The Cult of Skaro was a secret order created by the Dalek Emperor to imagine new ways of survival. Their job was to imagine, think as the enemy thinks. The Cult of Skaro were bred to ensure the survival of the Dalek race after the Time War. The four members of the Cult of Skaro were Dalek Jast, Caan, Thay and their leader Sec. The Cult of Skaro hid in the space between dimensions inside a void ship. The Daleks had captured a Genesis Ark, a Time Lord prison ship containing millions of more Daleks (Army of Ghosts/Doomsday). The Cult of Skaro returned to modern day Earth via the void ship and they began a war with humanity and the Cybermen. However, the Tenth Doctor and Rose were able to use technology owned by the Torchwood Institute in order to suck all of the Daleks and Cybermen back into the Void because they were all contaminated with background radiation as a result of travelling between dimensions. The Cult of Skaro escaped the slaughter via emergency temporal shift, which took them back in time to New York in 1930. The Daleks began experimenting on humans to become either pig slaves or Dalek-human hybrids (Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks). Dalek Sec becomes part human and begins to see the flaws in the Dalek race. So the other three Daleks turn on him and exterminate him. The Dalek-human hybrids destroy Dalek Jast and Dalek Thay. The Tenth Doctor offers salvation to Dalek Caan, but unfortunately it escapes via emergency temporal shift again. The Doctor later encounters Dalek Caan again in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End, after Caan entered the Time War and rescued Davros, the creator of the Daleks.
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
★★★★★
TX: 01/07/2006 – 08/07/2006
Written by Russell T Davies Directed by Graeme Harper
The Tenth Doctor and Rose return to present day London to visit Rose’s mum Jackie. However, the world is overrun with ghosts that appear on regularly shifts thanks to the Torchwood Institute. The Doctor conducts experiments on a ghost to find its origin. Then he, Rose and Jackie travel to Torchwood’s headquarters in Canary Wharf to find out more. The head of Torchwood, Yvonne Hartman informs the Doctor that the secret Torchwood Institute was established in 1879 by Queen Victoria in order to combat extraterrestrial threats, including the Doctor (Tooth and Claw)! The Doctor discourages Torchwood from conducting further ghost shifts, as this is further fracturing the fabric between dimensions caused by the arrival a gigantic sphere kept in the base. The sphere is a void ship which contains the last surviving Daleks, the Cult of Skaro – a secret order created by the Dalek Emperor. The ghosts turn out to be Cybermen that have followed the void ship and crossed into our universe from a parallel world that the Doctor and Rose previously visited.
The Cybermen have infiltrated Torchwood through the use of their drones, but Rose’s boyfriend Mickey Smith has also crossed over from the parallel world. Mickey and Rose become prisoners to the Daleks. The Daleks need the handprint of a time traveller to open the Genesis Ark, a dimensionally transcendental Time Lord prison ship containing millions of Daleks. The Daleks and the Cybermen wage war against each other and Torchwood becomes their first battleground. The Cybermen and the Preachers (who have also arrived from the parallel universe via parallel Torchwood technology) use weapons that attack polycarbite, the skin of a Dalek. During the Battle of Canary Wharf, the Doctor unites with Rose’s parallel father Pete Tyler and Jake Simmonds whilst Jackie narrowly escapes being upgraded into a Cyberman (Yvonne Hartman is less fortunate). The Doctor realises that he, Rose, Mickey, Pete, Jake and all of the Daleks and Cybermen are soaked in background radiation as a result of travelling through the void between the dimensions. The Doctor plans to reverse the ghost shift which will suck all of the Cybermen and the Daleks back into the Void. The Doctor tries to convince Rose to join her mother and the rest of her family in the parallel world where she will be safe. But, Rose refuses because she doesn’t want to leave the Doctor’s side. The Doctor and Rose open the breach which sucks all of the Daleks and Cybermen back into the void. Rose is almost accidentally sucked into the void too, but Pete returns and rescues her at the last moment. Rose is trapped in the parallel world with her family, but she manages to say a heartbreaking goodbye to a hologram of the Doctor on Bad Wolf Bay. In a world where you can be anything, be love! In order to do well with women, you have to love women as well as be a nice guy! 🥰 I have visited the beach where they filmed Bad Wolf Bay! 😢 Speaking of bays, I used to live in Cardiff Bay and I once fingered a girlfriend on a beach. It’s time for another gentle reminder that David Tennant is the best Doctor! David Tennant is the best Doctor, it’s a fact not an opinion! You either think that Tennant is the best Doctor or you’re wrong! There will never be a better Doctor than David Tennant! David Tennant gives one of his best performances in this incredible story, proving once and for all that he will always be the best Doctor, a fact not an opinion! How could anyone think that David Tennant is not the best Doctor?! David and Billie were beautiful together and they were my favourite TARDIS team! 😭 Rose leaving Doctor Who broke my heart as a child!
Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks
★★☆☆☆
TX: 21/04/2007 – 28/04/2007
Written by Helen Raynor Directed by James Strong
The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones arrive in New York in 1930 at the height of the Great Depression. They visit Hooverville, a small settlement of homeless people who lost everything in the Wall Street Crash. Mr Diagoras is employing people who work in Hooverville to work on the building of the Empire State Building. He also sends a small group of them plus the Doctor and Martha down into the sewers of the city. The group are attacked by a bunch of human-pig slaves and Martha’s new friend Frank (Andrew Garfield) is captured. The pig slaves are a creation of the Daleks, who are experimenting on humans beneath the city in order to ensure the survival of their own race. The last Daleks have decided to forego their commitment to racism and instead evolve to become part human, the ultimate survivors. Charles Darwin was a genius and his theory of evolution was groundbreaking. I worked at Down House, Kent where Darwin grew up. Mr Diagoras, who is employed by the Daleks, becomes the first of a new race of human-Dalek hybrids when Dalek Sec (leader of the Cult of Skaro) splices itself onto him. The Daleks intend to harness a gamma strike to the mast of the Empire State Building, to which Dalekanium has been fixed. This will provide the power needed to convert hundreds of captured humans into human-Dalek hybrids. A Rel is a Dalek time unit of measurement for a second. Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks is problematic because the Daleks would never do this plan because the Daleks fundamentally believe that they are superior to all other lifeforms and they would therefore never compromise their impurity by becoming half human or indeed half anything else! The rest of the Cult of Skaro turn on Dalek Sec and ultimately exterminate him once they realise that he has become corrupted by his human side and they are disgusted by his racial impurity. The Doctor realises that the human-Dalek hybrids have a bit of Time Lord DNA inside them as he got in the way of the lightning strike. This enables them to revolt against Dalek Jast and Dalek Caan and destroy them. Dalek Caan wipes out the human-Dalek hybrids, writing them off as a failed experiment. The Doctor pleas with Caan to let him help it, but Caan uses an emergency temporal shift to escape. The Doctor and Martha bid their farewells to Tallulah (a showgirl) and her boyfriend Lazlo, a human who was half-converted into a pig slave by the Daleks. The Doctor tells Martha that he is certain that he will encounter Dalek Caan again.
Chris Olsen's TARDIS 