Imperial Dalek

The Imperial Daleks were a faction of Daleks loyal to their creator, Davros, rather than to the Dalek Supreme. Among the Daleks, they were known as the Ven-Katri Davrett. They fought for Davros, their new Emperor, in the Imperial-Renegade War.

History
Davros owned an injection-type mind control device which he used on a small group of Daleks. These became the first Imperial Daleks, but were subsequently destroyed by the Dalek Supreme's Renegade Daleks or by the Movellan virus. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)

Davros experimented with a new kind of Dalek (which appeared to be an Imperial Dalek prototype) at the Tranquil Repose funerary complex on Necros, using parts from cryogenically frozen bodies. Some, like Arthur Stengos, he decapitated, modified and placed — still living — into a Glass Dalek casing. During the conversion process, Stengos' personality alternated between that of a human and that of a Dalek. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)

Orcini set off an explosion in Davros' bunker, killing many of the prototype Imperials. Other Daleks loyal to the Dalek Supreme then apprehended him to take him to Skaro for trial. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) As part of a long-term strategy, the Sixth Doctor himself rescued Davros so that he could further develop the Imperials and caused an eventual Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. On Spiridon Davros reactivated Daleks of Dalek army frozen and changed their loyalties to serve him as Imperial Daleks to fight against the Supreme Dalek's forces and conquered Skaro (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!)

The Imperial Daleks accompanied Davros in Earth in 1815 during the Battle of Waterloo. He planned to replace Napoléon Bonaparte's mind with that of a Dalek and use Napoleon's mind for the Dalek battle computers. (AUDIO: The Curse of Davros)

At a later stage in the war with the Renegades (as he called them) Davros created Imperial Daleks by grafting bionic appendages onto the bodies of Kaled mutants.

Davros led the Imperial Daleks to Earth in 1963 to get the Hand of Omega. They secured Coal Hill School for a base, controlling the head teacher with a chip in his head and placing a Transmat station in the basement. When this was destroyed by the Doctor with Ace's baseball bat, they landed a shuttlecraft in the school's playground. They engaged in a battle with the Renegades, who seized the Hand, but interference by the Seventh Doctor led to the Imperials acquiring it. The Doctor tricked Davros into using the Hand of Omega (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) to detonate Skaro's second sun, (PROSE: The Stranger) which caused it to turn supernova and destroy Skaro. Davros escaped his mothership in an escape pod. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

At some point after this, the names of the two factions were for some reason reversed, so the surviving Renegades, led by the Dalek Prime, called themselves Imperial Daleks. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)


 * There are two accounts of events involving Davros following events in Shoreditch 1963.

One account states that Davros' escape pod was acquired by a garbage ship, the Quetzel, which the Eighth Doctor and Sam Jones also ended up on. A group of Thals arrived, with the intention of using Davros to effectively turn them into Daleks so they could fight the Daleks better. A Dalek force arrived and took the Quetzel to a planet called Skaro. The Dalek Prime claimed that this was the original Skaro, and that the planet the Doctor had destroyed was a decoy called Antalin. The Dalek Prime knew that some of its own Daleks were loyal to Davros and put Davros on trial to flush them out. A battle ensued and the Dalek Prime emerged victorious. Davros was apparently executed but may have been teleported to safety by a loyal Spider Dalek. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

Another account states that Davros' escape pod entered the time vortex and was found by a Nekkistani ship. Davros killed the crew. The Eighth Doctor, Samson Griffin and Gemma Griffin found the Nekkistani ship in the vortex and the Griffins boarded the ship to investigate. Davros exacted his revenge by sending them back to Earth, wiping the Doctor's memory of them and operating on the TARDIS. Samson was sent home and Gemma became part of the "resistance" to the new race of Daleks Davros made on Earth. They conquered the planet, leaving only the area where Samson lived free from Dalek control. When the Doctor, Charley Pollard and C'rizz returned from the Divergent Universe, Davros was waiting for them. Davros' mind had become fractured between his own personality and that of "the Emperor". A series of events led to the Doctor actually giving the Daleks their Emperor and letting them leave Earth. Gemma was killed. Davros left Earth with his Daleks, the Emperor personality dominant. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)

Appearance
In contrast to the drab grey and black Renegades, the sleeker Imperial Daleks had white livery with gold bumps and high-pitched, scratchy voices. These prototype models retained the classic eye-stalk and plungers, but also featured rounder bases. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)

Later Imperials had golden eye-stalks and appendages and a lozenge shape on the centre of their "shoulder" section, while the dome lights became transparent rings around opaque, flattened gold discs. The ends of their manipulator arms also became slightly funnel-shaped and slotted on two sides to fit into machinery. The skirt sections of these new Imperial casings were also slightly less tapered than was traditional - a change mirrored by their Renegade counterparts. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

A civil war, ostensibly over racial purity, broke out between the original, now Renegade Daleks, and the Imperial Daleks. Imperial Daleks augmented their battle tactics with the Special Weapons Dalek, now converted to the Imperial cause and sporting a tarnished white-and-gold casing. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Power of flight
The Imperial Daleks could hover and fly (TV: Revelation of the Daleks, COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!, TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) like Davros himself in his wheelchair, before he assumed the title of Emperor. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks, COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!)

Behind the scenes

 * Imperial Daleks features on the covers of Big Finish audio dramas The Juggernauts, The Curse of Davros and We Are The Daleks