What the heck. I complained that The Sontaran Experiment was so thin that you could almost see Genesis of the Daleks through it, so I just decided to watch it.
It is the best Dalek Story: and they're barely in it! Some come close: Evil of the Daleks, Day of the Daleks, Rememberance of the Daleks, Dalek, The Parting of the Ways etc but Genesis as it is, has very little wrong with it.
I mentioned this the last time I watched it and it still stands, although I admit I am scraping the bottom of the barrel here. I basically covered all this in June last year so-
"So, at the start of episode 6, the Doctor is going to kill Dalek babies, which in itself is disturbing. But not only that, he's gonna wipe them all out. But does he have the right? He decides that he does not, and you can see the relief in his face when he thinks he's got out of making the decision when the rebels gain the upper hand. But then of course Davros wipes them out and... He decides to commit genocide after all! WHAT? So we have a brilliant sequence with the whole do I have the right speech. He equates what he's doing to killing a child before it grows up to be a dictator. He agonises over the idea of killing a child though... But when he decides to go ahead with it anyway, he's absolutely fine! I get it: He has NO choice... But where's the emotion? The anger? Remember 10's regeneration? He thinks he's got away with it, he's all happy and then Wilfred ruins everything by knocking and he explodes with emotion and rage. Why doesn't this Doctor do the same? He's just been saved from making a difficult decision, or he thinks he is, but then he gets cheated and has to do it anyway. So why isn't he having a rant about it? Why doesn't it look like it bothers him? Does he commit the act himself? No, a Dalek finishes the job, but the intent was still there. Basically, what the Doctor’s saying here is that it’s okay to go back in time and kill a small child without any hint of remorse whatsoever. I just think its a cop-out."
That's what I said then and I was bearing that in mind when episode 6 started. It still
could have went like that. But he see's Gharman and the rest of the rebels wiped out and then goes to the incubation room alone. I suppose, if I want to excuse it, he could have done all that off-screen (whilst he was getting his jacket, so necessary when the Universe is at stake and explosives are being primed at the bunker entrance). I just wish we could have seen it.
But aside from that (and even then was that really a criticism? More just a wish of a slight change. Its like when people say the Primords ruin Inferno, when they're actually really good, although just slightly less good when the hair grows on them. They were better looking like a Romero zombie in the early parts) Its basically faultless.
No one.
No one, has ever surpassed Michael Wisher as Davros. The single greatest guest actor on the show. I often wonder what it would have been like had he never returned after this. I'm assuming that was the intention. After all, he heard the Doctor tell him everything about the daleks future. Killing him stops that being a problem, keeping him alive doesn't, and its a problem every single Dalek Story after this completely ignores exists. Even Davros apparently forgot all those details?!? How? Or more to the point why: with all that foreknowledge he could have ensured the Dalek Invasion of Earth was much quicker, and therefore at least 3 Episodes shorter, and therefore much easier and less tedious to get through
It is a straight 10/10 though at the end of it all.