N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
It would be hard for me to overstate how important Genesis of the Daleks is to me as a Doctor Who fan.
“You can’t always judge from external appearances.”
The Doctor, Genesis of the Daleks: Part Two
I’d go as far as to say it’s the reason I am a Doctor Who fan (or at the very least it’s the start of my being one). Yes, I’d watched Doctor Who as child, but as I mentioned back at The Tomb of the Cybermen, I’d left the UK aged 9 and although I returned to the country before the end of the 80’s, I had only a couple of brief brushes with the show until late 1991 or early 1992, when I watched Genesis of the Daleks shortly after its release on VHS.
I’m not sure if it was the first of those Doctor Who video releases that I saw. But it is the first I remember loving. I didn’t need to know its place in Who history, that it was pretty much the mid-point (in story numbers) of the classic show’s run, that it rewrote some of the origins of the Daleks, that the Doctor, Sarah and Harry had been interrupted on their return to the Nerva beacon, that it introduced Davros (or even that Davros was so important to Who mythology). I just knew it was something great – a special piece of television.
It reminded me why I’d liked Doctor Who so much as a child. In fact, given it was repeated in a truncated omnibus form as part Doctor Who and the Monsters repeat season in 1982, I might even have seen it as a child.
“I’ll never eat oysters again.”
Sarah Jane, Genesis of the Daleks: Part Four
But unlike the wave of nostalgic fervour with which I arrived at The Tomb of the Cybermen in this marathon, I think Genesis of the Daleks stands up to my memories of that catalytic viewing.
It’d be worth it for the characters and performances alone. Tom Baker is – four stories in and this already goes without saying – marvellous in it. Sarah and Harry likewise, get loads to do – Sarah climbs a rocket silo and Harry props up a landmine, for starters – and each of them has a go at avoiding the fearsome giant clams.
Davros, definitively played here by Michael Wisher, is one of Doctor Who‘s truly great villains, oozing menace it seems with every line, especially when he passes from that calm (almost calming) rationalising tone into the maniacal pronouncement rasp he passes onto in his progenitors.
“Excuse me, can you help me? I’m a spy.”
The Doctor, Genesis of the Daleks: Part Three
His almost-literal right-hand man, Nyder (strictly speaking he acts as Davros’s left hand), is played with equal relish by Peter Miles. The line that betrays his ulterior motives to Gharman, to worm out Davros’s enemies – that ‘Thank you. That’s what I wanted to know.’ – is chilling to this day.
The Kaled elite scientific and military corps and the Thals are all well-formed too, even if enough of them aren’t played by future cast members of ’Allo ’Allo (sadly, in the end we have to be satisfied with only Lieutenant Gruber and General von Klinkerhoffen appearing, seen on opposing sides here). I say this despite the apparent gullibility of Thal leaders and the Kaled elite. (Gharman, how could you fall for Nyder’s such obviously slimy trickery?)
And future Howard’s Way-er Stephen Yardley brings a sympathetic dignity to Sevrin – the most-rounded of the supporting “muto” characters.
“They are conditioned simply to survive. They can survive only by becoming the dominant species. When all other life forms are suppressed, when the Daleks are the supreme rulers of the universe, then you will have peace. Wars will end. They are the power not of evil, but of good.”
Davros, Genesis of the Daleks: Part Five
But it’s not just that it’s played well. Even if Genesis of the Daleks did not hang together solidly as a serial, there are more than enough moments that are memorable in their isolation.
Whether it’s the grim opening (apparently too violent a rewrite even for Terry Nation if what I’ve read is true), which sets the tone from the outset with its scenes of trench and chemical warfare, or something relatively small such as the irony of seeing Ronson, who saves the Doctor from being, historically at least, the first victim of the Daleks, himself becoming the first victim of the Daleks.
It’s there in our scoffing at the notion, with a healthy dose of 20/20 hindsight, that Davros might be regarded as a hero to the Thals. (He didn’t get a mention in The Daleks, mind!)
And, as we get to the crux of matters in the final third of the story, of course there are the weighty moral discussions between the Doctor and Davros, where Davros considers whether he would use the power to destroy all life. (Spoiler! He would.)
This contrasts with the Doctor’s later anxious reflections on the “Hitler paradox” and the rights and wrongs of his changing history by destroying the Daleks. (Ultimately, he’s saved twice from committing genocide: first by Gharman’s misplaced optimism, finally by a Dalek.)
“I know that although the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years. I know also, that out of their evil, must come something good.”
The Doctor, Genesis of the Daleks: Part Six
The capper for me, though, is the scene where Davros is hoist with his own petard. His pleading with the Daleks for pity for his fellow scientists, an emotion he has removed from the creatures himself – and the stunning revelation of his creations’ turning on him – is a thrilling twist that has never lost its power for me on any of its repeated viewings.
True, watching it in the context of this marathon, I can now see in it some of the familiar tropes and motifs of a Terry Nation story: the moody, atmospheric first episode, the radiation sickness, the B-movie style trek through dark caves where monstrous creatures await – but somehow they all just seem better here.
Whatever Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks or Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes said to or did with Nation, it worked. Leaving aside the notion that it might’ve been Holmes’s judicious editing that knocked it into shape, this is easily Nation’s best script since his first trip to Skaro. Even if, when the Thals blow up the bunker admittedly you do wonder if the Daleks would really have been entombed for 1,000 years.
“Our race will survive if it deserves to survive.”
Gharman, Genesis of the Daleks: Part Six
Which begs the question – if not a millennium, just how much time does pass before the events of The Daleks? Do those events even take place given the actions of the Doctor and his companions here? Does the Doctor rewrite history or merely nudge it onto the path it was always going to take?
I might ask if I would have found my own way back to Doctor Who some other way many years later if not for Blockbuster Video VHS rentals.
Nevertheless, and at the risk of lapsing into tautological redundancy, Genesis of the Daleks is the reason I’m typing this blog post today; it’s why I have shelves and boxes of Doctor Who merchandise behind me as I type; it’s why I can’t afford a house big enough to fit said videos, books, CDs, etc. In short, it marks the beginning of my financially ruinous obsession with Doctor Who!
Indeed, if not for Genesis of the Daleks, might I have a bigger house? Or at least more shelf space?
Who knows the answers to these questions of Dalek continuity and personal fiscal responsibility? Not I, it would seem. But what I do know is that, twenty-five years after (perhaps) watching it for the first time, Genesis of the Daleks remains one of the greatest bits of telly ever.
My son and I went to see the 90-minute edit of Genesis of the Daleks at the cinema last night. Having never watched the story in its cutdown form before, I was concerned it might seem a bit choppy but for the most part it works rather well.
Having seen the story countless times, I was always bound to spot where scenes had been excised (such as the Doctor emptying his pockets for General Raven), but it really only became noticeable towards the end. For one, we don’t see Kavell aid the Doctor and his companions’ escape, which makes Harry’s appearance outside the cell seem a bit odd. Perhaps most critically, nor do we see the Daleks rejection of Davros’s pleas for pity as they mow down the remaining scientists.
On the whole the so-called Director’s Cut of Genesis of the Daleks succeeds in upping the pace without sacrificing too much plot. It reminded me of Quentin Tarantino comments on how he cut all of the fat out of Death Proof for its Grindhouse edit. You’re left with something that still works. (My son and I did have fun spotting all the original cliffhangers though.)
All that said, last night’s trip to the cinema means it’s going to be a bit disappointing the next time I watch Genesis of the Daleks and it’s not on a 50-foot screen.
"For some reason on Part Two, there's no reprise from the last episode. I wonder why."
"'Excuse me, can you help me? I'm a spy.'" The Doctor in Part Three is really funny."
"Some things the Doctor confesses to Davros didn't really happen in the show – well, not that I know!"
Son of UT Rating: 9/10
