393 Genesis of the Daleks: Part Two

EPISODE: Genesis of the Daleks: Part Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 393
STORY NUMBER: 078
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 15 March 1975
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
RATINGS: 10.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks

"A Dalek. Very primitive but undeniably a Dalek!"

After successfully hiding from Davros, Gharman and their Dalek, Sarah is found in the wasteland a group of Mutos

It's amazing how little coincidences crop up: There's lots of stuff to do with the ends of episodes connected with this part of the story!

The start of this episode is odd as there's no reprise of the end of the previous episode, with the Dalek opening fire on it's Targets. Instead we start with them leaving the site. This is generally unusual for the show but Director David Maloney also did it on Planet of the Daleks.

The Doctor & Harry are taken to the bunker by Nyder.

DOCTOR: Good. Well, now he's gone, any chance of a cup of tea?
TANE: What!
DOCTOR: Or coffee. My friend and I have had a very trying experience. Haven't we had a trying experience, Harry?
HARRY: Very trying, Doctor.
TANE: Step into the security scan.
DOCTOR: What, no tea?
TANE: Let me point out to you that you have no rights whatsoever. I have full authority to torture and kill any prisoner who does not comply absolutely with my orders. That is your first and last warning.
DOCTOR: No tea, Harry.

Kaled hospitality not up to scratch then Doctor?

The Time Ring is confiscated along with the Doctor's other possessions and they handed over to Senior Researcher Ronson for questioning.

DOCTOR: You can't have that. That bracelet could have no possible use as a weapon.
TANE: It remains with the other confiscated items.
HARRY: Let's not make a fuss, Doctor.
DOCTOR: The Time Ring is our only hope of getting back to the Tardis. Recovering it has got to be our number one priority. Do you understand, Harry? It's vital.
HARRY: Yes, I know it's vital, but we don't want them to know that, do we?

The Time Lord told the Doctor not to loose the Time Ring and sure enough one episode later it's gone! So on top of everything else they now need to get the time ring back!

The Mutos argue about killing Sarah....

SEVRIN: She's beautiful. No deformities, no imperfections.
GERRILL: She is a norm. All norms are our enemies. Kill her now for what she's done to our kind.
SEVRIN: No, why? Why must we always destroy beauty? Why kill another creature because it is not in our image?
GERRILL: Kill her! It is the law. All norms must die. They are our enemies. And if you won't, I will.

Here in the wasteland it's no longer Thal vs Kaled, it's Norm vs Muto.

Playing the Muto Sevrin is Stephen Yardley who'll return as Arak in Vengeance on Varos. He's probably best known for his role as Ken Masters in Howards' Way alongside many other Doctor Who participants. We'll look at that either during Resurrection of the Daleks or Attack of the Cybermen.

His fellow Muto, unnamed in the episode but credited as Gerrill, is played Jeremy Chandler.

.... but they are in turn found by Thals who shoot one when he tries to escape and capture the other, Sevrin, and Sarah.

MUTO: There's something over there.
SEVRIN: It's a patrol, very close.
GERRILL: Let's get away from here.
SEVRIN: No. No, they're too near. If you move, they'll see you.
GERRILL: They're coming this way. I'm going. Come on.
SEVRIN: No, I tell you they'll see you.
THAL: Halt! Stay where you are. Stand where you are and don't move.
THAL: Oh, it's only a muto. What a waste of good ammunition. There's a couple more of them.
THAL: Hold it. If they're not too badly mutated, we might be able to use them. They still need expendable labour for the rocket loader. This one looks all right. Got all it needs to carry and walk. There's no reason why this one shouldn't work. Why, it's almost a norm. Come on, get up. Up! Oh, kill it off, it's too slow.
SEVRIN: No, it's all right. I'll help her.
THAL: Then move, and move quietly. There are Kaled patrols out tonight.

Bear in mind the Mutos find Sarah in the ruins where Davros & Gharman were testing the Dalek. That makes their little trip into the wastelands all the more risky. Then again they did have a fully armed Dalek with them!

Since he's the only speaking Thal in this episode it's reasonable to assume, even though we can't see him properly, that this soldier, on the right, is regular extra Pat Gorman, credited on the titles as Thal Soldier. We last saw him in robot part 1 as a gate guard and he'll next be in, and had already filmed, Revenge of the Cybermen where he's a dead crewmember and a Cyberman.

I'm pretty certain his non speaking mate on the left is regular stuntman Terry Walsh, who fulfilled a similar role in the last episode. He's a guard later on and I think I've clocked him there too!

The Doctor is questioned by Ronson.

RONSON: Sit down.
DOCTOR: Thank you. You're not with the military, I assume?
RONSON: I'm with the Science Division.
DOCTOR: Oh, good, good. Then perhaps we can talk without interruption from rifle butts.
RONSON: That depends. If you don't answer my questions, I shall hand you back to the military. They take a pride in loosening tongues. Now, where did you get these things?
DOCTOR: Oh, here and there.
RONSON: If I didn't know better, I should have to assume that these were made by some intelligence on another planet.
DOCTOR: If you didn't know better.
RONSON: It is an established scientific fact that in the seven galaxies only Skaro is capable of supporting intelligent life.
DOCTOR: It is also an established scientific fact that there are more than seven galaxies.
RONSON: Indeed.
DOCTOR: Yes.
RONSON: Well, when you passed through our security scan our instruments ran a complete check on your blood and chemical make up, encephalographic patterns and so on. Physiological compositions. And so, if you are from another planet....
DOCTOR: You were saying?
RONSON: There's nothing. Nothing conforms to any known life on this planet apart from external appearances.
DOCTOR: You can't always judge from external appearances.
RONSON: Who are you? Where are you from?
DOCTOR: It's a long story.
RONSON: Then tell me.
DOCTOR: Do you have any inkling of the theory of space dimension correlated to relative time?

Kaled science had annoyed the Doctor in the previous episode's exchange with Nyder. He takes great fun here in proving Ronson wrong!

Playing Ronson, by far the most reasonable Kaled we've met so far, is James Garbutt in his only Doctor who appearance.

The Doctor & Harry are present when Davros arrives to demonstrates his Mark 3 Travel machine

Davros is a towering design triumph though. we saw a little of him in the half light at the end of last episode & start of this. He enters in semi darkness here too, flanked by both Gharman and Nyder, before being fully revealed

Half human, well half Kaled, and effectively half Dalek thanks to the black base housing his life support machine. His scarred and twisted features are one of the best masks the show has made and Michael Wisher's performance brings the character to life . Reputedly he rehearsed the role with a paper bag over his head before the mask was made. Wisher was previously been seen in The Ambassadors of Death as John Wakefield, Terror of the Autons as Rex Farrel and Carnival of Monsters as Kalik. Before this story was filmed he recorded the following story, Revenge of the Cybermen, in which he played Magrik. He'll return in Planet of Evil as Morelli and voice of Ranjit.

Gharman is played by Dennis Chinnery who was Albert C. Richardson in The Chase and will be Sylvest in The Twin Dilemma. His CV includes many noted cult shows including The Prisoner & Survivors. I'd always assumed Gharman was a scientist but he's wearing black, like Nyder & Ravon, not white, like Ronson, so he must be something security/war related.

DAVROS: If I may have your attention. For some time I have been experimenting with the Mark Three project. Details of modifications will be distributed later. However, I am anxious that you should see immediately the remarkable results that I have achieved, and to that end I have arranged this demonstration.

DOCTOR: A Dalek.
HARRY: What?
DOCTOR: A Dalek. Very primitive but undeniably a Dalek.
RONSON: You're mistaken. It's a Mark Three travel machine.
DOCTOR: If you say so.

This bit annoys me. If it's a primitive Dalek why isn't it silver, like the earliest ones we saw, and why has it got the upright Powerslats covering the wastebands, which were unadorned in the first Dalek story? If they've been there from the start, which is likely given that you see the prototype Dalek in the wasteland with Davros & Gharman, then what happened to those Daleks in the city which caused them to loose the power slats and thus their mobility and become confined to the city?

Inside the Dalek here, and the one we saw earlier, is lead Dalek operator John Scott Martin, who first appeared as a Zarbi in The web Planet before playing a Dalek in The Chase, Mission to the Unknown, The Dalek Masterplan, Power of the Daleks, Evil of the Daleks, Day of the Daleks, Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks & most recently Death to the Daleks. He's been seen on screen since then as a security guard in Robot.

DAVROS: Halt. Turn left. Move forward.
RONSON: That's magnificent. He's perfected voice control.
DAVROS: Turn right. Move forward and circle left. You will agree, I think, that voice control represents an enormous step forward, however the best is yet to come. Nyder.

Up until this point the Dalek has been operating with just one limb, a sucker arm. The Dalek we saw earlier also had one limb but then it was a gunstick. It's almost as if Davros is concealing the purpose of the Travel Machine, it's intended as a weapon but the world thinks it is a survival suit.

DAVROS: Our machine is now equipped with a weapon for self-defence. Now, I am going to turn the machine over to total self-control. It will be entirely independent of all outside influences. A living, thinking, self-supporting creature.
DAVROS: Brilliant. Brilliant! It has detected the non-conformity.
DALEK: Aliens! I must exterminate! Exterminate!

Slap bang in the middle of the action is a scene that aught to have been an episode cliffhanger but isn't as the Dalek points it's gunstick at the Doctor and says exterminate. It's a fabulous scene, and the tension as the Doctor is about to be gunned down would have made a superb end to an episode.

There's no Dalek voice artist credited for this episode! Regular Roy Skelton only turns up next episode for the second recording block so the honour of uttering the first words ever spoken by a Dalek goes to Michael Wisher, Davros, who'd performed the role before in Frontier in Space, Planet of the Daleks and Death to the Daleks.

The sequence in the lab introduces a number of uncredited Kaled Scientists who appear in this episode, the next and the sixth: William Ashley, who's also in episode 4, Charles Rayford John Timberlake, who was previously a Shelterer in The Enemy of the World episode 3 to 6, Patrick Travis and Harry Van Engel, who later appears as the Disintegrating Dorian in Rescue, the opening episode of the fourth season of Blake's 7. It's nice to see the same people used repeatedly in the same roles! He can identify Van Engel in episode 5: he's the only one of the recurring scientists in that episode!

The Dalek is stopped by Ronson who deactivates the machine earning Davros' wrath. Sarah & Sevrin are locked up with other prisoners.

SARAH: Where are we?
SEVRIN: We're inside the Thal dome. We should be lucky to be alive. The Thals normally kill on sight.
SARAH: Then why the change? Why bring us here?
SEVRIN: Perhaps they need slave workers for some project.
KALED: The muto is right. The work they're making us do kills with the same certainty as a bullet between the eyes.
SARAH: What work?
KALED: The Thals have built a rocket. They've used up all their manpower and resources. They're gambling that it's going to bring them victory in one blow. And if they can make the launch successfully, I don't see how they're going to fail. My race, the whole of the Kaled people, will be wiped out in seconds.
SEVRIN: Perhaps we should be happy to welcome such a weapon if it ends a thousand years of war.
KALED: You won't be when you find out what it is.
SARAH: Well, what is it?
KALED: The nose cone of the rocket is being packed with distronic explosive. We have to put it in position.
SARAH: So?
KALED: To reduce weight, they're using no protective shielding. Every load we carry exposes us to distronic toxaemia. After a few hours exposure, we'll all be dead.

The radiation suited Thal guard on the door, who I'm pretty sure is Terry Walsh again, is clutching what is actually a gun first used by the Drahvins in Galaxy Four ten years earlier!

It's at this point that Sarah leaves behind the yellow waterproof jacket she's been wearing since Ark in Space.

Do you recognise the Kaled with them? It's the officer that captured the Doctor & Harry in the trench in the previous episode!

The other Kaled Prisoner in the cell is played by Ken Tracey who has been, all uncredited, a Dispatch Rider / Golden Age Man in Invasion of the Dinosaurs and a Villager in Planet of the Spiders. He'll later be a Guard / Courtier in The Masque of Mandragora part one and a Masquer in part four of the same story. He was in Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks's Moonbase 3 as a Technician in Castor and Pollux as was James Muir, one of the Mutos. Muir had been a Soldier in The Time Monster and a UNIT Soldier in Invasion of the Dinosaurs. He'll return as a Soldier in Terror of the Zygons, a Brother in The Masque of Mandragora, a Worker & a technician in The Sun Makers, a technician in The Pirate Planet, a Druid in The Stones of Blood, a Louvre Detective in City of Death, a Mandrel in Nightmare of Eden, a Foamasi in The Leisure Hive, a Gaztak in Meglos, a Tharil in Warriors' Gate and the Police Driver in Black Orchid part two. He has Blake's 7 to his name appearing as a Federation Trooper in Seek-Locate-Destroy, a Phibian in Orac for which he's actually credited, a Rebel in Pressure Point, a Monster in Dawn of the Gods, a Link in Rescue, a Helot in Traitor, a Pirate Guard in Assassin and a Federation Trooper in Blake. He's also the Vl'Hurg Leader in Episode 4 of the TV version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Another Muto Stephen Calcutt returns as a Mute in The Armageddon Factor parts five and six, a Marshman in Full Circle, a Tribe member in Kinda and, infamously, the Snake in Kinda part four.

Several other extras in this episode have Who form: Christopher Holmes was a UNIT Soldier in Day of the Daleks episode four and a Miner in The Monster of Peladon part three. He's a Peasant villager in part one and a Brother in part three of The Masque of Mandragora, followed by a Citizen in Full Circle and a Genii in Time and the Rani part four. John Sarbutt later becomes one of the Grecian Wrestlers in Four to Doomsday. IMDB credits both of them for both episodes 1 & 2, and I've not got a clue where, if at all, they appear in either! Given that episode 1 of IMDB seems to be used as a pot to drop all the extras for a serial into my guess is if they're listed as appearing in episode two then they probably do and the scenes showing those imprisoned by the Thals are the largest crowd scenes so here they go!

They are taken to the rocket silo to begin work

Sarah's glance upwards reveals the scale of what the Thals are doing. It also hangs a useful sword on the wall for later....

Is that little car the same one we saw used in episode 1? And indeed in The Ark many years ago? Either way I suspect it is, once again, a scene shifters vehicle dressed for the occasion!

It's entry, carrying the explosives, provides a demonstration of how dangerous what the prisoners are doing is courtesy of the monitor on the wall.

Having been interrogated the Doctor is flung into a cell with Harry

DOCTOR: Yes. And I learnt a great deal more from them than they did from me.
HARRY: About this bunker?
DOCTOR: Yes.
HARRY: It is underground, isn't it.
DOCTOR: Yes, and bomb proof. Impregnable from attack from the outside and about three or four miles from the Kaled dome.
HARRY: What are they doing down here?
DOCTOR: Years ago the Kaled government decided to form an Elite group. The best scientific brains in every field.
HARRY: A sort of Think Tank.
DOCTOR: Yes. But over the years the Elite has become more and more powerful, and now they can demand whatever they like.

Harry went undercover to investigate the earthbound Thinktank in his first appearance in Robot.

Ronson visits the Doctor & Harry in the cells expressing his concern for Davros' experiments which Davros announces shall henceforth be known as a Dalek.

RONSON: I'm sorry if they hurt you. I lack the courage to interfere.
DOCTOR: But you did save me from becoming the very first victim of a Dalek, thank you.

There is a certain amount of irony to this statement found at the start of the fourth episode!

RONSON: Yes, now you used that word earlier. It had never been heard before. And yet only an hour ago, Davros announced that henceforth his Mark Three travel machine would be referred to as a Dalek. Now how could you have known that?
DOCTOR: Well, I have an advantage in terms of time. You see, we've come here at this time because of future concern about the development of the Dalek. I think you're concerned too, aren't you?
DOCTOR: I think he's going to bite.
RONSON: Yes, I am concerned, and there are a few other who think the same as I. But we're powerless.
DOCTOR: Then let us help you.
RONSON: You see, we believe that Davros has changed the direction of our research into something which is immoral, evil. You see, the Elite was formed to produce weapons that would end this war. We soon saw that this was futile and changed the direction of our research into the survival of our race. But our chemical weapons had already started to produce genetic mutations.
HARRY: And the mutations were banished out into the wastelands.
RONSON: Yes.
DOCTOR: The mutos.
RONSON: Now Davros, he believed that there was no way to reverse this trend and so he started experiments to establish our final mutational form. He took living cells, treated them with chemicals and produced the ultimate creature.

He shows them where Davros is incubating the Dalek creatures.

All you see of the mutants is the green glow from within their room!

RONSON: Well, knowing our ultimate form, Davros had to devise a travel machine. The Dalek.
DOCTOR: Now he's trying to change that into a weapon.
RONSON: And he's succeeding. He's created a monster, utterly devoid of conscience.
HARRY: And you want to stop him.
RONSON: Well, I must. There are a few in the Kaled government who still have the power to act. If they knew the truth, they would end Davros' power, close down this bunker, finish the Elite.
DOCTOR: Then go to them, Ronson, go to them.
RONSON: But I'm not allowed in the city. Security here is absolute.
DOCTOR: Then help us to escape. Give us the names of the men who have the power.
HARRY: Could you get us out of here?
RONSON: Well, there is a way through one of the secondary ducts in the ventilation system that leads to a cave at the edge of the wasteland.
HARRY: Well?
RONSON: The entrance is barred. And there's something else. Davros' early experiments were with animals. Some of the things that he created were horrific, and they're still alive.
DOCTOR: And I have an uneasy feeling you're going to tell me they're in that cave.

Ronson helps the Doctor & Harry escape so they can reach the Kaled city and warn their leaders what Davros is doing.

The thing seen through the tunnel grill looks suspiciously like an Ice Warrior carapace!

Sarah leads an escape attempt climbing up the gantry supporting the rocket....

A nice upward shot of the rocket quickly re-establishes the size of the task in hand and as they begin climbing, a sequence pre filmed at Ealing, those of use with vertigo will start to get that bad feeling....

.... but the Thals discover what's happening and open fire on the escapees.

I think the trio of soldiers here are David Cleeve, who is described as a Thal Guard, and David Billa & Timothy Blackstone, who are both extras. All three were Thal Soldiers in episode 1! Since Billa & Blackstone return in episode 6, alongside Reg Turner another uncredited extra in this episode, and all are playing Thal survivors there, probability suggests he too is a Thal here. Turner has got several uncredited Blake's 7 roles in his future: a Prisoner in The Way Back & Space Fall, a Federation Trooper in Weapon, Voice from the Past & The Harvest of Kairos< and a Rebel in Rumours of Death.

A struggling Sarah is assisted by the Kaled officer who pays with his life

A truly horrible death even by Doctor Who's standards: someone pays for their act of kindness with their life. They are shot, fall and *THEN* you see their body lying on the floor!

Sevrin then helps Sarah but she slips and plummets from the gantry .....

So to the real ending of the episode and that's unusual too: it's the first use of a freeze frame in Doctor Who as Sarah falls.

Another good episode: the six parts are giving this story time to breath and grow at it's own pace.

392 Genesis of the Daleks: Part One

EPISODE: Genesis of the Daleks: Part One
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 392
STORY NUMBER: 078
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 08 March 1975
WRITER: Terry Nation
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Robert Holmes
PRODUCER: Philip Hinchcliffe
RATINGS: 10.7 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks

"Now we can begin"

On a battlefield gas masked soldiers are mown down in a hail of bullets.

The opening to this episodes is evocative of a World War 1 film, with soldiers going over the top to be mowed down.

Later events will show that those with the painted gas masks are Thals and their attackers are Kaleds.

The Doctor steps out of mist who meets with a Time Lord who has intercepted his transmat beam.

TIMELORD: Ah. Welcome, Doctor.
DOCTOR: What's going on? Don't you realise how dangerous it is to intercept a transmat beam?
TIMELORD: Oh come, Doctor, not with our techniques. We Time Lords transcended such simple mechanical devices when the universe was less than half its present size.

Playing the Timelord is John Frankly-Robbins plays the Time Lord (later named as Ferrain in the New Adventures novels). He was also in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Macias in Pre-emptive Strike the penultimate episode of the series, The Dean in the TV Adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and Atticus in the eight episode of I, Claudius: Reign of Terror.

His appearance here is meant to evoke Death in the film The Seventh Seal.

They have a mission for the Doctor:

DOCTOR: Look, whatever I've done for you in the past, I've more than made up for. I will not tolerate this continual interference in my life.
TIMELORD: Continual? We pride ourselves we seldom interfere in the affairs of others.
DOCTOR: Except mine.
TIMELORD: You, Doctor, are a special case. You enjoy the freedom we allow you. In return, occasionally, not continually, we ask you to do something for us.
DOCTOR: I won't do it. Whatever it is, I refuse.
TIMELORD: Daleks.
DOCTOR: Daleks? Tell me more.
TIMELORD: We foresee a time when they will have destroyed all other lifeforms and become the dominant creature in the universe.
DOCTOR: That's possible. Tell on.
TIMELORD: We'd like you to return to Skaro at a point in time before the Daleks evolved.
DOCTOR: Do you mean avert their creation?
TIMELORD: Or affect their genetic development so that they evolve into less aggressive creatures.
DOCTOR: Hmm. That's feasible.
TIMELORD: Alternatively, if you learn enough about their very beginnings, you might discover some inherent weakness. DOCTOR: All right, just one more time.
TIMELORD: You'll do it?
DOCTOR: Yes. If you'll let me have the space time coordinates, I'll set the Tardis for Skaro.
TIMELORD: There's no need for that, Doctor.
DOCTOR: Huh?
TIMELORD: You're here. This is Skaro.

You have to consider the enormity of what the Time Lords have asked the Doctor to do: averting the creation of the Daleks would be a massive shift to the time stream and seams contrary to the Time Lords' insistence that history could not be changed. If you remove the Daleks then the Doctor's personal Time Line would be substantially altered. This isn't a little tweak here and there, this is major surgery. You have to wonder if they *knew* that the Doctor couldn't possibly succeed but had discovered somehow that he'd been there and so sent him on the mission just to fulfil the demands of history. Or are they hoping to obtain some future advantage from the Doctor's activities without altering the events of the known timeline?

He is given a time ring to return him to Nerva Beacon and the Tardis and Sarah & Harry are sent to Skaro with him.

DOCTOR: What's this?
TIMELORD: A Time Ring. It will return you to the Tardis when you've finished here. There's just one thing.
DOCTOR: What's that?
TIMELORD: Be careful not to lose it. That Time Ring is your lifeline. Good luck, Doctor.

As sure as eggs is eggs The Doctor WILL get separated from that Time Ring. Hang the gun on the wall in Act 1, Use it in act 3.

After finding bodies on the battlefield, and narrowly escaping a minefield they are caught in a gas attack surviving only by stealing gas masks from bodies.

All of the war zone locations in this story are filmed at Betchworth Quarry in Surrey. This is it's first use in Doctor Who but director David Maloney returns there for The Deadly Assassin. He then repeatedly uses it during the time he produces Blake's 7 where it appears as the surface of a number of planets: Time Squad as Saurian Major, Deliverance as Cephlon, Hostage as Exbar surface and Moloch as Sardos. after Maloney departs the producer's chair Blake's 7 keeps on using it when it appears in the fourth season in Power as Xenon and Warlord as Betafal. It therefore has a reasonable claim to be THE BBC Sci Fi quarry! It's closest rival that I can think of off the top of my head is Winspit Quarry which is in two Doctor Whos, Underwater Menace and Destiny of the Daleks, but just one Blake's 7.

The trench meanwhile is a studio set: get used to it, we'll be seeing a bit of it later in the story

Following a Thal attack the Doctor & Harry are captured by Kaleds but Sarah is left for dead.

In amongst the Thal attackers, either here or in the wasteland, is the series regular stunt double for the Doctor Terry Walsh. Two more Thals Soldiers have prior form form: David Billa was an Extra in The Savages episode 1, a German Soldier in The War Games episode one, a German / Roman Soldier / Alien Technician in The War Games episode four, a Time Lord Technician in The War Games episode ten, a Technician in Doctor Who and the Silurians episode 1, a Prison Guard in Frontier in Space episodes two & three and a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen part one, filmed before but broadcast after this episode. He's also an Extra in Genesis of the Daleks part two and a Thal Survivor in Genesis of the Daleks part six but since all the Thals in this episode die he can't be the same one. The other Thal soldier with form is David Cleeve. Previous Producer & Script Editor Barry Letts & Terrance Dicks had used him in their series Moonbase 3 as a Technician in Departure and Arrival & a Technician in Behemoth. He then appears twice in season 10 as a UNIT Soldier in The Time Warrior part one and an Ice Warrior in The Monster of Peladon part five. As well as a Thal Soldier here he's a Thal Guard in parts two and four. He'll return as a Radiation Suit Man in The Hand of Fear part one, An Other in The Sun Makers part one and a Deon Guard in Meglos part one.

We also have an extra credited to this episode who has been in the series before: Michael Crane was in The Monster of Peladon: Part One as the King's Champion Blor. No idea what he could have been here!

The Doctor & Harry are interrogated by General Ravon and attempt to escape but are swiftly recaptured by Security Commander Nyder & his men.

Guy Siner plays General Ravon, The Doctor & Harry's interrogator. He's most famous for his role in Allo Allo, the BBC Comedy about the French Resistance, where he played Lieutenant Gruber. He's also had roles in Babylon 5 and Star Trek Enterprise making him, I believe, the only person to appear in all three shows. He'll return in episode 3 which features another member of the Allo Allo cast!

The Kaled who captures The Doctor & Harry is played by Richard Reeves: in a nice touch he will later return in the next episode, captured by the Thals! The Kaled Soldier in Ravon's HQ is regular series stuntman Alan Chuntz. he was previously, all uncredited, Harvey in The Seeds of Death episode one, a Thug in The Ambassadors of Death episode 1, a Technician in Inferno episode 1, a UNIT Soldier in Terror of the Autons episode four, a Prisoner The Mind of Evil episode three, four & five, Omega's Champion The Three Doctors episode three, a Security Guard in The Green Death episode two and a Guard in Planet of the Spiders part one! He'll be back as an Elite Guard in part five. He *FINALLY* gets a credit as The Chauffeur in The Seeds of Doom part three before a final uncredited Guard appearance in State of Decay part three.

Oh look! There's a UFO control panel in Ravon's office! I've never clocked it before, the wooden veneer hiding it's normal finish disguises it somewhat but the curved shape does rather give the game away!

There's another, possibly the most famous, outing for the "clear the pockets out" routine as The Doctor empties the contents onto the relief map of Skaro's surface. This shows us that there's not a huge distance between the cities of the Thals and Kaleds.

We saw one of the two cities, presumably the Kaled one, earlier in the episode in the distance in the mist. The dome shape will prove to be important later. Again Hang on the wall in act 1, use in act 3.

RAVON: Take a good look. In a few weeks we're going to change the shape of that map forever. We'll wipe the Thals from the face of Skaro.
DOCTOR: Yes, I've heard that before.

A nice little hark back to the original Dalek story where the Daleks are trying to destroy the surviving Thals!

The Doctor then questions what's happening

DOCTOR: I was just wondering how you propose to wipe the Thals from the face of Skaro with boy soldiers, no ammunition, and very young generals.

We've already seen soldiers with an odd mix of equipment which has let the Doctor surmise the war has been going on for a long time.

RAVON: When victory is ours, we'll wipe every trace of the Thals and their city from the face of this land. We will avenge the deaths of all Kaleds who've fallen in the cause of right and justice, and build a peace which will be a monument to their sacrifice. Our battle cry will be, 'total extermination of the Thals'!

Sound familiar? But it supplies the Doctor with a crucial piece of information!

DOCTOR: So you're Kaleds, eh?
RAVON: Even you mutos know the difference between Thals and Kaleds.
DOCTOR: K A L E D S. Why, that's an anagram of..... How interesting.

General Nyder is played by Peter Miles who we saw in Doctor Who and the Silurians as Dr. Lawrence and Invasion of the Dinosaurs as Professor Whitaker. He's got two Blake's 7's to his name, both while David Maloney was producing, and in a rarity for that show plays the same character both times: he's Secretary Rontane in both Seek-Locate-Destroy & Trial. He'd have made a superb Imperial Officer, it's a shame he never appeared in Star Wars.

There's an addition to his costume in these early episodes: he's wearing an Iron Cross which disappears later on in the story!

A superb exchange between Nyder & the Doctor provides much background and is the first place to introduce a name which will become VERY important:

NYDER: This is yours?
DOCTOR: Yes.
NYDER: What is its function?
DOCTOR: Well, it's an etheric beam locator. It's also useful for detecting ion charged emissions.
NYDER: Oh, really. It is not of Thal manufacture.
DOCTOR: Well, naturally not. My friend and I are not from your planet.
NYDER: Aliens?
HARRY: Humans. Well, I am, anyway.
NYDER: I've heard Davros say there is no intelligent life on other planets, so either he is wrong or you are lying.
DOCTOR: We are not lying.
NYDER: And Davros is never wrong about anything.
DOCTOR: Then he must be exceptional. Even I am occasionally wrong about some things. Who is this Davros?
NYDER: Our greatest scientist. He's in charge of all research at the bunker.
RAVON: They could be mutos, Nyder. Intelligent mutos who've developed a technology.
DOCTOR: Tell me, what exactly are mutos?
NYDER: Mutos are the scarred relics of ourselves. Monsters created by the chemical weapons used in the first century of this war. They were banished into the wastelands where they live and scavenge like animals.
DOCTOR: In other words, genetically wounded.
NYDER: We must keep the Kaled race pure. Imperfects are rejected. Some of them survive out there.
DOCTOR: That's a very harsh policy.

A similar idea is picked up on in Judge Dredd where mutants are exiled from Mega City One. A series of storylines in recent years has seen this policy challenged and examined it's effects.

FOUR men are credited as Elite Guard in this episode by IMDB! I'd venture that Peter Kodak & Bob Watson are part of the team capturing the Doctor & Harry on location while Giles Melville and Barry Summerford are in the studio: Both Summerford & Melville are credited for the next episode too and though IMDB's credits for this episode do not hold up to scrutiny as there's no Kaled Councillors or Kaled Boy involved! I'm willing to believe that the same men can be used in the same roles for the studio sessions for both the first two episodes though.

Again, if IMDB is to be believed, Barry Summerford is in every episode this serial as an Elite Guard bar episode 5, and the listing for that's a bit dodgy too so he may well be in that as well! He'd previously been a Golden Age Man in Invasion of the Dinosaurs part six and a Vogan in Revenge of the Cybermen part one, filmed before but broadcast after this story. He's return as Private Thurston in Terror of the Zygons part two, a UNIT Communications Soldier in The Seeds of Doom part six, a Security guard in The Hand of Fear part two, a Steaming Audience Member in The Sun Makers part four, a Shrieve in The Ribos Operation part four, a Guard in The Armageddon Factor part one, another Guard in The Creature from the Pit part one and a Foster in The Keeper of Traken part one. Director David Maloney must have liked him because he's got a number of uncredited Blake's 7 appearances to his name: a Federation Trooper in The Way Back, a Rebel in Pressure Point, a different Rebel in Voice from the Past, a Customer / Gambler in Gambit, a Federation Commando in Volcano, a Monster in Dawn of the Gods and Tando in Blake: his appearances in The Way Back and Blake mark him as one of just four actors to appear in the first and last episodes of the series.

Giles Melville meanwhile returns as an Extra in The Invasion of Time part one and a Castrovalvan in Castrovalva part one. That's not right IMDB: there are no Castrovalvans in Castrovalva part one. Three and Four maybe! He's also Got Blake's 7 form as a Technician in Star One and a passenger in Gold.

A recovered Sarah wanders through wasteland and stumbles across a secret test.

A man, confined to a sophisticated wheelchair & life support system is identified by his colleague as Davros, the Kaleds' chief scientist.

The colleague is Gharman: more about the actors that play him and Davros next episode but it's interesting to see the two of them together here at the start given how the story progresses.....

Why is this test taking place outside instead of in the bunker? I mean yes, from the narrative point of view it's so Sarah can see it and provide us with our cliffhanger, but why out here in ruins in the wasteland in what seems to be the middle of the night? Surely they're not up to no good?

They activate a machine hidden in shadow which Sarah recognises..... a Dalek.

Sarah previously met the Daleks in her third story, Death to the Daleks. It wasn't that long ago for her: Genesis of the Daleks is the Ninth story to feature her. The only companion to encounter the Daleks twice quicker is Steven: they were in his first story, The Chase, and his fifth, the Dalek Masterplan.

It's interesting to note that the Dalek here has just one limb, it's gunstick, no sucker arm. Now compare that to what we see in the second episode and it adds further weight to something iffy going on....

DAVROS: Observe the test closely, my friend. This will be a moment that will live in history.
DAVROS: Halt. Turn right. Halt.
DAVROS: Now, Exterminate!

This is the first time we see the Dalek gunstick producing a ray: previously it's just been a negative effect round the victim.

DAVROS: Perfect. The weaponry is perfect. Now we can begin.

What a cracking end to the episode: Yes we know the Daleks are going to be this story both from the title and the earlier part of the narrative but that's a wonderful reveal sequence! Our first glimpse of Davros reveals a twisted nightmare, half man, half Dalek, a superb image that endures. It's fair to say Doctor Who will not be the same again. Unlike the 2 part Sontaran Experiment, which likewise reveals it's monster at the end of part 1, we have time to play with here: Genesis of the Daleks takes 6 parts so delaying the monster reveal till the end of the first episode is fine.

When I did this for the first version of the Blog I wrote, referring to the episode description which has been broken up by comments here:

Haven't done that for a while (Spearhead from Space 1 I think): that was written without needing to see the episode again, it's so etched on my memory.

There's a reason for that: For many people this will be THE Doctor Who story it's been repeated so often. If you've not seen the episodes then you'll have heard it as for many years it was the only Doctor Who story released as a soundtrack. And quite rightly so! Familiarity may have bred contempt amongst fans but this, both the story as a whole and this episode, is something special. The episode is wonderfully atmospheric right the way from it's misty battlefield beginings through to it's end in the semi darkness trying to conceal what Davros & Gharman are up to.

Genesis of the Daleks is, as the name implies, an origin story for the Daleks. We know the bare bones of the story anyway from the first Dalek story: The Thals were engaged in a nuclear war with the ancestors of the Daleks. Here we find that the conflict has been continuing for years and both sides are reduced in strength and technology with genetic mutations appearing which get exiled into the wastelands. There's been two attempts at doing a Dalek origin story before: one in the TV Century 21 Dalek comic strip (credited to Terry Nation, but believed to be written by David Whitaker and another in The Radio Times, but this the first attempt to do so on screen. Nation's first attempt at a Dalek story for this season had been rejected by outgoing script editor Terrance Dicks and producer Barry Letts for being too derivative of his earlier stories and it was they who suggested the Dalek origin as a replacement. What we get out is a much darker story than recent Nation Dalek scripts....