what did you think of Genesis of the Daleks ?

[Mikey]

Getting Brian's Plaidstallions Doctor Who card inspired me to watch a Tom Baker story last night.
I picked Genesis of the Daleks because it's been a very long time since I seen it.

This is a tricky story for me.
Sometimes I like it, and sometimes I don't

First thing ......
When Baker is standing there holding the two wires trying to decide if it's genocide to kill the Dalek mutants, it always bugs me.
I'm trying to think WHICH Doctors would do it ......

Would definitely kill the mutants list
Hartnell
Colin
McCoy
Eccleston

Would maybe kill the mutants list
Troughton
Pertwee
Tennant

Probably wouldn't kill the mutants list
Tom Baker
Peter Davison

At the end of the story, there's still no pay-off because of a pure accident the Daleks do it themselves.... and on top of everything else, it only puts off Dalek production for a few thousand years.
That's like NOTHING in the course of time.

It made me think, I wasted 2-1/2 hours on a story that went nowhere and accomplished nothing.

[palitoy]

I'm not a big fan of it, I get what Nation was trying to do here and I appreciate wanting a more adult and concrete back story but no amount of fan retconning makes it ok to me that he changed the Daleks. When people complain the new series screws with continuity, I always think of this.

I also HATE Davros, always have and his inclusion in every Dalek story afterwards always bugged me, it was refreshing to not see him in four years of the new series, I didn't mind his reappearance at the end.

In the end though, the thing that probably bugs me the most about Genesis isn't the story, it's well crafted but it just feels slightly over ambitious and the corner cutting shows at times.

Having said that, it's probably my #2 post Pertwee Dalek story.

[Mikey]

One of the big things I didn't like was...
Why would the Kaleds be slowly turning into mutants, but the Thals are not ?
If it's the radiation, why don't the Kaleds just move somewhere else ?
The Thals and Kaleds are clearly the same race, what happens to one should happen to the other.

The biggest thing I don't like about Davros is he's too over the top.
He's just not believable.

The story itself about Davros and the Kaleds making Daleks as war machines is not a bad idea.
I would have probably wrote it a little differently.

I did often wonder how the first little green jellyfish mutant built his tank and this story seems to make their existence plausible.

[ctc]

>It made me think, I wasted 2-1/2 hours on a story that went nowhere and accomplished nothing.

Sometimes it's the journey and not the destination.... This is one of my favourite episodes. I like Daleks, I didn't mind how they re-engineered the origin 'cos it still kinda accomidates the past stories, and I thought it demonstrated what kind of a guy the currnet Doctor was; since he couldn't finish them off. For me, it's the last point that was the actual goal of the episode.

>The Thals and Kaleds are clearly the same race, what happens to one should happen to the other.

Depends what kind of icky bio-weapons they'd been exposed to during the war. It's possible that one got whacked with something the other didn't; or that one got a combo of things that the other didn't.

>The biggest thing I don't like about Davros is he's too over the top.
He's just not believable.

Considering the time travelling phone booth, killer giant salt shakers, guy who grows back when he dies.... I was okay with Davros.

Don C.

[jds1911a1]

mixed bag for me it's one of the earliest episodes of WHo I ever saw but haveing seen most of the episodes now (I have a few more recontsructions to watch still) it isn't even in my top 5 dalek episodes.
The fact that killing the emrbonic lab ended up not making a difference is oK with me it was the Doctor's belief that it was genocide and the personal dilema that has the punch.

I don't know if pertwee would have done it. he often looked for alternatives to blowing up the baddie. I agree that Hartnell, Troughton and Colin's doctor would (eccleston maybe not he seemed more willing to kill individuals that races)

[YANOULI]

[QUOTE=type1kirk;321001]

Why would the Kaleds be slowly turning into mutants, but the Thals are not ?
If it's the radiation, why don't the Kaleds just move somewhere else ?
The Thals and Kaleds are clearly the same race, what happens to one should happen to the other.

QUOTE]

Davros genetically engineered the Kaleds to become the Dalek " jellyfish/octopus " mutant, if left alone they probably wouldn't have become anything worse than the Muto's.
Just look at the after affects of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl, yes the radiation caused physical mutations but nothing on that sort of scale.

I think it would have been better as a 4 parter though, it seemed a bit padded in places.

Without doubt, Hartnell, Colin, McCoy and Eccleston would have had no problem in killing the Daleks, possibly even Troughton ( didn't he deliberately send the Ice warriors into the sun? ).

[palitoy]

I think it would have been better as a 4 parter though, it seemed a bit padded in places.

I feel the same way.

I will say that Baker's moral dilemna is possibly the best thing about this episode. I used to have the BBC record of this as a kid.

[Gorn Captain]

I appreciate what it tried to convey, linking it to WWI, and making a statement about war and all atrocities that go with it.

Style-wise, I wish they hadn't made it so obvious WWI, though.

It still remains one of the better ones, trying something more serious than "hey, I've got a rubber head and a thirst for world domination".

[Gorn Captain]

PS: for what it's worth. Taking into account that the Doctor KNEW what the Daleks would do in the future, or had a 99,9% chance of doing, he should have destroyed them.
I would have.
But then again, I'd also nuke Paris Hilton.....

[Mikey]

One of the best cliffhangers but worst cliffhanger payoffs happened on Genesis of the Daleks

Poor Sarah Jane falling all the way off the scaffolding to her most likely doom.

Turns out she only fell a COUPLE OF FLOORS and landed on a pipe ACROSS HER BACK.

Did it kill her or at leest break her back ?

Nahhhh,

She got right up and kept climbing

[jds1911a1]

I feel the same way.

I will say that Baker's moral dilemna is possibly the best thing about this episode. I used to have the BBC record of this as a kid.

I have it on cassete still listen to it in the car