New Dalek Paradigm

The New Dalek Paradigm was a brand new breed of the Daleks created by "impure" Daleks that survived the War of the Medusa Cascade, by means of a Progenitor device. They were more powerful and much larger than any of their predecessors.

Characteristics
The Daleks of the New Dalek Paradigm had towering casings and a bulkier, less streamlined design than their predecessors while (for the most part) retaining the basic Dalek structure of a dome-shaped head connected to the torso by a neck and a "skirt" of grey orbs (black ones for Eternal Dalek). The shoulder slats (TV: The Chase) were removed and replaced by the original bands. New to the design, however, was the addition of a rear compartment (replacing the basic back "skirt" panels), that was supposed to open and allow the New Daleks to access other weaponry.

One thing that didn't change, however, was their personalities. If anything, their egos appeared to have increased in size along with the rest of them. They considered themselves invincible and boasted their superiority in typical Dalek arrogance, even as Spitfires rained down on them. Despite the 2009 Dalek invasion Daleks giving them life, these new Daleks, true to Dalek nature, exerminated them for their impurity. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Hierarchy
These Daleks were colour-coded according to rank and position. Supreme Daleks were white, the Eternal Dalek was yellow, Strategist Daleks were blue, Scientist Daleks were orange, while Drone Daleks were red. The Strategist Daleks controlled tactical planning and manoeuvering, coordinating the Drone Daleks during battle. The Scientist Daleks examined and formulated new weapons and analysed the genetic and physiological make-up of their enemies to determine their weaknesses. The Eternal Dalek's function has yet to be revealed.

While the new Drone Dalek design was mass-produced initally, (GAME: City of the Daleks, COMIC: The Only Good Dalek) the Daleks ultimately went back to using the Time War models as the shells for their basic drones, making the larger red models more rare. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) These bronze drones were sometimes sent on missions where they operated without the leadership or presence (although still under the instructions) of New Paradigm commanders. (COMIC: The Dalek Project, PROSE: The Dalek Generation)

The position of ultimate leader varied. During the New Dalek Paradigm's first encounter with the Doctor, there were only five Daleks, each one the first example of their rank, making the Supreme, as the name implies, the supreme. (TV: Victory of the Daleks) However, as the Daleks started their campaign of Empire-building, at least two Dalek Emperors are known to have ruled the New Dalek Paradigm at some point. (GAME: City of the Daleks, The Eternity Clock) Later on, a Parliament of the Daleks was established, and the Supreme Dalek was subordinate to the Dalek Prime Minister. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

Additionally, the Dalek Time Controller took overall command of the Daleks' search for the Cradle of the Gods, even outranking the Supreme Dalek. (PROSE: The Dalek Generation)

Origin
The Last Great Time War left only small pockets of Dalek survivors, all of which were destroyed in confrontations with the Doctor. (TV: Dalek, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, PROSE: I am a Dalek, TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, COMIC: Carnage Zoo, Flight and Fury, The Living Ghosts, Extermination of the Daleks) This left Dalek Caan of the Cult of Skaro as the last Dalek in existence. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks) Caan coincidentally but not deliberately travelled back to the Time War, breaking through the time-lock at the cost of his sanity. He saved Davros from the jaws of the Nightmare Child and brought him to 2009. Davros rebuilt the Dalek race, growing them from his own cells.

Eventually, Caan, betraying the Daleks, lowered the defences, allowing the Meta-Crisis Doctor to destroy Caan, Davros, and the Daleks. (TV: Journey's End) However one Dalek ship with three Daleks onboard managed to perform a time jump back to 1941, escaping destruction. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Creation
The three Daleks found the last surviving progenitor, a device containing pure Dalek DNA and the means to recreate the species. However, due to the circumstances of their creation, the progenitor refused to recognise them as Dalek, as they had been created from Davros's own mutated Kaled cells (TV: The Stolen Earth). To activate it, they engineered an encounter with the Eleventh Doctor: using an android to claim they were his invention and pretending to be machines for the British Army. When the Doctor arrived (after receiving a telephone call from Winston Churchill), they tricked him into calling them out - "I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!" - so this "testimony" could be used to open the progenitor.

Five new Daleks were created, with pure DNA, a new colour-coded rank, and a white Dalek Supreme as their commander. There was also a Blue (Strategist), Orange (Scientist), Yellow (Eternal) and Red (Drone). These Daleks immediately exterminated the older three for their impurity (the three willingly allowed this to happen) and forced the Doctor to let them escape, using a bomb hidden within the Bracewell android on Earth to prey upon his compassion and make him return to Britain. While the Doctor was deactivating the bomb, they escaped through a time corridor to create a new Dalek Empire, practically laughing at the Doctor for always failing to kill them completely. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Empire-building
Following their escape, the 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 Dalek Emperor and begun rebuilding their Empire. In this new timeline, they killed every member of the human race. However, the Eleventh Doctor and Amy undid these events, leaving Earth unconquered and Kaalann still abandoned. (GAME: City of the Daleks)

In the 41st century, the Daleks began another war with humanity. The Eleventh Doctor and Amy encountered a group who had been sent on a mission to find a Dalek mutant being experimented on by a scientist who tried to make them less aggressive creatures. The Daleks referred to this mutant as "the Abomination". They attacked and destroyed Earth's top secret space station, Station 7, and chased the survivors to the planet below. After slaughtering all resistance, they finally found the Abomination in a hidden base, but it escaped its container and disabled the base reactor's safety measures. An explosion destroyed the base, the Daleks, the Abomination, and all the Dalek ships that had landed on the planet. The Doctor, Amy and Jay, an SSS officer, watched from a safe distance. The Dalek mission was a failure but the war continued. They had agents working in the SSS. (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek)

The Daleks joined the Alliance to imprison the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica in 102 to save the Universe. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) As the Doctor was not responsible for the Total Event Collapse as they thought, the Daleks, along with almost the rest of the universe, were destroyed, leaving only two Stone Daleks, one of which hindered the Doctor and his companions' efforts to save the universe in 1996. Nevertheless, they were successful and the whole of reality, including the Daleks, were restored. (TV: The Big Bang)

A Scientist Dalek sent an alien family plummeting through time and space to collect all the Time Orbs. The Scientist recruited many Strategist Daleks and Drones. It also recruited big armies of Cybermen and Silurians as a distraction for the Eleventh Doctor and Amy. (GAME: The Mazes of Time)

Searching for information on the Silence before going to what he assumed was his death, the Doctor found a badly damaged Supreme Dalek and looked up information on the Silence in it. (TV: The Wedding of River Song)

Led by a new Emperor Dalek, the Daleks planned to remove Gallifrey from existence and become the new Lords of Time. They used a piece of the Eternity Clock to put a Time-Lock around a large part of London in 2106. They planned on on making it bigger and once they perfected their Time-Lock technology they would use it to put temporal bubbles around other planets making them unstoppable. The Eleventh Doctor and River Song managed to take back the piece of the Clock. (GAME: The Eternity Clock)

The Asylum
After being ruled by two Dalek Emperors, (GAME: The Eternity Clock, City of the Daleks) a Parliament of the Daleks was formed, led by a Dalek Prime Minister.

When a human starliner, the Alaska, crashlanded on the Dalek Asylum planet, the security of the insane Daleks contained there was compromised. Fearing what would happen if these Daleks were to escape, the Prime Minister ordered the abduction of the Doctor, who he knew as the predator of the Daleks, so he could be sent to the Asylum and lower its impenetrable force field so the Daleks could destroy their derranged brethren, despite their wish to preserve them and their "beautiful" hatred. Understanding that the Doctor was best assisted by his companions, his most recent ones, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, were abducted as well.

Once the planet's defences were lowered by the human-turned-Dalek, Oswin Oswald, the Parliament launched an attack to destroy the Asylum, but not before she wiped out all memory of the Doctor in the minds of every Dalek. When the Doctor came back to their ship, he was bombarded with "the First Question" ("Doctor Who?") by the entire Parliament. He left shortly after. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

 * The 2010 redesign of the Daleks attracted much criticism from hundreds of angered fans. Mark Gatiss, who wrote their debut episode, acknowledged the controversial nature of this redesign in his in-vision commentary on the DVD box set. In conversation with principal Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs, and Dalek operator Barnaby Edwards, he opined that the new shape of the Daleks, especially in the dorsal region, was not particularly to his liking. Briggs agreed, but, with Edwards, swiftly noted that in their experience of taking the new Daleks on live exhibition to the public, British kids, for the most part, loved the new design. The decision was revisited in DWM 431 with critics voicing their opinions on the design. A comparison was made with the RTD-era Daleks, but without a conclusion as to which was the better-made. Steven Moffat finally settled the controversy when he stated in an interview that he would be keeping the bronze Daleks as the standard soldiers, and the Paradigm variants would be in charge of them as an "officer class". This was first seen on-screen in Asylum of the Daleks.
 * Additionally, further tweaks were made to the 2010 redesign for their reappearance in Asylum: the Drone and Strategist Daleks were now in deeper, more metallic shades, and the biological eyes were made more obvious.