Doctor Who Wiki

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Featured Article
From the TARDIS Index File, the free Doctor Who reference.

The Daleks (pronounced "DAH-lecks") are a extraterrestrial race of mutated Kaleds from the planet Skaro. They travel around in tank-like mechanical casings, a ruthless race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse. They are also, collectively, the greatest alien adversaries of the Time Lord known as The Doctor. Their most infamous catchphrase is "EX-TER-MIN-ATE!", with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic electronic voice. Other common utterances include "I (or WE) OBEY!" to any command given by a superior.

Externally, Daleks resemble man-sized pepper shakers, with a single mechanical eyestalk in a rotating dome, a gunstalk containing a directed energy weapon (or "death ray"), and a telescoping robot arm. Usually, the arm is fitted with a device for manipulation that resembles a plunger, but sometimes this is replaced with a tray, a mechanical claw, or some other piece of specialised equipment like a flamethrower. The plunger can be used as a bludgeon (Dalek (TV story)). The casings are made of a material that has been called dalekanium.

The creatures inside their "travel machines" are soft and repulsive in appearance, but still vicious even without their mechanical armour. During a 1984 incursion into London, a Dalek creature, separated from its casing, attacked and killed a human soldier (Resurrection of the Daleks). The Doctor has described the Daleks as "little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour." However, as the creature inside is rarely seen, the misconception that Daleks are wholly mechanical robots exists. The interdependence of biological and mechanical components makes the Daleks a type of cyborg.


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