Dalek Supreme (Planet of the Daleks)

A Dalek Supreme was a member of the Supreme Council and sent to Spiridon to take over Dalek operations.

Biography
He arrived on Spiridon, after the plague disease had failed, he and his escort left the craft unguarded, and had unknowingly travelled past Jo Grant, and Latep.

When he arrived at the Dalek base, the Supreme Dalek, then ordered that the secret Dalek army in hibernation, be now awoken. The Dalek Supreme found the progress of the invisibility experiments to be "satisfactory."

He then exterminated the Dalek Section Leader for its incompetence, and in a fit of temper. However the Doctor, had attempted to bury the Daleks in the ice caves, but had inadvertently caused an ice volcano eruption, that buried the army. The Supreme Dalek was also in danger as the ice volcano was now entering the base, he then ordered that a report to be sent to the Supreme Council, and that all Daleks abandon the base.

When Thals stole his ship, the Supreme Dalek, and his escort discover this, and the Doctor. Seeing this as a chance for revenge, he ordered them to pursue. Despite his ruthless attempt to kill the Doctor, and Jo, they escaped. The Dalek Supreme ordered one of his escort to have Dalek command send a rescue craft, and have a team of experts free the army from the ice. He then declared: "We have been delayed, not defeated. The Daleks are never defeated..."

This Dalek had a black and gold casing, and the unusual feature of a lamp in his eyestalk lens. He held the same communications function as a regular Dalek's luminosity dischargers on the sides of his head, lighting up when he spoke. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)

Prop
The Dalek Supreme prop was actually made up of parts from two props used for the Dr. Who film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.; the top half from the Gold Dalek and the bottom half from a Silver Dalek.

In 1977, the top half of this prop was repainted black and red, the end of the manipulator arm went missing so it was replaced by a pink one. The base unit for this prop, however, was from the photoshoot of Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday.

Similar Daleks
A Dalek Supreme with a similar casing appears in the audio story The Genocide Machine.

A Dalek with this colour scheme first appeared in the TV Action comic strip, *Sub Zero (1972), which predated Planet of the Daleks by over a year.