Genesis of the Daleks: Part One

Review of all 6 episodes:

One of the most famous and most loved stories in Doctor Who history, this really deserves the fame and praise it receives. It is a fabulous story with brilliance in every aspect of its production.

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry are intercepted by the Time Lords as they try to return to the Nerva space station via Transmat. The Time Lord who speaks to The Doctor gives him a mission to interfere with the creation of the Daleks as they are considered a threat to the Universe. He is told he can stop their creation or influence their nature for the better. They find themselves in the middle of a war on Skaro between the Thals and the Kaleds. The war has gone on for a very long time and scientist Davros has created the Daleks in order to bring the war to an end. Davros is power crazed and has evil intent for his Daleks to become all powerful creatures. There are adventures as The Doctor seeks to interfere with Davros' plans. Finally when he has the chance to destroy the Daleks, The Doctor has a moral dilemma as to whether to destroy the Dalek race is excusable due to their evil or if it makes him as bad as the Daleks with such a genocidal act.

The script, story and acting are top class throughout. Davros is an inspired creation, a villain of the finest quality and acted amazingly well by Michael Wisher. Baker is on top form and his scenes with Davros and their intellectual duelling is gripping. The scene with the dilemma of conscience for The Doctor trying to decide whether to destroy the Daleks is genius and the story as a whole is exceptionally well written.

One of the most exceptional stories in Doctor Who and therefore television history.

"If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you and told you that the child would grow up... to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?... Do I have that right?"

The Daleks were always reminiscent of the Nazis, but while Nation's previous Dalek stories used this as subtext, it is made exceptionally blunt here and that's not a criticism. It's always surprised me, sort of, that "Genesis" had such a big mainstream fanbase (it and "The Five Doctors", I believe, have outsold and by far any other Doctor Who DVD release). I suppose it is very memorable, but it's also not REALLY what "Doctor Who" feels like much of the time. It lays on mythology and history rather heavily, is surprisingly violent and gruesome (the new show would never have anything approaching some of this in it, and if it did it would probably be ruined by hackneyed dramatics), and has a pretty dark, ominous tone, with only a few scenes of the sort of humor present in a lot of previous Who stories. While its popularity is more than understandable, it is a little odd to me that it is often referred to as the definitive Who story (unless you view "Doctor Who" as "The Dalek Show", a view Russell T. Davies has seemed rather eager to uphold).

Of course I have little to add to what has already been said many times about this story. Its reputation is well-deserved, its scale believable thanks to good direction even though there is nothing in the way of location shooting or elaborate sets, the writing consistently tight and smart. For the Who fan "Genesis" represents a stylish, relatively well thought-out revisionist take on the Dalek's history. The lack of consistency in the 'canon' of Who is understandable given how it was made (and the fact that before the late seventies/early eighties and even then and after they were making it for one-time viewing, basically, other than reruns home video was not really a part of the equation), but given that Terry Nation wrote most of the previous Dalek stories one can hardly see this as anything but a revision of past history, one which is 'explained' by some fans rather well. I prefer not to talk about 'canon' though and just assess the stories on their own merit.

The actors are all convincing and the story is consistently involving, moving from scene to scene with conviction and a fast (but not speedy) pace. It's rather heavy stuff, as previously mentioned, and quite intelligent in its handling of its themes, for "Doctor Who" anyway, and without the pretension and mawkish sentimentality which would inevitably be par for the course these days (though another Dalek story lends itself better to bitching about RTDWho, imagine the Doctor saying goodbye to Susan in "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" done in RTD's era... blech). Admittedly this could be an episode or even two shorter but it is such a legendary and well-done story all around that it's hard to knock it, and I really love Davros in this.

The opening episode of Genesis is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best single episodes in the show's history. Tom's previous episodes had worked particularly well, but Genesis certainly signifies the start of one of the most iconic, best loved periods in the show's history.

The first part is incredibly atmospheric, the setting creepy, sinister and hugely unusual, feeling like a World War 2 War zone, the reality, the dreaded Planet Skaro, during the birth of the Daleks.

So many incredibly interesting things in this one episode alone, The Time Lord's intervention, and fears over the Daleks, the revelation that the Kaleds were the indigenous people on Skaro, alongside the Thaals.

It's the magical trio of Tom Baker, Liz Sladen and Ian Marter that shine through, what a fantastic on screen team they were.

Zero faults, this episode is virtually perfect. 10/10

A wonderfully striking atmospheric opening to this thoughtful-six parter. The principles are on fine form with top honours going to Baker who was by now starting to find his form in the role.

Nation again turns to WWII Nazi ideology and trappings for inspiration but whereas in the past he has attempted a degree of subtlety, here his references are explicit and blatant and all the more effective for it. WWII would have still been fresh in the memory for many of the mid seventies teatime audience catching this fresh off the back of the football results and I suspect this episode would have resonated a lot more than one would expect for a 'childrens' TV show.

I pity the 6 year old me back in 1975 having to wait an whole week for part 2!!!

Appearing on the surface of Skaro, a Time Lord has something to bestow, leaves the Doctor no choice, universe will rejoice, stopping what was created long ago.