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Davros (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
In the Unbound Universe, Davros was a Kaled scientist who created the Daleks on Skaro during the Kaled-Thal War. However, after coming to believe that the Daleks could never achieve his vision for them, he betrayed his creations to serve the Quatch Empire as their Chief Technician, oblivious to the Quatchs' role in the Kaled-Thal War.
When he returned to Skaro centuries after leaving, Davros assisted the Quatch in their second attempt to conquer Skaro for the dimensional energy located at the planet's core. However, after the Unbound Doctor revealed to Davros the Quatchs' role in igniting the Kaled-Thal War, thereby making the Quatch responsible for leading Davros to create the Daleks, Davros betrayed the Quatch and exacted revenge on them, forcefully sending them back to their native dimension - an act which cost him his life.
Biography[]
Creating the Daleks[]
The Kaled-Thal War[]
During the Quatch Empire's first attempt to conquer the Unbound Universe's Skaro, Davros worked as a scientist for the Kaleds, until they attempted to shut down Davros's experiments. In response, Davros betrayed his people to serve the Thals instead. While working for the Thals, he was crippled and mutilated by a Quatch attack - although Davros was oblivious for centuries s to who was responsible for the attack on him - forcing him to permanently use an advanced life support chair to stay alive, and to replace his destroyed legs. Davros also made use of an advanced ocular system within his forehead, as the Quatch attack rendered him blind.
Davros was ultimately responsible for ending the Kaled-Thal War that was provoked by the Quatch after they initially failed to conquer Skaro, and did so by creating two species of Dalek. One race, who Davros later referred to as "the Renegades", were designed to be merciless; upon their creation, these Daleks attempted to murder Davros, and eventually abandoned their creator and Skaro to conquer the Unbound Universe. However, the second Dalek race Davros created retained a cold, logiccal understanding of pity and mercy, in an attempt by Davros to create a race of Daleks that were strong and intelligent, but remained loyal to their creator. Davros spent years confined to the Dalek City, working on the Daleks; during this time, he also created the first Black Dalek, who served as Davros's conduit to the City.
Abandoning his "children"[]
However, over these years, Davros came to believe that he could never develop the Daleks to perfectly achieve his original vision for them. Eventually, Davros was contacted by the Quatch, who had learnt of him after encountering some of "the Renegades", and desired to recruit Davros, due to secretly fearing that he would perfect the Daleks and make them even more powerful than the Quatch. Davros, disappointed by his "children", accepted the Quatch's invitation to join their Empire, although he remained unaware of the Quatch's true reasons for recruiting him, or of their role in starting the Kaled-Thal War. Davros discreetly left Skaro in a small spaceship to join the Quatch, without informing the Daleks first, and ultimately spent centuries serving as the Quatch Empire's Chief Technician. During this time, Davros augmented the technology used by the Quatch that stabilised them in the Unbound Universe, although he also secretly incorporated a programme allowing him to personally shut down the stabilisers to banish the Quatch back to their native dimension, in case they betrayed him.
Following Davros's departure from Skaro, the Daleks loyal to Davros also left Skaro to find their creator, who they believed had gone on a "spiritual quest". When they eventually returned to Skaro to protect the Thals from the Quatchs' upcoming second attack on the planet, the Daleks frequently broadcasted "historical footage" - which was actually merely computer-generated imagery - of Davros teaching the Daleks about topics such as their nature or creation, their destiny, Davros's upbringing, and the Kaled-Thal War.
Return to Skaro[]
The second Quatch assault[]
Davros finally returned to Skaro, centuries after he left, with the Quatch, after the latter had captured some of Davros's loyal Daleks and made preparations for a second attack on Skaro. After the Quatch Mothership landed in the hub of the Dalek City, Davros teleported to the Thal incubation laboratory after two Quatch also teleported in and extinguished the fire that Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Nadel had started. Desiring to avert the conflict between the Daleks and the Quatch, as well as restore the Daleks to his original vision for them, Davros ordered the Quatch to take Alistair and Nadel to a holding cell, along with any Daleks the Quatch found; however, he remained undecided as to whether to convert the Thals into Daleks, or to simply exterminate them all and achieve revenge for their ancestors' actions in the Kaled-Thal War.
Having ordered for the Daleks to be disarmed but kept alive to potentially be reprogrammed to serve the Quatch, Davros travelled to the Dalek City's hub and confronted the disarmed Black Dalek. He was alarmed to learn that the Black Dalek mistook him for an imposter, due to the fact that earlier that day, a Dalek had claimed to be Davros and went rogue; Davros was also enraged to learn that, as a result of this rogue Dalek, the other Daleks had disagreed with each other as to whether they should continue to serve the Black Dalek or begin serving the Dalek claiming to be Davros, and had ultimately triggered a civil war. Furious that the Daleks had returned to Skaro to protect the Thals, Davros explained to the Black Dalek why he left Skaro and the Daleks behind, before revealing his intention to propose a deal with the Daleks: those who were still loyal to their creator would be allowed to survive if they served the Quatch Empire, while those who did not accept these conditions would be exterminated. The Black Dalek, unable to argue against Davros, broadcasted across all of Skaro, informing the Daleks of Davros's return, with Davros himself confirming that the Dalek claiming to be Davros was defective and disillusioned. The Black Dalek also explained Davros's terms, and Davros ordered for all Daleks still loyal to their creator to go to the Dalek City for reprocessing into servants of the Quatch Empire.
Following the broadcast, Davros forced the Black Dalek to comply to reprocessing, before reporting to the Quatch that, as he had predicted, only a few hundred Daleks had travelled to the hub of the Dalek City for reprocessing. Unfazed, Davros, having updated the Quatchs' data banks with information gathered by the Quatch exploratory force's initial attack against the Daleks, ordered the Quatch to commence their attack on the Thal City once they were ready, before he began working on reprocessing his remaining loyal Daleks; while doing so, Davros observed the initial defeat of the Quatch in their first attack wave against the Daleks, before requesting the Quatchs' assistance in transporting some of his equipment to his advanced laboratory on the Quatch Mothership.
Later, in his laboratory on the Quatch Mothership, Davros began reprocessing the Black Dalek, disabling the Dalek's motor functions temporarily in the process; when the Black Dalek regained consciousness, it questioned why it was now loyal to the Quatch Empire, with Davros then angrily ordering it to never question such loyalty again. He eventually finished reprocessing the Black Dalek, installing several fail-safes into the Dalek to ensure its loyalty to the Quatch, at the cost of somewhat more limited capacity for intelligent thought. Davros contacted some of the Quatch and explained the Black Dalek's conditioning to them when the Dalek arrived and announced its loyalty to the Quatch Empire.
Learning the truth[]
Davros and the Doctor. (AUDIO: Masters of War)
When the Unbound Doctor, Alistair and several Daleks began storming the Quatch Mothership after landing a Dalek saucer outside it, the Quatch contacted Davros and attempted to warn him about the attack on the Mothership, shortly before the Doctor, Alistair and some Daleks broke into Davros's laboratory and temporarily rendered the Black Dalek unconscious. After convincing the Daleks and Alistair to continue fighting the Quatch, the Doctor confronted Davros personally, and eventually inputted the data that he, Alistair, Toloc and the Daleks acquired after interrogating a Quatch prisoner into Davros's computer, revealing to Davros the Quatchs' role in Skaro's history, as well as the fact that they were responsible for causing Davros's crippled state and igniting the Kaled-Thal War that led to Davros creating the Daleks.
Enraged, Davros decided to betray the Quatch and finally achieve his revenge. He revealed to the Doctor the existence of his secret programme that allowed him to forcefully disable the machinery stabilising the Quatchs' presence in the Unbound Universe, thereby sending the Quatch back to their native dimension. Believing that the Quatch remained unaware of this programme, Davros gave the Doctor a brief window of time to escape the Quatch mothership, intending to stay behind and deactivate the Quatchs' machinery himself, aware that the resultant vast instability would likely tear the Mothership apart. The Doctor thanked Davros, before escaping the Quatch Mothership with Alistair and the remaining Daleks.
Shortly after, the Black Dalek briefly reactivated; Davros apologised to it for abandoning the Daleks and allying with the Quatch, but claimed that he would redeem himself with one last action. Davros then ordered his computer to deactivate the Quatchs' stabilisers, forcefully sending the Quatch back to their native dimension; Davros proudly declared that, although this scenario was not how he envisioned the end of his life, he felt that it struck "the appropriate note!" The instability of dozens of Quatch returning to their native dimension then destroyed the Quatch Mothership, killing both Davros and the Black Dalek.
Legacy[]
Shortly after the Doctor, Alistair and the Daleks that infiltrated the Quatch mothership returned to the Thal City following the mothership's destruction, the Doctor informed the Daleks who had fought alongside Gillen, Nadel and the other Thals that Davros was responsible for ending the Quatchs' invasion of Skaro, and had sacrificed himself in the process to save his loyal Daleks. (AUDIO: Masters of War)
Appearance[]
As a result of an attack by the Quatch during their first attempt at invading the Unbound Universe's Skaro, Davros closely resembled the N-Space Davros (AUDIO: Masters of War) between the latter's mutilation during the Thousand Year War (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) and the aftermath of the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Stolen Earth, Journey's End) He had withered skin, was bald, and his face was similarly mutilated, forcing Davros to see through an advanced ocular system in his forehead to overcome his resultant blindness. Davros also wore a head brace highly similar to that worn by his N-Space counterpart, as well as a similar black bodysuit. He also used a similar life support chair for transport, which the Unbound Doctor believed made Davros look "sort of half Dalek". (AUDIO: Masters of War)
Personality[]
Like his N-Space counterpart, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks et al.) Davros was a scientific genius, as demonstrated through him creating the Daleks and his servitude to the Quatch Empire for centuries as their Chief Technician. He was also extremely xenophobic, and harboured an intense hatred for the Thals as a result of their actions in the Kaled-Thal War; this hatred continued to exist even after Davros returned to Skaro centuries after the end of the Kaled-Thal War, with the Kaled scientist initially feeling unsure as to whether he wanted to convert the Thals into Daleks that would serve the Quatch Empire, or exact revenge on the Thals for their ancestors' actions against him and the Kaleds during the Kaled-Thal War, ultimately deciding to "see how the mood [took him]". However, in this regard, Davros was a hypocrite, as he swiftly betrayed the Kaleds to serve the Thals in the Kaled-Thal War without a second thought. (AUDIO: Masters of War)
Unlike his N-Space counterpart, however, (TV: The Witch's Familiar) Davros despised Skaro, describing his homeworld as a "barren piece of rock" following the Kaled-Thal War, and had no qualms with the Quatch desiring to destroy it following their second attempt at conquering Skaro. Davros welcomed the death of his home, believing it to have brought him only pain and frustration, and upon returning home, thought that nobody remembered him. However, Davros noted, upon returning to the Dalek City's hub for the first time in centuries, that he felt quite nostalgic, having spent years living in the City while developing the Daleks. (AUDIO: Masters of War)
Relationship with the Daleks[]
Also similarly to his N-Space counterpart, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks et al.) Davros, initially, undoubtedly believed that the Daleks were the supreme beings of the Unbound Universe. In particular, Davros held "the Renegades" in high regard, despite their attempts to exterminate him at their birth; even after they abandoned him, Davros admired the Renegades for their absolute ruthlessness, noting that they succeeded because they believed they would succeed, and wanted more than anything to succeed. Davros continued to wonder how the Renegades were faring centuries after they abandoned him at their creation, despite the Renegades having long since forgotten about their creator.
In contrast, however, Davros was, for many centuries, highly disappointed with the Daleks that were loyal to him; he concluded, through years of work on these Daleks from within the Dalek City, that he could never make them strong, loyal and intelligent all at once, and came to regard his loyal Daleks "useless", eventually abandoning them to instead serve the Quatch Empire. When he returned to Skaro centuries later, Davros was appalled by his loyal Daleks having chosen to return to Skaro, despite having secured footholds on many other worlds with far more to offer to the Daleks, and thought that there was no logical reason for the Daleks to return to their homeworld. In particular, Davros was furious to learn that the Daleks had returned to Skaro to protect the Thals, disgusted by the Daleks' notions of pity and mercy that he had been forced to leave within the Daleks to maintain their loyalty to him, and was also furious to learn that the Daleks had begun a civil war immediately before his return, despite the fact that he had designed the Daleks to be singular of purpose. Considering his loyal Daleks to be a weak species that could never be truly uniform, Davros angrily claimed to the fourteenth Black Dalek that the destiny of the Daleks "died" on the day that he left Skaro to work for the Quatch, considering his original intentions for the Daleks to dominate all they encountered to be somewhat ridiculous, and believed that the closest the Daleks could come to achieving his original vision for them would be them becoming servants of the Quatch Empire, which Davros regarded as a "modest proposition".
By extension, Davros also thought little of the fourteenth Black Dalek, claiming that, with its "limited" thinking, the Black Dalek could not explain how it represented the entire Dalek race when they had recently begun a civil war. Because of this, Davros was also able to convince the Black Dalek into accepting servitude of the Quatch Empire, noting that it could not rely on its fellow Daleks for assistance anymore. Later, when the Black Dalek regained consciousness after being partially reprogrammed by Davros, the Kaled scientist ordered it to never question its loyalty to the Quatch again, after it initially did so.
Despite his disappointment, Davros expressed a degree of sentiment for his loyal Daleks, having decided to return to Skaro, even after working for the Quatch for centuries, in an attempt to recruit his loyal Daleks into the Quatch Empire, and admitted to the Quatch themselves that he found it difficult to not view the Daleks as his "children". In addition, Davros was impressed with the resilience displayed by his loyal Daleks when they allied with the Thals to fight the Quatch - a move he did not anticipate, nor condone - and, later, even apologised to the Black Dalek for failing to make the Daleks into what they were supposed to be, but claimed that, through servitude to the Quatch Empire, the Daleks would "taste glory at [his] side". Upon learning of the Quatchs' involvement in the Kaled-Thal War, Davros apologised to the Black Dalek for abandoning the Daleks and his ideals to side with the Quatch, but offered them one final victory through sending the Quatch back to their native dimension. By the time he died, Davros strongly believed that he should never have turned his back on the prospect of him and the Daleks fighting against all other lifeforms, and resolved his feelings of inadequacy towards the Daleks by considering it to be the inevitable fate of those with high ideals to feel as if they had always failed.
"Prophet" of the Daleks[]
After the Daleks loyal to Davros returned to Skaro and reclaimed dominion over the Thals in preparation for another attack from the Quatch, they produced "historical footage", actually computer-generated imagery, of Davros teaching the Daleks about different topics from within his laboratory; the Daleks frequently broadcast various different historical footage across Skaro to "educate" the Thals in Dalek history. At least four different forms of historical footage were produced by the Daleks.
In the first historical footage, Davros claimed to the Daleks that he made them in a time of adversity and conflict, which he described as the Daleks' natural habitat, and how they would thrive. Davros also claimed that the Daleks would have to become accustomed to a different life once they became the dominant species, but until then, the destiny of the Daleks was assured. Davros emphasised that this was not a prophecy, for he was a scientist, not a prophet, and that by creating the Daleks, he had engineered "an inevitability".
In the second historical footage, Davros argued that he did his best to give the Daleks the intelligence that he was "blessed" with, in the form of a combination of their own capabilities and all the technology that the Daleks and Davros had access to. From this, Davros also argued that "knowledge [was] power", as was the ability to interpret it, and that the Daleks should gather and share all information and insights at every opportunity.
In the third historical footage, Davros claimed that it was "only correct" that the weak should serve the strong. He emphasised that the Daleks should understand that this was why they were all created equal; the Black Daleks that led the Dalek race were merely a central point of focus. Davros also emphasised that the Daleks should not grapple for power amongst themselves, as this would distract them from their collective goal. Davros claimed that internal struggles were meaningless when all were equal.
In the fourth historical footage, Davros claimed that, many years before the Daleks returned to Skaro and reclaimed dominion over the planet, he was forced into the Kaled-Thal War by the Thals, despite having no place in it, and was crippled and scarred as a result. The actions of the Thals, who Davros described as "the warriors then", attracted an attack from an alien aggressor (the Quatch, although the Daleks concealed this fact from the footage). A war in space ensued, and the Kaleds won after being conscripted by the alien aggressor to fight for them. However, Davros claimed that the aggressor showed no gratitude, for he was nearly killed by an enemy that he knew nothing about, or had seen. Davros took no satisfaction from the victory, but it shaped him and the Daleks into ultimately becoming the Thals' superiors.
Each piece of historical footage ended with Davros asking the Daleks if they understood him, to which the Daleks responded that they did. Davros would then order them to leave and "spread [his] word".
As a result of the Daleks frequently broadcasting their historical footage across Skaro, prior to Davros's return to Skaro with the Quatch, many Thals came to regard Davros as a myth, with some even speculating that he was propaganda created by either the Thal or Kaled governments during the Kaled-Thal War. Nadel personally speculated that Davros died long before the Daleks returned to Skaro and reclaimed dominion over the Thals, although even she was unsure if Davros existed at all prior to the Kaled scientist's return to Skaro with the Quatch.
When Davros returned to Skaro with the Quatch, he was outraged that the Daleks had presented him as a mythical figure that preached "a corrupted philosophy".
Relationship with the Quatch[]
Davros was unaware of the Quatchs' role in instigating the Kaled-Thal War for almost his entire life. Having been crippled by a Quatch attack during the War, Davros repeatedly swore to his loyal Daleks, in the years he spent living in the Dalek City, that he would someday find whoever had crippled him and exact revenge upon them. However, as a result of not knowing the Quatchs' involvement in Skaro's history, Davros was willing to join the Quatch when they offered him the chance to augment their technology, having wondered what he could achieve without the Daleks. In the centuries that he served the Quatch Empire, Davros worked with the Quatchs' "considerable" facilities and "most brilliant" minds, ultimately considering his laboratory on the Quatch mothership to be more advanced than the one he previously used in the Dalek City, and felt that he had made many achievements with the Quatch. Davros felt constantly inspired by the "purity" of the Quatchs' sense of purpose, and felt that they appreciated him in a way that the Kaleds never did during the Kaled-Thal War; from these, Davros was highly confidant that the Quatch would defeat the Daleks when they returned to Skaro, averting the "wasteful" conflict between the Daleks and the Quatch in the process. Upon successfully reprogramming the fourteenth Black Dalek to serve the Quatch Empire, Davros politely apologised to the Quatch that he had not prepared it in time for the Quatch's battle against the Daleks.
However, Davros angrily refuted the Quatch when they claimed that the information he provided them regarding the Daleks was not sufficient for the Quatchs' first attack wave to defeat the Daleks, claiming that he could not have known that the Daleks would ally with the Thals, although the Quatch did not consider Davros to be at fault. Furthermore, Davros briefly displayed a small degree of playfulness regarding the battle between the Daleks and the Quatch, commenting from his observation of the Daleks' victory over the Quatchs' first assault on the Thal City that "first blood [had] gone to the opposition", despite the fact that some of the Quatch's own troops had been killed in the process.
The Daleks that were based on Skaro during Davros's return with the Quatch considered Davros's alliance with the Quatch to be "a betrayal of Dalek ideals", although one Dalek later argued to the Unbound Doctor and Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart that, in actuality, the Daleks had failed Davros.
After learning from the Unbound Doctor the truth of the Quatchs' instigation of the Kaled-Thal War, Davros was furious with the Quatch for deceiving him. Although he initially did not believe in the Quatchs' role in the Kaled-Thal War, Davros noted that their reasons for starting the War were consistent with their behaviours; Davros even found it humourous that he never once previously considered the Quatch to be the aggressors responsible for starting the Kaled-Thal War, noting that the Quatchs' tactics during the War were highly inferior to those of the Thals. Deciding that he could no longer serve the Quatch Empire after being manipulated for centuries, Davros decided to betray them and finally achieve revenge against the aggressors that crippled him and led him to create the Daleks. In this moment, Davros proved that he was a deceptive strategist, having secretly incorporated a system into the technology stabilising the Quatch in the Unbound Universe that could force the Quatch back to their native dimension; this also proved that Davros lacked trust in even his closest allies. In the final moments before he died, Davros proudly stated that, although his death was not how he had imagined it, he felt that the scenario "[struck] the appropriate note!" (AUDIO: Masters of War)
Relationship with the Unbound Doctor[]
In stark contrast to the Doctor and Davros of N-Space, who shared a strong personal rivalry that lasted throughout most of each other's lives, (TV: Genesis of the Daleks et al.) the Davros of the Unbound Universe did not know the Unbound Doctor at all until the duo encountered each other onboard the Quatch mothership during the Quatchs' second attack on Skaro; the Doctor argued to the Daleks assisting in the infiltration of the Quatch mothership that the lack of a close relationship between himself and Davros made him more suitable for informing Davros of the Quatchs' actions in the Kaled-Thal War, as he would provide less "emotional baggage". Even then, the Doctor and Davros only interacted with each other for a matter of minutes before Davros's self-sacrifice, yet the two ultimately came to respect each other (AUDIO: Masters of War) in a similar vein to their N-Space counterparts. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks et al.)
Having encountered "the Renegades" on previous occasions, the Doctor joked to Davros that he had been "a big fan of [his] work for quite some time", although the former had only just learnt of Davros's existence a few hours prior. Davros was impressed by the Doctor's claims that he had defeated the Daleks on many previous occasions, although acknowledged that he could be lying. However, Davros also believed that the Doctor did not understand his ambitions when the latter claimed that the Daleks loyal to Davros were better than what Davros had originally desired for them to be. Davros also did not initially believe the Doctor's claims that the Quatch were responsible for starting the Kaled-Thal War, until the Doctor presented Davros with information extracted from a Quatch prisoner's data bank to support his claim; upon this revelation, the Doctor reassured Davros that the credit for creating the Daleks still lied with him, despite the Quatch having indirectly caused Davros to create them. However, when the Doctor suggested that Davros could have lived "a normal life" if not for the Quatchs' role in causing the Kaled-Thal War, Davros defiantly declared that he would not have wanted a normal life, believing that the War had shaped him; despite this, Davros vowed to the Doctor that he would still achieve his revenge, calling himself "a man of principle". Ultimately, Davros respected the Doctor enough to allow him an opportunity to escape the Quatch mothership before it was torn apart by Davros sending the Quatch back to their native dimension; the Doctor thanked Davros before leaving, with Davros insisting that both of them had things to thank each other for. (AUDIO: Masters of War)
