Dalek Emperor

The Dalek Emperor or Emperor Dalek was the supreme ruler of the Dalek Empire, commanding the Dalek race and the planet Skaro.

Dalek Prime
According to some sources, one of the first Daleks, who exterminated Davros and proclaimed the Daleks' future victory over the universe, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) assumed the role of Dalek Prime (later Dalek Emperor) and would continue to act as the Emperor throughout Dalek history. In this source, it was claimed the Dalek Prime was the ancestor for millions of Daleks, and was responsible for the progress the Dalek race on the whole had made in their quest for supremacy. (PROSE: War of the Daleks)

The Golden Emperor
According to another, the Daleks were originally a race of blue humanoid men. One of them, a scientist Yarvelling, created a "machine" as a weapon. After asteroids caused the eruption of neutronic weapons owned by the Daleks, those caught in the blast were mutated.

The only humanoid Dalek survivors of the war, Yarvelling and the warlord Zolfian, emerged from hiding and encountered the machine that Yarvelling had built being occupied by one of the mutants. As they died from radiation poisoning, they agreed to make more machine cases for the mutated Daleks. The original Dalek was built a new casing after declaring itself the Emperor, made of Flidor gold, quartz and Arkellis flower sap. The Golden Emperor was slightly shorter than the other Daleks, with a disproportionately large spheroid head section rendered in gold rather than grey. It also had three globes on each panel, unlike other Daleks. (COMIC: Genesis of Evil)

The Emperor within the Dalek City
The next known incarnation of the Emperor remained in an enormous, immobile, conical shell plugged into a corner of the control room in the Dalek City on Skaro. It was connected to the wall by tubes, and spoke in an echoing voice.

This Emperor tried to win the wars by blackmailing the Second Doctor. He ordered the Daleks to capture the 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. He was seemingly destroyed by a civil war between humanised Daleks and un-altered Daleks. However, a light was seen blinking on its casing at the end, indicating some kind of activity. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks)

Shortly after this, the Emperor met Bernice Summerfield, whom the Emperor questioned on why the Civil War had occurred. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro)

23rd century Emperor
One Dalek Emperor ruled Skaro in 2254. It possessed a bronze-coloured casing with a bulbous head and large cannon-like gunsticks. Allied with Davros rather than opposed to him, the Emperor presided over a short-lived Dalek invasion of Earth which was put to an end by the Seventh Doctor. Shortly after the failure of the invasion, the Doctor was sent to Skaro by the Time Lords to retrieve a sacred Time Ring stolen by Davros, and, facing the Emperor, caused its destruction with his screwdriver. (GAME: Dalek Attack)

The Upstart
An Emperor Dalek was usurped by Davros, who referred to it as "the upstart". (COMIC: Nemesis of the Daleks, Emperor of the Daleks!)

Davros as Emperor
Davros was made the Emperor of the Imperial Dalek faction of the Daleks during the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. He was encased in a customised Dalek casing with a round dome top which could open and close, his body below his head and shoulders covered in a mass of tubing and cables, implying he had greatly deteriorated physically. He was last seen heading for an escape pod just before his ship was destroyed in the wake of the supernova (set off by the Hand of Omega) that consumed Skaro. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) Later, Davros' increasingly unstable mind was obliterated by a totally Dalek personality, that of the Emperor. This new Emperor took command of Davros' Daleks and departed. His casing kept the top half of his Imperial Dalek dome but combined with the lower head section of the Dalek Emperor fought by the Second Doctor. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)

Emperor of the Dalek Empire
When the Daleks launched an invasion of the Milky Way from the Seriphia Galaxy, the Dalek Emperor was in command. While it successfully conquered much of the galaxy, its real goal was Project Infinity. It intended to summon Daleks from another reality. When those Daleks turned out to be appalled by genocide, the Emperor was captured by the Earth Alliance (AUDIO: "Death to the Daleks!", Project Infinity) but transmitted its consciousness into a human, Susan Mendes, to continue the war. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter One) It erased her consciousness and intended to use her form to con the galaxy into lowering its guard; however, a psychic trap caused the remnants of Mendes to awaken and trigger the destruction of all Dalek technology, removing the Emperor from its human host. (AUDIO: Dalek War: Chapter Four)

During the Time War
The Emperor in his original form resided in Kaalann on Skaro. (GAME: City of the Daleks) He formed the Cult of Skaro, a group above and beyond the Emperor himself, created to "think as the enemy thinks" and "imagine" new ways to find victory. (TV: Doomsday) During the early part of the War he was informed by the Dalek Time Strategist about Project Revenant. Romana II tried to convince him to stop the war as it would involve both sides being destroyed as a result. (AUDIO: Desperate Measures)

Because of the Master's activation of the Heavenly Paradigm, the Emperor took control of the Cruciform. (TV: The Sound of Drums, AUDIO: The Heavenly Paradigm) Towards the end of the War, the Emperor oversaw the creation of the Eternity Circle, and was present when they created the Temporal Cannon to use against the Time Lords. (PROSE: Engines of War) When Skaro was devastated, the Emperor was thought to have been killed. (GAME: City of the Daleks)

The Dalek Emperor was aboard his saucer flagship when the first thirteen incarnations of the Doctor moved Gallifrey to a pocket universe on the last day of the Time War. The assembled Dalek fleet ended up firing on itself through the space Gallifrey once occupied (an event which was presumed to have been the activation of the Moment) (TV: The Day of the Doctor); as such, the Emperor was believed to have died with the rest of his species, but this was a mistake. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Surviving the Time War
The Emperor's lone ship barely survived the Time War, falling through time in a heavily damaged state. The nine-metre tall Emperor's new bronze casing had the appearance of its mutant revealed floating in a transparent tank of liquid, topped by a giant-sized Dalek dome, complete with eyestalk, flanked by panels of armour dotted by Dalek "bumps" with a ring-shaped "throne" on the bottom. He went into seclusion at the edge of the Solar system "damaged but rebuilding" during the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Circa 199,909, he secretly installed the Jagrafess aboard Satellite Five to play the "long game" of slowly manipulating humans and re-establishing the Dalek species and fleet. A hundred years after the Jagrafess was killed, in the year 200,100, the Emperor was still using Satellite Five (now renamed the "Game Station") to manipulate humanity and conceal his fleet. (TV: Bad Wolf) The Emperor secretly used transmat technology aboard the space station to kidnap humans for nearly two hundred years. The kidnapped humans were harvested for their genetic material, and "one cell in a billion" was used to rebuild a new race of Daleks (TV: The Parting of the Ways) numbering roughly half a million aboard a fleet of 200 ships. (TV: Bad Wolf) Because the Emperor had recreated the Dalek race, he saw himself as a god and immortal and so was worshipped by the new Daleks. These and other religious concepts such as blasphemy were new to Dalek psychology. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

The Emperor's pawn aboard Satellite Five, the Controller, hated her masters and transmatted the Ninth Doctor aboard the Game Station to help defeat them. (TV: Bad Wolf) When he encountered the Emperor and his new religiously fanatical Daleks, the Doctor surmised that they were driven insane both because they isolated themselves for so long, but also because they were in denial of the fact that they were part human. The Daleks killed almost everyone aboard Satellite Five, and they attacked Earth, bombing millions of people, to transform it into the Emperor's "temple". Shortly afterwards, the Doctor turned down his chance to use an uncalibrated delta wave to destroy all nearby life, human and Dalek alike. The Emperor thought he was victorious, but he and his entire fleet were atomised by Rose Tyler after she had absorbed the energies of the time vortex and became the Bad Wolf temporal paradox. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Emperors of the New Paradigm
When the New Dalek Paradigm went back to the ruined Skaro, they created a new Emperor Dalek, reusing the shell of the old one, albeit with new paint. His blue colouring suggests he was a Strategist Dalek, had ties to that role or was the mastermind of all of the Daleks' plans for universal conquest. When the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond travelled back in time to when Skaro was devastated and before the new Daleks arrived with the Eye of Time, they erased the Daleks' alterations and Kaalann was left abandoned. The new Emperor was never created as a result. (GAME: City of the Daleks) When the New Dalek Paradigm took control of Earth in 2106, they were led by a new Emperor Dalek. This Emperor was different from the Time War Emperor, as it was coloured purple, was able to form a sphere and its weaponry was much larger. This new Emperor wanted to completely change time by using a piece of the Eternity Clock, and remove Gallifrey from existence; the Daleks would then become the new Lords of Time. The Eleventh Doctor and River Song were able to remove the piece of the Eternity Clock from the Dalek's possession, foiling the Emperor's plans and undoing the Dalek invasion of Earth. (GAME: The Eternity Clock)

The Daleks later established a Parliament which took decisions for the whole of Dalek-kind under the leadership of a Prime Minister. When the Eleventh Doctor and his companions were summoned to the Parliament's ship, no Emperor was in evidence. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

Undated Emperors
A Dalek Emperor composed Operation Divide and Conquer, the plan to send to divide the humans and Draconians in 2540, and gave him a squad of Ogrons to complete his task. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests)

Alternate timeline
In an alternate timeline, the Dalek Emperor placed his mind into a Thal and travelled back in time to warn the Daleks of a great catastrophe that would devastate their race. He realised he had caused the alternate timeline and prevented it, thus erasing himself from existence. (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase)

Other references
The Sixth Doctor objected to Jack Harkness marrying Callista while posing as him, likening the situation to a marriage with the Dalek Emperor. Jack countered by pointing out that the Doctor was still fighting the Daleks, and used a hypothetical romance with Davros to taunt him. (AUDIO: Piece of Mind)

Personality
As the supreme ruler of the Daleks, the Emperor showed a very domineering attitude, barking orders with confidence, and had perhaps the most individual personality of his species. Like all Daleks, he was very racist towards other species and believed in the superiority of his race above all else. The Emperor who encountered the Ninth Doctor used very degrading and infuriating terms when discussing how it had recreated the Dalek race following the Time War's end, and unlike other Daleks it didn't care about being descriptive of what happened to the humans to create its new army. This act brought about the most profound change in his mindset and personality, as it caused the Emperor to think of himself as an immortal god, with his "brethren" (creations) worshipping him as such. Because of this, he arrogantly believed he couldn't be hurt, which led to his demise. The Emperor was very deluded about its Dalek race, claiming it had "cultivated pure and blessed Dalek", and called Rose Tyler's statement that they were half human blasphemy, when in fact he himself was the only pure Dalek present. Unique among Daleks, the Emperor was one of the few Daleks to display a sense of humour, as he playfully chided the Ninth Doctor when the latter was threatening to use a Delta Wave to destroy him, saying he'd enjoy to see the Doctor become just like him, "The Great Exterminator". Having dealt with him in the past and witnessed his capabilities, the Emperor notably did not underestimate the Doctor's intellect and acknowledged the fact that his old enemy had nearly destroyed the Dalek race at the end of the Time War. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

In an alternate timeline, the Dalek Emperor, possessing Ganatus' body, listened to the Fifth Doctor not to change the past and he and the Mutant Phase were erased from existence. (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase)

During the invasion of Mutter's Spiral, the Dalek Emperor showed an interest in Susan Mendes and Project Infinity. He told the Supreme Dalek that they were the only ones with access to the Kar-Charrat information and would kill her only on his command. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks, The Human Factor, Project Infinity)

When the New Dalek Paradigm rebuilt Kaalann and altered time with the Eye of Time, a blue Dalek Emperor recognised the Eleventh Doctor and declared the Daleks would be the masters of time and the universe. He told the Doctor that he would not take orders and asked the Doctor to fear the Eye of Time. The Dalek Emperor told him and Amy that the Daleks were the new Time Lords and ordered the Daleks to stop them when they jumped to the Eye. (GAME: City of the Daleks)

A purple Dalek Emperor led the New Dalek Paradigm's invasion of Earth in 2106 using a piece of the Eternity Clock. He declared that the Eleventh Doctor's era would end and that the Time Lords were no more. The Dalek Emperor told the Doctor that Gallifrey would never exist. (GAME: The Eternity Clock)

Invalid sources
According to the non-narrative material The Dalek Handbook, the Emperor in the Dalek City actually survived the Great Civil War and would revamp the Dalek command structure, as well as focus his strategies on rewriting the Dalek timeline. This would suggest that other, chronologically-later appearances of the Emperor are still the same Dalek Emperor from The Evil of the Daleks, despite his apparent demise in that story.

A (identical in voice and appearance to the one in The Parting of the Ways, though it is not confirmed to be the same individual) acts as a secondary villain in LEGO Dimensions, where he is voiced by Nicholas Briggs. In the video game's story, he is unaware that some of his Daleks have been recruited by Lord Vortech to aid him in his conquest of the multiverse, but he is aware of mysterious happenings involving cross-dimensional travel, and has acquired one of the Keystones for himself (the Scale, which allows him to enlarge or shrink himself and other Daleks at will). Believing the goings-on to be the fault of the Twelfth Doctor, he captures the game's protagonists, Batman, Wyldstyle and Gandalf, to try and find out the Doctor's plans, but ends up getting shrunk to mouse-size by the Scale at the end of the ensuing boss battle. The iteration used by Davros in Remembrance of the Daleks appears in a DLC level, and the iteration seen in The Evil of the Daleks appears in a secret area in a level pack themed off The Goonies.

Other matters

 * Similar to Dalek Supreme/Supreme Dalek, the terms "Dalek Emperor" and "Emperor Dalek" are used interchangably across media. "Dalek Emperor" is used in The Sound of Drums, while "Emperor Dalek" is used in Remembrance of the Daleks, Nemesis of the Daleks, City of the Daleks and Night Terrors. The Evil of the Daleks simply used the term "Emperor", while the Ninth Doctor identifies the "Emperor of the Daleks" in The Parting of the Ways.
 * Depending on the player's progress, "Dalek Emperor" is a potential rank for the Metaltron to attain in the video game NOTVALID: The Last Dalek.