For the record, Genesis of the Daleks is one of my least favourite serials. I know, I know. Just pick your jaw up and I’ll explain. I’ve never been one to adhere to ‘fan wisdom’. My absolute favourite story of the classic series is Delta and the Bannermen (about as far from Genesis of the Daleks as you can get) and in terms of the new series my favourite episodes have been marmite stories such as Love & Monsters and Gridlock rather than acclaimed stores such as The Empty Child or Human Nature.
Consequently, Genesis’ appearance towards to top, or indeed the very top in one case, of DWM surveys, has never sat well with me.
I get it, I really do. Davros is an amazing creation, both in design and in Michael Wisher’s execution. Peter Miles, Dennis Chinnery, Stephen Yardley, Harriet Philpin and many of the other cast members are note perfect in their performances.
Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter are a great team.
The idea of the Doctor visiting the creation of the Daleks is one of Nation’s best and the script is tense and contemplative on everything from science to war.
There are some cracking cliffhangers (even if Episode 2’s amazing freeze frame of Sarah falling from a high gantry is resolved by the massive cop out of a previously unseen platform a couple of feet below her).
But…Genesis of the Daleks is awfully grey. The sets are grey, the Daleks are grey, the wasteland is grey, the mutos are grey. The military elite wear black; the scientific elite wear white; mix them together and what do you get….grey. The Thals get to wear green and have yellow-beige walls, but the only true splash of colour comes from the Doctor, Sarah and Harry.
Being grey, it singularly fails to stir much emotion in me. I don’t honestly know what it is but I just cannot get excited by the story despite the fact I can recognise all the wonderful elements within its six episodes.
Possibly it’s over exposure on television is mainly to blame. In the 90s there was a paucity of Doctor Who on television. Every now and again the BBC would see fit to repeat the odd serial. More often than not, they chose Genesis of the Daleks.
What really riled me the most was when it looked like they might actually repeat a string of serials from Spearhead from Space onwards. I suppose, naively, I thought this might actually see the broadcast of all of Pertwee’s era and possibly beyond. In retrospect I realise this was unlikely but when after Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Silurians the BBC announcer announced that next week would see the beginning of a thrilling adventure not, as expected, involving Mars Probes, mysterious astronauts and Liz Shaw in a thrilling car chase, but Tom Baker, Davros and the Daleks, I was livid. I realise now that, with the incomplete nature of The Ambassadors of Death, the most we could have hoped for was Inferno, but yet another repeat of Genesis of the Daleks – as if it was the only decent Doctor Who story ever made – just annoyed me.
Watching the serial now has done little to change my mind about its over inflated status. I just cannot get excited about it.
There are performances I enjoy; Stephen Yardley is great, especially when protecting Sarah Jane; Harriet Philpin is fun as Bettan – thoroughly unmoved by the possibility of having to sacrifice people she hardly knows (or hasn’t even met in the case of Sarah and Harry!) for the greater good of destroying Davros and the Daleks forever. Peter Miles is deliciously evil and, of course, Michael Wisher embues Davros – the human Dalek – with so much character that the crippled, embittered scientist survives not only this story but all the way to the Medusa Cascade and his rematch with Sarah Jane Smith. Terry Molloy and Julian Bleach give great performances as Davros – and David Gooderson does well enough in Destiny of the Daleks – but it is Michael Wisher who set the standard. (That said, having listened to I, Davros prior to watching this story, I am of the opinion that outside of the television series, Molloy actually gives the best performance as Davros – probably because I, Davros gives him so much more material to work with).
The central dilemma of whether the Doctor has the right to destroy the Daleks and change history is a worthy subject to explore and that one scene is justly revered. The problem is that, as a serial, I find Genesis of the Daleks dull. I know I’m in a minority but I cannot shake it, try as I might. This is particularly frustrating as I love I, Davros.
Following on from I, Davros’s portrayal of Skarosian civilisation we finally get to see visual representations of the barren wasteland and city domes – gently sloping plastic and metal affairs judging by the model work. Mutations in the wilderness are represented by giant clams, of all things. It would have been great if Nation had drawn on his previous Dalek stories, as I, Davros did, and reintroduce creations such as the Varga plants.
As a depiction of a war ravaged planet it is faultless (just very, very grey).
