Genesis of the Daleks: my review
jph...@aol.com
6 episodes. Written by: Terry Nation. Directed by: David Maloney.
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 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 would
likely have touched those wires together (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 prisoners (who were doomed
anyway) a fragile hope. After that point, Sarah 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: As with Ark in Space, Harry spends a fair amount of
time as the Doctor's sole companion, while Sarah is left to carry her
own subplot. Once again, we see Ian Marter's laid-back Harry making 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 how important it is that the
Kaleds not realize just how crucial that bracelet is. Harry keeps a
generally cool head throughout, and has rather decidedly emerged as a
character in the mold of Ian from the first season - 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 basically is exactly
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 extremely intelligent, making him a highly formidable
opponent. It is worth noting that the Doctor never actually defeats
Davros in this serial. 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 utterly compelling; and though Tom Baker
definitely brings his "A" game to bear, and is about as good as any
Doctor's performance ever got in this serial, Wisher steals the show
right out from under him.
Nyder: Wisher's Davros is a superb villain, but mention should be made
of his right-hand man. Peter Miles gives his best-ever Who performance
as Nyder, the Kaled security chief. Miles' facial features are quite
well-suited to his role. Dressed entirely in black, only occasionally
speaking, Nyder lurks in the background of several scenes, watching
hawk-like. He is quite a menacing presence in his own right. 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. Then, 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 this serial consists of a handful of all-time
classic scenes and a whole lot of padding. There is some merit. Like
almost any 6-parter, there certainly is padding here. 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 began.
Sarah Jane's escape attempt is itself 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 overrated... but that's
simply a function of how very highly fandom has rated it. Even as a
child, watching each story with no knowledge whatever of each serial's
reputation, I recognized that this story was something special, that
there was an extra dimension here that hadn't existed in the previous
three stories (Robot had been my first story as a regular viewer). 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.
Firstly, one thing the "padding" criticism misses is that while there
certainly is padding, a lot of it is rather good padding. Sarah Jane's
escape attempt may not advance the story a single iota. But it does
provide not only a memorable Episode Two cliffhanger, but also 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 not make the story
better; it would reduce it. 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.
There are niggles, of course. The giant clam is infamous, and with
good reason. It reaches Myrka levels of ineptitute, shattering
disbelief and sending viewers spiralling into giggles when Harry
carefully inserts his foot into... er, has his leg attacked by it. The
geography of the two domes, which are apparently within about an
hour's walking distance of each other, seems unlikely, and the
narrative's insistence that all of Thals live in one dome, and all of
the Kaleds live in the other dome, such that wiping one dome out would
mean wiping one side out utterly, seems... unlikely. Also, while the
Episode Two cliffhanger is quite effective, Episode Three picks up
with one of the limpest cliffhanger resolutions in the series'
history.
Still, the story itself remains compelling throughout its six
episodes. It is particularly effective, as a Dalek story, in that the
Daleks only emerge very gradually. 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
Power of the Daleks, in which the colony's various factions tried to
use the Daleks as weapons). 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 persistently 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.
The story comes close to full marks. There are some all-time great
moments. The scenes between Davros and the Doctor are magnificent, as
is the final scene between Davros and the lead Dalek (who will
presumably become the Dalek Supreme). It is extremely well-directed by
arguably the series' best-ever director, and uses both regulars and
guest cast well. But it does feel a bit attenuated in parts, with just
a few too many elements that don't quite work, for me to award a
perfect "10." So in the end, I'm going to go with a still-excellent...
Rating: 9/10.
The Doctor
jph...@aol.com <jph...@aol.com> wrote:
>GENESIS OF THE DALEKS
>
>6 episodes. Written by: Terry Nation. Directed by: David Maloney.
>
>
I would say 8.5/10 myself. This does prick the consciousness.
A lot of xenophobic and double-cross themes are included.
>From there on in. You can only hope that Destiny of the Daleks
would have been the last regualr appearance of the Daleks.
--
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