Biomechanoid control system

A biomechanoid control system was used by the Renegade Daleks in their civil war against the Imperial Daleks. It was constructed to slave the ingenuity and creativity of a small child to their battle computer – circumventing any predictable strategies derived from pure logic. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Coloured predominantly black, the control system appeared as a chair in which the child would be seated, resembling a Dalek's base unit with silver sense globes much like the contemporary Supreme Dalek. Whilst seated, the child would wear a helmet resembling a Dalek dome with an eyepiece.

During the Shoreditch Incident in November 1963, the Renegade Daleks utilised a human-interfaced battle computer. It required a creative intelligence; a young child was selected and conditioned to obey the Daleks and they utilised the child's imagination to bolster the battle computer's strategies. The child was also bolstered with the ability to defend herself, being able to fire deadly bolts of electricity from her hands. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) The Supreme Dalek set the computer to self-destruct when the Imperial Daleks wiped out the rest of the Renegades. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

• The voice of the Dalek Battle Computer was supplied by John Leeson, best known as the voice of K9.
• James Johnson's "headcanon" for his Time War-era Dalek Commander, which was featured on the cover of Gallifrey: War Room 1: Allegiance, stated that they were successors to the earlier Battle Computers, discarding the need for non-Dalek life-forms to be utilised for their instinct and intuition. This connection is reflected in the black and silver livery of the Dalek Commander.