Genesis of the Daleks Part Four

The one where the Kaleds are wiped out and the Daleks try to wipe out the Thals...

After a lapse in quality last episode, Terry Nation really cranks it back up in this fourth part thanks to some tight direction from David Maloney and a creeping, menacing score from Dudley Simpson. The whole atmosphere of this story reeks of danger and threat, and it's all credit to the production team for managing to harness that in almost all respects and create a story that feels unsettling.

The destruction of the Kaled dome is impressive. Even though it's a model shot seen on a screen in the Thal city, the prolonged series of explosions and collapses - including some stunning sound design when it's being heard from Davros's bunker - gives a clear sense of total annihilation. The Thals have committed genocide, and every living Kaled in that dome is dead. The only Kaled survivors are those safely holed up in Davros's bunker.

And the Doctor believes his friends Sarah and Harry are among them. His sense of loss is portrayed really well by Tom Baker, who, despite always emphasising his Doctor's alienness, makes it clear he is shaken and stunned by their demise. It makes a change for the Doctor to be under the misapprehension of Sarah being dead, rather than the other way around. And it's not for 10 whole minutes that we know for sure that the companions aren't dead at all. Their reunion in the cave of mutations is lovely, and the Doctor is genuinely relieved to see them alive.

Meanwhile, Davros's machinations just get worse. He's already sacrificed his entire race in order to further his own personal scientific ambitions, and his next step is to break out his secret army of Daleks to get what he says is vengeance by wiping out the Thals. Michael Wisher is extraordinary, balancing Davros's megalomania with his obvious clear-sightedness and practical resolve. The scene where he frames Ronson for helping the Thals break through the Kaled dome (when it was actually him!) is chilling. "EXTERMINATE!" shrieks Davros as three Daleks open fire on the poor scientist. Ronson's death is painful, and it shows, especially as he is shot multiple times just to make sure he's dead! The rise of Davros's Daleks from the ashes of the Kaled race is chillingly inevitable.

The Daleks are sent in force to wipe out the Thals in vengeance, cutting them down mercilessly and leaving corpses strewn in their wake (how do they get past the carpet of bodies they create?). When the Doctor and his new friend, the Thal soldier Bettan (dressed like a children's TV presenter), escape into the wasteland, the sound design steals the show once more, with the distant noise of Dalek exterminations and Thal gunfire providing a backdrop to the horrors taking place. And then a Dalek rolls past the top of the trench, back-lit so it is silhouetted against a fiery sky. Beautiful.

The Doctor, Harry and Sarah make their way back to the Kaled dome via the cave of mutations in a bit of blatant padding on Nation's part. Mutations and geographical obstacles are one of Nation's favourites (as far back as The Daleks), but the journey back through the cave is over-egged somewhat. Last time, Harry was bitten by a giant clam. This time, our heroes are menaced by three completely static clams which seem to terrify them but which just look like part of the furniture. At no point do the clam mutations seem dangerous. As Sarah says: "I'll never eat oysters again!"

The entrapment of scientist Gharman is a fantastic moment too. After overhearing Gharman and Kavell plotting against Davros and his ruthless killing machines, Nyder pretends he's on their side and wants to join their growing band of insurgents. He agrees to meet Gharman on the lower levels and questions him about who the rebels are and what their plans are. And then he turns: "Thank you!"... a perfectly timed pause... "That's what I wanted to know!" Peter Miles is so bloody good in this scene, and as Nyder generally, that it's hard to think of a better villain to have ever appeared in Doctor Who, and anybody better cast to play him.

Nyder and Davros make for a formidable dastardly duo, always one step ahead of their adversaries, even to the point where they hear there's somebody in the ventilation system (a tense moment indeed). At the end of the episode, Davros and the Doctor get their first ever stand-off, a meeting of minds and egos. Davros insists that if the Doctor is from the future, then he can tell him about each time the Daleks are defeated, how they lose and how this can be changed with foreknowledge. Davros uses the Doctor's compassion for his friends as a weapon against him, something that will recur throughout their ongoing encounters.

Wisher and Baker are wonderful, bouncing off each other beautifully despite one being tied to a chair and the other being blinded by a rubber mask. "You will tell me!" barks Davros. "No I will not!" snarls the Doctor. The final moments are terrifying, as Davros becomes a raving lunatic, barking with the voice of his emotionless creations, fashioned in his image.

First broadcast: March 29th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Peter Miles is amazing. "Thank you... That's what I wanted to know!"
The Bad: The laughable "terror" of the three inanimate clams.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: Part Five...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three; Part Five; Part Six

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/06/genesis-of-daleks.html

Genesis of the Daleks is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Genesis-Daleks-DVD/dp/B000EGCD5A