The Eternal Dalek was a yellow, specialised Dalek of the New Dalek Paradigm. The first one was created by the Progenitor in 1941. Unlike its comrades, it had black, not grey, globes on its battle armour.
History
The original Eternal, along with the other original four Paradigm Daleks (the white Supreme, blue Strategist, orange Scientist, and red Drone), were created when the three survivors of an encounter with the Doctor tricked the Eleventh Doctor into allowing them to activate the Progenitor device. It escaped through a time corridor with the others, and went on to help rebuild the Daleks. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
The Eleventh Doctor faces the new paradigm of Daleks. (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
The Daleks joined the Alliance formed to imprison the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica and save the universe from the cracks in time created from the TARDIS exploding. When they arrived at Stonehenge, 102 A.D. with the rest of the Alliance, the Eternal, the Supreme, and a Drone witnessed the Doctor being locked in the Pandorica. (TV: The Pandorica Opens) The Eternal Dalek was reduced to dust and stone along with the Supreme Dalek and the Drone Dalek following the total event collapse. This timeline would later be undone by the Doctor, restoring the Eternal and the other Daleks in their proper place in time, never knowing of the cracks. (TV: The Big Bang)
Behind the scenes
- Doctor Who Confidential revealed that the name of this Dalek was provided by Steven Moffat in a "naming session" with Mark Gatiss. Neither came up with a meaning for the name, but Moffat opined in Confidential that he thought that the functionality of the Eternal would one day become critical to a story. The Dalek Handbook quotes Gatiss as saying "its exact function is a total mystery, but it's probably something to do with the Progenitor device and the continuation of the race."
- The Brilliant Book 2011 calls attention to the fact that the Eternal Dalek's colours are usually found on the most dangerous animals in the wild.
- The Eternal Dalek is notably the only one of the five Progenitor Daleks to have black orbs on its design rather than grey ones, making it appear somewhat similar in its colour-scheme to the Gold Daleks from TV: Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space.
- The package of the toy figure of Eternal refers to the Dalek as The Eternal.
- The Eternal Dalek is the only Dalek of the New Dalek Paradigm that is yet to appear in any material outside of the main TV series, although a yellow Dalek (with the dark grey bumps of the others rather than black) is seen on the loading screens for City of the Daleks (video game), and in the game itself. It is the only one of the five Dalek variants absent in The Eternity Clock (video game).
- New Paradigm Eternal Dalek is one of Dalek enemies used in Doctor Who Legacy mobile game, which is not considered a valid DWU source.
