The Dals were the third of the humanoid races that evolved on Skaro. In appearance, the Dals were furthest from the other races – being short, squat and having a strange blue hue to their skins. Long before the Neutron War between the Thals and the Kaleds, the Dals were devastated in their own war with the Thals. This war was a brief, nuclear affair and the devastation caused to their civilization meant that the other three civilizations on the planet presumed that they had been eradicated from existance by the Thal attacks. As will be seen in the discussion of Generation 02, the Dals were not totally destroyed and a handful of survivors went into hiding in the wild lands – fearing to show their faces to any, lest their erradication be completed.
Prior to their war with the, the Dals were primarily a peaceful race. They were perhaps the most advanced of the nations on Skaro and it may have been this perceived technological advantage that caused the Thal's to launch such a devastating nuclear assault so early in the conflict. The Dals were certainly a philosophical people, writers of great works of belief and science. The nature of some of their surviving texts implied that the Dals had formed a religion of science. In one tome, which was later banned by the Kaleds during their own war with the Thals, evolution is discussed. TheBook of Predictions described how evolution would allow a race to rise above class divides and war. Further, when this was achieved, men will become as "dal-ek", the Dal word for gods.
Fear of their growing technical expertise and the Dals' insular nature combined with their different belief system may have been contributing factors to the war with the Thals. Following their devastation, the race sank back to more primitive means, however they somehow managed to remain hidden for generations – this may have been due to some remaining technology. Perhaps they survived in underground tunnel systems.
What is apparent is that a group of surviving Dals discovered one of Davros' test centres which held a manufacturing plant and the schematics for the external power dependant Mark Two Travel Machine. Like the Kaleds, the Dals began to mutate as a result of the radiological and biological elements released into the atmosphere. Seeing no other chance for survival, they began construction of a huge metal city and made ready to utilise the Travel Machines designed by Davros. One of the final Dals to enter into a casing was the scientist Yarvelling. He ensured that all surviving Dal knowledge was encoded into their city's data banks. In addition, he accidentally activated one of Davros' Dalek conditioning packages – this led to the Dals' growth into a more warlike race. As time passed, the Dals became a sub-species of the Daleks.
