The Doctor (Sir Thomas of Baker) finds himself on the planet Skaro, birthplace of the Daleks. The Time Lords have selected him to perform a mission that could change the course of future history, an act that appears to go against all the Laws of Time that the citizens of Gallifrey stand for. The Time Lords have foreseen a future in which the Daleks dominate over all life, and they want the Doctor to either alter the course of Dalek history or destroy them before they have a chance to 'Exterminate'. Together with companions Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), the Doctor must face his own moral code in deciding whether to help destroy a race that doesn't have any morals of their own.

Genesis of the Daleks is generally considered to be one of the finest examples of a Doctor Who serial. Indeed, it came fourth in this 2003 poll of fan-favourite episodes, even (narrowly) beating out the truly spectacular City of Death. Although a Dalek episode is an obvious choice for so many fan laurels, Genesis of the Daleks is considered so favourably for a number of reasons. To put this in some historical perspective, Doctor Who was close to the height of its popularity at this stage. Tom Baker had not long been in the role of Doctor Who, and was following on from the dashing and James Bond-esque Jon Pertwee, who had gathered a wide selection of fans during his largely Earth-bound tenure as The Doctor. Genesis of the Daleks was not Tom Baker's first serial, but the serials that had come before were not exactly defining of his era. The first Tom Baker serial, Robot, largely followed a UNIT-based story not dissimilar to one found in the Pertwee era, and the following two episodes - The Ark in Space and The Sontaran Experiment - were fairly typical 'monster' stories. It was with Genesis of the Daleks that the show was finally able to take a new direction with its new star.

Genesis of the Daleks is the most thoughtful, and darkest, Doctor Who had been in years. For the first time in several years, The Doctor was faced with a moral dilemma involving interfering with the time line. In one of the most oft quoted lines from this episode, the Doctor ponders: "If someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives... could you then kill that child?" This brings the parallel between the Daleks and the Nazis - and the question as to how Earth's history would be different if someone had bought one of Hitler's paintings - right out into the open. The black uniform and rigid salutes of Davros' personal henchmen and elite are also a fair indication of where Terry Nation's head was at while writing this serial. The Daleks are not just depicted as mindless killing machines intent on total annihilation, but as a 'master race' bred for perfection to the detriment of all others by a maniacal genius named Davros (Michael Wisher). That said, the Daleks finally get to let loose in this episode and do that which they were bred for - kill lots of people, and leave a body count. It prompted a huge letter campaign and a lobby to 'clean up' the BBC by several campaigners.

The episode manages to bring the series full circle while simultaneously adding a renewed vigour to proceedings. As mentioned, the second episode of Doctor Who was The Daleks. Just over a decade later, the series gives birth to the Daleks again by introducing a new era - with a new audience - of Dalek-related evil. While some fans may complain that this contradicts the established Dalek story first put forward in The Daleks, if you think about it for long enough (and believe me I have) you can rationalise the story. Besides, this tale is less about revising continuity than it is about making the Daleks scary again. The Doctor himself swings between flippant and deadly earnest, showing early signs of the best qualities of Tom Baker as The Doctor and providing the few moments of levity in the 6-part serial. Even the seemingly overdone 'should I cross the wires' scenario seems perfectly natural in this episode, and is in fact one of the most important moments in the episode in articulating this morality play. However, it is really Michael Wisher as Davros that steals the show, creating a character that would go on to appear in another four episodes: Destiny of the Daleks (1979), Resurrection of the Daleks (1984), Revelation of the Daleks (1985) and Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). Doctor Who, like its fans, began to build a connection with its own continuity, just as Star Trek would when it launched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in 1982.

Genesis of the Daleks is a significant chapter in the history of Doctor Who simply because of the legacy it left behind. From this point onwards, the Dalek episodes tended to centre on the Dalek's relationship with Davros. Sometimes this worked against the episodes, but more often than not it would work for them. In a more immediate way, it shifted the often lighthearted feel of the Pertwee era into a darker and more thoughtful era of episodes. The follow up serial would reintroduce another classic Doctor Who villain in Revenge of the Cybermen, which retains many of the dark elements of this episode. Indeed, the legacy of this episode can be directly seen a decade later in the darkly-comic Revelation of the Daleks, one of the highlights of the Sixth Doctor's (Colin Baker) run Genesis of the Daleks remains a fan-favourite not simply because of its titular villains, but because it combines some of the best elements of the series and conclusively launched the era of the show with an actor who would go on to be most associated with the role.

While the dedicated Restoration Team reported that there were "no major problems" in the restoration of this episode, I think the Team - who I should add has always been incredibly helpful to me in terms of feedback and other information (thanks folks!) - are just being modest. This is definitely a massive improvement over previous transmissions of this serial, and the tag of being "fully remastered" is certainly no exaggeration here. The Team mentions that they had to deal with "literally thousands of tape dropouts" that had to be painted out in the first episode alone.

Given that in this era of Doctor Who - and indeed, this era of BBC television - a dual filming process was being used, there are some natural inconsistencies. The exterior shots were largely shot on 16mm film, whereas the interior 'studio' shots were typically shot using a 2" studio videotape. There is a little bit of grain on the 16mm footage, and the natural wear and tear that can't be avoided. Indeed, the film segments in this episode are a little worse for wear than most. Another problem that couldn't be avoided was a video artefact called Microphony. This happens when a loud noise (such as a gunshot) is picked up by the camera and the acoustic shock causes the sensitive tubes to vibrate. We see this effect as a wobble and horizontal lines appearing on the screen. This, unfortunately, is one of those problems that is almost too difficult to conquer in old video footage...at least for now. (Thanks again to Steve of the Restoration Team for the info). Other video artefacts include the odd lens flare and comet trail, all of which should be familiar territory to viewers of vintage television.

When assessing video quality in older television shows, the source material and the difficulties it presents must be taken into account. That is why I am always a little more generous with Doctor Who serials than I am with more recent television outings. This serial has generally survived better than most, but this DVD is still leaps and bounds ahead of a recent television screening I saw. An excellent remaster, and I can't wait to see what they've done with the upcoming Jon Pertwee classic, Inferno.

Naturally, the majority of the sound comes from the front and centre speakers. Occasionally, the dialogue seemed a little bit low, especially when Davros was speaking. However, one rather suspects this had more to do with the unique problems posed by the way in which Davros' dialogue was originally recorded, and that the best was done with the material at hand. However, the majority of the dialogue remains acceptably clear and without any obvious sounds of audio dropouts or lips out of sync with speech.

English subtitles for the hearing impaired have also been provided.

We've been terribly spoiled over the last few months. First, there was the magnificent 2-Disc City of Death, followed closely by the even more impressive Doctor Who - The Beginning 3-Disc set containing the original three Doctor Who serials. Both sets have contained a wealth of extras, including hours of interview footage specifically recorded for those DVDs. Genesis of the Daleks keeps up the high standard with another two hours worth of interview material and a newly recorded feature commentary. That's just for starters...

Disc 1

Commentary - This time out we are treated to a commentary from director David Maloney and actors Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane) and Peter Miles (Nyder) and The Doctor himself, Tom Baker. Although Baker, the highlight of the track for many fans, is fairly quiet for most of the track, when he does talk he is at his dry and witty best (including at least one joke about wanting to be the boy in the Worther's Original ads). While the commentary is more of a nostalgic one, and many of the comments are fond memories, there is still a bit of information packed in here. Listening to this track in combination with the Production Subtitles - a kind of text trivia track using your player's subtitle feature - and the documentaries on Disc 2, you should be fairly informed about the making of the serial at any rate.

Disc 2

Genesis of a Classic (62:08) - An incredibly generous 'making of' documentary that consists largely of retrospective interviews with the principal cast and crew. Everyone from the producer down to the Dalek voices and the lighting director are interviewed, providing a fairly complete picture of everything that went into making this classic. Highlights for fans are sure to be the interviews with actors Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, the former of whom has not appeared much on recent DVDs and the latter of the pair can be seen on the recently screened (in the UK) Doctor Who episode School Reunion. Excellent in every way, the documentary's participants don't shy away from mentioning those areas that they are less than pleased with now, making this something more than the typically self-congratulatory retrospectives found on most major studios DVDs these days.

The Dalek Tapes (53:20) - Much more than a simple retrospective of all the Dalek episodes, although it serves that function as well, this documentary takes a look at the history of the Doctor's most famous enemies. Using a combination of footage from all of the significant Dalek episodes of the classic Doctor Who series, interviews with almost everybody involved in the creation of those episodes - including writers, directors, actors, designers and producers - we get an excellent look at what made the Daleks such iconic creatures and how they evolved over the series. Fans should note that while this doesn't cover the return of the Daleks in the 2005 Doctor Who series - in "Dalek" and "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways" - it is still quite possibly one of the most comprehensive examinations of the Daleks' history on television.

Continuity Compilation (6:15) - This collection of Continuity Announcements is the next best thing to have 'original trailers' on this DVD. Taking the "coming up next" announcements from 1975, the 1980s, 1990s and 2000, it covers the announcements from the repeat screenings of the episode as well. It is interesting to see that the more recent the announcements get, the more product placement there is.

Blue Peter (7:12) - The long-running children's programme has provided Doctor Who DVDs with a seemingly endless source of footage. This episode, which was originally screened during the first run of Genesis of the Daleks, highlights an impressive collection of models a teenage viewer had put together, showcasing various sets and creatures from Doctor Who.

Photo Gallery (7:56) - Although a standard feature on most DVDs, the Doctor Who galleries are always a bit more of a pleasure to view. Frankly, I'm sick of pressing 'forward' to see the next image. My thumbs need entertainment too! So in a cotton-sock blessing move, we get a self-playing set of production and publicity stills that play out to music. Lovely.

Radio Times Billings - Via the DVD-ROM component, this is a 9-page PDF file reproducing the pages of the Radio Times from the week that Genesis of the Daleks originally aired.

The Doctor Who Annual 1976 - This is becoming a staple on the Doctor Who DVDs. Also presented as a PDF file on the DVD-ROM portion of the disc, this is a replica of the annual from the same era as the feature serial.  59 pages (!!) worth of material here, including stories, articles, games and comic strips. These things go for good money on eBay, and is an invaluable inclusion here.

Viewers of the more recent Doctor Who series starring Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant may be used to the slick productions values and solid storytelling, but much of that foundation comes from episodes such as Genesis of the Daleks. While this has been variously accused of being 'too dark' and contradicting some of the existing Doctor Who mythology, it is hard to deny that the storytelling is strong and it does achieve its aim of making the Daleks scary again. Further, it introduced the character of Davros, who would go on to become a character perpetually associated with the Daleks (for better or for worse).

As a DVD, we get another terrific 2-Disc set. The sound and picture exceed every television broadcast you've seen, and the selection of bonus features is thorough, entertaining and informative. The next DVD to be released will be another 2-Disc, for Jon Pertwee's Inferno. This is one of my personal favourite episodes, and I highly anticipate the Region 4 release. It will also mark the fourth multi-disc set in a row, meaning that these releases just keep getting better and better.

Recommended!