Roboman
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Robomen were humans converted by the Daleks into wholly obedient slaves during the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth.
The Daleks captured prisoners and operated on their brains in a surgical procedure called the "transfer" (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) or "robotization", (PROSE: What To Do If A Dalek Attacks You!) fitting them with large, helmet-like headsets. The Daleks' mind control technique was unstable, and would eventually wear off. However, instead of reverting, that is to say becoming human again, the Robomen would go insane and commit suicide. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Pre-Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
During the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth, the Daleks used Robomen. These surgically modified captives were armed with machine guns and used for patrols and overseeing other slaves. The Robomen were needed because there were few Daleks on Earth. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, AUDIO: Masters of Earth)
In 2158, the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa encountered a Roboman in Kansas who had been a sheriff. He and a Dalek believed them to be escaped prisoners from a work camp and tried to capture them, but they escaped in the TARDIS. The Roboman and the Dalek returned to their commander to report their failure. (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase)
In 2163, Robomen of the Roboman Elite were able to break their conditioning and rebel against the Daleks, but they had their own plans for converting humanity into Robomen and conquering the galaxy. The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown encountered them and defeated them. (AUDIO: Masters of Earth)
Robomen also served in the 2150 Dalek invasion of Earth of version of history "B". (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide, TV: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) During the occupation, the Black Dalek, the Red Dalek and two Robomen once patrolled a street of the ruined London, narrowly missing the presence of an older Susan in TARDIS, which they mistook for a simple police box. (HOMEVID: Untitled 1)
According to the Dalek Survival Guide, it was following the failure of the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth that the Daleks started using Ogrons as shock troops; the guide suggested that the Ogrons' natural stupidity made them easier to control than humans and so eliminated the need for the time-consuming robotisation process. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)
When the Daleks invaded again in the late 2190s, they once more used Robomen to patrol Earth. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller)
In 2025, Robomen were used by time travelling Daleks as security guards. (AUDIO: Energy of the Daleks)
The Daleks used Robomen during the Battle of Pejorica against the Jariden. (AUDIO: The Four Doctors)
Robotisation remained an object of fear as the Earth Protection Corps fought in the Dalek-Movellan War. (AUDIO: The Dalek Defence)
Bernice Summerfield, Abslom Daak, Harma, Salander, Vol Mercurius were designated as "Robomen troops" and operatives by the Black Dalek Leader when they were placed under the mental control of Psyche Dalek Three to force the Seventh Doctor's co-operation in the battle of Spiridon. They were freed when the Doctor destroyed the Psyche Dalek's control. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!)
During the Shoreditch Incident in the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, the Renegade Daleks had a group of Robomen at their disposal, control now being reduced to but a small chip. These Robomen unwittingly stumbled into the Last Great Time War only to have their command signal overrode by the Daleks of the Time War when the Eighth Doctor bargained with them. (AUDIO: The Shoreditch Intervention)
Following the Dalek invasion of Vega VI, the Daleks built a number of robotising plants on its radioactive surface. Robomen were made to ensure that the human slaves continued mining veganite. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
The Daleks began using a more sophisticated implantation technique. Rather than fitting their subjects with grafted positronic discs and communication devices, the circuitry was placed inside the brain and the Robomen retained independent thought. These Robomen were much harder to detect and far more dangerous. Orders from their Dalek masters would be filtered through normal thought processes, the subject seemingly unaware of the disc implant. One such Roboman was Gordon Pellan, who was gunned down by Earth Alliance forces. (AUDIO: The Human Factor)
Mirana, another of these newer, more sophisticated Robomen, was linked directly to the Dalek Emperor's mind. She was unaware of the linkage and when told of the implant, she was confused. The implant itself was deemed impossible to remove without killing the subject, but it could be disabled. Mirana's implant was disabled surgically, though she could still receive transmissions from the Dalek command net. The remnants of the Earth Alliance used her to track a small battalion of Daleks on Lopra Minor. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)
During the Enemy-Alliance Dalek War, Daleks from a parallel universe created highly advanced Robomen known as Demons. Only three were created before the N-Space Daleks attacked the facility. (AUDIO: The Demons)
On the Dalek occupied planet Nixyce VII, the Daleks used Robomen to patrol and regulate work in the mines. The Robomen on Nixyce VII were ordered to find Liv Chenka who was needed to assist with an emergency in the Dalek mines. The Doctor and the freedom fighters Kavel and Aldin all pretended to be fully converted Robomen to evade Dalek capture. (AUDIO: The Traitor)
Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
During the Last Great Time War, Susan Foreman encountered "Robogrons", Robomen made out of Ogrons, on the planet Florana. (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore [+]Loading...["The Uncertain Shore (audio story)"])
A number of Time Lords were robotised and later freed from Dalek control by the War Doctor. Choosing to retain their numerical designations as names, they formed the Third Power; a third faction in the Time War affiliated with neither side. (AUDIO: Morbius the Mighty [+]Loading...["Morbius the Mighty (audio story)"])
Post-Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
At its onset, the New Dalek Paradigm found a record in the pathweb of the Dalek Emperor in the Last Great Time War having planned to use continuity bombs to seed the galaxy with Robomen but the Paradigm had no way to verify this account. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
A number of Robomen, similar in appearance and sophistication to those used in the 22nd century, were captured by Space Security Service agents when they retook the planet Caridos from the Daleks in 3994 and brought to Station 7 for study. The Robomen remained on the Station into the early stages of the 41st century and were completely inert until a Dalek task force invaded, reactivating them to fight from within. They were all killed in the subsequent battle. (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek)
Via a Time-Space Visualiser, the Strategist and Scientist Dalek were able to study the original conversion procedure of the Robomen, eventually supplanting them with the Dalek puppets, who also fulfilled the infiltration capabilities of Dalek duplicates. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)
References[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Eleventh Doctor expected Robomen to be on the Sunlight Worlds founded by the Dalek Foundation. (PROSE: The Dalek Generation)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
A Roboman featured on the cover of the Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth novelisation. This Roboman bore a resemblance to those seen in the film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., even though the book's content drew from the television version. This Roboman was further distinguished in that he wore a gas-mask.
The Dalek Handbook observes that Arthur Terrall was controlled by a more advanced version of the conditioning process used on the Robomen. It also makes note of similarities between the Robomen and the Movellans, from their need for orders to the control helmets that they wore when in their spaceships, going on to suggest that the Movellans were originally a slave race created by the Daleks before going rogue.
