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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Doctor Who-Genesis of the Daleks (1975)

Doctor Who-Genesis of the Daleks (1975)

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Released 4-May-2006

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Science Fiction Main Menu Audio & Animation
Audio Commentary-Tom Baker (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith)
Audio Commentary-Peter Miles (Nyder) and David Maloney (Director)
Featurette-Genesis Of A Classic
Featurette-The Dalek Tapes
Featurette-Continuity Complilation
Featurette-Blue Peter: Collection of Doctor Who models
DVD-ROM Extras-Radio Times Billings: Illustrations, Articles and Listings
Gallery-Photo
DVD-ROM Extras-The Doctor Who Annual 1976
Subtitle Commentary
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1975
Running Time 142:57 (Case: 278)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered
Dual Disc Set
Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Michael E. Briant
Douglas Camfield
Chris Clough
Frank Cox
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring William Hartnell
Patrick Troughton
Jon Pertwee
Tom Baker
Peter Davison
Colin Baker
Sylvester McCoy
Carole Ann Ford
William Russell
Jacqueline Hill
Maureen O'Brien
Peter Purves
Adrienne Hill
Case Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual
RPI $39.95 Music Mark Ayres
Richard Rodney Bennett
Carey Blyton


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
English Audio Commentary
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

"...if you had created a virus in your laboratory. Something contagious and infectious that killed on contact. A virus that would destroy all other forms of life... would you allow its use?" - The Doctor, in an attempt to warn Davros of the menace he is about to unleash

    En-route to the space station Nerva, a Time Lord intercepts the Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companions, Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), and takes them to Skaro, the home-world of the Daleks, at an early point in its timeline. The time lord offers the Doctor a mission that could, and ultimately would, change the face of history; to prevent the creation of the Daleks.

     The two races of Skaro, the Kaleds and the Thals, have been locked in a war of attrition for the best part of a millennium. They have reached a point where only two cities remain, each enclosed in a protective dome. Outside these domes lies a wasteland, its ruins populated by Mutos, people who have genetically mutated as a result of the war. Little do the Thals realise that Davros (Michael Wisher), the despotic head scientist of the Kaleds, has developed a weapon that will soon end the war, the Mark III Transportation Device, piloted by a genetically engineered mutation of the Kaleds - the Daleks.

     At heart, Davros is megalomaniac and intent on producing the ultimate form of life, not winning a war. To free his race of Daleks from the limitations of one's own morality he has the capability of empathy and pity erased from their genetic code, turning the Daleks into the ultimate source of evil. This decision divides his own people, even Davros' own Elite followers, bringing political turmoil into an already chaotic world.

     Genesis of the Daleks is arguably the best (I say this literally having argued the point, but most fans would place it undeniably in contention) Doctor Who story from the period commonly referred to as the Golden Age of Doctor Who. Much of the credit needs to be handed to Terry Nation, who has constructed a consistent and complete history for his race of Daleks and woven it into a classic tale of good and evil. The pacing is superb. A fairly complicated plot is unfurled very evenly throughout the duration of the story. There is not one scene padding or time-wasting sub-plot in Genesis of the Daleks, as classic Doctor Who was notorious for, despite it being a 6 part story.

     As always, Tom Baker plays no small part in the success of this story. Even in his early days as the Doctor, as is the case here, his aloof nature brings a charm that carries even the weakest points of an episode effortlessly. No other incarnation of the Doctor had quite the power to control the mood of a scene in the way that Tom Baker could. This power is used to great effect in Genesis of the Daleks. It is as though someone has stepped on the brakes when the Doctor's generally quizzical tone shifts into a serious tone, and the morality of the story catches up with the audience.

     The Daleks had long been likened to the Nazis by fans of Doctor Who. Genesis of the Daleks takes this theme back to the very origin of the menace. The Thals and the Kaleds are obvious parallels to the Allies and Nazis of World War 2. The introduction of Davros, complete with a handful of Hitler-esque mannerisms, and his Elite, who bear more than a passing similarity to the Nazi SS, is an ingenious stroke. Furthermore, the political aspect of the story is a microcosm of the European front of World War 2, r(SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) ight down to the formation of the Thal resistance after the fall of their nation and their allying with the Mutos.

    The production values of Genesis of the Daleks are noticeably better than those of many classic Doctor Who episodes. There are still plenty of polystyrene rocks and monsters about, but the limited budget is hidden well with smart camera angles and clever lighting.

     Genesis of the Daleks would be an excellent place for any fans of the new Doctor Who to start with the classic Doctor Who episodes. It goes a long way into explaining both the Doctor's essentially humanitarian personality as well much of as his complicated history with the Daleks, two major plot drivers of the new Doctor Who. It is also one of the darker, more mature stories that began to emerge in the mid-1970s and, as such, holds up to modern sensibilities a lot better than many of the lighter episodes.

     This is a story not to be missed!

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The episodes are presented in their original 1.33:1 full frame format and not 16x9 enhanced.

     The video on offer is essentially a very clean digital transfer of a cheaply recorded source. As such, there are no significant film to video artefacts visible, but the images are plagued by analogue video recording artefacts. Several scenes exhibit microphony (e.g. at 17:30 in the first episode) and almost every indoor scene exhibits comet trails (particularly Davros' shiny silver shoulder pads). Whilst these analogue video artefacts do get distracting, they are an unfortunate fact of early video that cannot be easily removed.

    The sharpness and colour grading of the image between the indoor and outdoor scenes varies noticeably. One scene in particular, at the end of the second episode, was partially filmed on location and partially in-studio and really highlights the issue. This is, again, a sign of the times rather than a poor DVD transfer. At the time this was recorded, location scenes were still filmed on 16mm film, whereas studio scenes were recorded on 2 inch studio videotape.

     On the positive side, the grain in the image is fairly fine throughout. The restoration team have done an excellent job cleaning the image, which is virtually free of dirt and dust. A good deal of information about the restoration and transfer is available on the Doctor Who Restoration Team website.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     There are two soundtracks on this DVD, both of which are in Dolby Digital 2.0 with a bitrate of 192kbps. They are the original English dialogue and an English audio commentary.

     The dialogue is generally clear and easy to understand, but there are occasional distortion issues with Michael Wisher's (Davros') dialogue (most notably at 5:07 of the fifth episode). Evidently he had to be recorded separately to the rest of the cast at the time of filming to allow for his voice to be electronically processed and that recording is noticeably worse than that of the rest of the dialogue.

     There is no surround channel or subwoofer use in the audio.

     The music largely consists of incidental synthesizer parts and stock orchestral stabs that most Doctor Who fans will be very familiar with.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

     There is a first rate variety of extra features included in this 2 disc set.

Main Menu Audio & Animation

     Each disc features a brief clip from an episode with some dramatic music behind the main title menu, but the rest of the menus are static.

Audio Commentary - Tom Baker (The Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Peter Miles (Nyder) and David Maloney (Director)

    A pretty run-of-the-mill commentary track. Elisabeth Sladen keeps the commentary alive whilst the other three seem to come and go, frequently leaving for whole episodes. Most of the track is very off the cuff rather than prepared anecdotes, which mostly leads the group into talking about how much they liked each of the actors in the story. Tom Baker does a good job of conveying that he's probably never seen the episode before!

Subtitle Commentary

     One of the subtitle tracks consists of trivia, script excerpts and other assorted tid-bits of information about the episodes. This feature is fantastic and generally proves much more interesting than the audio commentary track. It also manages to contradict the audio commentary a number of times!

     I have to gripe about one typo, though. At the end of the first episode, the commentary claims that the episode was fist aired from 5:30 to 5:35pm. I assume it should have read from 5:30 to 5:55pm, as the rest of the episodes claim.

Featurette - Genesis Of A Classic

     A 62:09 minute documentary on the making of the episode, presented in a 1.78:1 format. This is almost worth the price of the disc alone. It features an enormous range of interviews about every aspect of production, from the production of the script, to the operation of the Daleks, lighting, casting, and the enigma that is Tom Baker (including him answering a phone call from an ex-wife during his interview - too priceless to describe). The sections are broken up by Roy Skelton teaching viewers how to be a Dalek.

Featurette - The Dalek Tapes

     A 53:20 minute documentary about the continuity between the various Dalek episodes of Doctor Who, presented in a 1.78:1 format. A variety of Doctor Who boffins and past producers commentate as the story from each Dalek story is recapped, including the 1960s stage play, and the continuity of the Dalek's mythos put under a microscope. This is another first rate extra.

Featurette - Continuity Compilation

     A 6:16collection of continuity voice overs, announced over credits and BBC logos, from each of the times the BBC have broadcast Genesis of the Daleks. This is mostly filler until the last few that feature Daleks shaped like the number 2 rolling around a soundstage that were used for the most recent Doctor Who screenings on BBC 2.

Featurette - Blue Peter: Collection of Doctor Who models

     A 7:13 minute excerpt from a fairly old episode of the BBC children's television variety show Blue Peter about a large number of Doctor Who and assorted other science fiction models that had been built by a teenage viewer with far too much time on his hands.

Gallery-Photo

     A 7:57 minute photo gallery that features a wide assortment of on-set and publicity shots from the story.

DVD-ROM Extras - Radio Times Billings: Illustrations, Articles and Listings

     A 9 page PDF document that collates a variety of clippings about the episodes from the Radio Times (Britain's equivalent to the TV Guide) when the episodes first aired. Interesting archival material.

DVD-ROM Extras - The Doctor Who Annual 1976

     A 59 page high resolution PDF of the entire 1976 Doctor Who annual. This is one of the best DVD ROM extras I have come across. Packed with short stories, illustrations and comics. A great piece of nostalgia.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     An identical package is available in both Region 1 and Region 2, although Region 1 is NTSC formatted. Choose the local version for its original PAL format.

Summary

     Possibly the greatest Doctor Who adventure has been given a high quality restoration and DVD transfer along with an excellent package of extras. The original image suffers many video faults associated with video of its age and there is an occasional distortion issue with the sound, but neither of these faults significantly detract from the overall package. I highly recommend the Genesis of the Daleks DVD set.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Adam Gould (Totally Biolicious!)
Monday, August 14, 2006
Review Equipment
DVDLG V8824W, using S-Video output
DisplayLG 80cm 4x3 CRT. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderPioneer VSX-D512. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-D512
Speakers150W DTX front speakers, and a 100W centre and 2 surrounds, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub

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