Dalek


 * For the 2005 episode, see Dalek (TV story). For the 1964 serial, see The Daleks (TV story).

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

Physical characteristics
The creatures inside their "travel machines" were most frequently Kaled mutants, which the Doctor once described as "little green blobs in bonded polycarbide armour" (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks), although mutated members of other species - mainly Humans - also occupied the casings on occasion. The interdependence of biological and mechanical components arguably made the Daleks a type of cyborg. The Imperial Daleks created by Davros during the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War were inarguably true cyborgs, surgically connected to their shells. (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Externally, Daleks resembled human-sized pepper shakers, with a single mechanical eyestalk in a rotating dome, a gunstick and a manipulator arm. The casings were made of bonded polycarbide armour (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks, Doomsday), a material that was also called dalekanium. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

In an alternate future, dalekanium was an unstable explosive that could penetrate Dalek casings (DW: Day of the Daleks).


 * The two may have been the same, or the term may simply have been a neologism to describe a product of the Daleks.

The lower shell was covered with many hemispherical protrusions or "Dalek bumps". These were commonly described as comprising a sensor array, although they were on on occasion seen to be part of a self-destruct system (DW: Dalek).



The voice of a Dalek was electronic, the Dalek creature having no vocal apparatus as such. Daleks also had a radio communicator built into their shells, and emitted an alarm to summon other nearby Daleks if the casing was opened from outside. The Dalek's eyepiece was its most vulnerable spot, and impairing its vision often led to its main weapon being fired indiscriminately.

The Dalek casing also functioned as a fully sealed environment suit, allowing travel through a vacuum or underwater without the need for additional life support equipment. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Parting of the Ways)

Due to their gliding motion, some models of Dalek were notoriously unable to tackle stairs, which made them easy to overcome under the right circumstances. For example, at one time the Doctor and his companions escaped from Dalek pursuers by climbing into a ceiling duct. (DW: Destiny of the Daleks) Some models appearred to be able to hover, or even travel under their own power like small spacecraft (DW: The Chase, Revelation of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, Dalek, The Parting of the Ways, Doomsday).

The armour of Dalek Sec and Dalek Caan had "temporal shift" capacity, possibly unique to those units and the others of the Cult of Skaro. (DW: Doomsday)

The power source of the Dalek casing appears to have varied at different points in their history. During his first encounter with them on Skaro, the Doctor learned that the casing was externally powered by static electricity transmitted through the metal floors of the Dalek City. Isolating a Dalek from the floor using a non-conductive material shut down the casing, although it was not immediately fatal to the occupant. This weakness was not seen on any other occasion. (DW: The Daleks)

By the beginning of the Last Great Time War the Daleks had adapted their technology to use a form of energy apparently inextricably linked to the process of time travel (possibly Artron energy). On more than one occasion Daleks and their devices were seen to leech this energy from time-travellers to power themselves. (DW: Dalek, Doomsday)

Whatever the power source was that the Daleks used in the interim, it was (apparently uniquely) immune to being drained by the City of the Exxilons. Strangely, the Daleks retained motive power and the ability to speak even though their weaponry was shut down (strongly suggesting the weapon systems had a separate power supply). The Doctor indicated that this was because the Daleks were psychokinetic, the City being unable to absorb psychic energy. Other references to the Daleks having any kind of psychic potential are rather scarce, but on the planet Kyrol the Doctor later discovered an enclave of humanised Daleks who had, through years of meditation, developed their psychokinesis to a remarkable degree. (DW: Death to the Daleks, DWM: Children of the Revolution)

History

 * Main article: History of the Daleks

The Daleks were the product of a generations-long war between the Kaled and Thal races.


 * Main article: Creation of the Daleks

Over the course of their history, the Daleks developed time travel (DW: The Chase), an interstellar (and later intergalactic) Dalek Empire (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan) and factory ships for conquest (DW: The Power of the Daleks). The radio dishes which had originally been required to allow them to travel on surfaces without a static charge (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) also vanished, enabling Daleks to move under their own power.

The Daleks fought the Last Great Time War with the Time Lords. The Dalek Emperor was one of the few survivors. This Emperor came to see itself as a god, and built its new society around the Daleks' worship of itself. In the end, the Daleks and their fleet were reduced to atoms. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) The Dalek organisation known as the Cult of Skaro, so named after the Dalek homeworld, also survived the War and its leader, Dalek Sec, survived the Battle of Canary Wharf. (DW: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)

Culture
Daleks had little to no individual personality and a strict hierarchy. They were conditioned to obey superior orders without question. Ultimately, the most fundamental feature of Dalek culture and psychology was an unquestioned belief in the superiority of the Daleks. Other species were either to be exterminated immediately, or enslaved and then exterminated later once they were no longer necessary. The default directive of a Dalek was to destroy all non-Dalek lifeforms.

This belief is thought to be the reason why Daleks never significantly modified their mechanical shell's designs to overcome its obvious physical limitations; any such modification would deviate from the Dalek ideal, and therefore must be inferior and deserving of extermination. The schism between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks was a prime example of this, with each faction considering the other to be a perversion despite the relatively minor differences between them. This belief also meant that Daleks were intolerant of such "contamination" even within themselves. (DW: Dalek, Evolution of the Daleks, BFA: The Mutant Phase)

Another offshoot of this superiority complex was their complete ruthlessness and lack of compassion, although this is also due to genetic modifications made to the original Kaled mutants by Davros. It was because of this that it was nearly impossible to negotiate or reason with a Dalek and it was this single-mindedness that made them so dangerous and not to be underestimated. However, their reliance on logic and machinery was also a weakness, albeit one that they recognised in themselves. As a result, they also made use of non-Dalek species to compensate for these shortcomings.



As noted above, the Daleks that were resurrected through the manipulation and mutation of human genetic material by the Dalek Emperor were religious fanatics that worshiped the Emperor as their god. (DW: The Parting of the Ways)

Although the Daleks were well known for their disregard for due process and Galactic Law, there were at least two occasions on which they took enemies back to Skaro for a "trial" rather than killing them on the spot; the first was their creator Davros (DW: Revelation of the Daleks), and the second was the renegade Time Lord known as the Master (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie). It is not clear what was actually involved. The Master's trial presumably took place before the destruction of Skaro. The reasons for the Master's trial have never been made clear.


 * It has been suggested that the Daleks' retrieval of Davros was not for a 'trial' in the criminal sense but rather a test to see if he was in fact worthy of becoming the supreme leader of the race. (BFD: I, Davros'')

The Daleks were known to write poetry (NA: The Also People), and some of the more elaborate Dalek battlecries had an almost poetic quality about them (for example, "Seek and Locate! Locate and Destroy! Destroy and Rejoice!" (DW: The Chase)) In an alternate reality, the Daleks showed a fondness for the works of Shakespeare. (BFA: The Time of the Daleks)

Due to their frequent defeats by the Doctor, he became a legendary figure in Dalek culture and mythology. They had standing orders to capture or exterminate the Doctor on sight, and were occasionally able to identify him despite his regenerations. This was not an innate ability, but probably the result of good record keeping. The Daleks knew the Doctor as the Ka Faraq Gatri, (meaning "The Bringer of Darkness" or "Destroyer of Worlds") (DW: Remembrance of the Daleks (novelisation)). The Doctor claimed that the Daleks also called him "The Oncoming Storm" (DW: The Parting of the Ways). This name was also used by the Draconians to refer to the Doctor. (NA: Love and War)

The Doctor, in turn, grew to be almost monomaniacal in his belief that the Daleks were completely evil and unworthy of trust or compassion. This contrasts with some of his earlier dealings with the Daleks; for example the Doctor attempted to instil a "human factor" in Daleks (DW: The Evil of the Daleks) and he hesitated when presented with the opportunity to destroy the Daleks at the point of their creation (DW: Genesis of the Daleks). His conviction of the irredeemability of the Daleks motivated a venomous outburst by the Doctor leading the mutant to observe that the Doctor "would make a good Dalek." (DW: Dalek)

Other appearances
Two Doctor Who movies starring Peter Cushing featured the Daleks as the main villains: Dr. Who and the Daleks, and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD, based on the television serials The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, respectively. However, the movies were not straight remakes. Cushing's Doctor is not an alien, but a human inventor, and is literally named "Doctor Who." The movies used brand new Dalek props, based closely on the original design but with a wider range of colours. Originally, the movie Daleks were supposed to shoot jets of flame, but this was thought to be too graphic for children, so their weapons emitted jets of deadly vapour instead.

Marvel UK was publishing Doctor Who Magazine at the time, which included comic strip stories in its pages. Aside from meeting up with the Doctor in them, the DWM strips also introduced a new nemesis for the Daleks, the Dalek Killer named Abslom Daak. Daak was a convicted criminal in the 25th century who was given the choice between execution and being sent on a suicide mission against the Daleks. He chose the latter and, when the woman he loved was killed by the Daleks, made it his life's purpose to kill every Dalek he came across.

The Daleks have also appeared in the Dalek Empire series of audio plays by Big Finish Productions.

External Sources

 * Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (2003). The Television Companion: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to DOCTOR WHO (2nd ed.) Surrey, UK: Telos Publishing, ISBN 1-903389051-0.
 * Haining, Peter, (1988) "Doctor Who and the Merchandisers", Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years London, UK: W.H. Allen, ISBN 0-31837661-X.
 * Davies, Kevin (director) (1993). More than 30 Years in the TARDIS London, UK: BBC Video.
 * Howe, David J & Walker, Stephen James (1994). The First Doctor Handbook London, UK: Virgin Publishing, ISBN 0-426-2-430-1.
 * Finklestone, Peter (producer) (2003). "Talking Daleks" featurette, The Dalek Invasion of Earth London, UK: BBC Video.
 * Seaborne, Gilliane (director) (2005). "Dalek", Doctor Who Confidential BBC Wales.
 * Nation, Terry (ed.) (1979). Terry Nation's Dalek Special, Target Books.