Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks Review

With the return of Davros in The Magician's Apprentice we thought it would be good to look back at some of his Classic Who stories.

Doctor Who:
Genesis of the Daleks
By Terry Nation

“Do I have the right? Simply touch one wire against the other and that's it. The Daleks cease to exist. Hundreds of millions of people, thousands of generations can live without fear, in peace, and never even know the word Dalek.”

The Time Lords have diverted The Doctor, Sarah and Harry to Skaro for a mission of utmost priority. The Time Lords see a time where the Daleks will have destroyed all lifeforms and have become the dominate creature in the universe.  The Time Lords want The Doctor to prevent their creation or affect their genectic development so that they evolve into less aggressive creatures.

The Doctor, Harry and Sarah have been separated.  Sarah is captured by the Thals and put to work on their rocket while Harry and The Doctor have been captured by the Kaleds.  The Doctor and Harry are being intergraded and end up meeting Davros.  Davros is talking to the other scientist and introduces to them to the Mark 2 traveling device.  The Doctor explains to Harry that it is in fact a Dalek.  The Doctor also explains to Harry that they have to stop Davros from creating the Daleks and must do whatever they can to prevent Davros from being successful.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: Genesis of the Daleks By @Paul_Bowler

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.