The Sphere

"The Sphere" was the name given by Torchwood One to a Dalek Void Ship constructed by the Cult of Skaro to escape the Last Great Time War. It was the first such ship to be encountered by the Tenth Doctor; the Cybus Cybermen did not have the technology to build one and he was surprised that even the Daleks had managed it.

History
During the Time War, four elite Daleks were selected (PROSE: Birth of a Legend) in secret by the Dalek Empire to constitute a group known as the Cult of Skaro. The Cult was "above and beyond the Emperor himself" and considered merely a legend by the Time Lords. They correctly predicted that the Time War would result in complete disaster for the Empire, and created the Void Ship to avoid the impending destruction, where they waited in the Void for the War to conclude. These four Daleks also stole a Time Lord prison ship containing millions of Dalek prisoners (designated the Genesis Ark). (TV: Doomsday)

Inside the Void Ship, the four Daleks worked to open the Genesis Ark and free their imprisoned comrades. As they came closer to their goal, the Void Ship began to create spatial disturbances at a location above the ground in Canary Wharf, London, sometime prior to 2005 (AUDIO: One Rule). Perplexed scientists (led by lab doctor Rajesh Singh) and officials (led by Yvonne Hartman) working for the Torchwood Institute built a skyscraper, Torchwood Tower, to secretly study the disturbance. Eventually the Void Ship became visible, but untouchable. It created an atmosphere of foreboding around it.

The Void Ship created a "wake" which connected the universe to an adjacent parallel universe that Tenth Doctor would label "Pete's World". Unknown to the Daleks, their Void Ship's wake created an entry point for an army of Cybermen native to Pete's World. The staff of Torchwood 1 ignored the Doctor's warnings, and unintentionally paved the road for the Cybermen to invade. The Cyber-Leader increased the Ghost Shift to 100%.

The "ghosts" were an army of Cybermen and they took control and were prepared to upgrade the population after escaping Pete's World. The same day, the Void Ship opened, and the Cult emerged with the Genesis Ark. They were prepared to destroy the Sun to force open the Ark. Before they could do so, Mickey Smith accidentally transferred his artron energy to the Ark when, as a reflex, he put out his hand for balance when a Cyberman shoved him against it, allowing it to open as the Time Lords' intended. During the subsequent Battle of Canary Wharf, as the freed Daleks began to exterminate the Cybermen, the Doctor and Rose Tyler reversed the rift. The Cybermen, virtually all the Daleks, and presumably the Void Ship itself, were forced back into the Void. (TV: Doomsday)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline in which John Hart took control of the British Empire and the Torchwood Institute, the Void Ship was opened on the orders of the King, resulting in Torchwood One and the home counties being massacred by its Dalek occupants. (AUDIO: The Death of Captain Jack)

Behind the scenes
Explaining how Henry van Statten was unfamiliar with the Dalek he named Metaltron, The Time Traveller's Almanac suggested that the Van Statten Incident took place in a timeline where the Cult of Skaro did not emerge from the Sphere in Torchwood London and precipitate the Battle of Canary Wharf in 2007 and so did not go on to influence the construction of the Empire State Building, nor was the Earth transported to the Medusa Cascade since the personal timelines of both the Doctor and the Dalek race had not progressed to the point where those events occurred.

The Dalek Handbook claimed that the Cult of Skaro escaped the Time War following the fall of Arcadia.

Vaisseau Void