Dalek Time Commander

The Dalek Time Commander, (PROSE: Mission to the Known) usually referred to as simply the Time Commander, (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) was a unique Dalek loyal to the Emperor of the Restoration, and overall commander of the Dalek Time Squad, a team of Time-Sensitive Daleks deployed by the Emperor to attempt to make history "more favourable" to the Daleks, after several divergences in time were detected (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) which rewrote history. The divergences investigated by the Time Commander, along with the rest of the Dalek Time Squad, were caused by the Tenth Doctor's attempt to render the Kotturuh extinct during the Dark Times. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool, and The Dead)

Physical appearance
The Dalek Time Commander's casing was similar to those of the Dalek drones of the Restoration Empire; it resembled the casing of a bronze Dalek, but was coloured a gunmetal silver instead of bronze and gold. Unlike the casings of the Dalek drones, its sense globes were also coloured a gunmetal silver, with a blue ring at their base. Its luminosity dischargers and the lens of its eyestalk were both white. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times)

Biography
When the Daleks of the Restoration Empire (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) began detecting divergences across time, the Dalek Time Commander was placed in charge of the Dalek Time Squad by the Emperor of the Restoration to investigate the divergences, (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) which had been caused by the Tenth Doctor's attempt to render the Kotturuh extinct during the Dark Times. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead)

Mission to Wrax
Eventually, the Dalek Time Squad captured the Eighth Doctor and his TARDIS, (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not) in order to travel to the Dark Times. (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) The Dalek Time Commander had the Doctor brought to him by the Dalek Prime Strategist, whilst ordering the Dalek Executioner to stand down after the Executioner aggressively desired to exterminate the Doctor. On the bridge of the Dalek Time Squad's time ship, the Dalek Time Commander explained to the Doctor their mission: to investigate how Wrax, which was a barren rock in the original timeline, had suddenly become a jungle planet with a native species, a warrior race known as the Wraxians. The Doctor accepted the Dalek Time Commander's proposal that they work together, and, after broadcasting a message informing the Wraxians that the Daleks were arriving in peace, the Dalek Time Commander travelled to Wrax with the Doctor, the Dalek Scientist, and the Dalek Prime Strategist, ordering the Dalek Executioner to remain on the Dalek Time Squad's time ship behind Wrax's moon. Unbeknownst to the Doctor, the Daleks intended to acquire the Wraxians' ultimate weapon, the Devolver, for themselves.

After being greeted by Boros, the Daleks and the Doctor travelled with the Wraxian to a pyramid-like structure. While the Dalek Prime Strategist and the Doctor examined the Wraxians' gallery, the Dalek Time Commander and the Dalek Scientist met with the Wraxian President. She agreed to consider an alliance and to demonstrate the Devolver, but quietly betrayed and trapped the Time Commander and the Scientist. The president's prolonged absence led the Dalek Time Commander to conclude that she had betrayed the Daleks, and so the Time Commander contacted the Dalek Executioner onboard the Dalek time ship and ordered it to transmat onto Wrax with the Time Squad's Silver Daleks to begin exterminating the Wraxians. After being freed by the Dalek Executioner's attack squad, the Dalek Time Commander and the other Daleks found the Wraxian President with the Doctor at the Eye of Wrax, and learnt that the President intended to use the Daleks' origin matrix, harvested from a dead transmat scout Dalek, to devolve the entire Dalek race. The Dalek Prime Strategist convinced the Dalek Time Commander to let the Doctor negotiate with the President and to withdraw the Daleks from Wrax permanently, in return for the dismantling of the Devolver and the Doctor telling the Daleks his theory on the source of the divergences in time. Shortly before the Dalek Time Squad's time ship left Wrax's moon, the Dalek Time Commander secretly sent the Dalek Executioner back to Wrax to use the Devolver to devolve the Wraxians. Whilst the Doctor connected his TARDIS to the Dalek time ship's engines to enable it to reach the Dark Times, the Dalek Prime Strategist conferred with the Dalek Time Commander, the former believing that the Doctor had been successfully manipulated. (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy)

In the Dark Times
The Time Squad traced the source of the alterations to Mordeela where they confronted the Tenth Doctor’s fleet alongside a Free Undead coffin ship led by the Ninth Doctor, resulting in the Battle of Mordeela. Despite the destruction of his entire fleet save his flagship the Tenth Doctor succeeded in destroying Mordeela and escaped, causing the Daleks to believe they’d failed to correct history. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) The Time Commander began a back-up plan of harvesting unique lifeforms of the Dark Times to weaponise (PROSE: Mission to the Known) and ordered scout ships to eliminate the last of the Kotturuh, fearing their judgement on the Daleks. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

After the Eighth Doctor left the Daleks, the Commander observed the Scientist examining a Fellonian. He proceeded to a chamber only he and the Executioner could access to receive pre-recorded orders from the Emperor for the event of their failure to correct the timeline, fearing this would mean his extermination. To his surprise, the Emperor instead ordered the Daleks to take advantage of their presence in the Dark Times by preventing the rise of the Time Lords. The Commander confirmed that he would obey (PROSE: Mission to the Known) and began preparations for the plan, referred to as “the Ultimate End”, though kept the Strategist in the dark. When the Eighth Doctor infiltrated the saucer with the Tenth Doctor and Brian, he took Brian to meet the Commander on the bridge, feigning that their alliance still stood. He traded information out of the Commander, including that the Ultimate End was a place and he’d just dispatched a scout ship to Birnji to kill the last of the Kotturuh. A sudden power drain enabled the Doctors to escape and the Commander reprimanded the Strategist after learning his Symbiont experiment was responsible, claiming he’d endangered the Ultimate End. The Strategist countered that he could not endanger plans he was unaware of and presented the finished Symbiont creature to the Commander. The Commander led the assault on Gallifrey, however panicked when Inyit judged the Symbiont hybrids, fearing it might spread to pure Dalek DNA. The Eighth Doctor boarded their saucer and used an explosive to force them into the Time Vortex and out of the Dark Times. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass)

Death
The Commander believed the Doctor had perished in the explosion. When numerous malfunctions destabilised the saucer in the Vortex, The Commander ordered for the TARDIS to be brought to the bridge and gave the Executioner autonomy to purge the ship of aliens, believing sabotage to be the cause. The Strategist disagreed with the Commander’s support for the Executioner and became frustrated when the Executioner began rampaging wildly, damaging the saucer further and killing Daleks, with the Commander now unable to rein it in. The Strategist located the Doctor and brought him to the bridge, however the Doctor revealed to the Commander thet the Strategist had actually tried to bargain with him for safe passage in his TARDIS. The Commander denounced the Strategist, resulting in a firefight between them. The Strategist prevailed, killing the Commander. (AUDIO: Mutually Assured Destruction)

Legacy
Published during the Last Great Time War, the Time Lords' Dalek Combat Training Manual acknowledged the Commander as part of the Dalek Time Squad, which was among the many anomalies in Dalek history that they could not readily place along their foes' timeline. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Psychological profile
The Dalek Time Commander's personality was closely similar in ways to most Dalek Supremes, and even the Emperor of the Restoration; it spoke in a deep voice and portrayed some degree of egotism, proclaiming that the Daleks were "restoring balance to the universe" during their investigation of the divergences in time; the Eighth Doctor quickly criticised the Time Commander, stating that "indiscriminate murder" was not the same as "restoring balance". (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy) The Dalek Prime Strategist was dismissive of the Time Commander, telling the Dalek drones the officer was "no great leader" after exterminating it, though the drones still fired upon the Strategist for this act. (AUDIO: Mutually Assured Destruction)

River Song described the Dalek Time Commander as "ruthless even by Dalek standards". It was "determined" to seize any opportunity awarded to the Daleks by the fluctuations in time, willing to go to worrisome lengths to achieve its people's goal of supremacy. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times) The Time Commander could also be deceitful, initially agreeing to leave Wrax and the Wraxians in peace, only to then send the Dalek Executioner to kill Sarathin, the Wraxian President, and use the Devolver to eliminate the Wraxians. (AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy) Despite this, however, the Dalek Time Commander was "fiercely loyal" to the Emperor of the Restoration. (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times)