Kaleds

The Kaleds are an extraterrestrial humanoid race featured in the BBC television series Doctor Who. They were primarily featured in the six-part series 12 serial "Genesis of the Daleks" and were also featured in the "I, Davros" audio drama by Big Finish Productions.

History
The Kaleds were a humanoid race indigenous to the planet Skaro. In the distant past, the Kaleds embroiled themselves in a civil war with a neighboring populace known as the Thals. As the war raged on over the course of centuries, the Kaleds realized that there was more value in their scientific achievements than in any other aspect of their culture. The Kaleds decided to form an elite group consisting of the greatest scientific minds their race had to offer. They were formed to produce efficient, high-yield weaponry which the Kaled high command hoped would bring the war to a swift end. As the scientific elite grew in power, their respect and authority began to outshine that of the Kaled governing council and even the military. In time, the Elite Scientific Corps became the strongest arm of Kaled society.

The chemical weapons they produced during the war began to have an adverse affect on their people. Persistent exposure to toxic radiation caused mutagenic birth defects, giving rise to a sub-race of Kaled called Mutos. To protect themselves from the ravages of chemical irradiation, as well as the consistent onslaught of their enemies, the Kaleds built impregnable domes over top of their major cities. Mutos were considered to be an embarrassing reminder of their own shortcomings and they were banished into the wastelands surrounding the Kaled dome. The Thals took advantage of these cast offs and began using the Mutos for slave labor.

The leader of the Elite Scientific Corps was a mad genius named Davros. Davros himself suffered mutation and was confined to a mechanical conveyance. He came to realize that there was no way to reverse the mutagenic birth defects, so he began experiments to stimulate the Kaled evolutionary cycle, mutating the race even further until they achieved their ultimate and final mutational form. He took living cell tissues from Kaled and animal test subjects and injected them with chemicals that transformed them into hideous, radioactive creatures. These creatures were then placed into special housing containment shells and eventually became known as the Daleks.

In the latter years of the war, a Time Lord sent the Fourth Doctor and his companions Harry Sullivan and Sarah Jane Smith to Skaro in the hopes of preventing the events that would lead to the development of the Dalek race. The Doctor and Harry were captured by the Kaleds and bore witness to the experiment that yielded the first Dalek. One of their top scientists, Doctor Ronson, believed that Davros was only leading the Kaleds towards a path of lunacy and elected to help the Doctor and Harry to escape. He showed them one of Davros' laboratory cells and the Doctor was able to see the Dalek creatures in their true form. By assisting the Doctor, Ronson had in effect betrayed the Kaleds - an act that he paid for with his life.

Notes & Trivia

 * Kaled is an anagram for Dalek.


 * The Kaled god of war was a horned, demonic entity which is thought to have been inspired by the Beast.

Related pages

 * Appearances of