Classic Who day by day

[The Nth Doctor]

That wouldn't surprise me. There's been a long history of actors having trouble with make up at the determent of the show. Both Virginia Hey and Melissa Jaffer on Farscape had issues with their make up, which caused the former to leave the show and the latter to limit her role in the mini-series due to the drastic change of make up appearance. Brent Stait also had major issues with his make up which forced hime to leave Andromeda.

 

[Lindley]

Best line of the story - "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes!"

I think mine was the Brig's resigned comment, "Just once I'd like to face an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."

 

[OmahaStar]

Best line of the story - "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes!"

I think mine was the Brig's resigned comment, "Just once I'd like to face an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets."

*lmao* Yes!

​

Genesis of the Daleks, episode 1
Written by Terry Nation
Directed by David Maloney

In a battlefield-wasteland, soldiers fire on one another. A thick fog surrounds them, and the Doctor steps out of it. There, he finds another Time Lord, who orders him to find a way to exterminate the Daleks.

They are on Skarro. As soon as the other Time Lord leaves, Sarah and Harry appear. Per their ongoing mandate, they go off exploring the area, spotting a domed city in the distance.

During their travels, the Doctor and Harry are kidnapped, while Sarah is left behind, unconscious. The kidnappers are Kaleds, and the Doctor immediately works out the anagram - Dalek.

Sarah wakes up and goes to find the Doctor. She finds herself in front of Davros and his first Dalek.

* * *

Please, please, please, Terry Nation, don't fuck this up.

Terry is generally really good with four-part stories. Unfortunately, he expands those four parts to 6 or 7, and they suffer for it. Here, there is minimal (for this show) padding, and everything seems to be moving the story forward. I'm enjoying it. And I'm also enjoying just how closely tied this story is with Journey's End, with the Davros reveal especially.

 

[OmahaStar]

Genesis of the Daleks 2

Davros leaves. Sarah is captured by the Thals, though she quickly starts working with them.

The Doctor is being questioned by a scientist when Davros enters. He shows off what is undeniably a primitive Dalek.

The scientist later gives a history of the Daleks' creature, then shows the Doctor and Harry exactly what is inside the Dalek casing.

Sarah and her captors go through caves, then try to climb out as Kaleds fire on them. The episode closes with Sarah losing her grip and falling, perhaps to her death!

* * *

Well, it's a freeze-frame, which probably means it'll open with someone's hand coming through and saving her, with her falling about 2 inches.

It's surprising just how little Davros speaks here. I'm used to the crazy ranter, the guy who goes on and on and on and you just can't shut him up til you kill him. Over and over again. lol

I know Harry was in this, because I saw him, but dang .. hope he wasn't paid by the line, cuz he had like two lines of dialog through the whole thing!

 

[Starkers]

Yea Davros was more calculating here, much liken the Master he becomes more deranged over time I think--which does kind of make sense!

In fairness Sarah Jane falling to her death doesn't have a realistic resolution as far as I can remember!

 

[OmahaStar]

In fairness Sarah Jane falling to her death doesn't have a realistic resolution as far as I can remember!

Nope, but it is a comical one.



Genesis of the Daleks 3

Ok, she falls about one foot. She miraculously lands perfectly on a flat surface and is knocked out for a few seconds (that, editors, would have been a MUCH better place to put the cliffhanger), wakes up with no problem, and continues climbing. At the top, she has to jump across what is essentially a hole in the floor, and we get proof of just how good an actress Sladen really is. She makes it seem like it's the biggest gap in history, and the idea of crossing it is life threatening. She hams it up, to be sure, and looks terribly frightened. And then ... walks right over it. I had to pause the dvd because I was laughing too hard.

Ever wonder why we love classic Who? This is one of the reasons.

Anyway, after that, there's about 20 minutes of politics, with this group backstabbing that group, and this political body making this decree, that body making another, and Davros seems to be everywhere at once. (he's not, it just seems that way)

Our heroes reunite, then separate again with the Humans going one way and the Doctor going another ... Naturally, he walks right into a trap and gets captured again. He's chained up to a wall, similar to the way Adric gets chained up by the Master in a later story.

* * *

At about 21:10, there is a bunch of weird video artifacting that lasts for 8 or 9 seconds. Usually these things are really clear, so that's kind of interesting.

I laughed my way through most of this episode. The political side of things did get a bit tedious, but how else is the writer going to stretch six episodes out of this story? It's not like he'd have people wondering around a cave and hanging by the edge of a cliff ... oh, wait.

Also, nice to see Babylon 5 alum Guy Siner here. He plays Ravon here, and played a Minbari in Babylon 5.

 

[Starkers]

I'm sorry, but to some of us Guy Siner will only ever be Lt Gruber

 

[OmahaStar]

I'm sorry, but to some of us Guy Siner will only ever be Lt Gruber

The guy from the "Boot to the Head!" song? Ed Gruber, or something?



Genesis of the Daleks 4

The Doctor is taken off the wall and forced to watch a rocket launch, which they already know will fail.

Davros starts going crazy, ordering his Daleks to start his war. The Daleks go extermination bonkers.

The Doctor and his companions reunite again before Davros catches them (ok, they walk into a room and he's there, to catch them). The Doctor is interrogated briefly (as in like two questions, and then ...) before spilling his guts about the future of the Daleks.

* * *

This is the advantage of writing a show about time travel. The Doctor already knows what is going to happen to these pepperpots, because he's already lived through it. And the writer doesn't have to invent new backstory, because this is a prequel and sequel at the same time.

There were a few decent laughs, but it was mostly filler and setup for the next few episodes, at least, that's how it felt.

 

[Captain Pike]

Gruber and his little tank! You know, from Allo, Allo..

 

[OmahaStar]

Gruber and his little tank! You know, from Allo, Allo..

Not familiar with it ... Must be like Eastenders or Last Detective, stuff that's over in the UK but I haven't seen.

 

[Captain Pike]

You've not seen Allo, Allo ? OMG YOU HAVEN'T LIVED!

 

[OmahaStar]

Genesis of the Daleks 5

Davros ends his interrogation and lets the Doctor stay alone with him. They have a friendly chat during which the Doctor tells Davros exactly how he can use the Daleks to control the universe.

They part ways. The Doctor and his companions reunite again, then slowly walk around, exploring.

The Doctor finds the itty bitty baby Daleks and sets up explosives to take them all out, but one has attached latched itself around his throat.

* * *

Filler and very little else. There's a recap of the Dalek stories from The Doctor's past, Davros trying a mini-rant (and it's pretty pathetic compared with later rants), more political stuff I don't care about, followed by half an episode of walking around slowly.

Meh. At least I know the writer is usually good about coming up with a satisfying final episode in his stories.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Filler and very little else. There's a recap of the Dalek stories from The Doctor's past, Davros trying a mini-rant (and it's pretty pathetic compared with later rants), more political stuff I don't care about, followed by half an episode of walking around slowly.

The "political stuff you don't care about" is the PLOT!

 

[OmahaStar]

Filler and very little else. There's a recap of the Dalek stories from The Doctor's past, Davros trying a mini-rant (and it's pretty pathetic compared with later rants), more political stuff I don't care about, followed by half an episode of walking around slowly.

The "political stuff you don't care about" is the PLOT!

Since when do Davros stories require plot?

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Since when do Davros stories require plot?

The trend started and ended with "Genesis of the Daleks".

 

[Bones2]

Since when do Davros stories require plot?

The trend started and ended with "Genesis of the Daleks".

Don't you talk about Revelation and Remembrance like that! Journey's End though, go for it.

 

[Mr. Sin]

Davro's rant about eliminating everything is often cited as one of WHO's golden moments. They even made a very expensive statue recently of the fourth Doctor grabbing Davros's hand!

 

[OmahaStar]

Genesis of the Daleks 6

Harry and Sarah get the thing off him. Even so, he cannot bring himself to kill the Daleks.

More politics, more fighting, and then the Daleks exterminate Davros.

Our heroes escape, having accomplished nothing.

* * *

Early on, when the thing is removed from the Doctor, he has an enormous crisis of faith. Does he have the right to take Dalek lives? They are essentially children, and he asks if you knew someone would grow up into a bad person, would that give you the right to kill them as children? Ultimately, he is not able to do it. The writing and acting are pretty powerful in that scene, and it's an early indication of just how good an actor Baker is.

There is not a whole lot of substance to this episode beyond that. It is Daleks going on rampages, killing people. And Davros ranting. But what more does one want in a Davros story?

It's too bad this actor did not return to the part. As I recall, Davros returns in one more Tom Baker story with another actor, and then a third actor, Terry, takes over. But he has several stories and still does the audios, so there is continuity there. Still, it's nice to see where it all started, with that crazy little scientist stuck in a wheelchair, wanting to control the universe. Is that so bad?

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Don't you talk about Revelation and Remembrance like that! Journey's End though, go for it.

 

[OmahaStar]

Don't you talk about Revelation and Remembrance like that! Journey's End though, go for it.

I know. He was only kidding, though. Like anyone could honestly hate a story that had both Donna Noble *and* Luke Smith in it.