Dalek Progenitor

The Progenitor device was a piece of Dalek technology designed to create new Daleks. It stored pure Dalek DNA. Thousands of such machines were created by the Dalek Empire in the past. During the Last Great Time War, the Daleks used them to quickly populate the areas of the universe they conquered. They planned to create a new paradigm of Daleks armed with Temporal Cannons that could erase their victims from history. (PROSE: Engines of War) Eventually, all but one were lost.

When the 21st century Dalek invasion was foiled by the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble, the entire New Dalek Empire was almost completely destroyed by the human Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor. (TV: Journey's End) However, a single Dalek saucer, badly damaged and severely depleted, managed to survive with the last three Daleks in existence. The crew detected the signal of the last Progenitor device. They were unable to use it to create new Daleks, however, as the Progenitor did not recognize them: these three Daleks had been created from the cells of Davros (and did not have the requisite "pure" Dalek DNA). However, it was programmed to recognise the Time Lord known as "the Doctor" as an enemy. Thus, the Daleks went back in time to World War II where they created an android called Professor Edwin Bracewell who was completely unaware of his true origin. Masquerading as human, he "created" military robots in the Ironside Project for the United Kingdom for use against the Nazis. The Daleks waited for the Doctor to discover them.

When the Eleventh Doctor arrived, the Daleks continued to feign being simple human-made robots. The Doctor became so frustrated that, in a fit of anger, he struck one repeatedly and briefly recounted his violent history with them. With this testimony recorded, the group of Daleks transmitted the recording to the Progenitor, which recognised the Doctor, and thus accepted the command to activate. Within moments, the first five individuals of the New Dalek Paradigm were created. The first action of the New Paradigm Daleks was to disintegrate their three "unclean" forebears, who willingly offered themselves for extermination. The New Paradigm then escaped through a time corridor to the future and successfully rebuilt their empire, while the Doctor and Amy Pond remained on Earth to defuse the Oblivion Continuum bomb inside Bracewell, the Daleks' android. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

 * A cut line had the Doctor stating that the Daleks had been altering their DNA in order to keep surviving for a long time, indicating other, older incarnations of the Daleks wouldn't be recognised by the Progenitor either. This is also claimed by The Dalek Handbook.