Dalek Empire

The Dalek Empire was an empire created by the Daleks which spanned much of time and space. With a goal to exterminate all life save the Daleks themselves, the Empire waged numerous interstellar wars, bringing it into frequent conflict with the Doctor. It was divided for a time during its civil war, but was eventually reunited. Ultimately, the entire Empire fought the Time Lords in the Last Great Time War, which was marked by unprecedented destruction across time. The Dalek Empire ceased to exist when the war ended, although remnants survived. One of the survivors of the Dalek Empire, Dalek Caan, went on to become the founder of the New Dalek Empire, which itself would later be succeeded by a third empire.

Origins
Inheriting the Kaled belief that Skaro was the only world in the universe that could support life, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) the earliest incarnation of the Dalek Empire was focused only on Skaro, intending to rebuild and fully colonise their ruined planet. Their first encounter with the First Doctor, who confirmed that other life existed in the universe, (TV: The Daleks) however led the Daleks to devote themselves to one day leaving Skaro and conquer other worlds. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro, Return to Skaro)

With the knowledge of constructing spacecraft lost to them, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) the Daleks first attempted to claim the Doctor's TARDIS as a means of reaching other planets, (AUDIO: Return to Skaro) but instead reverse engineered Krattorian blueprints. (COMIC: Power Play) Before their own spacecrafts were completed, it was believed that the Daleks had made alliances with spacefaring races, such as the Voord, to transport Dalek forces to desirable planets. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Daleks) After the construction of the first Dalek Fleet, the Daleks first attacked the planet Alvega, ultimately destroying it when it would not surrender to them. (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge) In building the Dalek Empire, the Daleks experienced a technological surge comparable to the Gallifreyans' own empire building. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) As the Daleks spread further out from Skaro, they developed the Pathweb to share knowledge and information across their race. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros)

While the original Dalek Emperor journeyed with the newly-built Dalek conquest fleet, a new Emperor took control of a faction of Daleks on Skaro, which he named the Exterminator Daleks, by contrast to the spacefaring group, which he called "the Expansionist Daleks". The splinter-Empire of the Exterminators vowed to remain on Skaro and scour the planet to find any potential Thal survivors. They briefly took control of the Dalek City, only to be themselves annihilated by a small but well-prepared Thal commando, leaving the Expansionists as the only ruling Dalek Empire. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem)

In the early days of the Empire, Dalek factory ships were sent out by the thousands to quickly mass produce legions of Daleks on other planets. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) One of these capsules landed on the planet Vulcan where it would later be uncovered by human colonists who sought to exploit Dalek technology. The Daleks within worked to conquer the planet only to be destroyed by the Second Doctor. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)

Reconnaissance scout Daleks were also sent out ahead of the main fleet to gather information of targeted worlds before the fleet would be summoned. (TV: Resolution)

Conquest of Earth
After the Dalek Empire had conquered thousands of worlds, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) they staged an invasion and conquest of Earth in the year 2157. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) The Daleks intended to use Earth to enact Project Degravitate, turning the planet into a massive warship to carry their forces across the galaxy, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests) but the interference of the First Doctor led to their invasion being overthrown. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Following this, other subjugated races began rising up against the Empire. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

Decades later, the Dalek Empire launched a second invasion of Earth whilst being guided by the time-displaced Dalek Time Controller and aided by the Monk. The Daleks successfully occupied Earth again and planned to install a time engine to turn the planet in a plague world for Viyran viruses. This plan was foiled when Lucie Miller crashed a saucer into the engine, creating a time warp which wiped out the Dalek forces on Earth. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller, To the Death)

In 2223, by which time the Parliament of the Daleks governed the empire, a new invasion of Earth was launched. After an attempt by a Dalek Supreme to establish a forward base in London met with heavy resistance from, the Parliament ordered the invasion be abandoned. (AUDIO: Vengeance)

Expanding the Empire

 * As always, time travel makes the sequence of events here conjectural.

Second Dalek War
In 2540, the Gold Dalek, aided by the Renegade Time Lord known as, attempted to provoke war between the humans and Draconians, leaving both species open for Dalek conquest (TV: Frontier in Space) whilst an army of ten thousand Daleks was assembled on Spiridon. (TV: Planet of the Daleks) The plan was known as Operation Divide and Conquer. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests) The Master’s scheme was exposed to representatives of the Earth and Draconian empires by the Third Doctor and Jo (TV: Frontier in Space) who subsequently aided a Thal expedition in entombing the army on Spiridon in ice. (TV: Planet of the Daleks) The exposure of the Dalek plot led to the Second Dalek War. (PROSE: Love and War) The war lasted for decades, (COMIC: Abslom Daak...Dalek Killer, Star Tigers, Nemesis of the Daleks, AUDIO: Out of Time) but ultimately resulted in the Dalek Empire’s defeat. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks)

Time travel campaigns
The Gold Dalek attempted to use time travel to reconquer Earth, taking advantage of a paradoxical outbreak of World War III in the 20th century which left Earth weak. Despite the Daleks' effort to defend their new timeline, battling UNIT at Auderly House in the 20th century, the Third Doctor was able to avert the paradox. This deprived the Daleks of their opportunity to invade, erasing their occupation of Earth. (TV: Day of the Daleks)

By one account, the Black Dalek Leader took inspiration from this and sent a taskforce of Daleks to assassinate the Doctor in his first incarnation, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) whereas others implied this event was earlier in Dalek history. (PROSE: The Chase, Mission to the Unknown) After a chase across time, the Doctor trapped his pursuers in a war against the Mechonoids. (TV: The Chase) The two empires waged a devastating war against one another until the subtle interference of the Zerovians brought the conflict to an impasse, though both sides still considered the other an enemy. (COMIC: Impasse)

The Great War
Over the course of five hundred years, the Daleks gained control of over seventy planets in Ninth Galactic System and forty more in the constellation of Miros. (TV: Mission to the Unknown)

In the 40th century, the Daleks came into increasing conflict with the Space Security Service. (PROSE: The Outlaw Planet, COMIC: Sara Kingdom: Space Security Agent, AUDIO: The Destroyers) launching another invasion of Earth which met with defeat. (COMIC: The Brain Tappers) They attacked the world home to Mark Seven and his adoptive parents, inspiring the android to fight back against them by joining the SSS. (AUDIO: Cycle of Destruction) Mark was a founding member of the Anti-Dalek Force which fought the Daleks on multiple worlds. (PROSE: Terror Task Force)

The Black Dalek enacted a master plan in the year 4000. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) Forming the Galactic Council, made up of representatives of the Outer Galaxies, the Black Dalek attempted to lure all the major galactic powers to the solar system which it would then destroy with a Time Destructor. (TV: Mission to the Unknown, The Daleks' Master Plan) A group of human historians claimed the Black Dalek had launched the master plan at a point in time when it was the sole survivor of the Dalek Council. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

The formation of alliance on Kembel was discovered by SSS agent Marc Cory, however the Daleks exterminated him before he could send a warning to Earth. (TV: Mission to the Unknown) Another SSS agent, Bret Vyon, and the First Doctor discovered the conspiracy as the Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen delivered the Taranium core required for the Time Destructor. The Doctor stole the Taranium and fled Kembel, resulting in a pursuit across the galaxy. The Doctor was finally forced to return to Kembel, but gave the Daleks a fake core before escaping in his TARDIS. Upon discovering the deception, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) the Black Dalek requested a Dalek time machine commanded by a Red Dalek, (PROSE: The Mutation of Time) which pursued the Doctor to ancient Egypt and regained the core. Over the course of these events the alliance fell apart and once the core was obtained the Daleks trapped the delegates, planning to kill them with the operational Time Destructor. Before they could, the Doctor returned to Kembel, freeing the delegates to spread word of the Daleks' plot to their civilisations and stealing the Time Destructor. He activated the device, turning its power against the Daleks and devastating Kembel. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) While some Daleks survived, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) including the Black Dalek, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) all the infrastructure delegated for the plan was destroyed by the weapon, dealing a severe blow to the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: The Mutation of Time)

The Time Destructor plot began the Great War. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) In the 41st century Daleks fought against the SSS, (AUDIO: The House of Kingdom) and invaded the Galactic Federation. (PROSE: Legacy) After this war petered out, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) the Daleks attempted to exploit a space plague by sending an expedition to Exxilon to claim supplies of the only cure, parrinium, but were foiled by the Third Doctor and a group of human marines. (TV: Death to the Daleks) When a second wave of plague began affecting Daleks, a second expedition was sent but also failed due to interference of the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Dalek Protocol)

Over centuries, the Great War turned against the Dalek Empire as they suffered significant defeats, including a Thal offensive that resulted in the loss of 200 Dalek saucers, the Draconians annihilating half of the Dalek fleet along the Draconian frontier and the Terran Federation liberating six worlds from Dalek rule. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)

A thousand years after the events on Kembel, (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) the Second Doctor used the Emperor’s experiments with the Human Factor to instigate a Dalek Civil War. Despite the Doctor’s hopes that this would prove the Daleks’ “final end”, (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) The rebellion failed (COMIC: Bringer of Darkness) and the surviving humanised Daleks were forced to flee Skaro. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution)

Alteration of the timeline
When the Time Lords sent the Fourth Doctor to Skaro to avert the creation of the Daleks, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) the Doctor's actions created a new timeline in which Dalek history played out differently, (PROSE: A Device of Death) but many aspects, like their encounters with the Doctor, seemed to remain the same. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, et al.) Nevertheless, thousands of worlds originally enslaved by the Dalek Empire were made free of Dalek control in the new timeline. However, many more worlds remained under the rule of the Empire and the Time Lords considered the Doctor's mission a failure. They subsequently directed him to a Deepcity, where they predicted his actions would bring about the rise of a race of robots capable of defeating the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: A Device of Death)

Second Great Dalek Occupation
Settling down to more general use of their time travelling abilities, the Daleks proceeded on a grand effort to create a permanent base of operations. Using knowledge from the library of Kar-Charrat (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine) and the power of Gallifrey, the Daleks obliterated the entire Seriphia Galaxy, remaking it to their own designs. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element) From there, the Daleks staged a major invasion of the Mutter's Spiral, beginning in the Vega system, (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks) which became known as the Second Great Dalek Occupation. (AUDIO: Return of the Daleks)

The Daleks fought against the Earth Alliance for years, eventually occupying most of the galaxy. (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”) During this time the Emperor and Supreme used Susan Mendes as the “Angel of Mercy” to improve slave efficiency by giving them hope and allowed her to be accompanied by Knight of Velyshaa Kalendorf. Secretly, the pair were using Kalendorf’s telepathy to sow the seeds of rebellion in every slave they encountered, (AUDIO: The Human Factor) though the Dalek Emperor was actually aware of this plan and let it continue. (AUDIO: The Fearless: Part 4) After the fall of Earth, Susan was ordered to make a broadcast across the entire Dalek Empire in which she uttered the trigger phrase, “Death to the Daleks!”, provoking rebellion through the Empire. (AUDIO: “Death to the Daleks!”) This forced the Daleks into retreat, enabling the Alliance to reorganise. Three months after the rebellion, the Daleks took over Project Infinity, which they’d used the rebellion as cover to reach, and the Emperor used it to make contact with Daleks of a parallel universe, who had conquered their universe. The parallel Daleks were horrified at their counterparts’ actions and declared war, (AUDIO: Project Infinity) allying with the Earth Alliance. The Emperor was forced to retreat into Susan Mendes’ mind to escape them, leaving the Supreme as the leader of the Dalek Empire.

Over the course of six years, the Earth Alliance and “Alliance Daleks” pushed the Dalek Empire back, reducing it’s presence in Mutter’s Spiral to just Earth’s solar system. Commander Kalendorf turned against the Alliance Daleks and negotiated a truce with the Dalek Empire, arranging the retrieval of Susan in return so the Daleks could extract the Emperor. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three) Together the Dalek Empire and Earth Alliance fought the Alliance Daleks for many years, with the Alliance Daleks ultimately retreating after their leader, the Mentor, judged that continuing the war was likely to result in all life in the galaxy being wiped out. Whilst the fragile truce still held, Kalendorf travelled to Dalek-occupied Earth to meet the Emperor, who had taken full possession of Susan’s body. He used telepathic programming he’d implanted in Susan before surrendering her to trigger the Great Catastrophe, ordering every piece of Dalek technology to self-destruct. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four) The Dalek Empire was nearly wiped out, however one outpost in Seriphia managed to contain the destructive impulse into a single drone. The drone also absorbed the minds of the Emperor and Susan, so was declared the new Dalek Supreme of what remained of the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: The Demons) Approximately two thousand years later, this Supreme led the Daleks in occupying the Border Worlds, using the guise of treating the NFS plague which the Daleks had actually created, to re-establish the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: The Exterminators, The Healers, The Survivors, The Demons, The Warriors, The Future) The Daleks entered a cold war with the Galactic Union. (PROSE: Mutually Assured Survival)

Movellan War
The Dalek Empire waged war against the Movellans. According to research by the Celestial Intervention Agency, at the start of the war the Dalek Empire was divided under the rule of two Emperors, one of who was based on Skaro. The Skaro based Emperor became the sole ruler after the other was destroyed by the Movellans. The Daleks’ strategies against the Movellans were initially harmed by the Emperor struggling to keep track of forces formerly commanded by his counterpart. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem) Multiple Supreme Daleks existed during the war, one of which led a faction of Daleks back to Kembel, seeking to regain lost knowledge in time travel. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros)

The two sides eventually became locked in a stalemate, as both were reliant on logical battle computers. In an attempt to break the stalemate, the Daleks sent an expedition to Skaro which recovered their creator Davros in the hopes of him providing new strategies. The interference of a rival Movellan expedition and the Fourth Doctor and Romana led to the Daleks being destroyed and Davros being taken into the freed slaves’ custody. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) Davros was transferred to the Earth Protection Corps, however the Dalek saucer captured the ship he was being transported on after it had rescued the Tenth Doctor and Anya Kingdom. Interference by Movellan forces led to the Earth ship crashing on Kembel before the Daleks could board. The Kembel faction emerged from hiding to capture Anya and the ship's commander, however Davros and the Doctor had already fallen into the hands of the Movellan forces, being led personally by the First Movellan. (AUDIO: The Dalek Defence) Davros feigned forming an alliance with the Movellans, to unite them and the Daleks against Earth, using this front to infect them with a computer virus. The Doctor prevented the virus spreading just as Earth Protection forces arrived on Kembel, defeating the Daleks there and recapturing Davros.

Inspired by his encounter with Davros, the First Movellan ordered the development of a virus to attack the organic components of the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros) Human historians attributed this decision to the Daleks reintroducing organic matter into themselves to gain advantages in the war, with their subsequent deviances from logic revealing their organic nature to the Movellans. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

The Movellans' virus devastated the Dalek Empire, leading to its collapse across the galaxy. In the aftermath, several remaining Dalek commanders tried to reorganise what was left of their own isolated sectors. The result exacerbated the existing factionalism. (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks)

Empire in Civil War
In 4590, (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks) 90 years after his retrieval from Skaro, the Daleks rescued Davros from human custody in the hopes of him developing a cure. He deemed the Daleks to be failures however and stated his intent to start over, unleashing the virus on the Daleks before fleeing in an escape pod. The Fifth Doctor also interfered in the rescue, freeing a Dalek agent who blew up the Dalek ship. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)

Davros made his way to Necros where he used the humans in stasis at the Tranquil Repose to create new Daleks, loyal to him. The Dalek Supreme learnt of his activity and sent an expedition to Necros to capture Davros, destroying his new Daleks, and bring him back to Skaro for trial, (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) Accounts differed on the outcome of the trial. One claimed the trial was ended with Davros managing to prove himself worthy of leadership over the Daleks, becoming Emperor before the Supreme could take that role. (AUDIO: The Davros Mission) Another suggested the Emperor personally oversaw Davros on trial for crimes against the Daleks, until he was rescued by the Sixth Doctor who took him to Spiridon. There Davros revived a dormant Dalek army and converted it to his leadership. He used the army to attack Skaro and exterminate the Emperor, declaring himself the new Emperor of the Daleks. The Daleks entered a new era, led by Davros as the new Emperor. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!)

With the aftermath of the war with the Movellans having increased factionalism within the Dalek Empire due to the Daleks dispersing into different areas of the universe to hide from the Movellan virus, (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) a third account claimed the Daleks on Skaro, so concerned with the growing schism that they believed they needed direction, brought Davros to their homeworld so he could try at solving their issue by providing guidance. (AUDIO: Innocence) The schism grew, with the Imperial Daleks being loyal to Davros and the Renegade Daleks being loyal to the Dalek Supreme. The subsequent Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War stretched across the entire Dalek Empire. As the war escalated, the Seventh Doctor set a trap for factions, resulting in the destruction of (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Skaro's second sun. (PROSE: The Stranger)

According to one account, the Dalek Prime and Davros actually survived the war and encountered one another once more during a decline in Dalek pervasiveness throughout the galaxy. Davros was again defeated and the Dalek Prime set about rebuilding the Empire. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

The Restoration Empire
By another account, the Imperial Daleks had triumphed in the Civil War and, after the disappearance of Davros, a Dalek Supreme exterminated the other Daleks on the Dalek Council (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) and was elected the new Emperor of the Imperial Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) He founded the Restoration Empire, an attempt to harken back to the earliest days of the Dalek Empire. The Restoration Empire reintroduced Silver Daleks as the basic drones and the Emperor modelled himself on the Dalek Prime, creating a gold casing which augmented his brain capacity. (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) Human historians believed this Emperor continued Davros' plan to move against the High Council of the Time Lords, thus leading his armies into the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

Temporal fluctuations, (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) caused by the Tenth Doctor defeating the Kotturuh in the Dark Times, (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) appeared to alter events so this Empire did not immediately fight the Time War. (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks) The fluctuations were detected by the Daleks and the Emperor learnt that history was under attack via a message sent by the last survivor of a Time Squad which had yet to be sent back in time. Wanting more information, (PROSE: The Last Message) he led the Daleks in an invasion of Islos to seize the Archive. However the Chief Archivian made a deal with an Entity from outside time and space for the Archive’s rescue, promising their rescuer the Dalek Emperor. Upon entering the empty Archive, the Emperor, Prime Strategist and Executioner found a portal from which the Entity emerged. (WC: The Archive of Islos) The Daleks were able to dupe the Mechonoids into defeating this creature, (WC: Planet of the Mechonoids, The Deadly Ally) before banishing both of their foes to the Entity's dimension. The Entity however warned the Daleks of an oncoming threat. (WC: Day of Reckoning)

This threat materialised in the form of the Hond, an omnicidal species from the Dark Times. The Restoration Empire initially attempted to ally with them only to be turned down and forced on the defensive. When only Skaro remained, the Daleks sought out the Tenth Doctor, who believed that the Restoration Empire was the result of a paradox, for aid, bringing him before the Emperor. Working, albeit reluctantly, with the Strategist, the Doctor deduced that the Hond were suffering made manifest and managed to cure them of their suffering, ending their crusade against the Daleks. A Grey Dalek made an attempt to exterminate the Tenth Doctor but the Thirteenth Doctor helped him escape. With one Doctor lost to them, the Strategist suggested the Daleks turn their attention to other Doctors. (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks)

The Emperor created a Time Squad to investigate the fluctuations in time and rectify them to the Dalek Empire’s benefit. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) The Time Squad abducted the Eighth Doctor, (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not) and convinced him to help them. They travelled back to the Dark Times with him, (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy) where they confronted the Tenth Doctor at Mordeela alongside a Free Undead coffin ship commanded by the Ninth Doctor. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) The Dalek Time Squad quickly proved the superior force in the Battle of Mordeela but was unable to destroy the HMS Donna as a result of Brian unleashing various ancient weapons on their ship, allowing the Tenth Doctor to escape.

Fearing that any remaining Kotturuh would judge the Daleks, scout ships were sent to exterminate what remained of the aliens. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) The Daleks began a back-up plan of experimenting on the unique lifeforms of the Dark Times. (PROSE: Mission to the Known) They harvested Velosia under the pretence of saving their best and brightest from the oncoming Kotturuh. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) The Eighth Doctor found himself sidelined, though he was allowed to join their explorations (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) including of an abandoned spaceship. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) When the Daleks attacked the Ninth Doctor's coffin ship to capture a Vampire, the Eighth Doctor forewarned the Undead so they could evacuate and then escaped with his future self, leaving his TARDIS behind. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) Afterwards the Commander and Executioner received pre-recorded instructions from the Emperor for the event of failing to correct history. He ordered them to destroy Gallifrey, to prevent the rise of the Time Lords. (PROSE: Mission to the Known) The Strategist was not privy to the new orders, which the Commander and Executioner referred to as "the Ultimate End", and continued experiments with the Scientist in hopes of creating a more biologically efficient form of Dalek, the Symbiont. A scout ship was sent to Entranxis to pursue a fleeing Vampire, Ikalla, but she escaped with the aid of the three Doctors, so the Daleks set the planet’s atmosphere alight with missiles. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

The Daleks captured a Great Vampire from a coffin ship and used its DNA to engineer the Symbiont, an undying form of Dalek mutant. The Tenth and Eighth Doctors infiltrated the saucer and learnt of the Daleks' plans before fleeing. The Commander revealed the new orders to the Strategist, claiming a power drain his experiment had caused had jeopardised it. Realising that Gallifrey would now be defended by the Doctors, the Strategist ordered the Drones be enhanced with Symbiont DNA whilst the original was sent to Birinji to kill the last of the Kotturuh, Inyit. The hybrid Drones were deployed against Gallifrey, managing to quickly overwhelm the HMS Donna and three coffin ships defending the planet however perished when Inyit used her final judgement to give the original of their number a short lifespan. Fearing that this judgement would spread to pure Dalek DNA, the Daleks panicked and retreated to their saucer, despite the Strategist’s desire to press the attack. This enabled the Eighth Doctor to board their craft and detonate an explosive, forcing the saucer into the Time Vortex. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

The Eighth Doctor managed to destroy the saucer while inside the Vortex, as the Time Squad descended into infighting. (AUDIO: Mutually Assured Destruction) The drone who unknowingly enacted the bootstrap paradox survived (PROSE: The Last Message) and attempted to raise its own army on the Starship Future only to be defeated by the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: Genetics of the Daleks) The Dalek Prime Strategist also survived, observing other Daleks being torn apart by time winds. He escaped via an emergency temporal shift, powered using Kotturuh crystals he'd stored in his casing.

After the crisis grew to a close, the Strategist believed that the Daleks of the Restoration Empire would ultimately head into the War with the Time Lords, though with him now seriously considering the option of overthrowing the Emperor and overseeing the War himself. (PROSE: Exit Strategy)

Last Great Time War and destruction
United and re-unified once more, the Daleks, under leadership of the Dalek Emperor, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) disappeared from normal space during the Tenth Dalek Occupation, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords) into the Time Vortex where they constructed a fleet, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) with which to wage war against the Time Lords in the Last Great Time War. (TV: Dalek) After being asked to help, Davros joined their effort, (PROSE: Father of the Daleks) until he was lost to the Nightmare Child at the Gates of Elysium. (PROSE: The Third Wise Man) The Daleks' temporal strategies were guided by the Dalek Time Strategist. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures)

In the early days of the War, the Daleks sought means to invade Gallifrey. They investigated the rift at the heart of the Obscura, unaware they had been lured there as part of a trap designed by Irving Braxiatel, (AUDIO: Soldier Obscura) and invaded the pocket dimension containing Project Revenant. The invasion was successful however the Celestial Intervention Agency arranged the facility's destruction before the Daleks took control, resulting in the pocket dimension collapsing. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures) Other early battlefronts included the Spiral Furl, (PROSE: The Third Wise Man) Keetol, where the Time Lords won though their victory was later negated by 's use of the Heavenly Paradigm, (AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) and Saracassar which the Daleks successfully besieged. (AUDIO: The Scramancer)

The Time War raged, in a linear sense, for four centuries, but its temporal fighting actually meant the War was fought for all of eternity, enduring for so long that the Empire's ideals of racial purity eventually became diluted, as did the notion of absolute conformity. Groups such as the Eternity Circle, (PROSE: Engines of War) the Cult of Skaro, (TV: Doomsday) and the Volatix Cabal were created with the capacity for independent thought so as to match the imagination of the Time Lords. (COMIC: Downtime) To boost their overworked army, the Dalek Empire began converting conquered humans into Daleks and harvested versions of themselves from alternate realities to use as shock troopers, creating the Skaro Degradations. (PROSE: Engines of War) The Daleks were also known to conscript soldiers from species they'd enslaved, (AUDIO: Dreadshade) such as the Brancheerians, (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore) and used harvester ships to capture entire planets' populations to turn them into weaponised cyborgs. (AUDIO: Destroyer, Saviour) The Overseer conducted experiments on Ogrons on the Planet, however after a rebellion, he was relieved of command with his experiments being halted by other Daleks who deemed them an abomination. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons)

The Dalek Empire eventually began losing the Time War. After a "spectacular" defeat, the Dalek Time Strategist (AUDIO: The Famished Lands) began researching the multiverse, hoping to find an alternative version of Davros whom he believed could reinvigorate the Daleks. Following the construction of a transdimensional portal to access the multiverse, (AUDIO: Palindrome) the Dalek base on Grahv was overwhelmed by the Valeyard who turned a temporal superweapon against the Daleks, erasing the entirety of their race from N-Space, save the Time Strategist who managed to escape into the multiverse. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard) Manipulating a parallel universe version of Davros, the Time Strategist used dimensional engineering to restore the Dalek Empire including the Emperor and the Time War resumed. (AUDIO: Palindrome, Restoration of the Daleks)

The Daleks formed an axis of alliances in the course of their campaign against the Time Lords, including with the Vultarans, (AUDIO: Lion Hearts) the Morlontoa, (COMIC: The Clockwise War) the Taalyens, (AUDIO: The Thousand Worlds, The Heart of the Battle) and the Enigma, which briefly wiped out the Time Lords on their behalf until the War Doctor convinced it not to. (AUDIO: The Enigma Dimension) They also used human agents, such as crime boss Jarred McKenzie on Unity (AUDIO: Unity) and Lara Zannis. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex)

On the last day of the Time War, the Daleks finally breached the defences around Gallifrey, with the entire might of the Dalek Empire, numbering a "billion billion" units on ten million warships, converging on the planet. Though the Daleks managed to invade Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city, they were unable to breach the Capitol's defences, instead commencing an orbital bombardment to destroy Gallifrey. Faced with this onslaught, the War Doctor stole the Moment, seeking to destroy both Time Lords and Daleks, only for the superweapon to have him meet his Tenth and Eleventh selves, with the latter's companion, Clara Oswald, convincing the Doctor to find a better way. Summoning "all thirteen" of his incarnations, the Doctor utilised stasis cube technology to move Gallifrey into a pocket universe. Panicking at the sight of thirteen police boxes, the Daleks increased their firepower with the Dalek Empire ultimately destroying itself in its own crossfire when the planet disappeared. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) The Emperor recalled this destruction as an "inferno". (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Unable to retain his memories of the War's true ending, the Ninth Doctor believed that he had detonated the Moment and destroyed the Dalek Empire. (TV: Dalek)

Remnants
There were at least four different instances of Dalek survivors of the Time War: a single drone which fell through time, landing on Earth in the 20th century, (TV: Dalek) the Dalek Emperor himself, (TV: The Parting of the Ways) the four-member Cult of Skaro, in possession of a Genesis Ark containing millions of trapped drones (TV: Doomsday) and the inmates of the Dalek Asylum, a prison planet containing thousands of insane and damaged Daleks. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

The Doctor would later ponder the possibility that some Daleks had become so scared of multiple incarnations of themself appearing that they'd fled, running away even long after the War had ended. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor)

Undated events
At one point in the history of the Dalek Empire, it warred against the Combined Galactic Resistance. (TV: Into the Dalek) Research by historians placed this conflict either during the Second Dalek War, sometime after the Daleks' foray to Exxilon and their shattering of the Draconian Empire, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) or in the frontier worlds during the Great War. (PROSE: The Whoniverse)

The Resistance managed to capture a damaged Dalek, that was later named Rusty, who claimed a desire to turn on its own kind. After the Twelfth Doctor rescued Journey Blue, the Resistance asked him to help fix Rusty as he had been turned good. The Doctor, Clara Oswald, Journey, Ross and Gretchen Alison Carlisle travelled into Rusty and located a crack in his power source that was spewing radiation and killing him, losing Ross along the way.

The Doctor repaired the crack with his sonic screwdriver, but the radiation had been causing Rusty's change, and so without it Rusty turned evil again, breaking free of its restraints and calling in more Daleks to destroy the Aristotle. At the insistence of Clara, the Doctor, Clara, Journey and Gretchen attempted to turn Rusty good again by reactivating his suppressed memories, particularly that of a star being born which would open him to the Doctor's influence.

Clara succeeded in reactivating the memories, opening Rusty's mind and the Doctor telepathically linked with him to get him to see the good in the universe through the Doctor. However, being a Dalek, the "beauty" that Rusty reacted to was the Doctor's hatred of the Daleks. Taking the Doctor's hatred as his own, Rusty turned on the Dalek boarding party attacking the Aristotle and exterminated them. Rusty told the Doctor that he wasn't a good Dalek but the Doctor was, and then he ordered the Dalek flying saucer that was docked with the Aristotle to retreat, claiming that the humans had activated the ship's self-destruct. Rusty left with the Daleks to continue his war against his own kind by destroying them from within. (TV: Into the Dalek) After managing to destroy the Dalek command ship, Rusty was retrieved by the Daleks, his new mindset causing the Dalek Supreme Council to withdraw lest Rusty's influence spread to other Daleks. After confirming it could not, Rusty was exiled to the Dalek Asylum, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) but managed to escape, basing himself at Villengard. The Daleks made attempts to hunt him down and destroy him, but Rusty was persistently successful in fighting them off. All around his control tower were the shattered remnants of his earlier attackers. Some of the Daleks survived, albeit without their casings. (TV: Twice Upon a Time) Rusty however had access to records of events that succeeded the fall of the Dalek Empire, suggesting that the unit itself hailed from a later point in Dalek history. (TV: Into the Dalek)

Further Dalek empires
After the destruction of the Dalek Empire, two subsequent empires were established: the New Dalek Empire, followed by the New Dalek Paradigm.

The New Dalek Empire was established by Dalek Caan, who made a perilous journey back through time into the first year of the Time War, and rescued Davros from the "jaws of the Nightmare Child". Davros sacrificed cells from his own body to create millions of new Daleks. Together they built a massive fleet and a space station called the Crucible within the Medusa Cascade. Dalek Caan worked in secret to betray the New Empire and Davros, however, and assisted the Doctor and Donna Noble in disarming the reality bomb and foiling the stolen planets plot. The Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor then caused a chain reaction which destroyed the New Empire, including apparently Davros and Caan. (TV: The Stolen Earth, Journey's End)



Through a deception called the "Ironside Project", three Daleks, (TV: Victory of the Daleks) having survived the destruction of the Crucible and the New Dalek Empire, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) tricked the Eleventh Doctor into helping them activate a Progenitor (TV: Victory of the Daleks) that was left over from the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: A History of Humankind) The device then created five new Daleks, referred to as a New Dalek Paradigm. These newcomers destroyed their three forebears and escaped through a time corridor. Amy Pond speculated that the new Daleks would need time to "build themselves up". (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Reeling from its defeat at the hands of the Ninth Doctor in March 2005, the post-Time War Nestene Consciousness considered allying with the "mighty empires" of the Daleks and the Cybermen in order to rid the universe of the Doctor, (PROSE: Revenge of the Nestene) a prospect which would be realised with the Alliance, which the New Paradigm participated in. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

The Paradigm's new empire would eventually grow to be overseen by a Parliament led by a Dalek Prime Minister. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

Sometime after a vast Galactic Recession, the New Dalek Paradigm established the Sunlight Worlds, 400 worlds and the planet Carthedia acting as a government state. Humans were allowed to live there, not knowing of the danger of the Daleks. The Dalek Time Controller planned to use the Cradle of the Gods to turn the Sunlight Worlds into a billion copies of Skaro. However, the Eleventh Doctor and Jenibeth Blakely foiled this plan. (PROSE: The Dalek Generation)

When it seemed as though the Time Lords might return to the universe during the Siege of Trenzalore, the Paradigm committed the entirety of its military might to denying this. When the Eleventh Doctor regenerated and destroyed their forces, human historians speculated this could be the Daleks' final defeat. They were not fully convinced, however. (TV: The Time of the Doctor, PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

The Daleks at some point restored Skaro and made it the centre of their empire. Davros stated they brought back the world due to their strong concept of home. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) had an outstanding death warrant in the Dalek Empire. (AUDIO: The Bekdel Test)

Alternate timelines
Following their escape, the new Daleks discovered the lost Time Lord artefact, the Eye of Time, allowing them to alter time as they saw fit. The Daleks returned to Skaro, rebuilt their capital city of Kaalann, appointed a new Emperor, and began rebuilding their empire. One of the empire's first acts with their new-found power over time was to invade Earth in 1963. In this new timeline, they succeeded in killing every member of the human race. However, the Doctor and Amy Pond successfully undid these events, leaving Earth unconquered and erasing the new empire from existence. (GAME: City of the Daleks)

Another alternate timeline was created when guerrillas from this timeline travelled back and accidentally caused a war by assassinating delegates, allowing the Daleks to invade Earth. This was averted when the Third Doctor travelled back from this timeline and told the guerrilla responsible the truth. Daleks and Ogrons travelled back to keep this timeline intact, but the guerrilla destroyed them with a bomb. (TV: Day of the Daleks)

In another alternate timeline, the Daleks invaded Earth in the 17th century. This was averted by the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks)

Following his acquisition of the Anti-Genesis codes from Gallifrey during the Last Great Time War, travelled to Skaro during the Thousand Year War and ensured that Davros was killed by the bomb that had crippled him in the regular timeline. (AUDIO: From the Flames) In Davros's place, the Master infiltrated the Kaled Scientific Elite (AUDIO: The Master's Dalek Plan) and created a new race of Daleks loyal to him instead, (AUDIO: Shockwave) eventually creating a Dalek empire which conquered all of existence. However, this timeline was eventually erased by this Master's future self, a parallel universe Master, and the Dalek Time Strategist, as the many paradoxes this timeline was built upon risked destroying all reality. (AUDIO: He Who Wins)

In a timeline where the First Doctor had never left Gallifrey, the Dalek Empire had grown to such a size without his interference that even the Time Lords lived in fear of it. This timeline was later undone through the efforts of the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice Summerfield gathering the pieces of the Key to Time and restoring history to normal. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)

In a timeline when a temporal collision of the First and Second Doctor's TARDISes prevented the former from landing on Kembel, the Daleks completed the Time Destructor. With their perfected weapon, the Dalek Empire began a death march across the galaxies. This timeline was undone when the Second Doctor prevented the temporal collision, restoring the natural sequence of events. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods)

Parallel universes
In the Unbound Universe, the Dalek Empire was formed by the group of Daleks originally created by Davros, known as the Renegades by the second batch of Daleks who remained on Skaro. Functionally identical to their N-Space counterparts, these Daleks invaded other planets and were fought against by the Doctor on many occasions. (AUDIO: Masters of War)

Behind the scenes

 * The Discontinuity Guide made the claim that, originally, Davros was killed and forgotten, and that the Fourth Doctor's interference with the creation of the Daleks created a new timeline where Davros survived. As a result, whilst the Daleks originally had a solid, cohesive empire, always with one purpose, Davros' presence reduced them to "a mess of squabbling factions" which were "incapable of the unity needed to develop dimensionally transcendental time travel. Published before the Last Great Time War was established in Doctor Who lore, The Discontinuity Guide went on to claim that "whilst Davros lives the Daleks will remain disorganised, and will never become the threat that the Time Lords so feared."
 * According to non-narrative info in DWBIT 47, the Daleks had a Second Dalek Empire prior to the Last Great Time War.
 * The Dalek Hierarchy feature of DWFC TLV 1 explains that the Prime Minister led the restored Dalek Empire after a civil war between the New Dalek Paradigm and the "Children of Davros", which is glimpsed in The Eleventh Doctor Interactive Story. A Dalek Empire favourable to Davros is seen in The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar.