Skaro - Other Appearances

Other Appearances

The canonical status of all spin-off media is debatable.

The brief appearance of Skaro in Remembrance of the Daleks is expanded upon in that story's novelisation by original writer Ben Aaronovitch. The book names the Dalek City as Mensvat Esc-Dalek in the Vekis Nar-Kangji (Plain of Swords). The novelisation also mentions other creatures living on Skaro: yellow and black beetles, as well as mountainous "rock leopards".

In the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel War of the Daleks by John Peel it is revealed that Skaro had not in fact been destroyed by the Seventh Doctor's actions.

The Daleks, via time travel, discover records that show Skaro's destruction. After an attempt to change history (in Day of the Daleks) is unsuccessful, they terraform the planet Antalin to resemble Skaro and manipulate Davros and the Doctor into ensuring that Antalin was destroyed in the original's place. War of the Daleks also reveals that the events of Destiny of the Daleks took place on the terraformed Antalin. The novel also reveals that the name Skaro simply means "home" in the old Kaled language. However, the canonical status of these stories, as with all Doctor Who spin-off media narratives, is uncertain.

Skaro appears in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories The Mutant Phase and Davros (where we learn that Skaro had two moons: Falkus and Omega Mysterium, names drawn from a chart of Skaro's solar system in a 1976 Marks and Spencer tie-in book - Falkus is there revealed to be an artificial planet created by the Daleks as a last refuge), and was where the Emperor Dalek operated from in The Genocide Machine, and features prominently in the I, Davros spin-off series, looking at Davros's life and the events that led to him creating the Daleks. However in the Dalek Empire series (possibly set after Skaro's destruction in Remembrance of the Daleks) there is no appearance of Skaro and the Daleks are now operating instead from the Seriphia Galaxy.

Skaro is also the setting for the Peter Cushing feature film Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) which is generally regarded as non-canonical, although the story in the film is a copy (with some changes) of the serial The Daleks (naturally shortened since a feature film does not have the same running time as a 7-episode serial).

The BBC-Licensed The Dalek Book (1964) includes a map entitled 'The Dalography of Skaro'. This shows the planet to have three continents (Dalazar, Darren and Davius), five seas (The Ocean of Ooze, The Sea of Acid, The Sea of Rust, The Serpent Sea and the land-locked Bottomless Sea) and three major islands (The Island of Gushing Gold, The Island of Moving Mountains and an island chain named The Forbidden Islands). Dalazar is identified as the location of the Dalek city, Davius as being populated by the Thals and Darren as the site of the neutron bomb explosion which transformed the Daleks from their humanoid form into mutants. The BBC-Licensed The Dalek Outer Space Book (1965) confirms some of these details in a cutaway illustration entitled 'The Strata of Skaro'. A sea called The Ocean of Death is added, together with The Islands of Mist which, from the description, appears to be an alternative name for the Dalek Book's Forbidden Islands.

"Let's Go (To Planet Skaro)" was the third single released by UK punk rock band The Shapes and concerned the wedding reception of the Doctor on the planet.

"Exterminate, Regenerate" is a song released by UK "Trock" band Chameleon Circuit and mentions Skaro from the prospective of Davros.

In City of the Daleks, the Doctor and Amy go to Skaro to put the natural Earth timeline back on track because the Daleks had killed the Human Race in 1969 via the Eye of Time.