Genesis of the Daleks by: Terry Nation and directed by: David Maloney

 

Genesis of the Daleks stars Tom Baker as the Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, and Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan with Michael Wisher as Davros, Peter Miles as Nyder, John Scott Martin, Cy Town, and Keith Ashley as Dalek Operators with Dalek Voices by Roy Skelton..  It was written by: Terry Nation and directed by: David Maloney with Robert Holmes as Script Editor and Philip Hinchcliffe as Producer.  It was originally broadcast on Saturdays from 8 March to 12 April 1975 on BBC1.

 

The Daleks throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s had enjoyed something of a renaissance.  1967’s The Evil of the Daleks showed what was meant to be their final end as Terry Nation decided to pitch a Dalek show for an American audience.  It would be repeated in 1968 in what was the first ever repeat of a full serial (“An Unearthly Child” was repeated ahead of the first serial’s second episode due to the low viewership of the original broadcast).  The Daleks would essentially be replaced with the Cybermen as the Doctor’s main recurring foe, though the Ice Warriors and the Great Intelligence would make returns during Troughton and Pertwee’s time as the Doctor after their initial introductions.  This would change in 1972 with Day of the Daleks bringing the Daleks back and invading Earth, however, there was a communications error with Terry Nation when it was found the production office did not give Nation the first right of refusal to write Dalek stories from that point on.  This meant that the next two Dalek stories, Planet of the Daleks and Death to the Daleks, would be written by Nation.  As Dalek stories were popular, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks believed a Dalek story in the twelfth season would assist in the changeover as well as the general ratings boost.  Nation’s original pitch was, like Planet of the Daleks, a rewrite of the very first Dalek story.  Letts and Dicks demanded a rewrite, not wishing to saddle the new production team with a repeat story and incoming script editor Robert Holmes only agreed to continue once Letts spoke to him about what the script would become.  The suggestion was to explore the genesis of the Daleks, and as such the serial was titled Daleks – Genesis of Terror, and later Genesis of Terror.

 

Once the handover to Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes was done, Nation submitted his final scripts for editing by Holmes.  The pair were already less than enthusiastic in making the story, it would be the third story that season to feature a returning monster (though it would be broadcast second).  It would be no surprise than that after this season it would be a near two year gap before a monster would return.  Directing duties were assigned to David Maloney, who had previously directed Planet of the Daleks as well as three Patrick Troughton stories, and he would be responsible for finding the performer for the Daleks’ creator, Davros.  Initial plans were to go with Roy Skelton, who had been providing Dalek voices since The Evil of the Daleks, as well as Cybermen voices in The Tenth Planet and The Wheel in Space alongside Peter Hawkins.  Skelton proved unavailable, though he would return to voice Daleks in the serial, so Maloney approached Michael Wisher who accepted the role.  While Nation’s script was suitably dark for a race born out of nuclear war, it is actually much of Maloney’s directorial skills with Dudley Simpson’s effective score which gives Genesis of the Daleks its emotional weight.  Maloney altered the script in key settings, to ensure that from the first shot the viewer knows that this is a hopeless situation.  The opening shots are of soldiers being gunned down in war before the Doctor finds himself wandering into a warzone.  Much of the first episode is the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry attempting to get through the wastelands.  This sequence is nail bitingly tense, especially once the Doctor steps on a landmine and has to attempt to step off without setting it off.  Maloney is sublime and while usually there would be a complaint that the first cliffhanger is a Dalek reveal, even though the Daleks are in the title, but as the entire premise is that the Doctor is supposed to be there to avert the genesis, the fact that the genesis has already happened is a surprise.

 

Looking at the premise to avert the creation of the Daleks is an interesting place for the Doctor to actually be in.  The idea is that there will be a time where the Daleks threaten time and even the Time Lords, an idea eventually developed in the revived series as the Last Great Time War, but that isn’t actually an element of Nation’s script, just retroactively becoming involved.  Tom Baker takes on the heavy task so early on in his run as the Doctor of dealing with a morally complex script, as the idea is that the Doctor doesn’t want to actively make this choice at the end.  There of course is the famous speech in Part Six which is the culmination of the five previous episodes’ growth.  The Doctor at every point is subtly trying to avoid the Dalek project from continuing past the initial point, going to the Kaleds outside of Davros and convincing them of the danger, and going to the Thals to save Sarah Jane and possibly find some sense of peace.  This is one of those stories where the Doctor’s actions are obviously futile, though not for the lack of trying.  Nation’s script is smart by making both sides be responsible for great atrocities and every character is morally complex, outside of the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry.  Davros, played by Michael Wisher and Nyder, played by Peter Miles, are the most outright total evil villains, but neither are without their complexities.  Nyder in particular only appears in this story but makes this lasting impression.  He’s just as evil and calculating as Davros and the Daleks, he’s the one who is betraying his own people in aid of Davros’ great plan to keep the Kaleds on the path to survival through the Daleks.  Miles changes his performance on a dime and it is such a brilliant little change in every scene it occurs in.  Wisher as Davros is also chilling as this megalomaniac, going on about how he is going to make sure he has power.  There are several famous speeches which in context are brilliantly written from the villain’s perspective, drawing on truly evil historical figures for the script and performance.  The makeup job on the mask and design of human/Dalek hybrid is brilliant.

 

Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter also have interesting roles to play throughout Genesis of the Daleks, as this could easily have been a story where they are sidelined.  Terry Nation clearly likes Sarah Jane quite a bit as he gives her plenty to do in terms of creating rebellion of prisoners of war and the Mutos living in the wastelands.  She provides this human element throughout the story and provides the negative aspects of humanity when it comes to the Doctor’s decision.  She is the one telling the Doctor that he should wipe out the Daleks, and it is never actually treated as cruel.  It is misguided, perhaps, but it is not treated as cruel or evil.  The rebuttal of course is that even with evil some good must come out of it so if someone was able to go back and change the evil, they should not.  This is also reflective in that the Doctor only ever rejects being active in stopping this, he doesn’t touch the two wires together in the end.  The incubator is delayed when a Dalek trundles over the wires completing the circuit and delaying them.  The end of the serial has the Daleks essentially in the position that they were seen in the very first Dalek story, the city essentially being cut off and the war is essentially over with the Thals trying to rebuild their own society and the rest of the Kaleds being destroyed.  Ian Marter’s Harry Sullivan is also an interesting foil for the Doctor as here he essentially provides human comic relief, but not in an over the top manner.  He is a character who is trying his best to survive and find his friends throughout the story, and just stay with the Doctor to keep things moving.

 

Overall, Genesis of the Daleks is one of those stories that people always bring up when discussing the possible best Doctor Who stories.  While it may not be my personal favorite, it is clearly a contender with perfect direction, music, and performances, and a script which has been carefully crafted to revive the Daleks and give Tom Baker one of his best performances as the Doctor.  This is the story which cements the Fourth Doctor’s characterization and is the first time that everything seems to have clicked and shown where the production team of Hinchcliffe and Holmes would take the show.  10/10.