- "That is our world out there. A chemical soup for a sky above and a scarred, radioactive wasteland below. It is purgatory. But we must make it paradise!"
This episode is the fourth and final part of the I, Davros story, the events of which more or less directly precede "Genesis of the Daleks".
The Kaled city is now ravaged, and life has become one of fear, protected by a vast transparent dome that covers what remains of the City. The Thals undertake a desperate mission to take Davros away from his laboratories, and the Supremo must send a crack squad over enemy lines to retrieve his chief scientist. Led by the young, enthusiastic and morally bankrupt Lieutenant Nyder, Davros is successfully rescued. But he has been changed by the experience, and where once he stood for knowledge, he now espouses the utter extermination of the Thal people. To this end, Davros will stop at nothing and will sacrifice anybody to see his legacy continue.
Tropes
- Actor Allusion: The first Dalek is made from Baran, the Thal spy, who's played by Nicholas Briggs. Of course the Daleks were literally made from Nicholas Briggs!
- Blasphemous Praise: Davros reads an ancient scrap of prose written in the extinct Dal language out to Nyder, using it as a prediction of what he will transform the Kaled race into. Translated, the writing states "Men will become as gods". Untranslated, the Dal word for "man" is "Kaled", and the Dal word for "god" is "Dalek".
- Book Ends: The episode opens with Davros talking Ral through a mysterious medical procedure. The end of the episode has Davros doing the procedure himself; placing the first Dalek inside its travel casing.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The way Davros kills the Council, with tiny bombs in their bloodstreams via their anti-radiation tablets.
- Deep Cover Agent: Baran is introduced as one of the mutos pillaging the wreckage after the bomb goes off, but is later revealed to be a Thal spy.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite how ruthless the Supremo has proved himself, when Davros demands all children are handed over to him the Supremo refuses.
- Hostage Situation: Davros is taken hostage by the Thals. Nyder earns Davros's respect when he shoots Ral who's holding a gun to his head and threatening to shoot him if Nyder doesn't back off.
- Human Resources: The Kaled children used to create mutants. And their food.
- I'm a Humanitarian: A variation. The mutated children are fed from the morgue. Later Ludella is fed to them. Davros wonders if she will see how happy her son is to see her.
- Irony: The first Dalek is created from a Thal.
- It Has Only Just Begun:Supremo: This...isn't...over...Davros...(dies)Davros: How right you are, Supremo. How right...you are!
- I Owe You My Life: While leading a gang of mutos, Baran rescues Davros when he's trapped in the wreckage, though only so a Thal retrieval squad can snatch him. He tries cashing in on this later, but Davros claims not to recognise Baran and has Nyder drag him off to his laboratory.
- Kill and Replace: Baran kills Corporal Kaston and takes his uniform.
- Leave No Survivors: The Supremo's orders, and Nyder carries them out to the letter, even disobeying the Supremo's order to spare the Thal commander by claiming he didn't hear it in time.
- Mook Promotion: After Lieutenant Nyder leads the rescue of Davros, and tells him he admired his work and killed Ral, who betrayed Davros to the Thals, Davros ends up promoting him to Security Commander.
- Mythology Gag: The name Tarrant is mentioned, a Creator Thumbprint of Terry Nation, the writer who came up with the Daleks.
- New Era Speech: Davros gives one to the Kaled people after the deaths of the Supremo and Council of Twelve. He orders all Kaled children be housed with the science elite for their protection and assures the Kaled people that their society will survive and win the war. He also says that a new council will be elected once the current crisis is over. As this final episode happens only shortly before "Genesis of the Daleks", the audience knows that the new council are little more than a puppet government and that Davros will have complete control over the Kaled nation right up until the emergence of the Daleks.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Having made a study of Davros, Baran works out his voice password will be either egotistical or oedipal. It's the latter; his mother, CALCULA.
- Puppet King: Subverted, the Supremo is portrayed as a sickly shell of whom he once was, being ordered around by Davros like a minion. But he and the Council still have the integrity to unanimously reject Davros's 'request' to take their children, not least because their own children would be handed over. Unfortunately, Davros has anticipated this and already subverted the Security Commander and planted radio-triggered bomblets in the Council.
- Right Under Their Noses: Nyder twice stops Baran and gives him orders even though he knows a Thal spy has infiltrated the dome. Mind you Baran misses out on a chance to assassinate Davros when Nyder sets him on his hospital room door as a guard, ordering that no-one is to see the unnamed patient within.
- The Starscream: When the Supremo and Council of Twelve don't agree to Davros's demands he has them all killed.
- The Unreveal: So, how exactly did Davros reminiscing about his past help the Daleks in the present day?
- Uriah Gambit: After Davros is captured by the Thals, the Supremo sends out a rescue team of commandos led by Lieutenant Nyder to infilitrate the Thal base and bring him back. The fact that Thals warned that any rescue attempt would result in them executing Davros, and the Supremo's own private thoughts wishing to finally be free of the chief scientist, heavily implies that he hoped Nyder would fail with Davros being killed in the rescue attempt. The Supremo didn't count on Nyder being such a ruthlessly effective soldier, however.
- Why Am I Ticking?: A Thal saboteur sets a bomb, and only then realises he can't possibly get away in time, because his commanders... neglected to tell him.
