Doctor Who - The Genesis Of The Daleks (DVD)

...set of the Tom Baker Doctor Who story “Genesis of the Daleks”

I hadn’t seen this story in quite a while since UK Gold in around 1993/4 and as my interest was being revived again I saw this on BlahDVD.com for around £7 and thought why not.
I remembered quite a bit about the story from the last time I watched it and this was another reason for buying it as I thought that this was one of the best stories ever made, and certainly ...
...anything. They call upon the Doctor by breaking their own rules of interfering with the laws of time and space.
They tell the Doctor that they want him to destroy the creation of the Daleks by transporting him along with Sarah and Harry to the war torn planet of Skaro just at the dawn of the Daleks creation.


Summary – As I have said before this is one of the best Who stories ever made and was very well thought out and ... more

Genesis of the Daleks

I am reviewing the two disk DVD set of the Tom Baker Doctor Who story “Genesis of the Daleks”

I hadn’t seen this story in quite a while since UK Gold in around 1993/4 and as my interest was being revived again I saw this on BlahDVD.com for around £7 and thought why not.
I remembered quite a bit about the story from the last time I watched it and this was another reason for buying it as I thought that this was one of the best stories ever made, and certainly in my top ten Who stories.
I had always remembered the Daleks from a very early age as my earliest memory of the series was in 1977 and always looked forward to their appearance.

I shall now run through the two disks.

Disk 1 :

Genesis of the Daleks

Plot – The Time Lords see a point in the future when the Daleks will cause terror and destruction around the galaxies and cannot stand by without trying to do anything. They call upon the Doctor by breaking their own rules of interfering with the laws of time and space.
They tell the Doctor that they want him to destroy the creation of the Daleks by transporting him along with Sarah and Harry to the war torn planet of Skaro just at the dawn of the Daleks creation.

Summary – As I have said before this is one of the best Who stories ever made and was very well thought out and acted very well of it’s making in 1975.
This has a historical part of Davros creating the Daleks and the times of Skaro during the Thal and Kaled war and the creating of the sets inside and out were very realistic. The War zone and the way that Davros was a dictator like being was set out to be realistic and images of a War that could have easily have been anywhere.

As for the actors this was one of Tom Bakers biggest stories as he was the new Doctor at the time and had to make a good impression and unforgettable story that people would be talking about for quite a long while to cement his place in history.
As this was a darker storyline than normal Tom knew this and his acting during this story was the best ever with the emotions of weather he had the right to destroy a entire race.

Elisabeth Sladen who played the Doctors assistant Sarah Jane Smith had a good part in this epic as she didn’t rely on the Doctor all of the time and Sarah got her own part in the story. It worked well for her as her acting in this proved the point that she could get the storylines and would also make her one of the most well known companions of the series.

This story was produced by Philip Hinchcliffe and directed by David Maloney

This six part story was transmitted on BBC1 from 8th March – 12 April 1975.

Sound and vision – It’s now very surprising what can be accomplished now with cleaning up older stories to make them look fresh and sound well. With this story the picture is cleaned and updated to a fresher look without destroying any of the original looks of the story because of it’s dark nature.
The main soundtrack is Mono but has also been cleaned up and the scratches you can normally hear with older titles has been removed.
The ratio is 4-3 as that is what was intended at the time and looks as good now as it was then.

The commentary for all six episodes is narrated by Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Peter Miles, and David Maloney.
This is a very good and well worth listning to as there is valuable insight to the making of the story, what the actors and director thought of the time making this.

The Doctor – Tom Baker
Sarah Jane Smith – Elisabeth Sladen
Harry Sullivan – Ian Marter
Davros – Michael Wisher
Nyder – Peter Miles
Ronson – James Garbutt
Gharman – Dennis Chinnery

Disk 2 :

Genesis of a classic –

This is a 62 minute documentary through the making of this story. This shows lots of clips, making of, and interviews from Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Philip Hinchcliffe, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks, David Maloney, Michael Wisher, Peter Miles, James Garbutt, Guy Siner, Dennis Chinnery, Roy Skeleton, Cy Town and John scott Martin, Sylvia James, Dick Mills, and Duncan Brown.
All of these had lots do do with making this story, either being actors, producer, director, lighting, script writer, Dalek voices.

The Dalek Tapes -

This is a 55 minute feature that gives background behind the Daleks and some of their history since the start of the series.
This gives footage from the older series, as well as past Blue Peter and Vision On episodes which they have appeared in.
This has a few more interviews as the cast tell you about their time in Dalek stories.
This is all narrated by Terry Maloy who played Davros in this story.

Continuity Compilation –

This has a few off-air announcements from the BBC from transmissions of this story.

Blue Peter –

This particular Blue Peter was from March 1975 which looks at models built by 16 year old boy covering Doctor Who.
This features previous presenters John Nokes and Peter Purves (who actually played Steven, one of the Doctors assistants from 1965-66) and Leslie Judd.
This went out during the 6 part Genesis of the Daleks

Radio Times Billings –

This has illustrations, articles, and listings for this story from the BBC Radio Times magazine from 1975.
This is only on DVD-ROM to be viewed on a PC/MAC

The Doctor Who annual 1976 –

This has every page of this annual from 1976 to look at from your PC. These annuals were made every year from the 1960’s until the mid 80’s.

Photo Gallery –

This has quite a lot of photos from the making of the series, from outside shots, studio shots, action shots, and covers quite a range of material.

My opinion of the DVD –

As I have always loved Dalek stories and grown up watching Doctor Who I found this story to be one of the best ever made, I like the way that it was set in a war torn Skaro during the Daleks creation and the way the characters are in the story. Davros was a dictator so seeing him here for the way he was intended to start off was excellent viewing.
For me this was one of Tom Bakers best ever stories, I felt the way this was done was justified with this great storyline.
I liked the Sarah Jane Smith storyline as she had one of her own and not just tagging alongside the Doctor and Harry. I felt that this was a very good story for her to set out a good companionship with the Doctor.

With the special features I enjoyed Genesis of a classic as I had always wanted to see how this story had been made and watch interviews with the cast. It was very interesting to hear all of the casts stories behind the making of this story.

As ever I found the commentary very enjoyable with lots of valuable input into this story. Tom and Elisabeth do this very well together and are almost like a double act considering all the time they had worked together in the past.

I thought the picture on the front of the DVD of Davros in the war torn Skaro was very apt and the booklet had a good bit of info in it.

The sound and vision on this DVD were as great as always, and it’s always good to know that the BBC have made a good effort with this series no matter what the year or who the Doctor was at the time.

A short while after getting this DVD I met the actress who played Sarah Jane “Elisabeth Sladen” although she never had time to chat for long was a very pleasant person and she had very fond memories of the series.

I hope you have enjoyed this review,

Ian. 

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