Black Dalek Leader

The Supreme Dalek was a Black Dalek with white sense globes and a more hollow voice. In the aftermath of the Dalek-Movellan War, he sought to lead the Daleks to recovery, orchestrating simultaneous plans to retrieve Davros from captivity, invade Earth and attack the Time Lords.

The strategy
Having lost the war with the Movellans, much of the Dalek Empire in Mutter's Spiral collapsed. Various Dalek commanders began trying to reorganise the remnants of their respective sectors, but they were isolated from each other, leading to increased factionalism. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks)

The Supreme Dalek planned to restore the Daleks to power through a series of ambitious schemes. Firstly, he planned to rescue Davros from cryogenic imprisonment and manipulate him into finding a cure for the Movellan virus. At the same time, he planned to capture the Doctor and his companions with a Time Corridor and create duplicates of them, which would be sent back to Gallifrey to assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords. Additionally, he also planned to use human duplicates to infiltrate key positions in Earth’s government positions, and cause their society to collapse in preparation for invasion. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)

With Dalek numbers greatly depleted following the war, the Supreme Dalek was forced to bolster his forces with Dalek Troopers; (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) whose numbers consisted of hired humanoid mercenaries and mind-controlled duplicates. The Commander of the troopers, Lytton, worked closely with the Supreme Dalek, though the two often disagreed on strategy, and the Supreme found Lytton to be too arrogant.

Plans in action
The attempt to free Davros from the space station which served as his prison was successful, but the Supreme Dalek’s plan was put at risk by Davros’ insistence that he remain close to his cryogenic chamber, and his refusal to board the Dalek ship. Lytton tried to convince the Supreme Dalek that there was no time to cater to Davros’ demands, but the Supreme Dalek claimed to have a plan that would force Davros to leave with them of his own free will. In the meantime, he was determined that no harm come to Davros, as without his genetic expertise, the Dalek race had no future.

The plan to duplicate and Doctor and his companions was also a success, but Davros proved to be greatly unreliable, and it soon became clear that he had no intention of helping the Daleks cure the Movellan virus. Instead, he converted two Daleks and several troopers to his cause, and instigated a civil war against the Supreme Dalek for control of the Dalek race. Realising that Davros could not be trusted, the Supreme Dalek ordered Lytton to execute him. Lytton suggested simply shooting down the space station, but the Supreme Dalek, paranoid, insisted that he needed to see Davros dead.

When the troopers failed, he instead dispatched Daleks to carry out the task; however, these Daleks were killed by Davros, who had already released the Movellan virus onto the space station. The Supreme Dalek ordered Lytton to exterminate the Daleks and troopers loyal to Davros, and then dispatched a squad of Daleks to execute Lytton when he had outlived his usefulness. A battle ensued between the Supreme’s forces and those of Davros, which ended with more Daleks infected with the Movellan virus released by the Doctor. Lytton was one of the only survivors.

Although one of his plans had failed, the Supreme Dalek was confident that his duplicates on Earth would still bring about the collapse of society. Contacting the Doctor via the TARDIS scanner, the Supreme Dalek maintained that the Daleks could not fail. His gloating rant was cut off when Stien, an unstable Dalek duplicate, activated the space station’s self-destruct, which destroyed the adjacent Dalek Battlecruiser, killing the Supreme Dalek. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)

Legacy
Far from leading the Daleks back to power, the Supreme Dalek's conflict with Davros accentuated the existing factionalism which existed within the remnants of the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks) Davros returned with his own race of Daleks and sought to claim the the title of Emperor of the Daleks by defeating the "renegade" forces of the Supreme Dalek's successor. The result was the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks) The internal hostilities only truly ended when the Dalek Prime put Davros on trial, leading his remaining supporters to reveal themselves so they could be wiped out. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

 * This Supreme Dalek is likely the same one referred to in Destiny of the Daleks, given that they were both the ruler of the Dalek race at the time of the Movellan war.
 * The Supreme Dalek’s location when he contacts the Doctor at the end of the story is unclear. Given that he had previously been shown witnessing Stein break into the self destruct chamber, it is possible he evacuated the Dalek ship before it was destroyed. If so, he may also be the Supreme Dalek mentioned in Revelation of the Daleks. The target novelisation of the story states that the Supreme Dalek is making his final transmission to the Doctor from a secret location.
 * Excluding the Emperor's black-domed guards in The Evil of the Daleks, the Supreme Dalek was the first Black Dalek to appear on TV since the Supreme Dalek in The Daleks' Master Plan which concluded in 1966 - a gap of almost eighteen years. Other Black Daleks appeared in comics and novelisations in that time, however.