DARDIS

A DARDIS, often described as a Dalek time machine, Dalek time ship, or Dalek Time Ship, was a type of time vessel used by the Daleks.

History
According to one account, a researcher learnt from Susan Foreman that the surviving Daleks who had been defeated on Skaro in the "far distant future" by the Thals led by Ian Chesterton used a TARDIS of their own to travel into the past with the intent to wreak revenge on Ian's people or, better still, prevent Ian himself from being born. However, they were unable to go any further back than 2164 due to a leak in their fluid link, resulting in the 2164 Dalek invasion of Earth. (AUDIO: Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman?)

The first Dalek time machine was believed by the Time Lords to have been specifically developed to neutralise the threat posed by the Doctor, and that it used stolen Time Lord technology. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) Indeed, it was roughly comparable in abilities to a Time Lord TARDIS. It was dimensionally transcendent and created for the express purpose of chasing the First Doctor through time and space. It enabled the Doctor's companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright to return home. At first the Doctor refused, insisting it was too dangerous but he changed his mind. The Doctor instructed the pair to set the ship for self-destruction after it had transported them to London on 26 June 1965. (TV: The Chase; PROSE: The Time Travellers)

A modified version of the initial model was constructed. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) This new time machine was used by the Daleks and Mavic Chen to pursue the First Doctor, his companions and the First Monk. This machine tracked their targets with a space-time scope. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)

The Daleks used taranium to power their space-time craft. (PROSE: The Chase, Mission to the Unknown, The Mutation of Time)

The Master stole the DARDIS core from Skaro. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)

Acting on the orders of the Emperor on Skaro, a Dalek time machine, crewed by an Elite Guard Dalek and three subordinate silver Daleks, oversaw the conditioning of Caligula, Emperor of Rome, in the year 37 AD. When Caligula resisted Dalek commands, the leading Dalek deemed the mission a failure and chose to abandon it before returning to Skaro, noting that there were other nexus points in human history. (COMIC: Empire of the Daleks)

Time scout ships were usually crewed of six Daleks and could be identified by their energy signature. (AUDIO: Energy of the Daleks)

Dalek time ships were used during the invasion of Gallifrey. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)

By the time of the Dalek-Movellan War, the time machines were considered lost knowledge by the Daleks. The Kembel faction was dedicated to regaining that knowledge and succeeded in recreating a time machine, however it was stolen by the Tenth Doctor who used it to return to the post-Time War universe, (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros) although the Daleks were later able to re-establish their time travel technology (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks, et al.) and again send their ships through time. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, et al.)

Dalek time ships were able to be remotely controlled from their point of destination. When Davros escaped in one, the Seventh Doctor sent him to a planet of ghosts. (AUDIO: Daleks Among Us)

At some point, Bronze Daleks used a Dalek Time Ship to travel back in time to a very early point in Skaro's history, to help Davros's Daleks emerge from their entombment and build the Dalek City. However, the time-travelling Daleks then found themselves stranded because a universe-wide temporal crisis caused their ship to be grounded, just like the TARDISes of the Doctor's various incarnations. (GAME: Lost in Time)

Behind the scenes

 * This craft has been widely referred to as a "DARDIS" by production crew and in fandom, although the name was never used on television or in John Peel's novelisations of The Chase or The Daleks' Master Plan. The name was finally mentioned in-universe in The Quantum Archangel.
 * The Dalek Handbook claims that a Dalek timeship fled the Dalek Civil War on 41st century Skaro before crashing on Vulcan prior to the 21st century.
 * Dardis was also used as the name of Dr. Da's spaceship in Film Star Wins Oscar—Misses Premiere!, a 1965 parody of Dr. Who and the Daleks.