The Daleks are a malevolent alien race from Doctor Who. They are descendants of humanoid organisms evolved on the planet Skaro named Kaled. Due to unknown circumstances, the Kaleds went to war with another humanoid race called the Thals, which also evolved on the planet Skaro. This marked the beginning of what is now called The Thousand Year War. By the end of the conflict the majority of soldiers were armed with weapons similar to those on early 20th century Earth such as bolt action rifles, submachine guns or even bows. At this point only two cities on Skaro remained intact, these domed cities overlooked a polluted wasteland brimming with sand and radiation as well as booby traps such as hand-mines and conventional landmines.
Near the end of the war, Davros was studying the effects of radiation on Skaro's flora and fauna. He concluded that the Kaleds would have to mutate into a new form of life, the Daleks, to survive Skaro's decimated biosphere. In order to achieve this eventual outcome, he gave the means to destroy the Kaled city to the Thals to justify the creation of the first Dalek army, which he sent to destroy the Thals. Though some Kaleds objected, Davros ordered his Daleks to exterminate them. The Daleks subsequently rebelled against their creator and proceeded to exterminate his remaining followers and nearly the scientist himself, ironically while he screamed for them to show emotions he had conditioned them against.
The scientist Davros was saved by a time traveling Dalek known as Caan. Davros built a bomb, known as the reality bomb, to destroy the multiverse in the warship Crucible. The legendary Time Lord known as The Doctor prevented his plan. After the ostensible disappearance of Davros, a group of surviving Daleks created a new empire known as the New Dalek Paradigm, which consisted of genetically pure Daleks. They conquered the universe again but they never reached the power they had before the Great Time War in which they fought with and defeated the Time Lords.