Genesis of the Daleks Discussion Post
Here were are! Our first Classic Who discussion post!
1. This serial is basically "if you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a child, would you?". So, would you? And what do you make of the Doctor's struggle over this question? How do you compare his reluctance to touch the wires and destroy the incubation chamber to his reluctance to destroy the Daleks in "The Parting of the Ways"?
2. Another major theme of the this episode is about the senselessness of war and the importance of resistance groups and fighting oppressive regimes. Do you think the serial does a good job of exploring those ideas? How do you see those themes being expressed in the story?
3. How is this not a fixed point in time? What do you think of the concept of a fixed point in time anyway, since it seems to be super arbitrary?
4. WHERE DID SARAH JANE GET HER NEW CLOTHES? She starts out the episode in this outfit and is wearing this one by the end. Did I zone out and miss a scene where she got new clothes?
5. For first time Classic Who viewers, the uh... difference in quality of the special effects can be distracting. Were there any moments like that that brought you out of the story?
6. What exactly does the Doctor mean at the end of the serial?
SARAH: You don't seem too disappointed. We've failed, haven't we?
DOCTOR: 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.
Does this bit of dialogue (the closing lines of the serial) affect how you see the serial? What does this mean in terms of what the point of the entire serial was to begin with anyway?