WATCH ALONG | CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO | 12x16 | Genesis of the Daleks: Part 6
Added 2025-03-02 08:48:00 +0000 UTCA Few Notes:
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*****
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Comments
(3) After failing once again, I get the sense that the Doctor thinks the destruction the Daleks will cause is inevitable and that it’s futile to fight against time. Especially because he figures out the time he delayed the Daleks’ development lines up with when his first incarnation initially encountered them all those years ago, this is how it was meant to be. He’s content in the knowledge that some good will come out of the Daleks’ evil and ultimately reaches the conclusion that the future should be left to work itself out and that he has no right to interfere because doing so would mean going against all of his morals. The Doctor loses because he fails in his mission to either alter the Daleks to become less aggressive beings or destroy them, condemning countless billions to death, but he also wins because he refuses to become like the Daleks by forgoing his morals and exterminating defenceless Dalek embryos. The ultimate pyrrhic victory. It’s so multi layered and balanced. As all things should be. The story as a whole is just excellent and a brilliant showcase for everything Doctor Who is and can be.
Azmat Mahmood
2025-03-02 09:28:39 +0000 UTC(2) This story also gives great context for why the Daleks are the way they are and why they refuse to evolve. The Daleks come from a war-ravaged world; a world where a megalomaniac genetically engineered them to be full of hate for anything remotely different and deemed it necessary for them to believe they are the supreme beings and everyone else needs to be ruled or killed. The truth is the Daleks are horribly mutated Kaleds that have had to retreat inside metal tanks because that’s the only way they can survive. These tanks give Daleks the power to kill and exact their will, but in reality, stuck inside are helpless little squids. They would be nothing without the tanks and yet they believe themselves to be perfect and stubbornly refuse to evolve and change and destroy everything else because their creator programmed them that way, so in a way, it’s not even entirely their fault! That’s the tragedy of the Daleks. Some people have said that the biggest problem with the Daleks is that they never change and that makes them predictable as villains, but that’s the whole point. The Daleks are pathetic, and the dramatic irony and tragedy comes from their compulsion to refuse to change their ways and destroy anything different. I will say though, introducing Davros definitely renewed them at this point because they now had a face to their villainy. Someone who could go toe to toe with the Doctor in a verbal sparring, which is not really something you can do with a Dalek because of what and who they are as characters, but also because of the nature of a Dalek prop. I also love the Doctor’s moral dilemma and all the questions it raises. The best thing about it though is that the story doesn’t give a firm answer because there isn’t one. Objectively speaking, if the Doctor did destroy the Daleks at their beginning, he would save countless people from suffering in the future. What would that make him though, what gives him the right to shape the future and kill an intelligent lifeform before it even has the chance to develop? No one man should have that much power because absolute power corrupts absolutely. Davros is the perfect example of that. As the Doctor says, some things would be better with the Daleks. Entire worlds will unite and become allies because of their fear of the Daleks, so as evil as the Daleks are, some good will come out of their existence. Nothing is black and white; all possibilities need to be considered when taking a decision like that. I also love how the Doctor's hesitation is a huge contrast to Davros' complete lack of it in the aforementioned great scene between the two earlier in the story, when the Doctor asks him if he would destroy all life in the universe if he could. Davros answers a resounding yes, but the Doctor is reluctant to destroy even one species, which shows that he and Davros are diametrically opposed as people and perfectly sets up their main conflict throughout the rest of the show. With all that being said, it’s really interesting that, given the second chance, the Doctor chooses to go back to the incubation room to end the Daleks once and for all. It’s as if after he witnessed what Davros and the Daleks did to all those scientists, he immediately regretted hesitating and felt he had to go through with it. Obviously, we as viewers know something will inevitably happen again to prevent the Doctor from succeeding, but it’s still really interesting to see the Doctor so committed to destroying the Daleks because it shows that when push comes to shove, the Doctor is willing to pull the trigger and commit genocide if it means saving the lives of millions. This is an idea RTD would go on to develop in far more detail with the Time War and considering the fact that he also says this story is the first shot fired in the Time War, Genesis is probably one of the top two or three most important stories in the show’s history. In many ways this story is the focal point of Doctor Who because so many future plot threads, themes and character studies of the Doctor converge on this one story. It’s also interesting how this story further develops the growing tension between the Doctor and the Time Lords with how they force him to do their dirty work. With the Daleks involved, the Doctor can’t refuse of course but it’s incredibly hypocritical of the Time Lords to send the Doctor on missions like this after they once tried and executed the Doctor for interfering in other planet’s affairs. It makes it clear that entire trial was a PR stunt and nothing more and just a way to get control of the Doctor. They don’t mind the Doctor meddling on other planets as long they’re in control and the Doctor is serving their interests. The corruption at the heart of Time Lord society is slowly being unravelled and it’s really interesting to watch and you have to think in the years to come they regretted sending the Doctor on this mission considering he didn’t succeed and what it leads to. Actions have consequences.
Azmat Mahmood
2025-03-02 09:28:22 +0000 UTC
