Villains Beginning With 'D'
Daleks
Doctor Who villain (1963-)
The Daleks are an extraterrestrial race of mutants from the television series Doctor Who. A Dalek is a grotesque mutated organism integrated with a tank-like mechanical casing. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse (as all of their emotions were removed except hate). Their famous catchphrase is "EX-TER-MI-NATE!", with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic electronic voice.
The Daleks resemble human-sized salt or pepper shakers around five to six feet tall, with a single mechanical eyestalk mounted on a rotating dome, a gunstalk containing an energy weapon (or "death ray"), which can also be fitted with a projectile weapon, and a telescoping robot manipulator arm. In most cases, the manipulator resembles a sink plunger, but Daleks have been shown with arms that end in a tray, a mechanical claw, or other specialised equipment like flamethrowers and blowtorches. Dalek casings are made of a bonded polycarbide material dubbed "dalekanium".
The lower half of a Dalek's shell is covered with "Dalek bumps" which are spheres embedded in the casing. These are described as "sense globes" or sensors.
The creature inside the casing is soft and repulsive in appearance and very vicious. In most cases they are octopoid, multi-tentacled creatures with one eye and an exposed brain, however some mutants had a second, smaller eye. They have the ability to engulf a human with a large, sack-like membrane.
The voice of a Dalek is electronic; the Dalek creature is unable to make more than a squeaking sound when out of its casing. Daleks also have a radio communicator built into their shells, and emit an alarm to summon other nearby Daleks if the casing is opened from outside.
For many years, Daleks were unable to tackle stairs. A small radar dish was added to the rear of the casing to explain why the nwere Daleks, unlike the ones in their first serial, were not dependent on static electricity drawn from the floors of the Dalek city for their motive power.
Daleks have little to no individual personality, ostensibly no emotions outside hatred, and a strict command structure, conditioned to obey superior orders. Dalek speech is characterised by repeated phrases, and by orders given to themselves and to others. Dalek vocal inflection suggests perpetual anger, sometimes verging on hysteria.
The fundamental feature of Dalek culture and psychology is an unquestioned belief in the superiority of the Dalek race and their default directive is to destroy all non-Dalek lifeforms. Other species are either to be exterminated immediately, or enslaved and then exterminated later once they are no longer necessary. When the "Human" Dalek Sec began to doubt the Dalek race's supremacy, the other Daleks in the Cult of Skaro no longer thought of him as a Dalek and turned against him.
Dalek in-universe history has seen many changes, which have caused continuity problems. When the Daleks first appeared in The Daleks, they were presented as the descendants of the Dals, mutated after a brief nuclear war between the Dal and Thal races. However, in 1975, Terry Nation revised the Daleks' origins in Genesis of the Daleks, where the Dals were now called Kaleds, and the Dalek design was attributed to one man, the crippled Kaled chief scientist and evil genius, Davros.
Instead of a short nuclear exchange, the Kaled-Thal war was portrayed as a thousand-year-long war of attrition, fought with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons causing widespread mutations among the Kaled race. Davros experimented on living Kaled cells to find the ultimate mutated form of the Kaled species and placed the subjects in tank-like "travel machines" whose design was based on his own life-support chair.
Genesis of the Daleks marked a new era for the depiction of the species, the Daleks, becoming minions of their creator Davros.
Later in the series there is an attempt to create a Human/Dalek hybrid (fully human in appearance but with Dalek minds). This attempt failed after the Doctor interfered, and the hybrids were destroyed by Caan after they killed Jast and Thay; Caan escaped via another temporal shift. Caan is believed to be the last remaining Dalek.
SUMMARY
ARCH RIVAL : |
All non-Dalek lifeforms, especialy Dr. Who. |
STRENGTHS : |
The Daleks' armour has a forcefield that evaporates most bullets and absorbs most types of energy weapons. Dalek's are susceptible to extreme cold. |
WEAKNESSES : |
The Daleks' casings are vulnerable to "bastic"-headed bullets, and when breached tend to explode spectacularly. Firepower can be concentrated on the eyestalk to blind the Daleks. |
WEAPONS : |
Daleks have used their plunger-like manipulator arms to interface with technology, crush a man's skull, measure the intelligence of a subject, and extract the brainwaves from a man's head (also fatal). The Daleks aslo have extensive futureistic firepower. |
QUOTE : |
"EXTERMINATE!!" |
In addition, read more information on:
RELATED VILLAINS
