The 22nd century Dalek invasion, sometimes known as the First Dalek War (PROSE: Prelude Deceit) was a conflict between humanity and the Daleks, consisting of Dalek attacks on human colonies followed by a decade long occupation of Earth in the 2150s and 60s. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, et al.) Thirty years later, in the 2190s, they reprised and updated their plan. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller, To the Death)
History
Origins
The early Daleks knew of the existence of other planets even though a lack of space travel confined them to Skaro. When Kest, a Krattorian slave trader, landed on the planet, the Daleks were able to acquire from him the plans to create their own spacecrafts. (COMIC: Power Play) Going with a flying saucer design, the Daleks invaded Alvega, (COMIC: The Amaryll Challenge), Solturis, (COMIC: The Penta Ray Factor), and Phryne, (COMIC: The Archives of Phryne) with plans for other planets such as Oric. (COMIC: Eve of War)
The existence of Earth, however, managed to elude the Daleks for a time, the planet long being their blind spot. (COMIC: Legacy of Yesteryear, The Road to Conflict) Nevertheless, they did know of the existence of humans and tensions began to rise. In one instance, a Dalek created with human-like quailities seized control from the Dalek Emperor and began to teach the Daleks that beauty was a strength. To solve the problem, the Emperor likened the strength of beauty to flowers, which withered and died. Beauty therefore did not last which meant it could not be a source of strength and was for human beings. The Emperor had the rebel Dalek destroyed and issued a new Dalek order, stating that humans were to be destroyed. (COMIC: Shadow of Humanity) The Daleks also faced what they called the human spirit in the humanoid species from the planet Jevo. Although they were destroyed, the Emperor wondered how the Daleks would fare against such a resilient spirit in "the all-out war on all human beings... everywhere." (COMIC: The Emissaries of Jevo)
By the late 21st century, humans had experienced the Break-out and possessed a number of colonies beyond Earth. (PROSE: Prelude Deceit) In the 22nd century, an Earth-made ship, the Starmaker, was pounded by a meteor storm and forced to land on Skaro. The Daleks destroyed the ship. The only survivors were Captain Fleet and two children, siblings Tom and Jennie, who escaped in a Dalek saucer to warn Earth of the danger posed by the Daleks. Among the wreckage of the Starmaker, the Daleks found the remains of a piece of paper which revealed to them the existence and location of Earth. The Emperor declared that the Daleks would search for Earth and conquer it. (COMIC: The Road to Conflict) When the Daleks first ventured into the Sol System, their fleet was initially repelled by Earth forces led by Commander Trent with the help of the Elders. The Emperor, the Black Dalek and the Red Dalek escaped and resolved to return. (COMIC: Return of the Elders)
Colony attacks
The invasion began in 2157 with mysterious attacks on Sifranos in the Arcturus sector (a moon of Sifranos was destroyed, one billion settlers being massacred), Azure, Qartopholos, (PROSE: Lucifer Rising) and Mars. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) These were followed by the plague attacks directly on Earth while the Dalek Fleet massed near Epsilon Eridani. With the colonies destroyed, Earth could expect no assistance from them when the Daleks invaded Earth in 2158. (PROSE: Lucifer Rising) The Daleks operated a blockade of the Solar system to prevent Earth's colonies from attempting to liberate their homeworld. The colonies experienced many problems from the occupation, as they were dependent, to a degree, on communication with and support from Earth. (PROSE: GodEngine, Lucifer Rising) Later in 2157, the Daleks attempted to invade Mars. However, the inhabitants developed a genetically engineered virus that attacked their spacecrafts wiring, meaning that this invasion attempt had failed. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, PROSE: GodEngine)
Earth's invasion
The first incident of the invasion came in 2157, when Earth was bombarded with meteorites. At first this was thought the result of a cosmic storm, but shortly after things had returned to normal, people started dying of a new plague sent by the Daleks via the meteorites. The majority of the population of Africa, Asia and South America died before humans could find a cure. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
Some humans were immune to the plague, because the Seventh Doctor had given to Piper O'Rourke a counter-virus that conferred immunity to make sure that there would be humans left to help his first incarnation defeat the invasion. (PROSE: Lucifer Rising)
Iris Wildthyme visited Putney Common during the invasion. A Dalek saucer landed on the Common, Iris and her friends were among the first to throw homemade bombs at it. (PROSE: From Wildthyme with Love)
At some point, New York City was completely destroyed. London, on the other hand, though one of the locations where the Daleks landed, was merely occupied and remained relatively intact (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) although the city suffered some of the worst attacks since the Blitz and the 1944 V1 and V2 attacks by the Nazis during World War II, with the Daleks reducing many areas to gravel. (PROSE: Illegal Alien) Some areas of the city became infested with wolves, with a "danger zone" being identified wherein it was unsafe to live. (COMIC: When the Wolves Came)
The Daleks held the Earth for about ten years. During the occupation period, small groups of human resistance fighters continued to exist. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown landed in 2163. The Daleks were unfamiliar with the Doctor, thinking he was a human. The Doctor was interrogated by a Black Dalek. He foiled the Daleks' plan to unleash a Varga plant virus. The Doctor and Peri also defeated the Roboman Elite and erased any record of his involvement afterwards but the invasion continued. (AUDIO: Masters of Earth)
The Daleks commenced a mining operation in Bedfordshire in order to reach the Earth's magnetic core, replace it with a propulsion system, and turn the whole planet into a massive spacecraft. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
Liberation
In 2167, (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase) the Daleks announced that they would destroy London. A freedom fighter named Dortmun, who had been developing explosives, initiated an attack on the Daleks' saucer at the London helipad. Although the attack liberated several prisoners of the Daleks, the bombs did not work effectively against the Daleks, leading to several casualties. Ian Chesterton, who had accompanied the freedom fighters, remained on the saucer as it travelled to Bedfordshire.
Following the saucer attack, the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan and some of the resistance fighters who had been based in London (including David Campbell) travelled to the site of the Daleks' mining operation at Bedfordshire. Barbara Wright and Jenny also (independently) made their way to Bedfordshire, but were captured. They all, however, assisted in the final destruction of the centre of Dalek operations on Earth. In the aftermath, the Daleks withdrew from the planet. Susan decided to remain in this time period with David. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
Aftermath of the first invasion
The invasion killed about two-thirds of Earth's population. The Moonbase was cut off from the planet and the moon colonists were trapped on the satellite. About thirty years later the liberation, humans had grown xenophobic about aliens, rejecting Dalek technology in public burnings and regressing the level of the planet's technology by about two centuries. An Earth Council was in charge, handling the reconstruction. (AUDIO: An Earthly Child)
Reprise
In the 2190s, the Dalek Time Controller organised a second invasion of the planet. The Daleks were helped by the Time Lord known as the Monk, who brought on Earth a plague that killed and affected a number of people. The master plan was to pilot the Earth with a time warp engine, which would have become a plague planet teeming with the Amethyst viruses, through time and space, infecting entire planets. The invasion was stopped by the Eighth Doctor, thanks to the sacrifice of Lucie Miller and Alex Campbell. (AUDIO: Lucie Miller/To the Death)
Legacy
Vicki Pallister learned about the invasion from the history books in her native time period of the 25th century. (TV: The Space Museum, The Chase)
By Steven Taylor's native time period, New York City had yet to be rebuilt in its entirety. (PROSE: Salvation)
Forced by Davros to reveal to him the Daleks' future defeats, the Fourth Doctor recounted an invasion of Earth, possibly an inaccurate version of these events. He stated that the invasion occurred in the year 2000 and that the magnetic properties of Earth's core itself helped to defeat the Daleks, as well as the determination of human resistance fighters. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
In 2199 a Dalek research facility, DA-17, remained intact. The Eighth Doctor and his granddaughter Susan were trapped along with the Master and new Daleks were produced by the hatchery. They attempted to conquer England but were destroyed when DA-17 exploded. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)
In 1903, after receiving a wealth of information from the future, Grigori Rasputin foresaw the First Doctor, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright and Susan Foreman battling "strange beings" who had invaded Earth in the future. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)
In the year 4000, when the Dalek Empire sought to strike from Kembel and destroy the Solar System, the First Doctor urged Bret Vyon to contact Earth and tell them to look into the invasion of 2157, hopeful that history would show them the way to defeat the Daleks again. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
Alternate timelines
In a divergent timeline, a Dalek in 2158 Kansas, severely damaged by resistance forces, was stung by a parasitic wasp and implanted with eggs. The Daleks adjusted with a minor genetic change to counteract the eggs. Thousands of years later the genetic change resulted in the Mutant Phase, transforming the Daleks into nearly indestructible interstellar insects. The timeline was destroyed when the Fifth Doctor stopped the Dalek Emperor from implementing an ineffective pesticide. (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase)
In a timeline created when the Master used a conceptual bomb to prevent the Doctor leaving Gallifrey, the Dalek Invasion was never repelled. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
Behind the scenes
- Masters of Earth dates the invasion between the years 2154 and 2164 (with the initial meteor bombardment occuring circa 2152) based on the calendar the Doctor and Ian find in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This is at odds with numerous other stories which date the invasion in the ten years between 2157 and 2167.
- According to non-narrative material in DWBIT 1, six months after the initial incident, in 2158, the Daleks landed saucers on Earth. The Black Dalek led from the Command Saucer. One of these saucers attacked London. The British government put all their best defences into battle against the Daleks, sending the Air Force's helicopters and fighters to attack the Dalek ship. Tanks fought across the streets, and the Navy fought with gunboats. The humans were persistent, destroying many Daleks, but in a matter of days the Daleks subjugated the humans and converted the most intelligent into Robomen.
