Dr. Who Classics - Genesis of the Daleks Part 6
Added 2022-08-21 11:31:00 +0000 UTCLast but not least. The finale of our 6-parter. How might it end?
Enjoy :)
Comments
Hi, thank you for notifying me on Discord, that you didn´t get a reply on your post. I would have never known, if you hadn´t told me. Sorry for the late answer. I think I´ll have to rewatch that scene with the strands, now that I know that. Because I didn´t pick up on this while watching it. I was too invested in the story to notice :) It´s such a pity that so much stuff from the Classic episodes is missing nowadays. The idea to write a book about some of them is a great one. :) You´re right, those moral questions are very intriguing. I like thinking about those kinds of questions :) Thank you for clarifying the wire situation. :)
Nicologik
2022-10-17 09:10:34 +0000 UTC"Just touch these two strands together and the Daleks are finished. Have I that right?" - The Doctor, Genesis of the Daleks When Sarah and Harry are talking outside the incubator room, Harry is preparing the two strands of wire very, very carefully. Stripping a little insulation here, clipping a millimetre from the end of a strand there. It takes him all conversation to do it. It might make some kind of sense if they were going to attach it to a detention plunger or something. But, eventually, all the Doctor is going to do with the strands is just touch them together - or, as the story plays out, not touch them together. I happily notice the actor (Ian Marter) just wonderfully filling the time with activity here. Target Books started publishing novelisations of earlier classic stories (there were almost no repeats and no commercial video tapes were available) in the 1970s. Ian Marter (who played Harry in this story) was the author of nine of these books including novelisations of a couple of the stories he acted in. Sadly, Ian Marter died very young at the age of 42. Again we get some knock-out dialogue. The "Have I that right?" and also the killing-the-child-who-will-be-evil metaphor. Good stuff. That's why we're here watching these stories. If it's not clear in the show, the Doctor can't reach the strands in the corridor but as the Dalek moves towards him the Dalek's metal body shorts out the detonation wires. So the Doctor is relieved from needing to make another "Have I that right?" decision (and speech).
Andrew Vignaux
2022-08-26 05:00:42 +0000 UTCThank you for your reply to my question. You maybe right with your theory. It makes sense to me while I´m reading it at least :D And also wibbly wobbly hahahha :D That explains it all. :D
Nicologik
2022-08-24 11:45:09 +0000 UTCI know what you mean, when I heard of this 6 parter I had some kind of bad feeling about this. I was afraid, that it might be super boring because they were dragging out the story. But they really didn´t. I thought it was more interesting than the Kinda storyline for exmpale, although the Kinda one was shorter. Tom Baker is great. I liked him very much: :) Yes it was a strange feeling to see the start of a story that we do know the ending of. (Well in my case the middle part, because I guess I don´t know everything that there is to know yet :D )
Nicologik
2022-08-24 11:10:48 +0000 UTCI've always thought of the Time War as not just a war that took place achronologically across many moments in time, but as something in which time itself was repeatedly changed and damaged as the Daleks and the Time Lords attempted increasingly desperate methods of annihilating each other. I can't point to any specific evidence for this theory, it's just my basic assumption; but if it's correct, the Doctors before the Time War would not be able to sense how the future would unfold because that future was altered multiple times. Also, it's clear from the episodes you've already seen that neither the Ninth nor the Tenth Doctors can go back in time to things as they were before the Time War ended, and my feeling is that for related reasons past Doctors cannot see (or travel to) a time after that war has ended. If that makes any sense? (We do have the brief anomaly of "Time Crash", but let's not think too much about that!) But even leaving aside the classic story writers not knowing anything about a "Last Great Time War" (or anything else thought up by writers subsequent to themselves), the show has always had a vague and probably contradictory approach to the Doctor's relationship with anything in his own personal future. Also also: time is wibbly wobbly!
Andrew Gwilliam
2022-08-23 04:14:25 +0000 UTCAlthough not one of my absolute favourites, this story nevertheless has to be included among my Top Ten of Who. Usually I'm not much of a fan of the longer 6 part stories, as there tends to be much padding; and, although there is some of that here (the back and forth through the caves e.g.), each episode moves the story and the characters forward. Tom Baker is magnificent throughout - the element of comedy which he often brings to the stories of his era has been greatly toned down here (in fact, almost eliminated), and his scenes of anger (especially his two-handers with Davros) are superb. The 'how it all began' storyline is interesting (even though we essentially know how it must end); and the dark and brooding nature in all 6 parts is highly effective.
Ian Smith
2022-08-22 15:06:06 +0000 UTCI feel like I do have a special perspective on those episodes, with all the knowledge from New Who. Knowing the result of the doctors actions back then, feels like you want to jump into the screen and shout at him. Kill them, kill them all. :) And then again you could also open another discussion. Because shouldn´t the doctor have been able to forsee that future, and that he will regret his decision in the future. The audience didn´t know back then, but shouldn´t the doctor have had the knowledge of the New Who episodes? I know in reality this wasn´t possible, but nonetheless isn´t that a flaw in the story if you are very nitpicky? It really was an obstacle to watch all 6 episodes, and tbh I only edited them for Patreon, since it´s so much easier. Youtube will have to wait some more weeks I guess. But I´m happy I did watch it, and I was also relived that you told me that this is the longest story for me to ever watch. :) :)
Nicologik
2022-08-22 14:51:20 +0000 UTCThe "Do I have the right?" speech never entirely convinced me, but when I rewatched this story before e-mailing you with the details, I was struck by how it seems to have more resonance from a modern Who perspective, knowing that the current Doctor is still haunted by his actions to end the Last Great Time War. "I watched it happen. I *made* it happen!" the Ninth Doctor tells the lone Dalek (and the audience), in the episode "Dalek"; and although the impact on the Tenth Doctor is less directly obvious, he's still haunted by it to some extent. On a separate note, getting you to watch a six-parter was a bit of a gamble, due to the time needed to watch it and (perhaps more importantly) the additional time needed to edit it, so I'm glad you enjoyed the story and the gamble paid off!
Andrew Gwilliam
2022-08-21 19:28:15 +0000 UTC
