“Genesis of the Daleks” is still generally viewed as one of the best Doctor Who story of all time – but in reality, it is the Doctor’s biggest mistake. In 1974, Dalek creator Terry Nation was asked to write the definitive origin story of the Daleks. “Genesis of the Daleks” aired a year later, and it initially proved controversial, with campaigner Mary Whitehouse complaining it was just “tea time brutality for tots.” Her opinion was overruled by the majority of viewers, however, who thought it was tremendous. Over the years, “Genesis of the Daleks” has seen as a cult classic, and polls of Doctor Who fans still rate it as one of the show’s best stories ever.
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The plot was a simple enough one; the Time Lords foresaw a day when the Daleks would be a threat to all life in the universe, even themselves, and they recruited the Doctor to rewrite history and avert their creation. Unwillingly transported back to ancient Skaro, and the end of the neutronic war between the Kaleds and the Thals, the Doctor found himself clashing with a ruthless being called Davros. Davros was portrayed by Michael Wisher, and the dynamic between Wisher and Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor was tremendous. Meanwhile, the ethical quandary the Doctor struggled with – did he have the right to complete his mission for the Time Lords? – was a fascinating one. In the end, the Doctor chose not to do as the Time Lords wished. “I know that although the Daleks will create havoc and destruction for millions of years, I know also that out of their evil must come something good,” the Doctor explained, in words redolent with hope. He didn’t believe the Daleks could be redeemed – they had been genetically engineered to be evil to the core – but he nevertheless believed the universe would work some good out of their evil.
But did the Doctor make the right decision? Or did he, in fact, condemn the universe to untold suffering? All these years later, it’s possible to do what even a time traveler could not; to look back and consider whether, from an in-universe perspective, the Doctor made a terrible mistake.
The Time Lords’ Worst Fears Were Realized
Unlike the Doctor, the Time Lords had the benefit of foresight. They possessed the Matrix, which is far more than just a repository of Time Lord knowledge; it also possesses the ability to peer into the future, in what is described as “Matrix Viewings.” These appear to be quite definitive, with the Doctor himself experiencing a Matrix viewing of a presidential assassination in “The Deadly Assassin.” Thus the Time Lords weren’t just guessing, or even choosing between a probable future; they were predicting something they considered absolutely certain. And it is a matter of record that they were right. We now know the Daleks did indeed come to dominate the cosmos, establishing what is called the “Dalek Universe.”
Worse still, that was only the beginning of it. Having achieved their monstrous goal of becoming the supreme power in all space, the Daleks cast their eyes to time as well, resolving to destroy the Time Lords. Thus began the Time War, as the Daleks and the Time Lords battled through time and space. Billions of timelines were created and destroyed, and the entire universe convulsed in pain. The full scale of the horror has been told in the BBC short “Night of the Doctor” and a range of Big Finish audio dramas, which reveal all of time and space caught in the Time War crossfire between these two mighty races. It frankly seems as though the universe was brought to the brink of destruction.
The Doctor Came To Believe He Was Wrong
It’s a matter of record the Doctor came to believe this was a mistake. As seen in “The Day of the Doctor,” John Hurt’s War Doctor ultimately concluded the Time War had to be brought to an end, whatever the cost. He chose to steal the Moment, an ancient Time Lord device that he intended to use to destroy both Gallifrey and the invading Dalek fleet. Rather than commit genocide once, the War Doctor intended to commit it twice, wiping out both the Daleks and his own people. Things played out slightly differently, but the intention is what counts; he believed an act of genocide to be justified. The Ninth and Tenth Doctors both believed they had done just this, and it’s notable that – however guilty they felt – they both believed they were right to have done so. The Doctor frequently complained they were like cockroaches, coming back however many times he tried to kill them. The attitude was very different to the one expounded by the Fourth Doctor.
Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor and David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor united in the recent Big Finish audio-drama “Out of Time.” Although the Tenth Doctor understandably avoided risking changing time by telling his past self about the Time War, he nonetheless made it clear he disagreed with the Fourth Doctor’s naivete. Where the Fourth Doctor believed he did not have the right to destroy the Daleks, to erase them from existence, the Tenth Doctor insisted he had not only the right – but the responsibility.
The Doctor’s Decision Was The Beginning Of The Time War
And here is the real tragedy; the Fourth Doctor’s optimism can actually be seen as the proximate cause of the Time War. According to former showrunner Russell T. Davies, the Daleks never forgot the mysterious stranger who came so close to averting their creation, and they realized the Doctor had been sent there by the Time Lords. As aggressive as the Daleks may be, they considered the Time Lords to have fired the first shot, and the Doctor can be forgiven for holding himself responsible for everything that happened. He would probably be wrong to do so, though, because the Daleks are driven by an extreme xenophobia, a dislike of the unlike that leads them to seek to exterminate all other life forms. The Doctor’s actions on ancient Skaro certainly accelerated the Time War, but they did not cause it; they excused it, but the Daleks never really needed much of an excuse to go to war.
Still, that certainly doesn’t mean – with the benefit of hindsight – that the Fourth Doctor was dangerously naïve in “Genesis of the Daleks.” He believed some good would come of the Daleks, but this good cannot possibly be outweighed by the evil, that led his future self to do what he had refused to – to try to wipe out the Daleks once and for all, in order to bring an end to Doctor Who‘s Time War.
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