“Do I have the right?”
The first season of Tom Baker’s iconic run on Doctor Who is coming to Blu-ray June 19, as previously reported here — but in theaters June 11, you can catch one of that era’s defining episodes on the big screen in a new director’s cut.
“Genesis of the Daleks” is coming to cinemas via Fathom Events — get all the details and find a screening near you here. The 1975 six-episode story introduced the Daleks’ cunning creator, Davros, who went on to recur as a villain throughout the rest of Doctor Who’s original TV run up to its end in the late 1980s and returned to bedevil the Doctor in the show’s current run that started in 2005.
The presentation will also include a new interview with Baker.
Also starring Elisabeth Sladen and Ian Marter as the Doctor’s loyal companions, journalist Sarah Jane Smith and U.N.I.T. physician Harry Sullivan, as well as Michael Wisher as the mad scientist Davros and Peter Miles as his Nazi-like stooge, Nyder, “Genesis of the Daleks” is notable not just for redefining the Daleks and depicting their creator as well as the chilling moment of their creation on the war-torn planet Skaro, but also for the moral quandary the Doctor faces when presented with an opportunity to wipe out the destructive mutant cyborgs before they can begin to terrorize the universe. It’s a concept so core to Doctor Who that the series recently revisited it with an agonizing twist during Peter Capaldi’s tenure in the TARDIS.
In hindsight, when viewed through the lens of the modern series’ storylines, the Doctor’s mission for the Time Lords in “Genesis of the Daleks” can even be seen as an opening salvo in the epic Time War that would later rage across the universe between Skaro and Gallifey.
But even after all these years, it’s safe to say Baker’s speech as the Fourth Doctor, lamenting the terrible choice he faces with the lives of the young Daleks placed in his hands, is one of the British science fiction series’ most powerful and iconic moments. Don’t miss your chance to catch it on the big screen.
