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Designated Dalek Supreme Type 4 by the Dalek Survival Guide, (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide) a distinct model of Dalek casing was identified by the Time Lords (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) as being used by the Dalek Supreme who oversaw the Spiridon Incident. (TV: Planet of the Daleks) The Dalek Survival Guide defined this Supreme as a Black Dalek with a gold dome and accessories. (PROSE: Dalek Survival Guide)
Characteristics[]
This Dalek Supreme model had a gold and black casing, with a gold dome, slats and sense globes on a black body. It was further distinguished by the unusual feature of a lamp in his eyestalk eye lens which held the same communications function as a regular Dalek's luminosity dischargers on the sides of his dome, lighting up when he spoke, as well as a ring of black insulator discs on the eyepiece as opposed to the blue of subordinate grey Daleks. The luminosity dischargers were purple and cone-shaped as opposed to the white bulbs of contemporary Daleks. At the bottom of the base unit was an enlarged Dalek fender similar to the earlier Dalek Earthforce, resulting in the Supreme standing noticeably taller than his subordinates. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
History[]
Spiridon[]
During the Spiridon campaign, the Dalek Supreme arrived to take command after Supreme Command grew impatient with the pace at which the Dalek expedition to deal with the intruders and awaken the grey Dalek army. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks) By one account, the Dalek Supreme was none other than the original Black Dalek Leader, the Dalek Prime's warlord. (PROSE: The History of the Daleks)
He and his escort left their craft unguarded, unknowingly travelling past Jo Grant and Latep. When he arrived at the Dalek base, the Dalek Supreme ordered normal operations to resume, and found the progress of the invisibility experiments "satisfactory." In a fit of temper, he then exterminated the Dalek Section Leader for its incompetence.
However, the Dalek Supreme proved to be little more successful. The Third Doctor and the Thals infiltrated the ice caves holding the hibernating army and caused an ice volcano eruption, burying the army and the remaining members of the Dalek expedition underground. The ice volcano began to flood through the rest of the base, prompting the Dalek Supreme abandon it and set all instruments to self-destruct. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
The Supreme and his aides were the only three Daleks left active on the planet. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks) They remained so once the Thals stole his ship so they could return to Skaro. After unsuccessfully giving chase to the Doctor and Jo Grant, the Dalek Supreme ordered one of his escort to have Dalek Command send a rescue craft, and have a team of experts free the army from the ice. He then declared: "We have been delayed, not defeated. The Daleks are never defeated..." (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
According to human historians, however, the Dalek Supreme was never rescued and was lost on Spiridon, which the native Spiridons subsequently reclaimed. This was a great blow to the Supreme Council, (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe) with the Dalek Supreme having been second in command to the Dalek Emperor. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks)
Later history[]
A gold-and-black Dalek Supreme was in command of the Kembel faction during the Dalek-Movellan War, leading efforts to regain lost knowledge of time travel. It led the response to a Movellan rocket landing on Kembel after pursuing a crashed ship containing the Tenth Doctor and Davros. Whilst captured by the Movellans, Davros feigned proposing an alliance between the warring powers against Earth instead and used the pathweb to call on all Supremes to follow the truce and join him. The Kembel Supreme had the transmission suppressed and worked with the Doctor against the Movellans, only to discover Davros' true plan when he used the pretence of the alliance to infect the First Movellan with a virus. During an ensuing Earth Protection Corps attack on Kembel, the Supreme was destroyed by Anya Kingdom when it tried to prevent the Doctor stealing the faction's time machine. (AUDIO: The Triumph of Davros)
A gold-and-black Dalek Supreme was part of the Kar-Charrat mission to obtain information from the planet's library. It was the immediate subordinate of the Dalek Emperor. It had a Dalek Destroyer in orbit. The mission failed and the Emperor ordered the Dalek Supreme to place the Chief Scientist to take command of its mothership and self-destruct, which it did. (AUDIO: The Genocide Machine)
A gold-and-black Dalek Supreme led the Dalek invasion of Omnia. (AUDIO: Emissary of the Daleks)
Legacy[]
This casing was the second of five Supreme Dalek models, preceding the New Dalek Paradigm of the post-Time War universe, which were identified by the Time Lords in their scrutiny of the Daleks' timeline and recorded in the Dalek Combat Training Manual, published during the Last Great Time War. The Time Lords, who believed these Supreme Daleks to all be different individuals, associated this model with the Spiridon Incident; by this chronology, this Supreme model was eventually followed by the Black Dalek's casing used in the aftermath of the Dalek-Movellan War. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Behind the scenes[]
Prop[]
The Dalek Supreme prop was actually made up of parts from two props used for the Dr. Who film Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.; the top half from the Gold Dalek and the bottom half from a Silver Dalek.
In 1977, the top half of this prop was repainted black and red, the end of the manipulator arm went missing so it was replaced by a pink one. The base unit for this prop, however, was from the photoshoot of Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday.
Invalid sources[]
- DWM 77's History of the Daleks indicates that this casing model was the norm for the Dalek Supreme Council which was established on Skaro as the Dalek Supreme led the Dalek push into space prior to the 2164 Earth invasion.
- The Universal Databank identifies this Dalek Supreme as a Black Dalek warlord, following an earlier Black Dalek associated with the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth and the Mechonoid Incident, and suggested that it went on to be the Black Dalek involved in the Duplicate Incident before another Black Dalek took its place by the time of the Hand of Omega Incident.
- According to The Dalek Handbook, a non-narrative source, this Dalek Supreme was the head of the Dalek Supreme Council established following the Great Civil War on Skaro, dated to the 41st century. The Supreme was supported by Gold Commanders, replacing the earlier Black Dalek tier. Grey Daleks replaced the silver Daleks as drones, with designated Dalek Leaders reporting to the Commanders and the Supreme. The presence of the Supreme and its forces in the 26th century was indicative of continued Dalek efforts to overwrite history in their favour. It is acknowledged that the Daleks were once again led by a Black Dalek by the 46th century Movellan War, with prior Dalek history now being uncertain as a result of the Fourth Doctor's interference.
- The Dalek Handbook's list of real world Dalek paradigms places the Supreme in a 1972-1985 paradigm with the Gold Dalek and the early Grey Daleks.
- The Dalek Tapes, a feature in the Genesis of the Daleks DVD, presented both the Gold Dalek and the gold-and-black Dalek Supreme as members of the Supreme Council. This notion was later confirmed in a narrative source, Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe.
Merchandise[]
- A figurine of this Supreme Dalek was released with issue 55 of Doctor Who: Figurine Collection magazine.