B00DPX9ST8 EBOK (271 page)

In
The Evil of the Daleks
, the Doctor meets the Emperor for the first time and the implication is that it’s the first time the Emperor has met the Doctor, too. The only story to contradict that is “Nemesis of the Daleks”, which is set in the twenty-sixth century (there’s no date given for the Skaro sequence of
The Evil of the Daleks
, but no fan chronology has ever put it before this time) and has the Emperor meeting the seventh Doctor and using a mind probe to visualize all six of his previous incarnations.

On balance, the Golden Emperor and Evil Emperor would seem to be the same individual, the last survivor of the first batch of Daleks (as seen in
Genesis of the Daleks
or, if you prefer,
The Dalek Chronicles
), who leads them for most of their recorded history.

The Emperor we see in the
Dalek Empire
audio series resembles the Evil Emperor, but is this the same individual? There’s no way of knowing conclusively, but it could well be. That Emperor dies at the end of that series, in a manner that goes out of its way to leave virtually no possibility he survived.

• “Emperor Davros” - At the end of
Revelation of the Daleks
, Davros is taken to Skaro to face trial by the Supreme Dalek, a role he wants for himself. In the next television story,
Remembrance of the Daleks
, Davros is Emperor and has a casing based on that of the Golden Emperor - although it is cream and gold, with a hexagonal patch instead of an eyestalk, and has no sucker or gun. How he comes to be Emperor has been depicted three times... the
DWM
strip “Emperor of the Daleks” shows the Golden Emperor being killed and Davros becoming Emperor. The book
War of the Daleks
says Davros never really had power, he was tricked by the Daleks into thinking he did. The audio
Terror Firma
has Davros undergoing a full mutation (physical and mental) to become a Dalek Emperor. (A fourth might exist in the DVD extra
The Davros Mission
, which has Davros bringing the Daleks on Skaro to heel, although the events to follow aren’t specified.)
The Stolen Earth
/
Journey’s End
say that Davros was lost early in the Time War, but not that he was Emperor at the time.

• “The Last Emperor” -
The Parting of the Ways
introduces a new Emperor: a vast and apparently immobile structure containing a vast Dalek mutant. This is clearly not Davros, and he’s killed at the end of the story. Is this the Golden Emperor in another new casing? If it is, he’s grown - it’s no exaggeration to say that the mutant we see wouldn’t fit in the Golden Emperor’s casing.

There are at least two Emperors, then - a Dalek mutant and Davros. If we accept at face value the death of the Emperor in
The Evil of the Daleks
, we can say that there are at least three individuals. Dalek Empire would seem to make that four.

The maximum number of Emperors is harder to determine. The first panel we see the Golden Emperor’s new casing in “Genesis of Evil”, a caption informs us this is “the first Dalek Emperor”, implying there would eventually be more than one, although there’s little doubt the Emperor remains the same individual throughout
The Dalek Chronicles
. Russell T Davies’
Doctor Who Annual
essay refers to “puppet Emperors” of the Daleks.
The Dalek Factor
has an Emperor whose description matches the Evil Emperor, described as “an Emperor”, which may mean there was more than one at that time.

We might infer that there were many Emperors.
The Dalek Chronicles
ends with the Emperor planning an attack on Earth. The stageplay
The Curse of the Daleks
is set in what could be the aftermath, and the Black Dalek rules Skaro following a Dalek defeat. So the Golden Emperor may have been killed. The Moroks raid Skaro and take a Dalek as a trophy according to
The Space Museum
. Could they have killed an Emperor as part of that conquest? An Emperor dies in
The Evil of the Daleks
, “Nemesis of the Daleks”, “Emperor of the Daleks”,
The Parting of the Ways
and
Dalek Empire
. That would be seven Emperors that we know of.

Dalek Hierarchy

The ongoing Dalek comic strip in
TV Century 21
(called simply “The Daleks”, later regarded as “The Dalek Chronicles”) set up a straightforward hierarchy for the early Daleks. The Emperor led, guided by the Brain Machine (a perfect computer with the authority to dismiss him if he failed). The sixties Dalek annuals concurred with this, occasionally referring to the Emperor as the Supreme Dalek and the Gold Dalek. The Black Dalek was his “deputy” and “warlord” (and had a slightly more powerful casing and weapons than the normal Daleks). The rarely-seen Red Dalek looked after research and development on Skaro.

In non-television stories from the sixties - “The Dalek Chronicles” strip, the Dalek books, the stageplay
The Curse of the Daleks
- it seems clear that there’s only one Black Dalek. It leads the Daleks in
The Curse of the Daleks
. In both the 60s and 70s in the
TV Comic
/
TV Action
strips, the Black Dalek is in overall command (he’s black with red details in the
TV Action
comic “The Planet of the Daleks”) and he’s referred to as “Dalek Leader”; this could well be the same individual.

Black Daleks do show up frequently as leaders in the TV series, presumably because all the production team had to do to distinguish the head Dalek from the others was repaint an existing prop, and painting it black worked well even when the story was in black and white. We never see more than one at a time. In
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
, Dalek Earth Force is led by a Black Dalek, “the Supreme Controller”, who takes his orders from a Supreme Command which is offworld (presumably on Skaro, although this is never stated). A Black Dalek is “the Dalek Supreme” in
The Chase
(and is based on Skaro). A Black Dalek is “the Supreme” in
Mission to the Unknown
/
The Daleks’ Master Plan
, and again reports to Skaro. There’s a Black Dalek, a.k.a. “the Supreme Dalek”, in
Resurrection of the Daleks
who seems to be the highest authority of the weakened Daleks. The Renegade Faction in
Remembrance of the Daleks
is led by a Black Dalek. The leader of the Cult of Skaro, Sec, had an all-black casing in
Doomsday
and
Daleks in Manhattan
.

All the Daleks present are wiped out in
The Dalek Invasion of Earth
and
The Daleks’ Master Plan
. We don’t specifically see the Black Dalek killed in either story, but neither do we see him escaping. We see the Black Dalek killed in
Resurrection of the Daleks
... then again, Davros is seen dying in identical circumstances and he manages to come back. The Black Dalek also dies in
Remembrance of the Daleks
.

It’s a stretch, then, but just about possible that this is the same Black Dalek in every TV story. If so, it may be the same individual from “The Dalek Chronicles”.

It seems far more likely, however, that “Black Dalek” becomes a rank as the Daleks expand. There are other stories in which Black Daleks are senior commanders - by
The Evil of the Daleks
, a group of Black Daleks serves the Emperor (they only have black domes and modified eyestalks). In the books, Ace kills “a Black Dalek” while she serves in Spacefleet. This represents a significant achievement, but also implies there is more than one Black Dalek at this point.

So what is the fate of the original Black Dalek, the first Dalek Emperor’s deputy? John Peel’s
War of the Daleks
, taking its cue from his
The Official Doctor Who and the Daleks Book
and his novelisation of
The Evil of the Daleks
, establishes that the Dalek Prime is the last surviving Dalek from the time of their creation (all the way back to
Genesis of the Daleks
), so the first Black Dalek must be dead by that point. It is possible, however, that before that, the original Black Dalek became the Supreme Dalek.

“Supreme Dalek” seems to mean a number of things over the course of the Dalek stories... When there’s an Emperor, he is also referred to as Supreme Dalek (in, for example,
The Dalek World
). It may just be that “Supreme Dalek” and “Emperor” are interchangeable terms. The Supreme Dalek is usually treated like the Emperor in all but name - the sole Dalek at the top of the hierarchy.

If we go with the theory that only one individual was Emperor for most of Dalek history (see The Dalek Emperors sidebar), and that this individual was killed in
The Evil of the Daleks
, this creates a vacancy. This chronology places the Davros Era stories after
The Evil of the Daleks,
and in those, the Supreme Dalek rules the Daleks, with Davros deposing him to become a new Emperor. The (unseen) Supreme Dalek rules Dalek Central Control (from the Dalek space fleet) in
Destiny of the Daleks
, and Davros is keen to usurp the role. The Supreme Dalek in
Resurrection of the Daleks
is a Black Dalek. In
Revelation of the Daleks
, the (unseen) Supreme Dalek rules Skaro. In
Remembrance of the Daleks
, a Black Dalek leads the Renegade Faction, the group deposed by Davros.

This could, just about, be the same individual Dalek (although, as noted, it looks like he’s killed at the end of
Resurrection of the Daleks
). The most natural successor to the original Emperor would be his deputy. So this Supreme Dalek might be the original Black Dalek, as introduced in “The Dalek Chronicles”. Perhaps the implication is that once the original Emperor is dead, the Black Dalek leader doesn’t quite dare to give himself the title “Emperor” - although Davros has no such qualms. This Black Dalek looks to be comprehensively killed at the end of
Remembrance of the Daleks
.

There are other Supreme Daleks, however... We see “the Supreme Dalek” in one illustration for
The Dalek Outer Space Book
story “The Living Death” and he’s an odd mix - a standard Dalek body with a globe very like the Emperor’s for a head. The book features (in other stories) a Gold Dalek, the Dalek Emperor and the Black Dalek. This Supreme Dalek might be a very oddly drawn Emperor, or a completely new character.

Elsewhere in
The Dalek Outer Space Book
, the story “Super Sub” refers to the crew of one submarine as including “a Supreme Dalek who is in charge of the fighting” and “a Black Dalek who is in charge of the scientific investigations”.

In the
Dalek Empire
series, there is a Supreme Dalek who acts as the Emperor’s deputy. The third series introduces a new Supreme after the last one is killed. This replacement Supreme is also killed later in the series. Below them are Supreme Controllers - Red Daleks.

In
The Stolen Earth
/
Journey’s End,
the Daleks are ruled by a Supreme Dalek who has a modified red and gold casing. He is killed by Captain Jack.

Other stories state that the Daleks are ruled by a committee, not an individual (and this was apparently the preference of Terry Nation, the Daleks’ real-life creator). In the Daleks’ first story (
The Daleks
), the Dalek city is ruled by “the council”, and all the Daleks we see look alike. While in
Planet of the Daleks
, we meet a Dalek Supreme - a larger Dalek than normal, black with gold bumps, with a redesigned eyestalk and other features - it’s clear that this very senior Dalek is just one member of the Supreme Council (the Daleks on Spiridon also report to “Supreme Command”).

Day of the Daleks
and
Frontier in Space
both have Daleks led by gold Daleks. We never learn their title. “The Dalek Tapes” feature on the
Genesis of the Daleks
DVD says these are members of the Supreme Council.