Dalek Wars

The "Dalek Wars" were the series of conflicts that involved forces of the universe, primarily humans, battling the Daleks, a species that sought to conquer the universe by exterminating all other forms of life.

The Eleventh Doctor observed that the Daleks were engaged in their war against the rest of the universe, against all life forms that were not Dalek. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Thal-Dalek War
The first war to involve the Daleks was the Thousand Year War fought on Skaro. Davros unleashed the newly-created Daleks into the Thal Dome at the wars' end. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) Over the centuries, the Thals and the Daleks remained largely isolated from each other until one Thal tribe ventured into the petrified jungle, near the Dalek City, in search of food. The Daleks attempted to wipe the Thals out by bombarding Skaro's surface with radiation, on which the Daleks had become dependent. However, with the help of the First Doctor and his companions, the Thals raided the Dalek City and severed their power supply. (TV: The Daleks)

Fifty cycles later, surviving Daleks attacked the new Thal City but, once again with the First Doctor's assistance, the Thals drove them back. The Dalek City was largely devastated, although the Thals resolved to remain alert to any other potential Dalek settlements elsewhere on Skaro. (AUDIO: Return to Skaro)

The Thals later remembered this period as "the Dalek war", which Vaber recalled took place generations prior to 2540. (TV: Planet of the Daleks) It was also known to them as the "First Dalek War". (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks) The Thals' wars against the Daleks continued for many centuries after this period. (PROSE: War of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks)

First Dalek War
The first full-scale conflict between the Daleks and humanity was the Dalek invasion of Earth during the 22nd century, also known to the latter as the First Dalek War. (PROSE: Prelude Deceit) The war resulted from various Dalek encounters with human culture as the fledgling Dalek Empire expanded. The Dalek Emperor declared human characteristics a dangerous incompatibility with the Dalek way of life and began mobilising the Empire for "all-out war on all human beings... everywhere." (COMIC: Shadow of Humanity, The Emissaries of Jevo)

After the emergency landing of the Earth ship, the Starmaker, on Skaro, the Daleks discovered the coordinates of Earth. (COMIC: The Road to Conflict) Although the Dalek Fleet was initially repelled after first venturing into the solar system in the 2060s Dalek "invasion", (COMIC: Return of the Elders) the Daleks returned after bombarding the Earth with meteorites and began a ten-year occupation of the planet and others in the star system in 2157. Seeking to transform the planet into a massive spaceship, the whole invasion fleet was blown apart in the explosion which resulted from their bomb being jammed in place below their base. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

The Daleks remained bitter about the failed conquest of the Earth, and even identified the Doctor as an enemy responsible for their defeat. (TV: The Chase) In the 2180s, the Dalek Time Controller led a second invasion, but it was ultimately halted by the interference of the Eighth Doctor. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller, To the Death) Another invasion was to be launched in 2223 but was postponed after a Supreme's attempt to establish a forward base in London met resistance from. (AUDIO: Vengeance)

Human historians from the post-Time War universe understood that the Dalek Wars came about from the Daleks' repeated efforts to exterminate humanity, who had earned their long-standing enmity after the failure of the 22nd century invasion. They suggested that temporal incursions such as the Time Paradox Incident were motivated by the Daleks' belief that by invading Earth during weak or tumultuous points in its timeline, they could disrupt its future. If they instigated catastrophic change, it would stunt the expansion of humanity and exterminate the human threat forever. With Earth's future history rewritten, the Daleks could avert their protracted war with the human colonies of the First Great and Bountiful Human Empire, essentially allowing the Daleks to win before the conflict ever began. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

Second Dalek War
In 2520, the brief but destructive Human-Draconian War broke out as the Earth Empire and Draconian Empire. (TV: Frontier in Space) Although it did not involve the Daleks, it was used as the launch pad for their next invasion (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests) and it formed part of the numerous wars of the period. (PROSE: The Chase)

In 2540, with the aid of the Master and the Ogrons, the Daleks attempted to drive the two empires into another war, planning to invade in the aftermath. The Third Doctor exposed the deception and the humans and Draconians united to face a common enemy. (TV: Frontier in Space) With Time Lord intervention, the Doctor was diverted to Spiridon to delay the awakening of the Dalek Army with the aid of the Thals. However, the Dalek Supreme considered the setback a delay, not a defeat. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)

Eventually, the Second Dalek War began, with Earth and Draconia uniting to face the Daleks. (PROSE: Love and War) After the First Dalek Incursion, which destroyed many planets, the the war lasted around another forty years. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) During the period, refugees fleeing the Dalek Wars were resettled on planets such as Axista Four, although one stated date indicated this took place in 2539, one year before the Second Dalek War began, unless different dating systems were used. (PROSE: The Colony of Lies)

Towards its end, the Daleks sought to exploit the Arkheon Threshold to change human history. The Tenth Doctor and a team of bounty hunters led by Jon Bowman destroyed the flagship of Dalek X, the Dalek Inquisitor General, and Earth forces attacked the Dalek base on Arkheon, after which the Doctor closed the rift. The Supreme Dalek's war machine was thrown into chaos, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) leading to the "untidy" end of the war as it subsequently "fizzled out". (PROSE: Deceit)

Third Dalek War
The Second Dalek War was followed by "another Dalek War". (PROSE: Deceit) The Third Dalek War broke out in the same period as its predecessor and the Human-Draconian war. It supposedly occurred prior to Steven Taylor's native time period, although this was in itself an inconsistent marker. (PROSE: The Chase)

During the war, the Lucifer star system was of paramount strategic importance but it was denied to both sides by a black hole-generated exclusion zone. (PROSE: Lucifer Rising) the Daleks launched plague missiles at the Outer Worlds of the Earth Empire, sparking a devastating outbreak of space plague. In response, Earth forces travelled to Exxilon to acquire the only known cure, parrinium. The Daleks followed them to prevent this, leading to the Exxilon Gambit. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters)

On Exxilon, the Marine Space Corps and the Daleks were stranded by the Great City of the Exxilons and agreed on a temporary truce. After the city was brought down, the Daleks left the planet with the mineral. However, their supplies had been replaced by bags of sand and the ship was blow up by Dan Galloway, who stowed away on board. The human survivors returned the parrinium to the Outer Worlds, saving millions of lives. The father of Peter Hamilton, one of the Marines on the mission, had been a casualty of "the last Dalek war." (TV: Death to the Daleks)

The Exxilon Gambit marked the last act of the Third Dalek War. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters) The high casualty rate among the Earth Empire, compounded with those suffered in the previous Dalek Wars of the period, put a stop to Earth's expansionist era. (PROSE: The Chase)

Great War
During the 36th century, the Daleks disappeared from human space and pursued conflicts elsewhere, in the Outer Galaxies. (TV: Mission to the Unknown) In the 40th century, they returned and attacked some human targets (AUDIO: The Destroyers) but these incursions remained top secret. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan, AUDIO: The Guardian of the Solar System) The Space Security Service became involved in other conflicts, with species like the Sontarans. (AUDIO: The Sontarans) A non-aggression pact was signed in 3975, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) but in 3984, the Seventh Doctor told Bernice Summerfield that a "massive Dalek war" was to start in "about thirty years time". (PROSE: Legacy)

In 3999, Mavic Chen, the Guardian of the Solar System, secretly struck a deal with the Daleks in a bid to defend Earth's influence. (AUDIO: The Guardian of the Solar System) In 4000, the Daleks amassed the Great Alliance, planning a huge assault on the solar system using a time-manipulating doomsday weapon, the Time Destructor. Chen sought to usurp the weapon for himself and turn on the Daleks, but he became power-mad and was eventually killed by the Daleks. The First Doctor was able to steal the Time Destructor and turned it against the Daleks, wiping out the invasion force on Kembel. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) The Tenth Doctor dated the saying "never turn your back on a dead Dalek" to "about 4000". (PROSE: I Am a Dalek)

When the plans were discovered by Earth forces, (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) the Great War began against the Daleks. Humanity, the Thals, the Draconians and the Terran Federation all became involved in the millennium-long conflict. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) Fighting broke out around the 4010s. The war resulted in the Galactic Federation being torn apart and forced to re-evaluate itself in the aftermath. As the planet Peladon was an ex-member of the Federation, they avoided Dalek attack. (PROSE: Legacy) The SSS fought in the war in the 41st century. At one point it’s council gained of intelligence of a coming Dalek attack but chose to do nothing to safeguard the source. (AUDIO: The House of Kingdom)

Whilst under interrogation by Davros during the Genesis Incident, the Fourth Doctor claimed that a Dalek invasion of Venus in Space Year 17,000 was halted by the intervention of a fleet of war rockets from the planet Hyperon. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) ending their war against the Venusian Colonies. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks) One historical record stated that this was part of the 4000 conflict, which also came to involve the Combined Galactic Resistance. (PROSE: The Whoniverse)

Eventually, facing total defeat, (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) the Dalek Emperor devised a plan to infect humanity with the Dalek factor, turning them mentally into obedient Daleks. The Second Doctor was blackmailed into aiding the Daleks with the operation. By pretending to cooperate, he was able to infect many of the Daleks on Skaro with the human factor, igniting the Dalek Civil War which nearly destroyed the Daleks forever. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) Yet the Emperor's forces survived and were able to begin rebuilding. (COMIC: Bringer of Darkness, AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro, PROSE: Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks)

According to one account, the failure of the 4000 invasion attempt led the Dalek Supreme, who escaped Kembel in a critical condition, to return to Skaro and order that Dalek forces retreat from "the human galaxy", preparing a new strategy as the Daleks expanded their empire across the Outer Galaxies. The Dalek Wars ended, for a time, though further conflicts awaited in the Dalek-Movellan War, the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War and the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

Established after the Time War, the New Dalek Paradigm engaged in another war against humans during the 40th century, battling the SSS. It raged for a hundred years, into the 41st century, (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek) overlapping with the original start of the Great War. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan, PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)

In an alternate timeline in which the Doctor never interfered with the Kembel operations, the Daleks developed the Time Destructor and embarked an uncontested series of conquests. The campaign ended with the attack on Urbinia, after which the timeline was averted by the Second Doctor. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods)

Second Great Dalek Occupation
From their powerbase in the Seriphia Galaxy, the Daleks invaded Mutter’s Spiral, defended by the Earth Alliance, beginning on Vega VI. They employed Susan Mendes as “the Angel of Mercy” to increase slave efficiency. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks) Secretly she worked with her companion, the Knight of Velyshaa Kalendorf, to sow the seeds of rebellion. He telepathically implanted a trigger in the mind of every slave they met to make them revel together. (AUDIO: The Human Factor)

After over a decade, the Daleks had conquered almost most of the galaxy, including Earth. Suz used a victory broadcast on Yaldos across the entire Dalek Empire to declare the trigger phrase, “Death to the Daleks!”, to begin the slave rebellion. This threw the Empire into chaos. (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”)

Three months later, the Dalek Emperor activated Project Infinity and made contact with Daleks of a parallel universe. These Daleks judged the Daleks as guilty of the worst crimes they’d ever witnessed and declared war on them, allying with the Earth Alliance. (AUDIO: Project Infinity, Dalek War: Chapter One)

Enemy-Alliance Dalek War
For six years the parallel universe Daleks, now known as the ”Alliance Daleks”, and Earth Alliance, commanded by Kalendorf, fought against the “Enemy Daleks”. The Enemy Daleks were now led only by the Dalek Supreme, (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One) as the Emperor had retreated into Suz‘s mind after being captured at Project Infinity. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Three)

After six years, with the Enemy Daleks nearly defeated, Kalendorf decided to betray the Alliance Daleks, having decided they were simply a more outwardly benign dictatorship. He arranged Suz’s recovery from Alliance Dalek custody and had her give a broadcast as the Angel of Mercy to turn the Earth Alliance against the Alliance Daleks. A truce was formed with the Enemy Daleks, and Kalendorf surrendered Suz to the Dalek Supreme so the Daleks could recover their Emperor. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Three)

After years of fighting, the Alliance Daleks finally retreated back to their universe as their leader, the Mentor, predicted the war would eventually lead to the extinction of all life in Mutter’s Spiral. A fragile truce remained between the Earth Alliance and the Daleks. Kalendorf travelled to Dalek-occupied Earth to meet the Emperor, discovering it had remained in Suz’s body, now fully possessing her, and intended to break the truce as he’d suspected. Grabbing the Emperor, Kalendorf used his telepathy to briefly reawaken Suz and trigger a command he‘d implanted in Suz’s mind before surrendering her: “Victory or death”. This sent a signal through the Dalek command net ordering all Dalek technology to self-destruct. This annihilated the Daleks and devastated much of the galaxy, becoming known as the Great Catastrophe. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)

A single Dalek outpost in the Seriphia Galaxy survived the Catastrophe by channelling then cestrucrive impulse into a single drone. This drone also absorbed the minds of the Emperor and Suz, so was declared the new Dalek Supreme. (AUDIO: The Demons) The Daleks rebuilt in Seriphia and returned to Mutter’s Spiral approximately 2,500 years after the Catastrophe, (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four, The Exterminators)

Human perspective of the Last Great Time War
From the perspective of humanity, the Daleks suddenly disappeared from time and space after the Tenth Dalek Occupation, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) during which the Daleks were "the greatest threat in the universe," as recalled by Jack Harkness, a former Time Agent from the 51st century. The Occupation occurred "thousands of years" prior to the Battle of the Game Station in 200,100. As the Ninth Doctor recalled, they had left to fight the Last Great Time War against the Time Lords. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

According to the Gelth ambassador, the Time War was devastating to "higher forms" but invisible to "smaller species". (TV: The Unquiet Dead) Jack Harkness originally believed the Time War was just a legend. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

However, humans could become involved in the War if it entered their time zone and area of the universe. Groups of humans became involved in the Time War after the Daleks occupied the Tantalus Spiral, and invaded the planet Moldox. They were aware the war had lasted, from a linear perspective at least, around 400 years. Towards the war's end, during the Battle for the Tantalus Eye, the War Doctor erased the Dalek occupation through massive time manipulation. The humans involved all lost their memories of the war, although the Doctor claimed these memories would eventually resurface. In honour of one of them, Cinder, the Doctor vowed to end the war. (PROSE: Engines of War)

Other Dalek wars
The Daleks launched an invasion of the solar system (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks) at the beginning of the 25th century. (PROSE: Break-through!) They were beaten, disarmed and confined to Skaro for "two hundred years", until the threat of the Mechanical Planet resulted in their freedom and they began a new invasion in the 27th century. (COMIC: The Mechanical Planet) The two-century peace conflicted with accounts of the Second Dalek War during the 26th century. (TV: Frontier in Space, PROSE: Love and War, Prisoner of the Daleks, et al.) It is possible parts of history were altered through time travel. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests)

The United Planets formed the Anti-Dalek Force to fight in their war against the Daleks. (PROSE: Terror Task Force) Later human historians suggested that the ADF was a legend in the time before the Daleks' re-emergence in the 40th century (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) Other accounts held that the ADF was real and continued operations during the Time War (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore) and following the rise of the New Dalek Paradigm. (PROSE: The New Dalek Paradigm)

Following the Genesis Incident, the Time Lords anticipated that the change to the timeline would mean that "on a thousand worlds the Dalek wars would become a fading memory, then a myth, then nothing. They would never have occurred." (PROSE: A Device of Death)

A war was fought between the post-Time War Daleks and humanity in which the latter led the Combined Galactic Resistance. (TV: Into the Dalek)

The Daleks engaged in a war against the robot Movellans, leading to a stalemate, (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) until the Movellans released the Movellan virus, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks) an act of biological warfare which devastated the Dalek Empire. The resulting factionalism led to the civil war between the Imperial and Renegade factions, (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) although according to the Dalek Prime, the Movellan War was a staged hoax. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) which were engaged in a conflict against humanity travelled back through Earth's history where they conducted the Dalek Project to understand how humans fought. After arriving in the period of the First World War, they were defeated on the Western Front in 1917. The survivors were defeated in 2017. (COMIC: The Dalek Project)

In 2019, the recovered casing of the Reconnaissance Dalek led to the creation of the new Defence Drones by 2021. Through cloning, the deceased Dalek was inadvertently resurrected by Leo Rugazzi and cloned an army of its own that took control of the Defence Dalek shells. In order to stop them, the Thirteenth Doctor summoned Death Squad Daleks to Earth, leading to a small-scale civil war between the two Dalek factions. The Death Squad Daleks destroyed the Defence Drone Daleks only to have their Dalek saucer blown up by Captain Jack Harkness, Ryan Sinclair and Graham O'Brien. The Doctor successfully tricked the remaining Daleks into a "spare" TARDIS and sent them into the heart of the Void, destroying them as well. (TV: Revolution of the Daleks)

Following the first Flux event in 2021, the Daleks fought over what remained of the universe with the Cyber-Warriors and time-active Sontarans, (TV: Once, Upon Time) who ultimately tricked both the Dalek War Fleet and the Cyber-Fleet into being destroyed during the final Flux event. (TV: The Vanquishers) Nevertheless, the Daleks survived this incident. (TV: Eve of the Daleks)

Final Dalek War and beyond
The Final Dalek War was a hypothesised future conflict, supposedly sparked by "the penultimate destruction of Skaro". (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) Human historians suggested that the Siege of Trenzalore, in which the New Dalek Paradigm was all but destroyed by the Eleventh Doctor, was the "Final End" of the Daleks, but were aware that Skaro survived. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) The First Doctor was shown the destruction of Skaro in the "unforeseeable future" by the Father of Time, who he understood to be an incarnation of himself from the distant future. (COMIC: The Test of Time)

By the far future, circa 10,000,000, the Daleks were considered a part of the First Segment of Time. (TV: The Ark) The Time Lords of the Last Great Time War placed their time scale of Dalek activity, from Davros' childhood in ancient history to the Siege of Trenzalore up to the Battle of the Game Station in the year 200,100, as falling within the First Segment of Time. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

According to the Daleks themselves, the "creatures" of 500,000,000 knew nothing of them. (PROSE: I Am a Dalek)

Remembrance
A highly fictionalised account of the Third Dalek War served as the premise for the low-budget holovid series EarthDoom XV. It aired in Chris Cwej's native time period (PROSE: Sky Pirates!) of the 30th century. (PROSE: Head Games)

A Velyshaan museum contained an exhibit on the wars after the Second Great Dalek Occupation. (PROSE: Museum Peace)

By the time of humanity's war against the Wall of Noise, the Great War against the Daleks to be ancient history. (AUDIO: The Anachronauts)

Behind the scenes

 * The Enigma of the Missing Planet, a feature in Terry Nation's Dalek Annual 1978, speculates that the solar system's missing planet was destroyed in "one of the great Dalek wars".
 * According to Lance Parkin's Whoniverse: An Unofficial Planet-By-Planet Guide to the Universe of the Doctor, from Gallifrey to Skaro, the script for Into the Dalek specifies that the story takes place in the 31st century.
 * The Dalek Handbook dates the Dalek Wars as taking place between 2540 to circa 3000. The latter date is derived from dialogue in Mission to the Unknown, in which Gordon Lowery claims "the Daleks invaded Earth a thousand years ago" relative to the year 4000. The Handbook therefore postulates that the Wars "ended with a short-lived invasion of Earth followed by a tactical retreat from the Milky Way around the year 3000."
 * According to A History of the Universe, aHistory, and The Dalek Handbook, the events of Death to the Daleks (the Exxilon Gambit of the Third Dalek War) took place circa 2600. This is reasonably consistent with the known dates of the Second Dalek War, though it may conflict with the 27th century Dalek invasion.
 * In a cut scene from Lance Parkin's earlier novel The Dying Days, the 42nd Doctor described the events of the Final Dalek War to Jason Kane and Iphegenia. During the Final Dalek War, the Children of Kasterborous teamed up with humanity to fight the Daleks in their own territory. Tens of trillions died, and entire galaxies were destroyed, but after countless years of fighting the Daleks were driven to extinction. In their wake, the people of the universe were left united in universal peace.
 * Doctor Who: Battles in Time magazine regularly featured double-page spreads of various Dalek conflicts in a series entitled Dalek Wars. Each bi-weekly instalment, starting from #1 until #59, was accompanied by a short source dealing the events.
 * According to #55, a conflict known as the Third Dalek War was fought between the Daleks and the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. According to the source, the retreating Daleks attack the planet JT227, the source of the element Promethium 62, utilised by humans are using to break Dalek forcefields. The human' Spindroid mining machines fight back and overpower the Daleks, which are subsequently pushed out of human space. As this involved the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire and not the Earth Empire, it is at odds with in-universe mentions of the Third Dalek War.