Davros used a distinctive "chair" as a life support system and means of mobility.

Characteristics[]

Resembling the base unit of a Dalek's casing, the chair was coloured black with silver sensor globes. A metal brace, the cranial bracket, was attached to Davros's head, and wires were plugged into his skull, a cerebral monitoring system. Davros also had a throat microphone implant to enhance his damaged voice. He had only his right hand, which he used to operate controls on his chariot. These could perform functions for controlling doors, the Mark III travel machines, or his own life support system. As Davros had no longer any legs nor his left hand, both his spine and arm were robotically modified and plugged into the chair to allow further control of the base unit. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)

Davros's' life-support system maintained the function of his vital organs and revivified necrotising tissue, resulting in subtle changes in his appearance over time. The chair's control panel featured navigational controls, environmental sensors, programmable switches, communication systems, a life-support failsafe and a power output calibration dial. His base unit consisted of removable panels containing power generation nodes and adrenal synthesis. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Davros's chair had anti-gravity gravitors that enabled him to ascend to hover position, possibly an upgrade. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)

By the time that Davros had risen to become the Emperor of the Imperial Dalek faction during the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, his life-support chariot no longer featured a button with which he could deactivate his life support, (AUDIO: The Curse of Davros) as it had when he had first met the Doctor on Skaro. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)

At some point prior to, during or immediately after his rescue from the Last Great Time War, Davros dispensed with his skull wires and throat microphone. However, he retained his head brace. By that point, the chair itself had evidently been reconstructed; while bearing the familiar colours, its shape had been refined to match that of the Mark VII Daleks including Type E Supremes. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

Davros's chair also possessed a force field strong enough to withstand the firepower of several concurrent gunstick blasts. However, the Twelfth Doctor speculated that this force field did not prevent attacks from firing within the confines of the chair, as he contemplated using his own gunstick to destroy a Supreme Dalek. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)

History[]

After being crippled by a bomb, Davros was given a chair. According to one account Davros based the Mark I Travel Machine on his chair. (AUDIO: Guilt)

According to another account, Davros had a crude wheelchair as he worked on his early Dalek prototypes, and an epiphany led him to exploit the power of fear: repurposing much of the resources that he had been delegated, Davros constructed his chair with a casing design along with his first functional prototype, as a way to command respect through fear. (PROSE: Davros Genesis)

At the end of the Thousand Year War, the first generation of Daleks exterminated their Kaled forebears. When they opened fire on Davros, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) the chair's backup life-support systems activated, placing the Dalek creator in a state of suspended animation. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks)

By one account, the Dalek ship which took Davros from Necros on a course to Skaro crashed on the planet Lethe. As a result, Davros was forced to have his chair reconstructed using one of the Daleks he had created on Necros, thus this new model was white with gold sense globes. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts)

By another account, on Skaro, during the Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War, Davros's chair was cut in half by the chainsword wielded by Abslom Daak. In light of this, the Imperial Daleks transferred what remained of Davros's body into an Emperor Dalek casing. (COMIC: Emperor of the Daleks!, TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Davros's chair was later reconstructed to match the shape of the contemporary "Type VIII Daleks", which fought in the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Stolen Earth) An identical chair was used by the Dalek Time Strategist's recreation of Davros. (AUDIO: Restoration of the Daleks)

In the Dalek City, the Twelfth Doctor temporarily removed Davros from his chair, which he took for himself. Greeting the Daleks, the Doctor quipped that the sight of him in Davros's chair was a nightmare which all the Daleks had shared before facetiously offering to play dodgems with them. The chair was ultimately returned to Davros after Colony Sarff captured the Doctor. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)

Alternate universes[]

In one parallel universe, Davros acquired a similar life support chair to that of the N-Space Davros, (AUDIO: Palindrome) following the Last Great Time War, (TV: The Stolen Earth, Journey's End) when the Dalek Time Strategist of N-Space began using this universe's Davros as a focal point to merge echoes of every Davros from across the multiverse into a single form, in his mission to restore the Daleks of N-Space from their near-extinction (AUDIO: Palindrome) at the hands of the Valeyard at an earlier stage of the Last Great Time War. (AUDIO: The War Valeyard)

In the Unbound Universe, Davros acquired a similar life support chair after an attack by the Quatch crippled him, during the Quatch Empire's first attempt at conquering the Unbound Universe's Skaro. It was destroyed when, during the Quatch Empire's second attempt at invading Skaro, Davros used a secret program he developed to deactivate the technology stabilising the Quatch in the Unbound Universe, forcefully sending them back to their native dimension; the resultant vast instability of dozens of Quatch returning to their native dimension destroyed the Quatch mothership, which Davros was onboard at the time, thereby destroying Davros's life support chair and killing Davros himself. (AUDIO: Masters of War)

Another parallel version of Davros had a similar life support chair. (AUDIO: The Key To Key To Time)

Behind the scenes[]

Props[]

In the classic series, Davros's chair was constructed for Genesis of the Daleks.^[1] It was modified for its reprisals in Destiny of the Daleks^[2] and Resurrection of the Daleks.^[3] It appeared for the last time in Revelation of the Daleks.^[4]

For the new series, a brand new prop was constructed for Davros in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End.^[5] This prop was reprised with minor modifications for The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar.^[6]

Anatomy[]

Terry Nation's Dalek Annual 1978 provided an anatomy of Davros, naming the components in his life-support system:

1. Vibro-sensor
2. Omnipute
3. Fatigue Eliminator
4. Audio input
5. Transmission controls
6. Energiser
7. Disc sensors
8. Pacemaker controls
9. Circuit monitor
10. Veracity perceptor
11. Power source indicators
12. Fail safe defence
13. Dalek voice control
14. Telepathic receptor
15. Super optic

Merchandise[]

• Released by Dapol, an exclusive Davros action figure had a variant of his black chair with a gold control panel, sense globes and fender, replacing the televised silver. Another variant, released by Corgi Toys, had a white chair with gold sense globes resembling the Imperial Dalek base unit and, indeed, the Emperor Davros casing. This latter form would appear in The Juggernauts.

Footnotes[]