Daleks
The Daleks are an alien race that feature in Doctor Who.
Contents |
History
Origin
The Daleks were a race of extraterrestrial beings native to Skaro that was the twelfth inhabited planet in its solar system. (Episode: The Daleks)
Around five hundred years ago, it was said that the planet was inhabited by two sentient races. The early forebears of the Daleks were said to had been a race of teachers and philosophers. (Episode: The Daleks)
Following the neutronic war, the forefathers of the Daleks retreated into their city and were protected by their machines with them believing that the majority of the Thals had perished in the conflict. (Episode: The Daleks)
During the initial wave of exploration, the Daleks bred and launched special Reconnaissance Scouts to find new worlds to conquer with them being launched from Skaro. (Episode: Resolution) At one point, thousands of Progenitor devices were created by the Dalek Empire that eventually all were lost except one. (Episode: Victory of the Daleks)
The war between the Daleks and the Movellans continued where the two sides were at an impasse as any attempted stratagem was countered by their opponent's battle computers. Thus, the two logical based war machines were trapped in a stalemate as they were unable to out-think the other. However, the Movellan's managed to find a solution by developing a virus that exclusively targeted the Daleks. The result was the destruction of their fleets and the few Dalek survivors went to separate parts of the universe in order to escape the risk of infection. During this time, they sought to find a cure for the virus but their attempts had failed leading to them seeking to revive their creator Davros so that he could re-engineer them to be immune to the disease. (Episode: Resurrection of the Daleks)
As a result, a civil war over racial purity erupted among the Daleks with two factions forming with one being the Imperial Daleks serving Davros and the other being the Renegade Daleks. During this time, Davros sought ultimate power for the Daleks by mastering time travel technology to make them on par with the Time Lords. To achieve this, he sought out to find the Hand of Omega in order to harness the power of a star as a power source for time travel. (Episode: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Time War
Thus, a war erupted between the Dalek and the Time Lords with the whole of creation said to had been at stake. (Episode: The Parting of the Ways) By the end of the War, the Cult of Skaro escaped destruction by hiding within a Void Ship and departing into the Void to survive the destruction of their race. (Episode: Doomsday) It was believed that both the Time Lords and the Daleks had perished in the conflict. In reality, the ship of the Dalek Emperor had survived where it had fallen through time and was crippled but its crew were alive in the year 199,909. Once there, they waited in the dark space as they were damaged with the rebuilding taking centuries as they began to secretly infiltrate the systems to Earth in order to harvest the wastes of mankind to become a new race of Daleks. (Episode: The Parting of the Ways)
New Paradigm
In World War II, a trio of Daleks that survived the Time War found their way to Earth and discovered a Progenitor. However, they were unable to activate the machine as it deemed them impure. Thus, they orchestrated an elaborate plan where they pretended the were the creation of a British scientist to fight against Nazi Germany. This was in order to draw the Doctor to them and have him acknowledge them as Daleks. With his words, they were able to reactivate the Progenitor that restored the Dalek race by creating the New Dalek Paradigm. (Episode: Victory of the Daleks)
Overview
Physiology
They were genetically hardwired to survive and live though they did grow old. (Episode: The Magician's Apprentice) An aspect of their genetics that determined the traits of their species was referred to as the Dalek Factor that programmed them to obey, to fight, to destroy and to exterminate. (Episode: The Evil of the Daleks) Radiation was a source of energy for the Daleks that they needed to survive. (Episode: The Daleks)
Information was transmitted among Daleks through the use of an artificial telepathic network that was known as the Pathweb. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks)
One special breed of Dalek were the Reconnaissance Scouts who were the first ones launched from the planet Skaro and sent to find new worlds to conquer. These versions of the species were designed with enhanced abilities in order to operate independently. Such traits included being able to survive by themselves outside their casings for long periods of time. If their casing was destroyed, they could latch onto a living creature and use their tentacles to hijack their nervous system effectively becoming their pilot. From there, it could engage in its mission using the creature as a host and prisoner. The could also direct a remote attack against attempts by navigation systems at tracking them in order to prevent themselves from being tracked. These Daleks also had remarkable regenerative abilities allowing for scattered portions of their body to reform when exposed to UV light thus restoring them back to life. (Episode: Resolution)
Casing
Their casings were based originally on the Mark III travel machines. (Episode: Genesis of the Daleks) The eye-stalk was noted for being flexible and operated as a large camera lens allowing them to survey everything around them. (Episode: The Daleks)
At one point, the casings were externally powered through he use of static electricity that as transmitted through the metal floors of their cities. Thus, a Dalek that was separated from this energy grid by moving onto a floor with non-conductive material had their casings shut down tough this did not kill the mutant inside. (Episode: The Escape) By the Time War, they evolved the ability to soak up background radiation from time travel that was used as a power supply. (Episode Doomsday)
The spherical globes on the casing ejected out and encased the Dalek during a self-destruct sequence. (Episode: Dalek)
Society
Unlike the Cybermen, the Daleks used their emotions with hatred being used to reload their weapons. (Episode: The Magician's Apprentice) Hatred to them were considered a concept of beauty and it was believed that a person became a Dalek by subtracting love whilst adding anger. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks) To them, there was only one form of life that mattered and that was Dalek life. (Episode: The Evil of the Daleks) It was noted that the Daleks were highly suspicious of others. (Episode: The Daleks) They were said to believe greatly in the concept of racial purity and did not tolerate deviations in their species with those exhibiting such traits being exterminated. (Episode: Remembrance of the Daleks)
A leadership body within their society was the Parliament of the Daleks that was based on a mobile spacecraft with the Prime Minister heading it with this being a Dalek mutant outside of its casing. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks) The head of their civilization was a member of their kind that took the position of Dalek Emperor. (Episode: The Evil of the Daleks) Within their empire was a secret order known as the Cult of Skaro that were above and beyond the Emperor himself. Their mission was to imagine and think the way the enemy thought all as part of finding new ways of killing with its members even dared to have names. (Episode: Doomsday)
Old Daleks were placed within their version of sewers and degraded into a liquid that coated the tunnels. They were not dead but instead left in a constantly in a state of pain. As such, the Daleks had the same word for sewer as they had for graveyards. (Episode: The Magician's Apprentice)
It was known that they maintained a special planetoid as the Dalek Asylum that was legendary for being a world where the Daleks those members of their kind that went wrong. These included the battle-scarred, the insane and ones they could not control with an Intensive Care section containing survivors of encounters with the Doctor. The Asylum encompassed the entire planet down to its core containing millions of captive Dalek that were kept there and not killed as it was considered offensive to extinguish such divine hatred. There were not supervisors with the prison being entirely automated with the planetoid being protected by an impenetrable shield. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks)
In the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld, the Time Lord known as the Doctor was referred to as the Oncoming Storm. (Episode: The Parting of the Ways) He was also referred to by their kind as the Predator. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks)
Technology
The Dalek race were noted for being a brilliant people that made the art of science and technology their profession. (Episode: The Daleks) They made use of a special form of metal that they called Dalekanium. (Episode: Evolution of the Daleks)
To bolster their forces, Daleks were known to capture organic beings and operate on prisoners who were turned into Robomen that were armed with various hand-held weapons to help reinforce positions. (Episode: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) One type of construct used by their kind were Dalek puppets which were beings converted into spies and infiltrators or even to serve as security. This was achieved through processing organic matter by means of nanotechnology. Those humans infected were emptied out and turned into a puppet whereupon their memories were only reactivated if it was required to facilitate their cover or disguise. Thus, externally, they appeared ordinary members of their respective species but when activated they sprouted a Dalek eye stock from their forehead and their hands could manifest a gunstick whereupon they looked to complete their assigned mission. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks) They made use of battle computers that consisted of biomechanoid control systems that often took the form of small children. Children circumvented the Dalek's major drawback which was their dependency on rationality and logic as their young imaginative minds gave them ingenuity along with creativity that could be slaved to direct battlefield operations. (Episode: Remembrance of the Daleks)
Dalek science was able turn other organic species into more of their kind by filtering and sifting through their bodies. The seed of a species could be perverted to achieve this purpose but it was deemed that only a single cell among a billion were fit to be nurtured. (Episode: The Parting of the Ways) One device used for propagation were machines known as the Progenitor that were responsible for creating new members of their kind. The devices contained pure Dalek DNA and if properly used as well as fueled could produce fully grown Dalek mutants along with casings for them. (Episode: Victory of the Daleks) Another creation of theirs were nanoclouds that were microorganisms that automatically processed any organic matter whether it was living or dead and turning it into Dalek puppets. The nanogenes were robots the size of molecules and those without any form of protection had their bodies rewritten by the Daleks. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks)
Gravity beams were used to deploy individuals from orbiting ships to a planetary surface. (Episode: Asylum of the Daleks)
Daleks made use of transmats that used a form of matter transmission to link two different locations for ease of transportation. (Episode: Remembrance of the Daleks) One aspect of their ability to travel was the Dimension Vault that had the ability to transport people from one world to another. (Episode: The Next Doctor) One of their earlier uses of time travel technology was the use of Time Corridors that linked two points in time together. (Episode: Resurrection of the Daleks) Some aspect of this involved a small spherical device known as a time controller. However, this technology was noted for being crude with the Daleks seeking more advanced time travel capabilities. (Episode: Remembrance of the Daleks)
They made use of motherships that were noted to contain weapons capable of cracking open this planet like an egg and eradicating worlds from space. It was capable of holding 400 Daleks with these vessels possessing sophisticated surveillance equipment allowing them to detect small birds over a fifteen thousand kilometre radius. (Episode: Remembrance of the Daleks)
The Daleks had the means of creating Void Ships that were highly advanced spherical spacecraft able to traverse the Void which was the emptiness between parallel universes and dimensions. (Episode: Doomsday)
Their greatest weapon was the Reality Bomb that operated by cancelling out the electrical field around every atom causing structure to fall apart thus dissolving every form of matter. With a massive enough transmitter, the effect could be amplified through a time rift to effect every dimension and every parallel universe in order to destroy entirety of reality itself except for those shielded at the epicentre. (Episode: Journey's End)
Members
- Dalek Caan :
- Dalek Sec :
Notes
- The Daleks were conceived by science-fiction writer Terry Nation and first appeared in the 1963 Doctor Who serial The Daleks, with their shell casings designed by Raymond Cusick.
In other media
Video games
- In the Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, the Daleks featured in the story of City of the Daleks video game.
Appearances
- Doctor Who:
External Links
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