Theory:Genesis of Evil: Why it reconciles with the TV Series
If this thread's title doesn't specify it's spoilery, don't bring any up.
Genesis of Evil was the first of the TV21 Dalek Comic strips, also known as The Dalek Chronicles. It was unchallenged for years as the origin of the Daleks but is simply dismissed as non-canon as the TV series has firmly established Davros as creator of the Daleks.
But strong evidence exists to reconcile these two accounts and have both origin stories in the comics and TV as part of the same timeline and canon.
The Dalek Pocketbook and Space Travellers Guide published in 1965 and written by Terry Nation, state that Drenz, the pacifist blue skinned humanoid Dalek leader killed at the beginning of Genesis of Evil, was killed in 2003. This however doesn't intend to refer to 2003 AD. The Dalek Outer Space Book also written by Terry Nation, and Brad Ashton, makes reference to the "New Skaro Calendar" with Year Zero being the start of the "Thousand Years War". This book also states that the Daleks, as in the blue skinned humanoids from Genesis of Evil, emerged in 1600.
What's so intriguing about this is that it clearly references the circumstances of Genesis of the Daleks, the "Thousand Years War" is clearly the "Thousand Year War" without the s and both books were written ten years before Genesis of the Daleks was broadcast.
Furthermore, in John Peel's Doctor Who and the Daleks Book published in 1988, it mentions Terry Nation being questioned about the origins of the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks that contradict what we learnt about their origins in the original Dalek story (i.e the Dals, the Neutron War etc). Terry replied by saying "History is always being rewritten". John Peel explained that Terry didn't mean history actually being rewritten and altered but that new pieces of evidence of History were always being found and changing our perceptions.
With this in my mind, Genesis of the Daleks uncovers what we didn't learn from the 60's strip and annuals. We didn't know about Davros or the fact the Daleks rose at the end of the Thousand Year War but this war was referenced along with the "New Skaro Calendar" ten years before the story was broadcast.
Because Genesis of the Daleks is at the end of the Thousand Year War, it is set in the year 1000 of the New Skaro Calendar. This shows a thousand year gap between that story and the start of the TV21 Comic strip. From this we can infer a timeline:
1000 - Genesis of the Daleks
2003/05 - Genesis of Evil (the second half of the strip takes place 2 years after the Neutronic bombs explode)
2503 - The Daleks (Set 500 years after the Neutronic War that happens in the Comic strip)
I'am aware that this site only uses Doctor Who reference books of this sort as a secondary source, but I have evidence from TV21, the TV series and even the novels to support my claim. So please don't shoot me (or exterminate me considering the context of this essay) for using these books as a small reference. All the evidence can be found in the stories themselves.
In Genesis of Evil, a neutron bomb factory is hit in an meteorite storm and causes a massive explosion. Most life on Skaro is wiped out in a day like we saw in the First Dalek story and is the neutron war mentioned in that story.
Evidence from "The Daleks", supports this further; "we the Daleks and the Thals fought the Neutronic War" implying this was after the Daleks were created which is supported by the presence of blue skinned humanoids in the TV21 Comic strip. Also, "our forefathers retreated into the city protected by our machines" is said by a Dalek. In the second TV21 story, Power Play, the Daleks build their city after the Neutronic war, protected by Dalek casings after the radiation caused the blue skinned humanoids to mutate.
With the evidence above, there is one more supporting piece of evidence from Genesis of the Daleks - the Doctor believes he has set back Dalek development 1000 years when he en caves the Daleks in the Kaled Bunker. This fits the date supported by the New Skaro Calendar and provides a clear connection between the two stories.
The real questions though are: 1. Where did the Blue Skinned Humanoid Daleks come from?
2. What happened to the original Daleks from Genesis of the Daleks?
3. Why are the blue skinned humanoids called Daleks?
4. How did Yarvelling, the scientist from Genesis of Evil, not to be confused with Davros' sister from the Big Finish Davros Audios, create a Dalek machine clearly near identical to Davros' design except without slats?
Now I'm going to have to speculate here as there are no stories to cover the gap and there's little evidence other than the dates I've mentioned. My answers to that are:
1. The Blue skinned Humanoid Daleks have descended from cripple Kaled survivors or offspring of Thals and Mutos. Davros let the thals destroy the Kaled dome in Geneis of the Daleks but whether any of them survived is another question. If so, they would be scarred by radiation and would have likely mutated. Considering Davros genetically engineered the Kaled Mutants, perhaps natural evolution after exposure to radiation would have resulted in the Blue Skinned Daleks from the comics. Also, the Thals and Mutos were left to rebuild after the Thousand Year War. Perhaps Thals and Mutos might have mated to keep civilization on Skaro going. This might not have worked though as the Mutos were the products of the radioactive war between the Thals and Kaleds so this might have contaminated the Thal gene pool. They don't emerge until 600 years after the war ends, but where from isn't clear.
2. Be warned this is a long one. The original Daleks must have left Skaro or were wiped out by the Thals and Mutos. Considering the weapons and facilities available to the Thals and the strength of the Daleks, I presume the former. The novel War of the Daleks, by John Peel, states that the Dalek Prime is the oldest of the original Daleks. Jon Peel's novelisation of 'Evil of the the Daleks' specifies that the Dalek Prime was the Dalek who killed Davros and made the Dalek speech at the end of Genesis of the Daleks. This then would seem to support the notion that these Daleks did leave Skaro. There is evidence to support this in other stories; the novel Alien Bodies says there are Daleks scattered around Mutter's Spiral in the late twenty first century trying to build up a galactic power base and that the Daleks on Skaro are thinking of putting their own empire together, the static electricity phase of Dalek development. The Daleks on Skaro will be the ones from TV21, lead by the Golden emperor and without power slats. The Daleks around Mutter's Spiral are the ones from Genesis of the Daleks while the ones from TV21 are the ones who invade Earth in the 22nd Century. According to the TV21 comic story Legacy of Yesteryear, earth is nine galaxies away from Skaro and they attempt to invade Earth shortly after this discovery. If the Daleks in Mutter's spiral are the ones from Genesis of the Daleks, they must be less of a force than the ones in TV21 who are lead by an Emperor and command from Skaro, not trying to build up a galactic powerbase and are fully prepared to invade Earth. If the Daleks in Mutter's spiral where communicating with skaro, the Daleks would have found Earth sooner than the 22nd century. Interestingly enough, there is further evidence for this in Power of the Daleks, featuring slatted Daleks powered by a static electricity generator and set in 2020, more than 100 years before the Daleks invade Earth in the 22nd Century. The Daleks on Skaro would still be without slats at this point as they are in The Dalek Invasion of Earth but yet the ones in Genesis of the Daleks had slats and were set back by the Fourth Doctor destroying Dalek embryos. Perhaps then they've down graded to static electricity because of a lack of resources and decent power collective across space.
3. The Blue Skinned Humanoids will be know as Daleks perhaps as sign they have mutated from the Kaleds and are now an independent evolved race. Perhaps the Thals gave them the name to forget the war with the Kaleds and the threat of the machine Daleks who must have long disappeared before 2003 of the New Skaro Calendar and to show that their races are now at peace.
4. According to 'The Daleks', the Thal records date back half a million years. Perhaps the Thals and Mutos raided the Kaled bunker and found Davros' blue prints for the Daleks as a historical record, not fearing that the machines would be recreated. It would seem then that Yarvelling used these blueprints to make Dalek machines but the mutants themselves are a result of the radiation that fills Skaro after the Neutronic War. Perhaps the Thals didn't recovered the blueprints of the Daleks seen in Genesis of the Daleks and took an earlier blueprint, i.e the non-slatted variant and used that for his machine. Or perhaps the Thals recovered actual non-slatted casings from the Bunker and gave them to the blue skinned Daleks as a keepsake and Yarvelling figured out how to use them as effective war machines. Although we don't know how the Blue skinned Daleks planned to use the machines in the war and it doesn't appear they were going to mutate themselves into green blobs to use them, that was an accident when the Neutron bomb factory is hit.
And there ends my argument for why Genesis of Evil can be reconciled with Genesis of the Daleks. I would love to hear your opinions and I hope I have created a new perspective on Dalek continuity. Feel free to ask me any questions about my theory. Thank you for reading. :)
Conscious Obsession - 14th June 2017 (Note please don't edit this essay/article without my permission)
