The Daleks

The Daleks are a fictional alien species from the British TV series *Doctor Who*. First seen in the 1963 serial *The Daleks*, they are a warlike, xenophobic race whose goal is to wipe out every life form that is not a Dalek. They are the primary enemies of the Doctor, the show’s main character. Terry Nation created the Daleks while he was between jobs, writing their first story. He took inspiration from the memory of the Nazi Party in Britain and wanted a design that looked completely inhuman. Raymond Cusick handled the actual design. *Doctor Who* was originally meant to be educational, and Nation’s serial was only used because no other options were available for production. The Daleks turned out to be a huge hit with audiences, greatly increasing the show’s ratings and starting a period called Dalekmania, when the Daleks and their battle armor became very popular with the British public. After that, the Daleks became major recurring villains, returning in many different ways over the show’s more than 60-year run. The Daleks are the most famous and popular villains in the series, and their returns to television have often drawn media attention. They are considered an icon of British popular culture, and their catchphrase “Exterminate” is widely known even by people who do not watch the show. Critics have also analyzed the Daleks’ use of Nazi allegories and their relationship and dynamic with the Doctor. **History and appearances**

**Overview**

*Doctor Who* is a long-running British science-fiction TV series that started in 1963. It follows the Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in a ship called the TARDIS, often with companions. When the Doctor dies, they can “regenerate,” changing their appearance and personality completely. On their travels, the Doctor frequently fights various alien species and enemies. Among these, the Daleks are often called the Doctor’s archenemies and greatest foes. Daleks are cyborg aliens from the irradiated planet Skaro. They are violent, merciless, and pitiless, feeling no emotion except hate. They demand total obedience to the highest-ranking Dalek. Their goal is to conquer the universe and exterminate all other life, including any “impure” Daleks they consider inferior for being different. They have little culture and are purely militant, seeing hatred as beautiful. Inside their armor, the creature looks like a one-eyed, gelatinous squid. The armor itself is nearly indestructible. The Dalek casing has a plunger-like manipulator arm, though it has sometimes been replaced with a claw or blowtorch. In the story, the arm uses an intense vacuum of focused energy to handle objects and can crush a human skull. They also have a whisk-like gunstick that fires lasers. **Classic Era**

The Daleks first appeared in the 1963 serial *The Daleks*, living in a city on Skaro. In the past, they fought a nuclear war with the Thals, Skaro’s other native species, which forced the Daleks into their city. They cannot leave because they depend on static electricity. The First Doctor’s granddaughter, Susan Foreman, tries to make peace between them and the Thals, but the Daleks want to kill the Thals. The Doctor leads a revolt, and the Thals seem to kill the Daleks when their static electricity supply is cut off. The Daleks returned in the 1964 serial *The Dalek Invasion of Earth*. They invaded Earth after a meteor storm and plague devastated the planet in the far future. They tried to drill to Earth’s core and pilot the planet through space, but the Doctor stopped them. After a brief cameo in 1965’s *The Space Museum*, they reappeared in 1965’s *The Chase*, where they had developed time travel and tried to kill the Doctor, but were defeated again. In 1965–1966’s *The Daleks’ Master Plan*, they tried to use a device to destroy time. The Doctor and his allies stopped them, but the Doctor’s companions Katarina and Sara Kingdom died. The Daleks next appeared in the 1966 serial *The Power of the Daleks*, infiltrating a human colony on the planet Vulcan by pretending to be servant robots. The newly regenerated Second Doctor stopped their plans and destroyed them, saving the colony. In the 1967 serial *The Evil of the Daleks*, the Daleks tried to create a “perfect” Dalek by using a “human factor” to understand why they had failed, then planned to create a “Dalek factor” to counter it. The Doctor infected some Daleks with the human factor, sparking a civil war. The 1972 serial *Day of the Daleks* showed a group of Daleks who had conquered Earth in the future and used time travel to ensure their past success, but the Third Doctor defeated them. The Third Doctor met them again in the 1973 serial *Frontier in Space*, where they were secretly behind the story’s events.