Dr. Who (The Early Years) - Part 35 "Genesis of the Daleks"

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry are in mid-route via a trans-mat device when the Doctor is plucked from the travel by one of the Timelords of Gallifrey. They seek to recruit the Doctor in a task involving the Daleks. Foreseeing a time the Daleks become the dominant creatures in the universe the Doctor is to go back in time to he creation of the Daleks and given the options of averting their creation or affecting their genetic development so they develop into less aggressive creatures.

After arriving on Skaro, The Doctor, Sarah and Harry walk across a mine field where the Doctor nearly blows himself up. Finding a trench, they search it till they are caught in a cross-fire between Thal and Kaled troops. After things settle down, the Kaleds take Harry and the Doctor into their bunker, leaving Sarah thinking she is dead. Immediately, Harry and the Doctor are searched, items confiscated and refused tea. The Doctors Time-ring (which will take them back to the Tardis) is taken along with his sonic screwdriver, jelly babies and various other items.

The Kaleds are finally introduced to the Mark III travel machine, created by their top scientist Davros. He later declares they are to known as Daleks. While this is going on, the Doctor and Harry escape, meet up with Sarah who has befriended a Muto, and captured again. Learning the Doctor is from the future, Davros plans to torture Harry and Sarah unless the Doctor tells him about every Dalek defeat. Harry and Sarah try to persuade the Doctor to ignore them, but the Doctor gives in and the interrogation process is recorded.

Many of the scientists and some in the military realize the creatures Davros is creating is pure evil and group together to try and stop him. Davros tricks them into giving him time to decide if he wants to give up, but this just gives him time to make use of the few Daleks he's already created. He plans to find those who are loyal to him and exterminate the rest. This gives the Doctor the time to complete his task, utterly destroy the Daleks before they even begin. But he is reluctant to finally do so, believe that causing the genocide would make him no better than the Daleks.

Davros has a devious plan though and gives the Thals the information needed to crack their protective dome and destroy the Kaled people. He then double crosses the Thals by sending his few complete Dalek troops into the Thal dome to destroy everyone there. When Davros calls the rest of the Daleks back, a few Thal military leaders are successful in entombing Davros and his Daleks. So the Doctor ultimately has done what was intended, to hamper the progress of the Dalek. While inside the Kaled bunker, Davros is himself betrayed by the Daleks who consider him an inferior being. Now fully autonomous, the Daleks vow to repair and grow stronger and take their "rightful" place as the supreme power of the universe.

WHO: Davros

PLANET OF ORIGIN: Skaro

GOALS: To create the ultimate weapon.

WEAKNESSES: Essentially blind, handicapped and crippled. Needs his travel machine in order to survive.


NEXT: Rampage of the Loch Ness Monster

Dr. Who (The Early Years) - Part 2 "The Daleks"

Enter the Daleks
Sure, Doctor Who was a kids program with an ambition of teaching kids history. But the Doctor's Tardis was also a space machine, and to keep things interesting the next episode introduced the Daleks. Barbara is the first to encounter the Dalek though only the 'plunger' is seen initially, perhaps to add to the mystery of what could be so terrifying.

However, it is soon discovered the Daleks are not robots, but the mutated form of a once great civilization scared by the ravages of war. The only glimpse given of the mutated Dalek is a clawed hand coming from beneath a sheet Ian used to remove the mutant from it's casing. Perhaps not frightening by today's standards, in 1963 the Dalek became an overnight success.

The plot for the rest of the episode is used many times over in various episodes. The Doctor and Tardis crew are captured, they manage an escape but soon one or all are promptly captured yet again. Wash, rinse and repeat for several episodes. A rescue attempt is always mounted, usually with the aid of someone. In this case the Thals, the other sentient race on the planet.

Don't worry if you haven't heard of the Thals. They aren't seen again but once more, except maybe mentioned in passing. The Thals turned out much different than the Daleks. Instead of angry, hateful, war-mongering blobs, they have turned to peace and refuse to help the Tardis crew till Ian reminds them there are things worth fighting for. In this case a woman, what else?

Perhaps another cliché started is thinking they have destroyed the Daleks, for good. Of course this is used many, many times on all the various aliens the Doctor comes to encounter. As you might have guessed, it really comes down to how popular the particular BEM turns out to be. As mentioned above, the Daleks were a success and would return to torment the Doctor again and again.

WHO: The Daleks
PLANET OF ORIGIN: Skaro
GOALS: To exterminate all life in the galaxy that isn't a Dalek.
WEAKNESSES: Initially, stairs and a dependency on static electricity.







Next: Our dearly departed