PG · 150 minutes · £19.99

Director: David Maloney

Starring: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter and Michael Wisher

Rating: 5/5

Extras Rating: 4/5

As the Bond and Batman producers are now realising, an origin story is nigh-on irresistible. In Doctor Who’s first 11 years and eight Daleks stories, it’s bizarre they never even went near the idea of doing it with the ranting pepperpots. When they did, with “Genesis” it turned out to be probably the best Dalek story ever made, but it was also the end of the Daleks as an inherently evil bunch of scary robo-gits. After this, they’d just be the footsoldiers of their creator Davros, who makes his entrance in this story.

The set up is that the Time Lords have instructed the Doctor to avert the creation of the Daleks, or at least “prevent their genetic development, so they grow up into less aggressive creatures”. Davros, imminently responsible for the creation of the Dalek, is probably one of Doctor Who’s greatest creations. Voiced with megalomaniacal relish by Michael Wisher, his duologues with the Doctor (“That power would set me up against the gods!”) are deliciously dramatic, with two scenery-eaters banging heads.

Nazi parallels coat this story in a way even the metaphor-loving Dalek stories of old hadn’t. Produced under a former regime “Genesis” might have been less powerful than it is – they’d probably have taken some of the steel out of it. It’s one of the few bleak, stern Who stories that doesn’t look stupid acting hard. There are no moments of levity in these six episodes, and even the look of it (it’s superbly lit and photographed) will leave you fighting for breath.

Even at six parts, this story feels like it is its natural length, but it’s so rugged and cold and brutal that you might need a couple of sittings to watch it all. And at the end, you might need to ask someone for a cuddle.

DVD Extras
The centrepiece is an hourlong documentary, “Genesis of a Classic”, which is interesting, but unfocused, overlong at an hour and punctuated by some rather embarrassing sequences of Dalek voicer Roy Skelton re-reading famous Dalek lines from the story. “The Dalek Tapes”, an overview of the Daleks, is better. There’s also an old Blue Peter clip, a PDF of the 1976 Who annual and a commentary that includes (on some episodes) director David Maloney and a still slightly sinister Peter Miles and (on all episodes), Elisabeth Sladen and – drumroll please – Tom Baker. Tom’s on fine form – slightly bemused, but funny, while Sladen makes up for Tom being away with the fairies and makes a few comments about her imminent return to the show.

Steve O’Brien