Here it is, classic among classics. So dark, so riveting and so perfect in every way.
As soon as I'd finished part six, I watched the hour-long DVD featurette to soak up every drop of this story. It's that good. The featurette is great too - literally everyone gets interviewed.
Even though "Genesis" had its genesis in the kinder, gentler Letts/Dicks era, the harder edge that it got from Philip Hinchcliffe made it a true classic.
Sarah -
Genesis of the Daleks is my favorite Doctor Who story ever. There is a reason why it always tops the list of fan-favorites. It's absolutely perfect and there's not one thing I would change.
Harry -
Six-parters are cool again.
Sarah -
The opening scene is the most graphically violent we’ve seen so far – soldiers on a foggy battlefield being shot down by gunfire, made all the more horrifying by the use of slow motion.
Harry -
Something about gas masks always unsettles me. That and bowler hats.
Sarah -
I'm with you on both counts.
The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry are on their way back to Nerva from their Sontaran adventure on earth when those pesky Time Lords interfere again. They intercept the transmat, diverting our heroes to the middle of a battlefield on Skaro. The Kaleds and Thals are locked in a war of attrition, while the Kaleds work on developing a machine that will hold the creature into which they will eventually evolve.
The Time Lord charges the Doctor with preventing or altering the development of the Daleks. The Doctor resists initially, but relents when the Time Lord reminds him that taking on the occasional assignment is the price he pays for his freedom.
Harry -
That nameless Time Lord was rather cheery about the whole thing. What a funny lot.
Sarah -
Equipped with a time ring that will get him back to the TARDIS, and joined by his companions, the Doctor sets off to find the Daleks.
Harry -
Skaro is a miserable place. Blighted by war, its people mutated by chemical weapons, its scientists devising new and horrific ways to kill the enemy. The Kaled military officers stomp around in fascist uniforms giving each other Hitler salutes. At the centre of it all is Davros, the most brilliant and most evil scientist in all of Doctor Who.
What can we say about Davros that hasn't already been said? He's physically and morally repulsive, prone to megalo-hysteria and willing to kill his own people so that his work on the Daleks might continue. His ravings are offset by the lizardlike coldness of his right hand man, Security Commander Nyder. Michael Wisher and Peter Miles both created unforgettable villains here.
Sarah -
Just when the Daleks were on the verge of becoming boring, Terry Nation finds a way of making them interesting again! The Daleks' approach to the universe makes a lot more sense after we meet their creator. Wisher and Miles are absolutely brilliant in their sociopathic portrayals. How much fun must that have been?
Harry -
One thing I noticed is that our heroes keep encountering the scientific elite in this season. There was the Scientific Reform Society on Earth, there was Vira on Nerva (thought not a baddie), there was Styre with his torture experiments, and Davros and his minions on Skaro. An interesting cluster. I wonder how many kiddies in the 70s wanted to grow up to become maniacal scientists.
Sarah -
A friend of a friend, who is a scientist, was annoyed at all the mad scientist costumes at Halloween, wondering why kids didn't just dress up as run-of-the-mill scientists. I guess they're just more interesting when they're maniacal!
The Nazi imagery and comparisons are obvious in this story, which can only have made a stronger impact on contemporary audiences.
Harry -
Another note I jotted down when the Doctor and Harry ventured into the jungle wasteland between the cities was: "Island of Dr. Moreau." Here we see (or at least hear) many of Davros' early experiments on animals. Harry of course steps right into a killer clam and the Doctor has to rescue him. I wonder if they ever made a killer clam action figure? I want one.
Sarah -
I'm not sure we should have one of those around the Sofa, Old Boy, given your habit of stepping into deadly experiments!
Harry -
Watching all of Season 12 in order like this, Harry's role seems to diminish with each story. By this point, he's comically putting his feet in all the wrong places, making the occasional clothing swap, and generally standing beside the Doctor silently while Tom gets all the good lines. Unless I missed it, he didn't even get in a "Right-o" in this story.
Sarah -
Not even an "Old Thing!" Poor Harry, we hardly knew ye.
Harry -
You know you're watching a Terry Nation adventure when our heroes have to journey from one place to another, back and forth, repeatedly. It allowed for Sarah to become separated from the others, and set up that cliffhanger where she plummets off a scaffolding... only to land safely a couple of feet below, having somehow twisted her body so as to hit the deck beneath. Oh those Terry Nation cliffhangers.
Sarah -
A minor detail, which in no way detracts from the perfectness of the story!
Harry -
Overall though, this story is so grim. The death count is probably the highest of any in Doctor Who. People are constantly being gunned down. Lunatic Davros arranges for the bombing of the Kaled city - a holocaust that wipes out his own people, just so he can continue his work on the Daleks. Even Sarah and Harry are briefly thought to have died in the bombing. At the very end of the story, the Daleks wipe out the remainder of the scientific elite, including, apparently, Davros.
Sarah -
I almost -- almost! -- felt pity for Nyder and Davros, being turned upon by their creations. But, as we've learned time and time again, trying to control and outmaneuver the Daleks is never successful.
Harry -
It's no surprise that Hinchcliffe kept the humourous moments far and few between. The Doctor, Sarah and Harry are limited to one or two quips over the entire story. The Doctor also finds himself faced with the ultimate moral dilemma: what to do when given the power to kill someone he knows will perpetrate untold millions of deaths in the future. At first, he can't do it, but changes his mind later in the story. By then, the Daleks can no longer be wiped out entirely, only set back a few years in their development.
Was the Doctor's initial indecision the greatest tragedy of the story? Or was it Davros' unchecked power -- the legacy of which has reverberated through every season of Doctor Who since?
Sarah -
The Doctor's hesitation to commit genocide gets to the heart of what this series is about -- reason and compassion in the face of fear and hate. If the Doctor exterminated the Daleks without thought, he wouldn't be the Time Lord we know and love. It's a brilliant scene and Tom Baker makes us believe completely.
Harry -
Sarah and Harry didn't seem as torn over the question, but then again they weren't holding the two wires.
Sarah -
Exactly. They also don't have the same sense of time as the Doctor, which makes a difference.
Harry -
We've mentioned the brilliant performances by Wisher and Miles, but in this story, the supporting cast were outstanding overall. In particular, I liked Dennis Chinnery and James Garbutt as Gharman and Ronson, two defiant members of the science elite. Although this was Garbutt's only appearance on Doctor Who, Chinnery had a very brief appearance aboard the Mary Celeste in "The Chase", and he will return once more in the Colin Baker era.
Sarah -
The Doctor and his companions leave Skaro with the Thals and Daleks as the only inhabitants. We know what will happen down the road -- the Daleks will continue to develop within the city while the Thals evolve into to tall, sexy, blond, and peaceful farmers, who will eventually be visited by an old man in a blue box. And so it goes...
Harry -
In the DVD featurette, Letts and Dicks shared a chuckle over the fact that they sent Nation back to the drawing board after he'd come to them with a story they felt he'd already done twice before. What he came back with this time turned out to be one of the best Dalek stories ever.
"Genesis of the Daleks" is gripping and relentless. Every character in the story has their conscience tested, even tortured. It's tragic that so few people get out of this one alive, but that's the power of it. You can almost hear William Hartnell's lament from the end of "The Daleks' Master Plan": What a waste. What a terrible waste…
Sarah -
An absolute waste, but brilliant television.
Should we try to get back to Nerva?
Harry -
We'll get there, one of these tries.
Sarah -
Best Line: "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'."
Favorite Moment: The Doctor's moral dilemma.
Lasting Image: The Doctor holding the two wires.
10/10
Harry -
Best Line: We are agreed on this one!
Favourite Moment: The Dalek's chilling final tirade, roared right into the camera.
Lasting Image: Davros crushes the hypothetical vial between his fingers, setting himself above the gods.
9/10
Our marathon continues with Story #79 - Revenge of the Cybermen...
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