In creating a coherent history for this site, it was necessary to determine which Dalek stories should be deemed "canonical". Canon is defined as:
"a rule or especially body of rules or principles generally established as valid and fundamental in a field or art or philosophy"
-- Wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Before getting into too much detail about what this author considered to be canonical for the purposes of this site, please read Paul Cornell's blog entry on the subject which provides a great argument against canon in Doctor Who. While his points are valid and good, the very nature of this site means that some form of canon must be adopted!
The decisions made may cause some debate, as determining canon for fictional universes can be controversial and is often a subjective matter based upon the perspective of the particular author / reader in question.
It is hoped that the reasoning behind most of the included sources is apparent. The Doctor Who Television Series could not be ignored, and in most cases, the novelizations add to the understanding of the Daleks as a race. The Dalek novels published between 1996 and 2014 by BBC Publishing are authorised by both the BBC and the Terry Nation Estate and so should be included here. In addition, it is felt that the scripts produced by Big Finish should be included as official, despite the contradictions with previously published works. This is especially heartfelt given the mention of companions created by the company in the mini-episode, Night of the Doctor produced as part of the fiftieth anniversary of the program.
For the purposes of this document, the various Dalek sources have been assigned a Canon Level from 01 to 03. These levels are defined as follows.
Are those which are considered completely canonical – events happened as described, the technology presented is accurate and where revealed the date is locked in stone. The following are considered as sources at this level of canon:
Are those which are considered to depict events that probably occurred, but that can be debated for one reason or another. For example, the sequence of events depicted contradict a Level 01 item. In these cases, the debatable item is moved or queried within the relevant sections. In addition, all other Dalek reference material and time lines adopted by other authors fall into this category:
Items are non-canonical, but present some interesting concepts and are worthy of inclusion for completeness of sources being included. Where they fit with canon sources, ideas have been incorporated from these sources. The following sources fall into this level of canon:
