Genesis of the Daleks - Episode 5

The penultimate episode of this serial is where the course of the story has changed when a new issue is introduced. Not only does the Doctor have to try and complete his mission for the timelords but there is the rebellion to Davros’ leadership and the main issue is the tape that the Doctor reveals the Dalek loses. I like how there is a fade over to indicate a passing of time which isn’t something that the show does very often. There is a great scene between Davros and the Doctor and was the highlight of the episode. I wish there were more of these scenes because it would have made this story one of the best stories ever. There is one thing about Davros’ chair design because I don’t quite know why he put a button on it where anyone could press it and it would affect Davros’ life support system. Why put it in such a place and why even have the button in the first place? That’s the only thing that I am not keen on about the character design of Davros.

I like the moment when Nyder seems to disagree with Davros and not in a way that is designed to con anyone considering that there wasn’t anyone in the room at the time. It felt at this time that his 100% loyalty had taken a dip a little but it went back to 100% after this. Peter Miles has really been a solid piece of casting in this story and has worked well with Michael Wisher.

The Doctor’s story in this episode is building up to one of the most iconic cliffhangers in the shows history. He has only one option left to him that the timelord at the beginning of the episode gives and that is to commit genocide. The idea that the Doctor would commit genocide is such a horrible idea and yet it could be argued that he has done this before in the show but this time has knowingly done it.

There is a scene in this episode which deserves mention and praise for David Maloney. The shot of the Daleks walking over the top of the bunker with the dark background is a fantastic. It’s easy to overlook his achievements in this story but one of the consistent things about the five episodes so far is that it has flowed well even though the story hasn’t moved along a great deal. The cliffhanger is quite a horrific one and is one of those that must have had people wondering just how the Doctor was going to get out of this one. As the penultimate episode of the story, it does a good job in ratcheting things up to give us a great final episode. It has been a problem in some six parters that they haven’t been able to make me feel the final episode was going to be the big pay off but in this case there is enough to feel like the final episode is going to compliment the rest of the story very well.