Planet of origin: Skaro, an Earth-type planet, the 12th from its star, in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Daleks are the armoured, mutated descendants of the humanoid Kaleds, one of the two factions coexisting on the planet Skaro. They fought the Time Lords in the Last Great Time War, ending in the near-total destruction of both races. Intensely xenophobic and bent on universal domination,.The Daleks are biological organisms encased in and supported by a mobile, armed and armored protective shell which they need to sustain themselves. The Daleks' bodies had mutated so drastically from their Kaled ancestors they had lost all humanoid appearance. They share information using a sort of artificial telepathic network known as the Pathweb but can also communicate verbally, despite vocal organs, through external vocoders.
The Dalek casing was originally called a "Mark III travel machine", conceived for the first generation of tailored mutant as a fully-sealed environment suit, allowing travel through the vacuum of space or underwater without the need for additional life-support equipment, with nutrient feeders and control mechanisms directly linked to the organism inside.. Heavily mutated members of other species, including humans, also occupied the same chassis on occasion. Made of polycarbide and dalekanium, it resembles a human-sized peppershaker, with a single mechanical eyestalk in a rotating dome, a gunstick and a manipulator arm. Their lower part
is covered with fifty-six hemispherical protrusions, which can be
equipped to serve different customised roles.
Due
to their gliding motion, daleks often display limited manoeuverability.
Different models had different hovering capacities, some being
effectively able to fly while others had difficulties navigsting stairs.
Some rare high ranking individuals were known to be equipped with
teleporter and temporal shift capacity. The power source of the Dalek casing also changed several times. Early models being much less powerful than later ones. Throughout history, there were many Dalek variants that sported different
casings. A Dalek's ability depended on what features its casing offered.
The mutant organism itself, which was artificially evolved from the humanoid Kaleds, looks much like a small invetertebrate with multiple tentacular protrusions, either a single eye or a normal right eye and a left eye so reduced in size as to be easily missed - Despite their apparent lack of any motive capability, they are capable of defending themselves, being able to kill a human size opponent by striking at its throat.
Daleks
have little individual personality and a strict hierarchy. They are
conditioned to obey a superior's orders without question, even if these
orders resulted in pain or death. The most fundamental feature of Dalek
culture and psychology is an unquestioned belief in the superiority of
the Daleks. Other species are either to be exterminated or enslaved, and
then exterminated when no longer necessary. The default directive of a
Dalek is to destroy all non-Dalek life forms. Daleks even regard
"deviant" Daleks as their enemies and worthy of destruction. Despite
this, offended by exterminating their own, they will sometimes instead
send them to a planet known as the Dalek Asylum.
Another
result of this superiority complex is their complete ruthlessness.
Because of it, it is nearly impossible to negotiate or reason with a
Dalek, and it is this single-mindedness that made them so dangerous.
Their reliance on logic and machinery was a weakness, albeit one that
they recognised. Daleks considered illogical actions impossible. The
emotional capacity of Daleks was limited to largely negative emotions. Empathy, compassion
and sentimentality were considered by them to be weaknesses. However,
they were capable of comprehending them, and often used them
to exploit their enemies.
Their creation is the feat of the kaled scientist Davros, although the initial concept was presented to him by his assistant Shan; from whom he stole the idea, and adapted it into what would become the Daleks.
They were developed toward the end of the One thousand years Wars on Skaro and
ended it by eliminating most of the two warring parties,
the Thals and the Kaleds. They then became stranded in their city for a while, but somehow survived
and, led by the Dalek Emperor and the Dalek Council, forged an
interstellar and later intergalactic Empire. After clashing
several times with Timelords agents, they began working on a time
travel technology of their own and came several time to Earth which was
one of their first battleground with their soon-to-became nemesis, the
Timelords, first by developing time corridor technology, then by
building time travel machines based on temporal shift, efficient but not
as much as the Timelords' Tardis.
Travelling
through time themselves and being at war with the Time lords, the
Daleks have seen their history and development rewritten several times
already, a process which is still on the way.
Source: Doctor Who universe, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks), (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks) (TV: Genesis of the Daleks), (TV: The Daleks), (WC: Captain Jack's Monster Files) (TV: Dalek) (TV:The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Parting of the Ways), (TV: Revelation of the Daleks, The Parting of the Ways, Asylum of the Daleks), (AUDIO: Davros) (TV: Doomsday, Daleks in Manhattan) (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan), (TV: The Chase),
