Genesis of the Daleks Part Two

The one where the first ever Dalek is armed...

We're straight into part 2 with no reprise, and we find Sarah in danger, captured by the sluggish ragged creatures that have been following her to the ruined building. They surround her threateningly, which seems to make her pass out - I hope she hasn't fainted like some silent film damsel in distress - but it's not long until she and her new Muto pal Sevrin are captured by Thal scouts and taken to their dome. The ruthless death of Sevrin's mate Gerrill brings home how different these Thals are to the type we're used to seeing (in The Daleks and Planet of the Daleks), especially when they resent the "waste of good ammunition" used in killing him.

The Thals are building a rocket packed with distronic explosives which they plan to aim at the Kaled dome in the hope it will bring a final end to this centuries-old war. And if that's not bad news enough, Sarah and her new friends Sevrin and the nameless Kaled leader will slowly die as they are forced to load the rocket nose cone with explosives, which causes distronic toxaemia.

Elsewhere, there are much more interesting things going on in the Kaled dome, where the Doctor and Harry are befriended by Senior Researcher Ronson, who rifles through the Doctor's belongings (including an Alpha Centaurian Table Tennis Club membership card!) and begins to understand that these strangers are not of this Skaro. Intriguingly, the medical notes handed to Ronson indicate that the Doctor and Harry do not "conform to any known life on this planet apart from external appearances", which suggests that the people of Skaro have more than two hearts (as Harry has one and the Doctor has two, but neither are similar to Skarosians).

Before long the Doctor gets to meet Chief Scientist Davros for the very first time when he rolls in to demonstrate his latest invention (and the fact he really needs a manicurist). Davros demonstrates the Mark III Travel Machine (aka a Dalek!), showing off its voice-control capabilities, then takes everybody by surprise by showing off its ability to act completely independently. Chillingly, the very first thing the newly-armed Dalek wants to do is exterminate the aliens (ie, the Doctor and Harry). How ironic that the very first thing a sentient Dalek wants to do is kill the man who would become its greatest enemy! Ronson switches the Dalek back off, but imagine if he hadn't, and this moment was when the Doctor actually died. The Daleks would continue to develop as they have already, but the Doctor wouldn't be around to stop their future machinations. Really, the universe owes Ronson an awful lot.

Michael Wisher is great as Davros, striking a chilling balance between reasonable scientist and barking mad dictator (the bit where he descends into a now trademark Davros rant against Ronson is spine-tingling).

Ronson is allowed to question the Doctor and Harry before they are due to be killed by a Dalek at first light, and he's awfully trusting of them too. He sees that they are unusual, claiming to be from off-world, which he believed was impossible. There is evidence to suggest they are telling the truth, so naturally wants to talk to them more, but he goes the whole hog and gives them the full info-dump. Without Ronson, the Doctor (and the viewer) would have no idea what was going on. He reveals that the original aim of the Kaled Scientific Elite was to "produce weapons that would end this war", so presumably we're talking about WMDs. When it was realised that atomic bombs might affect the Kaled people just as much as the Thals, attentions turned to the "survival of our race", and Davros began to experiment with chemical weapons which produced genetic mutations (the Mutos banished to the wastelands). Davros then took everything to its ultimate conclusion by experimenting to find out what the "final mutational form" of the Kaled might be, and has now set about inventing a weaponised travel machine to house that "ultimate creature".

After arming the Doctor with all this back-story, he then goes one step further by taking the Doctor and Harry out of custody to show them what creature Davros ultimately came up with. "This is what the Kaleds will become," he says as he opens a viewing window onto a green-tinged incubation chamber. All we see is the Doctor and Harry's astonished faces lit in green as we hear the snarling, slurping, gnashing monstrosity within. "That is our future," bemoans Ronson. "You've got troubles," understates the Doctor!

Having given them loads of classified information, then removed them from custody to show them what Davros is up to, Ronson then proceeds to help the Doctor and Harry to escape, so that they can contact the Kaled government and warn them what their chief scientist is doing. Of course, the ideal method of escape is through the ventilation system. Ronson must surely know that him helping them escape will lead to either punishment, or execution, and although he's played sympathetically by James Garbutt, it's hard to believe in a character that has acted quite so rashly with so little reason.

The cliffhanger is a double-header in that we have the Doctor and Harry making their way through the mutation-infested caves, while Sarah appears to fall from the scaffolding of the Thal rocket in a bid to escape out of the roof of the dome. After stumbling once, she is helped up by the nameless Kaled leader, who is then shockingly shot dead by Thal snipers. We see him fall, we hear him plummet and we even see his lifeless corpse land on the ground with a thud. This is grim, gritty, uncompromising Doctor Who which pulls no punches.

First broadcast: March 15th, 1975

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The moment where the Dalek is armed and given its freedom, and the first thing it wants to do is exterminate the Doctor.
The Bad: Ronson's openness and willingness to trust the Doctor and Harry is a little too convenient.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

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

NEXT TIME: Part Three...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Three; Part Four; 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