Dalek drone

The Dalek drone was the most common Dalek model. (TV: Victory of the Daleks, GAME: City of the Daleks) They were used as the main "foot soldier", which led to them very occasionally being called warrior Daleks. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

Variations

 * Pre-Time War
 * Post-Time War
 * Post-Resurrection drone

Pre-Time War

 * The original Daleks were created by Davros, who described them as his Mark III Travel Machine. These Mark IIIs had armour cast in gunmetal grey and black. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
 * Later there were silver Daleks without slats and light blue-coloured skirt balls. The Daleks on Skaro which depended on static electricity from the floors of the Dalek City had no slats (TV: The Daleks). The Daleks seen in England during the 22nd century Dalek invasion had radio dishes mounted on their backs for external power. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) The Daleks later adopted vertical slats as a more efficient means of drawing external power from their surroundings. (TV: The Chase onwards)
 * Later, the Daleks readopted the gunmetal grey colour scheme, (TV: Day of the Daleks) but the Daleks that were stranded on Exxilon had a silver and black colour scheme. (TV:Death to the Daleks) The Renegade Daleks adopted a battleship grey and black colour scheme during the Imperial-Renegade War while Davros' Imperial Daleks had a separate, white and gold colour scheme (although these were effectively a different variant of Dalek). Other changes included the ability to hover. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

During and after the Time War
During the Last Great Time War, the new standard Dalek basic design had no major alterations except for an expanded base and an overall heavier, more solid look. The Daleks also had a metallic brass finish. The indicator lights were much larger and cylindrical, and the eyepiece glowed blue.

This Dalek design was also much more advanced than any previous model, with a swivelling mid-section that allowed the Dalek a 360-degree field of fire and a force field that disintegrated bullets before they struck it.

This Dalek design also added a new feature to the eyestalk: if something was obstructing its vision (such as paint), a heat discharge could melt the obstruction. (TV: Stolen Earth)

It was also able to regenerate itself by absorbing electrical power and the DNA of a time traveller. The manipulator arm was also able to crush a man's skull in addition to the technology interfacing abilities shown by earlier models. (TV: Dalek)

At least the Cult of Skaro could also remotely interface with technology without using the manipulator arm and be able to have "Emergency Temporal Shift" functions. (TV: Doomsday)

The Daleks which escaped the destruction of the Crucible (TV: Journey's End) camouflaged themselves as "Ironsides" which were supposedly created by Edwin Bracewell. These Daleks were khaki-green coloured, probably because it was a self-applied paint job in order to perpetuate the deception that they were obedient war robots. Following the restoration of the Dalek race, the standard Daleks became a bright red colour, but were otherwise no different from their superiors. The original three Daleks were then destroyed by their "superior" successors. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)

While the design of the New Dalek Paradigm drone was initially mass-produced, (GAME: City of the Daleks, COMIC: The Only Good Dalek) the Daleks ultimately chose to return to using the bronze Time War model as the standard Dalek, with the red version being relegated to a higher position. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)


 * However, the Time War design of the Daleks in also used by them in the Second Dalek War, in PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks, which is set before the Time War. It is possible that the Daleks which started the war, seen in TV: Frontier in Space & Planet of the Daleks, upgraded their casings after failing to retrieve their army in Planet of the Daleks, and the design was later used to fight the Time War.