The Two Histories of the Daleks - The "Original" History

The trouble with constant intervention across time and space is that the historical progress, or ‘timeline’, of those species that exist across many solar systems and many millennia can be compromised to the point where it becomes very difficult to identify a stable succession of events. Within ‘Doctor Who’, the Daleks featured in stories from the program’s inception in 1963 to its penultimate season in 1988. The good Doctor’s repeated interventions caused many alterations to the course of Dalek history. These ‘shifts in the sands of time’ have led to key questions:

Why was there no reference to Davros prior to Genesis of the Daleks?
How did the Daleks survive their apparent annihilation in Evil of the Daleks?
What was the relationship between the Dal and Kaled peoples?
In Destiny of the Daleks, where was the Dalek City and why had Davros been abandoned for millennia?

These questions can never be conclusively answered. However, it is possible to draw upon evidence from Doctor Who and make informed & reasoned speculation about the course of Dalek history. This article makes two core assertions about Dalek history:

The Daleks experienced two separate histories as a result of the intervention of the Time Lords.
Both Dalek histories were dominated by the activities of the Daleks’ creator – Davros.

Throughout its history, Doctor Who was concerned with the impact of interventions in the course of events across space and time. The 1969 story, The War Games, ended with the Doctor being tried by his own people, the Time Lords, for breaching their laws on non-intervention in the affairs of other civilisations. After that seismic event in the development of Doctor Who, the Time Lords opted to use the Doctor to carry out selective interventions where they felt they were necessary.

The 1975 story, Genesis of the Daleks, was a case in point. Possibly out of fear for the future of Gallifrey, or perhaps out of genuine concern for other civilisations, the Time Lords commissioned the fourth Doctor to intervene at the very outset of Dalek history. This was an intervention with the potential to alter the course of galactic history for millennia. But what was the impact of the Doctor's intervention? There are two main points in the story where the Doctor's intervention may have had a serious impact:

By alerting senior Kaled politicians to the way in which Davros was developing the Daleks, and triggering their intervention, the Doctor's actions led Davros to betray the Kaleds and facilitate the Thals' successful nuclear attack on the Kaled domed city. This further compelled Davros to launch the prototype Daleks into an attack on the Thals. At this point, the prototype Daleks were, in Nyder's (Davros' senior security officer) words, 'unstable'. The psychological effect of engaging in mass extermination of the Thals may have been that the new Daleks decided to take control of their destiny and reject the authority of Davros.
The Doctor was interrogated by Davros. The Doctor was compelled to give an elaborate testimony about future Dalek history. Davros may have been able to make changes to the Daleks to prevent future defeats.

Would either have a significant impact on the course of Dalek history? This is a subjective debate. However, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the events of Genesis of the Daleks do change the development of the Daleks. The Daleks did not re-appear until the 1979 story Destiny of the Daleks. But their reappearance revealed a Dalek empire that was a shadow of its former self. These Daleks were unable to outwit a race of androids, the Movellans, and appeared to be nomadic 'robber barons' without a capital city on Skaro. Something had happened to the original 'timeline'. Prior to Genesis of the Daleks, the Daleks had time-travel facilities and a devious mindset that led them to alter Earth's history (Day of the Daleks). Now the Daleks lacked the wit to defeat an army of robots; if they had time-travel capabilities, they would surely have used them to defeat the Movellans. The way in which Davros' remains had been dumped in the ruins of the Kaled bunker were also indicative that some very fundamental shift had affected the Dalek 'sands of time'. It would be almost inconceivable that a Dalek empire that had risen to the heights witnessed in stories such as the Dalek Master Plan and Planet of the Daleks would have simply abandoned the mortal remains of its creator.

What was Davros' role in Dalek history? In an attempt to reason with Davros, the Doctor asked him if he would be willing to unleash a virus capable of extinguishing all life. Davros' response was instructive: 'Such power would place me amongst the gods; and through the Daleks, I shall have such power.' Davros' outburst was hardly indicative of someone with limited career horizons. His subsequent conduct indicates a desire for supreme power over time and space. Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) witnessed a Dalek bid for supreme power on a scale not seen since their high-point in the 1960s. Davros had managed to supplant the Supreme Dalek and install himself as Emperor Dalek. Why had Davros chosen this title? There are two explanations:

Davros sought political legitimacy by drawing on the collective Dalek memory of the original Emperor (destroyed in The Evil of the Daleks).
Alternatively, there were two separate Dalek timelines. In both cases, Davros declared himself to be Emperor.

What evidence is there to support the assertion that Davros was Emperor Dalek in both Dalek timelines? There is a good deal of conjecture in this theory. However, it is not unreasonable to accept it as a working hypothesis. One point about alternative timelines is they tend to share a good deal of common ground. In both Evil of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor is confronted with an audacious plot to seize supreme power over time and space. In both stories, the Doctor manages to trick the Emperor Dalek into its downfall. It is important to consider the almost 'non-Dalek' nature of the Emperor Dalek in The Evil of the Daleks. It spoke very differently from its subordinates and was able to engage in a quality of dialogue that other Daleks could not even begin to match.

The very title of 'emperor' denotes a different sort of personality. Hierarchy was central to Dalek political culture with the Supreme Dalek at its apex. But a title such as 'emperor' carries connotations of personal grandeur that are perhaps difficult to equate with the Daleks. It is therefore, reasonable to suggest that the two Emperors were, in truth, Davros. Each existed within one of the two Dalek 'timelines'. The parlous state of Dalek power witnessed in Destiny of the Daleks was testimony to what would happen to the Daleks without their creator.

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The World War

The planet Skaro was a populous planet. Its development, over several thousand years, had led to a division between two power blocs. One, the Dal–Kaled Alliance was peaceful, democratic and committed to the expansion of learning. The other, the Thal State, was fascistic and concerned with furthering its national interest. The Dal-Kaled Alliance was anxious to resolve the conflict with the Thal State. Confrontation seemed irrational and a waste of resources. The escalating requirement for armaments meant that scientific efforts were increasingly directed towards creating weapons of mass destruction. Economic prosperity was hampered by the greatly increased taxes needed to fund a growing military establishment.

The Thal State was obsessed with the notion that the Dal-Kaled Alliance was determined to ‘encircle’ it and force its 'liberal' values upon the Thals. To the Dals and Kaleds this seemed a wholly unreasonable attitude. It was not their fault that their respective republics were geographically situated on either side of the Thals. Convinced of the superiority of democracy, liberalism and knowledge, the Dals and Kaleds failed to appreciate the Thals’ fears.

Tensions increased as the Dal government attempted to open its border to Thal citizens. The Thal government instigated a program of internal repression against any of its citizens who dared to express a desire for Dal freedom. Very quickly, public opinion in both Dal and Kaled territories was moving in favour of ‘regime change’ in order to liberate the Thal people from their ‘backward’ leaders. Convinced that war was inevitable, the Thal State launched a preemptive strike, intended to secure a quick, ‘lightning’ victory, against both the Dals and the Kaleds. The Thal leaders privately accepted that their enemies could probably defeat them in a lengthy conflict. Although less militarised, the Dal-Kaled Alliance could draw on superior combined numbers and more advanced scientific knowledge. The Dal and Kaled armed forces were able to resist the Thal attempt at a rapid victory. Calculating that a singular use of nuclear weaponry would force the Thals to the negotiating table, the Dal government authorised an attack on a provincial Thal city.

The destruction was absolute. The Dal president reasoned that, although a dreadful act, it would be justified if it saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians who would otherwise perish in a prolonged conventional conflict. The Dal dedication to reason, even twisted reason, was mirrored by the Thal response. The Thal military wanted to avoid their political masters suing for peace. Acting without political authority, tactical nuclear weapons were deployed against the Dal-Kaled Alliance’s principal airforce bases and front-line armoured divisions. When challenged, the Thal chief of staff told the Thal government that the war would end quickly as the Dal-Kaled conventional forces were crippled. He assumed that the ‘weak-willed’ Dals would sue for peace rather than escalate the war into a full-scale nuclear holocaust.

It was an irony of history that the aggressive Thal military was working on an assumption of restraint by the pacific Dal and Kaled leaders. Within the Dal-Kaled command bunker, debate raged about how to respond to the Thal strikes. Under severe pressure, Dal notions of civilised conduct were rapidly losing currency. The fateful decision was taken to launch a full retaliatory response against the Thals. Both Dal and Kaled generals advised their political masters that an overwhelming attack gave the best prospect of eliminating the Thals’ nuclear arsenal. Acting on this advice, the Dal government authorised a massive nuclear strike on Thal territory. Within hours, there had been an exchange that destroyed every city and large town on Skaro. The years of ‘cold war’ had, however, led both sides to be prepared for nuclear war. The surviving populations were herded into survival bunkers beneath the irradiated wastelands. From there, both sides determined to continue the war.

The Dal-Kaled Alliance was now more theoretical than practical. All communications satellites had been destroyed in the early stages of the war. The survivors of the two allies were, in real terms, fighting their own separate wars against the Thals. War had fundamentally shifted Dal attitudes. Their civilisation was largely destroyed. The great networks of commerce and science that had made the Dals great were all gone. Fighting the Thals was the only thing that could keep their society united. Likewise, the Kaleds were determined to keep on fighting. Numerically the weakest of Skaro’s three nations, they feared being rounded up and exterminated by the remnants of the Thal military. War was the only option. War was no longer the technological affair that both sides had been prepared for. Instead, it had become a brutal and primitive slaughter between platoons of infantry supported by field artillery. Neither side could hope to win a quick victory. As years and decades passed, the true cost of the conflict became increasingly obvious.

Maternity units in all three nations’ bunker cities held a terrible secret. The radioactive ‘fallout’ from the nuclear exchange at the start of the war was causing physical mutation of an increasing proportion of the population. Derided as ‘mutos’, the victims of the radioactive environment, were expelled from the bunker cities. The senior Dal scientist, Yarvelling, had developed an automated armoured fighting machine. This had been intended as a purely robotic device for the post-nuclear battlefield. However, as a farsighted thinker, Yarvelling adapted his design so it could function as a travel machine for future generations. Calling it a ‘Dalek’, Yarvelling’s creation was a response to what he feared was inevitable. With backing from the Dal government the new ‘Dalek’ machines were put in mass production in preparation for a time when they would be needed.

A Kaled scientist, Davros, held a different opinion. He believed that the mutation of the population was inevitable and that the Dals and Kaleds should drive the process to its ‘logical’ conclusion in order to outlast the Thals.

Davros had been a leading Kaled scientist before the war. He had been an angry young man, convinced that scientists such as himself should dominate society and give it political leadership. He held the opinion that life was a competition between races. For Davros, the war was an opportunity to rise to the status of leadership that he felt he had been denied in peacetime. Davros had been attached to the Dal airforce’s headquarters at the outset of the war. He had been lucky to survive the Thal nuclear attack albeit severely crippled. In recognition of his abilities, Davros was transferred to Yarvelling’s research establishment. A travel machine was developed for his use. In a similar way to the new ‘Dalek’ machines, Davros’ vehicle was designed to act as an integrated life-support system. Davros was brilliant but unable to cooperate with Yarvelling’s scientists. He despaired of the way in which the ‘Dalek’ project was regarded as a response to the possible instead of an opportunity to turn the inevitable mutation of the Dals and Kaleds into a new ‘successor’ species that would dominate Skaro. Unable to work with his Dal counterparts, Davros demanded to be returned to Kaled territory. Transportation between the two allies was virtually non-existent, but an appeal to the Kaled military representative succeeded in securing a journey home by submarine.

The Kaled government recognised the harsh reality that their alliance with the Dals was of little practical value. They recognised that they would have to ensure their survival by their own efforts and forget any hope of help from the diminished Dal military. So they established a special scientific unit dedicated to devising a means of securing victory over the Thals. This in itself was a limited war aim: the Kaleds were not so much at war with the entire Thal nation but rather with that portion of it that occupied the bunker city across the borde r. Davros took the ‘Dalek’ concept and re-forged it. Instead of a travel machine for a future mutated generation, his ‘Dalek’ would be a genetically engineered creature wholly integrated within its machine element. The new ‘Dalek’ would be conditioned to believe it was the supreme species and be totally ruthless in its drive to exterminate or subjugate all other species.

Yarvelling continued to work within the Dal capital. He had sections converted for his ‘Dalek’ machines with static electricity providing their power source. As years passed, the first Dals to be so heavily mutated they could not function without the ‘Dalek’ machine were born. Within a hidden section of the Dal capital, the Dal future was being created. But Yarvelling took no pleasure in his work. Instead, he saw it as the only possible response. Dal attitudes had evolved to the point where the Thals had come to be seen as sub-human and worthy of extermination and nothing else. Yarvelling died a saddened old man. He feared what his people were becoming; but he had no conception of what Davros was attempting in the Kaled bunker, thousands of miles away. Years went by, war and its consequences further diminished the Dal population. Seeing the inevitable future, the Dal government ordered mass production of the ‘Dalek’ machines and instructed the most heavily disabled in their use. With no communication links open, the fate of the Kaleds was a near mystery.

Inside the bunker, Davros had succeeded in creating his first Daleks. Some Kaled scientists were opposed to Davros’ aims. However, they felt powerless to resist Davros and his security advisor, Nyder. Davros continued to enjoy some political favour. He had, after all, developed a chemical formula for a new bomb–proof dome for the Kaled city. There were sporadic battles between what passed as the Thal and Kaled armies but the war was grinding to a halt. Kaled generals entertained the idea that a ‘big push’ would end the war. This fantasy was a source of sardonic humour for Kaled troops struggling to stay alive on the battlefield. At the same time, the Thal leaders ordered the construction of a nuclear missile that would destroy the Kaled city. Davros recognised that his ‘project’ was under some degree of threat. His past disagreements with Yarvelling were known in government circles and he was, therefore, derided as an ‘extremist’ by some. The extremely precarious state of the Kaleds had compelled their leaders to give Davros whatever resources and political backing he demanded. However, Davros feared the day when he lost his patronage and found himself under direct orders from hostile Kaled politicians. Davros’ security chief, Nyder, had built a secret network of contacts within all three governments on Skaro. As a result, Davros had access to better intelligence reports than any other person on the planet did. Through reading Nyder’s reports, Davros concluded that he might be able to secure a ‘deal’ with the Thal government that would eliminate his enemies within the Kaled government.

Davros hated all Thals but he recognised that his most dangerous enemies were a group of Kaled politicians led by Mogran. Davros felt immeasurable contempt for those he regarded as too weak to do what he saw as essential to perpetuate the Kaled race. Davros was aware that Thal scientists were developing a ‘miracle’ drug that reversed the effects of radiation and ensured that healthy children were born. He was also aware of a putative ‘peace party’ within the Thal government. Davros was horrified by the idea that peace might come to Skaro with a ‘miracle drug’ that would make his work redundant and possibly the subject of a criminal investigation. For Davros, the only option was to help the dominant ‘war party’ within the Thal government. He could provide a chemical formula that would weaken the Kaled dome and make it vulnerable to the Thals’ ‘super-missile’. But such an act of treason would be fraught with difficulties. Questions would be asked, by his own scientific and security elite, about how the Thals had succeeded in penetrating the Kaled dome. Davros’ disagreements with Mogran’s faction and his general disdain for politicians might make him the ‘prime suspect’ in the search for the traitor. Davros knew that he would be obliged to launch his prototype Daleks on a retaliatory incursion into the Thal city. The new Daleks were not ready for battle. Specifically, Davros was concerned that the psychological impact of battle might trigger some development within the Daleks whereby they might reject his authority and exterminate all non-Daleks in the bunker. Davros needed time to alter the Daleks’ conditioning so that they would accept him as their supreme leader. Nyder arranged for a secret message to be passed to the ‘war party’ within the Thal government. If they would delay launching their missile for one month, he would provide the chemical formula that would guarantee its success. The deal was accepted. The Thal ‘war party’ saw that time was running out and that within a few months, the rival ‘peace party’ might use the new ‘miracle drug’ to justify an end to the war. They were also aware that the Kaled politician, Mogran, was gathering support for peace. Davros used his time carefully; the Daleks were re-conditioned to accept him as their supreme leader and the first of their species. Having achieved this essential change, Davros released the promised formula to the Thal government. Within days, an intensive artillery bombardment of the Kaled dome was launched. Kaled scientists advised their political masters that the dome might be vulnerable to a sufficiently powerful warhead. These fears were justified, when the Thal ‘super missile’ was launched. Destruction of the Kaled ‘bunker city’ beneath the dome was absolute.

Within the Thal government, there was recognition that Skaro needed to be re-built. With their own population depleted, the Thal leaders hoped that a peace with the Dals could be agreed. Of course, such a peace would be on Thal terms. What the Thals failed to appreciate was that the Dals were about to be supplanted by their bio-mechanical derivatives, the Daleks.

The huge incidence of mutation combined with the effects of radiation on the able-bodied meant that a large minority of the Dal population was now ‘Dalek’ in nature. Encased in their travel machines, they decided to seize control of the Dal capital and take whatever action necessary to rid Skaro of the Thals. The surviving ‘human’ Dals fled the capital and sought the protection of the Dal army. Meanwhile, on the other side of Skaro’s principal landmass, Davros launched his Daleks on the Thal city. Thousands of Thals were exterminated in a matter of hours. Elements of the Thal military re-grouped and prepared for an attack on Davros’ bunker. In hidden hilltop bunkers, they watched as Davros’ Dalek army returned to the bunker.

The Thal government had been virtually destroyed by the Dalek attack. Ironically, it had re-located to the Thal city furthest from Dal territory thinking this would provide greater security. In the event, this had proven their undoing. Thal troops detonated high explosives in order to seal Davros’ bunker and turn it into a tomb for both him and his Daleks. Davros was relatively unconcerned by this. He believed that decades, possibly centuries, would be needed before his Daleks were ready to reclaim Skaro.

Davros had lost none of the political ambition of his youth. The Daleks were the Kaled nation reformed in his image. Mass-production of Daleks was instigated. Davros was determined to remain supreme leader of his creatures for millennia. He designed a new travel-machine for his own use, altered his genetic structure to expand his life span exponentially and decided on his new title. Davros declared himself to be the Dalek Prime.

Inside the Dal capital, the Daleks decided to eradicate the Thals, and remaining Dals, by detonating a neutron-intensive nuclear weapon in Skaro’s atmosphere. The Dalek plan was simple and brutal. The atmosphere would be poisoned to the extent that human life could not be supported. Thals across their territory realised they would have to migrate thousands of miles to lands that had traditionally been seen as infertile. If there were any place where food might be grown, it would be found there.

The Thals were now pacifists. Utterly disgusted by the war they had initiated, they changed their political and social culture utterly. This, of course, was historically ironic given that the Thals had gone to war in order to preserve their militaristic political culture. In their respective bases, the two Dalek races spent centuries developing. Inside the Dal capital, the Daleks experimented upon themselves and with space travel.

After five centuries, Dalek political culture had developed to the stage where the ‘republican’ inheritance from Dal culture was no longer viable. Their numbers had increased greatly and it was realised that further progress would require hierarchy. The Daleks engineered a supreme leader entitled the Black Dalek. The Black Dalek was determined to achieve a permanent hegemony over Skaro. It recognised that Skaro’s mineral resources were finite and therefore identified the conquest of a suitable planet as the strategic priority. It was unclear whether any Thals still lived on Skaro. However, the Black Dalek judged that any that did could be dealt with another neutron bomb. A prototype spacecraft was completed and the Black Dalek judged that the time had come to embark on deep space exploration to identify a suitable target planet.

Preparations for war commenced. The Black Dalek ordered that a detachment of 500 Daleks would remain in the Dal capital. All other Daleks were to be involved in the conquest of a new planet. In order to operate outside the capital, these Daleks were fitted with an energy reception device. Power would be transmitted from the Dalek spacecraft and would keep the Daleks ‘alive’. Once a small fleet had been assembled, the Black Dalek ordered a mass embarkation. The fleet took off in search of conquest.

Thousands of miles away, Davros continued with the development of his Daleks. New weapons systems were devised and theoretical research into time-travel occupied much of Davros’ intellectual energies. The notion of building an empire was an increasing ambition for Davros. To this end, Davros decided that a Dalek elite was needed. Somehow, he had to be able to create a small group of Daleks that had the intellectual capacity for strategic decision making but also an absolute subservience to his authority as Dalek Prime. Davros integrated elements of his genetic code with that of the Daleks. A new Dalek was created with the intention that it would serve as a strategic thinker and operational commander. It came to be known as the Golden Dalek.

A second ‘special’ Dalek was engineered to act as ‘deputy’ to Davros. This Dalek was entitled the Supreme Dalek. Davros was extremely cautious about potential challenges to his leadership of the Daleks. He believed that by creating an intermediary level between himself and the mass of the Daleks, he could prevent any future debate that focussed on his position. Davros believed that supreme leadership would require an aura of mystery and distance. His two ‘deputies’ could provide visible leadership and control. Davros had the sense to realise that the Daleks, as sentient beings with a capacity for thought, would need to be controlled very carefully. Regardless of the way in which they were conditioned, he feared that, somehow or other, some Daleks might ‘develop’ in an unexpected manner.

Meanwhile, as the Black Dalek’s fleet departed, the few surviving Thals faced the prospect of final extinction through famine. For five hundred years, the Thals had attempted to survive as an agrarian people. Violence had been strictly prohibited and they had become a people that bore no resemblance to their warlike ancestors. The one thing the Thals had retained was the ‘miracle drug’. It had been taken, five centuries before, in large quantities in whatever transport could be mustered. The Thals were desperate to survive. They started the long trek to the Dal capital. Somehow or other, they hoped that the Dals lived and could help them. Regardless of past hatred, the Thals had a drug that the Dals would surely want in return for some food. After many months, the Thals were approaching the old Dal capital. An external intervention was about to occur that would alter their history forever.

The Daleks

In his first incarnation, the Doctor came to Skaro for the first time within his existence. Curious about this new world, he took himself and his companions into the seemingly deserted city. There the city-bound Daleks captured them. In return for anti-radiation drugs, one of the Doctor’s companions was sent to meet the Thals with an apparent peace offer. They were tricked into entering the Dalek city where the Daleks attacked them. The Doctor, along with his companions, escaped with the surviving Thals. Despite the Daleks’ behaviour, the Thals remained committed to pacifism. Only by manipulation of one of their leaders’ emotions, were the Thals persuaded that they had to fight to survive.

The Daleks were clear in their determination to finally eradicate the Thals from Skaro. To achieve this, they decided to explode an extremely lethal neutron bomb in Skaro’s atmosphere, with the intention of poisoning the Thals to death. The Doctor and the Thals defeated the Daleks. The city-bound Daleks were utterly reliant on the city’s power generators. Once the Thals disabled the system, the Daleks died almost instantaneously. With the Daleks apparently eradicated, the Doctor left Skaro and the Thals were able to use the Dalek city and technology to develop their own civilisation. Over centuries, the Thals developed space flight technologies and became a thriving civilisation. Travelling through deep space, the Black Dalek was disturbed at the sudden failure of all communications with the Skaro garrison. However, it reasoned that the greater priority had to be the conquest of a new planet. If the Thals had taken the Dal capital, they could be quickly exterminated upon its return. After almost two centuries of travel, the Black Dalek discovered a small blue planet that was the fourth of nine planets in a remote solar system.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Given the enormous distance between Skaro and Earth, the Dalek invasion took place in the planet Earth’s mid 22nd Century. Recognising the relatively advanced nature of the human civilisation, the Black Dalek opted for a strategy of attrition prior to the invasion. Earth was bombarded, over several years, with a series of viruses carried in what the human authorities thought were small meteorites. The cumulative impact of the viruses rendered the planet unable to defend itself. In the late summer of 2160, the Daleks landed at several strategic places across Earth’s five continents. Led by the Black Dalek, they rapidly took control of the planet. Their operations centred in Bedfordshire, a district of the British Isles.

In the autumn of 2164, the Doctor arrived in London to discover the Dalek invasion. He was captured by the Daleks; but managed to escape with the help of human resistance fighters. From that point the Doctor was able to confront, and ultimately defeat, the Dalek invasion. Dalek power had evident limitations. They had been unable to eradicate all resistance and they lacked numbers. There was evidence of pragmatism within the Black Dalek’s decision making. Captured humans of intelligence were being implanted with control chips to become Robomen troops. The Robomen were utterly obedient to the Daleks; and provided a major boost to Dalek fighting power. The Daleks were not only interested in Earth’s mineral resources. They were ambitious to use the whole planet as a kind of super space station. The plan was to extract the planet’s magnetic core and replace it with a device for piloting the planet throughout the galaxy. To this end, the Daleks had constructed a nuclear weapon and were drilling, from Bedfordshire, to the proximity of the Earth’s magnetic core. The Doctor was able to frustrate this plan by diverting the weapon’s route. However, the Earth’s magnetic core proved fatal to the Daleks. Their saucers were brought down and the Daleks were physically crushed by the magnetism.

With the death of the Black Dalek and the total destruction of the Dalek fleet, there were no Daleks at liberty to challenge the new Thal dominance of Skaro. On Earth, the Daleks’ nemesis was a source of celebration as the human race set about repairing the damage caused by the Daleks. Over the next four hundred years, Earth’s power expanded throughout and beyond its solar system. On Skaro, the Thals were able to build a new civilisation. In many ways the Thals were the new Dals; they were peaceful, democratic and committed to scientific exploration. Their intellectual leaders hailed this apparent synthesis of two national identities as finally lying to rest the conflict of the past thousand years. But everything was about to change. Thousands of miles from the old Dal capital, Davros decided the time had come to reclaim Skaro. He had little idea whether the Thals still lived, let alone dominated the planet. But he would take no chances. What had been the bunker had been steadily expanded into a vast underground base for the Daleks. Scientific units, under the direction of the Golden Dalek, undertook research into new weapons systems and time travel. Nuclear power generators powered the time travel experiments. In a sense, the long dead Kaled scientists were still involved in Davros’ work. As they had died of old age, their genetic codes had been scanned and recorded. Davros integrated the codes with those of selected Daleks that had been chosen to be the new scientific elite.

Units of the Thal military were on their annual maneuvers in the region of the old Kaled city. The actual rationale for a Thal military had been debated for years. No one could properly explain its purpose without reference to the Daleks; there was a dormant fear that somehow or other the Daleks that had been entombed had somehow survived. If a war with the Daleks was to break out, this was where it would begin. Thal culture was immersed in the legends of the past. There was a permanent ‘Dalek mus eum’ within the old Dal capital. Children were told that bad behaviour would lead to the Daleks ‘getting’ them. Thal television featured documentaries and dramas about the Daleks. But no one truly believed that any Daleks had survived.

As a squadron of Thal tanks raced over the terrain where their crews’ ancestors had fallen, there was a sudden rumbling that grew in intensity until it reached a crescendo. The surface seemed to rupture with tons of rock and soil being hurled into the air. Suddenly a phalanx of Daleks emerged. The terrifying chant of ‘exterminate’ filled the air as war broke out on Skaro. The Daleks were fearsomely equipped. They had new laser canon artillery and hypersonic aircraft. The first battle ended with the virtual annihilation of the Thal forces that had set out on a training exercise a few days earlier. The Thal government went into emergency session with the senior generals. Only one option seemed to have any prospect of stopping the Daleks; the nuclear option. But this was totally unacceptable to the politicians and was scarcely more palatable for the generals.

Evacuation of Skaro was the only viable course of action. But how could an escape be possible? The generals made it clear that the only option was for the bulk of the Thal military to advance to the Dalek bunker area and ‘buy time’ sacrificing itself while as much of the population as possible was evacuated. With a heavy heart, the Thal president gave the order to evacuate and said goodbye to the general who was leaving to die in battle. Within days, the Dalek army had reached the old Dal capital that had been the Thals’ chief city for a few centuries. Tens of thousands of Thals had escaped; but thousands more were trapped. In a virtual replay of events of a thousand years earlier, thousands of Thals were exterminated.

The Thal fleet set course for a new home planet. Thal space explorers had identified an uninhabited world only a few years earlier. It was from there that the Thals would continue the struggle against the Daleks. In an act of defiance, the Thal president declared that the new home planet would be called ‘Skaro’. Meanwhile, Davros arrived at the Dal capital to establish his new headquarters. For the Kaled scientist, the return was a vindication of all he had argued for centuries earlier. Conflict between races was inevitable; Skaro could never be shared with the Thals. His Daleks were inestimably superior to those created by the Dal scientist, Yarvelling. Davros spent time studying both Dal and Thal records stored in the former Thal Public Archive. He was fascinated by both the Thal and Dalek developments of space travel and by the possibilities for interplanetary conquest that they offered. Eager to make them reality, Davros ordered the construction of deep space cruisers with ‘time-corridor’ facilities. He engineered a new casing for himself and, in a fit of pure ego, declared that henceforth he was the Emperor Dalek. One matter that puzzled Davros was a reference to ‘the Doctor’ in several Thal texts. Somewhere in the universe of time, there was an alien who had come to Skaro and intervened in a manner that had inflicted a serious defeat on the Daleks. Dalek records of the expeditionary fleet that had left Skaro but had never returned heightened Davros’ suspicions. Was it possible that this ‘Doctor’ had caused another Dalek defeat?

Davros ordered the Golden Dalek to instigate research into creating ‘scanning’ equipment that could locate the ‘Doctor’. Dalek security video files had been retained and archived by the Thals. These gave a clear picture of the appearance of the ‘Doctor’. Once located, he would be hunted down and exterminated.

The Chase

The Golden Dalek located the Doctor and started a pursuit that spread over both time and space. The pursuit spread to the Empire State Building in New York City and the legendary Marie Celeste. Beyond Earth, the Daleks followed the Doctor to the desert planet of Aridius and the jungle planet of Mechanus. On Mechanus, the Daleks encountered the Mechanoid robots. Programmed to repel any hostile arrival, the Mechanoids fought the Daleks until both sides were utterly annihilated. The Doctor was able to escape. Davros remained determined to exploit their new time travel technology. A fleet of deep space cruisers was constructed to carry a Dalek army through time and space. The question was when and where offered the optimum opportunity. An analysis of galactic history indicated that a ‘window of opportunity’ existed in the Earth year 4000. Research indicated the existence of a corrupt politician, Mavic Chen, who might be persuaded to betray the human race.

The Dalek Master Plan

Earth, in the year 4000, was a dominant power in the galaxy. Davros realised that Earth would have to be defeated if there were to be any prospect of victory across the galaxy. Mavic Chen, Guardian of the Solar System, was persuaded to betray Earth with the promise of sharing power with the Daleks. The Supreme Dalek assembled the Dalek invasion force on the obscure jungle planet called Kembel. The Dalek army represented one of the greatest concentrations of Dalek power ever; a decision had been made to commit the bulk of the Daleks’ offensive, war-fighting capacity to one final push for a total victory. The Supreme Dalek deemed the risk that some unforeseen circumstance might lead to a cataclysmic defeat minimal. This fateful assumption was to prove the Daleks’ undoing.

The Daleks had devised a new weapon, the Time Destructor. This ‘super weapon’ relied on a precious mineral called Taranium that had been mined on Venus. The Doctor infiltrated the Daleks’ operational headquarters on Kembel and stole the Tarranium. The Supreme Dalek ordered that the Doctor was to be pursued across time & space until the Tarranium was recovered. The Tarannium was regained but the Doctor was able to outwit the Supreme Dalek. He triggered the Time Destructor into action on Kembel, destroying the entire Dalek army, along with the Supreme Dalek

The Daleks’ greatest difficulty lay in the simple truth that their superpower status had been severely diminished by the loss of the army on Kembel. Any conventional offensive would now stand a very great chance of failure. But a simple defensive posture would be neither militarily feasible nor ideologically tolerable. Every Dalek, from Davros down to the warrior Daleks, had an unshakeable belief in their ultimate supremacy. Even if consolidation was an acceptable short-term strategy, there was the very real danger that the Earth Federation would launch its own assault, intended to extirpate the Dalek menace. If there were a viable strategy for the Daleks, it would have to be centred on something far subtler than the type of war that was planned to have been launched from Kembel. Davros decided that the very nature of the human race, throughout its history, had to be fundamentally altered in order that Earth become a willing ally of the Daleks.

Evil of the Daleks

Utilising scanning technology, the Davros became aware that the Doctor was present at Heathrow Airport at a point in 1966. Wanting to trap the Doctor, Davros realised he needed human agents. Time corridor technology was utilised to travel to a country mansion in the Kent of 1866. An advanced scientist, Edward Waterfield, was experimenting in an attempt to discover the secret of time travel. Davros sent a squad via a time corridor to capture both Waterfield and his daughter, Victoria.

Waterfield was compelled to co-operate with the Daleks’ demands. Desperate to save his daughter’s life, he agreed to travel forward in time to the London of 1966 and capture the Doctor and his companion, Jamie McCrimmon. The Doctor was lured into a trap and taken, along with the TARDIS, back to 1866. The Daleks ordered the Doctor to subject his companion to a series of experiments to identify those traits of humanity that could collectively be described as the ‘human factor’; and then treat three Dalek specimens with this factor. The experiment proceeded with the result that the three specimen Daleks underwent a fundamental character change, hailing the Doctor as a ‘friend’ and questioning orders.

The Dalek squad was ordered to return to Skaro. The Doctor pursued them and infiltrated the Dalek city. However he was captured and taken before Davros. For both parties, this was a monumental encounter. The Doctor finally saw the being he had thwarted on Kembel; Davros felt a moment of triumph as its nemesis stood as a prisoner. The Doctor challenged Davros , telling him of the effect of the ‘human factor’ on the three specimens. The Doctor predicted the fall of the Dalek Empire as the spirit of dissent was spread by the ‘humanised’ specimens. The Doctor was alarmed as Davros proceeded to reveal his true intentions. Instead of having an interest in the ‘Human Factor’, he wanted to spread the ‘Dalek Factor’ into the human race, making it obedient to the Daleks and sharing their commitment to ruthless conquest and subjugation. First the Daleks treated the Doctor with the ‘Dalek Factor’; failing to fully understand Time Lord physiology, Davros was convinced that the Doctor was committed to furthering the Dalek cause.

The Doctor was able to exploit this failure of understanding and managed to infect a considerable number of Daleks with the ‘Human Factor’. The consequence of this was utter disaster for the Dalek Empire. The newly ‘humanised’ Daleks questioned the authority of their ‘Emperor’ and triggered a civil war on Skaro. Davros was destroyed in the fighting. The Doctor witnessed the apparent destruction of the Dalek race. The civil war continued until the entire Dal capital was in flames. The complex was destroyed in a series of cataclysmic explosions. No Daleks survived. The Golden Dalek had survived because it was based in the old bunker thousands of miles from the Dal capital. With its cohort of scientist Daleks, the Golden Dalek considered how to restore Dalek power and expand its frontiers.

Deep below the surface the process of re-building Dalek power got under way. Along with its scientific elite, the Golden Dalek set about formulating the strategy for Dalek recovery and ultimate victory. The bunker had remained the centre of Dalek scientific research and the creation / production of new Daleks. The loss of the Dal capital was more a blow to Dalek self-esteem than a serious challenge to their prospects of galactic pre-eminence. The Golden Dalek made the established of a new Dalek governing class a priority. The old tripartite structure that included an Emperor and a Supreme Dalek had been destroyed on Kembel and then Skaro. The Golden Dalek wanted to establish a new supreme council. The Daleks of the scientific elite were accorded the new status of Supreme Council Daleks and were installed in new casings that signified their rank and authority.

The planet Earth remained a strategic objective. The defeat of the previous invasion in 2164 had allowed the human race to develop to the point where, by the late 26th Century, a politically unified Earth was able to lead a galactic coalition to fend off hostile actions by the Daleks, Cybermen or Sontarans. It occurred to the supreme council that utilisation of time distortion technology could enable the Daleks to manipulate the course of history. An analysis of Earth’s history indicated a period in its later Twentieth Century when a combination of international rivalry and nuclear weapons technology threatened to trigger a devastating conflict on the planet. The supreme council resolved to trigger such a conflict.

Day of the Daleks

As it happened, there had been a period of extreme tension in the Earth year 1972 that had nearly triggered a nuclear war. Conflict had only been prevented by the intervention of British diplomat, Sir Reginald Styles. The Daleks mounted an ingenious intervention whereby war did break out after a mysterious explosion destroyed Auderley House in southern England. The explosion killed Sir Reginald Styles and the foreign ministers of the principal powers of the planet Earth. Subsequently a series of wars led to a final nuclear conflagration.

The Dalek distortion of time was achieved in two successive stages. First, a quantity of Dalekanium explosive was sent through the space / time vortex to Auderly House at the exact time in 1972 when the peace conference had commenced. The destruction of Auderly House along with the violent deaths of many of the planet Earth’s political leaders would trigger a world war. However, the Supreme Council felt uneasy about the stability of this intervention in Earth’s timeline. The Daleks were now aware of the planet Gallifrey and its inhabitants, the Time Lords. A renegade Time Lord, known as the Master, had arrived on Skaro offering his assistance. Intrigued, the Dalek leaders interrogated the Master about the extent of Time Lord power.

The Master explained that the Time Lords had enormous power over the fabric of time and space. They could, for example, remove the Daleks’ explosive device from the time/space vortex and restore Earth’s timeline. The Daleks were concerned that such an intervention would, virtually instantaneously, unravel the new Dalek Empire that was to supplant the Earth Federation of the 26th Century. The finer points of Time Lord morality were explained to the Daleks. They would seriously consider intervention to reverse a Dalek distortion of Earth’s timeline. But they would not intervene if the Daleks were merely exploiting a situation in which Earth was devastated by a war caused by human action alone.

The Master suggested that the human race should be further manipulated into securing its fate as permanent slaves of the Daleks. He suggested the creation of a temporal paradox whereby a small number of humans might be ‘allowed’ to operate as a resistance force in 22nd Century Earth. They would believe in the assumed guilt of Sir Reginald Styles and think that his assassination would change human history and prevent a nuclear world war. To this end, the human resistance should be enabled to ‘capture’ basic time-travel technology and Dalekanium explosive. The date of the Auderly House explosion was a documented fact in human records. The human resistance would then travel back to 1972 and try to kill Sir Reginald Styles. If they succeeded, the murder of a senior British diplomat would, at such a point of global tension, trigger war. Alternatively, the guerrillas might destroy Auderly House with Dalekanium explosive. But if they failed once, they would try until they had succeeded. One way or another, this would create the circumstances for an invasion of Earth without any apparent external distortion of Earth's timeline.

The Master’s plan was put into effect. In the instant that the human resistance completed the ‘loop’ of the temporal paradox by destroying Auderly House, the Daleks would withdraw their own explosive device from the time/space vortex. War broke out and escalated to the point where human civilisation was devastated by nuclear weapons. In the aftermath, the Daleks invaded Earth. Lacking numbers, they relied on an imported species of semi-humanoid beings known as Ogrons. The Daleks also realised that a select few humans could be employed to administer the planet for them. Known as the Controllers, they were responsible for basic security and the continued extraction of mineral deposits. According to the set plan, the human resistance was allowed to exist. It was enabled to ‘capture’ simple time travel technology and Dalek explosives. Their initial attempt on the life of Styles failed but it did trigger t he active interest of the Doctor, now in his third reincarnation, and the special military-scientific organisation, UNIT. The Doctor believed that a second attempt would be made by whoever it was that sought to kill Sir Reginald Styles. He advised Styles to continue with his scheduled diplomatic trip to China and chose to wait in Auderley House in his place.

There was a second attempt by the guerrillas. The Doctor persuaded them that he was not Styles but was taken prisoner instead. The guerrillas decided that the Doctor was no threat and tried to leave him in the England of 1972. However the Doctor was determined to resolve the mystery of why people in late 22nd Century Earth were so determined to kill a career diplomat. Travelling forward with the guerrillas, the Doctor quickly discovered that the Daleks were the masters of Earth in an altered late 22nd Century. The Daleks were alerted to the presence of the Doctor and subjected him to a mind probing interrogation that revealed his two previous incarnations of which they held records.

The Doctor was saved by the intervention of the human Controller. He urged the Golden Dalek to consider that the Doctor might have vital information concerning the guerrillas’ activities. The guerrillas proceeded to launch an assault on the control centre and rescued the Doctor. Returning to their hideout, they asked the Doctor to return to the England of 1972 and assassinate Sir Reginald Styles. The Doctor refused and demanded to know why they were obsessed with the idea that this career diplomat was somehow responsible for the war. The guerrillas admitted that they did not know exactly how Auderley House had been destroyed. They realised that the explosion was not the work of Sir Reginald Styles but that of one of their own number who had been left behind in 1972. The Doctor explained that they were not changing history, rather they were trapped within a temporal paradox.

The Doctor returned to 1972 in an attempt to prevent the Auderley House explosion and the consequent world war. The Daleks realised the implications of the Doctor’s intervention and resolved to pursue him to 1972. As a Time Lord, the Doctor might be able to break the Dalek-engineered temporal paradox. Upon returning to 1972, the Doctor urged the UNIT commander, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, to evacuate Auderley House. With foreign ministers of principal world powers present, the potential for disaster was clear. The Brigadier agreed and hurriedly evacuated the delegates. At the same time the Dalek force, with Ogron support, arrived in 1972 led by the Golden Dalek. It was a clear testimony to the significance of the Auderley House explosion that the Golden Dalek itself elected to lead the assault. Failure to trigger war in 1972 would unravel the Daleks’ entire distortion of time and allow the future 26th Century Earth to confront the Daleks. The Doctor attempted to persuade the lone guerrilla that there was no need to detonate his bomb. However Shura was determined to press ahead. The Daleks entered Auderley House to find it abandoned by the Styles conference. The bomb was detonated. The Dalek distortion of history had been undermined. Their leader, the Golden Dalek, had been destroyed in the explosion. Yet again the Doctor had defeated their attempts at conquest.

On Skaro, the Supreme Council reflected on yet another defeat at the hands of the Doctor. Unless the Earth Federation of the 26th Century was destroyed, their plans for galactic dominance could not come to fruition. The Master was enraged at the way in which his rival, the Doctor, had confounded him once more. He suggested that the Daleks should allow him to trigger war between Earth and Draconia in the late 26th Century.

The Supreme Council agreed in principle, but demanded to know what the Master felt he could do. The Master revealed a new technology that could fundamentally alter the visual perception of its victims. They would see whatever they feared most. On the frontiers between the empires of Draconia and Earth, space crew had lingerin g fears of attack from one side or the other. Only a few decades earlier, there had been a limited but costly war between Earth and Draconia. The consequent tensions and resentments meant that both civilisations regarded each other as potential enemies.

The Supreme Council devised a new strategy. First they would engineer a new army of a size not seen since Kembel; then they would commission the Master to create the circumstances in which their army could sweep to victory. The Daleks knew they had one great advantage that stemmed from the Doctor’s reversal of their distortion of Earth’s history. By launching a second invasion of 22nd Century Earth, they had removed their original invasion of 2160 from Earth’s history. Consequently the leaders of the Earth Federation had no idea that the Daleks existed. Somewhere in a vault in London there was a UNIT file on the Auderley House incident of 1972. But that was rather obscure at the time and had been forgotten by the 26th Century. The accepted view was that a terrorist group had destroyed Auderley House and that a fortuitous intervention by UNIT had saved the world peace conference. The Dalek aspect was unheard of because it had been ‘covered up’ at the time. The price for the 20th Century British Government’s obsession with official secrecy was to be the unseen Dalek threat to the 26th Century Earth Federation. The Daleks were free to colonise planets and engineer new armies. However, the Supreme Council was careful to restrict Dalek operations to regions of the galaxy sufficiently far from the borders of both the Earth Federation and the Draconian Empire.

Frontier in Space - Planet of the Daleks

The galaxy was threatened with the prospect of a devastating interstellar conflict between the two great powers of the 26th Century. Both powers were convinced that the other was attacking its spacecraft. Earth crewmen thought they saw Draconians attacking them. Draconians were convinced that the Earth Federation was attacking them. Attacked crews sent final reports to their respective fleet commands with the result that Earth and Draconia were on course for war with each other. Such a war would devastate the galactic powers capable of defeating the Daleks; at that stage they would achieve their goal of galactic domination.

The Dalek Supreme Council ordered that the new army of 10,000 Daleks be placed in cold storage under the surface of the jungle planet called Spiridon. The native inhabitants had the secret of invisibility. The Daleks sent to garrison Spiridon included scientist Daleks ordered to discover the secret of invisibility. Once the war between Earth and Draconia had devastated both sides, the Dalek army would be loaded onto deep space cruisers and commence the conquest of the galaxy. The Doctor, initially unaware of the Daleks’ involvement, was determined to prevent a devastating war between Earth and Draconia. Upon discovering the involvement of the Master, the Doctor realised that something very wrong was afoot. Eventually he pursued the Master to the Ogron planet where he discovered the Daleks. The war had been prevented with the Doctor revealing the reality that it was Ogrons who were attacking space vessels. More significantly, both Earth and Draconia were now aware of the Daleks and the threat they posed. But the Doctor realised that the Daleks were unlikely to abandon their plans lightly.

Travelling to Spiridon he encountered a squad of Thals sent to combat the Dalek presence on Spiridon. Together they penetrated the Daleks’ underground base and located the vast chamber holding 10,000 Daleks in suspended animation. Spiridon was a unique planet with its core of molten ice. A Thal bomb was used to disrupt a fissure within the chamber. The explosion caused thousands of tons of ice to fill the chamber. The 10,000 Daleks were permanently trapped. Yet again the intervention of the Doctor had frustrated the ambitions of the Dalek leadership.

On Gallifrey, the High Council of the Time Lords were growing increasingly worried about the potential of the Daleks. This was one species that could grow to exterminate or subjugate all other life forms. But there was no easy solution to the ‘Dalek problem’. The doctrine of non-interference remained central to the Time Lords’ view of political morality and justice. But the Daleks had proven themselves capable of overcoming circumstances that would crush other species. The Time Lords could not afford to allow events to take their course; that would run the risk of the entire galaxy, even Gallifrey, being overrun by the Daleks.

Eventually a compromise was reached. Established history witnessed the relatively short timeline of the original Daleks created by Yarvelling. They had attempted an invasion of Earth but had been defeated by the Doctor. His interventions on both Earth and Skaro had ensured the early extinction of the original Daleks. The existence of these Daleks could remain unaltered. However, the Daleks created by Davros were a different matter. In spite of the eventual death of Davros, again as a result of the Doctor’s intervention, the Daleks had continued to threaten the galaxy. This timeline had to be disrupted. The decision was taken to enlist the Doctor into making an intervention. Either Davros’ Daleks would never come to exist or their history could be altered in some way. If, for example, Davros could be prevented from securing his leadership of the Daleks, they might very well destroy their creator. In those circumstances, the course of Dalek history could run down a different timeline with the Daleks lacking the type of scientific knowledge and strategic foresight that had enabled them to become a threat to Gallifrey itself. The intervention was launched. Although unsure of the final outcome, the Time Lords believed that the ‘original’ history of the Daleks could be excised from the galaxy’s timeline.

Part Two:
The "Second" History of the Daleks