Dalek flying saucer
The Dalek Flying Saucer was one of the most commonly used type of Dalek ships. The fleet of the Dalek Empire during the Time War was composed of about ten million ships. One served as flagship for the Dalek Emperor.
History
During their first attempts to obtain space travel, the Daleks built proto-type ships such as Proto 1, 4, and 9. Proto 13, which had a flying saucer-design, was successful in take off, space flight, and entering/exiting hyperspace, and so became the standard Dalek ship. (TV21: The Amaryll Challenge)
The Daleks used saucers when invading planets, such as during the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
A Dalek saucer travelled to the planet Exxilon where all of its power was taken by the Exxilon City. When the power was restored, the ship took off but was destroyed by Dan Galloway who stowed away on the ship with a bomb, which he detonated. (DW: Death to the Daleks)
The saucers were also used by the Dalek Empire during the Second Dalek War of the 26th century. One saucer, named the Exterminator, was a supreme Exterminator-class flagship belonging to the Dalek Inquisitor General, Dalek X. When the Exterminator was destroyed, the Dalek fleet was pushed right back from Earth-Space. (NSA: Prisoner of the Daleks)
During the Last Great Time War each sphere contained about two thousand Daleks each and were small and bronze-coloured, the same colour as the drone Daleks of that time. The flagship was the same colour but many times larger and contained both standard Daleks and the Emperor's Personal Guards. It could also fire projectile weaponry. (DW: Bad Wolf)
The Daleks launched over a thousand Dalek Saucers into the Time Vortex, these forces were stopped by the Doctor who left them trapped in the vortex. (BFA: The Time of the Daleks) The Time Lords later made a deal with the Daleks that allowed them to leave the Time Vortex (BFA: Neverland)
On Gallifrey during the last day of the Last Great Time War dozens of crashed Dalek saucers were seen near the badly damaged Capitol of the Time Lords. (DW: The End of Time)
At the end of the Last Great Time War, the Doctor caused all of the fleet to burn away except one, the Emperor's flagship, which fell through time to the the turn of the 2002nd century, where the Dalek Emperor rebuilt 200 ships of his fleet and created half a million new Daleks to rule. These were all destroyed by the Bad Wolf entity.(DW: Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways)
The New Dalek Empire used saucers with a modified appearance in their 2009 invasion of Earth. Though the Daleks themselves could fly and had personal weaponry, smaller versions of the saucers served as fighter craft. (DW: The Stolen Earth)
One of these ships survived the the conclusion of the 2009 Invasion of Earth, and fell through time to 1941. When the three surviving Daleks onboard were confronted by the Doctor, they used a beacon on the ship to activate all the lights in London leaving it vulnerable to German attack. Three advanced spitfires were sent to destroy the beacon. Three were destroyed by the Dalek defense guns mounted all around the Saucer, but the Doctor disabled the ship's shields and the dish was destroyed. When their plan to detonate the Oblivion Continuum failed, the new Daleks left in their ship through a Time corridor. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)
A number of Dalek saucers were used on the attack on Station 7 when the Daleks conducted a search for "the Abomination". They were able to disguise their saucers as asteroids which they discarded when the attack began. All were destroyed - save one, which was used by an SSS officer to travel home - when caught in a deliberate volcanic eruption. (GN: The Only Good Dalek)
When the Daleks joined The Alliance formed to imprison The Doctor in the Pandorica in order to save the Universe, many Dalek Saucers were part of the Alliance fleet which arrived at Stonehenge, 102 A.D. (DW: The Pandorica Opens)
The Doctor guessed the Daleks had a minimum of 12'000 ships, but this has not been confirmed.
Behind the scenes
- Dalek flying saucers first appeared in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. DVD releases of the story featured a new and more convincing CGI special effects version of the saucer as an alternative to the original. On the same DVD they also appeared in the entire story's title sequence at the beginning of part one.
- Dalek saucers featured prominently in the action of The Dalek Chronicles comics and other print-based Dalek stories.
- The non-canonical theatrical film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (based on The Dalek Invasion of Earth) featured a Dalek command craft, the front section of which resembled a saucer. A drawing of this "saucer" appeared on the cover of the Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth novelisation even though the novelisation drew from the television version.
