'Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks' (1975)

Thank goodness that week is over, that's all I'm going to say other than that by about eight o'clock last night, I was ready to settle down and watch a little 'Doctor Who' (which may well be the most middle aged thing I've ever said, I'll have to check). I had a Twitter poll set up with a choice between 'Genesis of the Daleks' and 'The Leisure Hive' but that ended up in a dead heat with nothing between the two choices/ Okay, by 'dead heat', I actually meant that no-one voted at all... It's ok though :o) It had been years since I last saw 'Genesis of the Daleks' (ten years, this post is making me feel old) so I thought I'd give it another go and see how it had held up in the meantime...

The Time Lords have foreseen a time in which the Daleks dominate all other lifeforms in the universe. So disturbing is this possibility , that they break their own Laws of Time in an attempt to change the future. And who better to send on this quest than their own renegade member, the Doctor.

Unwillingly transported into the fields and trenches of a battle exhausted Skaro, the Doctor must face his most dangerous mission ever, to prevent the Daleks from ever being created.

I've got to admit, my attention doesn't normally hold up so well over longer stories so when I saw that 'Genesis of the Daleks' was a 'six parter', my heart sank just a little bit. What? It had been a long week. Having said that though, once I got into it, 'Genesis' absolutely flew by. It's a really compelling tale and of course it would be because we're talking about the birth of the Doctor's most deadly foe. Even though the ending is never really in doubt (because how would they have scrubbed all those previous 'Dalek' stories?), I couldn't help but watch the whole thing. Funnily enough, most of this is because of that air of inevitability in what is a pretty dark old slice of 'Doctor Who'. We know what has to come, we're just not 100% sure how it will happen and that's what holds us. Seeing Machiavellian Davros pull strings, on both sides of the conflict, to safeguard his legacy is just amazing as well. He's several steps ahead of everyone, even the Doctor sometimes, and that just adds to the inevitability as well. And then you've got all the politicking of a deeply facist Kaled regime and you just have to keep watching, just to make sure you don't get left behind with the Mutos. I couldn't help but think that the Thals weren't much better, just dressed in green to make it clear that they were the 'good guys', or at the very least a little less evil.

Add all of this to a particularly bleak backdrop, 'War of Attrition', and I'd be hard pressed to think of a Doctor Who story that is darker than 'Genesis of the Daleks'. And I love these dark storylines as they really ask questions of the Doctor and how far he is prepared to go.

In a few regeneration's time, the Doctor will be quite happy (more or less) to drop a bomb on Skaro in an attempt to wipe the Daleks out. The Doctor is only at his fourth regeneration here though so is a little more thoughtful about what he will do to halt Dalek progress. This makes for a great scene where he debates whether he has the right to destroy the Daleks at all, especially when you consider the good that will come out of their evil. I'm not sure where I stand on that (I mean, it is the Daleks but come on...) but it is interesting to see his attitude then compared to the Ninth Doctor in particular (maybe the Tenth as well...)

The Doctor learns that you can't fight time but you can hold things up a little and maybe nudge them a little as well. Given everything, I think that's enough of a compromise so we see stuff happen but it doesn't upset continuity at the same time. And it makes for some amazing viewing as well. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed this story last time around, I'll have to make sure that I don't leave it too long next time.