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On the orders of Gallifrey, the Fourth Doctor holds two wires that, with a simple touch, could destroy the Daleks at their genesis (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
The origins of the Last Great Time War referred to the roots of the massive temporal conflict between the Time Lords of Gallifrey and Daleks of Skaro. The conflict could be traced back to many prophecies, pre-War skirmishes, military enhancements, and even more. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005)., AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element [+]Stephen Cole, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2000).,X and the Daleks [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dark Eyes (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2012)., et. al) As the Ninth Doctor later recalled, the War was "the final battle" between the Daleks and Time Lords. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005).)
At the most basic level, the Time War stemmed from the rivalry between both sides, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) and the conflict actually had many simultaneous origin points across the histories of Time Lords and Daleks. For the Daleks, the earliest beginning point for tensions was at the very start of their existence due to a Time Lord mission to avert or alter their creation, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) whereas the Gallifreyans had long feared a coming time war due to the prophecies generated by the Matrix, (TV: Heaven Sent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015)., Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) even having also endured an attack from their future enemy early in their existance. (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass [+]Una McCormack, Time Lord Victorious release order (BBC Books, 2020)., The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).)
Prophecies[]
- Main article: War prediction
The Time Lords became aware of their future involvement in the Time War a long time before it began, and many prophecies, stories and legends were generated around the idea. (TV: Heaven Sent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) However, the Seventh Doctor reacted with complete surprise and horror at the concept of another time war breaking out. (AUDIO: Damaged Goods [+]Jonathan Morris, adapted from Damaged Goods (Russell T Davies), Novel Adaptations: Volume 2 (Novel Adaptations, Big Finish Productions, 2015).) Nevertheless, one prophecy concerned a hybrid of two warrior races, with many assuming this being would take part in the War. (TV: Heaven Sent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) The Daleks and Time Lords alike assumed themselves to be the two warrior races that would make up the Hybrid, (TV: Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) leaving the question of whose side the Hybrid would fight for up in the air. Indeed, it was feared the being would bring about either Gallifrey's salvation or destruction. Many years later, after the War, the Twelfth Doctor stated that the Hybrid was destined to conquer Gallifrey and stand in its ruins. (TV: Heaven Sent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).)
Ruath knew that there was a point in the future where Gallifrey ceased to exist. (PROSE: Goth Opera [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) One generation before the existence of the Doctor, many prophecies emerged concerning future threats that Gallifrey would survive before meeting its end in a war with an implacable enemy; (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Books (1998)., The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) some accounts suggested that this "mysterious" and "long prophesied" foe was in fact the Daleks. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016)., 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).)
During the Second Dalek War, the Dalek Supreme led a force of Daleks to the Cathedral of Contemplation, seeking to use one of its time corridors to instantly attack Earth Central's High Command. Their plot was foiled by the Fourth and Tenth Doctors, although the earlier incarnation was surprised the Daleks did not try to use the power to invade Gallifrey. Aware of the Time War, as it was in his past but the Fourth Doctor's and Dalek Empire's future, the Tenth Doctor only responded by saying, in due time, the Daleks would "try invading everywhere". (AUDIO: Out of Time [+]Matt Fitton, Out of Time (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
Speaking with Martez after the creation of the Mutant Daleks, the Eighth Doctor noted his fear that the Daleks' unending war against the rest of the universe "may one day destroy everything". (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks [+]Steve Lyons, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2006).) The Time Lords foresaw the War during the life of the Eighth Doctor, as Straxus told him they saw "something terrible in the time tracks". (AUDIO: Fugitives [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dark Eyes (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2012).) Irving Braxiatel was aware of the fact that the Time Lords were doomed, so he plotted to move them to the world of Maximediras. (AUDIO: Resurrecting the Past [+]Eddie Robson, Bernice Summerfield: Single Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2010).) However, the planet instead became a POW camp during the Deindum War. (PROSE: Present Danger [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Cult of Skaro was formed upon being warned by the Emperor that a great war was coming (PROSE: Birth of a Legend [+]Justin Richards, Doctor Who Files (2007).)
Shortly before the War began, the Matrix prophesied that Gallifrey could be destroyed in a number of ways; (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls [+]John Dorney, Doom Coalition 3 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) one of these prophecies indeed held that Gallifrey would fall in a time war, (AUDIO: Songs of Love [+]Matt Fitton, Doom Coalition 4 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2017).) but other possibilities held Gallifrey could be destroyed by the attrition, collateral damage, or wars fought by other species. (AUDIO: The Crucible of Souls [+]John Dorney, Doom Coalition 3 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Doom Coalition, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) Following the extinction of the Mechonoids, the Dalek Emperor's strategy computers and assessment engines predicted a coming war, one which would be fought against an ancient enemy of the Daleks, that would rage throughout time and space. The Emperor knew this conflict would require the Dalek Empire's every strategy and resource to survive, leading to the Emperor establishing the Cult of Skaro. (PROSE: Birth of a Legend [+]Justin Richards, Doctor Who Files (2007).)
The Accord also foresaw a "great war spreading through time". They feared that the 1970s and 1980s, which had been temporally weakened due to the Doctor's frequent visits, would be damaged and set out to reinforce the two decades before they were hit by the war. They altered the DNA of every single person that lived through those decades on a temporal level so that they subconsciously realised that there were inconsistencies with history. (PROSE: The Enfolded Time [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Terminatron also knew of a coming conflict that would "shake the very foundations of reality" and told Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart about it, making the Brigadier remark "not another one" quietly. (PROSE: The Two Brigadiers [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Development of Dalek temporal power[]
Dalek introduction to time travel[]
Origins of the archenemies[]
- Main article: Creation of the Daleks
- Main article: The Doctor and Susan's escape from Gallifrey
Given that it stemmed from the rivalry between the Daleks and Time Lords, (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) the Last Great Time War had many simultaneous origin points across the histories of both time travelling factions. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) Both of these histories were extremely complicated and in states of temporal flux. (PROSE: Gallifrey: A Rough Guide [+]Steve Lyons and Chris Howarth, DWM short stories (Panini Publishing Ltd, 2000)., Alien Bodies [+]Lawrence Miles, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997)., 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).) Also vital to the story was the life and travels of a renegade Time Lord known only as "the Doctor", (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., et. al) whose life was also in a state of flux due to their travels through time (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (BBC Children's Books, 2018).) and other powerful factors. (PROSE: Alien Bodies [+]Lawrence Miles, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997)., et. al)
The Daleks were a species of xenophobic mutants in personal travel machines that arose to become the greatest threat to the universe and battled Time Lords. (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
The Daleks were a race of genetically engineered mutant beings that relied on cybernetic travel machines for life support and combat. Convinced of the superiority of their own race, the Daleks sought to wipe out all non-Dalek life that they knew existed, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) with their ambitions starting out as their quest to become masters of their homeworld, (AUDIO: Return to Skaro [+]Andrew Smith, The First Doctor Adventures: Volume Four (The First Doctor Adventures, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) only for the Daleks to later develop to a point where they sought mastery over all creation (TV: Gridlock [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) through omniversal genocide. (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) This ambition would be one of the reasons the Dalek waged their war with Gallifrey. The Tenth Doctor reflected that the time war between the Daleks and Time Lords was a battle "for the sake of all creation". (TV: Gridlock [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).)
By most accounts, the Daleks arose from the Kaled race of the planet Skaro at the close of a Thousand Year War against the Thals, with most accounts also crediting the mad scientist Davros for their genesis, only for the Daleks to turn on their forefathers upon deciding they could manage on their own. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., WC: Monster File: Daleks [+]Justin Richards, Captain Jack's Monster Files (2008).) Numerous other accounts of the creation of the Daleks existed, including some involving a scientist named Yarvelling or the planet Ameron, but later historians disregarded these alternate tales as myths. However, they also realised the Time War could be affecting even this early period of Dalek history; the temporal affects of the War could have briefly made these alternate origins "become" true before history was returned to the story of Davros, (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).) which was foregrounded as the truth in the post-War era. (TV: The Stolen Earth [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008)., et. al) Indeed, a structure known as "Yarvelling's Church" existed during the Time War. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: Lockdown! (2020).)
The Time Lords had also attempted to meddle in the creation of the Daleks by sending the Doctor, who by this point in their life had battled the Daleks many times, to Skaro to prevent their rise. Although Davros' programming for the Dalek mind had been completed long before he encountered the Doctor, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) some combatants in the Time War came to believe the interference in Dalek history, or possibly even the Time Lords' existence at all, was what drove the Daleks to develop into heartless murderers. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) Indeed, the Daleks saw this Gallifreyan mission as an act of aggression (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Mike Tucker, The Target Storybook (BBC Books, 2019).) and thus focused their great hatred upon the people of Gallifrey. (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).) Becoming hostile towards the Time Lords once they learned of the mission, (WC: Monster File: Daleks [+]Justin Richards, Captain Jack's Monster Files (2008)., et. al) the attempted interference effectively made it so one beginning point of the Time War was the very start of the Daleks' existence. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
The First Doctor steals a Type Forty TARDIS and flees Gallifrey. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).)
Believing that no other life-forms mattered, (TV: The Evil of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).) the Daleks saw the Time Lords assuming sole authority over time (WC: Gallifrey War Room [+]Sophie Iles, Gallifrey: War Room (YouTube, 2022).) and then using that power to try to subvert their genesis as offenses that needed to be corrected. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) Furthermore, another personal reason the Daleks developed a hate for the Time Lords came from the Doctor: (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988)., et. al) thanks to their repeated stands against the Dalek race, the Doctor became their single greatest enemy, (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., et al.) with the lives of the Dalek species and the Doctor becoming "impossibly entangled" (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) as they battled each other throughout time. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010)., et. al) In fact, Gallifreyan research claimed the Doctor's departure from Gallifrey (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) in a stolen TARDIS with his granddaughter Susan (TV: The Name of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2013)., et. al) had, at least in part, been to hold back the Daleks; the Dalek Combat Training Manual published during the Time War claimed the Doctor, likely convinced to do so by the Celestial Intervention Agency, sought to stop the Daleks from ever acquiring Hand of Omega so took it with him. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Hiding the Hand in London, 1963, (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988).) the Combat Training Manual went onto claim the Doctor had pre-programming the device to act against the Daleks, only for a memory bomb hidden in his TARDIS to wipe his knowledge of the Daleks and the plot (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) when he left the Earth with Susan and two new human companions, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. As such, he unfamiliar with the Daleks until his first encounter with the exterminators a short time later, (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964).) with his memory of the Hand of Omega and his plot to use it against the Daleks only returning to his mind during his seventh life. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) However, other accounts suggested the Daleks were, truthfully, completely unknown to the Doctor until their first meeting, (TV: Into the Dalek [+]Phil Ford and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., et. al) with the Master and the First Rani also claiming the Doctor was completely unknown to the CIA when he left Gallifrey. (PROSE: Celestial Intervention - A Gallifreyan Noir [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (BBC Children's Books, 2018).)
Meanwhile, the wider Time Lord society on Gallifrey remained focus upon a policy of non-interference, swearing to only watch the wider universe (TV: The Sound of Drums [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 3 (BBC One, 2007).) and maintain the Web of Time, (TV: Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., et al.) having been the ones who established it to make the universe rational. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Lawrence Miles, et al., Faction Paradox novels (Mad Norwegian Press, 2002)., So Vile a Sin [+]Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) Indeed, Gallifreyan society had emerged from the Dark Times. After arriving in this chaotic period of universal history, a Dalek Time Squad tried to attack the planet in revenge for the Time Lords' later mission to their own existence, hoping to prevent the Gallifreyans from ever becoming the Time Lords. After three incarnations of the Doctor, who had also arrived in the Dark Times, successfully defended their homeworld, (PROSE: Mission to the Known [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., All Flesh is Grass [+]Una McCormack, Time Lord Victorious release order (BBC Books, 2020).) Gallifreyan society was free to develop into its powerful position but knew that a powerful enemy was coming in their future. (TV: Heaven Sent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015)., Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).; PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).)
Rassilon showed his true colors during the Time War, becoming a cruel tyrant who was just as willing to kill as the Daleks. (TV: The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010).)
The research of two solar engineers, Omega and Rassilon, helped Gallifrey establish time travel and its powerful place in the universe. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Gary Russell, DWM prose stories (Marvel Comics, 1985).) After Omega was lost to their final experiment, (TV: The Three Doctors [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1972-1973)., et. al) Rassilon became regarded as the founder of Time Lord society, but his true nature as an autocratic Lord President was not known to later generations until he was resurrected by his people for the Time War. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) The Fifth Doctor once entered Gallifrey's past and served as Supreme Coordinator during Gallifrey's Civil War. Leading an alliance of races against Morbius, he experienced a nightmare in which the Daleks requested to join the war effort. (PROSE: Warmonger [+]Terrance Dicks, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2002).)
During the life of the Doctor, after deciding to look the other way on the renegade's interference across time and space, the Time Lords came to see them as an easy agent to use whenever there was a crisis in history that needed to be solved, instead of getting their own hands dirty. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., Attack of the Cybermen [+]Paula Moore, Doctor Who season 22 (BBC1, 1985)., et al.) Indeed, this was a major reason the Time Lords chose the Doctor to interfere with the Daleks' genesis, with their previous experience against the Daleks also being a major reason. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986)., et. al)
One Time Lord reflected that the Doctor's rare returns to Gallifrey typically followed a normal pattern, with the renegade arriving to defeat "some disaster", which the writer further implied was almost always the Doctor's fault, before leaving again. However, he noted that this pattern changed when the Time War began. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) Dalek-Time Lord tensions would rise on the path to the War. (AUDIO:X and the Daleks [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dark Eyes (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2012)., et al.) The Time Lords put aside more and more of their non-interference ideals in the name of hindering Dalek expansion, culminating in their attempt to avert or alter the Daleks' existence with the Fourth Doctor. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) The Time War would have major effects on Gallifreyan society; they fully set aside their non-intervention policy in the name of fighting the Daleks (AUDIO: All Hands on Deck) and were largely corrupted, turning from peaceful watchers to dark warriors. (TV: The End of Time [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Christmas Special 2009 and New Year Special 2010 (BBC One, 2009-2010)., et. al)
The Daleks learn of the wider universe[]
- Main article: Thal-Dalek battle
No matter whether he had already known of the threat of the Daleks in buried memories (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) or truthfully had never heard of the beings, (TV: Into the Dalek [+]Phil Ford and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014)., et. al) the First Doctor soon had his aforementioned first meeting with the Daleks during his human companions' first trip to an alien world; fascinated by a metal city in the distance, he led his companions into the city under the false claim they needed mercury for the TARIDS fluid link and quickly encountered the Daleks, (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964).) whose xenophobic and "evil" nature shocked the Doctor. (TV: Into the Dalek [+]Phil Ford and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) Escaping the city, the Doctor and his companions led the Thals against the Daleks to take over the city before the Daleks could wipe out all life on Skaro through a neutron bomb. (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964).)
The Doctor encounters the Daleks for the first time (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964).)
The Doctor and his companions thus left Skaro with the belief the exterminators were destroyed there and then, (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964)., AUDIO: Return to Skaro [+]Andrew Smith, The First Doctor Adventures: Volume Four (The First Doctor Adventures, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) unaware that the Dalek race had secretly survived their encounter. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Terry Nation), Publication order (Target Books, 1977).) Whilst human historians later claimed the Fourth Doctor's mission to Skaro, during which he was accompanied by human companions Harry Sullivan and Sarah Jane Smith, marked the first moment where the Daleks learned of life beyond Skaro, (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).) one Dalek stated their first encounter with the First Doctor and his companions was what taught them that time travel was possible and that life on other planets existed, convincing the Daleks to look beyond Skaro to become the masters of the whole universe. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) Indeed, the Eleventh Doctor later displayed great regret for ever entering the Dalek City. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).) However, meeting with the Daleks was also vital for the Doctor's growth; after seeing the "evil" of the Daleks, the Doctor swore to fight foes like them across his travels.
As the Twelfth Doctor later put it, the encounter taught him the meaning of his name, as it showed him that "the Doctor was not the Daleks". (TV: Into the Dalek [+]Phil Ford and Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 8 (BBC One, 2014).) Shortly after the battle, the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace arrived on Skaro in an attempt to time lock the Dalek homeworld with an omega device, but she incorrectly used the device and briefly resurrected the Dalek combatants of the battle, with one swearing to Bernice Summerfield that the Daleks, instead of merely fighting to become masters of Skaro, would master time travel and control the rest of the universe. The Seventh Doctor managed to restore history to its proper course but noted that the Dalek City would soon be breached and its occupants reactivated. (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) When the Thal scientist Tryana inadvertently brought this about, the Dalek Supreme attempted to claim the Doctor's TARDIS during his second visit to Skaro for use in conquering other worlds. Although the Supreme's resurgent force of Daleks was decisively defeated, the Thals feared that other Dalek settlements existed elsewhere on Skaro. (AUDIO: Return to Skaro [+]Andrew Smith, The First Doctor Adventures: Volume Four (The First Doctor Adventures, Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The incident in retrospect[]
The first encounter between the First Doctor and the Daleks in the Dalek City (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964).) proved to only be the first in a long line of battles between the Doctor and the Daleks. In the lead up to the Last Great Time War, when the Eighth Doctor declared to the Reborn Master that he had no intention of joining "an insane war across the timelines," the Master mocked him as denying the truth: as the Master saw it, the Doctor had been fighting a war against the Daleks since he first landed on Skaro and continued fighting them across time and space. The Doctor attempted to defend himself by noting his first encounter with the exterminators had not been planned and stated it was the Daleks' who always attacked first, leaving him no choice but to respond to their invasions and attacks. The Master mocked the response as effectively being "they started it" and declared the Doctor a "one man army" waging a war. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master [+]Matt Fitton, Dark Eyes 2 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2014).)
During the Time War, the Time Lords reflected upon the Daleks' history and read every Thal account of, at least, their initial battle in the Dalek City. They found that the Doctor's companion Ian was mentioned in every telling of the event, earning the human the respect of the Gallifreyans due to his role in convincing the Thals to fight. As such, during a diplomatic mission to the Sense Sphere alongside Susan during the War, they recruited Ian for his apparent skill in anti-Dalek negotiations, along with his experience on the Sense Sphere from another one of his adventures with the Doctor. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Eddie Robson, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) The Dalek Combat Training Manual produced during the War also reflected upon the battle and noted Gallifrey's technical teams were greatly confused by the Daleks' reliance on static electricity during the event. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
In-active Silver Daleks on Vulcan (TV: The Power of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1966).)
During the incident, the Dalek War Machine casings present had been unable to move outside of the city's static-powered metal floors, (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964).) yet the Time Lords found that no Dalek they had encountered during the War thus far had that weakness, with some coming to ponder whether the Thal-Dalek battle was actually waged much later in the Dalek timeline, potentially after some great event had forced the Daleks to retreat back to their home. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) However, most accounts agreed this event was indeed an early part of Dalek history. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016)., AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., et. al) In fact, the Time Lords also found that the Silver Daleks of the later Vulcan Incident had a great reliance on static power and ultimately placed the Thal-Dalek battle to be early in the Dalek timeline, as shown in the opening section of the Combat Training Manual.
The Time Lords came to write that an exploitable reliance on static power was only present within "some" Dalek "factions" and understood that Daleks deployed into combat had "more robust" power systems. While they could find no exploitable fault involving static power in any casing they managed to capture, the Gallifreyan military ordered that, if any of its combat personnel found evidence of a static-based vulnerability present within the Daleks, they needed to inform the War Council right away. The incident had also shown that the Thals' anti-radiation drug, despite having been created as a medicine, was fatal to Dalek mutants. As such, the Time Lords reached out to Thal representatives for samples of the drug, only to underestimate the pacifist ways of the Thals; as the drug had been created to be a medicine, the Thals were unwilling to surrender it for use as a weapon. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Venturing beyond Skaro[]
The Dalek race eventually ventured beyond Skaro to establish the Dalek Empire. However, some records suggested the Daleks at first could not figure out the secret to faster than light space travel, forcing the exterminators to create alliances with the Voord and other such races for time. In fact, some individuals claimed the Daleks were only able to deduce the science behind faster than light travel by forcing the Doctor to reveal it, (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).) matching an account that suggested the Daleks and Voord allied together to force "Dr. Who" into giving them the secret to "ultkron travel". (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Daleks [+]1964.)
The Reconnaissance Dalek, identified by the Thirteenth Doctor as one of the first reconnaissance scouts to leave Skaro, was able to identify the then unfamiliar incarnation as an enemy when she revealed her identity. The Dalek also knew of the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: Resolution [+]Chris Chibnall, Doctor Who New Year Special 2019 (BBC One, 2019).) The first Dalek starship to achieve hyperspace travel was the first Dalek flying saucer, designated Proto 13. (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge [+]unclear authorship, The Daleks comics (City Magazines, 1965).) Now equipped with faster than light travel and invading numerous worlds, (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).) the Daleks eventually found their way to Earth and conquered the planet in the 22nd century. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1964).) This occupation marked an early use of the bronze Dalek casings (COMIC: A Stitch in Time [+]Phil Hoskins, Comic Creator (Scary Beasties, 2016).) that became infamous in the Time War. (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).)
Having decided to put a stop to the Dalek occupation of Earth, the First Doctor stands defiantly against the invaders (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1964).)
Arriving ten years into the occupation, the rivalry between the Doctor, still in his first incarnation, and the Daleks deepened when the traveler vowed to put a stop to the Dalek conquest, aiding human rebels with this companions to bring about the liberation of the planet. Leaving her grandfather at his urging after he saw she had fallen in love, Susan stayed behind to live with the human rebel David Campbell (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1964).) and helped rebuild the Earth, even battling a surviving Dalek drone. (AUDIO: After the Daleks [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) An older Susan Foreman also once arrived in the Dalek occupation in the Doctor's TARDIS. While she quickly escaped, she was pursued through time by a Blue Chrono-Dalek. Breaching the TARDIS as Susan introduced a child to the controls, the Dalek cornered the two and proclaimed that the Daleks would take control of the time capsule. (TV: Susan and the Daleks [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The loss on Earth led to the Daleks almost entirely focusing their xenophobia against humanity and the Doctor, (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).) whom they initially believed to be a man whose travels through time led to him becoming "more than human". (TV: The Evil of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967).) Eventually, however, the Daleks learned the Doctor was a Time Lord. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Day of the Daleks (Louis Marks), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1974)., et. al) During the Time War, the Time Lords reflected upon the 22nd century invasion and were saddened to see the rebels had failed to produce anti-Dalek bombs out of the invader's own metal. Still, they found humans from a later Dalek invasion did manage to. They were also impressed by Susan's ability to hack into the Dalek communications network, so technical teams were directed to study her actions. It was also decided she would be a vital warrior for the conflict with the Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
In the late 2180s, the Daleks launched a second invasion of Earth with the assistance of another renegade Time Lord, "the Monk", and a Dalek from the future known as the Time Controller. Under orders of this unit, the Daleks plotted to turn the Earth into a "plague planet" equipped with a time warp engine to pilot the world through the Time Vortex, intending to wipe out any planet that would one day pose a threat to their empire. The plan was foiled by the Eighth Doctor and his allies at the cost of his great-grandson Alex and his companion Lucie Miller, (AUDIO: Lucie Miller [+]Nicholas Briggs, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2011)./To the Death [+]Nicholas Briggs, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2011).) generating a deep hate the Eighth Doctor felt towards the Daleks in the build up to the Time War. Meanwhile, a Time Lord by the name of Kotris saved the Time Controller from destruction and brought the Dalek to the pre-War era. (AUDIO:X and the Daleks [+]Nicholas Briggs, Dark Eyes (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2012).)
Early Dalek time travel[]
Inspired by the Earth, many worlds began to rise up against Dalek rule, (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).) although they managed to retain their foothold on numerous planets to keep up their vast empire. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) Amid this period of conquest, the Daleks decided the Doctor and his companions were their greatest foes for liberating the Earth, (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).) in addition to their actions on Skaro. (TV: The Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 1 (BBC tv, 1963-1964)., et. al) Deeming the extermination of the time travelers a priority, the Daleks turned their resources towards developing time machines of their own, (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965)., et. al) not only to aid in their conquests (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor, et. al) but specifically to end the threat of the Doctor. (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965)., PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
One of the Daleks' first time machines in flight during the hunt for the Doctor. (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).)
These space-time vessels were known as "DARDISes" (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel [+]Craig Hinton, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2001).) and were capable of dimensional transcendentalism like TARDISes. (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).) Reflecting upon early Dalek time travel, the Time Lords of the Time War-era came to believe these machines were based own their own space-time vessels, guessing in the Dalek Combat Training Manual that the Daleks captured one of their time capsules and reverse-engineered the stolen technology. However, they also suspected it was possible the Daleks had managed to recreate Gallifrey technology after merely having had enough time to study the design of a TARDIS. Nonetheless, Gallifrey's War Council and technical division hoped they could retroactively apply a special program into TARDIS dematerialisation circuits to serve as a "Trojan Horse" and stop the Daleks from ever developing time travel. However, upon realising this plan posed a threat because the Daleks could discover and weaponise this hypothetical program, a subcommittee was tasked with analysing the effectiveness and aftereffects of this strategy. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
The Daleks also became known to a being known to the Time Lords as the "Timewyrm", which gave them trouble in developing time travel by "twisting paths" to alter temporal possibilities. Dubbing her the "Golyan Ak Tana", the Daleks sent a task force to exterminate her, only for her to destroy them by feeding on their energy. The Time Lords, meanwhile, had long since developed prophecies that held the Timewyrm would bring about the end of the universe and consume Rassilon, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Revelation [+]Paul Cornell, adapted from Total Eclipse, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1991).) but the Seventh Doctor moved to defeat the Timewyrm before this prophecy could come to pass. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys [+]John Peel, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1991)., et. al) In fact, another prophecy warned that Gallifrey could survive the Timewyrm's rise, but it would fall nonetheless, with Penelope Gate believing it needed to fall "at precisely the right time". (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles [+]Lance Parkin, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2005).) Indeed, the Tenth Doctor explained Gallifrey's apparent destruction at the end of the Last Great Time War to be a fixed point in time. (TV: The Fires of Pompeii [+]James Moran, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).)
After a number of experiments resulted in the creation of a successful time machine, (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).) the Dalek Emperor and the Black Dalek Leader dispatched (PROSE: The Chase [+]John Peel, adapted from The Chase (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) a squadron of Pursuer-Daleks (AUDIO: The Daleks) to hunt down and exterminate the Doctor and his companions. With the Dalek squad chasing the Doctor and his friends throughout time and space, (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).) one journalist later suggested this incident to be the first skirmish of the Time War. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) During this operation, the Daleks deemed the Doctor and his companions to be their greatest enemies, (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).) but they later came to see how the Doctor took on many companions over their ensuing lives; thus, the Daleks eventually dubbed the Doctor's companions mere soldiers, (AUDIO: Jubilee) instead largely deeming the singular Time Lord as their sole greatest enemy. (TV: Victory of the Daleks [+]Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who series 5 (BBC One, 2010).; COMIC: Defender of the Daleks [+]Jody Houser, Time Lord Victorious release order (Titan Comics, 2020)., et. al)
Using their time machines, the Emperor also planned to lead the Daleks in a new invasion of Earth, intending to attack during the year 2415. However, its personal time machine proved to be faulty. Whilst the Dalek invasion force landed on Earth in 2415, the Emperor was lost in time and, whilst he ultimately returned, the Daleks were left without a leader, leaving their invasion of Earth a complete failure that ended in their surrender. (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor) Additionally, early Dalek time machines relied on taranium, creating a means of time travel that, while impressive, was highly unstable, (PROSE: The Chase [+]John Peel, adapted from The Chase (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) expensive to use (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan and Mission to the Unknown (TV story), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989)., The Mutation of Time [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan (Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) and unreliable in offensive operations. (COMIC: The Secret of the Emperor) The attempt to pursue the First Doctor through time also had further consequences by consuming all of the Daleks' taranium supply. (PROSE: The Chase [+]John Peel, adapted from The Chase (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).)
Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, having stolen a DARDIS to return to their own time, celebrate arriving in "London, 1965!" (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).)
The chase for the Doctor was brought to an abrupt halt when the Daleks encountered the Mechanoids on the planet Mechanus, (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).) kicking off a war and rivalry between the two factions (COMIC: The World That Waits) that would last right up to the Time War. (PROSE: Birth of a Legend [+]Justin Richards, Doctor Who Files (2007).) Furthermore, after the Daleks were distracted by the Mechanoids, the Doctor and his companions managed to escape their grasp. Having been looking for a way to return Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright to their own time, the Doctor studied the DARDIS and let the two return to the 1960s in it after warning them of its possible dangers. (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965).) Even though the Twelfth Doctor later said the Dalek vessel was "not as good as the TARDIS", (PROSE: A History of Humankind [+]Official Guides (BBC Children's Books, 2016).) it successfully returned them to their home time, albeit two years off from when they left. Chesterton and Wright then destroyed the ship to hamper the Daleks' temporal efforts. (TV: The Chase [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 2 (BBC1, 1965)., PROSE: The Chase [+]John Peel, adapted from The Chase (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).)
Indeed, this action severely crippled the Daleks' existing time travel research for years to come, (PROSE: Mission to the Unknown [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan and Mission to the Unknown (TV story), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) but it also deprived the Time Lords of an opportunity to study the surprisingly advanced Dalek time technology. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) In 2223, the Daleks native to the era did not have temporal technology that gave them "precise control of vortex travel". Believing such technology would be "of value", they installed a duplicate under the name Magnus Drake onto Earth so he could establish new technologies for them to harvest during a repeat invasion. (AUDIO: Vengeance [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) During this incident, Daleks again were equipped with bronze casings (AUDIO: Master!) despite it being early in their timeline. When the invasion was launched, the Dalek Litigator became an invasion commander when it traveled back to this stage of the Dalek Empire to hunt down the Master, who had escaped his execution in Skaro's future. (AUDIO: Vengeance [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
At some point, the Daleks made themselves into a time sensitive species, (PROSE: The Last Message [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) earning themselves the title of "Time-Sensitive Daleks". (PROSE: The Guide to the Dark Times [+]Paul Lang, Doctor Who The Official Annual 2021 (Doctor Who annual, Penguin Group, 2020).) The Emperor of the Restoration, while it needed to search non-Dalek terms to describe what it felt, felt "pride" at this innovation of its species. (PROSE: The Last Message [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
The Supreme's masterplan and beyond[]
The Death of the Daleks (audio story) and The Final Beginning (audio story)
It was through strenuous, long-term efforts that the Daleks harvested sufficient quantities of taranium to continue to use the time machines and proceed with the research, (PROSE: The Mutation of Time [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan (Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) creating a new, modified version of their timeship design. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) Taranium was also the vital component of the Time Destructor, the Daleks' first time-based superweapon that was the center of the Black Dalek Leader's master plan in the year 4000 to conquer Earth and its allies. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan [+]Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1965-1966)., PROSE: The Mutation of Time [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan (Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) The Celestial Intervention Agency believed that the Daleks had a long term plan that called for an attack Gallifrey sometime after the fall of the Earth. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) However, the First Doctor stole the taranium core to deactivate the Time Destructor, kicking off another chase throughout space and time. During this hunt, the Daleks encountered an earlier version of the Monk, whom they briefly allied with before he escaped from their grasp. Ultimately, the Doctor, after losing friends during the chase, turned the Time Destructor against the Daleks, annihilating all infrastructure in place for the planned invasion. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan [+]Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1965-1966)., PROSE: The Mutation of Time [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan (Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).)
During their campaign to conquer the Earth's solar system, the Daleks encountered yet another Time Lord renegade, the First Monk. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan [+]Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1965-1966).)
The Time Destructor was destroyed upon activation (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) when its taranium core was exhausted. The loss was a devastating blow for the Dalek Empire (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan [+]Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, Doctor Who season 3 (BBC1, 1965-1966)., PROSE: The Mutation of Time [+]John Peel, adapted from The Daleks' Master Plan (Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) and kicked off the Great War, which brought the Daleks to the brink of destruction. (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from The Evil of the Daleks (David Whitaker), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1993).) During a Multi-Doctor Event, the Second Doctor and his companions briefly caused an alternate timeline where the Time Destructor plot succeeded, though the Second Doctor quickly restored history to its proper course. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods) During the Time War, the Time Lords believed the Time Destructor Incident was proof that the Daleks were willing to do anything to ensure their total victory. Unwilling to let their foes re-create such a powerful and indiscriminate weapon, the Time Lords tried to locate any remaining taranium deposits to stop the development of new Time Destructors, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) only for both sides of the War to use Time Destructors as the conflict dragged on. (PROSE: Natural Regression [+]Justin Richards, The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who (2015)., AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)
Amid the Great War, the Daleks discovered a means of time travel that did not need taranium, although it was made possible only by accident due to human experiments in 1866 that the Daleks managed to exploit. Equipped with this power, the Emperor arranged for the capture of the Second Doctor in Operation Human Factor, ordering him to use the TARDIS to spread the so-called "Dalek factor" throughout Earth's entire history. However, the Daleks were then distracted and heavily set back by a civil war instigated by the Doctor, who had introduced a "human factor" into a number of Daleks. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks [+]David Whitaker, Doctor Who season 4 (BBC1, 1967)., PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from The Evil of the Daleks (David Whitaker), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1993).) Some 5000 years prior to the 101st century, the Time Lords were known to have been involved in the Dalek Civil War, after which they were believed to have retreated from the "galactic arena". (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus [+]Craig Hinton, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) While one account alluded to this being "the final end" of the Daleks (PROSE: The History of the Daleks [+]John Peel and Terry Nation, St Martin's Press (1988).) like the Doctor had hoped, the Daleks pushed back the rebels, eventually rebuilt their forces, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Day of the Daleks (Louis Marks), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1974).) and even adapted the human-established time travel into time corridor technology. (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).)
Humanised Daleks on Kyrol after escaping the Dalek Civil War. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution)
As the Daleks' campaigns carried on, the Dalek Empire also came to develop chameleon circuits and continued to use dimensional transcendentalism. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element [+]Stephen Cole, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2000).) Meanwhile, surviving humanised Daleks escaped Skaro and made their way to the planet Kyrol, where they later met the Eighth Doctor. (COMIC: Children of the Revolution) Eager to exploit the Human Factor against the Daleks, the Time Lords began to search for these survivors during the Time War, sending out operatives to Kyrol upon hearing rumours of their presence. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) Even though the humanised Daleks had all met their end in a battle against the powerful being Kata-Phobus, (COMIC: Children of the Revolution) the War-era Time Lords, like the Daleks, were more than willing to alter history to secure an advantage. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Eddie Robson, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) Equipped with information from the Doctor's experiments that brought forth the "Human Factor", the Time Lords also began to research if a "Gallifreyan Factor" existed. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
The Daleks were brought to the attention of the Time Lords by the Second Doctor during his trial when he told them that they were the most dangerous of all his foes. (TV: The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969).)
The Emperor's multi-part plot[]
Under the command of the Dalek Emperor, Daleks in War Machine casings launched a complicated plot to take over the Earth in the late 20th century. By the time of the gambit, the Daleks had force field technology powerful enough to keep a TARDIS in place and a high frequency sonic beam that was able to get through the TARDIS's own defenses, allowing the Daleks to fill the time capsule with frequencies that could destroy a Time Lord's brain. Following the Sixth Doctor's capture, a Scientist Dalek also began to dismantling the TARDIS consule unit to investigate the inner workings of the time machine, much to the rage of the Doctor—who decried the Dalek's actions as "indiscriminate tinkering"—and a higher ranking Dalek, who revealed the scientist had not been given orders to carry out such actions.
The rogue Dalek countered that its scientific role gave it a duty to find out how the TARDIS worked, but the Doctor wrote it off as the Dalek being ambitious. Before his escape, when the Dalek officer demanded the Doctor to explain how the TARDIS worked, the Doctor responded that its "meddling minion" had heavily damaged the capsule. After his escape, the Doctor needed to take time to repair his TARDIS before travelling back to defeat the Emperor's plot. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure)
Second Dalek War[]
Setting the pieces in place[]
- Main article: Time Paradox Incident
- Main article: Operation Divide and Conquer
- Main article: Spiridon campaign
The Master and the Daleks formed an alliance before the Second Dalek War (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).)
Aided by an alliance with yet another renegade Time Lord, the Master, (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) after he arrived on Skaro, (PROSE: Verdigris [+]Paul Magrs, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).) the Daleks were granted access to his knowledge of temporal mechanics. Further research was carried out by the Gold Dalek, who specialised in time travel campaigns, (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).) resulting in them "discover[ing] the secret of time travel" and learning how to change history on a larger scale than was previously possible, (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).) though mastery of time travel still eluded them. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988)., PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009)., et al.) The War Doctor once implied the Time War began as soon as the Daleks held temporal technology that they could use effectively against the Time Lords. (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)
After the Second Doctor brought the Daleks to the attention of the Time Lords during his trial, (TV: The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969).) it was further suggested by a journalist that the Daleks were again brought to the attention of the Time Lords when (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) the Third Doctor discovered an alternate timeline in which the Gold Dalek and its forces, using time travel to create a time paradox via a time loop, successfully conquered Earth by starting World War III in the late 20th century. The Doctor quickly encountered with a team of human rebels trying to avert their future, (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).) with the Time Lords later writing that these guerrilla fighters were waging "a crude time war" against the Daleks. Blind to "the complexities of four dimensional temporal mechanics", (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) the rebels failed to realise they were completing the Daleks' time paradox, as their actions were set to ensure the Dalek-controlled future came to pass. (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).)
According to the Time Lords, the rebels had thus created "perpetual" time loop, but the Doctor's intervention was able to finally free the Earth from the Dalek occupation; (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) aided by UNIT, the human rebels, and his assistant Jo Grant, the Doctor was able to finally avert the Third World War and prevent the Dalek-controlled future. (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).) By one account, it was this incident that taught the Doctor that the Daleks had survived their Civil War, (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Day of the Daleks (Louis Marks), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1974).) but other accounts showed the Second Doctor had already learned as such. (COMIC: Bringer of Darkness; AUDIO: The Final Beginning, et. al) Analysing the "Time Paradox Incident" during the Time War, the Time Lords believed the human rebels' time machine being based upon the Daleks' temporal equipment was proof the Daleks themselves had copied a Gallifreyan time capsule to establish their initial time machines. This incident also occurred on the Doctor's exile on Earth, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) which he had been sentenced to after his trial. (TV: The War Games [+]Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 6 (BBC1, 1969).)
During his exile on Earth, the Doctor had often battled the Master, who allied with a number of alien conquerors in his efforts to take over the planet. (TV: The Dæmons [+]Guy Leopold, Doctor Who season 8 (BBC1, 1971)., 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)., et. al) After his many defeats, the Master finally left the Earth and made his way to Skaro. (PROSE: Verdigris [+]Paul Magrs, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 2000).) After his many other alliances with alien powers, the Master had decided to partner with the Daleks, who had grown so hateful of humanity and the Doctor that they were willing to hear his plan; meeting with the Supreme Dalek Council, he proposed (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).) Operation Divide and Conquer, which called for a series of false flag attacks against the Earth and Draconian space empires to turn the two great powers against each other, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) weakening them to the extent that they could be easily conquered by a sudden Dalek invasion.
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The Master during his uneasy alliance with the Daleks, wearing a suit with a logo that resembles a Dalek eyespiece (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).)
The plan was primed to place the entire sector under Dalek control, but what the Master asked for in return, or if the Daleks even intended to honour their promise for whatever it was, remained unknown. (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).) Indeed, the alliance between the Daleks and the Master was uneasy, with both sides wanting to be the one who came out as a galactic ruler. (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) Nonetheless, the Daleks were fascinated as the plan began to unfold just as the Master promised and began to consider further alliances, only for the Doctor to get involved; (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).) with the Time Lords having allowed him to continue his adventures throughout time and space, with Jo Grant at his side, after he put a stop to the First Omega Crisis, (TV: The Three Doctors [+]Bob Baker and Dave Martin, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1972-1973).) the Doctor and Jo arrived in 2540, where they discovered the tensions between Earth and Draconia and found that the Master was behind the conflict. (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).)
With the two empires alerted to the Master's deception, the Daleks were forced to reveal themselves when the Gold Dalek arrived to take control of the operation. In a move that had major repercussions for the rest of Dalek history, this Supreme did not have the Doctor exterminated, instead allowing the Master to capture his old friend so he could watch the galaxy fall. Instead, the Doctor escaped, leaving the Supreme Council to believe the Master's supposed compassion for his fellow Gallifreyan lead the Doctor to an operation on Spiridon; (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).) as both empires prepared for war against the Daleks, the Doctor sent a message to the Time Lords for aid in stopping the Daleks' imminent attack on the two powers. (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) In his message to Gallifrey, he noted that he suspected they already knew of the Master's alliance with the Daleks. (PROSE: The Time Lord Letters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2015).) By the Time War, the Master's alliance with the Daleks and the Draconia-Terra skirmishes they instigated were covered in CIA File QQQ/57. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Receiving the Doctor's message, (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) either the CIA (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) or the High Council, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) specifically Castellan Terrynate, (PROSE: The Time Lord Letters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2015).) made an unusual decision by directly helping the Doctor, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) albeit by doing the bare minimum; (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) they remotely guided the TARDIS to Spiridon, where the Doctor and Jo aided a group of Thals in neutralising a Dalek army in place for the coming invasion by using an ice volcano. (TV: Planet of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) As the Time Lords learned in their initial intel of the Spiridon operation, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) the Daleks had also been experimenting on adapting the native Spiridon's invisibility for their own kind, (TV: Planet of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) only to abandon the operation when they were unable to overcome the light wave sickness. The Time Lords considered themselves fortunate for this chain of events. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Grey Daleks involved in the Spiridon campaign are lost to a molten ice pool (TV: Planet of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).)
Nonetheless, the Daleks remained interested in invisibility technology up to the Time War, with Davros eventually managing to develop it for them. (PROSE: Father of the Daleks [+]Dave Rudden, The Wintertime Paradox (2020).) Reflecting on the Spiridon Incident, the War-era Time Lords were also surprised by the weakness the Daleks on the planet showed towards cold temperatures because they had seen Daleks operate in the cold of deep space, writing that it was a "possible operational inconsistency" within their foes. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) Whilst the Sixth Doctor once claimed that every Dalek mutant was weak to cold temperatures, (AUDIO: The Ultimate Adventure) many accounts showed that Daleks could operate in winter weather. (AUDIO: The Dalek Occupation of Winter, et. al) To try to understand what happened, the Time Lords came up with several theories: they pondered whether Daleks needed training for low-temperature operations but admitted it was more likely the casings on Spiridon had been modified, either for suspended animation or the invisibility experiments. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Remaining entombed for decades, the army the Doctor and the Thals immobilised remained frozen throughout the ensuing (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).) Second Dalek War launched by the Earth and Draconian empires against the Daleks. (PROSE: Love and War [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1992).) Even though there were several accounts that held the entombed Spiridon army was released or destroyed in pre-Time War Dalek history, (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks, AUDIO: Return of the Daleks [+]Nicholas Briggs, Bonus Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2006)., et. al) the Time Lords feared the Daleks would gather the resources needed to excavate the army during the War; it was thus recommended that reconnaissance TARDISes make customary stops in Spiridon's star system and immediately report any increase in Dalek activity to High Command. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) The Doctor's message to the Time Lords about the Dalek threat was also stored in the Panopticon Archive. (PROSE: The Time Lord Letters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2015).)
Contradictory accounts and the role of time travel[]
According to human historians, the Gold Dalek, using a primitive time tunnel from what it learned from the Master, had only launched its time travel-based invasion of Earth to redeem itself after the failure of its alliance with the Master and the Dalek loss on Spiridon, (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).) although the Gold Dalek had in fact not recongised the Third Doctor during the Earth invasion (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).) but did recongise the enemy of its kind during their alliance with the Master. (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) With the Daleks seeking the avert the liberation of Earth at the hands of the First Doctor, the Dalek Combat Training Manual claimed the new invasion of Earth had occurred as soon as they had time travel equipment, further claiming that the Daleks began their chase throughout time against the First Doctor after the Earth had again been conquered. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
The Gold Dalek who used time travel to establish a time paradox-enabled invasion of Earth. (TV: Day of the Daleks [+]Louis Marks, Doctor Who season 9 (BBC1, 1972).)
The human historians, meanwhile, claimed that the chase for the First Doctor was launched after the time travel-based invasion, claiming the Black Dalek Leader had been inspired by its fellow Supreme's operation. (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).) Both further claimed the Time Destructor Incident was launched sometime after the alliance with the Master and the Spiridon operation. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021)., 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).) The Daleks also held a grudge against the Master after he abandoned their alliance and blamed him for their defeats at the hands of the Doctor. Despite admitting that their "goals weren't perfectly aligned", the "Bruce" Master later claimed it was the Daleks who "threw away" the potential of their partnership, claiming they had not listened to him. He also alleged that he simply abandoned their strategies because they had began to fail and that the Doctor's victories were not his fault. (AUDIO: Vengeance [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
Some scholars suggested the Master and the Daleks, likely because of their mutual enemy in the Doctor, had made further alliances, but no authentic records of these later partnerships existed. Indeed, it was believed the Master's failure had set back a possible Dalek conquest of humanity by hundreds of years, although the Supreme Council dubbed this an inconvenience out of the belief the Daleks would ultimately triumph (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).) as the Second Dalek War with Earth kicked off. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) The Master and the Daleks did indeed make further alliances, but the Master earned the Daleks ire as he continually abandoned their plans to save his own life. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film [+]Gary Russell, adapted from Doctor Who (Matthew Jacobs), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 1996)., The TV Movie [+]Gary Russell, adapted from Doctor Who (Matthew Jacobs), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2021).) At one point, he tried to ally with both the Daleks and the Cybermen on Kendrax. (PROSE: Special Occasions: 1. The Not-So-Sinister Sponge [+]Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman, Short Trips and Side Steps (Short Trips short stories, 2000).) During the Second Dalek War, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) the Daleks also continued their research into time travel, learning lessons from the failure of the Gold Dalek's temporal invasion. (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).)
In large part because of the Master's betrayal of their alliance against Earth and Draconia, (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric [+]James Goss and Steve Tribe, The Doctor: His Lives and Times (BBC Books, 2013)., AUDIO: Vengeance [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) but also because of his subsequent failures in their next alliances, the renegade would later be tried before the Dalek Emperor (PROSE: The Novel of the Film [+]Gary Russell, adapted from Doctor Who (Matthew Jacobs), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 1996).) and his whole parliament. (PROSE: The Runes of Fenric [+]James Goss and Steve Tribe, The Doctor: His Lives and Times (BBC Books, 2013).) Although the Time Lords claimed in the Dalek Combat Training Manual that the Daleks moved to put their former ally on trial right after their first doomed partnership, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) most accounts agreed the trial was held later in Dalek history, possibly with the approval of the Time Lords. (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997)., et. al) Overall, there were many parts of Dalek history that appeared to contradict or disagree with one another, (PROSE: Alien Bodies [+]Lawrence Miles, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997)., et. al) or were simply hard to fit within the overall timeline, with even the Time Lords being unable to establish a complete summary of Dalek history. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Daleks during the 27th century invasion that followed an Age of Universal Peace (COMIC: The Mechanical Planet) that could not have happened if the Dalek Wars were waged in the 26th century (TV: Frontier in Space [+]Malcolm Hulke, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).)
A young member of Faction Paradox credited the Doctor for this, claiming that the Dalek's greatest foe had managed to trick "the Dalek Empire into tangling their timeline so bad that their history collapsed under the weight of the paradoxes". (PROSE: Unnatural History [+]Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).) Nonetheless, not even the Eighth Doctor could remember every detail of Dalek history due to its constantly changing nature, (PROSE: Alien Bodies [+]Lawrence Miles, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) with the Daleks themselves also interfering with their own past. The Last Great Time War's temporal effects only made their history more confusing. It was known that the Dalek Wars were kicked off after the failure of the Master's plan, (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).) but the fact that they were waged throughout much of the 26th century (PROSE: Love and War [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1992)., et al.) conflicted with accounts of the Age of Universal Peace. (PROSE: Break-through! [+]The Dalek Book (Dalek annual, Souvenir Press, 1964).) Indeed, after arriving in the Second Dalek War, the Tenth Doctor once remarked that "Dalek history was confusing enough before the Time War". (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).)
One journalist speculated the Daleks involved in the 26th century conflict were not actually native to that era, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquest) with other historians knowing that the Daleks were willing to dip back into their own past to try to turn defeats into victories. (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).) While the Second Dalek War never developed into a time war, the Daleks' time travel research during it was capable, at least in theory, of large-scale temporal manipulation. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) Indeed, even though the seemingly endless series of Dalek Wars against humanity were waged long before Davros drew up plans for the Daleks to wage a war against Gallifrey and its High Council, (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).) Davros, acting as the Dalek Emperor, was seemingly involved in the Dalek Wars during the events surrounding Operation Genocide. (COMIC: Nemesis of the Daleks)
Ogrons mercenaries were also employed during the Gold Dalek's occupation of Earth and the Master's plan. (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)., et. al) The Daleks continued to employ the Ogrons into the Dalek Wars (COMIC: Nemesis of the Daleks) and beyond (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek) because of their obedience and usefulness as cannon-fodder. (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).) However, the Eighth Doctor later learned the Ogrons were only inserted into pre-Time War Dalek history by the Overseer in an attempt to change history. The outcomes of these events remained the same, but the Doctor could remember versions of these events both with and without Ogrons. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons) The Daleks continued to use Ogrons during the Time War (AUDIO: The Uncertain Shore) and afterward. (COMIC: The Only Good Dalek)
The Second and Third Dalek Wars kick off[]
- Main article: Second Dalek War
Part of the Dalek Fleet by the end of the Second Dalek War, demonstrating their continued advancement. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).)
After the exposure of Operation Divide and Conquer and the Dalek loss on Spiridon, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) the Draconian and Earth empires declared hostilities against the Daleks, kicking off the Second Dalek War. (PROSE: Love and War [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1992)., Deceit [+]Peter Darvill-Evans, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).) Despite the mass casualties the Daleks inflicted in the First Dalek Incursion alone, their enemies kept up the fight; (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) the Time Lords believed that, if the Daleks had been able to launch their planned surprise attack, it was more than likely the universe's space-faring powers would have been wiped out. In large part because (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) the Time Lords had sent the Doctor to Spiridon to take out the Dalek army, (TV: Planet of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 10 (BBC1, 1973).) the universe instead stood a fighting chance. The war was nonetheless a major conflict for Earth and the Daleks, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009)., et. al) with the Dalek Combat Training Manual comparing it to the Time War by saying they were both large-scale Dalek attacks against the universe. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
By the end of the Second Dalek War, the Daleks were losing the conflict but sought to master time travel, an essential step towards universal domination. One Dalek officer in particular, Dalek X, was notable for his push in developing Dalek temporal engineering, arguing that the Daleks would only achieve their supposedly rightful place as the supreme beings by conquering both space and time. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) After the failed attempt to exploit the Cathedral of Contemplation's temporal abilities, (AUDIO: Out of Time [+]Matt Fitton, Out of Time (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) the Supreme Dalek's Temporal Research Team pressed on in a bid to break into the Time Vortex via the Arkheon Threshold and change history. Although the Arkheon gambit originated as a means of defeating the Earth Empire, Dalek time-travel theory stated that mastery of time travel would begin with the destruction of the Time Lords and end with the subjugation of humanity. Dalek X denounced the Time Lords as weak and inferior for failing to use their powers to assert their superiority over all other lifeforms.
Ongoing bombardment intended to breach the Threshold interfered with the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS while in flight. It "slipped a time track" and landed the Doctor in the midst of the war, where he fell prisoner to Dalek X and was blackmailed into cooperating with them. However, Dalek X's decision to use the Doctor's TARDIS as a control element in their experiments allowed the Doctor to escape captivity and eradicate the Temporal Research Team. The disaster threw the Dalek Fleet into disarray and put an end to their attempts to win the war via time travel. Earth Command later attacked the Dalek base on Arkheon and the Doctor closed the Threshold, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) leading the war to "fizzle out". (PROSE: Deceit [+]Peter Darvill-Evans, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1993).)
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The dark-red casing of a Supreme Dalek involved in the Second Dalek War, (AUDIO: Out of Time [+]Matt Fitton, Out of Time (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) matching the Supreme casing later used in the Time War (COMIC: Ambush)
Despite the defeat, the Second Dalek War had accelerated the Daleks' time travel research and demonstrated their growing confidence and capability of using mass manipulation of time as a weapon of war, effectively laying the groundwork for a future temporal conflict. (AUDIO: Out of Time [+]Matt Fitton, Out of Time (Big Finish Productions, 2020)., PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) Travel via time corridor became the Daleks primary means of time travel, but this method remained, in the words of the Seventh Doctor, "very crude and nasty". They coveted a system of time travel as sophisticated as that possessed by the Time Lords. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988).) The Fourth Doctor feared what would happen if the Daleks managed to get a copy of the TARDIS Instruction Manual. (PROSE: The Pirate Planet [+]James Goss, adapted from The Pirate Planet (Douglas Adams), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 2017).) Beyond allowing travel between different temporal coordinates, Dalek time corridors could be used as magnetrons, latching onto a target in the Vortex and pulling it to one end of the corridor. One significant advance in Dalek time travel technology came through the Time Controller device, which was portable but needed time to charge. Another weakness was that it was easily disabled. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Less significant to the time travel advancements, the Second Dalek War had seen a large-scale deployment of the bronze Dalek casings (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) that would later be used in the Time War. (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., et. al) Whilst bronze casings had seen use as far back as the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth, (COMIC: A Stitch in Time [+]Phil Hoskins, Comic Creator (Scary Beasties, 2016).) the "protective armor" seen in the Second Dalek War was a very advanced weapon used to its full extend by the Daleks, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks [+]Trevor Baxendale, BBC New Series Adventures (BBC Books, 2009).) with a distinct red variant used by the Supreme Commander. (AUDIO: Out of Time [+]Matt Fitton, Out of Time (Big Finish Productions, 2020).) While the Daleks largely went back to silver and grey casings after the war, (TV: Death to the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 11 (BBC1, 1974)., Destiny of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 17 (BBC1, 1979)., et. al) the bronze drone casing and red Supreme casing would become standard issue for the Time War and were extensively used throughout the conflict. (TV: Dalek [+]Robert Shearman, adapted from Jubilee (Robert Shearman), Doctor Who series 1 (BBC One, 2005)., The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, 50th Anniversary Specials (BBC One, 2013)., COMIC: Ambush, AUDIO: Aimed at the Body, et al.)
In the 27th century, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) the Dalek Wars continued through the Third Dalek War, (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).) which was largely defined not by fighting but the outbreak of a great space plague that the Daleks engineered after their alliance with the Master. (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).) Deploying a team of Silver Daleks to the planet Exxilon to prevent the parrinium cure from falling into humanity's hands, the final action of the Third Dalek War came with the Exxilon Gambit, (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).) which ended with the Third Doctor, his companion Sarah Jane Smith, the native Exxilons and the Marine Space Corps stopping the Dalek plot, (TV: Death to the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 11 (BBC1, 1974).) allowing the cure to be dispersed across the Earth Empire's territory. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
The Great City of the Exxilons, which robbed a team of Silver Daleks of power (TV: Death to the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 11 (BBC1, 1974).)
Although the Daleks launched a second mission to Exxilon when a new mutation of the space plague began to affect both them and humanity, (AUDIO: The Dalek Protocol) the "Exxilon Incident" of the 27th century was amongst the events the Time Lords of the Time War reflected upon in the Dalek Combat Training Manual, writing that they "now" knew the space plague had been of the Daleks' own making. During the incident, the Daleks had also immediately lost power to their weapons thanks to a beacon in the Great City of the Exxilons; fascinating at using similar technology as a defence, agents were sent to the more-technologically advanced past of Exxilon to learn how to construct such a device, although the Time Lords also saw that the Daleks on Exxilon had used telekinetic power to remain mobile, showing that Daleks could still be lethal in situations where they seemingly had no power. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
The Third Dalek War ended after the first Exxilon mission as well, (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).) although the conflict had left many human beings dead (PROSE: The Chase [+]John Peel, adapted from The Chase (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1989).) like the Second Dalek War before it. (PROSE: Love and War [+]Paul Cornell, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1992).) Future Time Lord agent Chris Cwej (PROSE: Dead Romance [+]Lawrence Miles, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1999)., The Dying Days [+]Lance Parkin, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997)., et. al) grew up watching EarthDoom XV, a highly fictionalised show about the Third Dalek War, (PROSE: Sky Pirates! [+]Dave Stone, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1995).) in his home time period of the 30th century. (PROSE: Head Games [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1995).) The show terrified him and many other children of the time despite its low production values. (PROSE: Sky Pirates! [+]Dave Stone, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1995).) As he grew older, he still knew of the great destruction brought on by the exterminators and thus continued to greatly fear them as the "greatest murders" present within the universe. As such, when the Great Houses sent him to negotiate with them during the War in Heaven, he was mortified and his encounter with the exterminators left him feeling inhuman. (PROSE: Dead Romance [+]Lawrence Miles, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1999).)
The "first shot"[]
Mission to Skaro[]
- Main article: Genesis Incident
Although Dalek dominance was kept at bay, the Time Lords continued to observe them growing stronger and more dangerous. They put aside their policy of non-interference (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) after their "latest temporal projections" foresaw a future where the Daleks had accomplished their long-held goal of wiping out all other lifeforms. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., PROSE: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Genesis of the Daleks (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).) The Time Lords judged that the Daleks were too dangerous to continue to persist (WC: Monster File: Daleks [+]Justin Richards, Captain Jack's Monster Files (2008).) and decided the mutants were a threat to the survival of all of reality. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor [+]Steven Moffat, adapted from The Day of the Doctor (Steven Moffat), Target novelisations (Target Books, 2018).) Beyond having seen how the Daleks were a "malignant infection" on the universe, the Time Lords came to fear for their own safety in the face of the Dalek menace, even believing the Daleks were the long prophesied enemy who would emerge (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).) to destroy them. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
Upon seeing the potential time stream where the Daleks had succeeded in their mission of extermination and became "the dominant creature in the universe" (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., PROSE: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terrance Dicks, adapted from Genesis of the Daleks (Terry Nation), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1976).) either through the Matrix's projections (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) or the APC Net, (PROSE: Divided Loyalties [+]Gary Russell, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).) the Time Lords deemed it necessary to act and break their sacred law of sacred law of non-interference, defending their decision by arguing a pre-emptive strike against the Daleks before they even arose would save trillions of lives, potentially their own civilisation as well, and allow their lives to "return to normal". Agreeing the Doctor was the man for the job, (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).) the Time Lords intercepted the Fourth Doctor as he was using a transmat beam and redirected him, along with his companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, to Skaro during the Thousand Year War that gave rise to the Daleks. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
The plan to avert or alter the creation of the Daleks was conceived by the Celestial Intervention Agency (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) with help from the team monitoring the APC Net. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties [+]Gary Russell, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).) According to most accounts, the High Council knew of and approved the mission. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015)., et. al) The Dalek Combat Training Manual described the mission as being the "High Council's decision" and claimed that it was "unprecedented" in Gallifreyan history. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) To outline the mission, a Time Lord messenger was sent to meet the Doctor (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) in the trenches of Skaro, (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) where the messenger told the Doctor of the future they had foreseen and outlined the objectives for this mission:
- If possible, to avert the creation of the Daleks
- If that is not possible, alter their development and make them less aggressive
- If neither is possible, find some intrinsic flaw or weakness to exploit in the Daleks (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
A Time Lord messenger meets the Fourth Doctor on Skaro. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
The exact identity of this messenger varied depending on the account. Many tellings held that he was a Time Lord from the Fourth Doctor's own era, explaining why that was the incarnation chosen. (PROSE: A Device of Death [+]Christopher Bulis, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997)., A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017)., et. al) One account held that the messenger was Lord Ferain, who was the Director of Allegiance within Gallifrey's Celestial Intervention Agency and writer of An Alternative History of Skaro: The Daleks without Davros, (PROSE: Lungbarrow [+]Marc Platt, adapted from Lungbarrow, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) whereas another telling held the Time Lord who led the mission was the coordinator of the APC Net, Jelpax, after his team foresaw the Dalek-controlled future. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties [+]Gary Russell, BBC Past Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1999).) By one account, the messenger had been Lord Cardinal Brastall. (PROSE: A Device of Death [+]Christopher Bulis, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) By another account, the messenger was Valentine. (WC: Death Comes to Time [+]Colin Meek, BBCi animations (BBCi, 2001-2002).) A final account claimed Valyes, a Time Lord from a future point in time when Gallifrey was threatened by Daleks, had been the messenger. (AUDIO: Ascension [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) The CIA's own documents claimed the messenger had been Director Deliavatsud, whose administration had failed to recongise the threat of the Daleks for 25,000 years.
These documents outlined a very different account of the mission's background, claiming that it was an unauthorised affair; Deliavatsud, who only learnt of the danger the Daleks posed when he consulted the APC Net about their expansion in 101,197 TL, launched what became known as "the infamous Deliavatsud Intervention" by stealing a Time Ring as a way to unlawfully Time Scoop the Doctor and his companions to Skaro. Whilst the Doctor was found innocent "on technical grounds" due to being forced into the mission, Deliavatsud's blatant rejection of the non-intervention policy resulted in him being disintegrated by the High Council as punishment, which forced the CIA's further interventionist activities to be handled in secret. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) In the days before the War in Heaven, it was indeed said that the "interventionist elite" carried out many retro-genocides in secret. (PROSE: The Book of the War [+]Lawrence Miles, et al., Faction Paradox novels (Mad Norwegian Press, 2002).) However, the punishment for Deliavatsud's actions and push to go underground left the CIA crippled for years. A large amount of Deliavatsud's research into "the Dalek Situation" was also taken and destroyed by the High Council, so the newly-appointed Chief of Multihistorical Research, Professor Qualen, was selected to research into the future of "The Dalek Problem". (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).)
Despite his initial reluctance to work for his people again, the Doctor quickly agreed to the mission upon learning it involved the Daleks and being told of the future his people had foreseen, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) additionally realising he had little choice in the matter (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).) because his people had already dropped him into the Thousand Year War with Sarah and Harry. Quickly becoming involved in the conflict between the Daleks' Kaled forefathers and their Thal enemies, the Doctor bore witness to the first Grey Daleks being activated and even met Davros, whom he failed to convince to change the mutants into a force for "good". Davros believed the Daleks were already going to help the universe by wiping out all "inferior" life forms. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) The Time Lords had thus failed to realise that, by sending the Doctor to this time period, Davros would learn of life on other planets and be inspired to see the Daleks become masters of time itself. (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)., A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).)
On the orders of Gallifrey, the Fourth Doctor nearly destroyed the Daleks in their infancy. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
Although there was dispute between accounts on whether the Daleks themselves learnt of alien life through this mission, (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW., 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).) meeting the Doctor proved the existence of life beyond Skaro and the possibility of time travel to Davros himself. He was overjoyed to find these alien lifeforms believed his "children" were a great threat to their existence, thinking it proved that he was a genius and that the Daleks were indeed superior to all others. From this moment forward, Davros actively wanted his Daleks to advance beyond Skaro and believed that was an inevitably, ultimately wishing for them to control all space and time. (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).) After the early Daleks all but wiped out the Thals and destroyed their home city, the Doctor rallied an ultimately failed coup against Davros and was finally presented with a chance to wipe out the Daleks by destroying their incubation room, only to falter at the last second. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
Pondering whether he could alter Dalek development to turn them into a merciful force (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).) and finding himself unable to commit genocide, he questioned if such an act would make him "no better than the Daleks" and whether "some things" in the universe would be better with the fear of the Daleks uniting people. However, he believed he did not need to make the decision when it seemed the anti-Davros coup had worked out. Instead, the Daleks returned to the Kaled bunker and wiped out those who opposed Davros, leaving the mad scientist in control of the surviving Kaleds. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) Believing his people had been right and realising Davros would never allow mercy to be introduced into his "children", (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).) the Doctor returned to the incubation room to finish his mission, only for his work to be cut short. By his estimation, he had only set back Dalek history by a thousand years. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
With the rise of the Daleks no longer able to be altered, (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).) the Doctor and his companions left Skaro after watching the Daleks betray and gun-down their creator for his supposed inferiority, although he told Sarah and Harry of his hope that something good could emerge from the destruction the Daleks inflicted upon the universe. They also parted ways with the surviving Thals and Mutos, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) who fell under the leadership of the Thal soldier Bettan. She went on to found the Thal tribe whose descendants the First Doctor encountered during his first visit to Skaro. (PROSE: The History of the Daleks [+]John Peel and Terry Nation, St Martin's Press (1988).) She also had some kind of involvement in the Time War and foresaw its "final event". (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who: Lockdown! (2020).) Meanwhile, the first Dalek Davros had created, (PROSE: The Evil of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from The Evil of the Daleks (David Whitaker), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1993).) the Dalek Prime, cemented its control over its race despite being locked underground for the time being.
Though locked underground, the Dalek Prime proclaims its race will one day emerge to take their "rightful place as the supreme beings of the universe". (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
Whether or not the Doctor's thousand year delay actually altered Dalek history (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) was a matter of conflicting accounts. At the most basic level, numerous significant events, such as their encounters with the Doctor, appeared to remain the same for the Daleks (TV: Asylum of the Daleks [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 7 (BBC One, 2012)., et. al) after the mission was cemented in history. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).) One account did claim the fallout of the Doctor's mission created a new version of Dalek history, with the Time Lords observing changes to the timeline resulting from the mission as the Doctor left Skaro. The Dalek Empire was significantly diminished, with thousands of worlds becoming free from Dalek rule, but the Time Lords had hoped for this number to reach millions. They considered the Doctor's mission a failure but quickly identified an opportunity to counterbalance the shortfall, diverting the Doctor to the weapons research facility of Deepcity. They predicted that the success of the Doctor's actions there would give rise to a race of synthetic robots capable of bringing about the downfall of the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: A Device of Death [+]Christopher Bulis, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).)
The CIA's own records were again a differing account, claiming that the Doctor's actions on Skaro had not created a future better for the Time Lords but only established a bootstrap paradox; according to the The Dalek Problem published by Qualen, the version of Dalek history that emerged from the mission was the same timeline that the Doctor and Time Lords were already living through. According to these findings, the mission had averted a different timeline, one in which the Thals failed to destroy the Kaled Dome, Davros was allowed to unleash the Daleks against their enemies by Kaled leadership, and the insane genius declared himself ruler of Skaro, only to be exterminated with the rest of the Kaleds by the Daleks. This sequence of events was changed when the Doctor's presence resulted in the Thals destroying the Kaled Dome thanks to Davros' manipulations, setting in motion the version of Dalek history he already knew. In both versions of the Dalek timeline, the exterminators grew to one day threaten the Time Lords themselves (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) and had the possibility to conquer all of the universe. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986)., TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975).)
Seen as a declaration of hostilities[]
The Daleks eventually learned of the Time Lords' attempt to subvert their development, which they henceforth viewed as the Gallifreyans having launched a pre-emptive strike and act of aggression, so the Daleks planned to strike back at Gallifrey. Thus, while it was the total opposite of the Time Lords' intention, (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Mike Tucker, The Target Storybook (BBC Books, 2019).) the incident had generated Dalek hostilities towards the Time Lords that would eventually lead to the War. (WC: Monster File: Daleks [+]Justin Richards, Captain Jack's Monster Files (2008)., AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006)., The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).) Remembering how he had held the fate of the Daleks in his own hands during his fourth incarnation, the Eleventh Doctor himself referred to it as the "first shot". As such, the Doctor blamed themself for starting the Time War. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone [+]Scott Gray, DWM Comics (2013).) Whilst different incarnations of the Doctor had different thoughts on whether destroying the Daleks in their entirety was right, (TV: Journey's End [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008)., et. al) the Eighth Doctor and the War Doctor believed they should have destroyed the Daleks when they had the chance. (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks [+]Steve Lyons, Eighth Doctor Adventures (Big Finish Productions, 2006)., The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).)
Whilst datafiles in the Doctor's TARDIS vaguely stated that "some" considered the Doctor's mission the beginning of the Time War, (WC: Who Are The Daleks? [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) the entirety of the Dalek race held this belief. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016)., et. al) Enraged by the Time Lords' actions, the Daleks decried it as an act of war and focused their "terrible and mighty capacity for vengeance" against Gallifrey (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).) as soon as they learned of the mission. (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Mike Tucker, The Target Storybook (BBC Books, 2019).) The Dalek Time Strategist claimed the mission made it so, "from [the Daleks'] earliest beginnings," they sought time travel and time weaponry, (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) with Davros indeed having realised that the Daleks would need to match the Time Lords' own equipment, reasoning that they could steal Gallifrey's own space-time vessels and weaponry if needed, before moving to conquer all of time and space. (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).)
As noted by the War Doctor and the Daleks themselves, (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) the horrific Last Great Time War was waged by the Daleks in their anger at the Time Lord attack on their origins. (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).)
The War Doctor believed the Daleks never forgot the Time Lord mission to wipe them out; in effect, he believed he had started the War by failing to destroy the Daleks and that, by agreeing to work for the Time Lords during the mission, he had given the Daleks their target. The War Doctor, (AUDIO: The Innocent [+]Nicholas Briggs, Only the Monstrous (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2015).) the Time Strategist, (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) and Eternity Circle all stated the act the very beginning of the Time War during the conflict itself. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) Dalek historians felt that the Time War was "born from" the mission, (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).) while one Gallifreyan author wrote that the CIA, by launching the mission, "may have managed" to "light the spark" of what would become the War. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) During the fighting, the young Gallifreyan Rojan considered the incident to be an early event that helped lead to the War, leaving him to ponder whether the High Council had brought the War upon themselves. When he came to see the evil of the Daleks, however, he believed his people's actions against the exterminators to be justified. (PROSE: The Stranger [+]Gary Russell, Heroes and Monsters Collection (Heroes and Monsters Collection, 2015).)
Nonetheless, even after they had learned of the mission, the Daleks knew they were not yet ready to wage a time war against Gallifrey and so began to gather their strength and refine their technology for the coming conflict. (PROSE: The Slyther of Shoreditch [+]Mike Tucker, The Target Storybook (BBC Books, 2019).) One account, which also dubbed the mission the "first shot", believed it "perhaps" made the Daleks' further aggression towards the Time Lords justifiable, though it also admitted Gallifrey had only launched the operation after foreseeing the Dalek-controlled future. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) During the War, Cardinal Ollistra indeed maintained that her people were not the aggressors, despite the Time Strategist proclaiming as such to her face. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) The Time Lords had nonetheless kept their attempt at genocide secret from their agent Chris Cwej, who was horrified by his masters' actions when the Daleks told him about the mission. (PROSE: Dead Romance [+]Lawrence Miles, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1999).)
The Matrix, however, did not foresee the conflict that arose from the mission. It was later theorised that the War was too far into the future for the supercomputer to predict, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) despite its past of predicting far-off events. (TV: Hell Bent [+]Steven Moffat, Doctor Who series 9 (BBC One, 2015).) Despite writing that the mission was an origin point for the War, one Time Lord author claimed this allowed the CIA to carry on as before, while the Doctor was free to carry on his travels, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) despite the CIA's own documents, due to stating the mission had been unauthorised, claiming the mission set back their interventionist polices. In fact, Qualen claimed the "disgraceful and ill-considered actions" of the Doctor and Deliavatsud had been "useless" and nearly led to the dissolution of the CIA as a whole. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).)
The mission in hindsight[]
Ironically, scholars on wartime Gallifrey came to believe that if the Time Lords had allowed the Dalek timeline to evolve without interference, and so let Davros refine his creations at that early crucial stage, then they might have become the less aggressive creatures that they had sought to create. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) Alternatively, Qualen came to believe that the Daleks were destined to arise whether or not the Doctor's mission had succeeded; based upon Davros' own research, he believed that the ongoing nuclear civil war on Skaro would have inevitably resulted in the creation of the Daleks "or something very like them." (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) Indeed, the Dalek Prime once claimed Davros had interfered with their development by bringing them into being earlier than they were destined to, (PROSE: War of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from War of the Daleks, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) although Davros proclaimed at other times that the Daleks only acted the way they did because he made them in his own image. (AUDIO: The Davros Mission [+]Nicholas Briggs, I, Davros (Big Finish Productions, 2007)., et. al)
Qualen believed even the assassination of Davros during the attack that left him crippled would only delay the evolution of the Daleks by "a few thousand years". He believed that the only true way to wipe out the Daleks before their rise would to be destroy both the Thals and Kaleds during their final battle, defending this proposed genocide by arguing it would save the many more lives the Daleks destroyed. However, he believed the Doctor's presence during the rise of the Daleks had forever closed off such option and would instead create a time loop. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) During the Time War, the Time Lords did make other attempts to "re-engineer" Dalek history, only for the Daleks to always survive and assert themselves into every possibility they brought about, as if the universe wanted the exterminators to be a part of history. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) The Eighth Doctor had previously noted the Daleks and their plots were vital parts of the Web of Time. (AUDIO: Neverland [+]Alan Barnes, Main Range (Big Finish Productions, 2002).)
During the Time War, the War Master launched an ambitious gambit to take over the creation of the Daleks. (AUDIO: Anti-Genesis)
When the War Valeyard removed the Daleks from existence during the conflict, (AUDIO: The War Valeyard) the Dalek Time Strategist quickly managed to restore its race, leaving the Eighth Doctor to admit that "erasing" the Daleks "didn't stick". The Time Strategist took the Doctor's comment as proof that he admitted the Daleks were inevitable, which it believed rendered their ultimate victory "inescapable", but the Doctor maintained it was merely him looking for a compromise to try and stop the War. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks [+]Matt Fitton, The Eighth Doctor: Time War: Volume Four (The Eighth Doctor: Time War, Big Finish Productions, 2020).) The War Master did launch a successful effort through the Anti-Genesis codes to subvert Dalek history by replacing Davros as the creator of the Daleks. (AUDIO: From the Flames) However, this timeline was then undone by the Master, the Dalek Time Strategist, and the an alternative universe version of the Master. (AUDIO: He Who Wins)
Speaking at the First Clandestine Symposium to Consider Policy Regarding the Dalek Expansion with an address titled "The Mechanical Marauders", Qualen reflected upon the Doctor's mission and possible future actions Gallifrey could take against the Daleks. Believing they would be unable to attack the Daleks at their origins, he argued that the CIA needed to handle anti-Dalek interventionism on "a case-by-case basis" in the name of keeping Gallifrey and "crucial time lines" safe, while allowing "non-crucial points" to fall to the Daleks if an intervention there would not result in the protection of these "crucial" points nor totally defeat the Dalek threat. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) Similarly, Time Lord Commander Veklin proposed anti-Dalek defense during the War as an advantage only Gallifrey's allies deserved. Realising that her people were waging the conflict without considering helping every other planet against the Daleks, Susan Foreman was horrified at the idea of Gallifrey withholding that protection from those it did not benefit from. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Eddie Robson, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Daleks, meanwhile, reflected upon the Fourth Doctor's mission for the Time Lords with hatred, judging it to have been an act of war that they needed to respond to. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016)., et. al) The Fifth Doctor knew that the Daleks would be eager to strike back against Gallifrey for the "attack on their origins". (AUDIO: Effect and Cause) However, the Dalek Eternity Circle reflected on the mission with a degree of appreciation, judging it to have been the moment the Doctor showed them mercy was a weakness. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).) According to human historians, the Daleks did not judge themselves ready to strike back at the Time Lords in revenge until the aftermath of the Dalek-Movellan War through (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).) the Duplicate Incident, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) but other accounts suggested that the Daleks had made even earlier efforts to strike against Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986)., et. al)
Further aggression[]
The Game of Rassilon[]
During their ancient days, the Time Lords had partaken in a blood sport they called "the Game of Rassilon"; for the amusement of the Time Lords, lesser beings were Time Scooped from their native time periods to fight in the so-called "Death Zone". (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983)., PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) Before excluding the exterminators, as well as the Cybermen, from the Game for "[playing it] too well", the Daleks were among those dropped in to fight other races, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) although the Fifth Doctor once insisted the ancient Time Lords had "never" dropped Daleks nor Cybermen into the Game. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).) Upon learning of what the Time Lords were doing, it was believed the Daleks interpreted this as an act of aggression, helping to build the tensions that led to the Time War. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
A Dalek in the Death Zone. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).)
Although Gallifrey went on to disband the Game of Rassilon and shut down the Death Zone, deeming in an anarchic practice of a less civilised time, (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).) the Daleks claimed they had needed to create a treaty with the Great Houses that officially barred them from being Time Scooped, further claiming this treaty gave them permission from the Time Lords to create their early, simple time machines. However, Christine Summerfield was unsure as to what the Daleks could have promised in return, and Time Lord agent Chris Cwej had never heard of the supposed treaty until he arrived on Skaro for new negotiations during the War in Heaven, though his superiors were known to keep secrets from him. The supposed treaty was broken when the Time Lords tried to wipe out the Daleks (PROSE: Dead Romance [+]Lawrence Miles, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1999).) at their genesis. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 12 (BBC1, 1975)., et al.) Upon learning of the supposed treaty during the War in Heaven, Chris believed the Daleks and was mortified his masters had negotiated with the killers in the past. (PROSE: Dead Romance [+]Lawrence Miles, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1999).)
Long after the shut down of the Death Zone, the rogue Lord President Borusa, seeking the immortality supposedly promised in the Tomb of Rassilon at the heart of the Death Zone, reactivated the Game to gain access to Rassilon's tomb, scooping several incarnations of the Doctor and many of his human companions into the Death Zone to help his plot. As part of the new Game of Rassilon, Borusa also Time Scooped many different alien beings, including a number of Daleks; (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983)., AUDIO: The Five Companions [+]Eddie Robson, Bonus Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2011).) one Grey Dalek from the Movellan War period (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) was destroyed in its attempt to kill the First Doctor and Susan Foreman in a mirrored room, (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).) while several other Daleks encountered five of the Doctor's former companions elsewhere in the Death Zone. These Daleks could not identify their new surroundings, understanding only that they had been transported by an "unknown force". (AUDIO: The Five Companions [+]Eddie Robson, Bonus Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2011).)
Also involved in the new Game of Rassilon were Cybermen, specifically a number of CyberNeomorphs under several Cyber-Leaders, and Sontarans; (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983)., AUDIO: The Five Companions [+]Eddie Robson, Bonus Releases (Big Finish Productions, 2011).) Cybermen would go on to have some involvement in the Time War, (COMIC: Outrun) whereas the Sontarans were never "allowed" to join the conflict (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem [+]Helen Raynor, Doctor Who series 4 (BBC One, 2008).) despite their hope to join what they saw as history's greatest conflict. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage [+]Andrew Smith, Agents of Chaos (The War Doctor, Big Finish Productions, 2016).) The incident also set a precedent for the Time Lords to partner with the Master in desperate circumstances, (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).) setting the stage for the Time Lords to restore him to life for the Last Great Time War, either before the War (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master [+]Matt Fitton, Dark Eyes 2 (The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Dark Eyes, Big Finish Productions, 2014).) or during it. (PROSE: The Whoniverse [+]George Mann and Justin Richards, BBC Books (2016).)
Borusa himself received the gift of immortality, but at a great cost; a projection of Rassilon revealed that this eternal existence would be a damnation, freezing Borusa upon his sarcophagus like the other power-hungry Time Lords who had come before him. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983).) By one account, Rassilon, having lured Borusa to him through the promise of immortality, had been the one to reactivate the Death Zone and bring the Doctors together upon deciding Borusa was not fit to be Lord President. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey [+]Gary Russell, DWM prose stories (Marvel Comics, 1985).) The Eighth Doctor later persuaded Rassilon to release Borusa, for at least a short time, to guide Gallifrey, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) and the Seventh Doctor believed Borusa had seemingly passed on into the Matrix for good after changing his ways. (PROSE: Blood Harvest [+]Terrance Dicks, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1994).) However, the War Doctor discovered that Borusa was still trapped in the Death Zone during the Time War. During the War, the resurrected Rassilon transformed Borusa into a possibility engine that he used to see potential timelines. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)
Daleks kept in the Shada prison. (WC: Shada [+]Douglas Adams and Gary Russell, adapted from Shada (Douglas Adams), BBCi animations (2003).)
Additionally, the series of events involving the Fourth Doctor and Romana II's defeat of Skagra (TV: Shada [+]Douglas Adams, Doctor Who (1992).) were prematurely aborted due to the Time Scoop sent after them by Borusa during his gambit for immortality. (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Terrance Dicks, Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special (Public Broadcasting Service, 1983)., WC: Shada [+]Douglas Adams and Gary Russell, adapted from Shada (Douglas Adams), BBCi animations (2003)., et al.) Ultimately, theorised to be a result of ensuing temporal instabilities, the adventure unfolded at least four times, (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) with the Eighth Doctor and Romana, who by that point had been elected President of the High Council, at one point "resuming" their adventure. Upon arriving in the Time Lord prison of Shada, numerous Daleks were imprisoned (WC: Shada [+]Douglas Adams and Gary Russell, adapted from Shada (Douglas Adams), BBCi animations (2003).) despite seemingly having been absent from the cells during the Fourth Doctor's versions of the Shada affair. (TV: Shada [+]Douglas Adams, Doctor Who (1992)., et al.) Shada would manage to survive the Time War. (COMIC: The One)
Although one account claimed that the 23rd century Dalek invasion of Earth was merely a simulation created by the energies of the Land of Fiction, (PROSE: Head Games [+]Steve Lyons, Virgin New Adventures (Virgin Books, 1995).) other accounts implied it to be a real event, with Davros stealing a sacred Time Ring from Gallifrey and allying with the current Dalek Emperor. After directing the Seventh Doctor to battle the Dalek invasion, the Time Lords froze Davros in time as punishment, (GAME: Dalek Attack) although later accounts indicated he somehow escaped, as evidenced by his later moves against the Time Lords. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988)., et. al) Nonetheless, he had come to question whether emotions he despised like fear existed within the Daleks in some form, marking the start of questions about his "children" (PROSE: An Incident Concerning the Continual Bombardment of the Phobos Colony [+]Paul Cornell, Brief Encounter (1990).) that he would carry with him into the Time War. (PROSE: Father of the Daleks [+]Dave Rudden, The Wintertime Paradox (2020)., The Third Wise Man [+]Dave Rudden, Twelve Angels Weeping (2018).)
Shazar, the Ercos intervention, and the Movellans[]
- Main article: Shazar's trial
- Main article: Dalek invasion of Ercos
- Main article: Dalek-Movellan War
Shazar is tried by the Time Lords after working with the Daleks. (COMIC: Return of the Daleks)
Working with Shazar, a half-Time Lord, the Daleks took control of and captured the Fourth Doctor's TARDIS, which they replicated in anticipation of an invasion of Mutter's Spiral, which would be followed by a campaign to become masters of time itself. Although Shazar attempted to fool the Time Lords into believing that the Doctor was the traitor, the Doctor was able to interfere with the Daleks' plot, resulting in the fleet of new TARDISes destroying themselves while Shazar was captured by the Time Lords. On the planet Jewel, Shazar was placed on trial and remained imprisoned (COMIC: Return of the Daleks) all the way up to the First Auction in Heaven. (PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice [+]Jayce Black, The Book of the Peace (Faction Paradox, 2018).) The Time Lords later directed the Doctor to the Dalek occupied planet Ercos, where he prevented the Daleks from using the Dalek driller to destroy Earth. (COMIC: The Dalek Revenge)
In line with the Time Lords' predictions, (PROSE: A Device of Death [+]Christopher Bulis, Virgin Missing Adventures (Virgin Books, 1997).) the Daleks eventually engaged in a war with the robot Movellans. Although the Dalek Prime later claimed the Movellan War was a fabrication, (PROSE: War of the Daleks [+]John Peel, adapted from War of the Daleks, BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures (BBC Books, 1997).) many accounts showed that this was not true, (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros [+]Matt Fitton, Dalek Universe (Big Finish Productions, 2021)., et. al) with the Daleks even becoming "quasi-robotic" beings for a time to better understand their foes. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) The Celestial Intervention Agency even learned an Emperor Dalek was killed during the war, forcing the Dalek Prime to take full control of the Empire. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) A faction under a Supreme Dalek ventured to Kembel to regain lost information about time travel. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros [+]Matt Fitton, Dalek Universe (Big Finish Productions, 2021).) Because both the Daleks and Movellans had time machines, their conflict indeed rose to become a war fought throughout time. (AUDIO: The Dalek Gambit)
As the war ground into a stalemate because of the Daleks' altercations to themselves, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) the Daleks returned to Skaro in an effort to rescue Davros for his organic insight, using a large number of slaves to dig up the buried Kaled bunker. In addition to a Movellan detachment arriving, the Daleks found themselves again opposed by the Doctor, who was joined by another Time Lord, his companion Romana II. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 17 (BBC1, 1979).) Romana's prior incarnation had learned about the Daleks by reading up on them (PROSE: The Pirate Planet [+]James Goss, adapted from The Pirate Planet (Douglas Adams), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 2017).) and knew that the Doctor had defeated them many times before. (AUDIO: The Dalek Contract) After encountering a projection of a Dalek in the Knowhere, (PROSE: The Pirate Planet [+]James Goss, adapted from The Pirate Planet (Douglas Adams), BBC Books novelisations (BBC Books, 2017).) she had her first encounter with the Daleks in the Proxima System, where the Doctor, K9 Mark II, and her battled Daleks and the Black Guardian's creation Cutherbert. (AUDIO: The Dalek Contract) During the incident on Skaro, however, Romana II nonetheless claimed she knew nothing about the Daleks.
The Time Lady Romana is captured by the Daleks. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 17 (BBC1, 1979).)
Allying with the many beings the Daleks had enslaved, the Doctor and Romana managed to destroy the Dalek force and gave Davros over to the freed slaves, who planned to hand the scientist over to Earth security and stand trial for "crimes against the whole of sentient creation". (TV: Destiny of the Daleks [+]Terry Nation, Doctor Who season 17 (BBC1, 1979).) Later, the Tenth Doctor, having found himself in pre-Time War Dalek history, prevented a Dalek operation that involved the rescue of Davros and time travel. However, much to Davros's glee, he inadvertently let it slip during one of his conversations that he had seen a devastating war caused by the Daleks. A viral attack created by Davros convinced the Movellans to begin work on a devastating anti-Dalek virus, (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros [+]Matt Fitton, Dalek Universe (Big Finish Productions, 2021).) as the Daleks had returned to their organic origins after their stalemate. (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).) Indeed, reflecting on the incident on Skaro, the Time War-era Time Lords found Dalek victories after the Movellan war proved they had overcome their reliance on inorganic logic. They believed the "unprecedented" use of non-Dalek humanoid species within Dalek efforts was the reason for this advancement. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
Whilst the Daleks continued to see all non-Dalek life as expendable and murdered their allies when their usefulness was over, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) the Daleks did make some room for "inferior" lifeforms within their command structure, hiring mercenaries (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) and creating duplicates of real beings to serve as "Dalek Troopers" to make up for the massive loss in Dalek life brought on by the Movellan virus. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) The Daleks also began to force young humanoids into their battle computers, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) using their imagination as a way to form new strategies. (TV Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who season 25 (BBC1, 1988).) Upon reembracing their organic nature, the Daleks themselves had found they could establish new, creative strategies, but it took effort (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).) for the normally uniform species to act in such a manner. During the Time War, the Daleks went as far as to establish the Cult of Skaro and similar orders, which normally stayed away from the frontline to think in new ways. (TV: Doomsday [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).; PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014).)
After the Imperial Daleks' failed effort to use the Warfleet video game as a new form of battle computer, (AUDIO: We Are The Daleks [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) the Twelfth Doctor also believed the Daleks continued to slave children to the devices during the Time War, telling Bill Potts that an ancient Dalek harvest ship they encountered had been redeployed for the War. (COMIC: Harvest of the Daleks) The "secondary command structure" the Daleks found themselves establishing in the aftermath of the Movellan war became of great interest to the Time Lords; (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) forming an "axis of dark powers", (COMIC: Pull to Open) the Daleks did make alliances with other life forms during the Time War, albeit always with the plan to betray them once they no longer needed their aid. (PROSE: Engines of War [+]George Mann, BBC New Series tie-in novels (BBC Books, 2014)., et. al) The Gallifreyans hoped that the CIA could infiltrate the secondary command structure with undercover agents. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).)
To move against Gallifrey[]
- Main article: Duplicate Incident
Helgrim, a Time Lord scientist, once kept Dalek mutants in the Institute as part of an experiment, but this ended in a disaster that led to the passage of a new law that forbade the study of Daleks. (AUDIO: Unregenerate!)
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The end of the Dalek-Movellan War left the Movellans weakened and the Dalek Empire in ruins, leaving the Time Lords to assume the Daleks would be unable to launch full-scale invasions for sometime. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).)
Much of the Dalek Empire collapsed as a result of the devastating Movellan virus, which set the stage for the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War through the start of factionalism amongst the now-separated sector commands. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks [+]Ben Aaronovitch, adapted from Remembrance of the Daleks (Ben Aaronovitch), Target novelisations (Target Books, 1990).) While the Daleks would eventually manage to recover, (AUDIO: Death and the Daleks, et. al) the devastation was so great that the CIA hoped it had spelt the end of typical Dalek conquest for the time being, with Qualen claiming that the Daleks would be less likely to rely on planetary invasions against technological powerful cultures or attacks with overwhelming numbers. Indeed, the Qualen Commission's research into the Daleks found that most Dalek expansion in the aftermath of the Movellan war was carried out through time travel incursions or deception. He credited this to their low numbers and status as being scattered, (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) with the Daleks also finding that the growing factionalism in their ranks contributed to the failing conquests and wars. (AUDIO: Innocence [+]Gary Hopkins, I, Davros (Big Finish Productions, 2006).)
Nonetheless, Qualen revealed at the First Clandestine Symposium to Consider Policy Regarding the Dalek Expansion that the APC Net's best estimates showcased there was still a risk of the Daleks managing to conquer locations like the Mutter's Spiral, so he warned his fellow "interventionists" to stay vigilant because the Daleks remained a great danger to the Great Time Line. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) Indeed, the Daleks continued to hold the Time Lords responsible for much of their recent misfortune (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) and began to search for ways to develop a cure for the virus, which would give them a chance to restore their empire. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) Realising they needed a great biologist with an understanding of their biology, (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).) a Dalek Battlecruiser under a Supreme, the Black Dalek Leader itself, attacked the prison station where Davros was being held in suspended animation (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) in 4590. (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.)
After being freed and agreeing to develop a cure, Davros also began to alter the minds of several Dalek drones and Dalek Troopers, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) intending to take full control of the Dalek Empire after his creations had betrayed him time and time again. At the same time, the Daleks believed themselves ready to strike against Gallifrey with their admittedly primitive time travel technology, (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).) launching the plot as revenge for the Time Lords' mission to destroy or alter their creation. (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests [+]Nicholas Briggs, BBC Audio (2006).) In what the Time Lords remembered as the "Duplicate Incident" (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) launched to "destablise" Gallifrey, (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).) the Daleks decided to target the Doctor with a plan to create duplicates of him and his companions, who would be ordered to return to Gallifrey and murder the High Council of the Time Lords. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).)
Under direction of the Dalek Supreme, the Daleks began to move against the Time Lords before being caught in the Imperial-Renegade Civil War. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).)
Theorising that the sudden extermination of Gallifrey's leadership would throw the planet into a panic they could easy exploit through an attack, the Daleks established a time corridor between London 1984 and their battlecruiser in the future, using the link to the past to create a force of duplicates with which they could capture the Doctor (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).) and then invade the Earth. Using the time corridor, the Daleks entrapped the Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka, and Vislor Turlough and started the duplication process upon capturing the Doctor, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) with the Doctor quickly realising that, just as he had been the Time Lords' unwilling agent who attacked the Daleks, he was now being forced to take on the same role for the exterminators. Nonetheless, the Dalek plot ended in failure; the Doctor's duplicate was never completed after he escaped with a freed duplicate (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).) named Stien. As the Daleks loyal to the Supreme began to hunt down those converted to Davros's cause and exterminate the mercenaries, Stien moved to destroy the battlecruiser.
The ship exploded after the Movellan virus was released by Davros and the Doctor alike, wiping out the Dalek drones in Davros' lab and on Earth. Although Davros himself began to succumb to the virus, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) he managed to escape death and retreat, (AUDIO: Davros, et. al) although the CIA assumed he died in the battlecruiser's destruction. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).) The Supreme also survived the incident, (PROSE: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Error: Code 2 - no data stored in variables, cache or SMW.) but the Doctor was certain its planned invasion of Earth would fail when the duplicates broke free of Dalek control, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) although the Time Lords were not so sure. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) According the The Dalek Problem, the incident had pointed to the continued threat the Daleks posed despite their low numbers, which led the Time Lord Council to begin gathering information on the Daleks. On the orders of the Office of Multihistorical Research, the CIA began to intercept and reorganise some of the reports. In the years after this, Deliavatsud finally consulted the APC Net about the Daleks and then hastily launched the Fourth Doctor's mission to Skaro in the first place. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem [+]The Doctor Who Role Playing Game supplements (FASA, 1986).)
The destruction of the battlecruiser also destroyed the inactive duplicate of the Doctor, along with the duplicates of Tegan and Turlough. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) Ultimately, while the plot to assassinate the High Council failed, the Time Lords understood it was a direct response to their mission to alter the Daleks at their genesis. The Time War-era Gallifreyans deemed it to be "an early skirmish in what [would] eventually escalate into the Time War itself", (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) with human historians agreeing. (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).) A Time Lord historian judged it to be one of the many events that "inadvertently began" the War. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Steve Tribe, BBC Books (2017).) Upon reflecting on the duplicate plot, the War-era Time Lords ordered every transduction operative to preform numerous security checks on any time capsule that was en route to the homeworld, (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) becoming well aware of the threat duplicates posed and how they could easily sneak onto Gallifrey if left unchecked. (AUDIO: Sphere of Influence [+]Eddie Robson, Susan's War (Big Finish Productions, 2020).)
The Movellan virus was highly lethal towards Daleks and Kaleds alike, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) but Davros managed to find a cure that was given to Dalek Supreme Command (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).)
In fact, one of the ways the Daleks "[tested] the strength" of the Time Lords and threatened the High Council before the War officially began was another plot involving duplicates, but this mission was to replace members of the council with these Dalek servants. (PROSE: Meet the Doctor [+]Russell T Davies, Doctor Who Annual 2006 (Panini UK, 2005).) During the War, the Time Lords tried to re-create the Movellan virus due to how effective it had been against the xenophobic mutants, but the early tests of their new sample failed to actually harm the Daleks, teaching the Time Lords that their enemies had gained immunity to the infection; (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Richard Atkinson and Mike Tucker, BBC Books (2021).) whilst Davros's plot to take control of the empire was exposed and he was forced to flee, (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks [+]Eric Saward, Doctor Who season 21 (BBC1, 1984).) he had managed to establish a cure for the virus that was transmitted to Dalek Supreme Command, ending the threat of the Movellan virus. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Justin Richards, BBC Books (2014).) The