The third generation to make their appearance were the Cream and Gold liveried Daleks created by Davros to supplant his earlier creations. The First Generation Daleks had proved to be unloyal to Davros who thought that as their creator he should be their undisputed leader. Davros began plans to construct a new race of Daleks, with himself at its head. Having heard of Dalek defeats from the Doctor during their first encounter, and seen first hand the race's limitations in the Movellan war, Davros decided a new Dalek race was required to take the rightful place as the supreme power in the universe.
Davros' plans began when he was "rescued" by Dalek forces from the prison station on which he was kept in suspended animation by the Earth government. The first stage of his plan involved the subversion of those Daleks directly involved with his rescue. These subverted Daleks were destroyed, however and Davros himself became infected with a virus created by the Movellans to target the creatures within the Dalek casing. Being genetically similar to a Generation One Dalek (they were after all created from Kaled mutations), the virus targeted Davros. His life support systems kept him alive long enough for his advanced knowledge of genetics to produce an anti-virus and recover. The fact that the virus existed as a threat to his children led Davros to realise that his new Daleks could not be descended from Kaled stock – new source materials needed to be located.
Initially, this generation were housed in re-coloured Mark Three Travel Machines created from a custom Bonded-Polycarbide material made to resemble Dalekanium in its properties. Following the Necros incident, however, Davros re-designed the casing somewhat. The new and improved Mark Four Travel Machine featured a slightly more streamlined design, enhanced power cells and a modified manipulator arm that allowed quicker interface with a variety of computer systems amongst other refinements. The creatures within these M achines were genetically altered from other races by Davros, programmed with typical Dalek philosophies and morals and an unwavering loyalty to their creator.