Dalek of human origin
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"Daleks of human origin" was a broad term that encompassed a range of different creatures related to the Daleks.
Nature[[edit] | [edit source]]
The ancestral Kaleds were indistinguishable from humans, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) yet the possibility of rapid mutation into the creatures occupying Dalek casings was inherent to their biology. (AUDIO: Innocence) It is therefore not entirely surprising that humans on occasion displayed the potential to mutate into creatures indistinguishable from mutant Kaleds. The species converted into Daleks were left as simple nervous system tissue and mutilated flesh, and were conditioned with Dalek programming - which they could seldom overcome - usually through intense emotion. They experienced mental illness due to the trauma of the conversion or their state of being as a Dalek, which only made them more dangerous. This could cause true insanity, which was only controlled by Dalek programming.
However, the Daleks created from human genetic material by the Dalek Emperor had the xenophobic psychosis characteristic of Daleks who felt they had become "contaminated" by other races. The Ninth Doctor surmised that their inability to accept their fundamentally non-Dalek nature had driven them insane, thus accounting for their religious zealotry (something not seen in other Daleks). (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
Most other Daleks of human origin did not display this level of psychosis.
The "original" Daleks considered the Daleks of human origin not to be "true" Daleks or thought of them as "contaminated". The first encounter between Daleks and human origin Daleks (possibly chronologically, not including time travelled events) was on the planet Necros.
The original plan was to recondition Davros' new Daleks to obey the will of the Supreme Dalek. It is possible, though, that the Daleks did not know of the new Daleks being created from humans. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)
History[[edit] | [edit source]]
Pre-Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
A disturbing account discovered by the Doctor related the story of how Halldon scientists transplanted primitive humans to the planet Ameron and artificially accelerated their evolution. Creatures that Bryant Anderson believed to be the Daleks were the result of the experiment. (PROSE: We are the Daleks!)
While in hiding from the Daleks on Necros, Davros created the first of what would later become known as the Imperial Daleks using the cryogenically frozen bodies of humans interred at Tranquil Repose. This process appeared to involve decapitating the subject and placing the surgically-modified head in a special Dalek casing. Mental conditioning was also obviously involved. All of the formerly-human Imperial Daleks were destroyed, either by the Dalek taskforce sent to extract Davros, or by the bomb detonated by the mercenary Orcini shortly after his departure. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) Davros created Daleks out of mutated humans for his later invasion of Earth. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)
"Mutant Dalek" was the name given by Daleks on board the Dalek Supreme's command ship, to those Daleks that were created by Professor Martez on the planet Red Rocket Rising to make the humans more like the Daleks. They were seen as "impure" by the other Daleks, who tried deflecting an asteroid to hit Red Rocket Rising, destroy Martez' Daleks. While causing massive damage, they miscalculated, and later arrived on Red Rocket Rising to finish the job, when the hybrids survived. The Dalek Supreme and the Daleks prepared to use their own ship to destroy the base with its engines. The ship lost control by an explosion stopping its engines and crashed off-course. The Mutant base was still intact. Dalek Supreme decided to attack the hybrids head on.
These Daleks believed they were superior to the command ship's Daleks and soon took their stand. A full-scale Dalek battle was about to begin, with both Dalek groups determined to completely wipe out the other, with the humans appearing to fight alongside the ship Daleks to stop the other faction which outnumbered them. After some Martez killed, preventing any more of her Daleks from being produced. The Eighth Doctor, Lucie Miller and Tom Cardwell helped defeated both Dalek groups as they wiped each other out. (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks)
Daleks trapped in a time loop of their own creation, needing a pilot with an understanding of temporal theory, injected Mariah Learman with mutagenic drugs and exposed her to high levels of radiation before using a time corridor to massively accelerate the process of her mutation. The resulting creature was inserted into a Dalek casing where it served (briefly) as the required pilot, although this only compounded the loop rather than allowing them to escape. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks)
Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
During the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords reflected on the Necros Incident. They were grateful for the Sixth Doctor and his allies destroying the work of Davros on Tranquil Repose, observing that the ability for Daleks to reproduce from any genetic stock at that point would have given them an unparalleled resource virtually impossible to counter. Despite this, the Time Lords, from their projection of the Bad Wolf Incident, anticipated that the Daleks would ultimately master the ability at some point during the Time War. However, from the projection of the Asylum Incident, the Time Lords understood that not all Dalek conversions were successful and that finding even one Dalek drone that was not totally subservient to Dalek control would provide a massive tactical advantage. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Indeed, in the later stages of the war, the Daleks gathered up humans and placed them in Glass Dalek casings which acted as incubators while the human inside was mutated into a Dalek, after which they would be placed into a standard Dalek casing. These Daleks were viewed as expendable and as cannon fodder due to their "impure" origins. The War Doctor and Cinder found five of these casings in a Dalek laboratory in one of their saucers at a temporary Dalek base in the city of Andor on Moldox. Cinder tore up the cables, allowing the people inside the casings to die in peace. (PROSE: Engines of War)
Post-Time War[[edit] | [edit source]]
After the Alaska crashed into the Dalek Asylum, the imprisoned Daleks fully converted the ship's Junior Entertainment Manager Oswin Oswald into a Dalek, recognising that her intelligence could be useful to them. Oswin apparently retained her human emotions and personality, and, horrified at what had happened to her, placed her mind in a dream world where she believed she was still human and was safely holed up in the Alaska. A year later, Oswin lowered the Asylum's forcefield, allowing the Parliament of the Daleks to destroy it, stubbornly stating "I am Oswin Oswald, I fought the Daleks and I AM human". (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
In desperate times, when their numbers needed to be significantly bolstered, groups of Daleks attempted to mass-convert humans into Daleks. (COMIC: *Sub Zero, AUDIO: Dalek Empire III, PROSE: Engines of War, TV: The Parting of the Ways) In the first two cases, this involved the direct transformation of living humans - bodies first, then their minds.
In the third case, following the Last Great Time War, the Dalek Emperor rebuilt the Dalek race out of harvested human DNA. This took centuries to achieve as so few human cells met the required genetic criteria. However, a force of half a million Dalek drones was eventually created. This army was obliterated by the Bad Wolf entity as it attacked Earth in 200,100. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
When Jack Robertson and Rugazzi Technologies created a series of unmanned security drones based off the design of the Reconnaissance Dalek's casing, the Reconnaissance unit was reborn, albeit now with impure DNA to fill in the genetic gaps, by Leo Rugazzi. The restored Dalek made an army of Daleks using human DNA and launched this so-called "New Dalek Army" on (TV: Revolution of the Daleks) the first of January, 2021. (WC: The Defence Drones) To counter this threat, the Thirteenth Doctor called a Dalek Death Squad who would attempt to "enforce" the purity of the Daleks by exterminating their new cousins. Indeed, the two factions entered a civil war over racial purity, ending with the destruction of the Recon Scout and its army. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Discontinuity Guide speculates that, whilst under interrogation during his incursion on Skaro, the Fourth Doctor had told Davros about the Human Factor Incident, which later influenced the Dalek creator as he converted humans into Daleks on Necros, Davros' conclusion being that, by possessing some of the Human Factor, the Daleks will not be slaves to logic and thus not be drawn into an impasse as they had with the Movellans.[1]
