Dalek flying saucer

The Dalek Flying Saucer was one of the most commonly used type of Dalek ships. The fleet of the Dalek Empire during the Time War was composed of about ten million ships. One served as flagship for the Dalek Emperor.

History
During their first attempts to obtain space travel, the Daleks built proto-type ships such as Proto 1, 4, and 9. Proto 13, which had a flying saucer-design, was successful in take off, space flight, and entering/exiting hyperspace, and so became the standard Dalek ship. (TV21: The Amaryll Challenge)

The Daleks used saucers when invading planets, such as during the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) During the Last Great Time War each sphere contained about two thousand Daleks each and were small and bronze-coloured, the same colour as the drone Daleks of that time. The flagship was the same colour but many times larger and contained both standard Daleks and the Emperor's Personal Guards. It could also fire projectile weaponry.

On Gallifrey during the last day of the Last Great Time War dozens of crashed Dalek Saucers were seen near the badly damaged Capitol of the Time Lords. (DW: The End of Time)

At the end of the Last Great Time War, the Doctor caused all of the fleet to burn away except one, the Emperor's flagship, which fell through time to the the turn of the 2002nd century, where the Dalek Emperor rebuilt 200 ships of his fleet and created half a million new Daleks to rule. These were all destrpyed by the Bad Wolf entity.(DW: Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways)

The New Dalek Empire used saucers with a modified appearance in their 2009 invasion of Earth. Though the Daleks themselves could fly and had personal weaponry, smaller versions of the saucers served as fighter craft. (DW: The Stolen Earth)

One of these ships survived the the conclusion of the 2009 Invasion of Earth, and fell through time to 1941. When the three surviving Daleks onboard were confronted by the Doctor, they used a beacon on the ship to activate all the lights in London leaving it vulnerable to German attack. Four advanced spitfires were sent to destroy the beacon. Three were destroyed by the Dalek defense guns mounted all around the Saucer, but The Doctor disabled the ships shields and the dish was destroyed. When their plan to detonate the Oblivion Continuum failed, the new Daleks left in their ship through a Time corridor. (DW: Victory of the Daleks)

When the Daleks joined The Alliance formed to imprison The Doctor in the Pandorica in order to save the Universe, many Dalek Saucers were part of the Alliance fleet which arrived at Stonehenge, 102 A.D.(DW: The Pandorica Opens)

The Doctor guessed the Daleks had a minimum of 12'000 ships, but this has not been confirmed.

Behind the Scenes

 * Dalek flying saucers first appeared in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. DVD releases of the story featured a new and more convincing CGI special effects version of the saucer as an alternative to the original. On the same DVD they also appeared in the entire story's title sequence at the beginning of part one.
 * Dalek saucers featured prominently in the action of The Dalek Chronicles comics and other print-based Dalek stories.
 * The non-canonical theatrical film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD (based on The Dalek Invasion of Earth) featured a Dalek command craft, the front section of which resembled a saucer. A drawing of this "saucer" appeared on the cover of the Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth novelisation even though the novelisation drew from the television version.