Genesis of the Daleks (TV story): Difference between revisions

==Synopsis==

==Plot==

[[Fourth Doctor|The Doctor]] walks through the cold mist, wondering why he's not on Nerva. Suddenly, another [[Time Lord]] appears in front of him, and the Doctor realises who has intercepted the [[transmat]] beam he and his companions were riding to Nerva. The Time Lords have foreseen a time when the [[Dalek]]s will exterminate the [[universe]] itself. They want the Doctor to travel back to the time of their creation to avert creation, make them less aggressive, or find some inherent weakness in their makeup. The Doctor agrees, and asks for the coordinates for [[Skaro]], the Dalek homeworld. The Time Lord tells the Doctor that he is already there, and vanishes after giving him a [[Time Ring]] that will return him to the [[the Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] when his mission is complete...

The trio cross the lines into another trench, where the bodies of the fallen have been propped up to make the place appear more heavily guarded. Suddenly, gas shells drop as a squad of soldiers attacks. Another door bursts open, and black-uniformed soldiers emerge, counterattacking with submachine guns. Having dealt with the enemy, they drag Harry and the Doctor into their bunker, leaving an unconscious Sarah behind among the dead. The soldiers, all very young men, take the Doctor and Harry to see [[Ravon|General Ravon]], who is in his early twenties. These are the [[Kaled]]s, who are fighting a war with the [[Thal]]s for dominance of Skaro. Soon, Ravon boasts, they will exterminate the Thals from the face of Skaro! The Doctor notices that "Kaled" is an anagram of something...  

The Doctor and Harry manage to disarm Ravon, forcing him at gunpoint to take them back to the surface. However, they encounter Security Command [[Nyder]], who becomes suspicious and orders his men to open fire. Releasing Ravon, Harry and the Doctor run for and reach the surface, but are soon captured by the Kaleds once more. Ravon thinks the two are [[Muto]]s, the descendants of those mutated by chemical weapons in the first century of the war and cast out into the wastelands to maintain Kaled racial purity. The Doctor tells Nyder they are [[alien]]s, but Nyder is sceptical, since the Kaleds' greatest scientist, [[Davros]], has said there is no life on other [[planet]]s. Nyder takes custody of the Doctor and Harry for interrogation.

===Part Two===

Ronson, a member of the Scientific Division, examines the results of the scan, and is startled to discover that the Doctor and Harry are indeed aliens. Before he can question them further, an alarm rings; Davros is arriving, bringing with him his "Mark III travel machine", which the Doctor identifies to Ronson as a Dalek. When Davros releases the primitive Dalek to independent control, it swivels around and pauses at the Doctor and Harry, detecting their non-Kaled physiology. It cries out that they are aliens and must be exterminated, but Ronson switches the Dalek off before it can fire.

[[Image:Genesis_part2b.JPG|thumb|left|150px|[[Sarah Jane Smith|Sarah]] tries to escape the [[Thal dome]]]]

The Doctor has learned that the bunker they are in is a few miles away from the Kaled dome. Years ago, the Kaled government decided to form a scientific elite for research, but over time the elite became more and more influential. Ronson tells them that Davros has just announced that the Mark III travel machine will now be known as a Dalek, and Ronson asks how the Doctor knew this in advance.

The first load over, Sarah and the other slaves return to their cell, exhausted. She tells them they must act before they are too weak from distronic exposure to do anything. She proposes they try to escape through the dome's exit at the top of the rocket. Overpowering their guard, the slaves rush out to the silo and start climbing, as Thal troops fire up at them.

===Part Three===

[[Image:Genesis_part3a.JPG|thumb|right|150px|Harry almost gets eaten by one of Davros's lab rats]]

Another scientist, [[Kavell]], tells Ronson that the Doctor and Harry have made contact with the Kaled leadership in the dome. There, the Doctor briefs the Kaled Councillors, including one named [[Mogran]], on future events and how the name of the Daleks will terrorise the universe for generations to come.  

[[Image:Genesis_part3b.JPG|thumb|left|150px|Davros and [[Nyder]] sell out their people to the [[Thal]]s]]

The Doctor awakens in the control room of the Thal dome, where a screen shows the Thal chemical bombardment of the Kaled dome. The Thal leader gives the order to start the rocket countdown. In the bunker, the Kaled scientists watch the bombardment with disbelief; who could have given the Thals the right formula?

The Thal leader is jubilant that the war has ended, and orders all prisoners to be freed, including the Doctor. The Doctor, however, is melancholy. A Thal woman, [[Bettan]], asks him if he had friends in the dome and the Doctor replies yes. However, he intends to continue and try to stop the development of Davros's Daleks. Bettan says that Davros is a hero, despite the Doctor telling her that he only betrayed his people because they were about to stop his experiments.  

Under Davros's orders, Daleks enter the Thal dome and begin exterminating people. Bettan runs into the Doctor, and the two flee the dome. The Doctor tells her that she has to form what Thal survivors there are into a fighting force and destroy the Kaled bunker.  

In the bunker, Gharman quietly tries to convince Kavell that they have to stop the Daleks. However, they are overheard by Nyder. The Security Commander approaches Gharman and convinces him that he believes Davros has become a megalomaniac and has to be stopped. He arranges to meet Gharman in the detention rooms on the lower level where Davros never goes. There, Gharman gives Nyder the names of those who oppose Davros, which is all that he really wanted. Davros appears, and Nyder knocks Gharman unconscious. At that moment, Sarah, Harry and the Doctor emerge from the ventilation shaft right in front of the two, and are captured.

As Davros increases the power of the torture devices, the Doctor reluctantly answers Davros's questions. Over the course of the next few hours, he gives a litany of the Daleks' defeats and why they were defeated. The first session over, Sarah and Harry are taken to the detention area. Davros wants to speak to the Doctor, scientist to scientist.

The Doctor asks Davros a hypothetical question: if he had invented a [[virus]] that would destroy all other forms of life on contact, would he use it? Davros considers the question and observes that the power to make that choice would elevate him above the gods, and yes, he would do it. Convinced now that Davros is mad, the Doctor seizes his arm and threatens to turn off his life support chair unless he orders the Dalek mutants destroyed. However, Nyder enters and knocks the Doctor out before Davros can give the final order.  

*[[Writer]] - [[Terry Nation]]

*[[Studio Lighting]] - [[Duncan Brown]]  

*[[Film Cameraman]] - [[Elmer Cossey]]  

*[[Production Assistant]] - [[Rosemary Crowson]]  

*[[Visual Effects]] - [[Peter Day]]  

*[[Production Unit Manager]] - [[George Gallaccio]]  

*[[Title Music]] - [[Ron Grainer]] and the [[BBC Radiophonic Workshop]]

*[[Script Editor]] - [[Robert Holmes]]  

*[[Director]] - [[David Maloney]]  

==References==

* [[First Doctor|The Doctor]]'s first visit to [[Skaro]] is said to occur some 500 years after a war between the [[Thal]]s and the Daleks. Whether that visit comes 500 years after this story or some later conflict is unclear.

*In addition to his [[sonic screwdriver]] the Doctor has in his pocket an [[etheric beam locator]].

*''[[The Evil of the Daleks (novelisation)]]'' by [[John Peel]] suggests that the Dalek that exterminates Davros at the end of this story eventually becomes the [[Dalek Emperor]] seen in ''Evil''. John Peel's later novel [[EDA]]: ''[[War of the Daleks]]'' also states this.

*The Daleks and the Time Lords are later involved in a destructive [[Time War]], alluded to in the [[2005]] series. Executive producer [[Russell T Davies]] commented in an episode of ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'' that the origins of the Time War date back to this story, where the Time Lords struck first. Davies also made reference to this attempted genocide as a root of the Time War in a text piece in the ''[[Doctor Who Annual 2006]]''.

===Influences===

===Filming Locations===

===Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors===

*''[[The Daleks]]'' implied that the Daleks evolved gradually into their mutated form over hundreds of years. This apparent discontinuity is usually explained by the Doctor's interference with their history in this story. Events set into motion by the Doctor's presence caused Davros to prematurely accelerate the development of the Daleks, creating unstable creatures which he could not control. ''History is not always recorded perfectly, and the characters in ''[[The Daleks]]'' were talking about events from at least 500 years previous.''

* How is it possible to have a [[Thousand Year War]] between two cities only miles apart? ''Perhaps these cities managed to keep out of the war until the final stages. Also, their proximity prevents the use of more destructive weapons, such as nuclear warheads and nerve gases, which would most likely destroy both cities.''

*At the end of Part 2, Sarah falls outside the gantry: in episode three's resolution, she falls onto a platform inside it. ''It was not an absolutely straight fall - perfectly reasonable, given that she did not jump straight down.''

*The Daleks shown in this story are supposed to be the earliest and most primitive of the species however they are shown to be more advanced than those shown in ''[[The Daleks]]'' and ''[[The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]''. They have the solar panels on their mid-sections that were first seen in ''[[The Chase]]'' and are able to travel off of metal, an ability that was only first shown to be possible in The Dalek Invasion of Earth. ''Since this story takes place, chronologically, before these earlier episodes, maybe since then the war on Skaro had had many changes to the Daleks, and lost them many resources, so when they made more Daleks and more casing, they couldn't access the specific material or technology to create the solar panels. Being entombed, solar panels would soon become useless and would be discarded as such. Needing an alternate form of power - and not travelling outside due to being confined to the bunker, static electricity emerged as an alternative energy source.''

* Why is there a switch which will effectively kill Davros located on his console in the most obvious of locations? Under what circumstances would he want his life support system to be so easily terminated? At the very least, the switch should have been concealed. ''Just in case, he been taken as prisoner of war.''

:''At minimum, one would expect that the Time Lords would have made provision for translation, either through the time ring or some other mechanism.''

* How did did Sevrin know where to find The Doctor and Sarah and Harry. ''Mutos have a highly developed sense of smell, necessary for surviving in the harsh conditions of the wasteland. (See above about why Sarah changed clothes near the end of the story. Maybe the Doctor and Harry should have, too.)''

==Continuity==

Released:

::PAL - [[BBC DVD]] BBCDVD1813

*Region 4 [[4th May]] [[2006]]

::PAL - [[BBC DVD]] ????

*Region 1 [[6th June]] [[2006]]

::NTSC - [[Warner Video]] E2503

::PAL - [[Polygram]] ????

'''Audio Releases'''

==Novelisation==

[[Image:Genesis of The Daleks novel.jpg|right|75px]]

*Novelised as ''[[Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks]]'' by [[Terrance Dicks]] in [[1976]].

*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/genesisofdaleks/ BBC Episode Guide for '''Genesis of the Daleks''']

*[http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=4e Outpost Gallifrey Episode Guide: '''Genesis of the Daleks''']

*[http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/4e.html A Brief History of Time (Travel): '''Genesis of the Daleks''']

*[http://www.doctorwholocations.net/stories/genesisofthedaleks The Locations Guide to Doctor Who - '''Genesis of the Daleks''']

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{{Wikipedia|Genesis_of_the_Daleks}}

[[Category:Fourth Doctor episodes]]

[[Category:Dalek episodes]]