The Daleks bombarding Gallifrey from orbit. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Orbital bombardment was a military tactic that consisted of bombing a celestial body from its orbit.
Daleks[]
Orbital bombardment was a preferred tactic of the Dalek Fleet.
During the 2323 Dalek invasion of Earth, the Golden Emperor ordered his fleet to encircle the Earth in high orbit before opening fire. (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks [+]Alan Barnes, DWM Comics (Panini Comics, 2022-2023).)
During their invasion of Islos, the Dalek Restoration Empire bombed the planet from orbit after the invading fleet had destroyed the orbiting weapons platforms. (WC: The Archive of Islos [+]James Goss, Daleks! (2020).)
After the Sontaran temporal defences around Rovidia had been disabled, the Dalek Fleet began bombarding the planet, increasing the intensity of the barrage when the Dalek Time Strategist was rescued. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).)
Dalek warships hammer Gallifrey with fire on the last day of the Time War (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
At the end of the Last Great Time War, at the Fall of Gallifrey, the Dalek Fleet broke through the defences surrounding Gallifrey and began an orbital bombardment to destroy the Time Lord homeworld. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) When multiple incarnations of the Doctor shifted the planet into a pocket universe, the fleet destroyed itself in its own massive crossfire (TV: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013).) in what Dalek Caan identified as the "old circular firing-squad gag". (PROSE: Dalek Caan [+]Jonathan Morris, The Blogs of Doom (2020).) Whilst the relocation of Gallifrey took almost a day to complete, the Daleks perceived it as happening instantaneously as they were active in a slower gradient of time. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).)
During the Battle of the Game Station, the Dalek fleet bombarded the Earth with such ferocity that the planet's continents were warped. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)
After Oswin Oswald deactivated the force field protecting the Dalek Asylum, the Parliament of the Daleks launched missiles which destroyed the planet. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2012).)
When the Eleventh Doctor decoded the Question, he feared that the orbiting fleets would fire on Trenzalore from orbit to stop the return of the Time Lords. (TV: The Time of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2013 (BBC One, 2013).) Following the New Dalek Paradigm's conquest of the Papal Mainframe, the Supreme Dalek ordered the Dalek fleet to commence an orbital bombardment of Trenzalore until its protective force field shattered. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe [+]George Mann, Justin Richards and Cavan Scott, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe (Ebury Publishing, 2017).)
Other instances[]
When the Taalyens discovered Keska, they launched an orbital bombardment to try and render the Keskans extinct before the War Doctor reconfigured the sky transmitters into a planetary shield. (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)
In an auction for the Ninth Doctor's memories, the Cybermen partially upgraded Addison Delamar, using her to execute the other representatives. Observing the death of General Onarr, Major Traneer of the Harrigain ordered a carpet bombing of Nomicae, even after the Cybermen had been destroyed, withdrawing only when the Doctor shared the overwhelming grief he felt from the Time War. (COMIC: The Bidding War [+]Cavan Scott, Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor (Titan Comics, 2017).)
In its invasion of Delta IV, the Borg-Cyberman Alliance opened with an orbital bombardment, a tactic that the Deltans noted was more aggressive than had come to be expected from the Borg. (COMIC: Assimilation² [+]Scott & David Tipton and Tony Lee, IDW Star Trek crossovers (IDW Publishing, 2012).)
Alternate timelines[]
In an alternate timeline created by a temporal collision of the First and Second Doctor's TARDISes, the Black Dalek Leader ordered a brief orbital bombardment to be conducted on Urbinia when it detected that the people were attempting to evacuate the planet. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods [+]David K Barnes, The Early Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2019).)
In the Warrior's universe, the Warrior witnessed the Daleks bombard a planet during the Time War. The sight caused the Warrior to swear that he would destroy the Dalek race. (WC: Doctor Who Unbound - Doctor of War: Genesis [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)