davros

Chris Knight's avatar

It was fifty years ago today, on March 8th 1975, that the BBC transmitted part one of the Doctor Who story “Genesis of the Daleks”.

It has since gone on to be regarded as one of the very best Doctor Who tales in the history of the franchise and one of the greatest science-fiction stories ever committed to the visual medium.  “Genesis of the Daleks”, written by Terry Nation, packed a lot!  The part that I most often think about is when The Doctor (the Fourth, played by Tom Baker) is agonizing over the choice that is his to make: to either destroy the Daleks before they can become the universal menace he knows them to be, or to save them and let history run its course.  It was pretty strong stuff for a show still considered at the time to be made primarily for young audiences.

So it ...

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The Doctor – the titular hero of the long-running BBC series Doctor Who – has had many, many enemies in his sixty years of saving the universe.  Everyone from Cybermen to The Master to the Weeping Angels to… well just about anything you can come up with has been a potential threat.

But there is one foe who is above and beyond the rest: Davros.  The insane creator of The Doctor’s oldest nemesis, the Daleks.

From his first appearance in the 1975 Tom Baker-era story “Genesis Of The Daleks”, Davros has gripped viewers as few Who characters did.  Bound to a life-support vehicle, only one usable arm, his natural eyes blinded necessitating a cybernetic replacement… Davros is someone who sought to perpetuate himself through his creations.  And he never cared who got in the way.  That one mechanical hand of his is stained with the blood of trillions of ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Before this past week, the last time that Davros had been seen was the 1988 Doctor Who story “Remembrance of the Daleks”. Two decades later and the BBC decided that fiction’s most murderous villain ever deserved an upgrade for the revived series.

The Telegraph in London has an in-depth feature on how Davros was brought back to life. In addition to several conceptual drawings of both Davros and the new red Supreme Dalek, it also talks to the BBC’s artists and engineering team members, who decided early on that Davros’s new look should draw from how the character first appeared in 1975, when Michael Wisher was in the role. From the design of the chair to the sculpting of the prosthetics (which can only be worn once) that Julian Bleach wears for the two-part finale, the BBC staff held nothing back from intentionally making Davros “bigger and scarier” than ...

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Confirmation at last. There had been some concern that the last photo was not even genuine.

Let there be no doubt now: The greatest murderer in the history of the universe is back.

Credit Planet Gallifrey for the find. They also have a pic of the new Red Dalek over there.

Click the image to magnify the evil…

These seem to be leaked (unintentionally or not) press photos made by the BBC. This one of Davros matches up well with the still from the mid-season trailer a few weeks ago, particularly the indentation on the front near the top of the chair.

Yeah I know, this blog has been going a little crazy lately about the return of Davros to Doctor Who. But ever since news came out almost five years ago that the show was returning after a sixteen-year hiatus, this has been the single bad guy ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

This has got to be the worst-kept secret in the history of television. But with three weeks left before the two-part finale begins for this season’s Doctor Who, the BBC is still refusing to confirm that the big baddie this year is Davros. How could it not be? Season 1 of the revived series ended with a plot by the Dalek Emperor. The following year gave us the first-ever clash between the Daleks and the Cybermen. 2007 hailed the return of The Master (who last menaced The Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie). The show will be on hiatus for one season so that David Tennant can fulfill stage obligations in London, and for that reason alone I doubt Russell T Davies is going to leave us hanging with The Rani or The Valeyard.

Gotta admire the BBC though for keeping a tight ship. Until possibly yesterday, ...

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