Darleks

The Daleks were a warrior race (TV: The Witch's Familiar, Hell Bent) made up of genetically engineered mutants(TV: The Daleks, Genesis of the Daleks) belonging to fundamental DNA type 467-989. (TV: Daleks in Manhattan) By most accounts they were originally from the planet Skaro. (TV: The Daleks) The mutants were usually encased inside armour consisting of polycarbide (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) and the metalDalekanium. (COMIC: The Humanoids)

On many occasions, the Daleks openly acknowledged a single Time Lord, the Doctor, as their greatest enemy. (TV: The Chase) The Doctor described them likewise, (TV: Victory of the Daleks) and, in their tenth incarnation, stated that a Dalek was "not just metal, it [was] alive," that "inside that shell, there [was] a creature born to hate, whose only thought [was] to destroy everything and everyone that [wasn't] a Dalek, too." (TV: Daleks in Manhattan) The Tenth Doctor also noted that from birth, the Daleks were encased in a cold metal shell unable to feel anything, claiming that was why they "scream[ed]." (TV: Doomsday) The War Doctor also said that Daleks were "not robots", but "savage, incredibly intelligent, living, breathing creatures housed inside a war tank". (PROSE: The Stranger)

The Daleks fought the Time Lords in the Last Great Time War, ending in the near-total destruction of the Dalek race, (TV: Dalek) until they rebuilt their empire (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) by using a progenitor. (TV: Victory of the Daleks) Intensely xenophobic and bent on universal domination, the Daleks were hated and feared throughout time and space. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) Their goal was to eradicate all non-Dalek life, (TV: Victory of the Daleks) as programmed by their creator. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)

Biology edit

Although the Daleks looked entirely robotic, they were, in fact, cyborgs, with a living body encased in and supported by an armed and mobile outer shell of Dalekanium and polycarbide protective metal armour. These were Mark III travel machines, designed to carry their mutant forms, and they were not truly integrated biomechanoids. (AUDIO: The Four Doctors) In this respect, they were somewhat similar to a Cyberman; unlike them, however, the Daleks' bodies had mutated so drastically from their Kaled ancestors they had lost all humanoid appearance, save for one eye (see below). (TV: The Daleks, Evolution of the Daleks) The Daleks transmitted information using a sort of artificial telepathic network known as the Pathweb, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) which the Twelfth Doctor would later state to be the “biggest database [he knew]”. (TV: Twice Upon a Time)

Daleks did not die naturally, every cell being genetically hardwired with an impulse to keep on living, (TV: The Witch's Familiar) even if they were chopped to pieces and left buried for centuries away from their casings. (TV: Resolution) However, they did age, the body decaying further and further — eventually reaching a point where it was little more than mewling, hateful sludge of dark brownish colour. Incapable of steering their armour, such decayed Daleks would exit them and confine themselves to the sewers of Dalek cities, for which reason the Dalek word for “sewer” was also their word for “graveyard”. (TV: The Witch's Familiar) One Dalek creature remained alive even as it was dissected by the scientist Bryant Anderson. (PROSE: We are the Daleks!)

The Daleks had a strong association with static electricity; not only were their casings powered by it at some points in their history, (TV: The Daleks, The Dalek Invasion of Earth) but newly-bred Kaled mutants were brought to life by a static shock before they were put into their casings, and the Second Doctor once explained that static "was like blood to the Daleks". (TV: The Power of the Daleks) Theodore Maxtible's attempts to involve static electricity in his experimental time travel resulted in his time machine prototype summoning Daleks across time. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)

Anatomy edit

Casing edit

Exterior battle armouredit

The Dalek casing could be separated into three sections. The top was the Daleks' means of vision and communication, a dome with a set of twin speaker 'lights' (referred to as luminosity dischargers) (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) on the upper part of the sides, and a periscope-like eyestalk in the middle. This was attached to the midsection by a "neck", the grating section. (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) The Dalek casings invented by Davros were originally called "Mark III travel machines". (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, PROSE: Still Need a Title!)

Dalek casings varied in colour and exact appearance, (TV: The Magician's Apprentice et al.) with different colours often signifying different ranks within Dalek hierarchy. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) Over the Daleks' history, the basic Dalek was first slatless and silver-white when using Dalek War Machines (TV: The Daleks, COMIC: Genesis of Evil) then given sensor plate slats to become the Silver Daleks, (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) later replaced by Grey Daleks (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) and finally Bronze Daleks. (TV: Dalek)

On the Dalek's midsection, the weapons platform, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) the gunstick and manipulator arm were attached. These provided the Dalek's means of offence and operating capabilities. In later models, the midsection was capable of swivelling. Most of the mass of the Dalek mutant was located inside the midsection.

The bottom, the base unit, (PROSE: Prisoner of the Daleks) was the Dalek's means of mobility, consisting of a sturdy base with a skirt-like structure of plates studded with sense globes. This allowed movement and, in later models, flight.

The interdependence of biological and mechanical components made the Daleks a type of cyborg. The Imperial Daleks created by Davros during the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War were true cyborgs, surgically connected to their shells. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Externally, the Daleks resembled human-sized peppershakers, with a single mechanical eyestalk in a rotating dome, a gunstick and a manipulator arm. The casings were made of both polycarbide and dalekanium. (WC: Monster File: Daleks)

The lower portion of the casing was studded with fifty-six partially-embedded spherical protrusions, (TV: Dalek) or sense globes, (COMIC: City of the Daleks) which could serve as a self-destruct system. (TV: Dalek)

The casing was booby-trapped; when a non- time traveller touched the Dalek in Utah, they combusted into flames; however, when Rose Tyler touched the Dalek, it regenerated it. (TV: Dalek) Even dead Daleks could prove a dangerous foe. They were frequently equipped with virus transmitters on the casing, which worked automatically. (PROSE: I Am a Dalek)

The Dalek's eyepiece was its most vulnerable spot – as there was no back-up system if this was obscured, damaged or destroyed – and impairing its vision often led to the Dalek panicking and firing its main weapon indiscriminately in a panic. (GAME: City of the Daleks) It was, however, a sensitive instrument, which allowed the Daleks to see in infrared, among other wavelengths. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) The Dalek casing also functioned as a fully-sealed environment suit, allowing travel through the vacuum of space or underwater without the need for additional life-supportequipment. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Parting of the Ways, COMIC: The Dalek Project) A Dalek's eyepiece could be connected to other Dalek vision centres. (GAME: City of the Daleks, TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

A Dalek was connected to its casing through a positronic link. The mutant itself accessed nutrient feeders and control mechanisms inside its internal chamber. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks) The Twelfth Doctor once said that a Dalek was "not a machine", but "a perfect analogue of a living being". (TV: Into the Dalek) Indeed, a Dalek could be "hurt" even when the non-biological part of it was attacked. (TV: Dalek, Into the Dalek)

Due to their gliding motion, earlier models of Dalek were baffled by stairs, which made them easy to overcome under the right circumstances. One time the Fourth Doctor and his companions escaped from Dalek pursuers by climbing into a ceiling duct. The Doctor even taunted a single Dalek before disappearing. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) Some models were able to hover, or fly under their own power like small spacecraft and travel up the stairs, ending the original weakness. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks, Dalek, Resolution, et al.)

The armour of the Cult of Skaro had temporal shift capacity, seemingly the only users of such technology during the Battle of Canary Wharf. (TV: Doomsday, Daleks in Manhattan)

Power sourcesedit

The power source of the Dalek casing also changed several times. During his first encounter with them on Skaro, the First Doctorlearned that the casing was externally powered by static electricitytransmitted through the metal floors of the Dalek City. Isolating a Dalek from the floor using a non-conductive material shut down the casing, although it was not immediately fatal to the occupant. (TV: "The Escape") The Daleks initially overcame this weakness by adding dishes to their casing to receive power, (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) although even these were ultimately replaced by vertical rectangular slats around the midsection which absorbed other sources of power. (TV: The Chase)

Even quite late into their history, some Daleks originating on Skaro itself remained powered by static electricity: this was the case with the Daleks from the ship that crashed on Vulcan, (TV: The Power of the Daleks) although their home time postdated the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) Even Daleks who did not visibly draw their power supply from static electricity retained some sort of association with it, as it was by involving static electricity in his experimental time machine that Theodore Maxtible accidentally summoned into his home Daleks who nevertheless could move freely along its wooden floors. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)

By the beginning of the Last Great Time War, the Daleks had adapted their technology to use a type of energy apparently linked to the process of time travel. On more than one occasion, Daleks and their devices were seen to leech this energy from time-travellers in order to power themselves. (TV: Dalek, Doomsday)

Whatever the power source the Daleks used in the interim, it was (apparently uniquely) immune to being drained by the Great City of the Exxilons. Strangely, the Daleks retained motive power and the ability to speak even though their weaponry was shut down, which suggests the weapon systems had a separate power supply. The Third Doctor indicated that this was because the Daleks were psychokinetic and moved around through the power of thought alone, and the City was unable to absorb psychic energy. Other references to the Daleks having psychic potential are scarce, but on the planet Kyrol, the Eighth Doctor discovered an enclave of humanised Daleks who had, through years of meditation, developed psychokinesis to a remarkable degree. (TV: Death to the Daleks, COMIC: Children of the Revolution)

Additionally, Daleks from the Last Great Time War era were surrounded by force fields that prevented bulletsand energy weapons from making contact with their casings. (TV: Dalek, The Parting of the Ways, Doomsday, Daleks in Manhattan, The Big Bang)

Speechedit

According to certain accounts, the Dalek creature had no visible vocal apparatus as such and their voices were electronic, as the mutant inside could barely utter a squeak. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks, AUDIO: Jubilee) In contradiction to these accounts, Daleks stripped of their casings were heard to speak in the familiar Dalek voice on several occasions, including but not limited to Dalek Caan after his casing had been ruined by exposure to the whole of time and space, (TV: Journey's End) a Black Dalek whose shell had been entirely consumed by the Kiseibya, (AUDIO: Enemy of the Daleks) and a stranded Dalek reconnaissance scout who reached Earth in the 9th century and was stripped of its casing by human warriors. (TV: Resolution) One incident showed that a human voice spoken from within a Dalek casing would gain the typical Dalek voice's metallic quality. (TV: The Daleks)

At any rate, Daleks spoke in high-pitched, stilted, robotic voices that were easy for others to mimic; (TV: The Evil of the Daleks, Dalek et al.) their most infamous battle-cry was "EX-TER-MINATE!", each syllable screeched in a frantic-sounding, electronic scream (the last two syllables together). Other common utterances included "I (or "WE") OBEY!" to any command from a superior. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks, Dalek, The Parting of the Ways et al.) Daleks also had communicators built into their shells to emit an alarm to summon other Daleks if the casing was opened from outside. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)

At one point in history the communication devices limited Dalek speech. Attempts to state their identity emerged as "I am a Dalek" and emotional statements or "you are different from me" came out as "Exterminate". Saying "I am your friend" came out as "I am your enemy". (TV: The Witch's Familiar) However, these speech restrictions were not present in earlier Daleks, who were able to speak of concepts such as friendship, mercyand servitude, often to affect cunning deceptions, set traps and manipulate others to their will (TV: The Daleks, The Power of the Daleks, The Evil of the Daleks, Dalek, Victory of the Daleks) or on rare occasions when genuinely begging for other beings' mercy. (TV: Dalek, AUDIO: Enemy of the Daleks)