History Recap / DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks

'''Production code:''' 4E

Written by Creator/TerryNation. This six-episode serial first aired from March 8 to April 12, 1975.

* BeyondRedemption: The Doctor tries to get Davros to turn away from his dark plans by means of the thought experiment, a virus virulent enough to annihilate all life. Davros quietly contemplates the existence of such a thing, and then admits that, in the end, he would unleash it, just for the power-trip of knowing that it was ''he'' who destroyed them all, and discards metaphor as he shouts that the Daleks will make this fantasy a reality. He sounds like nothing so much as a Dalek himself as he does, his voice cracking and stuttering, and the Doctor immediately resorts to force to stop him at all costs.

Having just finished [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment saving future Earth from some Sontaran shenanigans]], the Doctor and companions end up being hijacked on their way back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace Nerva Beacon]] and are deposited instead on [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks Skaro, home planet of the Daleks]]. The planet is at an early stage in its history, with a long war of attrition currently ongoing between its two human-like native races, the Kaleds and the Thals. The ultimate result of this war is that the Kaleds will inevitably mutate due to the high "[[NuclearWeaponsTaboo chemical]]" levels. They've built themselves travel casings to remain mobile -- and as we all know, these will enable them to become the Daleks. The High Council of the Time Lords instruct the Doctor to either prevent this entirely, or divert the Daleks' development into a more peaceful form, or -- failing that -- destroy them. They give him a "Time Ring" to allow him to return to the TARDIS once this is done.

* EvilerThanThou: A very ironic variant. Davros ends up being killed by his creations because they are programmed to believe that no other being is superior to them. Including Davros.

* SchizoTech: Mentioned in Part One. The war with the Thals has been going on so long that instead of using expensive laser weaponry, they're down to conventional gunpowder arms, and if things keep up they're going to finish with bows and arrows.

* StateSec: The SS-esque Kaled guards led by Security Commander Nyder. Their symbol is a very obvious riff on the SS lightning bolts, being an [[EyeMotifs eye]] with lightning bolts on either corner.

* StateSec: The SS-esque Kaled guards led by Security Commander Nyder.

* TheDragon: Nyder, Davros's nearly emotionless right-hand man.

Or, [[InnocuouslyImportantEpisode to put it another way]]: JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here [[ForWantOfANail the fate of the universe hinges]] [[WhatYouAreInTheDark on two wires.]]

** The Doctor posses this question to Davros: If he had a virus in a capsule that would destroy every living entity in the universe, would you release it? Davros, after brief consideration, screams with joy he would do it.

* MortonsFork: The Doctor does not go through with eradicating the Daleks, and the Daleks see the attempt as a declaration of war, starting the Time War. The Doctor doesn't see the war erupt until his eighth incarnation, and his next incarnation enters the fight personally. However, the ''Unbound'' audio range explores the alternative and reveals that if the Doctor did wipe out the Daleks, a contingent would survive and the Time War would begin even sooner, forcing his sixth incarnation to fight instead.

* ChekhovsGun: The Doctor is forced by the Time Lords to return to the moment of the Daleks' creation to destroy them before they are created-- but when he actually gets the opportunity to do so, he decides not to, on the grounds that 1) genocide is wrong, 2) the wars that they eventually start will unite more races against them than otherwise, and 3) without them, some other race of space Nazis would rise up. All of these decisions come right back to bite him in the arse thirty (real life) years later, when the Daleks' retaliation against the Doctor's failed time erasure led to the Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, which created various obstructive alliances attempting to deal with the massive devastation that the Time War caused (such as the Shadow Proclamation), and forced the Doctor to commit genocide against his own species as well as against the Daleks. It got [[CosmicRetcon Cosmic Retconned]] into him merely sealing Gallifrey away in its own dimension later on.

* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Garman just '''doesn't''' get that Davros is an utter monster, and honestly thinks he'll go quietly.

One of very few serials not to involve the TARDIS even by implication: the Doctor and companions arrive by transmat beam, and leave by Time Ring. It also marks a significant turning point in the show's production in that it is the last six-part story to not be a season finale. Previous seasons, especially during the Second and Third Doctor's runs, were littered with serials that went well over the four-episode mark, with two particularly extreme cases in the '60s reaching [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames ten]] and ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan twelve]]''. Thus, starting with the next season, the ''Doctor Who'' staff opted to limit stories to a maximum of four parts with the exception of season finales, which would be six parts until season 17 (which had to let go of the six-part [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E6Shada "Shada"]] midway through production due to a worker's strike)[[note]][[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors "The Two Doctors"]] clocks in at a runtime comparable to a typical six-part serial, but is divided into three 45-minute episodes; international airings would edit it into six 25-minute parts[[/note]]. The decision to mostly phase out serials above four parts also led to the two-episode structure of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment the previous story]].

* ButtMonkey: Lampshaded by Harry during his encounter with the clam: "Why is it always me that puts a foot in it!?".

* VillainousBreakdown: Davros very quickly lapses into one when his creations betray him.
* WeightAndSwitch: A variation is done when the Doctor stands on the land mine: Harry props rocks ''under'' the mine, so it is blocked.

** Scenario 2: Dissidents reject his offer, has the Daleks eliminate them. Which is what ultimately happens. Either way, he wins(though in the end it backfires on him)

The one where Harry gets his leg stuck in a fibreglass clam, a Dalek leaves the fourth wall in tatters, and we're introduced to a certain chariot-riding megalomaniac who begins a glorious tradition of ''megalomaniacal ranting''.

* HumanOutsideAlienInside: Hinted at with the Kaleds, given that when they look at The Doctor and Harry's bio-scans, they've got no idea what they're seeing.

* BizarreAlienBiology: Hinted at with the Kaleds, given that when they look at The Doctor and Harry's bio-scans, they've got no idea what they're seeing.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Thals have blonde hair and are warriors, the Kaleds have brown hair and are scientists. Now consider what the Daleks were inspired by, and their combined legacy is the Daleks...