Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: bbc, daleks, Davros, doctor who, peter capaldi, steven moffat, tom baker
Doctor Who has its most nuanced “Big Bad” in Davros, the mad scientist behind the Daleks who was obsessed with creating a master race.
There’s a brief video from the Doctor Who YouTube Channel showing just two scenes from the series: the introduction of Davro in “Genesis of the Daleks” and the modern era’s Series 9 opening episode where a dying Davros has a heart-to-heart with the Doctor. It’s an interesting examination of the consistency and evolution of a character.
“Genesis of the Daleks”, written by the Daleks’ original creator Terry Nation, sends the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) on a mission from the Time Lords to prevent the creation of the Daleks. The heart of the six-part story is the Doctor’s debate with Davros as he tries to talk him out of mass-producing Daleks. Davros’ evil didn’t come from malice but from megalomania. He was a variation of Victor Frankenstein, a mad scientist who became drunk with the idea of creating what he thought would be the supreme form of life in the universe. He was Frankenstein warped into a fascist configuration, which made sense since the Daleks were always stand-ins for the Nazis. He wasn’t even concerned about Right and Wrong the way the increasingly maniacal Master became, since the Master was always about doing bad things for fun, mainly to get the Doctor’s goat. Davros had a conviction on top of his ego, which made him deeper than the mustache-twirling mischief of The Master. Davros was Space Hitler, obsessed with creating a master race because of the withering, decaying imperfections of his dying body. Examining fascism was always a part of Doctor Who. Michael Wisher gave the character an epic, Shakespearean dimension in his portrayal as the first actor to play Davros.
In “The Magician’s Apprentice,” Steven Moffat writes about an older, dying Davros having a heart-to-heart with the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) as two old enemies are different sides of the same coin who understand each other too well. Julian Bleach‘s performance introduces an introspective, tragic Davros who seems to question his past actions, claiming his creation of the Daleks was an act of love but still chastising the Doctor for his compassion, which Davros regards as a weakness. It’s more than fan fiction as it’s a continuing dialogue about the philosophy of Davros, the flaws and horrors of his beliefs. It continues the character’s representation of fascism, always dying, ever decaying, but never dead. He will always linger on and come back.
Incidentally, “Davros” is a Greek name. Terry Nation might have chosen it because it sounded foreign enough for an alien. That’s Doctor Who for you.
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