| “ | I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the GOD OF ALL DALEKS! | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor |
The Dalek Emperor is the leader of the Dalek race and a major antagonist in Doctor Who, serving as the main antagonist of the first series of the show's revival.
History
One of the first Daleks, who exterminated Davros and proclaimed the Daleks' future victory over the universe, assumed the role of Dalek Prime (later Dalek Emperor) and would continue to act as the Emperor throughout Dalek history.
One of the best known incarnations of the Emperor remained in an enormous, immobile, conical shell plugged into a corner of the control room in the Dalek City on Skaro. It was connected to the wall by tubes, and spoke in an echoing voice.
The Emperor tried to conquer the Earth by blackmailing the Second Doctor. He ordered the Daleks to capture the Doctor so that they could force him to conduct research into the Human Factor. This would unlock the secrets of the Dalek Factor which was to be spread throughout all areas of human history, giving all humans the mentality of a Dalek and preventing the Great War from ever happening. He was seemingly destroyed by a civil war between humanized Daleks and un-altered Daleks. However, a light was seen blinking on its casing at the end, indicating some kind of activity. The Emperor survived this ordeal and his forces began rebuilding Skaro.
The Emperor led the Daleks during the Last Great Time War between the Daleks and the Time lords. He formed the Cult of Skaro, a group above and beyond the Emperor himself, created to "think as the enemy thinks" and "imagine" new ways to find victory. The Emperor took control of the Cruciform which scared the Master so much he fled the war.
The Dalek Emperor was aboard its saucer flagship when all the incarnations of the Doctor up to the Twelfth moved Gallifrey to a pocket universe on the last day of the Time War, the assembled Dalek fleet ended up firing on itself through the space Gallifrey once occupied (an event which was presumed to have been the activation of the Moment) as such, the Emperor was believed to have died with the rest of its species, but this was mistaken.
The Emperor's lone ship barely survived the Time War, falling through time in a heavily damaged state. The nine-meter tall Emperor's new casing had the appearance of its mutant revealed floating in a transparent tank of liquid, topped by a giant-sized Dalek dome, complete with eyestalk, flanked by panels of armor dotted by Dalek "bumps" with a ring-shaped "throne" on the bottom. It went into seclusion at the edge of the Solar system "damaged but rebuilding" during the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Circa 199,909, it secretly installed the Jagrafess aboard Satellite Five to play the "long game" of slowly manipulating humans and re-establishing the Dalek species and fleet. A hundred years after the Jagrafess was killed, in the year 200,100, the Emperor was still using Satellite Five (now renamed the "Game Station") to manipulate humanity and conceal his fleet. The Emperor secretly used transmat technology aboard the space station to kidnap humans for nearly two hundred years. The kidnapped humans were harvested for their genetic material, and "one cell in a billion" was used to rebuild a new race of Daleks numbering roughly half a million aboard a fleet of 200 ships. Because the Emperor had recreated the Dalek race, it saw itself as a god and immortal and so was worshipped by the new Daleks. These and other religious concepts such as blasphemy were new to Dalek psychology.
The Emperor's pawn aboard Satellite Five, the Controller, hated her masters and transmatted the Ninth Doctor aboard the Game Station to help defeat them. When he encountered the Emperor and his new religiously fanatical Daleks, the Doctor surmised that they were driven insane both because they isolated themselves for so long, but also because they were in denial of the fact that they were part human. The Daleks killed almost everyone aboard Satellite Five, and they attacked Earth, bombing millions of people, to transform it into the Emperor's "temple". Shortly afterwards, the Doctor turned down his chance to use an uncalibrated delta wave to destroy all nearby life, human and Dalek alike. The Emperor thought he was victorious, but he and his entire fleet were atomized by Rose Tyler after she had absorbed the energies of the time vortex and became the Bad Wolf temporal paradox.
Personality
The Dalek Emperor began to see himself as an immortal god as a result of his great success and soon had the other Daleks actively worship it as such. His isolation in space had utterly warped his mind and while being comforted by the Ninth Doctor he revealed his obvious arrogance and insanity, to the point where he even claimed he cannot die when being attacked by Rose Tyler, fused with the power of the time vortex energy. The Dalek Emperor despised anything that wasn't Dalek and because of this he shared his species belief of racial purity however contradictory to his belief, the new race of Daleks that the Emperor created were made from the flesh of abducted humans from Satellite 5 and when Rose Tyler said that his new empire was part human, The Emperor declared her words as blasphemy.
Appearance
The first Dalek Emperor
The Dalek Emperor floats in a transparent cylindrical tank below a giant dome, complete with lights and eyestalk. Two mechanical arms are mounted to the base of this tank. The central structure is connected by articulated joints to three flanking panels, to which large hemispheres are attached.
Quotes
| “ | They survived through me! | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor |
| “ | You destroyed us Doctor! The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived! Fall through time; crippled, but alive! | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor to the Ninth Doctor |
| “ | If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor? | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor taunting the Ninth Doctor |
| “ | They were not part of my design. This is the truth of God. | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor, revealing that he was not the cause of the 'Bad Wolf' message |
| “ | I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor, THE GREAT EXTERMINATOR! | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor taunting the Doctor |
| “ | Then prove yourself, Doctor! What are you, coward or killer? | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor, goading the Doctor to activiate the delta wave |
| “ | I will not die! I CANNOT DIE! | „ |
| ~ The Dalek Emperor's last words |
Trivia
- Davros himself once acted as a "Dalek Emperor" in "Remembrance of the Daleks".
- A similar model to the Dalek Emperor appears as the Dalek Prime Minister in Season 7.
- The emperor has special Dalek guards whose head domes are black.
