Doctor Who:
Genesis of the Daleks
Chaos and Creation
By Paul Bowler
"Failed? No, not really. You see, I know that although the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years, I know also that out of their evil must come something good."
Season Twelve would prove to be a time of great change for
Doctor Who. After the gradual fragmentation of the UNIT family during the
Eleventh Season it fell to the incoming creative team of Robert Holmes and
Philip Hinchcliffe to take the helm and usher in their gothic vision of Doctor
Who, a regeneration of sorts; which would go on to be regarded as one of the
most successful periods in the programmes history.
With the transitional comedy of Robot out of the way,
Hinchcliffe and Holmes could at last cast away the trappings of Season Eleven
and finally get to work on developing scripts more akin to their new direction
for the programme. Coming in at only twenty episodes, Season Twelve was shaping
up to be, up to that point, one of the shortest seasons of Doctor Who ever
produced. This led to some extremely clever budget saving ideas; allowing sets
to be re-cycled for two of the stories as they were set in the same location,
albeit in different time zones, as well some extensive location shooting.
Another unique feature was the linking theme which ran from The Ark In Space to
Revenge Of The Cybermen, which created an intriguing, and tightly plotted,
narrative between episodes. However, there is one story which rests firmly at
the heart of this aforementioned mini-trilogy that has become as synonymous with
Doctor Who as the TARDIS itself - Genesis Of The Daleks.
Genesis Of The Daleks sees the Doctor (Tom Baker) and his
companions, intrepid reporter Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) and the
dependable Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), whisked off by the Time Lords on a
mission to prevent the creation of the Daleks - having foreseen a time where the
Daleks might one day become a threat to the entire universe. The Doctor is given
a Time Ring to transport them back to the TARDIS once their mission is complete,
then they are cast back through time to the planet Skaro, arriving in the barren
wastelands at the most critical juncture in the Thal/Kaled War of attrition.
With the war falling into an unyielding stalemate, and natural
resources on both sides almost exhausted, the Kaled’s turn to their revered
scientist Davros (Michael Wisher) to turn the tide of the conflict in their
favour. Entrusted with developing a weapon which will help the Kaled’s achieve
victory over the Thals, Davros begins his heinous work. After decades of
radioactive fallout from the nuclear war many Kaled’s have begun to exhibit
horrific mutations; providing perfect fodder for Davros’ experiments to
accelerate the Kaled race into it’s final mutated form. Where his own people to
know the full extent of his work, they would probably have looked on Davros as a
butcher rather than a saviour. Until now the reasoning behind the atrocities
breeding in Davros’ underground bunker have gone unchallenged, with any threat
of descent quickly quelled by Davros’ ruthless right-hand man Nyder (Peter
Miles). This stringent regime is suddenly threatened when the Doctor manages to
convince senior ranking Kaled officials to investigate the experiments being
carried out in the bunker.
Furious that his research has been halted by his own people’s
reluctance to accept their destiny, Davros conspires with the Thals to bring
about the demise of the spineless officials who conspire against him, leading to
the Thals launching a devastating nuclear strike on the Kaled dome. Only those
chosen by Davros survive, taking shelter in the bunker beneath the city. With no
one left to oppose him Davros unleashes the Daleks on the unsuspecting Thals.
The ensuing massacre inside the Thal dome decimates the Thal population almost
to the point of extinction.
Having found himself unable to complete his mission for the
Time Lords, and commit genocide by destroying the Daleks incubating chamber, the
Doctor and his companions join forces with a small band of Thal survivors and
manage to blow up the entrance to Davros’ bunker. Entombed beneath the ruins of
the Kaled city, the Daleks turn on the Kaled scientists and exterminate them.
Too his horror, Davros realizes he is no longer able to control his creations,
and is powerless to save himself from their wrath.
As Davros’ screams are drowned out by the sound of Daleks
extermination rays, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry use the Time Ring to re-join the
TARDIS back on the Nerva Beacon. The Doctor solemnly reflects that their actions
may not have stopped the creation of the Daleks, but it would have perhaps
slowed their development by at least a thousand years.
With such a rich storyline and memorable characters, there are
few who could dispute that Genesis Of The Daleks is one of Terry Nation’s finest
Dalek stories. Some of his scripts for his creations in previous seasons had
adhered to a more familiar format: Planet Of The Daleks (1973) plays like a
virtual re-enactment of the Daleks debut story in 1963, although the enticingly
titled Death To The Daleks (1974) did provide a highly enjoyable Dalek story
with a neat twist - making their weaponry as powerless as the humans and the
native savages on Exxilon.
Like many of Terry Nation’s scripts, Genesis Of The Daleks is
heavily imbued with the writer’s fascination of the more horrific aspects of
warfare - in particular themes dealing with nuclear Armageddon and military
dictatorships. While previous Dalek stories drowned under the weight of such
heavy-handed moralizing; here these keynotes serve only as a disquieting
backdrop, allowing a far greater story to play out. Terry Nation successfully
uses Genesis Of The Daleks to ram home the horrific fate of the Kaled’s and
Thals, a fate that is wholly of their own making; fermented from all the worst
qualities the Kaled race has to offer.
The war which shaped Skaro’s destiny has only barely been
touched upon in the past; few could have imagined the terrible price paid by the
people of Skaro when the TARDIS first materialised there in The Daleks (1963).
When the Doctor returns to the planet in Genesis Of The Daleks he finds a world
entrenched in the squalid turmoil of trench warfare. Each race has fortified
themselves in the relative safety of huge domed cities, both facing each other
across a barren wasteland shrouded in the bleak haze of a nuclear winter.
Nothing can survive on the surface of Skaro for long, and those who are forced
to live in this hellish place are horribly mutated by the radiation; pathetic
shambling things who were once human - now outcasts from their own people. With
the planets natural resources running low and civilization suffering a
retrogressive decline, the Kaled’s and the Thals have found themselves locked in
an uneasy stalemate.
Much has been made of the Nazi undertones associated with the
depiction of the Kaled people in Genesis Of The Daleks, so much so that it seems
almost trite to indulge in such well evaluated territory - suffice it to say
that the Kaled people seem to be an innate fascist society like no other ever
seen before in the annuls of Doctor Who. For all their sadistic ways, the
Kaled’s are, after all, not the only participants in this conflict. The Thals,
it would seem, are not as whiter than white as previous continuity might have
led us to believe. Those captured by the Thals are forced into slave labour on
the Thals enormous rocket, working with hardly any rest or food, until they
either collapse or die from the radiation leaking from the missiles warhead.
When Sarah Jane and her Muto friend Sevrin are captured by the
Thals, they too find themselves forced to work on the deadly super-weapon. Sarah
rallies the prisoners to try to escape, but their flight to freedom proves to be
short lived. As they frantically climb the scaffolding around the missile the
Thal soldiers pick them off one by one with sniper fire. For all their efforts,
Sevrin and Sarah are re-captured before they can reach the summit of the dome,
where a Thal soldier callously threatens to drop Sarah to her death from the top
of the rocket gantry for little more, it would seem, than his own twisted
amusement. Even when they obtain the secret formulae to breach the impervious
Kaled dome from the treacherous Davros, the Thals make no attempt at negotiating
a peaceful resolution to the conflict. Instead the Thal government seize their
opportunity to decisively win the war, and fire their missile at the weakened
Kaled dome, blasting their enemies from the surface of Skaro forever… Terry
Nation’s previous Dalek stories may have painted the Thals as peacemakers, but
here we see that they would seem to have been cut from the same cloth as the
Daleks themselves; their actions in Genesis Of The Daleks casting them in a very
different light indeed.
With the multiple threads weaving throughout the plot of its
six episodes, Genesis Of The Daleks could easily have swamped Tom Baker’s
fledgling presence beneath the sheer weight of its epic narrative. Right from
the fog-bound opening with his fellow Time Lord, Tom Baker’s indomitable persona
is already beginning to make it’s presence felt: with Baker’s trademark
thundering inflections; passionate speeches, pockets filled with useless
clutter, and manic surges of action all clearly defined here, giving us a
tantalizing glimpse of the bohemian eccentric that the fourth Doctor would soon
become.
His mission for the Time Lords may seem to have the Doctor
working more independently than usual, yet his first priority is always the
safety of his companions. Even though he skilfully manages to play the political
game of cat and mouse - an unusual feat for this most anti-establishment of all
the Doctor’s incarnations - with each of Skaro’s opposing factions, the Doctor
doesn’t hesitate to attempt to rescue Sarah from the Thal dome or help Harry
escape the jaws of a giant clam, even though it may mean jeopardising their
mission. Such selfless acts, though, are perceived by Davros as a weakness he
can exploit. He lures the Doctor and his companions into a trap, where he
demands that the Doctor disclose his secrets or he will be forced to witness
Sarah and Harry subjected to agonising torture. Torn between his mission for the
Time Lords and watching his friends suffer, the Doctor makes the only choice he
can…
Following this dramatic cliff-hanger the Doctor divulges the
reason for every future Dalek defeat to Davros, giving the Kaled scientist
everything he needs to know to change the course of their destiny. With Sarah
and Harry carried back to their cells, Davros decides to continue his
deliberations with the Doctor - alone. Here we are treated to probably one of
the most riveting confrontations ever filmed in Doctor Who; the celebrated
‘glass vial’ scene, where the Doctor offers a sinister point of conjecture to
Davros by comparing the Daleks to a deadly virus that will kill any life-form
exposed to it. For a moment, social and political analogies aside, you could
almost forget you were watching a children’s programme. Michael Wisher and Tom
Baker both deliver a totally captivating performance, creating one of Doctor
Who’s rare moments of flawless brilliance where you can blissfully forget the
programmes minor flaws and bask in the glory of the scenes grand sublimity.
Genesis Of The Daleks is also one of the unique instances where
little seems to come of the Doctor’s actions; because he doesn’t actually
achieve any real sense of victory. Long time viewers would by now be all too
familiar with the fact that travelling with the Doctor can sometimes be fraught
with risks; some that even the Doctor himself is powerless to prevent: The
Massacre (1966), The Dalek Master Plan (1965-1966), Power Of The Daleks (1966),
and Inferno (1970) have all placed the Doctor in impossible no-win scenarios,
some of which have even cost the lives of his travelling companions.
In many ways we hold a highly idealized view of the Doctor’s
adventures, so that when he does fail it hits home all the more because we know
the reverence he holds for all forms of life. This passionate zeal makes any
loss, however insignificant it may seem, almost impossible for him to bear. For
all his extraordinary power and technology even the Doctor has his limits, there
are some things that are beyond even his influence, and Genesis Of The Daleks
serves to clarify this most frustratingly cruel aspect of time travel.
The first Doctor once stated in The Aztecs (1964): “But you
can’t rewrite history! Not one line!” a case in point which often proves to be a
bitter pill to swallow. In Genesis of the Daleks the 4th Doctor is
forced to comply with his own omniscient mandate. Just as in many of the early
William Hartnell historical stories, the Doctor and his companions are simply
swept along with the tide of events which occur in Genesis Of The Daleks; unable
to make any real headway against the raging torrent of fate that is Skaro’s
inevitable destiny.
With much of Genesis Of The Daleks centred around the Doctor
and Davros it is perhaps inevitable that some characters are pushed to the
sidelines, unfortunately one such person to suffer this fate is the newest
member of the TARDIS crew - Harry Sullivan. It’s a great pity that the early
potential Ian Marter displayed as Harry in the seasons second story - The Ark In
Space - is almost completely overlooked by the frenetic pace of the plot; with
little time really given to developing the character, which seems strange given
Harry’s military background. It is painfully clear, even at this early stage,
that the casting of the ardent Tom Baker has made the role of Harry Sullivan’s
bumbling medical officer fundamentally obsolete.
Fortunately Sarah Jane Smith does not suffer the supernumerary
fate that befalls poor Harry. In fact she positively blossoms in this story;
recovering from the rapid dilution her spirited character suffered towards the
end of Season Eleven, allowing Elizabeth Sladen to really shine in her role as
companion.
True, Sarah does spend most of her time in Genesis Of The
Daleks flailing from one peril to another, but it is because of the newfound
camaraderie she now shares with the Doctor and Harry that makes her plight all
the more genuine. This story shows Sarah like we have never really seen her
before: hopelessly lost in the wastelands of Skaro, witnessing firsthand the
horrific realities of war, and forced to overcome her own initial revulsion of
Sevrin’s physical deformities if she is to stand any chance of surviving the
nightmare she has suddenly been forced to live through.
Even when Sarah and Sevrin are captured by the Thals and forced
to work on the highly radioactive rocket warhead, Sarah Jane refuses to accept
her fate, bravely rallying her fellow prisoners to mount a bold escape
attempt.
More than anything, though, it is Sarah’s blossoming
relationship with the new Doctor that will go on to make their partnership one
of the most endearing of all. With the Fourth Doctor prone to bemoaning his
quintessential alien qualities to justify his behaviour, it often falls to
Sarah’s stubborn reasoning to question the Doctor’s actions, tempering his
infinite wisdom with her common sense and compassion. In spite of the moral
carte blanche the Time Lords have bequeathed him, when the Doctor finally has
the chance to destroy the Dalek Incubating Room, he turns to Sarah for help when
he finds himself unable to make such a monumental decision. When the Doctor asks
her: “Do I have the right?” she of course agrees that he does, but the Doctor is
finally able to see the bigger picture. Comparing the opportunity to commit
genesis against the Daleks to the foreknowledge of the child who would become
Hitler, he asks her: “…could you then kill that child?”
You simply could not imagine the Third Doctor allowing one of
his companions to question his judgment in such a direct fashion, Pertwee’s
Doctor would have either just dismissed or belittled them into submission. It
quickly becomes apparent that the Fourth Doctor is not afraid to learn from his
companions, moreover trusting his own perspicacity to let them use their own
individual strengths and acumen to help them achieve their full potential.
Any Dalek story is in itself a special event for Doctor Who,
none more so than this one. Up until now there had only ever been thee distinct
hierarchies controlling the fate of the Dalek race, the all powerful Emperor
Dalek, the tyrannical Black Daleks, and the many countenances (Or should that be
successors?) of the Supreme Dalek. Terry Nation changed everything we had so far
discovered about Dalek hierarchy when he introduced a character who would go on
to enjoy nearly as much popularity as the Daleks themselves, their creator
Davros.
On his many travels the Doctor has faced countless horrors that
lurk in the darkest regions of the universe, but in Davros he encounters a being
with probably the blackest soul of all. Although Davros’ past is never explained
in Genesis Of The Daleks, it is clear from his physical deformities that he was
either a victim of a terrible accident, or a tragic mutation sired in the
contaminated twilight of Skaro’s nuclear winter.
Whatever his origins, his crippled body belies his awesome
intellect. In fact, the life support systems of his wheelchair are so
sophisticated it would lead us to believe that Davros was no mere conscript to
the Kaled war machine. Later we learn of a Kaled scientist who was implanted
with an artificial heart manufactured by Davros, indicating that perhaps Davros
began his career in medicine. His brilliant mind would have pushed forward with
anything that would have helped the Kaled race survive the ravages of
radioactive contamination, no matter what the cost - ethical or otherwise. This
ruthless dedication would have brought Davros to the attention of the Kaled
government, the potential his genius could offer the Kaled military would have
seemed almost limitless.
Once recruited to the Kaled military Davros found a new ally to
his cause, the ruthless Nyder. Both men share the same twisted aim to lead the
people of Sakro towards their insidious design for a new, superior, breed of
Kaled. The Dalek is much more than a means to exterminate the Thals; it is the
pure embodiment of their faith in the Dalek as the ultimate expression of the
Kaled’s racial superiority. Whatever the origin behind their sinister alliance
it is obvious Davros has a great respect for Nyder, for without him Davros would
probably have never achieved his eminent status - granting him unparallel
political influence disguised under the banner of the feared agents of Nyder’s
Elite.
Indeed they complement each other perfectly, and Peter Miles
makes Nyder a truly loathsome character, but it is Michael Wisher’s chilling
portrayal of Davros that really makes Genesis Of The Daleks so memorable. The
fact that Michael Wisher’s features are totally obscured by the latex mask and
his movements are severely restricted by the wheelchair; only able to make the
smallest of gestures with one hand, it is all the more remarkable how Wisher
manages to convey such an evil presence using only the power of his voice.
Just as Mary Shelley’s Dr Frankenstein is consumed by the
ramifications of his heinous work, Davros is also driven to create life;
sculpting the horrific Kaled mutations in his laboratory until their humanity is
all but erased. Having imbued his monstrous creations with all the qualities he
deems necessary for the purity of the Kaled race, all that remained was for
Davros to build an armoured war machine in which to house his bubbling seeds of
hate. The Dalek is the perfect synthesis of a dream gone mad, blood, flesh and
metal dubiously crafted in it’s creators own image.
Davros is initially sceptical about the Doctor’s sudden
arrival, quickly sensing there is more behind the Time Lords jovial façade, his
every instinct strangely drawing Davros to the Doctor like a moth to flame. This
is probably the first time Davros has ever encountered anyone with sufficient
intellect to challenge him, and he seems to positively relish every chance he
has to intellectually spar with the Doctor. As egos go, the Fourth Doctor’s
takes some beating, but even this is almost eclipsed when Davros states that he
believes the Doctor’s intellect may almost rival his own! For one so deformed it
seems all the more ironic that it is Davros’ own vanity that provides the chink
in his armour the Doctor needs to complete his mission.
Though Davros may be a dictator in waiting, even his influence
is not without limits. When the Doctor convinces the Kaled government to suspend
the Dalek production line, until the full nature of Davros’ experiments can be
evaluated, Davros has little choice but to comply with his superiors wishes.
Unable to except defeat, Davros sets about a new course of action which will see
him forge an alliance with the Thals, one that will effectively sign the death
warrant for his own people. It could be argued that it is at this point that the
Doctor fails in his mission, as his interference causes Davros to instigate a
new course of action that will ultimately assure the Daleks ascension to power.
Instead it is this precise moment, pushed by the apparent betrayal of his own
people that Davros’ pride in his ghoulish scheme causes his sanity to topple
into the bottomless abyss of megalomania.
With their mass extermination of the Thals complete, the Daleks
return to the bunker beneath the ruins of the Kaled city. As soon as they are
inside the Daleks assume complete control of the facility, initiating the
complete automation of the Dalek production line and shepherding all personnel
into Davros’ laboratory. Though Davros tries to reason with his creations, he is
powerless to stop the Daleks exterminating his entire staff. Too late, Davros
realises that by creating the Daleks in his own image, as well as imbuing their
very DNA with his own twisted morality, he has also inadvertently made himself
surplus to requirements. Unable to reason with the Daleks, Davros makes one last
desperate bid to reach the controls of the production line, but his crippled
body is too slow and the Daleks exterminate him. After sacrificing his own world
to the flames of Armageddon just to insure his egotistical criterion ambitions,
it seems ironic that, because of the providence of the Daleks; Davros ultimately
suffers the same fate he dealt his own people by the very weapons of the
creatures he had fought so hard to conceive.
With the Daleks entombed beneath the ruins of the Kaled dome
the Doctor and his companions use the Time Ring to sail off through time to be
reunited with the TARDIS. As they dematerialise and begin their journey, the
Doctor concedes to Sarah and Harry that he may have failed in his mission to end
the Dalek menace once and for all, but he hopes their intervention may have had
some significant effect on future events when he solemnly states: “I know that
although the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years. I
know also, that out of their evil, must come something good.”
In fact, the Doctor’s simplest wish is really the victory that
the Time Lords were secretly hoping for all along. The members of the High
Counsel would have instinctively known that the Doctor would be incapable of
committing genocide against another sentient race - even one as evil as the
Daleks - but they could be assured that the Doctor’s meddling at such a
significant period in Skaro’s history would guarantee a major divergence to the
Dalek time line - the survival of Davros.
If history had continued along its preordained path the Daleks
would have been forced to become even more inventive and ruthless to escape the
confines of their barren home world. Stripping Skaro of its natural resources to
feed their military might, the Daleks would soon take to the stars and become
one of the most feared forces of death and destruction throughout the universe.
By the time of The Dalek Master Plan (1965) the Daleks have become so powerful
they are on the verge of mastering control of time itself, the consequences of
which - no doubt - would have proved the catalyst for the Time Lords
intervention.
While the Doctor may feel he has failed his mission, the Time
Lords have knowingly set in motion a chain of events that will effectively
re-write Dalek history; resulting in far-reaching ramifications for the Daleks
time line - simply because Davros survives. Either by fate or design, it seems
that Davros’ chair holds his exterminated body in a state of suspended
animation, perhaps employing some form of hitherto unknown nano-technology to
regenerate his vital organs sufficiently enough to subsist until such a time
when his body can be restored.
Whether this remarkable feat of engineering is just a
contrivance from a writer desperate to recycle such a remarkable character, or a
surreptitious arc planted by Nation to show Davros had simply been extra
cautious considering he now has considerable knowledge of the Dalek time line -
along with their penchant for treachery - allowing him the prescience to develop
such contingency measures should his creations betray him, is difficult to
evaluate.
Though the circumstances behind Davros’ miraculous resurrection
provides a point for endless conjecture, yet survive he does, so when the Daleks
return to Skaro to find their creator in Destiny Of The Daleks (1979) to enlist
his help in their war with the Movellan’s his life-support systems revive Davros
as the Daleks approach. The centuries spent in suspended animation have done
little to dilute Davros’ thirst for power; his desire for universal domination
now forever entwined with his creations; a destiny he envisions with himself as
their absolute ruler. It is therefore not the Doctor’s interference that will
forever condemn the Daleks to the ignominy of defeat, but rather Davros’ insane
ambition which will become the oblique onus the Dalek race will be forced to
bear.
Genesis Of The Daleks is a true Doctor Who classic. It is also
one of those rare instances where hardly any padding is evident to bolster the
plot, a common fault in most six part Doctor Who stories. This, aided by
extremely high production values, allows David Maloney’s understated direction
to captivate the viewer with the nightmarish scenario that the Doctor and his
companions have found themselves in. Tom Baker and Elizabeth Sladen are in the
early stages of creating what will probably become the most fondly remembered
TARDIS crew of all time, while the Daleks make a triumphant return to ruthless
form. If there is one fault to be found with the script, it has to be the
constants use of that old Terry Nation plot contrivance; the loss of the vital
component needed ensure the time travellers escape in the TARDIS - the
ubiquitous Time Ring.
Some might say that Davros should never have been resurrected
after Genesis Of The Daleks, as the character was gradually diluted with each
successive appearance, until the Daleks creator was reduced to little more than
a raving madman. There is some degree of truth to this, as many of the Dalek
stories during the 80’s often tied themselves up in knots simply to accommodate
the Daleks creator - although arguably Resurrection of the Daleks (1984),
Revelation of the Daleks (1985), and Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) form a
trilogy of superficially entertaining stories that allows Davros the chance to
evolve like no other villain in Dr Who‘s history.
Big Finish audios have gone so far as to build on Davros’
immense popularity by delving into the mysteries of the characters origins in
the superb audio play - Davros (2004). Here we learn some of the events which
led to Davros being crippled during the Kaled/Thal war, and his subsequent
descent into maniacal fanaticism. Davros has featured in many more Big Finish
audio adventures, and still remains a popular reoccurring adversary for the
range.
When the Daleks returned in Russell T Davies new series of
Doctor Who in 2005 they were more popular than ever, but it would take the Cult
of Skaro’s failed experiments to genetically manipulate their ailing species in
Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks (2007) before circumstances would
ultimately lead to the return of their creator, Davros, in The Stolen
Earth/Journeys End (20008). Julian Bleach played Davros for his triumphant
return to the new series. In some ways he is as much a refugee from the Time War
as the lone Dalek in Van Statten’s Vault, but Davros is no fool, and there is no
way he would ever remain subservient to the Supreme Dalek’s will for long.
Although Davros and his Daleks are defeated in this story, the characters
penchant for survival does however pose us with the tantalizing question of just
how long will we have to wait for a certain Kaled scientist to return? Davros is
now inexorably linked with his creations, indeed the Daleks return for the
season premier of Doctor Who’s Seventh Season in Asylum of the Daleks was a
spectacular episode. We got to see the stunning Dalek Parliament, a new caste of
the Dalek hierarchy in the form of the Dalek Prime Minister, some classic Daleks
appeared in the dank chambers of the Asylum, and even the surprise debut of new
companion Jenna Louise Coleman - who has been transformed into a Dalek! Although
the episode was incredibly exciting, offering a wealth of possibilities for the
Doctor‘s future companion, as well was the all too brief glimpse of the Special
Weapons Dalek, I still hope that Steven Moffat might one day engineer the return
of Davros to do battle with Matt Smith‘s wonderful incarnation of the Doctor.
The Daleks have ensured that Doctor Who has never been far from the public’s
imagination, they were instrumental in helping the new show achieve the many
awards and accolades that it so rightly deserves after being abandoned in the
wilderness of cancellation for so long.
When Davros glided from the shadows to test his Mark Three
Travel Machine on that fateful Saturday teatime in 1975 and changed the course
of history with just a flick of a switch as Sarah Jane watched on in horror, the
legacy of that moment redefined Dr Who for generations to come. There can be no
doubt that Genesis Of The Daleks rightly deserves it’s “Classic” status as one
of the all time greats of Doctor Who, and I still believe the reason for this
stories enduring success lies squarely with Michael Wisher’s superb performance
as Davros. When all is said and done, Genesis Of The Daleks is really Davros’
story, and for that reason alone we owe it a huge debt of thanks. So it is
probably fitting that because of Terry Nation’s extraordinary revision of Dalek
continuity, Davros has gone on to become one of the greatest adversaries the
Doctor has ever known.
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