Sontaran Battle Armor

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Daleks are highly xenophobic violent, merciless and pitiless cyborg aliens who hail from the irradiated planet Skaro. They lack any emotion other than hate, and demand total conformity to the will of the Dalek with the highest authority. They are bent on the conquest of the universe and the extermination of any other forms of life, including other 'impure' Daleks which are deemed inferior for being different to them. The Daleks are a militant race, with little in the way of culture. They wish only to destroy any other beings they come across, and see hatred as beautiful. The Daleks are cyborgs, with the creature inside of the casing greatly resembling a one-eyed, gelatinous squid-like creature. The Dalek armour is virtually indestructible. The Dalek casing uses a plunger-like manipulator arm, though the arm has been replaced by other appendages, such as a claw-like design and a blowtorch, throughout the series. In-universe, the arm uses an intense vacuum of focused energy to manipulate objects, and Daleks are capable of crushing a human's skull with it. They also have a whisk-like gunstick weapon which can fire lasers at their enemies. The Daleks first appeared in the 1963 serial The Daleks, where they are depicted as the inhabitants of a city on the planet Skaro. In the past, they had engaged in a nuclear war with the Thals, the other native species of Skaro, which forced the Daleks into their city, which they are unable to leave due to a dependency on static electricity. The First Doctor's companion and granddaughter Susan Foreman attempts to negotiate peace between them and the Thals, but the Daleks seek to kill the Thals. The Doctor stages an uprising, with the Thals seemingly killing the Daleks as their static electricity power supply is knocked out.

In Their Own Story

The Daleks re-appeared in the 1964 serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth, where the Daleks invaded Earth following the planet's devastation in the far future from a meteor storm and plague. They attempted to drill to the planet's core and pilot the Earth through space, but were stopped by the Doctor. After a brief cameo in 1965's The Space Museum, they again re-appeared in 1965's The Chase, where the Daleks have developed time travel technology and attempt to kill the Doctor, but are defeated once again. 1965-1966's The Daleks' Master Plan depicted them attempting to use a device to destroy time. The Doctor and his allies are able to thwart the Daleks' plans, but at the cost of the death of the Doctor's companions Katarina and Sara Kingdom. The Daleks later re-appeared in the 1966 serial The Power of the Daleks, where they infiltrated a human colony on the planet Vulcan, pretending to be servant robots. The newly regenerated Second Doctor was able to halt their plans and destroy them, saving the colony. The Daleks later appeared in the 1967 serial The Evil of the Daleks, which depicted the Daleks attempting to create a 'perfect' Dalek by utilising a 'human factor' to determine what has caused them to fail thus far, which would allow them to create a 'Dalek factor' to counteract it. The Doctor was able to implant some of the Daleks with the human factor, causing an all-out civil war.

Reader's Guide

1972 serial Day of the Daleks depicted a group of Daleks who conquered Earth in the future using time travel to ensure their success in the past, but they are defeated by the Third Doctor. The Third Doctor subsequently encounters them in the 1973 serial Frontier in Space, where they are revealed to secretly be behind the story's events. The Doctor pursues them, leading to the events of the 1973 serial Planet of the Daleks, where he allies with the Thals to destroy a Dalek army kept frozen on the planet Spiridon. The 1974 serial Death to the Daleks depicted their power systems as being drained due to the effects of the Exxilon city on the planet Exxilon, leading to them using low tech weapons in order to accomplish their goal of obtaining a highly plentiful deposit of a rare mineral found on the planet. The Daleks are destroyed at the serial's culmination. The Daleks re-appeared in the 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks, which depicts the Fourth Doctor going back in time to destroy the Daleks at their creation per the request of his people, the Time Lords, who seek to have the Daleks destroyed before they grow too powerful to stop. During the war between the Thals and a race known as the Kaleds, the Kaled scientist Davros wishes to create 'travel machines' in order to ensure the survival of his species. These travel machines, and the creatures that would inhabit them, would later become the Daleks, with Davros genetically engineering the creatures inhabiting the machines to be hateful beings. The Doctor is able to delay the Daleks' evolution by ensuring they are trapped in a bunker, with Davros being presumed killed.

Did You Know?

• The Daleks were created by Terry Nation, who, between jobs, wrote their debut serial.
• Drawing on the cultural memory of the Nazi Party in Britain, Nation based the Daleks on them.
• The Daleks' debut serial only ran because Doctor Who, initially an educational show, lacked any other options for production.
• The Daleks' usage of the phrase 'Exterminate' has become well-known even to those otherwise unfamiliar with the series.
• The Daleks are cyborgs, with the creature inside of the casing greatly resembling a one-eyed, gelatinous squid-like creature.