History of the Daleks facts for kids
The Daleks are a scary race of mutant creatures from the British science fiction TV show Doctor Who. They are the changed remains of the Kaled people from the planet Skaro. These mutants travel around in tough, tank-like metal cases. Their main goal is to conquer and destroy everything in the universe. They are also the biggest enemies of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Over time, they have become incredibly powerful, even able to fight against the Time Lords themselves!
Dalek History: From the Start to Now
How the Daleks Began
The First Doctor first met the Daleks in an early episode called The Daleks (1963−64). In this story, the Dalek home planet, Skaro, was once home to two groups of human-like people: the Kaleds and the Thals. After a terrible nuclear war over 500 years ago, the Thals were badly changed, and the "Dalek ancestors" went into their city.
The Thals said that the Daleks were once teachers and thinkers. The Doctor thought they were called Dals back then and were also mutated. They mostly stayed in their city, getting power from metal paths. When they found out that the Thals' anti-radiation medicine could kill them, the Daleks, who now hated all other races, decided to release more radiation into Skaro's air. This would leave only the Daleks alive. But the Doctor and his friends convinced the Thals to fight back. At the end of this story, the Daleks seemed to be wiped out when their power source was destroyed. However, because they were so popular, the Daleks soon returned!
Later Adventures of the Daleks
The Daleks appeared again in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964). This story showed the Daleks taking over Earth in the mid-22nd century after a meteor shower and a sickness. The First Doctor explained that these events happened "a million years" before the first Dalek story, showing a "middle period" of Dalek history. These Daleks could move without metal paths, getting power from dishes on their backs. They planned to destroy Earth's core and move the planet. But the Doctor and his companions started a rebellion, and the Dalek ship was destroyed.
Later, the Daleks learned to time travel in The Chase (1965). They used a time machine to follow the Doctor's TARDIS. They landed on the planet Mechanus and fought against robots called Mechanoids. In this story, their power dishes were gone, replaced by solar panels on their sides.
By the year 4000 (in The Daleks' Master Plan, 1965–66), the Daleks had a huge empire across the stars. They teamed up with beings from other galaxies to attack the Solar System. The First Doctor stole a special element they needed, and the Daleks chased him through time. The Doctor then used a powerful device called the Time Destructor, which destroyed the Daleks.
The Daleks also developed factory ships for conquering planets, as seen in The Power of the Daleks (1966). Daleks were brought back to life after their ship was stuck on the planet Vulcan for over 200 years. They recognized the newly changed Second Doctor. The Daleks made more of their kind to destroy the colony. But the Doctor used their own power source against them, seemingly destroying them again.
Another attempt to end the Dalek stories was made in The Evil of the Daleks (1967). This story also showed a Dalek Emperor. The Daleks captured the Second Doctor and Jamie McCrimmon. They wanted to learn about the "human factor" to spread it through human history. A Dalek civil war started when some Daleks were affected by the human factor. The Doctor declared this the "final end" of the Daleks. This was because the show's creator, Terry Nation, was trying to sell the Dalek idea to American TV. The sale didn't happen, and the Daleks didn't appear for five years.
The Daleks returned in the Third Doctor story Day of the Daleks (1972). Again, they used time travel and ruled Earth in the 22nd century in a different future. The Doctor stopped this future from happening, destroying the Daleks and fixing the timeline. The Daleks were shown again as a race wanting to conquer the universe. In Frontier in Space (1973), they tried to start a war between Earth and Draconia with help from the Master. This led to Planet of the Daleks (1973), where the Daleks had taken over Spiridon and were trying to become invisible. Later, in Death to the Daleks (1974), they tried to stop humans from getting a cure for a sickness. The Daleks were led by a Supreme Dalek instead of an Emperor.
The True Beginning: Genesis of the Daleks
In 1975, the story of the Daleks' origins was changed in Genesis of the Daleks. The Fourth Doctor was sent by the Time Lords to the very moment the Daleks were created. His mission was to stop them before they could even begin, or at least make them less powerful in the future.
The Kaleds (whose name is an anagram of Dalek) were a human-like alien race and the ancestors of the Daleks. The Kaleds, with their strict rules and military style, were like the Nazis. In this story, the Kaleds fought a long war against the Thals. This war lasted a thousand years and used nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.
A brilliant but evil Kaled scientist named Davros believed that the changes from the war's fallout were permanent. He experimented on living cells, speeding up the mutations to find the final form of the Kaleds and ensure their survival. He designed special Mark III "travel machines" based on his own life-support chair. These tank-like machines, with the mutated Kaleds inside, became the first Daleks.
The Doctor tried to stop the Dalek project. To prevent this, Davros arranged for the Thals to wipe out his own people. The Daleks then went to destroy the Thals, but later turned on Davros and seemed to kill him.
The Doctor had a chance to destroy the Daleks at their beginning. But he couldn't do it, seeing it as an act of wiping out a whole race. He believed that even with all the evil the Daleks would cause, there had to be "some greater good." He later destroyed the Dalek embryos, but he thought this only slowed their progress by a thousand years.
After Genesis: New Challenges
In Destiny of the Daleks (1979), it was found that Davros had survived and was buried in a bunker in a deep sleep. While he slept, the Daleks sent out scouts to find planets to conquer.
Eventually, the Daleks left Skaro and built a huge empire across the stars. They ended up in a long fight with a robot race called the Movellans. The Daleks brought Davros back to help them win. Davros thought their battle computers were too smart, and that the first side to take a risky chance would win. But the Fourth Doctor stopped both sides from getting this idea. Davros was then captured by a human space empire and put back to sleep.
This fight continued until the Movellans made a sickness that attacked Dalek DNA. The Daleks then brought Davros back again in Resurrection of the Daleks to create a cure. But Davros betrayed them, taking control of some Daleks. This caused a split: some Daleks followed Davros, and others followed the Supreme Dalek.
By Revelation of the Daleks (1985), Davros was hiding and turning humans into Daleks. He put his loyal Daleks in white and gold cases. But the original Daleks found him, destroyed his white and gold Daleks, and captured Davros. He was taken back to Skaro for trial.
The Dalek Civil War
Davros appeared again in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). He was now the Dalek Emperor, leading his gold and white Imperial Daleks and controlling Skaro. Davros had made these Daleks stronger with robot parts. A new "Special Weapons Dalek" was also introduced, with a huge cannon. For the first time, a Dalek was clearly seen floating up stairs!
Against Davros's Imperial Daleks were the Renegade Daleks, led by a black Supreme Dalek. Both groups learned that the Hand of Omega, a powerful Time Lord device, was hidden on Earth in 1963. They both sent teams to Earth to get it, hoping to use it to improve their time travel.
The Imperial Daleks got the Hand, but they didn't know the Seventh Doctor had set a trap. When Davros activated it, Skaro's sun exploded, destroying both the Dalek home world and the Imperial Dalek fleet. Davros seemed to escape. The Renegade Supreme Dalek destroyed itself when the Doctor told it that it had failed and was the last of its kind. This was the last time the Daleks appeared on screen until 2005.
The Time War and What Came After
A new Doctor Who series started in 2005, and the Daleks have been in almost every series since. In the first new series, the Daleks were the main bad guys. In "Dalek" (2005), it was revealed that the Daleks and the Time Lords fought a terrible Time War. Both sides were thought to be almost completely wiped out. The Ninth Doctor found a single surviving Dalek that had fallen through time to Earth. This Dalek was damaged until it absorbed DNA from the Doctor's companion Rose Tyler. It healed itself but also gained human feelings. Realizing it was "contaminated," the Dalek asked Rose to order it to destroy itself.
These new Time War Daleks had new powers. They could turn their middle section around to shoot in all directions and had a force field that stopped bullets. They could also fly and heal themselves by absorbing electricity and the DNA of a time traveler. The "plunger" arm could crush a skull. The Doctor said this Dalek was a "genius" and could download the entire Internet.
The 2005 series finale, "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways", showed that the lone Dalek wasn't the only survivor. The Emperor Dalek's ship also survived the Time War. It rebuilt itself by using human genetic material to create a new Dalek race. The Emperor Dalek saw itself as a god, and the new Daleks worshipped it. These new Daleks were even crazier because they were made from "impure" human material.
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The Daleks secretly controlled a human empire in the year 200,000. The Ninth Doctor found out about them. The Daleks, now almost half a million strong, were ready to invade Earth with 200 ships. They attacked Earth, destroying whole continents. The Doctor built a weapon to wipe out the Daleks, but it would also destroy all life on one side of Earth. He couldn't bring himself to use it. However, Rose absorbed energy from the TARDIS and used it to destroy the Daleks and their fleet.
The Cult of Skaro
In the 2006 series finale, "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday", it was revealed that members of the Cult of Skaro had also escaped the Time War. They went into the empty space between dimensions, taking a Time Lord prison called the Genesis Ark with them, which held millions of Daleks. The Daleks' ship appeared on 21st century Earth. Its arrival also allowed the parallel Earth Cybermen to cross into the Doctor's universe.
The Daleks refused to team up with the Cybermen. The Ark opened, releasing millions of Daleks to fight the Cybermen. Both armies were sucked back into the empty space. However, Dalek Sec activated an "emergency temporal shift" to escape. The next series showed that Dalek Caan, Thay, and Jast also escaped.
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Ending up in New York in 1930 ("Daleks in Manhattan", 2007), Dalek Sec tried to create a new, more adaptable Dalek race. He contacted a human, Mr. Diagoras, to help finish the Empire State Building with special Dalek metal. The other Cult members captured humans. The smart ones were used for the "Final Experiment," and the less smart ones became "pig slaves" to capture more humans. Dalek Sec then merged with Diagoras, becoming a new kind of Hybrid Dalek, a Human Dalek.
In "Evolution of the Daleks" (2007), Sec revealed his plan to mix his hybrid DNA with thousands of humans. He believed this would create a new Dalek species that could adapt. But the other Daleks, who believed in racial purity, turned on him. They replaced his DNA sample with their own, planning to turn Earth into New Skaro. Sec was killed, and the Daleks' plans failed when their new army was corrupted with Time Lord DNA. Daleks Thay and Jast were killed, leaving Dalek Caan as the only survivor. Caan destroyed the new Dalek-Human army. The Doctor tried to show Caan mercy, but the Dalek escaped using an emergency temporal shift.
The New Dalek Empire
In "The Stolen Earth" (2008), both Davros and a red Supreme Dalek were leading a New Dalek Empire. It was revealed that Caan had forced himself into the Time War to save Davros. This made Caan able to "see all of time," but it also made him a bit crazy. Davros used cells from his own body to create a new race of Daleks. These Daleks stole planets from across time and space, creating an artificial solar system. These planets were placed in a hidden rift in space, making them hard to find.
The follow-up episode "Journey's End" (2008) showed Davros planning to destroy reality itself. Their base, "The Crucible," was a giant space station holding the entire empire. It was used for experiments with Davros's invention, the reality bomb. This bomb was powerful enough to wipe out even the smallest atoms outside their hidden area. The Supreme Dalek wanted to use this device to destroy reality, guided by Davros's genius and Caan's predictions. The Daleks hoped to be the only living race in the universe. But the Doctor and his friends stopped Davros's plans. Caan revealed that he had planned for the Daleks to be destroyed forever. With the Crucible exploding and the Supreme Dalek destroyed, the fate of Davros and Caan was unclear.
The New Dalek Paradigm
In "Victory of the Daleks" (2010), it was revealed that a Dalek ship survived and fell back in time to 1941. Only three Daleks survived. They found a "Progenitor," a capsule with pure Dalek DNA. They wanted to create a new Dalek race but couldn't activate it because it didn't recognize them as "pure." They set a trap for the Doctor. They built an android who pretended to be human and called the Daleks "Ironsides." Winston Churchill used these Daleks as war weapons. The Doctor's words, "I am the Doctor, and you are the Daleks!" activated the Progenitor. Five new, colorful Daleks appeared and destroyed their older, "inferior" predecessors. Each new Dalek had a different color and role: Drone, Scientist, Strategist, Eternal, and Supreme. They escaped into the future.
The White Supreme Dalek, Yellow Eternal Dalek, and Red Drone Dalek reappeared in "The Pandorica Opens" (2010) as part of an alliance. They were present when the Pandorica box was opened, and the Supreme Dalek explained its purpose before the Eleventh Doctor was trapped inside. In "The Big Bang" (2010), after reality started to break apart, the Daleks turned to stone because their history was being erased. A Stone Dalek was later seen in a museum. It woke up and shot the Doctor, but the shot wasn't fatal.
The Dalek Empire Returns
In "Asylum of the Daleks" (2012), the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams were captured and taken to the Dalek Parliament. They were ordered to "save the Daleks" by entering the Asylum of the Daleks, a planet-sized prison for insane Daleks. They had to disable its force-field so the Daleks could destroy it. Inside, they met Oswin Oswald, who helped them. When the Doctor entered a room with many old, battle-scarred Daleks, they woke up to exterminate him. But Oswin hacked into the Dalek communication network and deleted all information about the Doctor. This made all Daleks forget him.
"The Day of the Doctor" (2013), set during the final day of the Time War, revealed that Gallifrey and the Time Lords were not destroyed. Instead, 13 versions of the Doctor froze Gallifrey in a "parallel pocket universe." This made the Daleks destroy themselves in the crossfire. The Doctor didn't remember this until his eleventh incarnation.
During the long siege of Trenzalore in "The Time of the Doctor" (2013), the Daleks learned that the Time Lords had survived. They regained their memories of the Doctor. The Daleks were the last of the Doctor's enemies to attack Trenzalore. They almost finished the Eleventh Doctor, who was now old and had no regenerations left. But Clara Oswald pleaded with the Time Lords, who gave the Doctor a new set of regenerations. The Doctor used this energy to destroy the Dalek forces on Trenzalore.
In "Into the Dalek" (2014), the Twelfth Doctor met a rebel group fighting the Daleks. They had a damaged Dalek they called "Rusty" that wanted to destroy its own kind. The Doctor, Clara, and some soldiers shrank themselves to enter Rusty. After fixing a radiation leak, Rusty went back to wanting to destroy everything. But the Doctor connected with Rusty's mind, showing it his own hatred for the Daleks. This made Rusty want to destroy other Daleks even more. Rusty then destroyed the Dalek platoon and went back to the Dalek ship to continue its mission secretly.
The Daleks returned on a rebuilt Skaro in "The Magician's Apprentice" (2015). The Twelfth Doctor, the Master (now called "Missy"), and Clara were taken there. The Daleks captured Missy and Clara and seemed to exterminate them. In "The Witch's Familiar" (2015), it was revealed that Missy and Clara survived. Davros tricked the Doctor into using his regeneration energy to heal Davros and the Dalek race. But the Doctor had a plan: the energy also woke up the rotting Dalek mutants in the city sewers. These sewer Daleks revolted, attacking the city from below.
A special "Recon Scout Dalek" appeared in "Resolution" (2019). Its casing was destroyed in an old battle, and the mutant was found centuries later. It attached itself to an archaeologist, using him as a puppet. The Dalek mutant gathered scrap to build a temporary casing. It then tried to summon the Dalek fleet to conquer Earth. The Doctor stopped this plan. The mutant attached itself to Ryan's dad and blackmailed the Doctor to take it to Skaro. The Doctor agreed but took it to a supernova, sucking it into space and destroying it.
The Daleks next appeared in "Revolution of the Daleks" (2021). A "Dalek Death Squad" arrived on Earth to wipe out "impure" Daleks created by the British government. The Daleks also made appearances in series 13 and returned as the main villains in "Eve of the Daleks" (2022). They also teamed up with the Master and the Cybermen in the Thirteenth Doctor's final adventure, "The Power of the Doctor."
Daleks in Other Stories
The Daleks have also appeared in many Doctor Who spin-offs, like comic strips, novels, and audio plays. These stories sometimes show the Daleks fighting the Doctor, and sometimes on their own. It's not always clear how these stories fit with the TV show.
Comic Strips
The first time the Daleks appeared outside the TV show was in The Dalek Book (1964). This book told the story of a Dalek invasion of Earth's solar system. Later comics, like TV Century 21 (which became The Dalek Chronicles), told more about the Daleks' origins. These comics sometimes showed different details from the TV show.
Doctor Who Magazine comic strips also featured the Daleks. In Emperor of the Daleks! (DWM #197-#202), the Sixth Doctor helped Davros gain control of a large Dalek army, which led to the Dalek civil war seen in Remembrance of the Daleks. The Eighth Doctor also faced the Daleks in comics, stopping them from taking over all realities and meeting the "humanized" Daleks from The Evil of the Daleks.
Novels
War of the Daleks (1997) by John Peel said that Skaro was not actually destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks. Instead, another planet was made to look like Skaro and was destroyed in its place. This book also said that much of the Dalek-Movellan war was faked for Davros's benefit. Davros was put on trial by the Daleks and seemed to be destroyed.
The Eighth Doctor fought the Daleks again in Legacy of the Daleks (1998), after their invasion of Earth. In I am a Dalek (2006), the Daleks tried to infect humans with the "Dalek Factor" during the Time War.
In Prisoner of the Daleks (2009), the Tenth Doctor accidentally went into the pre-Time War Dalek timeline. The Dalek Empire was fighting a huge war against Earth. The Daleks planned to open a rift in time and space to conquer all of time. But the Doctor stopped them, destroying a Dalek science team and fleet.
The Dalek Generation (2013) showed that in the future, the Daleks helped humans develop planets. These Daleks worked with a "Dalek Time Controller" to trick the Eleventh Doctor into helping them turn these planets into copies of Skaro. The Doctor stopped their plan.
Engines of War (2014) featured the War Doctor on a Dalek-occupied planet. The Daleks planned to use a "Temporal Cannon" to wipe Gallifrey from history, but the Doctor defeated them.
Audio Plays
The Daleks also appear in many Doctor Who audio plays by Big Finish Productions. In The Genocide Machine (2000), the Daleks invaded a library to gain information. In The Apocalypse Element, the Daleks invaded the Time Lords' home planet, Gallifrey, but were defeated. They also tried to conquer an entire galaxy.
A spin-off series, Dalek Empire (2001–08), showed a successful Dalek invasion of the Milky Way galaxy. The Daleks conquered much of the galaxy in a long war against humans. They were finally defeated by a psychic attack that made all Dalek machines destroy themselves. Centuries later, the Dalek Empire attacked again, infecting parts of the galaxy with a virus that turned humans into Daleks.
Jubilee (2003) showed an alternate Earth where the Sixth Doctor had defeated a Dalek invasion in 1903. A hundred years later, this world used Dalek technology and ideas to create a harsh "English Empire."
In The Juggernauts (2005), the Daleks manipulated the Sixth Doctor to recapture Davros. Davros created new robots called Juggernauts to destroy the Daleks.
In Terror Firma (2005), Davros was leading a Dalek army that had conquered Earth. His mind was unstable, and he had different personalities. His Daleks rebelled against him.
Blood of the Daleks (2007) had the Eighth Doctor and his companion Lucie Miller arrive on a colony world where a Dalek fleet offered to "help." The Doctor found out the Daleks were there to destroy experiments by a professor who created his own Daleks from humans. The two groups of Daleks fought each other.
Energy of the Daleks (2012) saw the Fourth Doctor and Leela deal with a Dalek attack on Earth in the mid-21st century. The Daleks, from the future, wanted to use a free energy device to damage Earth's gravity. The Doctor stopped them.
The Eighth Doctor and Lucie faced the Daleks again in Lucie Miller/To the Death when the Daleks tried to invade Earth again. The Daleks were responsible for the deaths of Lucie and the Doctor's great-grandson, Alex Campbell, who sacrificed themselves to destroy the Dalek mothership.
The audio series Dark Eyes and its sequels showed the early stages of the Time War. The Daleks tried to destroy the Time Lords through complex plans, but the Eighth Doctor and his companions fought against them.
Video Games
The Progenitor Daleks from "Victory of the Daleks" returned in the game City of the Daleks (2010). After escaping, the Daleks found a lost Time Lord artifact, the Eye of Time, which let them change time. They rebuilt their city on Skaro and appointed a new blue Dalek Emperor. They invaded London in 1963 and killed all humans. But the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond undid these events.
A Scientist Dalek was the main villain in the game Mazes of Time. It kidnapped an alien family to collect Time Orbs and recruited other Daleks and Cybermen.
The Paradigm Daleks returned in The Eternity Clock (2012). A new purple Dalek Emperor led an invasion of Earth in 2106. The Daleks used a piece of the Eternity Clock to create a time-lock around London. They planned to use this technology to put temporal bubbles around other planets, making them unstoppable. The Doctor and River Song stopped the invasion.
See also
- Dalek variants
- Dalek comic strips, illustrated annuals and graphic novels
- Dalekmania
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