4.4: Genesis of the Daleks
In which the Doctor starts the Time War, only nobody notices.
Broadcast: March-April 1975
Watched: May 2020
Genesis of the Daleks, Part One
You know, I’m pretty sure I’d listened to a bootleg of the LP version a dozen times before I actually saw this in the early ‘90s repeat season. Annoyed me for years that the part 3 cliffhanger wasn’t, “I’ve sent Sarah and Harry in there...” Also, when I last watched it, c2008, it was immediately obvious how they’d edited 150 minutes into about 80 because blimey this has a lot of capture/escape loops in it. There’s one in this episode, too, but it’s so much fun I hadn’t even noticed it til just then.
Anyway. The opening sequence is brilliant and terrifying, obviously. Not sure when we last saw something as upsetting as the guys in gas masks going full Blackadder Goes Forth. Also this feels like it covers a lot of ground for an episode 1. We know that the Kaleds are scientific Nazis, who even have a salute (what is it with this season and the link between science and fascism?); we know that it’s a war of attrition, and that they’ve cast mutos out into the waste; by the end we know where Daleks come from.
As keeps happening this season, the Doctor is paired with Harry and it’s Sarah who’s off on her own. Is that because they trusted Sladen to carry a scene and Marter was untested? Sarah’s bright yellow jacket playing the same role as the red coat in Schindler’s List, we always know where she is.
I wonder if the reason the two cities are so close together is because the rest of the planet is uninhabitable. [This story features a genocidal, planet-ruining war about peoples whose cities seem to be within walking distance. It’s like the Leeds-Bradford rivalry wiped out the rest of the human race.]
Anyway, I know it’s a boring received opinion, but it’s bloody good. Why is [writer Terry] Nation suddenly good at this again?
Genesis of the Daleks, Part Two
“She’s almost a norm” is a great bit of negging. The actor who plays Ronson is less than 50 years old which is kind of upsetting.
Anyway. Classic Doctor Who structure – episode 2, we meet the other lot of people, they turn out to be bastards too. The rocket sequence is quite dramatic considering...
Genesis of the Daleks, Part Three
...it’s another capture/escape loop that could easily be removed without really changing anything. Probably was on the LP. The Kaled in yellow glasses – let’s call him “Bono” – dangling Sarah off the side of the rocket to scare the shit out of her is proper queasy.
I love that a) the Doctor attempts to find a political solution to the Daleks/Davros problem, and b) the Kaled council (councillors? I guess it is just a city) response is to kick it into the long grass using a lengthy enquiry.
Davros’ betrayal is absolutely horrible. Enabling the enemy to wipe out 90% of his people to maintain his power base is.. well, like something a minister in this government would do, amirite?
Genesis of the Daleks, Part Four
Oh right the LP has a different cliffhanger because the one on tv would make rubbish radio. Makes sense. [It’s the Doctor being electrocuted, it’s a very visual moment.]
The Thal celebration is horrible. The public cheering for genocide. Oh! The Daleks have sorted that out for us, how nice.
“Thank you. That’s what I wanted to know” is also horrible. Great delivery by Peter Miles as Nyder, though.
Chromosomal changes that remove conscience. Nation science strikes again.
You can tell Tom is new to the role, his Doctor still gives a shit about his companions and stuff.
The oysters of death are not scary enough for the scenes with them to work.
Davros... sort of knows he’s a Doctor Who villain doesn’t he? The way the first time he gets the chance he’s like, “Right, time travel, let’s change the future, then”.
Genesis of the Daleks, Part Five
We start with a great moment in Ahistory as the Doctor talks about Doctor Who continuity for a while (space year 17,000 eh? funny they’re all round numbers). The “Up above the gods!” bit is well done, but – as with the fact Davros’ first thought is “Oooh, tell me about the future so I can change it” – it does change the nature of the character. In those first few episodes he could have been driven to his actions by the desperate will to survive. Now he is very definitely a mad scientist, who would wipe everything else out for a laugh.
The same scene reminds me of Power of the Daleks (“It will end the colonies problems because it will end the colony!”) but I really can’t work out why. Scientists thinking they can use the power to commit genocide as a tool, when it will inevitably overwhelm them, maybe?
Other things: this does not really like a world which only had two cities and both have just been wiped out. Everyone is still getting on with their squabbling, even though so far as we know there is only one woman left alive on the entire planet.
The attempt to make a mystery out of what Davros could possibly be planning is odd because he’s only got one card to play so it’s blindingly obvious that he’ll play it.
The Dalek mutants are clearly distant cousins of the wirrn. More bubble wrap action.
Genesis of the Daleks, Part Six
The “touch these two strands” scene is an amazing bit of archetypal Doctor Who. An ethical dilemma, with consequences for the whole of time and space... but which takes the form of the lead staring at a pair of wires and looking angsty. It’s really very well done, in both writing and performance, no wonder it’s remembered.
The “Delayed for perhaps a thousand years...” – does that mean history has changed, or is that the explanation for why the Daleks are stuck inside until Serial B?
Ultimately, the Doctor *does* fail doesn’t he – we’ve watched the creation of the Daleks, but we’ve not seen anyone affect anything. The only possible hope is in the fact there’s a motley band of Thals, Mutos and maybe the odd Kaled wandering off into the wilderness in the end, who we know will end up being the tribe that call themselves the Thals. The idea of keeping out impurities is precisely wrong, these guys go for maximum diversity and ultimately all end up really pretty and blonde.
Other things:
Why would Davros have a button that destroyed everything but one room, when they’re going to need to rebuild at some point aren’t they? And when did the only woman on Skaro get radicalised as a rebel leader? She was basically a teenage girl two episodes ago.
There are some good bits of the regulars menacing the baddies like they’re a gang.
The last “Oooh we’ve lost the time ring!” bit is there for no reason other than that if it wasn’t the regulars would leave before we’ve seen the end of the story.
Does a Dalek complete the circuit on the Doctor’s explosives? I’ve assumed that for years but realised it isn’t stated out loud.
Davros saying to his creations “Have pity!” bit is too perfect a dramatic device. It doesn’t work.