Inspirations - The Mutants

The Mutants was the second story to be commissioned from writing duo Bob Baker and Dave Martin - the Bristol Boys. Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks had been impressed with their imaginative ideas for what became The Claws of Axos, even if Dicks knew that they required close scrutiny to ensure what they came up with something which could be realised on screen. After enjoying his work on The Daemons, and generally getting on well with Jon Pertwee (being obliged to miss his sister's wedding clearly forgiven and forgotten), director Christopher Barry was happy to come back again.
The origins for this story can be traced back to 1966, when Letts submitted a story idea to the programme about an alien race which went through a process of metamorphosis, akin to butterflies or moths. They would only be "monstrous" in the early or mid-stage of the process, turning out to be beautiful and friendly at the end. The idea did not get very far, but Letts was extremely pleased when Baker and Martin, quite independently, proposed something similar for their story.
Selecting The Mutants as a title has since caused headaches for those who like to have sleepless nights and pub arguments over what the early Hartnell stories were called. Letts and Dicks would not necessarily have known that the BBC paperwork had given the title to the first Dalek story. That is still called "The Mutants" by many fans, but even the BBC themselves have renamed it The Daleks for the VHS and DVD releases, to differentiate it from this story.
Their initial drafts had a substantial sub-plot about clones, but this was dropped as the scripts developed.

After coming up with a neat idea for getting the exiled Doctor back into outer space in Colony in Space, it had been decided that two of Season 9's stories would feature alien jaunts courtesy of missions for the Time Lords. The rescheduling of The Sea Devils to be broadcast out of production order allowed these two tales to be separated. Once again UNIT would be absent.
A mysterious football sized message container materialises one day at UNIT HQ, and the TARDIS suddenly becomes operational. The Doctor is familiar with these vessels, and knows that they only open for their intended recipient. Once again, the Time Lords do not make things easy for their unwilling agent - giving him no clue where he is going or to whom he is to give the message. This is partly to make the story more interesting for the viewers but, as we mentioned when looking at Colony, it can be justified within the context of the plot as well. The Doctor tends to work best when presented with a mystery, and with a few obstacles thrown in his way.
The TARDIS arrives on Skybase One, which is orbiting the misty planet of Solos in the 30th Century. The Doctor tells Jo that this is the period of the collapse of Earth's empire - the one they saw in its earlier expansive state on their visit to Uxarieus. Along with next season's Frontier in Space, and the two Galactic Federation / Peladon stories, this has lent the Pertwee era a sort of story arc, with a consistent timeline for Earth's future history.

The politics of Solos bring us to the story's principal inspirations - which most guide books claim to be colonialism and empire. That should be post-colonialism, and the end of empire.
The Doctor specifically mentions the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the six volume work by Edward Gibbon published between 1776 and 1789. The book charts the downfall of Rome due to the rise of Christianity and the decline of the pagan religions, the increasing importance of the Byzantine Empire, and invasions of the Italian peninsula by foreign barbarian tribes.
The dismantling of the British Empire is generally considered to have started on August 15th 1947, when the "Jewel in the Crown" - India - was granted independence. The following year saw the birth of the state of Israel. Over the next couple of decades, more countries were granted their independence, many of which were in Africa. One country in particular held out against these moves - Rhodesia. Its government under Prime Minister Ian Smith declared independence from the UK in 1965, but whilst other states had been given over to their own people to govern, his was a white minority government, determined to maintain racial segregation and oppression. Rhodesia became a pariah state, with sanctions imposed upon it. It had one powerful ally - South Africa - which was also determined to maintain a white minority in power. The idea for basing a story on these topics arose when Dave Martin met a friend in a Bristol pub who intended to move to Rhodesia to take up farming.

The Marshal of Solos is a Smith figure. An Administrator has arrived from Earth to inform him that the planet is to be handed back to its native population. Earth can no longer afford to govern and exploit it. The Marshal decides that he has invested too much of his life here to simply let it go. Like many of the British ex-colonial government officials, he has been promised an admin role back home, whereas here he gets to rule. He has been working on a genocidal scheme, even before the Administrator breaks the bad news, to alter the planet's atmosphere to make it breathable for humans, to the detriment of the Solonians. He then intends to declare UDI - a Unilateral Declaration of Independence - from the Earth, just as Smith did from the UK in 1965. The experiments of the incompetent Professor Jaeger seem to be triggering a disease amongst the Solonians, causing them to mutate into insectoid creatures. It is clear that the Marshal would hold the same racist opinions of the Solonians even if they were not apparently succumbing to some sort of disease. Jaeger was named after an actor friend of the writers - Frederick Jaeger. Surprisingly, he was one of the few actors not to be considered by Chris Barry for the role. Jaeger would eventually appear in one of their stories - as K9 creator Professor Marius.
You only have to take one look at Paul Whitsun-Jones as the Marshal to see that Reichsmarschall Herman Goering was an inspiration, both in look and performance. Whitsun-Jones had been an old actor friend of Barry Letts, and he had played one of the Three Musketeers, alongside Roger Delgado, for the BBC back in 1954.

Earlier drafts of the script made more of the issue of racial segregation. These elements were pulled back, so that we only really have the separate transmat booths for Overlords and Solonians remaining. It is interesting to read that a forthcoming episode of Doctor Who is to feature (Spoiler ahead...) a storyline revolving around this issue - an episode featuring Rosa Parks, who in 1955 refused to give up her seat in the "Colored" section of a bus to a white passenger. (Just hope they don't do anything so crass as to make out that it was a white woman - the new Doctor - who was responsible for this iconic act).
The Marshal has the Administrator assassinated using a patsy (shades of the Lee Harvey Oswald / JFK conspiracy). Blame is put on a rebellious youngster named Ky - who it transpires is the Time Lord message box's intended recipient. Just to add to the byzantine methods of the Time Lords, when the box is eventually opened even he doesn't have a clue what the contents are about. It is Professor Sondergaard who helps the Doctor work out what the stone tablets are describing - so why not address the container to him? The writers had Norwegian explorer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl in mind when they devised the professor.

The Doctor and Sondergaard work out that the mutation is a natural process - tied to the planet's 500 year seasons. Jaeger had previously mentioned that Solos was coming out of its Spring and moving into its Summer. Presumably the super-beings who eventually emerge either die very quickly, like mayflies, or clear off to another plane of existence, otherwise there would be someone around every 1500 years or so to explain this to everyone. Radiation, and a special jade-like stone aid the process.
Luckily for Ky, he gets locked in a radiation-filled chamber with the stone and so gets to metamorphose into the first of this summer's super-beings (described as Super-Ky in the scripts). The Doctor quite gleefully blows up Prof. Jaeger, and Super-Ky disintegrates the Marshal. I can see Hartnell or Troughton setting up the death of the scientist, but future Doctors would have balked at this (apart from Six perhaps - and maybe Twelve).

This is the first story to feature costumes by future Oscar winner James Acheson. (Just imagine there's a little TM next to "Oscar"). He was actually a late replacement when the costume designer allocated (Barbara Lane) fell ill. He chose the colours for the costumes very carefully, as he knew that Chris Barry intended to use a lot of CSO in this story - hence black for the Overlords and cream for the Earth soldiers who accompany the Inquisitor later in the story, whilst Sondergaard and the Solonians all get earthy tones.
The location shooting took place in Kent, during a period of industrial action. We've already mentioned how the previous two stories were affected by this as viewers missed episodes and summaries had to be provided explaining the story so far. The power cuts affected filming, in that the crew did not get their alarm calls one morning, and on another occasion the lights went out as they were filming in the middle of Chislehurst Caves - where you can still see some of the alien symbols which were painted onto the walls. The BBC offered to clean them off, but the caves' operators regarded them as a new part of the network's history and retained them.
The AFM on the story was supposed to be future Doctor Who director Fiona Cumming, but she had to withdraw near the start of filming due to illness. Taking to her bed at the location hotel, she realised that she had forgotten to put the film unit's petty cash float in the hotel safe. She kept it under her pillow, intending to deposit it in the morning - only to discover that during the night one of the employees had made off with the safe's contents.

Before we go, one final (possible) inspiration. Chris Barry claims it was not intended, but the opening shot of the ragged, unkempt Solonian immediately puts you in mind of Michael Palin's ragged man who introduces each episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus... He would take an age to stumble towards the camera then utter "It's...." before the opening credits came up.
Watch this story with the commentary track and the assembled group all go "It's..." as the story opens.
Next time: the third explanation for the destruction of Atlantis (the second of which came from the same writers only one year before). The Master goes all New Age and gets into crystals, whilst the Doctor goes all Blue Peter and shows us what we can do with an empty wine bottle, an ashtray, some corks, forks and tea leaves...

Story 196 - Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead

In which the Doctor takes Donna to The Library, prompted by a message he receives on his psychic paper. It is the 51st Century, and this is a planet-sized repository for every book ever written - all reprinted on paper. They are surprised to find the complex deserted, however. The Doctor checks a scanner which identifies himself and Donna as the only life-forms on the planet. When he changes the search parameters to include all life, the count goes off the scale. Spooked by the lights starting to go out on their own, the Doctor and Donna lock themselves into one of the Library's rooms. They find a spherical surveillance camera there. Elsewhere, a concerned father invites a psychiatrist, Dr Moon, to visit his daughter. For her, the Library is an imaginary world belonging to her alone. She is upset that there are people in it. The Doctor and Donna see her words appear on the camera's screen. The Doctor and Donna had earlier found an information node, which features a real face - donated from a previous patron of the library. It had told them that over a thousand of the people in the complex had been saved on the day that the Library was sealed off, yet there were no survivors. A short time later, the Doctor and Donna are confronted by a party of space-suit wearing humans - an archaeological party led by Professor River Song. She seems to know the Doctor very well, though he cannot recall ever meeting her. She has been employed by Strackman Lux, a descendant of the man who created the Library, to discover what caused the planet to become sealed off a century before. Lux is here on the expedition, along with his secretary Miss Evangelista, plus three crew members - Anita and two men named Dave, who differentiate themselves as Proper Dave and Other Dave.

Miss Evangelista is befriended by Donna, who has noticed that her colleagues make fun of her. The Doctor gets a computer screen to work, and they are surprised to find themselves in communication with the young girl. Miss Evangelista wanders off into another room. The others hear her scream and rush to her aid - only to find her body reduced to a skeleton. Her consciousness lives on for a few moments, due to an electronic implant in her spacesuit. The Doctor realises that the Library is infested with Vashta Nerada - so-called piranhas of the air. These microscopic creatures have a voracious appetite. They mass together in the darkness - becoming living shadows. The Doctor cautions everyone to keep away from the shadows, as any of them could really be a Vashta Nerada swarm. The Doctor sends Donna away by teleport to the safety of the TARDIS, but something goes wrong, and the process fails. Proper Dave announces that he has an extra shadow. The Doctor orders him to put on his helmet, but this does not stop him from being consumed. Only his skeletal remains are contained in the spacesuit. He begins to lumber after them, and so they flee through the complex. The Doctor approaches one of the information nodes for assistance - and is horrified to see that it has the face of Donna Noble. It tells him that she has been saved...

Proper Dave's walking corpse continues to pursue the group, so they take refuge in another room. Here the Doctor learns that it was River Song who sent him the message on the psychic paper. She has a blue diary decorated with squares - just like a police box - and she possesses a sonic screwdriver - which she claims he gave to her. She refuses to let the Doctor look into her diary - warning of "spoilers". He realises that she knows him from his own future. This is confirmed when she tells him she knows his real name, in order to get him to trust her. There is only one circumstance under which he would ever tell someone his name. Lux accuses them of acting like a old married couple...
Donna meanwhile has found herself in hospital, where she is tended by Dr Moon. She is introduced to a fellow patient named Lee, and before she knows it she is married to him, and is the mother of two children - a boy and a girl. Her life is observed by the little girl on her TV. One night Donna receives a note from a mysterious woman dressed in black, her head covered in a veil. She is to meet her at the playground the next day. The woman tells her that this reality is false, and points out the other children in the playground. They are all identical to Donna's children. Angry, Donna pulls away her veil to reveal Miss Evanglista - her face horribly distorted. She had been saved as well, but something went wrong. She is now ugly, but her IQ has been boosted.

Upset by these revelations, the young girl becomes angry. She causes her father to vanish and breaks the remote control to her TV. In the Library, the Doctor and River discover that the complex is going to destroy itself. Other Dave has also now fallen prey to the Vashta Nerada. Demanding parlay, the Doctor discovers that the creatures came to this planet as spores in the paper of the books - their forest habitat having been pulped to make them. The Doctor's group make their way to the core of the planet to stop the power overload, where Lux admits the truth about the young girl. The Library's computer is called CAL - and this stands for Charlotte Abigail Lux. She was his grandfather's daughter, who died at a young age. Before she perished, however, her consciousness was downloaded into CAL, so that she could live forever surrounded by every book ever written. She would be protected by a virus checker established on the nearby moon - a doctor moon. The Doctor realises what the information nodes had meant by everyone being saved - they were downloaded into the data core. Anita also succumbs to the Vashta Nerada, but the Doctor asks the creatures to look him up in the books, and see what sort of a person he is. They decide to withdraw for 24 hours, to allow the Doctor to rescue the people from the data core. After this, they want the planet for themselves. To stop the computer from overloading, the Doctor intends to link himself to it, but River Song overpowers him. He wakes to find that she intends to do it - even though it will kill her.
Later, Donna and the thousand or so other people are all freed and teleported off the planet. She just misses a chance to meet with the real Lee. As they are about to leave, the Doctor puzzles over why he gave River his sonic screwdriver. He suddenly realises that River's consciousness has been saved into it, using the implant in her spacesuit. He takes it to the core and downloads her into it. In the grounds of Dr Moon's hospital, River is reunited with Anita, Miss Evangelista and the two Daves, where she will help look after Charlotte and live forever...

Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead was written by Steven Moffat, and was first broadcast on 31st May and 7th June, 2008. It is significant for introducing the character of River Song, who would feature prominently once Moffat took over the running of the show.
Moffat had originally intended this story to be part of the third series, and to introduce the Weeping Angels. He had then been offered the Dalek two-parter for that season, which he had to decline due to work commitments on his own series Jekyll. By way of penance for messing Russell T Davies around, he volunteered to write the Doctor-lite story instead, and used the Angels in that.
By way of a joke, he called the first episode "A River Song Ending", just for the acronym - giving the character the name just to fit this. The second episode had a draft title of "River's Run".
An early idea was that the Doctor would already know one of the archaeological party - to explain why the group would so readily trust and follow someone they had found on a sealed-off planet. To make things a little more interesting, Moffat swapped this around so that it was one of the party that knew him. Although Alex Kingston did not know it at the time, Moffat had already decided that River would be coming back. His taking over the running of the show was announced just before the first episode aired.

Once again, Moffat chose to employ childhood fears as the basis for the threat - in this instance a fear of shadows and darkness. It was noted at the time of broadcast that the skull in a space-suit Vashta Nerada looked similar to one of the foes encountered by Scooby Doo and his gang - in 1969's episode The Spooky Space Kook.
There are a number of references to other stories scattered throughout both episodes, and due to the nature of River Song, some of these  relate to stories still to be written. She mentions a picnic at Asgard (never actually seen on screen but mentioned during Matt Smith's tenure), as well as the Crash of the Byzantium - which would feature in her next appearance. Her two catchphrases are heard for the first time - "Hello Sweetie!" and "Spoilers!".
Donna's departure at the end of this series is hinted at as River is upset to learn who she is, not wanting to say what her future will be - implying that she knows of the mind-wipe to come.
The dialogue hints that River will one day become the Doctor's wife - which will happen in Series 6.
She is armed with a "squareness gun" - just like the one owned by Captain Jack Harkness in The Doctor Dances, and Moffat claimed later that he intended it to be the same weapon, picked up later by River during one of her TARDIS travels. As with his first story for the series, Moffat has everyone live at the end of this - in a sense.
At the time, some fans hoped that River would turn out to be a new version of Bernice Summerfield, from the book and audio ranges, owing to them both being archaeologists from the future. Alternatively, River was thought to be a Time Lord  - an incarnation of Romana.

Joining Alex Kingston in the cast we have Colin Salmon, as Dr Moon. He had recently featured as a recurring character in the Pierce Brosnan era of the James Bond franchise. It is rumoured that he turned down the role of the Doctor when David Tennant stood down. As Strackman Lux we have the second member of The League of Gentlemen to join the show - Steve Pemberton. (Mark Gatiss had already appeared in the show as Professor Lazarus, as well as having written a couple of stories).
Proper Dave is Harry Peacock, brother of Daniel Peacock who had played Nord the Road vandal in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Other Dave is OT Fagbenle, who had featured in the BBC sitcom Grownups. Miss Evangelista is played by Talulah Riley, and Anita is Jessika Williams. Riley was Mrs Elon Musk for a number of years (they divorced in 2016), and she is currently playing a recurring role in the successful TV adaptation of Westworld. Eve Newton played Charlotte.

Overall, an excellent pair of episodes. The monsters and setting are spooky, and the initial set-up is intriguing, as we try to work out what the action with the young girl has to do with events in the Library. It's another great story for Catherine Tate - especially the second half - as Donna is put through the emotional wringer. And we also get the introduction of River Song. Even if you hate what Moffat did with the character later, she is great here. Non-fans can be happy because this is the one where she dies.
Things you might like to know:

• The actor Davies really wanted for River Song was Kate Winslet. One of her very first screen appearances had been in his Dark Seasons.
• Silence in the Library was the first episode since 2005 not to win its timeslot against ITV. They were running the final of Britain's Got Talent that week. The series had been on hold for a week - making way for the Eurovision Song Contest, as happened with the mid point to Series Three.
• The production team got a real library to film in - the Old Swansea Library - but it did not have any books in it. Hundreds of empty plastic folders had to be made to fill the bookshelves.
• The DW Confidential installment revealed that there were a number of in-jokes hidden amongst the other books - including previous story editor Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Origins of the Universe (Destiny of the Daleks), Everest In Easy Stages (Creature from the Pit) The Journal of Impossible Things (Human Nature / Family of Blood), and a book about the French Revolution (An Unearthly Child).
• Donna's children are called Josh and Ella - named after one of Moffat's sons and his friend.
• As well as having a Robbie the Robot model in her home, the girl has drawings on the wall - one of which features a blonde haired woman. Next to it is a drawing of a wolf. These were hints towards Rose's imminent return, which was being seeded through the series.

E is for... Erato

An ambassador from the long-lived Tythonian race, who was sent to the planet Chloris to set up a trade agreement. Tythonians thrived on chlorophyll, of which the densely-jungled Chloris had an abundance. In return they offered metals, which the planet lacked. However, Erato had the misfortune to encounter the Lady Adrasta, who was determined to keep her position of power through her monopoly of the scarce metal stocks. She tricked the ambassador into entering the mines, where she sealed the creature in. Erato could only communicate using a special shield-like device which allowed it to speak through someone else's larynx. Adrasta retained this and kept it in her palace. Attempts to communicate with others led to their being accidentally crushed to death by its great bulk. Adrasta would execute her enemies by casting them into the mine workings. Unbeknownst to Adrasta and her court, Erato had sent off a distress signal when first captured, and its people had responded by diverting a neutron star to destroy Chloris. After the Doctor had freed the creature, Erato was prepared to flee the planet in its reconstituted egg-like spaceship without alerting the people of Chloris. The Doctor forced it to tell them of what it had done, and then it and the Doctor set about neutralising the star. The Doctor used the TARDIS tractor beam to slow the body, whilst Erato used its ship to spin a shell of aluminium around it.
Erato then set up a trade agreement with the planet's new rulers.

Appearances: The Creature From The Pit (1979).

E is for... Enlightenment

One of two Ministers who accompanied the Urbankan ruler Monarch on his mission to conquer the Earth, the other being Persuasion. Urbankans were green-skinned, toad-like creatures. At first they acted in friendly terms towards the Doctor and his companions, claiming that they wanted to live in peace with the humans. They asked Tegan to draw a sketch of contemporary fashions, as they wanted to know what the planet was like in the 1980's, having visited it several times in the distant past. A short time later Enlightenment and Persuasion appeared in the guest suite looking identical to the sketches - alerting the Doctor to the fact that they were really androids.
When the Doctor attempted a spacewalk to retrieve the TARDIS from orbit around the Urbankan spaceship, Enlightenment and her colleague tried to stop him. Both had their command circuits pulled out and thrown into space, permanently deactivating them.

Played by: Annie Lambert. Appearances: Four to Doomsday (1982).

• Lambert had been a regular on the first season of Space: 1999, as one of the Moonbase mission control technicians.

E is for... Engin

An elderly Time Lord, Coordinator Engin looked after the archives in the Capitol on Gallifrey. This brought him into contact with the head of security - Castellan Spandrell - when he had to check Time Lord data extracts such as that of the Doctor. The Doctor had just arrived on his home planet after receiving troubling visions of the assassination of the President of the High Council. Engin discovered that the Doctor's data extract had been read recently, though only members of the High Council were permitted access. He also discovered that no such extract existed for the Master.
In his office was an APC net connection to the Matrix - the repository for the minds of all dead Time Lords. The Doctor insisted that Engin link him to the APC so that he might find out the identity of the President's assassin -  a crime for which he was accused. Spandrell and Engin watched over him as he battled the assassin - Chancellor Goth - within the Matrix.
Later, Engin played the Doctor an extract from their ancient history concerning the Eye of Harmony, which alerted him to what the Master was planning.

Played by: Eric Chitty. Appearances: The Deadly Assassin (1976).

• Chitty had previously played the Parisian apothecary Charles Preslin in The Massacre.

E is for... Empty Child

During the London Blitz an alien spacecraft crashed in the city's East End. A small boy named Jamie was out looking for his mother and was badly injured in the crash. The vessel was a Chula ambulance craft, full of Nanogenes which were programmed to repair Chula warriors so that they could resume fighting. Finding Jamie, they repaired his injuries, but did not have a human template to follow. They took the gas mask he was wearing to be part of his physiognomy. He was reanimated with great strength, but retained his desire to find his mother. Contact with him caused others to become like him - with gas mask faces and injuries to head, chest and a distinctive cut to the hand. All the staff and patients at the Albion Hospital, where the boy had been taken, were converted. The child began to pursue his sister Nancy, who helped look after orphaned children in the area. She would break into homes during air raids so they could eat what they could find there. The Doctor deduced that Nancy was really the boy's mother. Soon soldiers guarding the Chula vessel also began to be converted. The Doctor feared that the Nanogenes would not stop until the entire planet was converted. When Nancy admitted who she really was to the boy, the Nanogenes were given the correct template for humanity. Jamie, and all of the others who had been converted, were returned to normal - their various illnesses and injuries cured. Jamie and Nancy would be looked after by Dr. Constantine from the Hospital.

Played by: Albert Valentine. Voiced by: Noah Johnson. Appearances: The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances (2005).

E is for... Emperor Dalek

The first Dalek Emperor encountered by the Doctor was based on their home planet of Skaro. It was huge and immobile, a number of pipes and cables running from its body linking it to the Dalek city. It was protected by a retinue of Dalek guards which were identified by distinctive black domes. The Doctor had never met it before, and had only ever surmised that such a Dalek existed. The Emperor had sent a squad of Daleks to 19th Century Earth to set a trap for the Doctor, luring him from the 20th Century after stealing the TARDIS. The Doctor was tasked with isolating the Human Factor - the set of attributes and emotions which had so often led to Dalek defeats in the past. This was also a ruse, however, as what the Emperor really wanted was the Dalek Factor, which could turn anyone mentally into a Dalek. The process failed to work on the Doctor, as he was not human, and he reversed things so that more of the Daleks were given the Human Factor. This led to a civil war breaking out on Skaro, during which the Emperor was apparently destroyed.

The Daleks dispensed with an Emperor after this, being led by a Supreme Council instead. However, when their creator Davros was brought to Skaro as a captive, to stand trial for crimes against his creations, he managed to gain control and set himself up as their new Emperor. He transferred what was left of his body into a new white casing, with a domed upper section. This could be opened up to reveal Davros within. The new Emperor sent a mission back through time to seize the Hand of Omega - a Gallifreyan stellar manipulator. This device had helped give the Time Lords their mastery over time travel, and Davros felt that he could use it to achieve the same for the Daleks. The Doctor forced the Emperor to activate it without proper safeguards. It flew into Skaro's sun and blew it up, destroying the Dalek planet. Davros fled in an escape capsule before feedback destroyed his command ship.

During the Last Time War, the Daleks were once again led by an Emperor. Once more this was a huge version of a Dalek casing which was immobile, but located on the lead Dalek spaceship. Again, the Emperor was protected by black domed Dalek guards. It is not clear if this was a new Emperor, or if the one previously encountered by the Second Doctor on Skaro had been resurrected. After its ship had been attacked and apparently destroyed, the Emperor had hidden itself away on the edge of the galaxy, where it began to build a new army. This was made from the bodies of humans. It also installed the Jagrafess on Satellite Five to manipulate the human race and pervert history. The centuries of isolation drove the Emperor insane, and it came to believe it was a god. Once its army was established, the Emperor launched an attack on the Earth in the year 200,100 AD. The Doctor sent his companion Rose Tyler back to the 21st Century to save her but she broke into the heart of the TARDIS in order to return - absorbing the Time Vortex into herself. With her new powers, she removed the Emperor and its army from existence.

Voiced by: Peter Hawkins, Terry Molloy, Nick Briggs. Appearances: The Evil of the Daleks (1967), Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), The Parting of the Ways (2005).

The Davros Emperor at the Doctor Who Experience in 2016.

The 2005 model of the Emperor at the DWE, also in 2016.