OK thought I would opt to do another Doctor Who review (yep they are sprouting up in this blog!) and the one I've decided to go for is one of the all time classics, which is from Tom Baker's era: Genesis of the Daleks, made back in 1975. So let's gie it a look...
Right the plot is quite lengthy in itself so I will TRY my best not to keep it too long winded here, which for me is difficult, but I'll do what I can. So the story starts with the Doctor being intercepted by the Time Lords while he is travelling to space station Nerva (from the Ark in Space story). The Doctor meets with a Time Lord (John Franklyn-Robbins) who tells him that he is on the planet Skaro, and gives him the mission to prevent the development of the daleks being turned into evil creatures, which the Doctor accepts. The Doctor is soon joined by his companions, Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (Ian Marter) as they look at their surroundings, which is a barren desolate warground, as the two warring races on the planet, the Thals and Kaleds, have been engaged in a thousand year war. The Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive in a trench and soon attacked by a group of Thals, but the Kaleds soon come to their rescue, however Sarah is left for dead in the trenches, and is soon found by a group of Mutos (Kaleds who are mutated and were banished from the kaled dome). Sarah is later captured by a group of Thal soldiers who take her and one of the mutos, Severin (Stephen Yardley) for slave labour in the Thal dome.
Inside the Kaled dome, the Doctor and Harry are taken for interrogation, and the Doctor has his belongings confiscated, which includes the time ring, given to him by the Time Lord, which let them return to the TARDIS. The Doctor and Harry soon stand witness to the unveiling of the first prototype dalek at a presentation given by the scientific elite's leader, Davros (Michael Wisher). The Dalek armed with its weapon is about to kill the Doctor and Harry, but one of the scientists, Ronson (James Garbutt) intervenes in time to stop it. Later Ronson meets with The Doctor and Harry in the prison cells, where he admits his concerns over the dalek project, and how Davros has created a monster with no morals or conscience. The Doctor and Harry escape from their cell with Ronson's help, as they agree to reach the Kaled councillors and express their concerns and insist they shut down Davros's research.
However Davros's personal guard and security commander, Nyder (Peter Miles) has his spies discover of Ronson's treachery and also of the council's decision to investigate his work with the daleks. On this basis, Davros decides there is no alternative but to destroy the Kaled race and the dome, as he makes a journey to the Thal dome with Nyder and gives them a formula to destroy the Kaled dome. The thals agree to use the formula and the Doctor along with Harry arrives in time to free Sarah from the labour prison before the rocket is launched, but he is too late to stop the countdown, as the Thals launch their rocket and Kaled dome is destroyed. Meanwhile Davros exposes Ronson as a spy and has one of his daleks exterminate him, and with 20 new daleks in place, Davros uses them to infiltrate the Thals dome and exterminate the Thals. Back in the Kaled bunker the Doctor and his companions are captured by Nyder and Davros interrogates the Doctor, realising that he is from another planet and time, he forces the Doctor to reveal his knowledge of the Daleks defeats and how they can be avoided, which is recorded on tape. And from here the Doctor must try and find a way to stop Davros, destroy the dalek force and prevent them from evolving into the most evil dominant species in the universe....
There is no two ways about the fact Genesis of the Daleks stands easily as one of the very best Doctor Who stories of all time. The script is brilliantly written by Terry Nation, and the setting is great, a thousand year war between two warring races, and from this war the daleks are born. And with the new hard hitting style of the show under the producer at the time, Philip Hinchcliffe, Genesis here shows the perfect mix of suspense and drama. Terry Nation shows his affinity for fascism in Genesis as well as the Kaleds are dressed in very Nazi-esque uniforms, and the Elite, lead by Nyder, are dressed in almost SS type clothing. And he would later on use similar themes in Blake's 7 where the human population are controlled by the Federation, a fascist regime, who show ruthlessness to those who opposed them. The daleks themselve are brilliantly introduced into this story and the concept of their creation is really well devised, with the daleks having been born out of mutations, and in one scene Ronson shows the Doctor and Harry a screen room where the dalek embryos are grown, and Ronson says to the Doctor "that is our future!.
Getting on to the performances they are all top notch, starting with Tom Baker as the Doctor, who by this time had started to grow into his role. In the early stories everything is still pretty dramatic, but Tom still allows for a few moments of humour here and there in the story, especially in the scene where he asks for a cup of tea, and one of the Elite officers tells he will kill him if he doesn't comply with his orders, and the Doctor says "no tea, Harry". There is also another amusing moment the Doctor catches onto the fact that Kaled is an anagram of Dalek, "K-A-L-E-D.... hang that's almost an anagram of.... how interesting!". However Tom also has some great dramatic moments as well, particularly in his scene with Davros where he pleads with him to stop the development of the daleks, and as he realises he is looking at a madman, he grabs Davros's one hand. Later on also in the scene where the Doctor, having wired up the dalek incubation room with explosives, stands with the two wires in his hand, and all he needs to do is touch them together to destroy the daleks, and he asks Sarah "But do I have the right?".
Lis Sladen and Ian Marter also put in fine performances as Sarah and Harry, and Elisabeth shows Sarah Jane once again as being a strong independent women, who in the scene where she is placed in the Thal labour camp, organises an escape attempt to climb up the rocket scaffolding. Although later on the Thal soldiers capture her, and one of them takes a hold of her arm and kicks her feet away underneath, dangling her off the side of the rocket, and he says "I hear that people who fall from great heights are dead before they hit the ground. I don't believe that. Do you??". Ian Marter as Harry for once is actually shown to be a bit more adept at dealing with the action and situations, and less clumsy as he was before. Although there is still that scene where he get's his foot caught in the giant clam in the caves, and he later says "why is it always me that puts a foot in it??!".
Of the other cast members, Peter Miles is great as the conniving and manipulative Nyder, Davros's right hand man, who remains loyal till the bitter end. Miles has some good moments in his performance, particularly where he tells the Doctor what Mutos are "they are the scarred relics of ourselves". And later on in the scene where he tricks Gharman (played by Dennis Chinnery) into thinking he is on his side about being against Davros's work with the daleks, and he says "Thank you! That's all I wanted to know!". Although at one point even Nyder realises that while he remains loyal to Davros, he cannot quite digest that he will go as far as to the annihilate the kaled race "you will go that far??". James Garbutt as the Kaled scientist Ronson is also very good and at times you feel sorry for his character as you realise he has good intentions but ultimately they bring to his own demise. Guy Siner, who plays the young General Raven, gives a decent account of himself, although his main scene is a bit over the top when he angrily shouts about how they will defeat the Thals "Our battle cry will be TOTAL extermination of the THALS!!".
But the best performance of the story by far is Michael Wisher's as Davros, as he is simply magnificent as one of the show's most memorable villains. And despite the physical limitations that Wisher had as Davros, as he was encased in a half Dalek chair, and he only had the use of one hand (with the other curled into a limp state) his vocal performance is sheer perfection, as he produces the perfect mix of megalomania, hysteria and controlled manipulation. Wisher has various highlights in the story, and one of his best scenes is where he interrogates the Doctor on his knowledge of the Daleks, and he says to him "Now, you will tell me the reason for every Dalek defeat. With that knowledge I will program them, with that knowledge they will know their mistakes and how to avoid them, with that knowledge there will be no defeats! WE WILL BEGIN!". Also in the scene where the Doctor asks Davros if he would have created a virus that would kill all life, would he use it and Davros admits he would "I would do it! That power would set me up among the gods! AND THROUGH THE DALEKS I SHALL HAVE THAT POWER!!!". The character of Davros is also helped invariably by the brilliant mask created by make-up arist, John Friedlander, which remains one of the most memorable in the show as well.
In terms of the direction David Maloney, a regular with Doctor Who, rarely puts a foot wrong here, as he keeps the mood of the story as intense and perfect as you would hope for. And as for the incidental music, by the regular composer, Dudley Simpson, again there are some great passages of music, especially in the scenes with the daleks being introduced.
Flaw wise the story itself hasn't really got many, although it has to be said that one or two of the cliffhangers are a bit weak, such as in episode two where Sarah falls from the rocket scaffolding and the picture is freeze framed, it makes for a pretty duff cliffhanger (especially as we know she will be alright!). Also there are one or two cheesy inclusions, one of which is the uninentionally funny inclusion of Davros's "destruct button" which has the words "Total destruct" written on it in the scene where he dares the scientists to destroy his work. The inclusion of the giant clam is also really daft, as it is yet another crappy looking prop in the show, where Harry get's his foot caught in it, and the Doctor feebly uses a big rock to try and hit its mouth open. You could also argue that by the end of the show that the Doctor really hasn't accomplished anything with trying to prevent the Daleks from turning into an evil race, as they still will grow into the evil shitbags that we have come to know in the series (so you could aruge from that point of view the story was a waste of time!! But a great one nonetheless!).
Anyway so that's it for my look at Genesis of the Daleks, which to this day is one of the very best Who stories, and if you are even a casual fan of the new show, and like the idea of checking some of the oldies, this is one of the ones to look out for.
So I will leave it there.
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