THE PLOT
While transmatting back to Nerva, the Doctor and his companions are intercepted by the Time Lords. They have a mission for the Doctor. They have taken him to Skaro, to a time before the Daleks' development. The Doctor's mission is to either avert the Daleks' creation, or affect their evolution in such a way that their aggressive nature is curtailed.
But in the midst of a brutal, endless war between the Daleks' ancestors, the Kaleds, and their enemies, the Thals, there is little hope of success. The Kaleds are brutal, militaristic fascists whose society has become utterly dominated by Davros (Michael Wisher), the scientist whose experiments with genetic manipulation seem only tangentially related to the actual war. The Thals are no better, hostile and suspicious, with no qualms about literally working prisoners to death. Separated and scattered between the great, domed cities, the time travellers will need all their wits and luck just to survive.
And then there is Davros' latest, greatest achievement. The Daleks themselves...
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Tom Baker's fourth story as the Doctor is by far his best performance yet. He was an instantly engaging presence in his earliest stories, but it isn't until this story that his Doctor gains that extra edge, a certain seriousness of purpose beneath his accustomed flippancy. There might have been a hint of that in The Ark in Space, but it's only here where it truly emerges as a dominant trait.
This story is famous for the "Have I the right?" scene, in which the Doctor has the chance to kill the Daleks by touching two wires together and hesitates, agonizing over whether doing so would truly be the right thing to do. It's a great scene, but it's often missed that the Doctor doesn't refuse to destroy the Daleks. His decision is interrupted, when told that Davros has agreed to introduce compassion into the Daleks' make-up. It is Davros' ruse that prevents the Doctor from completing his mission, a ruse that the Doctor is desperate to believe - desperate because, without that hope to cling to, he likely would have touched those wires together (and something he would probably would wish, on many future occasions, that he had done).
Sarah Jane Smith: Another good story for Sarah Jane, particularly in the first three episodes. Separated from the Doctor and Harry, and captured by the Thals, she once again takes on the Doctor role, organizing the prisoners into an escape attempt. The attempt fails, but it comes reasonably close and gives the doomed prisoners a last, fragile hope. After that, she recedes into the background again, but she does get to act as the voice of pragmatism when the Doctor is mulling the moral dilemma of committing Dalek genocide.
Harry Sullivan: Ian Marter's laid-back Harry makes a natural foil to Tom Baker's Doctor. Harry has several strong moments. He takes decisive action early on, rescuing the Doctor from a land mine. When the Doctor's Time Ring is confiscated, Harry keeps the Doctor from protesting, pointing out that it would be bad for the Kaleds to realize just how crucial the bracelet is. He keeps a generally cool head throughout, and at this point has emerged as a character in the mold of Ian Chesterton - a character fully capable of taking the lead on his own. I once again find myself lamenting that this character was to have such a short tenure.
Davros: Davros' first appearance, and certainly his best television appearance. Long before the phrase, "God of the Daleks," was ever uttered in a television episode, Wisher's Davros is basically that. He has created the Daleks in his own image, gliding along in casings that look exactly like the casing that sustains him. He has purged his Dalek creations of emotions such as pity and compassion, just as those same emotions were burned away from him. He is a Dalek in all but name.
He is also a highly formidable opponent. It is worth noting that the Doctor never actually defeats Davros in this story. The Doctor is left to flee for his life, while the only justice Davros meets is a poetic one - doomed by his own insistence on barring compassion from the Daleks. The scenes between Davros and the Doctor are uniformly excellent, with Davros' musing about using a virus that would destroy all life being a particular highlight. Wisher is compelling in every scene. Though Tom brings his "A" game to bear, Wisher effortlessly steals the serial right out from under him.
Nyder: Peter Miles delivers his best-ever Who performance as Nyder, the Kaled security chief. Miles' facial features are well-suited to his role. Dressed entirely in black, Nyder lurks in the background of several scenes, watching hawk-like. In Episode Four, he briefly pretends to be betraying Davros to gain information from a dissenting scientist. Miles makes it quite believable that the scientist believes Nyder, softening his tones and speaking urgently. On first viewing, I was fooled. Abruptly, his voice hardens and sharpens, allowing the chilling realization to sink in for both scientist and viewers. It's a fine performance in a fine part - and it's always a good sign for a serial when the secondary villain is more memorable and menacing than most stories' primary villains are.
THOUGHTS
The extraordinary Davros/Doctor scenes have led some of this story's critics to claim that the serial consists of a handful of all-time classic scenes and a whole lot of padding. I'll admit, there certainly is padding. The first episode alone sees Harry and the Doctor burn up about ten minutes on an escape attempt that ends with them right back where they started. Sarah Jane's escape attempt is narratively useless, and all the tromping back and forth between the Thal and Kaled Domes starts to feel a bit repetitive by Episode Three.
So yes, Genesis of the Daleks probably is a touch overrated... but that's simply a by-product of how very highly it's been rated to start with. Even as a child, watching each story with no knowledge whatever of a given serial's reputation, I recognized that this one was something special, that there was an extra dimension here that hadn't existed in the previous three stories. As an adult, I can acknowledge that there are better Who stories, some of which I've already reviewed. But that doesn't stop Genesis from being a very good story, and probably a great one.
One thing the "padding" criticism misses is that a lot of the so-called "padding" is really rather good drama. Sarah Jane's escape attempt may not advance the story. But it provides not only a memorable Episode Two cliffhanger, but quite a good sequence in general, ending with a memorably sadistic bit in which a Thal guard dangles Sarah Jane over a chasm. Could you lop it, and the single reference to it, out of the story without hurting anything? Of course you could. But doing so would reduce the drama, would make it feel "smaller." Could you tell the story of Genesis of the Daleks in four episodes? Of course you could. The 90-minute repeat version of it proves that. But I doubt the 90-minute version was an improvement in dramatic terms.
David Maloney's direction is exceptional. The serial begins with a striking visual image, gas masked soldiers being gunned down, then disappearing into the mist, before the Doctor is revealed within that same mist. Maloney understands the power of close-ups, and uses close shots to very strong effect. The serial is also lit far more effectively than any other story this season, with a good mix of lighting effects for the different settings. This is a serial that, in places, looks like a feature film. A bit of corridor, a few rooms, a cave set, and a trench are shot and lit such that you really feel as if you were on this war-torn planet. Rarely has Who brought a setting to life this vividly, which is all the more impressive when you consider how relatively few in number the sets actually are.
THE DALEKS
This story's treatment of the Daleks is particularly effective. In the first three episodes, we barely see them. Davros is the villain, Nyder his henchman, and the Daleks are used as weapons (an interesting parallel with their use in The Power of the Daleks, come to think of it). In the second half, they are unleashed more and more, until finally they emerge as a force unto themselves.
The progression is quite interesting. The two forces forming a person's identity are nature and nurture, and both are made to play a part in the Daleks' development. Davros has carefully expunged compassion and pity from his creations (nature). We see, in the Dalek's first speaking scene, that it recognizes aliens and desires to exterminate them. It shows no such desire to exterminate the Kaleds, however, recognizing them as "conforming."
Here's where nurture might come into play. Davros uses the Daleks against any of his own people who dissent, until the Daleks grow very accustomed to killing Kaleds. By the end, Davros has had them exterminate more than half of the Kaled elite - by which point it seems only natural to turn on the remaining half. From the Daleks' perspective, the remaining Kaleds are exactly the same as the Kaleds they've just killed. They have been taught by Davros to exterminate those who do not conform. If that includes Kaled dissenters, then that includes all Kaleds - who are not, after all, Daleks. Davros created the Daleks in his own twisted image, and he succeeded in this all too well.
OVERALL
Some of the series' all-time great moments. Magnificent scenes between Davros and the Doctor. An outstanding final scene between Davros and the lead Dalek. Polished, confident direction by arguably the series' best-ever director. Really, what more is there to say? A few nit-picks about padding and giant clams really seem to miss the point. There may be a handful of better Who stories, but this is still exceptional.
Rating: 10/10.
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