Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks [1975]

Date(s) of Broadcast: 8 March 1975 - 12 April 1975
Number of Episodes: 6
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Production: Philip Hinchcliffe
Production Unit Manager: George Gallaccio

SCRIPT
Script: Yerry Nation
Story Editors: Robert Holmes

DIRECTION
Director: David Maloney

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Duncan Brown
Film Camera: Elmer Cossey

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Film Editor: Larry Toft

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranger: Delia Derbyshire
Incidental Music: Dudley Simpson

SOUND
Studio Sound: Tony Millier
Special Sound: Dick Mills

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Sylvia James
Costumes: Barbara Kidd

SPECIAL MAKE UP EFFECTS
Davros Mask: John Friedlander

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Peter Day

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: David Spode

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Assistant: Rosemary Crowson
Assistant Floor Manager: Karilyn Collier

CAST
Tom Baker [The Doctor]
Elisabeth Sladen [Sarah Jane Smith]
Tom Baker [The Doctor]
Elisabeth Sladen [Sarah-Jane Smith]
Ian Marter [Harry Sullivan]
Michael Wisher [Davros]
Peter Miles [Security Commander Nyder]
Keith Ashley, John Scott Martin, Cy Town [Dalek operators]
Roy Skelton [Dalek voices]
Dennis Chinnery [Gharman]
Richard Reeves [Kaled leader]
Guy Siner [General Ravon]
John Franklyn-Robbins [Time Lord]
Stephen Yardley [Sevrin]
James Garbutt [Senior Researcher Ronson]
Drew Wood [Interrogator Tane]
Jeremy Chandler [Gerrill]
Pat Gorman, Hilary Minster, John Gleeson [Thal soldiers]
Tom Georgeson [Kavell]
Michael Lynch [Thal politician]
Mogren Ivor Roberts [councillor]
Max Faulkner [Thal guard]
Harriet Philpin [Bettan]
Peter Mantle [Kaled guard]
Andrew Johns [Kravos]
Paul Burton [Kaled boy - uncredited]
Michael Brinker, Steve Butler, Tony O'Reefe [Kaleds - uncredited]
Kirk Klugston, Julian Peters, Douglas Rossiter [Thals - uncredited]
Dod Watson [thing - uncredited]
Ken Tracey [Kaled prisoner - uncredited]
John Dunn [teddy driver guard - uncredited]
Peter Whittaker [Thal [politician - uncredited]
David Cleeve, Jim Dowdall, Dinny Powell, Patrick Scoular, Terry Walsh [Thal guards - uncredited]
David Billa, Tim Blackstone, Les Conrad, Philip Mather, Keith Norrish, David Roy Paul (?) [Thal officers - uncredited]
John Beardmore, Eric Rayner [Thal generals - uncredited]
Alan Chuntz, Jim Dowdall [Kaled guards - uncredited]
John Gleeson, Terry Walsh [Thal soldiers - uncredited]
Stephen Calcutt, John Delieu, James Muir, Roger Salter, Terry Walsh [Mutos - uncredited]
Bob Watson, Barry Summerford, Peter Kodak, Giles Melville, Roy Caeser [Elite guards - uncredited]
Ronald Nunnery, Anthony Lang, George Romanoff [Kaled counsellors - uncredited]
William Ashley, Charles Erskine, Tony Hayes, Richard Orme, Harry Van Engel, Charles Rayford, Mike Reynell, Paddy Ryan, Alan Charles Thomas, John Timberlake, Pat Travis Terry Walsh [Kaled scientists - uncredited]
David Cleeve, Michael Crane, Peter Duke, David Billa, Tim Blackstone, Christopher Holme, Julian Hudson, John Sowerbutt, Reg Tunrer [walk-ons - uncredited]

The Time Lords give the Doctor a mission to prevent the Daleks from becoming the threat they do by landing him on Skaro as Kaled leader Davros as about to unleash the creation of the Daleks in their battle with the Thals. The Doctor must find a way to destroy the Daleks as they're being created.

Nation's two previous Dalek stories had been routine and dire. His next Dalek tale would also be awful. And between them is this. Can the hand of script editor Robert Holmes be detected in the writing? He certainly rejected Nations's orignal premise and asked him to come up with an origin story. And what a story. In Davros' "To hold in my hand" speech and the Doctor's "Do I have the right" monologue we have two of the most repeated sequences in the history of the programme. With the Daleks being such an institution already even then, how difficult it was to come up with a leader that would not disappoint. How fantastic a creation this original Davros is.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1975
March
8: UK - Part One television broadcast [on BBC1]
15: UK - Part Two television broadcast [on BBC1]
22: UK - Part Three television broadcast [on BBC1]
29: UK - Part Four television broadcast [on BBC1]

April
5: UK - Part Five television broadcast [on BBC1]
12: UK - Part Six television broadcast [on BBC1]

Genesis of Terror - working title

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.278-282
credits, synopsis, review [by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker]

KEYWORDS

aliens, time travel

Last Updated: 21 April, 2008