Doctor Who 12.04 Genesis of the Daleks
DOCTOR: "Even I am occasionally wrong about some things."
Overview
Genesis of the Daleks is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. I'm not alone in that. This one sits at or near the top of most peoples' lists, and for good reason, so as much as it pains me to jump on anyone's bandwagon, I'm not about to break ranks here. Genesis is quite rightly noted by most commentators as a landmark story for the show - and that despite being somewhat revisionist by nature. It is quintessential Classic Doctor Who.
It isn't perfect, obviously. Few things are. There are plot holes, contrivances, inconsistencies and other weaknesses a-plenty. But taken as a whole, this story just works. It's got a powerful, tightly plotted storyline, atmospheric cinematography, strong character dynamics and all the actors involved, both regular and guest, give excellent performances. It plays a little fast and loose with the history of the Daleks as previously established on the show, but what the heck, it's a show about time travel and history can be re-written, so we can go with it.
Genesis is also regarded by most commentators as the first salvo in the Time War and is therefore hugely significant for that fact alone. No wonder the Time Lords ultimately lost. They simply don't have either the energy or the sheer unadulterated hatred of the Daleks, as is amply demonstrated here.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Bear with me, this one is likely to get rather long.
The first sequence of the story really sets the tone for everything that follows - grim and brutal and very atmospheric, plus it really helps that the opening scenes were shot on film on location, which always looks so much grittier and more realistic than videotaped scenes on set. That slow-mo sequence of soldiers being gunned down in a drab, dusty valley tells us everything we need to know about the world this story is set in. And then the Doctor appears out of the mist, and the plot kicks in.
I like about this Doctor that he's very good at keeping his cool, as a rule. He just transmatted off Earth in the far future (Sontaran Experiment) and was meant to land back on Nerva Space Station (as seen in Ark in Space), which this planet most certainly isn't, but he just takes it in his stride, not a hint of surprise or alarm, yet you just know that beneath that calm exterior his mind is working feverishly, trying to figure out what just happened, where he might be and how he got there, not to mention why his companions aren't still by his side. And then a Time Lord appears out of the mist to fill him in.
Man, the Time Lords are so pompous and grandiose! No wonder the Doctor can't stand them. I'll say this for them, though: they know their audience. The Doctor is adamant that he wants nothing to do with whatever game they are playing…until he hears the word 'Dalek'. That's the hook and it works and they knew it would work.
I do have a slight problem, though, with the inherent paradox thrown up by the Time Lords' plan to either prevent the creation of the Daleks or affect their development to make them less vicious. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert on the theoretical complexities involved with time travel, but since the Doctor has already encountered and battled against the Daleks many, many times by this point, wouldn't preventing their creation involve crossing his own time-stream? Can he really wipe out such a huge part of his own personal history like that (to say nothing of the various companions who were with him for those adventures)? Wouldn't that have major repercussions, even if the Time Lords do have means of straightening things out? I know, I know - wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, don't ask too many questions, just go with the flow. Maybe the fact that the Doctor's many battles with the Daleks have already happened stands as evidence that this mission was doomed from the start - he couldn't succeed because he already hadn't, kind of thing. Then again, NuWho has taught us that time can be re-written, and on the face of it at least, this story does seem to over-write certain aspects of previously established Dalek history (notably the events of The Daleks), so who knows?
Practically the first thing Sarah does when she and Harry find the Doctor is observe that they haven't landed where they were supposed to, on the 'beacon' - it's a minor point, but that's a continuity error, as they won't know Nerva Space Station as the 'beacon' until the next adventure, Revenge of the Cybermen, which was filmed before this one but very definitely comes after it both in the airing schedule and in the timeline of the characters.
Sarah and Harry are both old hands at adventuring with the Doctor by now. They each take the change of plans completely in their stride, even with the Doctor being all cryptic. "This is Skaro," is all he's got to say about their unexpected destination, like that's supposed to mean anything to either of them. Presumably he fills them in at some point on the Time Lords' interference and the mission he's been given, but we don't see that conversation on screen.
I like the three-way conversation between the Doctor, Sarah and Harry as they puzzle through the oddities they've spotted about the warzone they've landed in - the three characters play off one another really well and they all contribute to the discussion, it isn't just the Doctor talking at his companions.
I love that Harry is allowed to be brave and resourceful, saving the Doctor's life when he steps on a landmine. Not being any kind of bomb disposal expert allows me to take the scene completely at face value - although I do wonder why the Doctor doesn't just use his sonic screwdriver to clear the minefield ahead of them, as we've seen him do in the past. Harry is much more on the ball in this story than in his first couple of outings; he has well and truly adjusted to the pace of life with the Doctor now.
The switch from location scenes shot on film to videotaped scenes on set is really glaring.
Okay, that trench with all the corpses propped up to make it look heavily defended must absolutely stink to high heaven.
It's all a bit grim, with our heroes having to pull gas masks off corpses to protect themselves from a poison gas attack, and then being attacked and fighting hand-to-hand before all being knocked out, only for their attackers to be brutally gunned down. If it were shot on film on location it would look fab, but even on videotape on set the point is made: this is a brutal war that our protagonists have stumbled into and they are in very real danger at every moment. I mean, even though this is Doctor Who and we know the leads aren't going to be killed off, the story succeeds in creating a very tense atmosphere throughout.
I like that the Doctor and Harry both seem properly winded after the gas attack and fight, and it takes them both a good few minutes to get their breath back and start firing on all cylinders again. That feels more realistic than if they just shook it off immediately.
Okay, so this war of attrition is between the Kaleds and the Thals, two different peoples who inhabit the planet Skaro - a war that when the Doctor first encountered the Daleks, many years in their future (but the Doctor's personal past), was a distant memory. So far so consistent with the history established in The Daleks. What I don't really understand is how the peoples of this entire world came to be boiled down to just two single races and two single cities, even if the war has been that terrible and that long-lasting. And we aren't ever told how the war started in the first place - possibly it's been going on for so long that nobody even remembers. They simply hate each other because they always have.
In The Daleks we were told that the planet was devastated by a neutron bomb, which was the cause of terrible mutations and from which the population of the planet was nowhere near recovering, even after hundreds of years. That history has been slightly changed for this story; although the mutations are still a major factor, in this version they were caused by long-term use of chemical weapons, rather than a single neutron bomb.
Guy Siner puts in a fabulous performance as General Ravon. His absolute commitment to his cause, his fanaticism, his unswerving devotion to duty - he really brings the character to life, heart and soul. Ditto Peter Miles with the cold, calculating bastard Nyder.
How come the Doctor is made to turn out his pockets, but Harry isn't?
Ooh, when Ravon boasts of the Kaleds' plan to wipe the Thals from the face of Skaro, the Doctor shrugs that he's heard that before - he most certainly has: in The Daleks, when the Daleks were still trying (and failing) to achieve just that.
I love the little interplay when the Doctor swipes Ravon's gun out of his hand and Harry catches it - good reflexes there, as Harry wasn't expecting it any more than Ravon was, but reacts instantly to secure the guard. I like when the Doctor is able to trust a companion to think fast enough to back him up effectively in a situation like that. We've seen him pull a similar stunt with Jamie in The War Games. He prefers not to wield a weapon himself, but he's quite happy for his companions to do it for him.
Okay, so one of the criticisms often aimed at this story is that the Doctor and Harry supposedly take three episodes to notice that Sarah was left behind when they were brought into the Kaled dome. So let me point out here that this is not true. They don't make a huge song and dance about her being left behind because they are prisoners and she is still free, but the moment they have overpowered their captors, the Doctor is anxious to return to the Wasteland - which can only be in order to find Sarah, since he is already in the right place to begin his anti-Dalek mission. And then as Ravon leads them to the exit, Harry very specifically expresses concern for Sarah, left to fend for herself in the Wasteland ("I hope Sarah's all right," he says and the Doctor agrees, and then Ravon offers them scare stories about how anyone wandering the Wasteland alone at night won't last long as the mutos will be out and about). This is just two scenes after she was left behind, and they have been very preoccupied with the minor matter of being captured and trying to escape during that time, but they are clearly very aware of Sarah having been left behind and are worried about her. So, contrary to popular opinion, they do notice straight away that Sarah is missing. It's just that for the bulk of the first few episodes they aren't in a position to do anything about it and have more immediately pressing issues of their own to deal with!
I really like the skirt and boots Sarah is wearing in this story. Three and a half decades later, I would wear those today!
The Kaleds claim to be really hard up for ammunition - so why do they waste so much of their scarce resources shooting at the Doctor and Harry as they attempt to escape? Since they are all such suck shots, it seems an awful waste. Shouldn't they be cannier than that, and employ other means of trying to take down the fugitives, given how long they've had to operate under such conditions?
Escape, run, get recaptured - it really is a classic Doctor Who trope for when a spot of excitement and drama is needed to fill in time in a lengthy story.
It's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but I really like the glimpse we catch of the alarmed look that flits across Harry's face when Nyder decides to take him and the Doctor to the bunker for interrogation by the 'special unit', because - yeah, that really does sound like something to be worried about. It's only for a second, though. He's got his game face firmly back in place by the time the camera finds him again, following the Doctor's lead for all he's worth, but that tiny moment confirms that the studied air of nonchalance he maintains throughout is just an act.
It's all kinds of ironic that the Kaleds have long employed a policy of banishing their genetic wounded into the Wasteland in a drive to keep the race 'pure' - which is where the mutos come from - only to later decide to embrace the concept of mutation utterly in the form of the Daleks!
In Sontaran Experiment, Harry spent a large chunk of the adventure wandering around the countryside all on his own. Here in Genesis of the Daleks, it is Sarah's turn to spend some time running around the wilderness all alone, and in the process she is the first to catch a glimpse both of Davros - the creator of the Daleks - and of the very first proto-Dalek ever seen on Skaro!
The make-up crew did a really good job, turning Michael Wisher into Davros. The character has been watered-down in his subsequent appearances on the show, but is utilised to perfection in this his debut story. He looks horrendous and is absolutely chillingly insane.
We don't ever get a really good look at any of the mutos, not even Sevrin, who we get to know fairly well - I like that, as suggestion and implication are always more effective than full disclosure. Sevrin is a lovely character. He's so fair-minded, despite what must have been an awful life. He gets one of the better anti-prejudice speeches in the story, as well.
I like that Harry has to calm the Doctor down and talk a bit of sense into him when he panics about the Time Ring being confiscated; it's such a reversal of the usual Doctor-companion roles. I like it because it is always good to see the Doctor shaken out of his usual composed demeanour - a sign of how worried he is about their situation, beneath the surface, however much he is trying not to let it show; also a reminder that he does so hate to be without an exit strategy, and not having the Tardis on hand to escape in always grates on him, habitual wanderer that he is -and I think it is also good for a companion to be allowed to see the Doctor vulnerable and afraid from time to time. And I like it because it's a good character moment for Harry, showing us how sensible and practical he can be: he is fully aware of what the loss of the Time Rings means, but is absolutely right that they will be better off if the Kaleds don't know what it is or how important it is to them. Harry doesn't have a huge amount to do for chunks of this story, but he's a reassuringly stalwart figure at the Doctor's side throughout.
Some of the extras employed in this story are pretty lousy. But the lead and main guest actors are all excellent, always acting and reacting in the background of any scene they are in, whether they have dialogue or not.
So many guns and so much shooting - yet never any blood. Ah, the 1970s.
I like the scene where the Doctor and Harry are first questioned by the scientist Ronson. I love how busy the background of the scene is, with a whole bunch of other scientists going about their business throughout; it really helps sell the setting of the scene. I love the way Harry lounges comfortably in his chair, giving a good impression of being entirely unconcerned about the precarious situation he finds himself in, still taking his cues very much from the Doctor on that point. And I love the way the Doctor bamboozles Ronson utterly, simply by being exactly who and what he says he is.
This story is very tightly plotted, despite that plot being spread across six episodes - there is very little padding, every scene moves the story forward.
You know, the Kaleds really shouldn't keep their prisoners in the room while a top secret briefing is taking place. I'm glad it turns out to be a set-up, deliberately planned by Davros as a test of his shiny new Daleks, because it seemed like such a major breach of security protocols!
"You can't always judge from external appearances," says the Doctor. This story isn't what you'd call subtle about the political allegory it is telling, but even aside from the very obvious Nazi/fascist parallels, there is a strong message in there about diversity and equality and the importance of looking beyond the surface in one's dealings with others.
I love Sarah's gift for making friends wherever she goes. It is one of her strongest attributes, as a companion. She and Sevrin really are kindred spirits, neither one hesitates for a second to accept the other for who they are despite their differences; the friendship they strike up is lovely.
I like it when exposition is delivered through conversation in a way that sounds natural - such as when the captured Kaled soldier tells Sarah about the Thal rocket they are being made to load explosive into. It's a good way of getting that information over to the audience, so that we know now what the Thals are up to as well as the Kaleds. Since the war between the two peoples is the root of the story, we need to know something of both sides, although the Kaleds are the main focus.
The toxic chemical/radiation that Sarah was exposed to is never mentioned again. Presumably we must conclude that since she wasn't exposed for very long, in the grand scheme of things, there is no lasting ill-effect.
The Doctor and his companions have a really rough time of it, physically, in this story! They were all caught in that poison gas attack and were then beaten to the ground; Sarah is forced into slave labour and exposed to dangerously toxic chemicals/radiation; the Doctor goes through some harsh treatment (off-screen) by way of interrogation; Harry gets his foot chomped on by a giant clam; the Doctor gets electrocuted; Harry and Sarah are both tortured, the Doctor gets coshed over the head - and on the list goes! The very real physical danger they are all in is emphasised throughout.
I really like the relationship between the Doctor and Harry in this story. They've built up a strong understanding of one another now and that shines through in all their scenes together. There is a lot of non-verbal communication between the two, gestures and hand signals by way of silent strategising that demonstrate clearly how in-sync they have become over the last few stories. Harry doesn't have a great deal of dialogue, but what he does say makes it clear that he is following everything keenly, understands the situation perfectly and is even able to predict the Doctor's reasoning and planning at times - a far cry from his general air of bewilderment in earlier stories. We are now starting to learn who Harry is when he isn't bogged down by culture shock.
We are never really shown what the embryo Daleks look like (other than a few bits of tentacle when the Doctor goes into their nursery to place explosive). We are mostly only shown how our protagonists react to the sight of them. The Dalek attack on the celebrating Thals later in the story is similarly portrayed, more by implication than direct depiction. I really like that about this story - so much is implied, rather than shown directly. It's a very restrained and very effective way of conveying the grim horror of the situation, rather than going overboard (and failing) in an attempt to depict it more graphically.
It can be quite fascinating to trace the similarities and differences between what we see/learn in The Daleks and in Genesis of the Daleks. Some of the differences can be rationalised as the distortion of history over the hundreds of years between the two adventures, some can only mean that later events are overwritten by what happens in this story, meaning that history (including, surely, the Doctor's personal history) really has been changed - and some differences can't really be explained at all; they are just ret-cons!
I love that Sarah hasn't been a prisoner of the Thals for more than five minutes before she starts stirring up her fellow captives into staging a jail break. She's brilliantly pro-active, keenly observant and extremely persuasive. You go, girl.
Of course, the jail break itself turns out to be just another variation on the escape, run away, then get recaptured trope, but although it doesn't really push the plot itself forward, it provides important character information, not just as a demonstration of Sarah's feisty independent spirit but because it develops her bond with Sevrin, shows us the alliance she forges with the Kaled prisoner (proof that they can be friends as well as enemies) and also demonstrates that the Thals can be just as brutal and sadistic as the Kaleds (which we need to know because they were the good guys last time we met them).
In The Daleks, we were presented with a very black and white story - and I don't just mean the cinematography. It was a very straightforward tale of good and evil. The Daleks were evil and the peaceful Thals were the innocents in need of salvation. Genesis of the Daleks is a lot murkier and more sophisticated. In this story, neither the Kaleds nor the Thals are inherently good or inherently evil, as collective peoples; both races are made up of individuals who all have the potential for both good and evil within them and what matters are the choices they each make, both individually and collectively. Sarah is captured (and mistreated) by the Thals and befriends a kindly Kaled prisoner, who saves her life; the Doctor and Harry are captured by the Kaleds and are treated very badly by some but befriend others, and the Doctor later forms an alliance with the surviving Thals. And then there are the mutos, who hate absolutely everyone because they have been so badly treated by all and sundry, yet who also produced the lovely Sevrin. It might be set on an alien planet, but this is a story about human nature and about the nature of war, in which nothing is ever as straightforward as good versus evil; there are always a multitude of individual stories to be told, each contributing to the whole.
That scene where the guard dangles Sarah over the edge of the rocket is all kinds of creepy. He offers her a hand, all helpful-like, and then kicks her feet out from under her and dangles her by the wrist over this immense drop, saying, "They say that people who fall from great heights are dead before they hit the ground. I don't believe that…do you?" As threats go, that's pretty effective! It's far creepier than the cliffhanger of the previous episode, which had Sarah falling off the scaffolding - only to reveal in the next episode that she'd fallen all of five feet before landing on a lower platform in a dead faint. Me, I'd have had the guard kicking her feet out from under her and pushing her from right off the top as the cliffhanger!
Okay, I'm not going to comment on the giant clams. It was a good idea, in theory, to have the Doctor and Harry run afoul of some of the mutant creatures roaming around in the caves, but it was 1975 and they just didn't have the special effects to pull it off effectively. Kudos to the actors, though, for giving it their all.
Episode three: the Doctor and Harry are now free of their Kaled captors but only so that they can carry out a vital mission to try to prevent the full-scale creation of the Dalek menace; they are also free only to travel through a deep underground tunnel system, rather than having access to the Wasteland where they last saw Sarah. Still, let us note that they are still keenly aware of her absence, as Harry reminds the Doctor of the need to find her. The Doctor is prioritising his mission now, though, the circumstances being what they are.
Those domes really do not look city-sized.
One thing I really appreciated about The Daleks was the timescale, which took account of the fact that it takes quite a long time to travel any distance on foot, and made allowances for this by giving a generous two day timescale for those travelling to the other side of the Dalek city. Genesis makes no such allowances - characters seem able to travel back and fore between the Kaled and Thal cities, on foot, in no time at all!
I really like the scene where the Doctor makes his presentation to the Kaled scientists and government officials. The situation is so urgent that he drops all his usual jokes and quirky behaviours, keeps himself from getting so impassioned about the danger of the Daleks that he comes across as crazy, and presents his case carefully, rationally, and with absolute conviction. It's really nicely done.
How convenient that Ravon is able to give the Doctor and Harry news of Sarah just when they are finally at liberty to go and start searching for her. I love how easily they can recognise Sarah from Ravon's description of a female prisoner who led a breakout and gave the Thals quite a bit of trouble - they know her well!
Only the Doctor could get away with saying a line like "Yes, and that's when our troubles really begin," with an enormous grin on his face.
Nyder has an awesome poker face. And his loyalty to Davros is terrifying. At least Davros is utterly insane and sociopathic. What's Nyder's excuse?
What is really scary about this story is that both sides are completely willing to commit genocide. In fact, the main ambition of both the Kaleds and the Thals is to commit genocide - both sides want to wipe the other out utterly, each considering the absolute eradication of the other to be the only way of ending the war. Suing for peace and trying to learn to live alongside one another in harmony (after all, there's a whole planet they could spread out across) doesn't seem to occur to anyone. After a thousand years of warfare, even the Doctor doesn't so much as bother to suggest it. He isn't here to strive for peace between these peoples; he just wants to stop the creation of the Daleks.
The Doctor knocks a pair of guards unconscious by banging their heads together. That seems uncharacteristically violent of him. Isn't that what companions are for - to handle any violence so the Doctor doesn't have to? At least he leaves disabling the guard to Harry in the next scene - although I always find myself wondering, when watching Classic Who, why so many people are knocked unconscious by a blow to the stomach. It isn't as if that's where they keep their brains!
Aww, look at the Doctor and Harry playing dress-up as Thal guards.
A lot of the Thals are blond - that's good continuity with The Daleks, in which all the Thals were uniformly blond.
I really like how the story uses the contrivance of the Doctor being electrocuted to skip forward in time, so that he goes from feverishly trying to sabotage the Thal rocket to coming round just in time to witness the destruction of the Kaled dome. Which…aside from the elite down in the bunker, that's the entire Kaled people wiped off the face of Skaro in that moment, the death toll must be astronomical. It is an act of genocide. That's a sobering thought to contemplate alongside the victory celebrations of the Thals. There is not even a hint of a search for survivors in the Kaled city; the destruction and loss of life appears to be total.
I really like the subtlety of the scenes immediately after the destruction of the Kaled dome, when the Doctor believes that Sarah and Harry have been killed. His reaction is so well done - a moment of utter desperation as he makes a last-ditch attempt to prevent the launch, fighting and yelling, followed by a moment of absolute stillness in the middle of the Thals celebrations, as he allows himself to grieve for his friends, just for a moment. Then he picks himself up and carries on with his mission, even finding himself a replacement companion (Bettan) to help with that mission, encouraging her to build a Thal resistance movement, because the Daleks are still out there and there is no time to lose - but through it all he is very subdued. He has to keep working the mission, because what else can he do, but the hefty price paid for it weighs heavily on him and that is very apparent in his demeanour. And then when he is reunited with Harry and Sarah, who aren't dead after all, he is absolutely overjoyed - just look at that beaming smile and the over-enthusiastic way he grabs and shakes Harry's hand and the way he hugs Sarah so hard she squeaks. The Doctor is alien and doesn't always show much recognisable emotion, but his affection for his friends shines through clearly here.
The scenes of the Daleks attacking the Thals in the middle of their victory celebrations are very effective, very cold, even though we only see a handful of either Thals or Daleks. The sound of gunfire and screaming conveys the horror very well. The second act of genocide in a single day - and there aren't even that many Daleks at this point, yet they manage to wipe out the unsuspecting Thals almost completely. Then when we see the Daleks passing the trenches in later scenes, silhouetted against the fiery sky, that's also extremely effective: such a chilling visual.
It's probably just as well for the Doctor and his new friend Bettan that Daleks have no peripheral vision; their hiding place just around the corner really shouldn't be as effective as it is! I like Bettan. Not only is she the very young, female leader of an army of resistance fighters, she's also extremely good at it - focused and driven and efficient, yet not without conscience or compassion. She is very cool.
There is something disturbingly ruthless about the Doctor's request for the surviving Thals to join forces and attack the Kaled bunker, knowing that if they come up against any Daleks they won't stand a chance. He is right that destroying Davros is their only hope of survival, long-term, and the situation is too desperate to be delicate about the fact that he is potentially sending these people to their deaths, but it still seems depressingly grim. It is also a good call-back to The Daleks, when the Thals were similarly urged by the Doctor and his companions to stage a direct assault on the Daleks, attack as the best means of defence.
Harry tackles a muto just before it can smash the Doctor's head in with a large rock - that's the second time he's saved the Doctor's life in this story.
Oh, I just love the way Sarah and Harry finish each other's sentences as they explain to the Doctor how they managed to avoid being in the Kaled dome when it was destroyed, falling over one another to get the story out. That's very cute.
I like that Harry was able to correctly predict that the Doctor would try to return to the Kaled bunker, because that's where the Time Ring is, and was able to use that insight to join up with him again.
There isn't a great deal of humour in this story, which really isn't the place for it. But Terry Nation did manage to get quite a few little quips in, here and there - like the tea gag that the Doctor and Harry between them kept running for a couple of early episodes - to lighten the mood a little.
Davros has masterminded two acts of genocide in this story: the destruction both of the Thals and of the Kaleds, his own people. It was bad enough that the planetary population had been boiled down to just two cities, after a thousand years of warfare. It is scary to think how depopulated the planet now is.
Nyder appears to be amusingly omnipresent - every time there is so much as a whisper of sedition among the surviving Kaleds, he is there, eavesdropping. What a sneaky bastard he is.
I really like the little interplay between Sarah and Harry as they make their way into the underground passage: Harry asking if Sarah is scared, Sarah automatically denying it, Harry in contrast not hesitating to admit that he is scared (well, he does already know what's in those tunnels) and Sarah promptly grabbing his hand by way of admitting that she is scared, too.
The lighting technicians did a really good job on this story. Often a lot of realism is lost from Classic Who because of the difficulty in making the lighting look natural for scenes shot on set (which the bulk of them were), but the way this story is lit is fantastic, wonderfully atmospheric.
The notion of having characters strapped into a torture machine is very typical of sci fi in this era: it allows lead characters to have terrible pain inflicted on them, without any actual physical damage being suffered, so that as soon as the machine is turned off, the pain is gone and there are no lasting ill-effects to have to contend with. It is also, of course, the reason they tend to get shot by stun guns rather than bullets, as a rule.
I really like that one of the first things the Doctor does when he finds himself face-to-face with Davros is tell him about the inter-galactic carnage his creations will be responsible for and suggest that with foreknowledge he could change all that and instead make them a force for good in the universe. There was never any chance that Davros would be persuaded, being as utterly insane as he is, but the Doctor wouldn't be the Doctor if he didn't at least try to suggest it.
Episode five ends on a good moral dilemma for the Doctor: with Sarah and Harry being tortured right before his eyes, does he put the immediate wellbeing of his friends ahead of the millions of lives at stake in the future if he gives Davros the information he desires? Of course, despite the heroism shown by both companions in pleading with him not to give in, it's a no-brainer, really. Of course he is going to protect his companions by giving Davros what he wants, because once their safety is secured he can always try to regroup and salvage the situation at a later stage.
I love that the writers of the NuWho story Journey's End clearly know this story well, as they included the little moment where Davros recognised the much older Sarah Jane, having met her as a young woman here in Genesis. Little touches like that are fantastic, as they reinforce the link between the old and new versions of the show, cement the notion that these are the same people and all these events are taking place in the same universe.
Davros really is barking mad. He just segues from torture and interrogation into a friendly little scientific chat with his prisoner, and doesn't even see that there's anything wrong with that. His megalomania is both fun and horrifying to watch, while his absolute xenophobia is chilling.
I want to cheer for the Kaled rebels as they finally pluck up the courage to take action against Davros and the Daleks. But I can't because it is too little, too late - not to mention that they are simply too naïve and idealistic to succeed. Davros is too clever, too ruthless and too evil for them to stand any chance against him. Then again, even the Doctor is fooled by Davros's fake surrender, so maybe the Kaleds can't be blamed quite so much after all. Wishful thinking can be a dangerous thing.
It is interesting and ironic to consider that Davros's desire to achieve universal peace by the rather extreme expedient of wiping out every other life form in the universe is simply a larger scale version of the general perspective of all Kaleds and Thals: that the only way to end a war is to eradicate the opposition, rather than striving to find common ground.
The Doctor's debate with Davros is absolutely fascinating, really gripping stuff. And then when the Doctor starts to physically grapple with Davros and switches off his life support system for a few seconds as a way of forcing him into compliance, man, that's further evidence of just how desperate the Doctor is at this point, as the use of such extreme tactics and violence isn't his usual methodology at all. He has been through a hell of a lot in this story, the death toll so far is horrendous, and the Doctor knows better than anyone how much carnage the Daleks are going to leave in their wake, having battled them so many times - the stakes really have never been higher.
Aww, Harry makes that Kaled uniform look good! It's the first change of clothes he's had all season…and he promptly changes back. Yet Sarah then gets yet another change of clothes just a couple of scenes later, completely randomly (in preparation for the next adventure, Revenge of the Cybermen). How come Sarah gets to wear several different outfits over the course of the season, but Harry has to wear the same clothes all the time? The Doctor we expect to see wearing much the same outfit all the time, but if Sarah is allowed to change her clothes, Harry should be as well.
Man, the writers really didn't trust their audience to remember why the Time Ring was important from one episode to the next - the characters remind each other over and over that without the Time Ring they'll never get off this planet.
It amuses me that the Doctor makes a point of shushing his companions, who are both being completely silent anyway, and then proceeds to very noisily bang at a locked cupboard door in a futile attempt at opening it. The sonic screwdriver was also confiscated, of course, so he can't use that. It is Harry who finds the unlocking device to gain access to the cupboard, having done some independent scouting around while Sarah was watching the Doctor's antics. Just in case it isn't obvious yet, one of the things I really like about this story is that it allows Harry to be clever and competent even while still being his usual bumbling self.
Even the embryo Daleks are murderous. Says it all, really.
I've never been a huge fan of the Doctor's big moral dilemma in this story: to blow up the embryo Daleks or not to blow up the embryo Daleks. For one thing, I think it's a bit overblown and he gets carried away with his baby Hitler metaphor. After all, there is absolutely no chance of these embryos being able to choose to do good rather than evil, as they have already been irreparably genetically altered to do nothing but hate and kill all other life forms. Davros has already committed genocide by removing all conscience and emotion from these creatures, which are now effectively all that remains of the Kaled race (save a few soldiers and scientists, who all appear to be male so wouldn't have much of a future even if the Daleks didn't wipe them out). Plus, all the Doctor's angsting over whether or not to commit genocide by blowing up the Dalek embryos is ultimately undercut by the fact that when he later does go ahead with the slaughter (aided and abetted by a convenient Dalek), he then says that destroying those embryos has only set their development back a thousand years, rather than wiping out the Daleks completely as he'd originally said it would. So all that anguish over whether or not to go through with the destruction of the Dalek nursery ends up being rather pointless.
Once the Doctor has both of his companions back at his side, Harry kind of fades into the background a bit, as Sarah is a much more forceful and outspoken character, while he is more the strong, silent type - not to mention that the writers often struggled to write balanced dialogue for scenes with more than one companion in, because they were focused on plot first and the Doctor second with the companions coming a very poor last place, existing mainly to support those two factors, rather than being written for in and of themselves. This was the main reason they decided to write Harry out of the show after this season. But he remains a useful sort of character to have around, lack of dialogue in these last couple of episodes notwithstanding - he's got the military experience to help the Doctor set explosive charges around the Dalek nursery, for example, which is not something Sarah could have done.
There's a sad little moment in the commentary when Tom Baker finally acknowledges the elephant in the room by directly mentioning Ian Marter's very premature death. Lis Sladen sounds quite upset at having it brought up, but then they go on to reminisce at length about Marter.
I rather like the way the Tardis trio so covertly reclaim the Doctor's confiscated belongings - including the sonic screwdriver and that precious Time Ring. They are so sneaky about it, in full view of the gathered Kaled elite.
I am immensely amused by the very big red button labelled 'total destruct' in very large lettering, so that no one can be in any doubt what it is for. According to Davros, pushing that button would destroy the entire bunker, except for the room the button is in (although I'm sure anyone in the safe room wouldn't last long, as they would be trapped in the ruins of the rest of the bunker). It's a pity the Doctor wasn't paying attention to the speech, as pressing that button might have been a much more certain way of destroying the Daleks than blowing up their embryo room!
Gharman gets in a few really good speeches before his inevitable demise.
Bless Sevrin and his loyal determination to get Sarah out of the bunker before the Thals can blow it up. He doesn't know about the Time Ring, of course - the Doctor and his companions don't really need to get out of the bunker before the exit is blown at all, they could use the Time Ring to escape from within, so long as they were clear of the blast. But Sevrin doesn't know that, and his desire to save them, at risk of his own life, is admirable.
You know, it's a good thing the Doctor and his companions were suspicious of Nyder and decided to follow him when he left the briefing - if they'd stayed, they would most likely have fallen victim to the mass slaughter of all non-Davros-loyal Kaleds. Poor Gharman.
Ooh, I love the little pincer movement the Doctor and his companions employ to capture Nyder - very nice!
If it weren't for the fact that the Doctor dropped the Time Ring during his struggle with Nyder, he and his companions would have left Skaro without knowing about Davros turning the tables on the Kaleds and exterminating them - and poor Sevrin would have been entombed in the bunker by the Thal's explosives. So, short-lived contrivance that it is, it is probably just as well that the Tardis trio have to go back for the wretched thing, as the loss of it allows time for Sevrin to find them and for them to realise what Davros is up to, which steels the Doctor's resolve to go through with the destruction of the embryo Daleks. Despite that not being as dramatic a gesture as he made it sound earlier.
Davros is well and truly hoist on his own petard when the Daleks turn on him at the end - he never saw that coming, although he really should have, since he created them to exterminate anything that isn't a Dalek, and being a non-genetically modified Kaled puts him squarely in that category. It's a fitting end for the character, if only the show had allowed him to end there.
So, the Daleks are entombed but will escape eventually to wreak havoc across the universe, the Kaled race has been wiped out, and there are only a handful of Thal survivors - that was one hell of a grim adventure! And yet the Doctor manages to round it off with a surprisingly upbeat, optimistic little speech!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "I will not tolerate this continual interference in my life."
TIMELORD: "Continual? We pride ourselves we seldom interfere in the affairs of others."
DOCTOR: "Except mine."
TIMELORD: "You, Doctor, are a special case. You enjoy the freedom we allow you. In return, occasionally - not continually - we ask you to do something for us."
TIMELORD: "We thought it would save time if we assumed your agreement."
DOCTOR: "It's like finding the remains of a Stone Age man with a transistor radio."
HARRY: "Playing rock music?"
DOCTOR: "Follow me and tread in my footsteps."
SARAH: "Good King Wenceslas."
HARRY (jamming a gun in General Ravon's ribs): "Just remember, we're your friends."
NYDER: "Davros is never wrong about anything."
DOCTOR: "Then he must be exceptional. Even I am occasionally wrong about some things."
DOCTOR: "Any chance of a cup of tea?"
TANE: "What!"
DOCTOR: "Or coffee. My friend and I have had a very trying experience. Haven't we had a trying experience, Harry?"
HARRY: "Very trying, Doctor."
TANE: "Step into the security scan."
DOCTOR: "What, no tea?"
TANE: "Let me point out to you that you have no rights whatsoever. I have full authority to torture and kill any prisoner who does not comply absolutely with my orders. That is your first and last warning."
DOCTOR: "No tea, Harry."
SEVRIN: "Why must we always destroy beauty? Why kill another creature because it is not in our image?"
RONSON: "It is an established scientific fact that in the seven galaxies only Skaro is capable of supporting intelligent life."
DOCTOR: "It is also an established scientific fact that there are more than seven galaxies."
DOCTOR: "You can't always judge from external appearances."
RONSON: "Who are you? Where are you from?"
DOCTOR: "It's a long story."
RONSON: "Then tell me."
DOCTOR: "Do you have any inkling of the theory of space dimension correlated to relative time?"
DOCTOR: "Some of what I will tell you relates to events in the future. Not only on this planet but also on others whose existence you don't even know of. But my knowledge is scientific fact. Now, Davros has created a machine creature, a monster which will terrorise and destroy millions and millions of lives and lands throughout all eternity. He has given this machine a name, a Dalek. It is a word new to you, but for a thousand generations it is a name that will bring fear and terror. Now undoubtedly Davros has one of the finest scientific minds in existence, but he has a fanatical desire to perpetuate himself in his machine. He works without conscience, without soul, without pity, and his machines are equally devoid of these qualities."
HARRY: "Well, Doctor, looks as though we've got to cross the wastelands again."
DOCTOR: "Yes, and that's when our troubles really begin."
HARRY: "You're not scared, are you?"
SARAH: "Of course not."
HARRY: "I am."
SARAH: "Listen, I've been down tunnels before and I've just had a rather nasty thought."
DOCTOR: "Really?"
SARAH: "Yes. Suppose something's waiting for us in there."
DOCTOR: "That is nasty. Better not tell Harry, he's gone first."
DAVROS: "You have seen my Daleks in battle?"
DOCTOR: "Many times. I've fought against them."
DAVROS: "And do they win? Do they always win?"
DOCTOR: "Not always. They have been defeated, but never utterly defeated. The Dalek menace always remains."
DOCTOR: "Davros, if you had created a virus in your laboratory, something contagious and infectious that killed on contact, a virus that would destroy all other forms of life, would you allow its use?"
DAVROS: "It is an interesting conjecture."
DOCTOR: "Would you do it?"
DAVROS: "The only living thing, a microscopic organism reigning supreme. A fascinating idea."
DOCTOR: "But would you do it?"
DAVROS: "Yes. Yes. To hold in my hand a capsule that contains such power, to know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything. Yes, I would do it! That power would set me up above the gods. And through the Daleks, I shall have that power!"
DOCTOR: "The Time Lord gave me three options. There's only one still open. Genocide."
DOCTOR: "Just touch these two strands together and the Daleks are finished. Have I that right?"
SARAH: "To destroy the Daleks? You can't doubt it."
The Verdict
Overall and taken as a whole - I love it. I love the characters. I love the cinematography, which is excellent by 1975 standards. I love the tightness of the plot and that it is always driving forward, rather than getting bogged down by padding. I love how restrained the storytelling is, and how effective that restraint is in selling the tension and horror of the situation. And I love what a thrill ride the story is, from start to finish.
Overview
Genesis of the Daleks is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. I'm not alone in that. This one sits at or near the top of most peoples' lists, and for good reason, so as much as it pains me to jump on anyone's bandwagon, I'm not about to break ranks here. Genesis is quite rightly noted by most commentators as a landmark story for the show - and that despite being somewhat revisionist by nature. It is quintessential Classic Doctor Who.
It isn't perfect, obviously. Few things are. There are plot holes, contrivances, inconsistencies and other weaknesses a-plenty. But taken as a whole, this story just works. It's got a powerful, tightly plotted storyline, atmospheric cinematography, strong character dynamics and all the actors involved, both regular and guest, give excellent performances. It plays a little fast and loose with the history of the Daleks as previously established on the show, but what the heck, it's a show about time travel and history can be re-written, so we can go with it.
Genesis is also regarded by most commentators as the first salvo in the Time War and is therefore hugely significant for that fact alone. No wonder the Time Lords ultimately lost. They simply don't have either the energy or the sheer unadulterated hatred of the Daleks, as is amply demonstrated here.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Bear with me, this one is likely to get rather long.
The first sequence of the story really sets the tone for everything that follows - grim and brutal and very atmospheric, plus it really helps that the opening scenes were shot on film on location, which always looks so much grittier and more realistic than videotaped scenes on set. That slow-mo sequence of soldiers being gunned down in a drab, dusty valley tells us everything we need to know about the world this story is set in. And then the Doctor appears out of the mist, and the plot kicks in.
I like about this Doctor that he's very good at keeping his cool, as a rule. He just transmatted off Earth in the far future (Sontaran Experiment) and was meant to land back on Nerva Space Station (as seen in Ark in Space), which this planet most certainly isn't, but he just takes it in his stride, not a hint of surprise or alarm, yet you just know that beneath that calm exterior his mind is working feverishly, trying to figure out what just happened, where he might be and how he got there, not to mention why his companions aren't still by his side. And then a Time Lord appears out of the mist to fill him in.
Man, the Time Lords are so pompous and grandiose! No wonder the Doctor can't stand them. I'll say this for them, though: they know their audience. The Doctor is adamant that he wants nothing to do with whatever game they are playing…until he hears the word 'Dalek'. That's the hook and it works and they knew it would work.
I do have a slight problem, though, with the inherent paradox thrown up by the Time Lords' plan to either prevent the creation of the Daleks or affect their development to make them less vicious. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert on the theoretical complexities involved with time travel, but since the Doctor has already encountered and battled against the Daleks many, many times by this point, wouldn't preventing their creation involve crossing his own time-stream? Can he really wipe out such a huge part of his own personal history like that (to say nothing of the various companions who were with him for those adventures)? Wouldn't that have major repercussions, even if the Time Lords do have means of straightening things out? I know, I know - wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, don't ask too many questions, just go with the flow. Maybe the fact that the Doctor's many battles with the Daleks have already happened stands as evidence that this mission was doomed from the start - he couldn't succeed because he already hadn't, kind of thing. Then again, NuWho has taught us that time can be re-written, and on the face of it at least, this story does seem to over-write certain aspects of previously established Dalek history (notably the events of The Daleks), so who knows?
Practically the first thing Sarah does when she and Harry find the Doctor is observe that they haven't landed where they were supposed to, on the 'beacon' - it's a minor point, but that's a continuity error, as they won't know Nerva Space Station as the 'beacon' until the next adventure, Revenge of the Cybermen, which was filmed before this one but very definitely comes after it both in the airing schedule and in the timeline of the characters.
Sarah and Harry are both old hands at adventuring with the Doctor by now. They each take the change of plans completely in their stride, even with the Doctor being all cryptic. "This is Skaro," is all he's got to say about their unexpected destination, like that's supposed to mean anything to either of them. Presumably he fills them in at some point on the Time Lords' interference and the mission he's been given, but we don't see that conversation on screen.
I like the three-way conversation between the Doctor, Sarah and Harry as they puzzle through the oddities they've spotted about the warzone they've landed in - the three characters play off one another really well and they all contribute to the discussion, it isn't just the Doctor talking at his companions.
I love that Harry is allowed to be brave and resourceful, saving the Doctor's life when he steps on a landmine. Not being any kind of bomb disposal expert allows me to take the scene completely at face value - although I do wonder why the Doctor doesn't just use his sonic screwdriver to clear the minefield ahead of them, as we've seen him do in the past. Harry is much more on the ball in this story than in his first couple of outings; he has well and truly adjusted to the pace of life with the Doctor now.
The switch from location scenes shot on film to videotaped scenes on set is really glaring.
Okay, that trench with all the corpses propped up to make it look heavily defended must absolutely stink to high heaven.
It's all a bit grim, with our heroes having to pull gas masks off corpses to protect themselves from a poison gas attack, and then being attacked and fighting hand-to-hand before all being knocked out, only for their attackers to be brutally gunned down. If it were shot on film on location it would look fab, but even on videotape on set the point is made: this is a brutal war that our protagonists have stumbled into and they are in very real danger at every moment. I mean, even though this is Doctor Who and we know the leads aren't going to be killed off, the story succeeds in creating a very tense atmosphere throughout.
I like that the Doctor and Harry both seem properly winded after the gas attack and fight, and it takes them both a good few minutes to get their breath back and start firing on all cylinders again. That feels more realistic than if they just shook it off immediately.
Okay, so this war of attrition is between the Kaleds and the Thals, two different peoples who inhabit the planet Skaro - a war that when the Doctor first encountered the Daleks, many years in their future (but the Doctor's personal past), was a distant memory. So far so consistent with the history established in The Daleks. What I don't really understand is how the peoples of this entire world came to be boiled down to just two single races and two single cities, even if the war has been that terrible and that long-lasting. And we aren't ever told how the war started in the first place - possibly it's been going on for so long that nobody even remembers. They simply hate each other because they always have.
In The Daleks we were told that the planet was devastated by a neutron bomb, which was the cause of terrible mutations and from which the population of the planet was nowhere near recovering, even after hundreds of years. That history has been slightly changed for this story; although the mutations are still a major factor, in this version they were caused by long-term use of chemical weapons, rather than a single neutron bomb.
Guy Siner puts in a fabulous performance as General Ravon. His absolute commitment to his cause, his fanaticism, his unswerving devotion to duty - he really brings the character to life, heart and soul. Ditto Peter Miles with the cold, calculating bastard Nyder.
How come the Doctor is made to turn out his pockets, but Harry isn't?
Ooh, when Ravon boasts of the Kaleds' plan to wipe the Thals from the face of Skaro, the Doctor shrugs that he's heard that before - he most certainly has: in The Daleks, when the Daleks were still trying (and failing) to achieve just that.
I love the little interplay when the Doctor swipes Ravon's gun out of his hand and Harry catches it - good reflexes there, as Harry wasn't expecting it any more than Ravon was, but reacts instantly to secure the guard. I like when the Doctor is able to trust a companion to think fast enough to back him up effectively in a situation like that. We've seen him pull a similar stunt with Jamie in The War Games. He prefers not to wield a weapon himself, but he's quite happy for his companions to do it for him.
Okay, so one of the criticisms often aimed at this story is that the Doctor and Harry supposedly take three episodes to notice that Sarah was left behind when they were brought into the Kaled dome. So let me point out here that this is not true. They don't make a huge song and dance about her being left behind because they are prisoners and she is still free, but the moment they have overpowered their captors, the Doctor is anxious to return to the Wasteland - which can only be in order to find Sarah, since he is already in the right place to begin his anti-Dalek mission. And then as Ravon leads them to the exit, Harry very specifically expresses concern for Sarah, left to fend for herself in the Wasteland ("I hope Sarah's all right," he says and the Doctor agrees, and then Ravon offers them scare stories about how anyone wandering the Wasteland alone at night won't last long as the mutos will be out and about). This is just two scenes after she was left behind, and they have been very preoccupied with the minor matter of being captured and trying to escape during that time, but they are clearly very aware of Sarah having been left behind and are worried about her. So, contrary to popular opinion, they do notice straight away that Sarah is missing. It's just that for the bulk of the first few episodes they aren't in a position to do anything about it and have more immediately pressing issues of their own to deal with!
I really like the skirt and boots Sarah is wearing in this story. Three and a half decades later, I would wear those today!
The Kaleds claim to be really hard up for ammunition - so why do they waste so much of their scarce resources shooting at the Doctor and Harry as they attempt to escape? Since they are all such suck shots, it seems an awful waste. Shouldn't they be cannier than that, and employ other means of trying to take down the fugitives, given how long they've had to operate under such conditions?
Escape, run, get recaptured - it really is a classic Doctor Who trope for when a spot of excitement and drama is needed to fill in time in a lengthy story.
It's a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but I really like the glimpse we catch of the alarmed look that flits across Harry's face when Nyder decides to take him and the Doctor to the bunker for interrogation by the 'special unit', because - yeah, that really does sound like something to be worried about. It's only for a second, though. He's got his game face firmly back in place by the time the camera finds him again, following the Doctor's lead for all he's worth, but that tiny moment confirms that the studied air of nonchalance he maintains throughout is just an act.
It's all kinds of ironic that the Kaleds have long employed a policy of banishing their genetic wounded into the Wasteland in a drive to keep the race 'pure' - which is where the mutos come from - only to later decide to embrace the concept of mutation utterly in the form of the Daleks!
In Sontaran Experiment, Harry spent a large chunk of the adventure wandering around the countryside all on his own. Here in Genesis of the Daleks, it is Sarah's turn to spend some time running around the wilderness all alone, and in the process she is the first to catch a glimpse both of Davros - the creator of the Daleks - and of the very first proto-Dalek ever seen on Skaro!
The make-up crew did a really good job, turning Michael Wisher into Davros. The character has been watered-down in his subsequent appearances on the show, but is utilised to perfection in this his debut story. He looks horrendous and is absolutely chillingly insane.
We don't ever get a really good look at any of the mutos, not even Sevrin, who we get to know fairly well - I like that, as suggestion and implication are always more effective than full disclosure. Sevrin is a lovely character. He's so fair-minded, despite what must have been an awful life. He gets one of the better anti-prejudice speeches in the story, as well.
I like that Harry has to calm the Doctor down and talk a bit of sense into him when he panics about the Time Ring being confiscated; it's such a reversal of the usual Doctor-companion roles. I like it because it is always good to see the Doctor shaken out of his usual composed demeanour - a sign of how worried he is about their situation, beneath the surface, however much he is trying not to let it show; also a reminder that he does so hate to be without an exit strategy, and not having the Tardis on hand to escape in always grates on him, habitual wanderer that he is -and I think it is also good for a companion to be allowed to see the Doctor vulnerable and afraid from time to time. And I like it because it's a good character moment for Harry, showing us how sensible and practical he can be: he is fully aware of what the loss of the Time Rings means, but is absolutely right that they will be better off if the Kaleds don't know what it is or how important it is to them. Harry doesn't have a huge amount to do for chunks of this story, but he's a reassuringly stalwart figure at the Doctor's side throughout.
Some of the extras employed in this story are pretty lousy. But the lead and main guest actors are all excellent, always acting and reacting in the background of any scene they are in, whether they have dialogue or not.
So many guns and so much shooting - yet never any blood. Ah, the 1970s.
I like the scene where the Doctor and Harry are first questioned by the scientist Ronson. I love how busy the background of the scene is, with a whole bunch of other scientists going about their business throughout; it really helps sell the setting of the scene. I love the way Harry lounges comfortably in his chair, giving a good impression of being entirely unconcerned about the precarious situation he finds himself in, still taking his cues very much from the Doctor on that point. And I love the way the Doctor bamboozles Ronson utterly, simply by being exactly who and what he says he is.
This story is very tightly plotted, despite that plot being spread across six episodes - there is very little padding, every scene moves the story forward.
You know, the Kaleds really shouldn't keep their prisoners in the room while a top secret briefing is taking place. I'm glad it turns out to be a set-up, deliberately planned by Davros as a test of his shiny new Daleks, because it seemed like such a major breach of security protocols!
"You can't always judge from external appearances," says the Doctor. This story isn't what you'd call subtle about the political allegory it is telling, but even aside from the very obvious Nazi/fascist parallels, there is a strong message in there about diversity and equality and the importance of looking beyond the surface in one's dealings with others.
I love Sarah's gift for making friends wherever she goes. It is one of her strongest attributes, as a companion. She and Sevrin really are kindred spirits, neither one hesitates for a second to accept the other for who they are despite their differences; the friendship they strike up is lovely.
I like it when exposition is delivered through conversation in a way that sounds natural - such as when the captured Kaled soldier tells Sarah about the Thal rocket they are being made to load explosive into. It's a good way of getting that information over to the audience, so that we know now what the Thals are up to as well as the Kaleds. Since the war between the two peoples is the root of the story, we need to know something of both sides, although the Kaleds are the main focus.
The toxic chemical/radiation that Sarah was exposed to is never mentioned again. Presumably we must conclude that since she wasn't exposed for very long, in the grand scheme of things, there is no lasting ill-effect.
The Doctor and his companions have a really rough time of it, physically, in this story! They were all caught in that poison gas attack and were then beaten to the ground; Sarah is forced into slave labour and exposed to dangerously toxic chemicals/radiation; the Doctor goes through some harsh treatment (off-screen) by way of interrogation; Harry gets his foot chomped on by a giant clam; the Doctor gets electrocuted; Harry and Sarah are both tortured, the Doctor gets coshed over the head - and on the list goes! The very real physical danger they are all in is emphasised throughout.
I really like the relationship between the Doctor and Harry in this story. They've built up a strong understanding of one another now and that shines through in all their scenes together. There is a lot of non-verbal communication between the two, gestures and hand signals by way of silent strategising that demonstrate clearly how in-sync they have become over the last few stories. Harry doesn't have a great deal of dialogue, but what he does say makes it clear that he is following everything keenly, understands the situation perfectly and is even able to predict the Doctor's reasoning and planning at times - a far cry from his general air of bewilderment in earlier stories. We are now starting to learn who Harry is when he isn't bogged down by culture shock.
We are never really shown what the embryo Daleks look like (other than a few bits of tentacle when the Doctor goes into their nursery to place explosive). We are mostly only shown how our protagonists react to the sight of them. The Dalek attack on the celebrating Thals later in the story is similarly portrayed, more by implication than direct depiction. I really like that about this story - so much is implied, rather than shown directly. It's a very restrained and very effective way of conveying the grim horror of the situation, rather than going overboard (and failing) in an attempt to depict it more graphically.
It can be quite fascinating to trace the similarities and differences between what we see/learn in The Daleks and in Genesis of the Daleks. Some of the differences can be rationalised as the distortion of history over the hundreds of years between the two adventures, some can only mean that later events are overwritten by what happens in this story, meaning that history (including, surely, the Doctor's personal history) really has been changed - and some differences can't really be explained at all; they are just ret-cons!
I love that Sarah hasn't been a prisoner of the Thals for more than five minutes before she starts stirring up her fellow captives into staging a jail break. She's brilliantly pro-active, keenly observant and extremely persuasive. You go, girl.
Of course, the jail break itself turns out to be just another variation on the escape, run away, then get recaptured trope, but although it doesn't really push the plot itself forward, it provides important character information, not just as a demonstration of Sarah's feisty independent spirit but because it develops her bond with Sevrin, shows us the alliance she forges with the Kaled prisoner (proof that they can be friends as well as enemies) and also demonstrates that the Thals can be just as brutal and sadistic as the Kaleds (which we need to know because they were the good guys last time we met them).
In The Daleks, we were presented with a very black and white story - and I don't just mean the cinematography. It was a very straightforward tale of good and evil. The Daleks were evil and the peaceful Thals were the innocents in need of salvation. Genesis of the Daleks is a lot murkier and more sophisticated. In this story, neither the Kaleds nor the Thals are inherently good or inherently evil, as collective peoples; both races are made up of individuals who all have the potential for both good and evil within them and what matters are the choices they each make, both individually and collectively. Sarah is captured (and mistreated) by the Thals and befriends a kindly Kaled prisoner, who saves her life; the Doctor and Harry are captured by the Kaleds and are treated very badly by some but befriend others, and the Doctor later forms an alliance with the surviving Thals. And then there are the mutos, who hate absolutely everyone because they have been so badly treated by all and sundry, yet who also produced the lovely Sevrin. It might be set on an alien planet, but this is a story about human nature and about the nature of war, in which nothing is ever as straightforward as good versus evil; there are always a multitude of individual stories to be told, each contributing to the whole.
That scene where the guard dangles Sarah over the edge of the rocket is all kinds of creepy. He offers her a hand, all helpful-like, and then kicks her feet out from under her and dangles her by the wrist over this immense drop, saying, "They say that people who fall from great heights are dead before they hit the ground. I don't believe that…do you?" As threats go, that's pretty effective! It's far creepier than the cliffhanger of the previous episode, which had Sarah falling off the scaffolding - only to reveal in the next episode that she'd fallen all of five feet before landing on a lower platform in a dead faint. Me, I'd have had the guard kicking her feet out from under her and pushing her from right off the top as the cliffhanger!
Okay, I'm not going to comment on the giant clams. It was a good idea, in theory, to have the Doctor and Harry run afoul of some of the mutant creatures roaming around in the caves, but it was 1975 and they just didn't have the special effects to pull it off effectively. Kudos to the actors, though, for giving it their all.
Episode three: the Doctor and Harry are now free of their Kaled captors but only so that they can carry out a vital mission to try to prevent the full-scale creation of the Dalek menace; they are also free only to travel through a deep underground tunnel system, rather than having access to the Wasteland where they last saw Sarah. Still, let us note that they are still keenly aware of her absence, as Harry reminds the Doctor of the need to find her. The Doctor is prioritising his mission now, though, the circumstances being what they are.
Those domes really do not look city-sized.
One thing I really appreciated about The Daleks was the timescale, which took account of the fact that it takes quite a long time to travel any distance on foot, and made allowances for this by giving a generous two day timescale for those travelling to the other side of the Dalek city. Genesis makes no such allowances - characters seem able to travel back and fore between the Kaled and Thal cities, on foot, in no time at all!
I really like the scene where the Doctor makes his presentation to the Kaled scientists and government officials. The situation is so urgent that he drops all his usual jokes and quirky behaviours, keeps himself from getting so impassioned about the danger of the Daleks that he comes across as crazy, and presents his case carefully, rationally, and with absolute conviction. It's really nicely done.
How convenient that Ravon is able to give the Doctor and Harry news of Sarah just when they are finally at liberty to go and start searching for her. I love how easily they can recognise Sarah from Ravon's description of a female prisoner who led a breakout and gave the Thals quite a bit of trouble - they know her well!
Only the Doctor could get away with saying a line like "Yes, and that's when our troubles really begin," with an enormous grin on his face.
Nyder has an awesome poker face. And his loyalty to Davros is terrifying. At least Davros is utterly insane and sociopathic. What's Nyder's excuse?
What is really scary about this story is that both sides are completely willing to commit genocide. In fact, the main ambition of both the Kaleds and the Thals is to commit genocide - both sides want to wipe the other out utterly, each considering the absolute eradication of the other to be the only way of ending the war. Suing for peace and trying to learn to live alongside one another in harmony (after all, there's a whole planet they could spread out across) doesn't seem to occur to anyone. After a thousand years of warfare, even the Doctor doesn't so much as bother to suggest it. He isn't here to strive for peace between these peoples; he just wants to stop the creation of the Daleks.
The Doctor knocks a pair of guards unconscious by banging their heads together. That seems uncharacteristically violent of him. Isn't that what companions are for - to handle any violence so the Doctor doesn't have to? At least he leaves disabling the guard to Harry in the next scene - although I always find myself wondering, when watching Classic Who, why so many people are knocked unconscious by a blow to the stomach. It isn't as if that's where they keep their brains!
Aww, look at the Doctor and Harry playing dress-up as Thal guards.
A lot of the Thals are blond - that's good continuity with The Daleks, in which all the Thals were uniformly blond.
I really like how the story uses the contrivance of the Doctor being electrocuted to skip forward in time, so that he goes from feverishly trying to sabotage the Thal rocket to coming round just in time to witness the destruction of the Kaled dome. Which…aside from the elite down in the bunker, that's the entire Kaled people wiped off the face of Skaro in that moment, the death toll must be astronomical. It is an act of genocide. That's a sobering thought to contemplate alongside the victory celebrations of the Thals. There is not even a hint of a search for survivors in the Kaled city; the destruction and loss of life appears to be total.
I really like the subtlety of the scenes immediately after the destruction of the Kaled dome, when the Doctor believes that Sarah and Harry have been killed. His reaction is so well done - a moment of utter desperation as he makes a last-ditch attempt to prevent the launch, fighting and yelling, followed by a moment of absolute stillness in the middle of the Thals celebrations, as he allows himself to grieve for his friends, just for a moment. Then he picks himself up and carries on with his mission, even finding himself a replacement companion (Bettan) to help with that mission, encouraging her to build a Thal resistance movement, because the Daleks are still out there and there is no time to lose - but through it all he is very subdued. He has to keep working the mission, because what else can he do, but the hefty price paid for it weighs heavily on him and that is very apparent in his demeanour. And then when he is reunited with Harry and Sarah, who aren't dead after all, he is absolutely overjoyed - just look at that beaming smile and the over-enthusiastic way he grabs and shakes Harry's hand and the way he hugs Sarah so hard she squeaks. The Doctor is alien and doesn't always show much recognisable emotion, but his affection for his friends shines through clearly here.
The scenes of the Daleks attacking the Thals in the middle of their victory celebrations are very effective, very cold, even though we only see a handful of either Thals or Daleks. The sound of gunfire and screaming conveys the horror very well. The second act of genocide in a single day - and there aren't even that many Daleks at this point, yet they manage to wipe out the unsuspecting Thals almost completely. Then when we see the Daleks passing the trenches in later scenes, silhouetted against the fiery sky, that's also extremely effective: such a chilling visual.
It's probably just as well for the Doctor and his new friend Bettan that Daleks have no peripheral vision; their hiding place just around the corner really shouldn't be as effective as it is! I like Bettan. Not only is she the very young, female leader of an army of resistance fighters, she's also extremely good at it - focused and driven and efficient, yet not without conscience or compassion. She is very cool.
There is something disturbingly ruthless about the Doctor's request for the surviving Thals to join forces and attack the Kaled bunker, knowing that if they come up against any Daleks they won't stand a chance. He is right that destroying Davros is their only hope of survival, long-term, and the situation is too desperate to be delicate about the fact that he is potentially sending these people to their deaths, but it still seems depressingly grim. It is also a good call-back to The Daleks, when the Thals were similarly urged by the Doctor and his companions to stage a direct assault on the Daleks, attack as the best means of defence.
Harry tackles a muto just before it can smash the Doctor's head in with a large rock - that's the second time he's saved the Doctor's life in this story.
Oh, I just love the way Sarah and Harry finish each other's sentences as they explain to the Doctor how they managed to avoid being in the Kaled dome when it was destroyed, falling over one another to get the story out. That's very cute.
I like that Harry was able to correctly predict that the Doctor would try to return to the Kaled bunker, because that's where the Time Ring is, and was able to use that insight to join up with him again.
There isn't a great deal of humour in this story, which really isn't the place for it. But Terry Nation did manage to get quite a few little quips in, here and there - like the tea gag that the Doctor and Harry between them kept running for a couple of early episodes - to lighten the mood a little.
Davros has masterminded two acts of genocide in this story: the destruction both of the Thals and of the Kaleds, his own people. It was bad enough that the planetary population had been boiled down to just two cities, after a thousand years of warfare. It is scary to think how depopulated the planet now is.
Nyder appears to be amusingly omnipresent - every time there is so much as a whisper of sedition among the surviving Kaleds, he is there, eavesdropping. What a sneaky bastard he is.
I really like the little interplay between Sarah and Harry as they make their way into the underground passage: Harry asking if Sarah is scared, Sarah automatically denying it, Harry in contrast not hesitating to admit that he is scared (well, he does already know what's in those tunnels) and Sarah promptly grabbing his hand by way of admitting that she is scared, too.
The lighting technicians did a really good job on this story. Often a lot of realism is lost from Classic Who because of the difficulty in making the lighting look natural for scenes shot on set (which the bulk of them were), but the way this story is lit is fantastic, wonderfully atmospheric.
The notion of having characters strapped into a torture machine is very typical of sci fi in this era: it allows lead characters to have terrible pain inflicted on them, without any actual physical damage being suffered, so that as soon as the machine is turned off, the pain is gone and there are no lasting ill-effects to have to contend with. It is also, of course, the reason they tend to get shot by stun guns rather than bullets, as a rule.
I really like that one of the first things the Doctor does when he finds himself face-to-face with Davros is tell him about the inter-galactic carnage his creations will be responsible for and suggest that with foreknowledge he could change all that and instead make them a force for good in the universe. There was never any chance that Davros would be persuaded, being as utterly insane as he is, but the Doctor wouldn't be the Doctor if he didn't at least try to suggest it.
Episode five ends on a good moral dilemma for the Doctor: with Sarah and Harry being tortured right before his eyes, does he put the immediate wellbeing of his friends ahead of the millions of lives at stake in the future if he gives Davros the information he desires? Of course, despite the heroism shown by both companions in pleading with him not to give in, it's a no-brainer, really. Of course he is going to protect his companions by giving Davros what he wants, because once their safety is secured he can always try to regroup and salvage the situation at a later stage.
I love that the writers of the NuWho story Journey's End clearly know this story well, as they included the little moment where Davros recognised the much older Sarah Jane, having met her as a young woman here in Genesis. Little touches like that are fantastic, as they reinforce the link between the old and new versions of the show, cement the notion that these are the same people and all these events are taking place in the same universe.
Davros really is barking mad. He just segues from torture and interrogation into a friendly little scientific chat with his prisoner, and doesn't even see that there's anything wrong with that. His megalomania is both fun and horrifying to watch, while his absolute xenophobia is chilling.
I want to cheer for the Kaled rebels as they finally pluck up the courage to take action against Davros and the Daleks. But I can't because it is too little, too late - not to mention that they are simply too naïve and idealistic to succeed. Davros is too clever, too ruthless and too evil for them to stand any chance against him. Then again, even the Doctor is fooled by Davros's fake surrender, so maybe the Kaleds can't be blamed quite so much after all. Wishful thinking can be a dangerous thing.
It is interesting and ironic to consider that Davros's desire to achieve universal peace by the rather extreme expedient of wiping out every other life form in the universe is simply a larger scale version of the general perspective of all Kaleds and Thals: that the only way to end a war is to eradicate the opposition, rather than striving to find common ground.
The Doctor's debate with Davros is absolutely fascinating, really gripping stuff. And then when the Doctor starts to physically grapple with Davros and switches off his life support system for a few seconds as a way of forcing him into compliance, man, that's further evidence of just how desperate the Doctor is at this point, as the use of such extreme tactics and violence isn't his usual methodology at all. He has been through a hell of a lot in this story, the death toll so far is horrendous, and the Doctor knows better than anyone how much carnage the Daleks are going to leave in their wake, having battled them so many times - the stakes really have never been higher.
Aww, Harry makes that Kaled uniform look good! It's the first change of clothes he's had all season…and he promptly changes back. Yet Sarah then gets yet another change of clothes just a couple of scenes later, completely randomly (in preparation for the next adventure, Revenge of the Cybermen). How come Sarah gets to wear several different outfits over the course of the season, but Harry has to wear the same clothes all the time? The Doctor we expect to see wearing much the same outfit all the time, but if Sarah is allowed to change her clothes, Harry should be as well.
Man, the writers really didn't trust their audience to remember why the Time Ring was important from one episode to the next - the characters remind each other over and over that without the Time Ring they'll never get off this planet.
It amuses me that the Doctor makes a point of shushing his companions, who are both being completely silent anyway, and then proceeds to very noisily bang at a locked cupboard door in a futile attempt at opening it. The sonic screwdriver was also confiscated, of course, so he can't use that. It is Harry who finds the unlocking device to gain access to the cupboard, having done some independent scouting around while Sarah was watching the Doctor's antics. Just in case it isn't obvious yet, one of the things I really like about this story is that it allows Harry to be clever and competent even while still being his usual bumbling self.
Even the embryo Daleks are murderous. Says it all, really.
I've never been a huge fan of the Doctor's big moral dilemma in this story: to blow up the embryo Daleks or not to blow up the embryo Daleks. For one thing, I think it's a bit overblown and he gets carried away with his baby Hitler metaphor. After all, there is absolutely no chance of these embryos being able to choose to do good rather than evil, as they have already been irreparably genetically altered to do nothing but hate and kill all other life forms. Davros has already committed genocide by removing all conscience and emotion from these creatures, which are now effectively all that remains of the Kaled race (save a few soldiers and scientists, who all appear to be male so wouldn't have much of a future even if the Daleks didn't wipe them out). Plus, all the Doctor's angsting over whether or not to commit genocide by blowing up the Dalek embryos is ultimately undercut by the fact that when he later does go ahead with the slaughter (aided and abetted by a convenient Dalek), he then says that destroying those embryos has only set their development back a thousand years, rather than wiping out the Daleks completely as he'd originally said it would. So all that anguish over whether or not to go through with the destruction of the Dalek nursery ends up being rather pointless.
Once the Doctor has both of his companions back at his side, Harry kind of fades into the background a bit, as Sarah is a much more forceful and outspoken character, while he is more the strong, silent type - not to mention that the writers often struggled to write balanced dialogue for scenes with more than one companion in, because they were focused on plot first and the Doctor second with the companions coming a very poor last place, existing mainly to support those two factors, rather than being written for in and of themselves. This was the main reason they decided to write Harry out of the show after this season. But he remains a useful sort of character to have around, lack of dialogue in these last couple of episodes notwithstanding - he's got the military experience to help the Doctor set explosive charges around the Dalek nursery, for example, which is not something Sarah could have done.
There's a sad little moment in the commentary when Tom Baker finally acknowledges the elephant in the room by directly mentioning Ian Marter's very premature death. Lis Sladen sounds quite upset at having it brought up, but then they go on to reminisce at length about Marter.
I rather like the way the Tardis trio so covertly reclaim the Doctor's confiscated belongings - including the sonic screwdriver and that precious Time Ring. They are so sneaky about it, in full view of the gathered Kaled elite.
I am immensely amused by the very big red button labelled 'total destruct' in very large lettering, so that no one can be in any doubt what it is for. According to Davros, pushing that button would destroy the entire bunker, except for the room the button is in (although I'm sure anyone in the safe room wouldn't last long, as they would be trapped in the ruins of the rest of the bunker). It's a pity the Doctor wasn't paying attention to the speech, as pressing that button might have been a much more certain way of destroying the Daleks than blowing up their embryo room!
Gharman gets in a few really good speeches before his inevitable demise.
Bless Sevrin and his loyal determination to get Sarah out of the bunker before the Thals can blow it up. He doesn't know about the Time Ring, of course - the Doctor and his companions don't really need to get out of the bunker before the exit is blown at all, they could use the Time Ring to escape from within, so long as they were clear of the blast. But Sevrin doesn't know that, and his desire to save them, at risk of his own life, is admirable.
You know, it's a good thing the Doctor and his companions were suspicious of Nyder and decided to follow him when he left the briefing - if they'd stayed, they would most likely have fallen victim to the mass slaughter of all non-Davros-loyal Kaleds. Poor Gharman.
Ooh, I love the little pincer movement the Doctor and his companions employ to capture Nyder - very nice!
If it weren't for the fact that the Doctor dropped the Time Ring during his struggle with Nyder, he and his companions would have left Skaro without knowing about Davros turning the tables on the Kaleds and exterminating them - and poor Sevrin would have been entombed in the bunker by the Thal's explosives. So, short-lived contrivance that it is, it is probably just as well that the Tardis trio have to go back for the wretched thing, as the loss of it allows time for Sevrin to find them and for them to realise what Davros is up to, which steels the Doctor's resolve to go through with the destruction of the embryo Daleks. Despite that not being as dramatic a gesture as he made it sound earlier.
Davros is well and truly hoist on his own petard when the Daleks turn on him at the end - he never saw that coming, although he really should have, since he created them to exterminate anything that isn't a Dalek, and being a non-genetically modified Kaled puts him squarely in that category. It's a fitting end for the character, if only the show had allowed him to end there.
So, the Daleks are entombed but will escape eventually to wreak havoc across the universe, the Kaled race has been wiped out, and there are only a handful of Thal survivors - that was one hell of a grim adventure! And yet the Doctor manages to round it off with a surprisingly upbeat, optimistic little speech!
Quotable Quotes
DOCTOR: "I will not tolerate this continual interference in my life."
TIMELORD: "Continual? We pride ourselves we seldom interfere in the affairs of others."
DOCTOR: "Except mine."
TIMELORD: "You, Doctor, are a special case. You enjoy the freedom we allow you. In return, occasionally - not continually - we ask you to do something for us."
TIMELORD: "We thought it would save time if we assumed your agreement."
DOCTOR: "It's like finding the remains of a Stone Age man with a transistor radio."
HARRY: "Playing rock music?"
DOCTOR: "Follow me and tread in my footsteps."
SARAH: "Good King Wenceslas."
HARRY (jamming a gun in General Ravon's ribs): "Just remember, we're your friends."
NYDER: "Davros is never wrong about anything."
DOCTOR: "Then he must be exceptional. Even I am occasionally wrong about some things."
DOCTOR: "Any chance of a cup of tea?"
TANE: "What!"
DOCTOR: "Or coffee. My friend and I have had a very trying experience. Haven't we had a trying experience, Harry?"
HARRY: "Very trying, Doctor."
TANE: "Step into the security scan."
DOCTOR: "What, no tea?"
TANE: "Let me point out to you that you have no rights whatsoever. I have full authority to torture and kill any prisoner who does not comply absolutely with my orders. That is your first and last warning."
DOCTOR: "No tea, Harry."
SEVRIN: "Why must we always destroy beauty? Why kill another creature because it is not in our image?"
RONSON: "It is an established scientific fact that in the seven galaxies only Skaro is capable of supporting intelligent life."
DOCTOR: "It is also an established scientific fact that there are more than seven galaxies."
DOCTOR: "You can't always judge from external appearances."
RONSON: "Who are you? Where are you from?"
DOCTOR: "It's a long story."
RONSON: "Then tell me."
DOCTOR: "Do you have any inkling of the theory of space dimension correlated to relative time?"
DOCTOR: "Some of what I will tell you relates to events in the future. Not only on this planet but also on others whose existence you don't even know of. But my knowledge is scientific fact. Now, Davros has created a machine creature, a monster which will terrorise and destroy millions and millions of lives and lands throughout all eternity. He has given this machine a name, a Dalek. It is a word new to you, but for a thousand generations it is a name that will bring fear and terror. Now undoubtedly Davros has one of the finest scientific minds in existence, but he has a fanatical desire to perpetuate himself in his machine. He works without conscience, without soul, without pity, and his machines are equally devoid of these qualities."
HARRY: "Well, Doctor, looks as though we've got to cross the wastelands again."
DOCTOR: "Yes, and that's when our troubles really begin."
HARRY: "You're not scared, are you?"
SARAH: "Of course not."
HARRY: "I am."
SARAH: "Listen, I've been down tunnels before and I've just had a rather nasty thought."
DOCTOR: "Really?"
SARAH: "Yes. Suppose something's waiting for us in there."
DOCTOR: "That is nasty. Better not tell Harry, he's gone first."
DAVROS: "You have seen my Daleks in battle?"
DOCTOR: "Many times. I've fought against them."
DAVROS: "And do they win? Do they always win?"
DOCTOR: "Not always. They have been defeated, but never utterly defeated. The Dalek menace always remains."
DOCTOR: "Davros, if you had created a virus in your laboratory, something contagious and infectious that killed on contact, a virus that would destroy all other forms of life, would you allow its use?"
DAVROS: "It is an interesting conjecture."
DOCTOR: "Would you do it?"
DAVROS: "The only living thing, a microscopic organism reigning supreme. A fascinating idea."
DOCTOR: "But would you do it?"
DAVROS: "Yes. Yes. To hold in my hand a capsule that contains such power, to know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything. Yes, I would do it! That power would set me up above the gods. And through the Daleks, I shall have that power!"
DOCTOR: "The Time Lord gave me three options. There's only one still open. Genocide."
DOCTOR: "Just touch these two strands together and the Daleks are finished. Have I that right?"
SARAH: "To destroy the Daleks? You can't doubt it."
The Verdict
Overall and taken as a whole - I love it. I love the characters. I love the cinematography, which is excellent by 1975 standards. I love the tightness of the plot and that it is always driving forward, rather than getting bogged down by padding. I love how restrained the storytelling is, and how effective that restraint is in selling the tension and horror of the situation. And I love what a thrill ride the story is, from start to finish.