Dalek Prime

The Dalek Prime was the first Dalek. Calculating and ambitious to the point of hubris, he became the first and longest lasting Dalek Emperor. In this role, he inhabited a variety of casings, most notably huge tower-like structures in throne rooms and mobile golden casings with enlarged, bulbous dome sections. Due to this latter peculiarity, he was sometimes known as the Golden Emperor, the Gold Dalek, or his race's Master Brain. Early in Skaro's history, he was identified as the first Dalek leader and also bore the name of Supreme Dalek.

As the Dalek Emperor, he ruled the planet Skaro and the Dalek Empire, and was the first Emperor of the Daleks the Doctor encountered. By the time of his meeting with the Second Doctor, the Emperor resided in an enormous, immobile, conical shell installed into a corner of the control room in the Dalek City, connected to the wall by tubes and cables. He spoke in a deep, echoing voice. Unlike the rest of his race, he had no gunstick and no sucker arm. This shell was destroyed during the opening hostilities of the Dalek Civil War.

After emerging victorious from the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, he brought about the Second Great Dalek Occupation and died in the body of Susan Mendes after the Enemy-Alliance Dalek War. According to one account, after dying, the Emperor was resurrected by the Time Strategist to lead the Empire through the Last Great Time War, towards the end of which his warship fell through time. He created a new Dalek army out of dead humans and was, with his hybrid Daleks, destroyed by the Bad Wolf, who regarded him as "the False God," at the Battle of the Game Station. Other accounts, however, suggested that the Dalek Emperor in the Last Great Time War was a different individual who had risen to the rank of Emperor at the close of the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War or potentially an advisor to that emperor.

Origins
By one account, following the neutronic war which nearly destroyed Skaro, causing both the Thals and their enemies to mutate beyond recognition, nothing stirred on the planet for two years. Two of the Daleks' humanoid forebears, Zolfian and Yarvelling, finally exited the fallout shelter in which they had survived all this time, and came across a mutated member of their species. It had a brain "a thousand times superior" to theirs by Yarvelling's analysis. Being nearly strengthless (and as weak to the lethal radiations as anyone), it had retreated into one of Yarvelling's war machines. This individual was the first of the new race of Daleks. (COMIC: Genesis of Evil)

However, according to most accounts, the Daleks were created by the Kaled scientist Davros. Prime was the first Dalek created and subsequently took command of the first Daleks. He also attempted to murder Davros, in an application of the very same pitiless mindset with which he had programmed his creations. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) The other Daleks quickly gathered around him as the first Dalek leader when they ousted Davros and the Kaled Scientific Elite. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks) Though identifying himself as the Dalek who fired on Davros, (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks, War of the Daleks) the Dalek Prime also knew that he and his race were originally to have developed independently as a result of the neutron war; he accused Davros of having interfered with the Daleks' destiny in an effort to gain power over them, accelerating their evolution for his own ends. He stated it was this "futile madness" which had prompted him and the other early Daleks to elect to destroy Davros. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

Instant ascension
According to one account, the Dalek Prime was soon given a new and larger casing with a disproportionately large spheroid head section. Made out of Flidor gold, quartz, and Arkellis flower sap, it also had three sense globes on each panel of its base unit unlike other Daleks. The first Dalek Emperor was now in charge, presiding over the construction of a Dalek City and taking part in the early days of the Dalek Empire's space conquest. (COMIC: Genesis of Evil, Power Play, The Amaryll Challenge et al.) Some sources, such as the Dalek Tapes and a human history book about the Daleks, also alleged that the bulbous-headed Emperor of early Dalek history went by the title of "Supreme Dalek". (COMIC: The Dalek Tapes, PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

A slower process
According to another account, following the end of the war, the Dalek Prime spent his time conducting experiments on other life-forms on Skaro, creating mutations which went on to inhabit the petrified jungle and the Lake of Mutations near the foot of the Drammankin Mountains. Eventually the Dalek Prime discovered the molecules that could cause further mutation within a Dalek, and created a drug from its research which would initiate the mutation. Not prepared to test the drug on any Dalek in case it grew beyond its capabilities, the Dalek Prime used the drug on itself and evolved to the peak of Dalek evolution with hugely enhanced mental powers. Only later did it proclaim itself the Emperor of the Daleks. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)

The genetically-modified Dalek, going by the designation of "Genetic Variant Two-One-Zero", was one of several modified Daleks being tested for leadership. Sent to the planet Shade, it had to collaborate with Steven Taylor to survive Chaons who infested the planet and to get to a transmat station to escape.

Several times over, Steven saved Two-One-Zero from death, once taking it out of its casing and carrying it in his hands wrapped in a tarpaulin. During the whole ordeal, Two-One-Zero exhibited qualities unusual for Daleks: he tried to save human prisoners' lives and exterminated another Dalek to save Steven's life. He promised to give Steven a transmat code to return back to the First Doctor and Vicki on the planet Entropica, but betrayed Steven in the very end, giving him transmat coordinates that would lead him to certain death had he not been saved by the First Doctor.

Upon returning to Skaro, Two-One-Zero demonstrated that it was indeed a superior Dalek as it was the only genetic variant to return from the ordeal. Hence, it was transferred to a new casing and officially declared the Emperor of Daleks, its experience with Steven prompting it to search for the Human Factor as a way to achieve total Dalek domination over the universe, (AUDIO: Across the Darkened City) an intention it would follow up on much later. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)

Early empire
Originally, the Dalek Prime and the Black Dalek Leader officially held the offices of Dalek Emperor and Warlord, respectively, on the basis of an election. Every Skaro-year, all the Dalek Commanders would convene in the Dalek City and choose whether to re-elect their two leaders. (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor)

Speaking in the City Centre, the Emperor brought up the issue of metal fatigue slowing the space conquest programme when inventor Zeg announced that his metalert was the key, demanding that he be made the new Emperor on the basis of his greater strength. Outraged by Zeg's challenge, the Emperor summoned the Black Dalek Leader to test Zeg's claim of invincibility, finding that even his gunstick could destroy him. As popular support moved to Zeg, the Emperor put the matter to the Brain Machine, which declared that Zeg must prove his intelligence and the Emperor must prove his strength in a duel for leadership.

The following day, the Emperor and Zeg were to meet on the plain. When Zeg reached the acid river, the Emperor blasted away at the rock ledge beneath him. Zeg escaped unscathed and followed the Emperor's trail to the mercury geysers, where he fired on his rival only to hit an inflatable facsimile, the Emperor having deployed a ruse to get Zeg within range of a geyser diverted towards him. Unaffected by the mercury, Zeg pursued the Emperor into the abandoned Dalek workshops. When the Emperor doused Zeg in liquid oxygen from one of the tanks, the cold cut through and caused Zeg to explode. Returning to the city, the victorious Emperor promised the other Daleks that they would improve on Zeg's invention and take to the stars. (COMIC: Duel of the Daleks)

Following several prototypes, the Daleks succeeded in developing interstellar travel and constructed a space fleet. Leading the fleet, the Emperor commanded a Dalek saucer designated Proto-Leader. (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge) In his absence, another Dalek created a faction known as the Exterminators on Skaro, who devoted themselves to scouring Skaro to exterminate the remaining Thals. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem)

Via radio, the Emperor warned "all planets in all galaxies" that the Daleks were coming before seeing to the invasion of Alvega, the nearest planet to Skaro. Finding only plant life, the Daleks' audio meter hinted at the presence of intelligent life and so the Emperor had Scout Daleks clear a path through the grass in their search. Soon after, the Daleks found themselves under attack by intelligent plants known as the Amarylls, who were led by a Controller. When the Amarylls turned on the Emperor's fleet, the Emperor fled the planet, leading the main space fleet to other conflicts while entrusting four ships remaining to wipe out all life on Alvega. The Emperor was witness to the successful destruction of Alvega, announcing that whatever the Daleks could not conquer was to be destroyed. He then turned his attention to Solturis, a mineral rich world populated by humanoids.

These events, like most of early Dalek history, had been watched from afar by Earth's Space News Agency. (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge) Peter Ayliffe, an agent of Earth's Universal Secret Service, suggested a new Identicode for the Emperor, and the Service sent Agent 0031 to Skaro to present the Emperor with this identification code, being the first known attempt at diplomatic relations from humanity to the Daleks. Naturally, Agent 0031 was never heard from again after he was dropped onto the surface of Skaro. (PROSE: From Special Agent Peter Ayliffe)

Landing on Solturis, the Emperor claimed to come in peace and gained the trust of the planet's ruler Redlin. Learning that the planet had a defensive weapon, the Penta Ray, the Emperor had a fake created and smuggled into the capital city as the Daleks made off with the real Penta Ray. Upon returning to their ship, however, it was found that the weapon required a missing key to operate it. The Daleks were approached by Geltis, a Solturian traitor who offered the key in exchange for being allowed to rule Solturis. Confident of victory, the Emperor left the planet to attend to other conquests while leaving two Dalek ships behind. Shortly after, the Emperor learnt that the Solturians had reclaimed the Penta Ray, which they used to destroy the Dalek forces. However, his attention was drawn away by a message calling him back to Skaro. (COMIC: The Penta Ray Factor)

The Emperor returned to Skaro, where he found that a radioactive cloud of rust was wreaking havoc upon the Daleks, eating away at their outer casings. Fear of this plague led to Daleks attacking each other while the Emperor determined that it was being carried inadvertently by the Black Dalek Leader. Though the Black Dalek intended to die, the Emperor deemed that his loss would be unacceptable and so had his casing reconstructed while the Daleks worked to cure the plague.

As the Daleks rebuilt from the rust plague, a Monstron spacecraft had landed on Skaro, (COMIC: Plague of Death) and the Emperor watched as Dalek hoverbout patrols fell victim to its defences. The Monstrons then sent their Engibrain soldiers to attack the Dalek City, entombing it in liquid metal. The Emperor survived, saved from an electric eel by the Daleks' magnetiser. Using the eel's electricity, the Emperor intended to use an underground river to launch a surprise attack only to find the spacecraft had been destroyed. Nevertheless, the Emperor was conscious of threats from space. (COMIC: The Menace of the Monstrons)

A few months later, the Dalek City was rebuilt as the Emperor ordered that a space station be constructed as a base for the mining and exploration of the planet Oric. However, the Emperor found that Skaro Control Sky Seven had been attacked by the Interceptors of the robotic Mechonoids, resulting in the destruction of a Red Dalek Leader. Learning that the Mechonoids made use of hypnotic clouds to enslave Daleks, the Emperor used the thought patterns of an afflicted Dalek to create the image of a Mechonoid. Preparing for galactic war, the Emperor ordered the Daleks to construct new defences and weapons while searching through space for the potentially useful inventions of other races. (COMIC: Eve of War)

As the Daleks searched space, the Emperor was on Skaro. When the hidden planet Phryne was uncovered and conquered by the Daleks, the Searcher One Leader ordered the victory be reported to the Emperor. (COMIC: The Archives of Phryne)

The Astrodalek detected the appearance of a new, rogue planet, named Skardal by the Emperor, who ordered it be tracked. Finding that its course had been diverted to Skaro, endangering the Daleks, the Emperor had the Daleader's fleet set out to stop it. Using magnetic meteorites, the Daleks sent Skardal on a course to Mechanus. (COMIC: The Rogue Planet) Skardal was pursued by a Dalek rocket, actually commandeered by an alien agent, which the Emperor ordered detonated only after entering Mechanus' orbit. However, the rocket's warhead was detached and sent back to Skaro, where it was destroyed by defensive rockets. This resulted in the destruction of Skardal before it could strike Mechanus, thus preventing war between the Daleks and the Mechonoids. (COMIC: Impasse)

When the Terrorkons endangered the underwater rocket defence system, the Emperor ordered against detonating the rockets lest the City be damaged and poison since the Terrorkons themselves were a means of defence. Finding that a Terrorkon had acquired a Dalek rocket, the Emperor went with the Red Dalek through the ancestors' extractor pipes to destroy the Terrorkon. Finding that the rocket had been discarded and inadvertently activated, the Emperor had the Red Dalek disarm it, saving the City. The Daleks themselves were saved from the Terrorkon when it was attacked by an eel, with the Emperor ordering a search to find all potential dangers on Skaro. (COMIC: The Terrorkon Harvest)

During the exploration of Skaro, the Emperor learnt of the existence of preserved Humanoid Daleks when a Dalek admitted to killing one. He then ordered patrols to search for other survivors so that the Daleks may learn the secrets of their ancestors. However, a clash between the two remaining Humanoid Daleks, Lodian and Zet, resulted in both their deaths after their capture, with their secrets lost to the Metal Daleks. (COMIC: Legacy of Yesteryear)

Whilst ordering the construction of a new road on the Lake of Mutations, the Emperor was questioned by a Dalek who did not make themselves known. Placing his subordinates under scrutiny, the Emperor found that a One in a Million Dalek sought to preserve the beauty of flowers, destroying machinery and Daleks themselves to that end. His position as Emperor challenged, the Golden Dalek confronted the One in a Million Dalek and his growing faction. Pointing out that the Dalek had neglected to preserve the dying flowers on his own outer casing, the Emperor saw that he was exterminated, dismissing beauty as a concept for human beings who were to be destroyed. (COMIC: Shadow of Humanity)

When the Jevon spaceship Guardian approached Skaro, the Emperor had the magnetrap bring it down to the planet. Kirid, the Jevon commander, revealed that they were headed to Arides to destroy the plants there before they could pollinate and endanger all life in the universe. Though the Daleks believed themselves immune, they were deceived into believing they were susceptible. When a Dalek was destroyed while examining the Jevon weapon, the Emperor led ships to destroy the Guardian, which was done just as it completed its mission on Arides. The Emperor then declared all-out war on humanoids everywhere. (COMIC: The Emissaries of Jevo)

Detecting the approach of the spacecraft Starmaker, the Emperor ordered it bombarded with meteorites, forcing the ship to land on Skaro. His attention was to acquire prisoners to learn the location of their planet. While Starmaker was destroyed by the Daleks, three survivors were able to escape using a stolen Dalek transporter. However, they left behind a sheet of paper revealing the path to their planet, Earth, which the Emperor vowed to conquer. (COMIC: The Road to Conflict)

Aboard his Dalek Flagship, the Emperor led an invasion fleet into the solar system on a course to Earth. Engaging what appeared to be a fleet of organic spacecraft, actually the mediums of the telepathic Elders, the Dalek fleet was overpowered and forced to regroup before attacking a human colony on Titan, moon of Saturn. Capturing six human colonists, the Emperor had them conditioned to operate Dalek spacecraft in order to attack the mysterious aliens. However, the Elders saw through this plan and freed the humans of the influence of the Daleks who, induced to state of confusion, destroyed the majority of their own fleet. Spared the power of the Elders, the humiliated Emperor was forced to retreat. (COMIC: Return of the Elders)

25th century invasion
In 2400, the Emperor gave an address at the Great Council Chamber, ordering a Dalek invasion of the solar system. (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks) Residing in the Emperor's Quarters, the Emperor gave the order to switch on the revitalising rays. He was unaware that he was being observed by the human Jeff Stone, who was conducting espionage in the Dalek City. (COMIC: City of the Daleks) Ultimately, the war ended with the Emperor being forced to sue for peace by Earth ambassadors. In a televised ceremony, the Emperor renounced the Dalek dream of conquest and promised that the Daleks would never leave Skaro again. (COMIC: Battle for the Moon)

27th century invasion
After two hundred years of peace, a mysterious Mechanical Planet came which threatened both Skaro and Earth. The Emperor landed on Earth and made an offer to eliminate the threat in exchange for the return of confiscated Dalek weaponry, which the humans grudgingly accepted. Ultimately, the Daleks destroyed the Mechanical Planet and, with their weapons and power restored, the Emperor vowed to conquer "all the planets in every sky". (COMIC: The Mechanical Planet)

Having given him a tour of the Dalek City, the Emperor personally interrogated Pat Kelley, who had arrived on Skaro in the spaceship Emerald Isle. Believing him to be a spy, the Emperor ordered all the Dalek inventions and technology, which Kelley had praised, to be screened for flaws. Interpreting Kelley's advisement for the Daleks to grow out their five-leaf clovers as an attempt at sabotage, the Emperor had his ship refitted before sending Kelley back to Earth with the clovers, believing that it would bring Earth to ruin. (PROSE: The Five-Leaf Clover)

When the Skaro water plant was sabotaged, the Emperor initially believed that human slaves were responsible. Soon after, however, the Daleks caught an alien spy, whom the Emperor ordered to be brought to him. The spy proved to be a scout for an army of Birdmen that invaded Skaro. Though the invaders were ultimately exterminated, the Emperor lamented that their ability of invisibility, a potential asset to the Daleks, was lost with them. (COMIC: The Invisible Invaders)

Opposing the Doctor
At one point in their history where the Daleks had developed working time travel, the Dalek Prime sent a squad of Daleks in a time machine to pursue the TARDIS and kill the First Doctor and his companions. The Supreme Dalek supervised the operation and was to report their progress to the Dalek Prime. (PROSE: The Chase)

When a nigh-indestructible brain machine built by Dalek scientists turned against the Daleks, the Emperor reluctantly sent a Dalek to Earth to find the Doctor and ask him for help. Though hardly inclined to save the Daleks as such, the Doctor accepted, knowing that if Skaro was destroyed in a nuclear blast by the brain machine, as it threatened to do, some of the radioactive dust might reach other inhabited planets such as Earth. The Doctor successfully destroyed the brain machine, and, true to his word, the Dalek Emperor held a banquet in honour of the Doctor, who was sat to the Emperor's right. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Daleks)

The Time Destructor
In the year 4000, the Daleks constructed a base on the planet Kembel and formed an alliance with the rulers of the Outer Galaxies to gather the resources they needed to build the Time Destructor which they planned to use to wipe out the entire Solar System. The Dalek Prime awaited the completion of the invasion on Skaro. Due to the interference of the First Doctor, the Time Destructor's taranium core was stolen. The Dalek Prime sent a Red Dalek from Skaro to Kembel in another time machine to aid in its recovery. When the taranium was recovered and returned to Kembel, the Doctor got hold of the Time Destructor and wiped out the Dalek force stationed there. The Dalek Prime, unable to replace the invasion fleet and the Black Dalek commanding it, was forced to accept the defeat. (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown, The Mutation of Time)

The rebuilt Emperor
The Emperor participated in a temporal attempt to invade Earth before it knew what hit it; the Emperor followed the main invasion force in his time machine to 2415. However, his machine was faulty and he instead landed in the middle of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. While he was lost in time, his forces, clueless as to what to do without their leader, surrendered, aborting the invasion. Sometime later, the invasion of Uranus was likewise a failure for lack of efficient command by the Emperor, whose casing's sonic guard had been damaged by the supersonic waves used by an Earth colony on an artificial satellite orbiting Uranus.

On the Super-Skaro year, in the 40th century, (COMIC: The Brain Tappers ) the Commander of the Red Extra-Galactic Squadron protested when the Black Dalek began to announce that the Emperor was to be re-elected once more. According to the Red Commander, his squadron, during its distant travels, had witness the disastrous effects of the Emperor's strategies against humankind, leading the Red Daleks to rule the Dalek Prime unfit for leadership.

Outraged, the Emperor ordered the entire Red Squadron exterminated at the hands of the Black Dalek. However, this sent the Dalek Prime into an identity crisis which spanned several weeks, at the end of which he emerged with the conclusion that the Red Daleks had been right after all, and he was not perfect. However, this did not mean he relinquished power; instead, he allowed the Dalek Scientists to take his casing apart and rebuild it from the ground up, integrating more cybernetics than before. In the meantime, the Daleks were ruled by the Brain Machine, to which the Emperor had transmitted all his knowledge.

When he returned, the fault with the Golden Emperor's memory cells had been found and the entire first half of his casing had been replaced, now containing a large, external, artificial organic main brain in addition to the actual brain of the Dalek mutant, and which was far more powerful than any computer. This new casing was huge and stood in the Great Hall of the Dalek City, (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor) although the rebuilt Emperor was able to temporarily load himself into a special golden command ship, larger and more complex than an ordinary flying saucer, to lead the Dalek fleet himself.

In this new casing, the Emperor was able to read thoughts. He attempted to exploit this during an attempted attack of Earth. However, Sara Kingdom realised his new telepathy-based strategy. She ordered the rest of the fleet to attack the Emperor's ship while giving a flawed version of the plan to the Space Security Service's officers. The Dalek fleet was scattered and almost wiped out, with the Emperor returning to Skaro. (COMIC: The Brain Tappers)

Search for the Human Factor
In the wake of the Time Destructor disaster, much of the galaxy was warned about the Dalek plan and several war forces — among them the Thals, the Draconians and the Terran Federation — were formed to battle the Dalek Empire in a series of wars fought over the course of the millennium and into the 5000s. It was eventually predicted by Dalek computers that the race would become extinct within eighty years if it could not secure victory. The Dalek Prime took on the title of the Dalek Emperor during this time and, desperate to win, ordered the Daleks to conduct research into the Dalek Factor. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks) He ordered the Daleks to capture the Second Doctor so that they could force him to conduct research into the Human Factor. This would unlock the secrets of the Dalek Factor which was to be spread throughout all areas of human history, giving all humans the mentality of a Dalek and preventing the Great War from ever happening. When the Doctor escaped, the Emperor was caught in the chaos of a civil war between humanised Daleks and un-altered Daleks and nearly destroyed. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) Having survived, the Emperor's forces began rebuilding, (COMIC: Bringer of Darkness) resulting in the emergence of a new command structure involving grey Dalek drones and Gold Supreme Daleks. (TV: Day of the Daleks)

Shortly after this, the Emperor met Bernice Summerfield as she moved through time, and questioned her on why the Civil War had occurred and why the other Daleks questioned him. She berated the Emperor during their short discussion, mocking him for not even having a gun, and walked away so that she would live, giving "the greatest insult [she] could think to give a Dalek". The Emperor was left screaming after her for her to obey him and that she would be annihilated. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro)

Civil War
During the Dalek invasion of Earth, the Daleks had come across evidence that (PROSE: War of the Daleks) in 1963, the Seventh Doctor was to trick Davros and a group of Daleks loyal to him into detonating the Hand of Omega and destroying Skaro. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Using this information, the Emperor later claimed to have hatched a complex scheme to ensure the survival of Skaro. When the time came for the Daleks to dig up and revive Davros, he claimed he had him displaced to the planet Antalin, terraformed to resemble the Skaro of old, so that both Davros and the Doctor would believe Antalin's coordinates to be Skaro's and destroy Antalin instead. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

The revival of Davros came in the course of the Dalek-Movellan War; the Daleks who rescued Davros from the ruins claimed that they needed his genius to break their stalemate with the Movellans. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) The Dalek Prime later claimed that the War itself had however been a fabrication to trick Davros, with the Movellans themselves being the creations of the Daleks. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) Alternatively, the research of the Celestial Intervention Agency stated that, before the outbreak of the War, the Dalek Empire had grown so large it needed to be governed by two different Dalek Emperors, each maintaining little contact with the other. While the Dalek Prime remained on Skaro, his fellow emperor was located away from the Dalek homeworld and killed by the Movellans. With the Prime now in control of the entire empire, Dalek strategies during the war were harmed by the fact that the Dalek Prime was unable to keep track of the forces previously under the second Emperor's command. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem)

At any rate, Davros, his execution at the hands of his first Daleks still fresh in his mind, set about creating Daleks who would be loyal to him, (TV: Destiny of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks) eventually causing a full-blown civil war between Davros's Daleks, who had proclaimed him their Emperor and called themselves the Imperials, and the Daleks who still thought Davros was an inferior creature wrongly usurping authority over the "master race", a side whom Davros referred to as the Renegades (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) and who were led by the Dalek Prime. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

After Davros was captured by the Daleks on Necros, the Emperor personally attended his trial on Skaro. The Emperor charged Davros with perverting the destiny of the Daleks, while Davros protested that the Emperor had allowed the Daleks to become weak. Though a number of Daleks considered that they could learn from Davros, the Emperor sentenced him to extermination. Before the sentence could be carried out, the Dalek City was struck by an asteroid while the Daleks' systems were incapcitated by a virus. In the ensuing chaos, Davros was escorted by technobots to the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown, who took him with them in the TARDIS. From the court room, the Emperor presented video evidence of Davros consorting with the Doctor.

To exact revenge on both of them, the Emperor had Dalek Killer Abslom Daak transmated just before he would have died destroying the Death Wheel in orbit of the planet Hell. Using androids as a decoy, the Emperor secretly gave Daak the task of capturing the Doctor, ostensibly to aid humanity's effort against the Daleks. Once Daak and the Star Tigers captured the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield on Hell, they were transmated to Skaro, where the Emperor revealed himself. Though an attempt at escape was made, the Daleks quickly pacified the humanoids. Under interrogation, the Doctor was forced to reveal to the Emperor that he had taken Davros to Spiridon, while his friends were conditioned to serve the Daleks and used to force the Doctor to assist the Daleks in eliminating him. While the Emperor remained on Skaro, the Doctor and his friends accompanied a Dalek fleet led by the Black Dalek to Spiridon, where they engaged Davros' Daleks in battle. Ultimately, Davros' Daleks prevailed over those loyal to the Emperor, while the Doctor was able to set his allies free.

Naming himself the new Emperor of the Daleks, Davros took the Doctor and his company with him aboard his mothership, which set a course to Skaro. Upon arrival, the mothership transmitted a computer virus to impair the Dalek City's systems before launching an attack, soon reducing it to ruins. Touching down in his assault shuttle, Davros proceeded to confront the Emperor. A brief argument ensued, after which Davros deemed that the Emperor was no longer needed and ordered his extermination. Subjected to the firepower of two of Davros' Daleks, the Emperor was seemingly killed as his casing was blown apart. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!) However, the Dalek Prime, as the Emperor of the Renegades, had regained control of Skaro and used his ability to be active in the world through remotely-controlled decoy casings to fake its destruction. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

The Dalek Prime reigns supreme
When the Shoreditch Incident actually came to pass, the Doctor indeed tricked Davros and his Imperials into destroying themselves with the Hand of Omega after they had wiped out most of the Renegades. The Doctor convinced what he believed to be the last of the Reneagdes to self-destruct, hitting it with the realisation that the Daleks had failed and it no longer had any purpose. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) In truth, thanks to the Dalek Prime's foreseeing the Incident, many Daleks loyal to it were safe on what he called the real Skaro, though their Empire was considerably weakened. With Davros believed dead and all of his genetically-modified loyal Daleks destroyed, the Dalek Prime switched the denominations of the Dalek factions, calling his own side the Imperials while giving the name of Renegades to any of the Daleks on Skaro who, while genetically identical to the Prime's Daleks, still felt sympathy for Davros's cause.

Davros, who had survived in an escape pod and returned to using his original life-support chair rather than the Emperor casing, was eventually located. Although a faction of Thals attempted to capture him in the presence of the Eighth Doctor, it was not long before the Daleks were alerted to the discovery and brought Davros and the Doctor to Skaro. Thus, the Doctor once again encountered the Dalek Prime, who was getting about by means of his old golden bulbous-headed casing.

The Dalek Prime's final plan was to place Davros on trial so as to ferret out any of the Daleks secretly loyal to Davros from his people. He left the Doctor alive to witness the trial, planning to use him as a contingency plan to destroy Davros if the Dalek Prime's own forces failed to do so, and had the opportunity to explain the "truth" about the supposed destruction of Skaro to him as well as to Davros. During Davros's trial, one of Davros's supporters destroyed a decoy of the Dalek Prime, igniting another civil war. The Dalek Prime claimed victory after Davros's capture and apparent execution and after his supporters were apparently wiped out. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

Other accounts of the end of the war existed. One held that Skaro had in fact been destroyed (PROSE: Twice Upon a Time) in line with how Davros had doubted Prime's claims about the real Skaro surviving. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) According to the research of human historians of the Daleks, a new Dalek Emperor took over the Imperial Dalek faction after Davros was lost in the explosion of Skaro's second sun (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) caused by his activation of the sabotaged Hand of Omega in 1963. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) He had previously been a member of the Dalek Council, but exterminated all its fellow Supreme Daleks upon Davros's flight, allowing him to crown himself the new Dalek Emperor. (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) He carried forward Davros's long-held plan to move against the High Council of the Time Lords, thus beginning the Last Great Time War. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

The Emperor remained on Skaro whilst it sent a Supreme Dalek to take over the Library on Kar-Charrat. After the Seventh Doctor's apparent death before he was able to be interrogated, the Emperor ordered the Dalek Supreme to return to Skaro and self-destruct, replacing him with the Chief Scientist. With the library destroyed, the Emperor declared that he would devise an alternative plan. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine)

Second Great Dalek Occupation
Upon learning of Project Infinity, the Emperor planned to hijack it to bring a victorious Dalek army to N-Space from a parallel universe. He had Vega VI invaded and the people begin mining veganite, disguising his ambitions by invading the rest of Mutter's Spiral. (AUDIO: Project Infinity) He monitored the conversations between the Dalek Supreme and Susan Mendes, planning on utilising her to improve the efforts of the workforce. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)

The Emperor made sure that Suz would not be exterminated except on his own order, although he was aware that her unique position might compel her to act against the Daleks. (AUDIO: The Human Factor) He allowed Suz and Kalendorf to be made aware of his and the Dalek Supreme's suspicions, knowing that it would motivate them to redouble their efforts to prove their loyalty. (AUDIO: "Death to the Daleks!")

With the veganite on board the Imperial Command Ship, the Emperor headed to the Lopra system before Suz's rebellion. He was almost killed when Kalendorf and the Seer of Yaldos linked minds with Mirana and struck back at him, giving Kalendorf a brief look into his mind. The Emperor recovered and took control of Project Infinity, finding a suitable universe and bringing through the alternate Daleks who attacked upon learning of the Emperor's Daleks many crimes. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)

Within Susan Mendes
In the first battle on Lopra Minor, the Emperor was captured by the Earth Alliance and became totally inert, transferring his consciousness into Suz (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One) as he knew that Alby Brook would save her. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Three) His body was taken by the Mentor to a secure location (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One) whilst his Daleks took possession of his casing.

Six years after the beginning of the Enemy-Alliance Dalek War, the Enemy Daleks took Suz and scanned her, briefly reawakening the Emperor. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Two) They completely wiped Suz's personality, giving the Emperor complete control, and he tortured Kalendorf to learn of his plans, focusing all of the Daleks' mental energy into him. Kalendorf was able to restore Suz momentarily with his telepathic powers, allowing her to cause the Great Catastrophe and kill the Emperor. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)

A single Dalek outpost in the Seriphia Galaxy survived the Great Catastrophe by diverting the destructive signal into a single drone. In doing so, the drone absorbed the entire imperial command network and the minds of the Dalek Emperor and Susan Mendes. It was declared the new Dalek Supreme. (AUDIO: The Demons) This Supreme's voice notably retained Susan's human voice, though distorted. (AUDIO: The Healers)

The Supreme oversaw the Daleks' return to Mutter's Spiral approximately two thousand years after the Catastrophe. (AUDIO: The Healers, The Demons, The Warriors) It personally led the Daleks' attack on Velyshaa to stop the Graxis Wardens and Galactic Union agents sending a warning to the Union about the Daleks. Afterwards it interrogated Galanar, one of the agents, by itself. (AUDIO: The Future)

The Last Great Time War
After the Valeyard temporarily succeeded in wiping out all Daleks in N-Space save for the Dalek Time Strategist, (AUDIO: The War Valeyard) the Strategist used dimensional engineering to restore the Empire. However, believing the Daleks needed "a god" rather than the replacement Davros to lead them, the Strategist "scoured every dimension", looking for the original Dalek Emperor. Although initially unsuccessful, he was eventually able to resurrect the Emperor using the temporal power of the multiverse itself.

The Emperor began to make himself heard as he was coalescing, roaring "I AM RETURNING!". The process accelerated past this point until the Emperor had materialised completely, descending over the planet Koska inside his ship and making a broadcast during which he announced his "resurrection" to the universe. When the Emperor wanted Davros to publicly submit before him, Davros took the opportunity to speak to the Daleks, convincing many to side with him. This led to a brief civil war between the Emperor's Daleks and those now loyal to Davros. Ultimately, the Emperor decided to keep Davros alive in stasis. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks)

The Dalek Emperor in the Last Great Time War led his people throughout the War and eventually fell through time (TV: The Parting of the Ways) and the Void (PROSE: The Whoniverse) on the last day of the War with his command ship. He was ultimately slain by Rose Tyler as the Bad Wolf entity. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Mutant Phase fiasco
In an alternate timeline where the Daleks came under attack by the infection called the Mutant Phase, the Dalek Emperor still commanded the empire from Skaro, with the Fifth Doctor commenting that they'd both "had a face-lift" since they last met. As the Mutant Phase swarm destroyed Skaro, the Emperor was able to place his mind into the body of the Thal Ganatus, possessing him, and ordering the Doctor to take him back to the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth, where the Mutant Phase started. Travelling back in time, the Emperor tried to warn the Daleks of the great catastrophe that would devastate their race, but the Doctor explained that his interference is what caused the mutation in the first place. When the Emperor realised this, he chose not to change the past, erasing both himself and the Mutant Phase from existence. (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase)

Other references
The Master once called the Dalek Prime "ridiculous". (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)

According to one account of the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, the Imperial Daleks had triumphed with their leader crowning himself as the new Dalek Emperor. To project Dalek strength, he fashioned his new casing on the Dalek Prime's original Golden Emperor design. (PROSE: The Restoration Empire) During the Kotturuh crisis, a version of the Tenth Doctor who had yet to encounter the Kotturuh felt the paradox that his future self would enact. When he encountered the Restoration Empire, the Doctor erroneously assumed that the Emperor of the Restoration was the Dalek Prime who had been "brought back" by the paradox, the Time Lord sardonically commenting on the presumed reunion. (COMIC: Defender of the Daleks)

Though the Time Lords acknowledged the existence of the Dalek Prime, in their analysis of the Daleks' timeline, they found it difficult to reconcile the Prime's tenure as the Golden Emperor with established Dalek history. They suspected that the Golden Emperor was either apocrypha or the Prime from another reality. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Personality
The Daleks believed that the Emperor had the greatest mind in the universe. (AUDIO: Project Infinity)

As leader of the Daleks, the Dalek Prime had a personality defined largely by his arrogance, believing the Daleks to be the supreme beings in the universe very shortly after birth, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) and declaring the universe his when the first Dalek Fleet made orbit. (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge)

Unlike most Daleks leaders, however, the Prime was willing to forgive failures, provided the Dalek in question was still of value to him. (COMIC: Plague of Death) He displayed further non-characteristic Dalek attitudes by engaging in diplomatic negotiations with other races, (COMIC: Battle for the Moon) and having a sense of gratitude, keeping his word to the First Doctor. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Daleks) However, the Fifth Doctor noted that the Dalek Emperor's pathological trust issues betrayed a "typical Dalek neurosis". The Emperor had a compulsion to personally supervise every part of his plans, (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase) and this compulsion was what nearly caused his demise after he sacrificed mobility for the static imperial casing beneath the Dalek City, which allowed him to plug directly into all the Dalek computer systems and monitor all Daleks in real time. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)

By his own admission, he did not view the Daleks as evil, merely as the strong dominating the weak. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro) This mindset was, ironically enough, very similar to Davros' own view on the Daleks, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) a being whom the Dalek Prime loathed and constantly warred with for power over his kin. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) The Prime did however acknowledge the usefulness of the creator, sparing a simulacrum of Davros in the event that the Daleks ever required his genius. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks)

Adhering to a creed of "unity is strength, obedience is power", (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro) the Prime had zero tolerance for any Dalek who would question his commands, (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) believing that the word "why" could spell the downfall of the entire Dalek race. (COMIC: Shadow of Humanity) Despite this desire for total conformity, the Prime did not adhere to it, commissioning a unique casing for himself. (COMIC: Genesis of Evil)

In his early days as the Golden Emperor, the Prime had a habit of thinking aloud. (COMIC: Plague of Death, The Rogue Planet)

Upon being resurrected in the Last Great Time War, the Prime was described as a "bloated narcissist", again demanding total obedience from the Daleks. His ego fed by his subjects' worship, he began thinking of himself as a god, using religious terminology in his discussions. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks) After the conflict, the Prime had become delusional, openly believing himself to be an omnipotent, immortal deity who was immune to any form of harm and now freely used religious language in his speech. Upon hearing the Prime's declaration that he was "the god of all Daleks", the Ninth Doctor believed that the Prime had been hiding himself away for so long that the centuries of isolation had driven him insane. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Characteristics
As the Golden Emperor, he was slightly shorter than the other Daleks, with a disproportionately large spheroid head section rendered in gold rather than grey. He also had three sense globes on each panel of its base unit unlike other Daleks. (COMIC: Invasion of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

 * Even if it was achieved retroactively, the Dalek Prime can be considered among the earliest characters originating in spin-off media to appear in the TV series. In this, however, he was beaten by his second in command, the Black Dalek Leader. Although the Dalek Prime's first appearance predated that of the Black Dalek by almost a year, the Black Dalek made his televised debut in The Chase in 1965 whereas the Prime did so as the Emperor in The Evil of the Daleks in 1967.
 * Novels usually refer to the Dalek Prime as a "he" rather than an "it" like all the other standard Daleks. This is common of high-ranking Daleks, such as the Black Dalek Leader, Dalek X and the Dalek Supreme from Planet of the Daleks, to name a few.
 * The Golden Emperor features in the Dalek annuals of the late 1970s, mostly in the form of reprinted Dalek Chronicles and games. However, he does not appear in any of the original stories, the majority of which concern the Daleks' conflict with Earth's Anti-Dalek Force in an undisclosed time.
 * Early publicity for Big Finish Productions' "Dalek Empire" audios featured the Golden Emperor on the cover before BBC Worldwide forced them to depict a standard Dalek casing instead. Nonetheless, it was the intention of writers Gary Russell and Mike Tucker that the character was still the Golden Emperor, while Nicholas Briggs voiced it as the Emperor from The Evil of the Daleks.
 * David Graham, one of the original Dalek voice actors, never officially voiced the Dalek Emperor. However, he did so in the unlicensed professional-grade audio adaptation of The Mechanical Planet produced in 2017 by Magic Bullet Productions as an extra for the fanzine Vworp Vworp!, also recording a brief introduction video clip for it.

In invalid sources
The Golden Emperor appeared in an additional episode of The Dalek Chronicles, Deadline to Doomsday, a Doctor Who Magazine back-up comic and follow-up to Return of the Elders which was under production with Ron Turner, the artist of the original TV Century 21's The Dalek Chronicles, when the artist passed away. The first two pages, with no text or header art, was printed in the end of Doctor Who Magazine 276 among an article remembering Turner. Years later, the comic was completed and printed in the fan magazine Vworp Vworp! 's third issue.

A Dalek Emperor of identical appearance to the Prime as seen in TV: The Parting of the Ways, and also voiced by Nicholas Briggs with the same voice effect, appeared in the video game LEGO Dimensions, though it is not clarified whether he is the same Emperor from The Parting of the Ways, or another lookalike using an identical casing as the one from City of the Daleks. However, the game, due to its branching story, is not considered valid on the Tardis Data Core.

Depending on the player's progress, "Dalek Emperor" and "Dalek Prime" are both potential ranks for the Metaltron to attain in the video game NOTVALID: The Last Dalek.

In the non-narrative book The Dalek Handbook, it is said that the Emperor actually survived the Great Civil War despite his apparent demise in The Evil of the Daleks, subsequently refocusing his strategies on time manipulation.