Friday 23 December 2011

396 Genesis of the Daleks Part Five

EPISODE: Genesis of the Daleks Part Five
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 396
STORY NUMBER: 078
TRANSMITTED: 05 April 1975
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks

Unwilling to see his friends tortured the Doctor surrenders his knowledge of the Dalek's future defeats to Davros who has Nyder record the information onto tape. After they have finished, Sarah & Harry are taken to the cells & imprisoned with Gharman while the tape is secured in Davros' office by Nyder. Karvel approaches the cells to speak with the prisoners. Davros & the Doctor debate the Daleks together:
The Doctor: Davros, for the last time, consider what you are doing. Stop the development of the Daleks!
Davros: Impossible! It is beyond my control. The workshops are already fully automated to produce the Dalek machines.
The Doctor: It's not the machines. It's the minds of the creatures inside them! Minds that you created. They are totally evil!
Davros: Evil?!? No! No, I will not accept that. They are conditioned simply to survive. They can survive only by becoming the dominant species. When all other life forms are suppressed - when the Daleks are the supreme rulers of the universe - then, you will have peace. Wars will end. They are the power not of evil, but of good.
The Doctor: Davros, if you had created a virus in your laboratory, something contagious and infectious that killed on contact, a virus that would destroy all other forms of life; would you allow its use?
Davros: It is an interesting conjecture.
The Doctor: Would you do it?
Davros: The only living thing... The microscopic organism... reigning supreme... A fascinating idea.
The Doctor: But would you do it?
Davros: Yes; yes. To hold in my hand, a capsule that contained such power. To know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything. Yes! I would do it! That power would set me up above the gods! And through the Daleks, I shall have that power!
The Doctor shuts off his life support system in an attempt to force Davros to destroy the Daleks, but Nyder arrives saving his master and has the Doctor returned to the cells by guards. However they are overpowered by Harry & Gharman. Gharman goes raises the opposition against Davros who orders Nyder to surrender to the opposition and organise a meeting between him and their leaders. Meanwhile the Doctor & his friends go to the incubator room to destroy the Dalek embryos. Davros asks to address a full meeting of the elite where a vote will be taken. As the Doctor is laying charges in the room he is assaulted by one of the creatures that attempts to strangle him.....

This episode is dominated by the debate between Davros & The Doctor, reproduced in full thanks to Wikiquote. It's a fabulous scene, letting you in to Davros' mind, removing any doubt that what he's doing is purely for the survival of his species. It's interesting comparing that with the Doctor's thought process in the next episode....

Of the three events mentioned by the Doctor the "Dalek Invasion of Earth in the Year 2000" is the only one we've seen, a reference to the first Doctor story which is confirmed when the Doctor talks about the Daleks' mining Earth's Magnetic Core. The second statement that the "Daleks were defeated by a virus that attacked their cables of their electrical system" seems to refer to an unseen invasion of Mars, but a very similar virus will be concocted by the Movellans and seen in Resurrection of the Daleks. As yet we haven't seen a fleet from the planet Hyperion intercepting a Dalek invasion of Venus in Space Year 17,000.....

No comments:

Post a Comment