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• The Daleks

  A Dalek (pronunciation ("DAH-LECK") is a member of a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Daleks are organisms from the planet Skaro, integrated within a tank-like mechanical casing. The resulting creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse (as all of their emotions were removed except hate).[1] They are also, collectively, the greatest extraterrestrial enemies of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Their most famous catchphrase is "EX-TER-MI-NATE!", with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic electronic voice (play sample (help•info)).
  The Daleks were created by writer Terry Nation and designed by BBC designer Raymond Cusick. They were introduced in December 1963 in the second Doctor Who serial.[2] They became an immediate hit with viewers, featuring in many subsequent serials and two 1960s motion pictures. They have become synonymous with Doctor Who, and their behaviour and catchphrases are part of British popular culture. "Hiding behind the sofa whenever the Daleks appear" has been cited as an essential element of British cultural identity,[3] and in a 2008 survey, 9 out of 10 British children were able to identify a Dalek correctly.[4]
  The word "Dalek" has entered the Oxford English Dictionary[5] and other major dictionaries; the Collins Dictionary defines it rather broadly as "any of a set of fictional robot-like creations that are aggressive, mobile, and produce rasping staccato speech".[6] Although no etymology has been attributed to their name, "Dalek" sounds like the Norwegian word "dårlig", which means "bad" or "evil". It is also a trademark, having first been registered by the BBC in 1964 to protect its lucrative range of Dalek merchandise.
  The term is sometimes used metaphorically to describe people, usually figures of authority, who act like robots unable to break from their programming. John Birt, the Director-General of the BBC from 1992 to 2000, was publicly called a "croak-voiced Dalek" by playwright Dennis Potter in the MacTaggart Lecture at the 1993 Edinburgh Television Festival.[7] The Daleks appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture in 1999, photographed by Lord Snowdon.[8]
  Physical characteristics
  Externally, Daleks resemble human-sized salt and pepper shakers around five to six feet (152 to 183 cm) tall, with a single mechanical eyestalk mounted on a rotating dome, an exterminator arm containing an energy weapon (or "death ray"), which looks like an elongated egg beater or the framework of a paint roller, and in some episodes fired a gas and can also be fitted with a projectile weapon; and a telescoping robot manipulator arm (plunger).
  The death ray possesses incredible firepower for its size. It can kill almost any mortal lifeform, level houses, and destroy entire spacecraft. Under certain circumstances, Daleks are shown equipped with additional weaponry. Daleks protecting the Emperor in "The Parting of the Ways" have an additional energy cannon in place of their manipulator arm. During the Dalek civil war, Davros created the Special Weapons Dalek, a heavily armored Dalek sporting a massive cannon capable of destroying two Daleks and vaporising a human completely. The Special Weapons Dalek is only deployed in rare situations, as (according to the novelization of Remembrance of the Daleks) it is a one-off mutation resulting from the radiation backfired by its weapon, which other Daleks regard as 'the Abomination'.
  In most cases, the manipulator resembles a sink plunger, but Daleks have been shown with arms that end in a tray, a mechanical claw, or other specialised equipment like flamethrowers and cutting torches. The arms have a strong magnetic field, a powerful suction vacuum and Daleks have used their plunger-like manipulator arms (the plunger was used because of cost issues for the first series) to interface with techno

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• Every thing you need to know...

  Since their first appearance in 1963, there have been several variant models of the Daleks, a fictional alien race in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.
  Daleks are not robots. The outward manifestation is a travel machine in which a hideous and malevolent mutant, the Dalek creature, resides. Although the general appearance of the Daleks has remained the same, the colours and some details of the model have evolved over time. The following entries make mention of both television and non-television portrayals of the Daleks.
  
  Over the years fans of the Dr. Who programme have adopted naming conventions to identify the various components of the Dalek travel machine. These are listed below as an aid to tracking the various detail changes which have been made to the basic design to create variants. From the base up, the major components are:
  
  Fender - The projecting base of the Dalek.
  Skirt - The section with angled faces joining the Fender to the Shoulders.
  Hemispheres - Also known as ‘hemis’ or ‘Dalek bumps’, there are usually fifty six of these fixed in four rows to the Skirt.
  Shoulders - The section between the top of the Skirt and the Neck Bin.
  Collars - Two horizontal bands (only one on a New Series Dalek) fitted around the Shoulders.
  Slats - Oblong vertical panels fitted to the upper Collar.
  Gun Boxes - Projecting boxes housing the ball joints for the Arm and Gun Stick.
  Arm - A telescopic, arm usually having two or three sections.
  Plunger - Fixed to the end of the Arm, this is a Dalek’s primary and most famous manipulating appendage.
  Gun Stick - Usually a variable discharge energy weapon.
  Neck Bin - The section between the Shoulders and the Dome.
  Neck Rings - Three horizontal rings fitted around the Neck Bin.
  Neck Struts - Thin, vertical struts on the outside of the Neck Bin, between the top of the Shoulders and the Dome.
  Dome - The rotatable top component of the travel machine.
  Dome Lights - Lights (usually two) fixed on either side of the Dome.
  Eye Stalk - A tube projecting from the Dome, which can pivot up and down.
  Eye Disk - A series disks of varying diameter through which the Eye Stalk is threaded.
  Eyeball - A roughly spherical component fitted to the end of the Eye Stalk, in which the Dalek’s visual detection equipment is fitted.
  Dome Cowl - Making its first appearance with the New Series Dalek, this is a structure projecting from the front of the Dome and surrounds the Eye Stalk pivot.
  Externally Daleks resemble salt or pepper shakers, approximately 5.5 feet tall, with a single mechanical eyestalk in a rotating dome, a gun stick containing a directed energy weapon (or "death ray"), and a telescoping arm. Usually the arm is fitted with a device for manipulation that, to the amusement of generations of viewers, resembles a sink plunger. Various episodes have shown Daleks with other appendages, including a tray, a mechanical claw, flamethrowers, blowtorches and a syringe. The gun is capable of producing a variable output and can paralyse, stun, kill virtually any life form, and even destroy a spaceship.
  The outer shell is made from a bonded polycarbide material called "dalekanium". This casing offers complete protection against normal bullets and some energy weapons, although they are vulnerable to "bastic"-headed bullets (the precise nature of which has never been revealed). In the revived series from 2005 onward, Daleks are equipped with an invisible force shield which can resist projectiles and energy weapons with ease, the eye being the single weak point. Only overwhelming firepower or their own weapons can breach a Dalek’s defences. If this occurs, however, they tend to explode in spectacular fashion.
  The lower shell is covered with many hemispherical protrusions, or "Dalek bumps". In the BBC-Licensed Dalek Book (1964), and again in The Doctor Who Technical Manual by Mark Harris (first published 1983), these items are described as being part of a

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