Genesis of the Daleks

Six Episodes
Aired between 8th March 1975 and 12th April 1975

Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe
Directed by David Maloney

Synopsis

Instead of finding himself back on Nerva Station, the Doctor appears on a fog enshrouded rocky landscape.  In front of him is a man dressed in strange robes.  The Doctor knows instantly who it is - a Time Lord.

The Time Lord proposes a top secret mission for the Doctor to go on, one that could change the universe - his old enemy, the Daleks have caused far too much destruction over the centuries and the Time Lords want them dealt with.  The Doctor will be sent back in time to their creation and he can either destroy them so they never rise in power, alter their development so they become more peaceful, or find their definitive weakness.

The Doctor agrees and is given a time ring, a bronze bracelet that is the only means of getting back to his own time zone and his own TARDIS when this is done.  He asks for the coordinates to Skaro, but the Time Lord smiles and says he's already here.

The Time Lord disappears and not long after, Sarah Jane and Harry wander out of the wastes to meet up with their friend.

 The Doctor leads them through the rocky wastes.

They pass dead soldiers dressed in WWI regalia but carrying radiation detectors and other anachronistic items. The Doctor supposes that there is a terrible war ongoing here, one that started with advanced technology and ground down to more primitive weapons as time went on.  They move on to their next challenge - a minefield.  The Doctor steps on one but luckily, his foot only hit the base plate, not the firing mechanism.

They carry on until they see a large dome in the distance, big enough to cover a city.  They enter a trench network and find dummies and dead bodies propped up to make it look like the enemy have a larger force.

The Doctor and co. ponder this situation but are soon under attack by gas shells.  As they scramble to get gas masks from the dummies, the opposing army attack, dropping into the trench and fighting with Sarah, Harry and the Doctor.  Sarah is flung to the ground and knocked out, and the other two subdued.  Luckily, a door from a nearby bunker opens up and black-clad enemy soldiers come out, killing the attackers.  The black-clad soldiers check the bodies and realising the Doctor and Harry are alive, drag them inside the bunker, totally missing the unconscious Sarah.

The Doctor and Harry are taken for interrogation, believed to be Thals (see The Daleks), enemies of the self-identified Kaleds.  The Doctor immediately grasps the fact that the humanoid Kaleds must be ancestors of the Daleks because Kaled is an anagram of his hated enemy's name.

The Doctor and Harry bumble their way through the initial questions, buying time enough for the Doctor to surprise Ravon, his interrogator and snatch the pistol from his hand.  They force Ravon to take them back to the surface so they can find Sarah, but on their way, they meet Security Chief Nyder.

They try to bluff their way past Nyder but he suspects Ravon is being coerced and orders his men to open fire.  The Doctor and Harry leg it through a maze of corridors but are eventually captured once again.

Back on the surface, Sarah awakens to find that it's night.  She sees the bunker door and tries to get in but can't, so she wanders back out into the wasteland.  She is followed by someone wearing grey rags.

She wanders to an old crumbling building where she sees a terrible sight - a hideously deformed man confined to a futuristic wheelchair (that suspiciously looks like the bottom half of a Dalek). He has one functional arm and a third blazing blue eye in the middle of his forehead.

He's wired up to some form of life support system and is accompanied by a more human companion, dressed in Kaled military uniform.  To Sarah Jane's shock, the deformed man orders a stationary Dalek to perform basic movement actions and then to destroy some human shaped targets.  The deformed man seems pleased with the result and casually says "we can begin".

Once their experiment is over, the disabled man, Gharman and the Dalek leave.  Sarah is about to follow them when she's attacked by the men in tattered grey clothing.  They are muto's and they intend to mug her and kill her.  One of the muto's called Sevrin challenges their law of killing norms and ends up fighting with his colleague.  The fight is interrupted as a Thal patrol enters the ruined building.

Sevrin's colleague tries to make a run for it and gets shot, leaving Sevrin and Sarah Jane to be taken prisoner.

Back in the Kaled bunker, the Doctor and Harry are checked for weapons and the Doctor's belongings are confiscated including his Sonic Screwdriver and the Time Ring.  They are sent to Senior researcher Ronson for further interrogation.  Ronson is an elite scientist, yet, he can't wrap his head around the Doctor's puzzling biological scan and their claims to be aliens from another world.

He holds it true that Davros is right - no life exists beyond the seven galaxies, The Doctor quips that there's more than seven galaxies and asks who Davros is.  Before Ronson can answer, all the scientists are called to attention ready for the arrival of Davros himself.

Davros turns out to be the disfigured man.  He announces that his experiments with the Kaled Mark III travel machine have been a success.

The Doctor is astonished to discover that the travel machine is a Dalek.  Davros activates the Dalek's weapon and it immediately hones in on the Doctor and Harry shouting "Exterminate!"

Ronson dives in the way and stops the Dalek to which Davros is furious.  Ronson pleads that the prisoners could be very valuable and he would like to finish interrogating them before they die.  Davros agrees but claims Ronson will be punished at a later point.

Sarah meanwhile is taken with Sevrin to the Thal dome where they are used as slave labour to fill a giant rocket with explosives that will be launched against the Kaled city.  One of the Kaled prisoners is certain it will fail though as the dome is super tough and cannot be damaged (another Davros invention).

The only downside is that the missile uses distronic explosives, a substance that will poison the slaves as they load it.

Back in the Kaled bunker, Ronson visits the Doctor and Harry in their cell.  He explains that the bunker is a few miles from the Kaled dome and was built to house the best scientific minds of the Kaled people.  Davros is in charge of the elite.  When hope of the war ending became redundant, Davros turned his attention to the mutations from the chemical (and nuclear) warfare.  He developed a programme to determine the final creature that the Kaled people will end up looking like and therefore wanted a machine for them to move around in. Ronson confirms that Davros just announced that the Mk III machine will now be called a Dalek and can't get over how the Doctor knew.

The Doctor re-iterates that they're aliens and can sense that Ronson is not happy with Davros.  Ronson confirms that he is sure if the main Kaled government were to discover what Davros was doing, they would shut down the experiment, but Ronson and the rest of the elite are confined to the bunker.  The Doctor agrees to help contact the government in return for Ronson helping them escape.  Ronson takes them out of their cell and leads them to an air vent.

Back in the Thal dome, Sarah Jane and Sevrin are getting sick.  in desperation, they decide to try and overpower the guard at the start of their next shift.  Luckily this works and the prisoners are out of their cells.  They are deep in the Thal dome however and so the only way out is by climbing the great rocket and getting out the top.

 As they climb, the alarm is raised and Thal soldiers begin shooting up at them.

Sarah finds the climb difficult and eventually falls.  Sevrin helps her to her feet, but they are re-captured, just as they get to the nose cone of the rocket.

The Doctor and Harry make it through the cavernous tunnels under Skaro and eventually reach the Kaled Dome, contacting the Council.  News of this reaches Davros and he orders Nyder to find out how they escaped and the details of what they discussed.

Mogran, head of the Council hears what the Doctor has to say, and then decides to launch and independent inquiry into Davros' work.

Until the outcome, all work at the bunker will cease.  The Doctor and Harry are pleased, even more so when Ravon tells them that they've heard from Thal double agents about Sarah-Jane's breakout attempt.  Ravon knows about the Thal rocket but is unconcerned as the Kaled Dome has been reinforced by a material Davros himself designed.  He agrees to show them the way to the Thal dome so they can try to rescue Sarah.

When the Council confront Davros, he seems un-phased.  He agrees to the inquiry, but as soon as the Councillors have left, he orders Nyder to place the Dalek mutants into the travel machine shells.

Nyder protests as he fears they're still unstable but Davros is insistent.

Nyder asks what they will do next and Davros explains that he and Nyder are about to go on a journey.

By the time Harry and the Doctor get to the Thal Dome (they were delayed fighting a mutant oyster) they see Davros and Nyder talking to the Thal leaders.  Davros spins a tale that he is only bothered about ending the war and having peace.  As a gesture that he means it, he gives the Thals a formula for a chemical that will destroy the Kaled Dome defences if they load it into shells and fire it before they launch the rocket.  The Thals are not unduly skeptical, and ask Davros why he'd betray his own people.  He says they are consumed by the war and he just wants to play a part in the rebuilding of Skaro.

The Doctor and Harry leave the area as they are almost discovered and fail to see Davros announcing his ultimate triumph over both the Kaleds and the Thals.  They eventually find Sarah and sneak into the rocket loading bay dressed as guards.  They rescue Sarah and Sevrin, and the Doctor orders them all to get away back to the Kaled Dome whilst he destroys the rocket.  They agree but whilst he's messing with the control panel, one of the real Thal guards regains consciousness and electrocutes the controls, shocking the Doctor into unconsciousness.

When he comes round, the Doctor finds himself in the launch room with the rocket counting down and the Thal leaders watching it.  He tries to stop them but it's no good, the rocket is launched and thanks to Davros' formula, the dome is too weak to withstand it.  The Kaled city and everyone in it are destroyed.  The Thals celebrate and say that now the Kaleds are defeated, they can once again have peace.  As a gesture of this, they release all prisoners, including the Doctor.  But the Doctor is sad, seeing as how he sent Harry and Sarah back to the Kaled Dome before it was destroyed.

In the Kaled bunker, all the scientists are shocked by the Dome's destruction.

Davros pretends to be angered by it all and says whoever did it will pay, starting with the Thal spy - Ronson!  The scientist obviously protests that he's no spy but is exterminated by the Daleks.  Davros orders Gharman to implement some changes in the Dalek mutants genetic structures.  Gharman points out that these changes will stop the mutants from having a conscience and morality.  Davros calls it an improvement and insists the work be carried out, leaving Gharman most disturbed but without a choice.

Now rid of the potential danger of the Kaled Council, Davros begins eliminating loose ends by sending his Daleks to the Thal dome to kill everyone they encounter.  The Doctor flees when they arrive and manages to rescue a female Thal soldier called Brettan.  Once outside the Thal Dome, the Doctor tells Brettan to gather as many Thals as she can and form a fighting force to attack the Kaled bunker.

With this underway, the Doctor heads back towards the Kaled bunker to retrieve the time ring from Ronson's desk.  On his way, he's attacked by muto's who are in turn fought off by Sevrin, Harry and Sarah-Jane.  The Doctor is delighted to see them and they explain they didn't manage to reach the dome before it was destroyed.  Together, Harry, Sarah and the Doctor go back to the bunker, leaving Sevrin to find Brettan and help raise a militia.

In the bunker, Gharman begins talking to the other scientists about his unease. He's overheard by Nyder who pretends to also be concerned about Davros.  He convinces Gharman to reveal everyone who's part of the plan and then turns on him, knocking him unconscious.  This occurs just as the Doctor, Harry and Sarah come out of the underground tunnels right in front of them.

They are also subsequently arrested.

The group are all strapped to torture devices, and the Doctor is forced by Davros to explain the real reason he's here and recount his mission for the Time Lords.

Davros is fascinated and then under threat of harm to Harry and Sarah, forces the Doctor to reveal the details of every Dalek defeat.  That way, Davros aims to programme these details into the Dalek subconscious and thus, they will never be defeated.

The Doctor has little choice and complies.

When the interrogation is over, Nyder takes the recording of the confession away, and Harry and Sarah are taken to cells, leaving the Doctor to speak with Davros, Scientist to Scientist.

The Doctor pleads for Davros to stop, stating that the creatures he's created are evil.  Davros refutes it and says they're merely conditioned to survive and to do so, they must be ruthless.  On the up side, he argues that once they've conquered everyone, there will be universal peace.

The Doctor tests Davros one final time, posing that if he'd invented a virus capable of destroying every living thing in the universe, and that virus was in his hands, would Davros use it?  Davros ponders the situation and falls in love with having such power on such a scale and the ability to decide the fate of everyone would be too good not to - the power would "set him up among the gods!"

The Doctor coyly states that now he knows Davros is mad.  Suddenly, he dives out of his imprisoned chair and grabs hold of Davros' hand, threatening to turn off his life support unless he orders the Daleks to be killed.

Davros seems genuinely afraid and reluctantly does as he's ordered, but luckily for him, is able to countermand that order as Nyder sneaks up and knocks the Doctor unconscious.

Elsewhere in the bunker, Gharman's friend, Kavell, overpowers the prison guard and frees Sarah and Harry.  As Nyder takes the Doctor to jail, Harry dressed as the guard tries to stop him but he gets away.  Gharman and Kavell now free, go to rally the other scientists to stop Davros, but the Doctor warns them that Davros is likely to know what they're planning. Gharman and Kavell go anyway but thank the Doctor.

Now free once more, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry discuss their mission, knowing that there's the complication of needing not only the time ring, but now, they must retrieve the recording.  First however, they must find a way to deal with the Daleks.

Back near the Thal Dome, Brettan and Sevrin are gathering people but there's far too few.  The Daleks have wiped out a lot and now there job is done, they begin heading back to the Kaled bunker.

In said bunker, Gharman and his crew grab the automatic weapons and confront Davros, giving him an ultimatum.  He can continue his work on the Daleks but they must have ethical standards or they will all be destroyed.  Seeing as Gharman wants to settle things by democracy, Davros asks for a meeting with everyone who opposes him to try and convince them.  At the end of this, if the majoriy of people still wish him to stop, then he will stop.  Gharman agrees and leaves.

After rummaging about in some lockers, the Doctor, Harry and Sarah find Sarah a new military style outfit, but also, some explosives and a detonator.

The Doctor says the Time Lords gave him three options and the only one that's left is genocide.  He takes the explosives and plants them in the Dalek incubator room but is viciously attacked by the green blobs as he finishes his preparations.

Thanks to Harry and Sarah, he manages to throw them back into the room.

The Doctor takes the wires and pauses, lamenting that by simply connecting both wires, the Daleks will be wiped out from the face of history.  Sarah questions why that's a bad thing, but the Doctor says that many alliances and friendships are forged in the face of oppression by the Daleks and if he wipes them out like this, is he any better than them?

Sarah doesn't care and encourages him to do it.  At that point however, Gharman turn up and tells the Doctor about Davros agreeing to his ultimatum.  The Doctor thanks Gharman, disconnects the explosives, and returns with them all to the main lab to confront Davros and Nyder.

Once in the main lab, they gather with all of Davros' opposers and listen to his case.  During this time, they find the Time Ring on Ronson's desk and sneak it back into their possession,

Outside the bunker, the Daleks return, and are followed inside by Brettan, Sevrin and the rest of the pitifully small band.  They begin setting up explosives themselves, intending the seal the bunker off like a tomb and trapping everyone inside forever.  Sevrin knows that Sarah is inside and negotiates with Brettan for him to go off and look for her.

Back in the main lab, everyone is so engrossed in the debate between Davros and Gharman that they fail to notice Nyder sneak off.  The Doctor, Harry and Sarah see him though and follow him.  They corner him and in the ensuing struggle, the Doctor doesn't see that the Time Ring falls onto the floor.  They subdue Nyder and force him to lead them to Davros' office.  Once there, they make him open his safe and take out the recording.  The Doctor destroys it with a prototype Dalek gun, but Nyder runs off, sealing the office behind a blast door.  The Doctor isn't too concerned as the Dalek progress has been altered for the better, thanks to Gharman, the recordings are destroyed and he has the...wait, no he doesn't have the Time Ring!

Back in the main lab, the scientists vote and it becomes clear that the majority is against Davros.  He is contemptible to them and says he will never surrender.  At that moment, the doors open and Daleks appear, exterminating all those who opposed Davros.

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry all see the massacre from a screen in Davros' office.

Sevrin unlocks the blast door, finding the TARDIS crew.  He explains what Brettan's plan is and they rush off, finding the Time Ring still lying in the corridor.  The Doctor forces Harry and Sarah to go with Sevrin to the entrance whilst he goes back to the incubator room to finish what he started.  He connects the explosives once more but before he can connect the wires, a Dalek turn up.  It completes the circuit as it rolls over the two wire ends and the Dalek mutants are destroyed, taking the offending Dalek with them.

Davros' celebrations at victory are short lived when he discovers that the automated Dalek production line has been started without his order.  He commands that it is stopped again but the Daleks refuse.  Davros orders Nyder to stop it but the Daleks exterminate him as he reaches for the shut off button. The Daleks confidently announce that production will continue.

At the bunker entrance, Brettan is having a fit as everyone is telling her to wait, but the Daleks are almost upon them.

At the last second, the Doctor appears, diving through the doors just as the Daleks fire.

The militia seal the bunker and detonate the explosives, entombing the Daleks with their creator Davros.

Inside the bunker, Davros arrogantly tells them that he's their master as he created them.  They say that they are conditioned to obey no one and they will find a way to survive.  Seeing as Davros is not a Dalek and therefore inferior, they intend to begin their dominance of the universe by exterminating him.

He begs for pity but the Daleks refuse saying they don't understand the meaning of the word.  Davros reaches out for the production line self-destruct button but is exterminated by his own creations.

The lead Dalek proclaims that they've been trapped but this is only the beginning.  They will find a way out and they will become the supreme beings in all of the universe!

Sarah is quite happy that the Daleks are finished, but the Doctor soon changes his tune, saying that it's more likely he's only delayed them a few thousand years.  They say their goodbyes to Sevrin and Brettan and touch the time ring, being transported through space and time.

Sarah asks if the Doctor's disappointed that he failed.  He says he's not disappointed at all because out of all the evil, there must be some good also created.

Trivia

• Terry Nation was approached again as a way to fill up this season with familiar things so that the "new" Doctor would have a chance to find his feet.  Nation went away and came back with something along the lines of the Daleks, Skaro, Plague bomb, Pretending to be a Dalek etc.  Barry Letts who was still Producer as this was being planned, went back and told him it better change from the last five or six times he'd sold it to them.  

• Nobody can be sure, but it seems likely that Robert Holmes would have had a significant hand in crafting the story that we see today.  

• This is the last story Terry Nation wrote for Doctor Who with the Daleks in it.  

• If you look closely, the Thal energy weapons are the same ones used by the Dhravins in Galaxy 4

• The failed Davros experiment seen walking past an air vent is actually part of an Ice Warrior costume

• Before the advent of things like UK Gold and BBC Three, Genesis of the Daleks was the most shown Doctor Who on UK television, getting re-runs in 1975, 1982 (as part of the 5 faces of Dr Who), 1993 and again in 2000.

• Peter Miles (Nyder) somehow had in his possession an Iron Cross.  Although he was forbidden to wear it on set, he successfully did manage to sneak it in as they were filming some scenes (he wears it in the earlier episodes).

• Finally, everyone over the age of 30 will remember when the band KLF created a top ten single to a Gary Glitter backing track.  Genesis of the Daleks provided many of the sample lyrics for that song.  "Doctor Whooooo, hey! Doctor Who, Doctor Whooooooo, Hey! The TARDIS")

What worked

• The dark atmosphere 
• The fact that it doesn't shy away from killing and death which embeds the Nazi parallel even further.
• The acting is just 11 out of 10 for many of the people in this - so damn good!
• The effects for Davros are pretty fantastic as well, considering that less than a year ago, we were watching Alpha Centauri bobbing about
• The Daleks appear cold and ruthless and unstoppable, just like they should
• The music is pretty spot on too

What didn't work

• The fact that the Doctor is convinced that he'll destroy the daleks forever and then says oh well maybe not
• The mutant oyster
• The part when the Thals just let the Doctor go
• The part where the Thals capture the Doctor too for that matter - why would you put in a button that electrocutes your own control panel?

Overall Feelings
Amazing.  This is what happens when Terry Nation is called to task.  Given the regurgitated tripe that he's come up with the last few times (with the exception of Planet of the Daleks and the first half of the Dalek's Master Plan), this is a total breath of fresh air.

It's like the stars align.  Tom Baker is hilarious when he needs to be (what, no tea?), serious when he needs to be (do I have the right?) and by the way, philosophical in a way that we totally end up sympathizing with his dilemma. Sarah Jane is great, Harry is great, Davros is incredible, Nyder is chilling, even supporting characters like the Thal guy who grabs Sarah at the top of the rocket, Lt Grueber, or Ronson....everyone plays their parts with utter conviction and it leads us to feel far more immersed.  Doctor Who and the Daleks captivated us with a strange and devastated alien world, Genesis of the Daleks captivates us by the people within that world.

This is without doubt one of my top 10 Doctor Who stories of all time and I doubt many of you would disagree.

Rating

10 out of 10!

Re-watchability Factor

9 out of 10

Only marked down because 6 episodes feels just a tiny bit long.

Watch this if you liked...

• The Daleks
• Destiny of the Daleks
• Resurrection of the Daleks
• Remembrance of the Daleks 
• Revelation of the Daleks
• The Stolen Earth (Doctor Who Series 4)
• The Magician's Apprentice (Doctor Who, Series 9)
• The Witches Familiar (Doctor Who, Series 9)

Consulting the Matrix

Did the Doctor have the right?  Should he have blown the Daleks up or not?