Vyon, and the First Doctor discovered the conspiracy as the Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen delivered the Taranium core required for the Time Destructor. The Doctor stole the Taranium and fled Kembel, resulting in a pursuit across the galaxy. The Doctor was finally forced to return to Kembel, but gave the Daleks a fake core before escaping in his TARDIS. Upon discovering the deception, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) the Black Dalek requested a Dalek time machine commanded by a Red Dalek, (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) which pursued the Doctor to ancient Egypt and regained the core. Over the course of these events the alliance fell apart and once the core was obtained the Daleks trapped the delegates, planning to kill them with the operational Time Destructor. Before they could, the Doctor returned to Kembel, freeing the delegates to spread word of the Daleks' plot to their civilisations and stealing the Time Destructor. He activated the device, turning its power against the Daleks and devastating Kembel. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) While some Daleks survived, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) including the Black Dalek by one account, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) all the infrastructure delegated for the plan was destroyed by the weapon, dealing a severe blow to the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time)
The Time Destructor plot began the Great War. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) In the 41st century Daleks fought against the SSS, (AUDIO: The House of Kingdom) and invaded the Galactic Federation. (PROSE: Legacy) After this war petered out, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) the Daleks attempted to exploit a space plague by sending an expedition to Exxilon to claim supplies of the only cure, parrinium, but were foiled by the Third Doctor and a group of human marines. (TV: Death to the Daleks) When a second wave of plague began affecting Daleks, a second expedition was sent but also failed due to interference of the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Dalek Protocol)
Over centuries, the Great War turned against the Dalek Empire as they suffered significant defeats, including a Thal offensive that resulted in the loss of 200 Dalek saucers, the Draconians annihilating half of the Dalek fleet along the Draconian frontier and the Terran Federation liberating six worlds from Dalek rule. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)
A thousand years after the events on Kembel, (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) the Second Doctor used the Emperor’s experiments with the Human Factor to instigate a Dalek Civil War. Despite the Doctor’s hopes that this would prove the Daleks’ “final end”, (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) The rebellion failed (COMIC: Bringer of Darkness) and the surviving humanised Daleks were forced to flee Skaro. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution) The Time Lords believed that the humanised Daleks were the first instance of a Dalek splinter group. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Possible alteration of the timeline
- Main article: Genesis Incident
Fearing that the Dalek Empire would one day conquer all of N-Space, the Time Lords sent the Fourth Doctor to Skaro to avert the creation of the Daleks only for him to fail in his task. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) By one account, the Doctor's actions created a new timeline in which Dalek history played out differently, thousands of worlds originally enslaved by the Dalek Empire were made free of Dalek control in the new timeline. However, many more worlds remained under the rule of the Empire and the Time Lords considered the Doctor's mission a failure. They subsequently directed him to a Deepcity, where they predicted his actions would bring about the rise of a race of robots capable of defeating the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: A Device of Death)
By another account though, the Doctor had not changed anything, his actions being part of a bootstrap paradox because he only established the Dalek history he had already lived through. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem) Indeed, his encounters with the Daleks prior to his fourth incarnation still had occurred. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro, The Dalek Defence, COMIC: Children of the Revolution)
Movellan War
- Main article: Dalek-Movellan War
The Dalek Empire waged war against the Movellans. According to research by the Celestial Intervention Agency, at the start of the war the Dalek Empire was divided under the rule of two Emperors, one of who was based on Skaro. The Skaro based Emperor became the sole ruler after the other was destroyed by the Movellans. The Daleks’ strategies against the Movellans were initially harmed by the Emperor struggling to keep track of forces formerly commanded by his counterpart. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem) Multiple Supreme Daleks existed during the war, serving the Emperor; one led a faction of Daleks back to Kembel, seeking to regain lost knowledge in time travel. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros)
The two sides eventually became locked in a stalemate, as both were reliant on logical battle computers. In an attempt to break the stalemate, the Daleks sent an expedition to Skaro to recover their creator Davros in the hopes of him providing new strategies. The interference of a rival Movellan expedition and the Fourth Doctor and Romana led to the Daleks being destroyed and Davros being taken into the freed slaves’ custody. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) Davros was transferred to the Earth Protection Corps, however the Dalek saucer captured the ship he was being transported on after it had rescued the Tenth Doctor and Anya Kingdom. Interference by Movellan forces led to the Earth ship crashing on Kembel before the Daleks could board. The Kembel faction emerged from hiding to capture Anya and the ship's commander, however Davros and the Doctor had already fallen into the hands of the Movellan forces, being led personally by the First Movellan. (AUDIO: The Dalek Defence) Davros feigned forming an alliance with the Movellans, to unite them and the Daleks against Earth, using this front to infect them with a computer virus. The Doctor prevented the virus spreading just as Earth Protection forces arrived on Kembel, defeating the Daleks there and recapturing Davros.
Inspired by his encounter with Davros, the First Movellan ordered the development of a virus to attack the organic components of the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros) Human historians attributed this decision to the Daleks reintroducing organic matter into themselves to gain advantages in the war, with their subsequent deviances from logic revealing their organic nature to the Movellans. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
The Movellans' virus devastated the Dalek Empire, leading to its collapse across the galaxy. In the aftermath, several remaining Dalek commanders tried to reorganise what was left of their own isolated sectors. The result exacerbated the existing factionalism. (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks)
Empire in Civil War
- Main article: Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War
The schism
The war with the Movellans had led increased factionalism within the Dalek Empire due to the Daleks dispersing into different areas of the universe to hide from the Movellan virus, (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) In 4590, (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks) 90 years after his retrieval from Skaro, the Daleks rescued Davros from human custody in the hopes of him developing a cure to the Movellan virus. He deemed the Daleks to be failures however and stated his intent to start over, unleashing the virus on the Daleks before fleeing in an escape pod. The Fifth Doctor also interfered in the rescue, freeing a Dalek agent who blew up the Dalek ship. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
After being retrieved by Lorraine Baynes and making a failed attempt to exploit her company, (AUDIO: Davros) Davros made his way to Necros where he used the humans in stasis at the Tranquil Repose to create new Daleks, loyal to him. The Dalek Supreme learnt of his activity and sent an expedition to Necros to capture Davros, destroying his new Daleks, and bring him back to Skaro for trial. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) One account claimed the ship transporting Davros and two surviving Necros Daleks crashed en route to Skaro on Lethe, where Davros established himself in the human colony as "Professor Vaso" and developed the Juggernauts based on Mechanoids. A Black Dalek recruited the Sixth Doctor to locate Davros, after which the Daleks invaded. In the ensuing skirmish the colony was destroyed after the self-destruct on Davros' chair was triggered. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts)
Accounts differed on the nature and outcome of the trial; one claimed the Daleks on Skaro, so concerned with the growing schism that they believed they needed direction, brought Davros to their homeworld so he could try at solving their issue by providing guidance. (AUDIO: Innocence) Another showed the trial serving a test of whether Davros was worthy of leadership over the Daleks, with him passing after exposing a Thal spy. (AUDIO: The Davros Mission) Another suggested the Emperor personally oversaw Davros on trial for crimes against the Daleks, until he was rescued by the Sixth Doctor who took him to Spiridon as part of a conspiracy with his next incarnation. There, Davros revived a dormant Dalek army and converted it to his leadership. He used the army to attack Skaro and exterminate the Emperor, declaring himself the new Emperor of the Daleks. The Daleks entered a new era, led by Davros as the new Emperor. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!)
Imperials versus Renegades
The schism grew, with the Imperial Daleks being loyal to Emperor Davros and the Renegade Daleks being loyal to the Dalek Supreme. The subsequent civil war stretched across the entire Dalek Empire, though the factionalism present in Dalek ranks since the end of the Movellan war meant that not every renegade sect was at war with Davros.
In addition to the war against the renegades, the Imperial Daleks waged the "liquidation war" against the Thals, the "war of vengeance" against the Movellans and the "time campaign". (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) Emperor Davros led an attempt to change history by altering the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, planning to use mind transfer technology to replace Napoléon Bonaparte's mind with that of a Dalek and use Napoleon's mind for the Dalek battle computers. (AUDIO: The Curse of Davros)
As the civil war escalated, the Seventh Doctor set a trap for the Imperial Daleks in Shoreditch in 1963, luring Davros with the propsect of controlling the Hand of Omega. The Supreme's Renegades seized the Hand first, forcing the Doctor to manipulate events so the Imperials reclaimed it in the ensuing skirmish, with the Supreme being the only Renegade survivor of the expedition. Once he possessed the Hand, the Doctor contacted Davros and provoked him into activating it, unaware the Doctor had pre-programmed it to destroy Skaro, (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) by detonating Skaro's second sun. (PROSE: The Stranger) The Hand subsequently destroyed the Imperial Dalek mothership in Earth's orbit, with Davros escaping at the last moment in an escape pod. The Doctor subsequently confronted the Renegade Supreme and talked it into destroying itself. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Following the destruction of Skaro, Dalek battlecruisers continued to protect the area of the galaxy where the planet had been, even though it was now desolate. (PROSE: The Ripple Effect)
Outcomes of the civil war
The Dalek Hive
- Main article: Dalek Hive
According to one account, the Dalek Hive became the last remaining population of Daleks, led by a Supreme Dalek. After sailing past the Magellan Cluster, the Dalek Hive was attacked by a ship of Daleks from another universe. Becoming paranoid about being invaded en masse by "unalike" Daleks from parallel realities, the Dalek Hive threw their all into the idea of a preemptive strike against the rest of the Omniverse.
Manipulating Crivello's Cauldron and the Eighth Doctor, the Daleks created an interdimensional gateway. In creating the gateway however, the Daleks had given an opening to various forces from other universes who were waiting for just such an opportunity to swarm in — including the Great Vampires as well as the parallel Daleks. The Dalek Hive proved no match for their enemies, with the Dalek Supreme being destroyed by the alternative Daleks. The Doctor resolved the conflict by having Ptolemy Muttonchops, an avatar of the Cauldron, take conscious control of the Cauldron's power and cause it to go supernova, destroying the Daleks entirely. The Doctor later discovered these events had been arranged by the Threshold to finally wipe out the Daleks. (COMIC: Fire and Brimstone)
Renegade victory
- Main article: Civil war (War of the Daleks)
According to another account, the Dalek Prime and Davros survived the war and encountered one another once more during a decline in Dalek pervasiveness throughout the galaxy. The Prime claimed the Skaro destroyed by the Doctor had in fact been a decoy planet, Antalin, and manipulated events to trigger a final civil war on Skaro to expose remaining Davros loyalists. Davros was again defeated, after which he was seemingly executed and the Dalek Prime set about rebuilding the Empire. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
Another account of post-civil war Dalek history held that Davros instead purposely tried to make contact with surviving Renegade Daleks, but his plot to control their minds was foiled by the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: Daleks Among Us)
Davros' new Daleks
By another account, Davros' escape pod was blown in the Time Vortex where he was trapped until being unwittingly discovered by the Eighth Doctor's companions Samson and Gemma Griffin. Taking control of their minds, he had them incapacitate the Doctor and use his TARDIS to return to Earth in their time zone. Davros used Gemma as a carrier to spread a virus he'd developed and then offered his assistance to governments, exploiting the crisis to create a new race of Daleks.
Davros had developed a split personality however, between his normal self and a "Dalek Emperor" persona. After the return of the Eighth Doctor to Earth, the Daleks manipulated events so their preferred persona, the Emperor, emerged dominant. The Doctor then used the threat of releasing a virus Davros had developed that would wipe out all life to force them to withdraw from Earth. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)
The Restoration Empire
- Main article: Restoration Empire
By another account, the Imperial Daleks had triumphed in the Civil War and, after the disappearance of Davros, a Dalek Supreme exterminated the other Daleks on the Dalek Council (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) and was elected the new Emperor of the Imperial Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) He founded the Restoration Empire, an attempt to harken back to the earliest days of the Dalek Empire. The Restoration Empire reintroduced Silver Daleks as the basic drones and the Emperor modelled himself on the Dalek Prime, creating a gold casing which augmented his brain capacity. (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) Human historians believed this Emperor continued Davros' plan to move against the High Council of the Time Lords, thus leading his armies into the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
Temporal fluctuations, (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) caused by the Tenth Doctor defeating the Kotturuh in the Dark Times, (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) appeared to alter events so this Empire did not immediately fight the Time War. (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks) The fluctuations were detected by the Daleks and the Emperor learnt that history was under attack via a message sent by the last survivor of a Time Squad which had yet to be sent back in time. Wanting more information, (PROSE: The Last Message) he led the Daleks in an invasion of Islos to seize the Archive. However the Chief Archivian made a deal with an Entity from outside time and space for the Archive’s rescue, promising their rescuer the Dalek Emperor. Upon entering the empty Archive, the Emperor, Prime Strategist and Executioner found a portal from which the Entity emerged. (WC: The Archive of Islos) The Daleks were able to dupe the Mechonoids into defeating this creature, (WC: Planet of the Mechonoids, The Deadly Ally) before banishing both of their foes to the Entity's dimension. The Entity however warned the Daleks of an oncoming threat. (WC: Day of Reckoning)
This threat materialised in the form of the Hond, an omnicidal species from the Dark Times. The Restoration Empire initially attempted to ally with them only to be turned down and forced on the defensive. When only Skaro remained, the Daleks sought out the Tenth Doctor, who believed that the Restoration Empire was the result of a paradox, for aid, bringing him before the Emperor. Working, albeit reluctantly, with the Strategist, the Doctor deduced that the Hond were suffering made manifest and managed to cure them of their suffering, ending their crusade against the Daleks. A Grey Dalek made an attempt to exterminate the Tenth Doctor but the Thirteenth Doctor helped him escape. With one Doctor lost to them, the Strategist suggested the Daleks turn their attention to other Doctors. (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks)
The Emperor created a Time Squad to investigate the fluctuations in time and rectify them to the Dalek Empire’s benefit. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) The Time Squad abducted the Eighth Doctor, (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not) and convinced him to help them. They travelled back to the Dark Times with him, (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy) where they confronted the Tenth Doctor at Mordeela alongside a Free Undead coffin ship commanded by the Ninth Doctor. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) The Dalek Time Squad quickly proved the superior force in the Battle of Mordeela but was unable to destroy the HMS Donna as a result of Brian unleashing various ancient weapons on their ship, allowing the Tenth Doctor to escape.
Fearing that any remaining Kotturuh would judge the Daleks, scout ships were sent to exterminate what remained of the aliens. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) The Daleks began a back-up plan of experimenting on the unique lifeforms of the Dark Times. (PROSE: Mission to the Known) They harvested Velosia under the pretence of saving their best and brightest from the oncoming Kotturuh. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) The Eighth Doctor found himself sidelined, though he was allowed to join their explorations (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) including of an abandoned spaceship. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) When the Daleks attacked the Ninth Doctor's coffin ship to capture a Vampire, the Eighth Doctor forewarned the Undead so they could evacuate and then escaped with his future self, leaving his TARDIS behind. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)
Afterwards the Commander and Executioner received pre-recorded instructions from the Emperor for the event of failing to correct history. He ordered them to destroy Gallifrey, to prevent the rise of the Time Lords. (PROSE: Mission to the Known) The Strategist was not privy to the new orders, which the Commander and Executioner referred to as "the Ultimate End", and continued experiments with the Scientist in hopes of creating a more biologically efficient form of Dalek, the Symbiont. A scout ship was sent to Entranxis to pursue a fleeing Vampire, Ikalla, but she escaped with the aid of the three Doctors, so the Daleks set the planet’s atmosphere alight with missiles. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)
The Daleks captured a Great Vampire from a coffin ship and used its DNA to engineer the Symbiont, an undying form of Dalek mutant. The Tenth and Eighth Doctors infiltrated the saucer and learnt of the Daleks' plans before fleeing. The Commander revealed the new orders to the Strategist, claiming a power drain his experiment had caused had jeopardised it. Realising that Gallifrey would now be defended by the Doctors, the Strategist ordered the Drones be enhanced with Symbiont DNA whilst the original was sent to Birinji to kill the last of the Kotturuh, Inyit. The hybrid Drones were deployed against Gallifrey, managing to quickly overwhelm the HMS Donna and three coffin ships defending the planet however perished when Inyit used her final judgement to give the original of their number a short lifespan. Fearing that this judgement would spread to pure Dalek DNA, the Daleks panicked and retreated to their saucer, despite the Strategist’s desire to press the attack. This enabled the Eighth Doctor to board their craft and detonate an explosive, forcing the saucer into the Time Vortex. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)
The Eighth Doctor managed to destroy the saucer while inside the Vortex, as the Time Squad descended into infighting. (AUDIO: Mutually Assured Destruction) The drone who unknowingly enacted the bootstrap paradox survived (PROSE: The Last Message) and attempted to raise its own army on the Starship Future only to be defeated by the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: Genetics of the Daleks) The Dalek Prime Strategist also survived, observing other Daleks being torn apart by time winds. He escaped via an emergency temporal shift, powered using Kotturuh crystals he'd stored in his casing.
After the crisis grew to a close, the Strategist believed that the Daleks of the Restoration Empire would ultimately head into the War with the Time Lords, though with him now seriously considering the option of overthrowing the Emperor and overseeing the War himself. (PROSE: Exit Strategy)
Second Great Dalek Occupation
- Main article: Second Great Dalek Occupation
- Main article: Enemy-Alliance Dalek War
The Daleks proceeded on a grand effort to create a permanent base of operations. A Dalek Supreme led an effort to seize knowledge from the library of Kar-Charrat, though the interference of the Seventh Doctor and Ace denied them all the information. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine) The Emperor who had succeeded Davros subsequently masterminded the Etra Prime incident; (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) an ambitious gambit in which the Daleks refined and unleashed the Apocalypse Element to ignite the entire Seriphia Galaxy and then invaded Gallifrey to use the Eye of Harmony to contain the destruction until Seriphia was annihilated and then reborn as a thousands of virgin worlds, which the Dalek Empire was poised to seize. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element) The Emperor later led a fleet into the Time Vortex to exploit a temporal fissure to remake history to the Daleks' design by deploying a Temporal Extinction Device in the fissure. The detonation went wrong, leading to a sequence of events which became a time loop in which Daleks attempted rescue by remaking the device and attempting the detonation again. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks) Eventually the Emperor would be forced to petition the Time Lords to release them. (AUDIO: Neverland)
From their base in Seriphia, the Daleks staged a major invasion of the Mutter's Spiral, beginning in the Vega system, (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks) which became known as the Second Great Dalek Occupation. (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks)
The Daleks fought against the Earth Alliance for years, eventually occupying most of the galaxy. (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”) During this time the Emperor and Supreme used Susan Mendes as the “Angel of Mercy” to improve slave efficiency by giving them hope and allowed her to be accompanied by Knight of Velyshaa Kalendorf. Secretly, the pair were using Kalendorf’s telepathy to sow the seeds of rebellion in every slave they encountered, (AUDIO: The Human Factor) though the Dalek Emperor was actually aware of this plan and let it continue. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 4) After the fall of Earth, Susan was ordered to make a victory broadcast across the entire Dalek Empire, in which she chose to utter the trigger phrase, “Death to the Daleks!”, provoking rebellion through the Empire. (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”) This forced the Daleks into retreat, enabling the Alliance to reorganise. Three months after the rebellion, the Daleks took over Project Infinity, which they’d used the rebellion as cover to reach, and the Emperor used it to make contact with Daleks of a parallel universe, who had conquered their universe. The parallel Daleks were horrified at their counterparts’ actions and declared war, (AUDIO: Project Infinity) allying with the Earth Alliance. The Emperor was forced to retreat into Susan Mendes’ mind to escape them, leaving the Supreme as the leader of the Dalek Empire.
Over the course of six years, the Earth Alliance and “Alliance Daleks” pushed the Dalek Empire back, reducing it’s presence in Mutter’s Spiral to just Earth’s solar system. Commander Kalendorf turned against the Alliance Daleks and negotiated a truce with the Dalek Empire, arranging the retrieval of Susan in return so the Daleks could extract the Emperor. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three) Together the Dalek Empire and Earth Alliance fought the Alliance Daleks for many years, with the Alliance Daleks ultimately retreating after their leader, the Mentor, judged that continuing the war was likely to result in all life in the galaxy being wiped out. Whilst the fragile truce still held, Kalendorf travelled to Dalek-occupied Earth to meet the Emperor, who had taken full possession of Susan’s body. He used telepathic programming he’d implanted in Susan before surrendering her to trigger the Great Catastrophe, ordering every piece of Dalek technology to self-destruct. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)
The Dalek Empire was nearly wiped out, however one outpost in Seriphia managed to contain the destructive impulse into a single drone. The drone also absorbed the minds of the Emperor and Susan, so was declared the new Dalek Supreme of what remained of the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: The Demons) Approximately two thousand years later, this Supreme led the Daleks in occupying the Border Worlds, using the guise of treating the NFS plague which the Daleks had actually created, to re-establish the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: The Exterminators, The Healers, The Survivors, The Demons, The Warriors, The Future) The Daleks entered a cold war with the Galactic Union. (PROSE: Mutually Assured Survival)
Lead-up to the Time War
Having adopted a bronze design for drones, the Daleks sponsored Free Time, (AUDIO: Ascension) a terrorist organisation which attacked the Time Lords during President Romana's tenure. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice, Pandora, Insurgency, Imperiatrix) After Free Time weakened the Time Lords by unleashing the Dogma Virus, (AUDIO: Panacea) the Daleks invaded the Axis to plunder alternate Gallifreys, including one that Romana, Narvin and Leela from the proper timeline had settled on. The trio managed to close the Axis' portals, denying the Daleks access to anymore timelines and trapping them in any alternate timelines they had entered, and returned to Gallifrey proper. (AUDIO: Extermination) The Supreme Dalek then led an invasion of Gallifrey via the Matrix with the aid of Slyne, a resident of an alternate Gallifrey who formed an alliance with them, who was sent ahead to prepare for their arrival. Romana was able to trap the Daleks' invasion force in a Matrix projection with the aid of a projection of her future self. (AUDIO: Ascension)
The Second Dalek Empire was active during their invasion of Querkus. They were also at war with humanity around this time. (PROSE: Roots of Evil)
Dalek saucer X-K Beta-19 invaded the planet Galacton to energise its core to create fuel for the Seventh Fleet. (PROSE: Mission to Galacton) During the Battle of Magella, the Seventh Incursion Squad under a Dalek Commander wiped out the last of the Mechanoids, ending the long running conflict between the Daleks and Mechanoids. (PROSE: Birth of a Legend) Daleks fought Krillitane rebels on Gryphon's Reach, calling on Davros for aid. Despite Davros' efforts, the Eleventh Doctor was able to help the rebels destroy the invaders. (PROSE: Father of the Daleks)
The Daleks targeted potential allies of the Time Lords, the Temporal Powers, including the Warpwrights of Phaidon. (AUDIO: The First Days of Phaidon) After the destruction of Phaidon, Time Lord President Livia officialy declared war on the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: Celestial Intervention)
Last Great Time War and destruction
- Main article: Last Great Time War
The Daleks, under leadership of the Dalek Emperor, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) disappeared from normal space during the Tenth Dalek Occupation, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) into the Time Vortex where they constructed a fleet, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) with which to wage war against the Time Lords in the Last Great Time War. (TV: Dalek) After being asked to help, Davros joined their effort, (PROSE: Father of the Daleks) until he was lost to the Nightmare Child at the Gates of Elysium. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man) The Daleks' temporal strategies were guided by the Dalek Time Strategist, (AUDIO: Desperate Measures) whose place at the Emperor's side was coveted by other Dalek leaders such as the Commander of the Red Fleet. (AUDIO: Temmosus) Multiple Dalek Supremes also served in the Time War. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures, Dissolution, Homecoming, Saviour, A Genius for War, COMIC: Ambush)
In the early days of the War, the Daleks sought means to invade Gallifrey. They investigated the rift at the heart of the Obscura, unaware they had been lured there as part of a trap designed by Irving Braxiatel, (AUDIO: Soldier Obscura) and invaded the pocket dimension containing Project Revenant. The invasion was successful however the Celestial Intervention Agency arranged the facility's destruction before the Daleks took control, resulting in the pocket dimension collapsing. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures) Other early battlefronts included the Spiral Furl, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man) Keetol, where the Time Lords won though their victory was later negated by the War Master's use of the Heavenly Paradigm, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) Seramiphius V, where the rival forces clashed in space, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) Seriphia, which the Time Lords assaulted with time dreadnoughts, (AUDIO: Hostiles) and Saracassar which the Daleks successfully besieged. (AUDIO: The Scaramancer)
The Time War raged, in a linear sense, for four centuries, but its temporal fighting actually meant the War was fought for all of eternity, enduring for so long that the Empire's ideals of racial purity eventually became diluted, as did the notion of absolute conformity. Groups such as the Eternity Circle, (PROSE: Engines of War) the Cult of Skaro, (TV: Doomsday) and the Volatix Cabal were created with the capacity for independent thought so as to match the imagination of the Time Lords. (COMIC: Downtime) To boost their overworked army, the Dalek Empire began converting conquered humans into Daleks and harvested versions of themselves from alternate realities to use as shock troopers, creating the Skaro Degradations. (PROSE: Engines of War) Hybrid Daleks were also created for use as Hunter-Killers. (AUDIO: The Mission) The Daleks were also known to conscript soldiers from species they'd enslaved, (AUDIO: Dreadshade) such as the Brancheerians, (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore) and used harvester ships to capture entire planets' populations to turn them into weaponised cyborgs. (AUDIO: Destroyer, Saviour) The Overseer conducted experiments on Ogrons on the Planet, however after a rebellion, he was relieved of command with his experiments being halted by other Daleks who deemed them an abomination. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons)
The Dalek Empire eventually began losing the Time War. After a "spectacular" defeat, the Dalek Time Strategist (AUDIO: The Famished Lands) began researching the multiverse, hoping to find an alternative version of Davros whom he believed could reinvigorate the Daleks. Following the construction of a transdimensional portal to access the multiverse, (AUDIO: Palindrome) the Dalek base on Grahv was overwhelmed by the Valeyard who turned a temporal superweapon against the Daleks, erasing the entirety of their race from N-Space, save the Time Strategist who managed to escape into the multiverse. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard) Manipulating a parallel universe version of Davros, the Time Strategist used dimensional engineering to restore the Dalek Empire including the Emperor. After a brief schism when the parallel Davros attempted to assert his claim for leadership over the Daleks, the Emperor assumed control of the Empire again and the Time War resumed. Davros was imprisoned on Falkus, (AUDIO: Palindrome, Restoration of the Daleks) and later attempted to regain his influence with the Daleks by appealing to the Time Lords for rescue with promise of how to win the War by creating a hybrid creature of both sides. Upon recapturing him however the Dalek Supreme rejected his idea and had him returned to Falkus, which he escaped again after the Doctor triggered the destruction of the moon. (AUDIO: A Genius for War)
The Daleks formed an axis of alliances in the course of their campaign against the Time Lords, including with the Vultarans, (AUDIO: Lion Hearts) the Morlontoa, (COMIC: The Clockwise War) the Taalyens, (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds, The Heart of the Battle) and the Enigma, which briefly wiped out the Time Lords on their behalf until the War Doctor convinced it not to. (AUDIO: The Enigma Dimension) A Dalek ambassador approached the Stagnant Protocol, though in this case the supposed diplomatic agreement was simply a means to enable an invasion. (AUDIO: Unfinished Business) The Daleks also used human agents, such as crime boss Jarred McKenzie on Unity, (AUDIO: Unity) and Lara Zannis. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex)
Late in the War, the Eternity Circle led the occupation of the entire Tantalus Spiral, planning to use the temporal energy from the nearby Tantalus Eye to create a Temporal Cannon to remove Gallifrey from history. Discovering their plans after leading a failed Time Lord attack on the region, the War Doctor reported back to President Rassilon who ordered the deployment of the Tear of Isha. In the ensuing Battle for the Tantalus Eye the War Doctor saw to the failure of the Time Lords' doomsday weapon and also manipulated the Eternity Circle to get him close enough to the Eye that the possibility engine Borusa could alter the timelines to remove the Daleks from the Spiral entirely. (PROSE: Engines of War)
The Daleks finally invaded Kasterborous, (PROSE: Dalek) and on the last day of the Time War breached the defences around Gallifrey itself, with the entire might of the Dalek Empire, numbering a "billion billion" units on ten million warships, converging on the planet. Though the Daleks managed to invade Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city, they were unable to breach the Capitol's defences, instead commencing an orbital bombardment to destroy Gallifrey. Faced with this onslaught, the War Doctor stole the Moment, seeking to destroy both Time Lords and Daleks, only for the superweapon to have him meet his Tenth and Eleventh selves, with the latter's companion, Clara Oswald, convincing the Doctor to find a better way. Summoning "all thirteen" of his incarnations, the Doctor utilised stasis cube technology to move Gallifrey into a pocket universe. Panicking at the sight of thirteen police boxes, the Daleks increased their firepower with the Dalek Empire ultimately destroying itself in its own crossfire when the planet disappeared. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) The Emperor recalled this destruction as an "inferno". (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
Unable to retain his memories of the War's true ending, the Ninth Doctor believed that he had detonated the Moment and destroyed the Dalek Empire. (TV: Dalek)
Remnants
There were multiple different instances of Dalek survivors of the Time War: a single drone which fell through time, landing on Earth in the 20th century, (TV: Dalek) the Dalek Emperor himself, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) the four-member Cult of Skaro, in possession of a Genesis Ark containing millions of trapped drones, (TV: Doomsday) a group of Daleks in the 22nd century, (COMIC: Carnage Zoo) and the inmates of the Dalek Asylum, a prison planet containing thousands of insane and damaged Daleks. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
A number of Daleks appeared in another universe, New Eden, due to "chronological complications" after the destruction of Gallifrey. The posthuman inhabitants of that universe referred to them as "Biomechanoid Combat Units", not knowing their true name, and fought them in a remote area of space. (GAME: The Interstellar Convergence)
The Doctor would later ponder the possibility that some Daleks had become so scared of multiple incarnations of themself appearing that they'd fled, running away even long after the War had ended. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)
Undated events
The Daleks occupied Ercos where they tested the Dalek driller, intended for use against Earth. The occupation was overthrown due to the interference of the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith, having been directed to Ercos by the Time Lords. (COMIC: The Dalek Revenge)
The Daleks fought the Cybermen, (PROSE: Heliotrope Bouquet, Ghost in the Machine) deeming them an "inferior species". (TV: Doomsday) At one point Silver Daleks destroyed Cyber-Command on New Mondas by intercepting a shipment of converts and implanting Oblivion Continuums inside them, which detonated upon the new Cybermen being presented to the Cyber-Controller. (COMIC: Cyber Crisis)
The Dalek Empire made a diplomatic agreement with the Time Lords during President Romana's tenure. As part of the agreement, (PROSE: Lungbarrow, Meet the Doctor) the Old Master was tried on Skaro in the presence of the Dalek Emperor (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) by the whole Parliament of the Daleks, (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) with the Dalek Litigator prosecuting. (AUDIO: Vengeance) After the Master's execution, the Seventh Doctor recovered his remains to take back to Gallifrey, (TV: Doctor Who) having been allowed safe passage under the terms of the agreement. (PROSE: Lungbarrow)
The Daleks fought Mechanoids guarding an abandoned colony on Hesperus. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)
The Daleks invaded Tuvalu but were thwarted by the Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones. (PROSE: Unnatural History)
The Daleks invaded the home planet of the Anthaurk, forcing them to move to the Minerva system. (PROSE: The Fall of Yquatine)
Seeking Irving Braxiatel's timeship, time-travelling Daleks sponsored the Fifth Axis's second campaign in the 27th century, during which they occupied the Braxiatel Collection. Their trap failed however when Bernice Summerfield and Braxiatel tricked the Axis into fighting against them. (AUDIO: Death and the Daleks)
Whilst in the midst of fighting an enemy, whom the Eighth Doctor speculated could be Movellans, Mechanoids or other Daleks, the Daleks learnt of the work of Professor Martez on Red Rocket Rising to create new Mutant Daleks. Deeming them impure, the Daleks sought to destroy them first by redirecting an asteroid at the human colony and then by infiltrating it in the guise of lending assistance after the disaster. (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks)
A Dalek timeship travelled back in time to 2025, with its crew of Grey Daleks seeking to destroy humanity by forcing the Moon out of orbit. They were foiled by the interference of the Fourth Doctor and Leela. (AUDIO: Energy of the Daleks)
A group of Daleks attempted to extract the Earth’s Telluric energy in Cornwall in 1963, robotising the locals to mine a node of the energy. Their plan was disrupted by the Eighth Doctor who rallied the sentience of the energy, the Bocca, to resist the extraction after his companion Charley had damaged their saucer’s engines, resulting in the ship’s destruction. (AUDIO: The Stuff of Legend)
The Good Dalek Incident
- Main article: Good Dalek Incident
At one point in the history of the Dalek Empire, it warred against the Combined Galactic Resistance. (TV: Into the Dalek) Research by historians placed this conflict either during the Second Dalek War, sometime after the Daleks' foray to Exxilon and their shattering of the Draconian Empire, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) or in the frontier worlds during the Great War. (PROSE: The Whoniverse)
The Resistance managed to capture a damaged Dalek, that was later named Rusty, who claimed a desire to turn on its own kind. After the Twelfth Doctor rescued Journey Blue, the Resistance asked him to help fix Rusty as he had been turned good. The Doctor, Clara Oswald, Journey, Ross and Gretchen Alison Carlisle travelled into Rusty and located a crack in his power source that was spewing radiation and killing him, losing Ross along the way.
The Doctor repaired the crack with his sonic screwdriver, but the radiation had been causing Rusty's change, and so without it Rusty turned evil again, breaking free of its restraints and calling in more Daleks to destroy the Aristotle. At the insistence of Clara, the Doctor, Clara, Journey and Gretchen attempted to turn Rusty good again by reactivating his suppressed memories, particularly that of a star being born which would open him to the Doctor's influence.
Clara succeeded in reactivating the memories, opening Rusty's mind and the Doctor telepathically linked with him to get him to see the good in the universe through the Doctor. However, being a Dalek, the "beauty" that Rusty reacted to was the Doctor's hatred of the Daleks. Taking the Doctor's hatred as his own, Rusty turned on the Dalek boarding party attacking the Aristotle and exterminated them. Rusty told the Doctor that he wasn't a good Dalek but the Doctor was, and then he ordered the Dalek flying saucer that was docked with the Aristotle to retreat, claiming that the humans had activated the ship's self-destruct. Rusty left with the Daleks to continue his war against his own kind by destroying them from within. (TV: Into the Dalek) After managing to destroy the Dalek command ship, Rusty was retrieved by the Daleks, his new mindset causing the Dalek Supreme Council to withdraw lest Rusty's influence spread to other Daleks.
After confirming it could not, Rusty was exiled to the Dalek Asylum, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) but managed to escape, basing himself at Villengard. The Daleks made attempts to hunt him down and destroy him, but Rusty was persistently successful in fighting them off. All around his control tower were the shattered remnants of his earlier attackers. Some of the Daleks survived, albeit without their casings. (TV: Twice Upon a Time) Rusty however had access to records of events that succeeded the fall of the Dalek Empire, suggesting that the unit itself hailed from a later point in Dalek history. (TV: Into the Dalek)
Further Dalek empires
After the destruction of the Dalek Empire, three subsequent empires were established: the New Dalek Empire, followed by the New Dalek Paradigm, which was reformed into the resurrected Dalek Empire.
The New Dalek Empire was established by Dalek Caan, who made a perilous journey back through time into the first year of the Time War, and rescued Davros from the "jaws of the Nightmare Child". Davros sacrificed cells from his own body to create millions of new Daleks. Together they built a massive fleet and a space station called the Crucible within the Medusa Cascade. Dalek Caan worked in secret to betray the New Empire and Davros, however, and assisted the Doctor and Donna Noble in disarming the reality bomb and foiling the stolen planets plot. The Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor then caused a chain reaction which destroyed the New Empire, including apparently Davros and Caan. (TV: The Stolen Earth, Journey's End)
Through a deception called the "Ironside Project", three Daleks, (TV: Victory of the Daleks) having survived the destruction of the Crucible and the New Dalek Empire, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) tricked the Eleventh Doctor into helping them activate a Progenitor (TV: Victory of the Daleks) that was left over from the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) The device then created five new Daleks, referred to as a New Dalek Paradigm. These newcomers destroyed their three forebears and escaped through a time corridor. Amy Pond speculated that the new Daleks would need time to "build themselves up". (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
Reeling from its defeat at the hands of the Ninth Doctor in March 2005, the post-Time War Nestene Consciousness considered allying with the "mighty empires" of the Daleks and the Cybermen in order to rid the universe of the Doctor, (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene) a prospect which would be realised with the Pandorica Alliance, which the New Paradigm participated in. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) The Paradigm restored the Daleks to an empire, but their repeated failures resulted in its members losing influence. Instead, the Dalek Empire they had formed was reinvented into the resurrected Dalek Empire. This new empire would be overseen by a Parliament led by a Dalek Prime Minister. (TV: The Time of the Doctor, PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
With the Daleks still a diminished force compared to their Time War-power level, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) the empire committed much of its military might to denying the Time Lords' return to the universe during the Siege of Trenzalore, intending to rule supreme by ensuring the Time Lords never returned. When the Eleventh Doctor regenerated and destroyed their forces, human historians speculated this could be the Daleks' final defeat. They were not fully convinced, however. (TV: The Time of the Doctor, PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) Indeed, the Daleks restored Skaro and made it the centre of their empire. Davros stated they brought back the world due to their strong concept of home. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) Missy had an outstanding death warrant in the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test)
Alternate timelines
Following their escape, the New Dalek Paradigm discovered the lost Time Lord artefact, the Eye of Time, allowing them to alter time as they saw fit. The Daleks returned to Skaro, rebuilt their capital city of Kaalann, appointed a new Emperor, and began rebuilding their empire. One of the empire's first acts with their new-found power over time was to invade Earth in 1963. In this new timeline, they succeeded in killing every member of the human race. However, the Doctor and Amy Pond successfully undid these events, leaving Earth unconquered and erasing the new empire from existence. (GAME: City of the Daleks)
Another alternate timeline was created when guerrillas from this timeline travelled back and accidentally caused a war by assassinating delegates, allowing the Daleks to invade Earth. This was averted when the Third Doctor travelled back from this timeline and told the guerrilla responsible the truth. Daleks and Ogrons travelled back to keep this timeline intact, but the guerrilla destroyed them with a bomb. (TV: Day of the Daleks)
In another alternate timeline, the Daleks invaded Earth in the 17th century. This was averted by the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks)
Following his acquisition of the Anti-Genesis codes from Gallifrey during the Last Great Time War, the War Master travelled to Skaro during the Thousand Year War and ensured that Davros was killed by the bomb that had crippled him in the regular timeline. (AUDIO: From the Flames) In Davros's place, the Master infiltrated the Kaled Scientific Elite (AUDIO: The Master's Dalek Plan) and created a new race of Daleks loyal to him instead, (AUDIO: Shockwave) eventually creating a Dalek Empire which conquered all of existence. However, this timeline was eventually erased by this Master's future self, a parallel universe Master, and the Dalek Time Strategist, as the many paradoxes this timeline was built upon risked destroying all reality. (AUDIO: He Who Wins)
In a timeline where the First Doctor had never left Gallifrey, the Dalek Empire had grown to such a size without his interference that even the Time Lords lived in fear of it. This timeline was later undone through the efforts of the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield gathering the pieces of the Key to Time and restoring history to normal. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)
In a timeline when a temporal collision of the First and Second Doctor's TARDISes prevented the former from landing on Kembel, the Daleks completed the Time Destructor. With their perfected weapon, the Dalek Empire began a death march across the galaxies. This timeline was undone when the Second Doctor prevented the temporal collision, restoring the natural sequence of events. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods)
Parallel universes
In one parallel universe, the Daleks created by the Mentor ruled the entire universe. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One)
In the Unbound Universe, the Dalek Empire was formed by the group of Daleks originally created by Davros, known as the Renegades by the second batch of Daleks who remained on Skaro. Functionally identical to their N-Space counterparts, these Daleks invaded other planets and were fought against by the Unbound Doctor on many occasions and led him to initially believe that the entire Dalek race was beyond redemption. (AUDIO: Masters of War)
Behind the scenes
- The Discontinuity Guide made the claim that, originally, Davros was killed and forgotten, and that the Fourth Doctor's interference with the creation of the Daleks created a new timeline where Davros survived. As a result, whilst the Daleks originally had a solid, cohesive empire, always with one purpose, Davros' presence reduced them to "a mess of squabbling factions" which were "incapable of the unity needed to develop dimensionally transcendental time travel. Published before the Last Great Time War was established in Doctor Who lore, The Discontinuity Guide went on to claim that "whilst Davros lives the Daleks will remain disorganised, and will never become the threat that the Time Lords so feared."[1]
- The Dalek Hierarchy feature of DWFC TLV 1 explains that the Prime Minister led the resurrected Dalek Empire after a civil war between the New Dalek Paradigm and the "Children of Davros", which is glimpsed in The Eleventh Doctor Interactive Story.
