Absence of the Daleks (unproduced TV story)

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Absence of the Daleks was the draft for Dalek before the use of the Daleks had been secured.

Devised by head writer Russell T Davies, a species of then unnamed metal "killer spheres" would have appeared in the Daleks' stead. These spheres would have been the Time Lords' opponents in the Last Great Time War and, though the Ninth Doctor was as yet unaware, Davies' plan was that, in a later story, the spheres would have been revealed to be the "far-distant future evolution of the human race".

As in the finished episode, in which the Doctor confronted the Dalek named "Metaltron", the Doctor would have found a single surviving sphere after believing that they had all been wiped out along with the Time Lords bar himself. Davies suggested to episode writer Robert Shearman that he make the sphere mute, but Shearman found it far too hard to sustain an entire story without it talking so he resorted to writing them like an "evil giggly child".

By the Doctor's recollection, the spheres had rolled back through time from a billion years in the future before attacking every sentient species they could find for reasons he did not know, with the Dalek and Nestene civilisations being decimated, thus setting in motion the events of Rose for the latter, whilst countless others were completely wiped out. Ultimately, the war was ended when the Time Lords trapped the spheres on Gallifrey, then referred to the Doctor merely as "our planet", before they sacrificed themselves to wipe hem out in an act of mutually assured destruction.

The spheres were later realised in the two-part finale of Series 3, The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords, where they were named as Toclafane.

Absence of the Daleks was covered in The Dalek Handbook, which presented excerpts of the script.