This strip owed its existence to the fact that Terry Nation personally owned the copyright in the Daleks and initially licensed them separately. For its time it was distinctly Darker and Edgier than the main Doctor Who strip, and was partially written by the first script editor of Doctor Who, David Whitaker. It has a much higher reputation among fans than the early Doctor Who strips, and parts of its content undoubtedly influenced plots and Dalek characterisation and tech in later TV stories. Examples include the Emperor Dalek and, of course, the storyline about the nonconformist (though still violent) hippy Dalek who decided to go against the Emperor and defend pretty things — to the death! (The latter storyline appeared, minus the silliness, in the television story "The Evil of the Daleks".) The later ones have some excellent artwork by Ron Turner.
In 1994, the comic strips were collected together as The Dalek Chronicles.
Tropes:
- Armies Are Evil: The original Daleks were a pacifistic race until their leader was killed in a military coup by the Dalek warmaster Zolfian.
- Brains Versus Brawn: A Story Arc has a Dalek named Zeg inadvertently discovering a new element called Metalert that makes its casing virtually indestructible, leading it to challenge the Emperor for control of the Dalek race. When the two duel however, the Dalek Emperor is able to destroy Zeg by outwitting him, proving that Zeg's strength was no match for the Emperor's intelligence.
- Canon Immigrant:
- The Dalek Emperor first appeared here before going on to appear in the Doctor Who TV series itself.
- The "rel" unit of measurement the Daleks use was also first introduced here.
- Canon Marches On: The origin story it gives for the Daleks is quite different than the one they would eventually receive in the TV series. Originally, the Daleks were a race of humanoid blue aliens with big heads who went to war with the Thals. The Dalek casing was originally developed as a war machine by a scientist named Yarvelling under the oversight of the Dalek war master Zolfian. When a lightning storm detonated the Daleks' neutrom bomb stockpile and irradiated the planet, a mutated Dalek crawled inside of the war machine and forced a surviving Yarvelling to use what time he had left make more war machines for the other mutated Daleks, who would claim the name "Dalek" for themselves after Yarvelling and Zolfian both perished from radiation poisoning.
- The Chessmaster: The Golden Emperor, who devises the Daleks' intricate battle plans and frequently adjusts them on the fly when new factors arise.
- Cliffhanger: The last comic of the original run has the Daleks discovering Earth and setting their sights on conquering it, presumably leading into the events of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth."
- The Dragon: The Black Dalek is the Golden Emperor's Number Two and main military commander. The Black Dalek's position is so essential in the Dalek hierarchy that when his casing became infected by a rust plague, instead of just exterminating him the Golden Emperor instead ordered his casing rebuilt from the ground up. To a lesser degree there's also the Red Dalek, the Emperor's third-in-command, who acts as his assistant whenever the Black Dalek isn't around.
- Evil Versus Evil: A lot of stories saw the Daleks fighting enemies that were just as bad as they were, and usually ended with the Daleks pulling an Eviler than Thou on them.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: The Dalek Emperor's casing is colored gold and made to much more resilient than the standard Dalek casing.
- Hero Antagonist: Poor Amarylls. They were living in peace on their home planet and would have welcomed the Daleks had they not chosen to wage war on them.
- Prevent the War: One story saw an alien race trying to prevent a war between the Daleks and the Mechanoids out of fear the war would lead one race to invade their home planet.
- Standard Evil Empire Hierarchy: The Dalek Empire.
- The Emperor: The Golden Emperor.
- The Right Hand: The Brain Computer, a Master Computer the Daleks consult to solve problems.
- The General: The Black Dalek, the Daleks' military leader.
- The Guard: The Red Dalek tended to play this role, overseeing various construction sites around the Dalek City and operations on planets beyond Skaro.
- Taking You with Me: The story with the Monstrons concludes with a lone Dalek trapped in a volcano giving up its own life to detonate it, leading the remaining Monstrons to be consumed by the explosion.
- Villain Protagonist: It's a comic with the Daleks as the protagonists, so it's a given.
