Doctor Who - the introduction of Davros (Doctor Who - Genesis Of The Daleks (2 DVDs))

Member Name: vernonpresley

Product:	Doctor Who - Genesis Of The Daleks (2 DVDs)
Date:	04/01/08 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's a thrilling story

Disadvantages: None

GENESIS OF THE DALEKS is the 4th 'Doctor Who' story starring Tom Baker, and was first broadcast in March / April 1975. The story also stars Elisabeth Sladen as his companion Sarah Jane Smith, who recently appeared in her own Children's BBC series, THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES, and Ian Marter as UNIT member Harry Sullivan (UNIT was the military group The Doctor sometimes worked with during the period of the show's production). The story is told over 6 episodes.

The plot has The Doctor, Sarah and Harry caught in the middle of a war between the Thals and the Kaleds on the planet Skaro. The evil madman Davros has created a new race, the Daleks, and is about to release them into the universe.

This is one of the best DOCTOR WHO stories of all time, and is remarkably gritty and dramatic. It is written by the late Terry Nation, who created the Daleks back in 1963 for the second story of the DOCTOR WHO series, although here he does contradict himself a little regarding the creation of the Daleks. This didn't really matter at the time, as the concept of watching and re-watching a story thanks to the joys of video recorders and DVD players did not exist, and the likelihood of viewers remembering much about a story from 12 years previously was pretty slim. Davros himself is a scary creation and gave me nightmares as a child (good nightmares though!). The character is rumoured to be returning to the series in the new season which is due to start on BBC1 later this year.

The DVD features a commentary by Baker, Sladen. Peter Miles (another cast member in this story) and the director of the story, David Maloney. There are a number of other interesting special features too, including an hour-long documentary 'Genesis Of A Classic', including interviews with cast members and a wide variety of the behind-the-scenes crew. My favourite extra feature is 'The Dalek Tapes' another full-length documentary, this time about the history of the Daleks, narrated by Terry Molloy, who played Davros in other stories, although not this one, as Michael Wisher originated the role here. The variety of special features are wide.

I highly recommend this DVD to fans of the 'Doctor Who' series. It is available from Amazon UK for less than £8.

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DOCTOR WHO - GENESIS OF THE DALEKS (1975)
Starring Tom Baker as The Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan, Michael Wisher as Davros
Written by Terry Nation
Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by David Maloney
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Summary: Tom Baker's 4th Doctor Who story