MR 48 Davros (Lance Parkin)

I love it. Disquieting. Complex. I think it manages to be genuinely clever on a multitude of levels both within its own framework and outside of it.

It does that wonderful thing that a lot of Lance Parkin stories tend to do. Continuity is used strategically to bolster up not only its own storytelling, but that of the stories surrounding it. Little touches for the larger pattern. Knowing the significance of Shan, for instance, puts the one-sided affections of Tasembeker towards Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks in an entirely new light. It's not just sadism on Davros's part, although that's certainly part of it. It's also a way for him to exorcise any doubt he had about the Terry Nation to his Raymond Cusick. Banish that spectre. The food production methods on Skaro also prefigure some rather nasty developments at Tranquil Repose and the commission from TAI explains, rather naturally, the Great Healer's state of affairs on Necros.

It also has quite a number of things to say in its own right, too. It's difficult picking a stand out moment for Terry Molloy because there are so many. There's that fatal moment at the very beginning, Davros's description of his 90-year conscious imprisonment between Destiny and Resurrection, but my favourite has to be the moment where he explains to Kim why he laughs. We get it all the time with villains. The diabolical giggle when all is going to plan. It's so much more chilling to hear the context behind it. He laughs, he says, because he finds it all so easy. As an unusually quiet, yet earnest Doctor says:
Between this, The Juggernauts and The Curse of Davros, I tend to put the banter between the Sixth Doctor and Davros up there with the classic "First Doctor vs. Daleks", "Second Doctor vs. Cybermen", "Third Doctor vs. Master" dynamics. Both Colin Baker and Terry Molloy really make it their own.

A cool and compelling meditation on not just the nature of evil in a Doctor Who villain, but also what sustains it.

Hello everyone!

Here's my review on 'Davros' - bradleybasement.wordpress.com/sci-fi/doctor-who/doctor-who-timelines/the-doctors-timelines-index/the-sixth-doctors-timeline/davros-audio/

Enjoy!

Tim.

I do like this revisit of past releases, so Davros has now been added to the app for another listen.

This was a weird story, and I'm not sure how I'd rate it relative to the others in the trilogy--I think I liked the Master one more, but I'd need a Realisten to say for sure. That said, I definitely agree that Davros really shines here, on his own, in a scenario where we don't also have to deal with the Daleks. I've always felt that was a weird pairing: once the Daleks exist, Davros is obsolete. It maybe makes sense for the Daleks to venerate Davros as their creator, but it doesn't make much sense for me that they'd want to keep him around.

Honestly I think Davros would be a more compelling character were he constrained to a single human lifetime, but the great weakness of Doctor Who is that that continuity of the franchise can never allow time to pass in any meaningful way: every enemy must be immortal, always ready to pop up in new stories, and--like the Doctor--can never die.

All of which may sound like a digression, but this story made me imagine an alternate version of the franchise, where stories were written more with an eye toward realism than perpetual serialization. A universe where Davros' might be permitted to be born, to live, and to die. Where we might see a genuine character arc for Davros, unleashing an unholy terror upon the universe, forced to reconcile with the outcome of his actions and his responsibilities to the universe, and perhaps one day honestly seek to make amends. A Davros who, on his deathbed, might denounce the Daleks, and somehow function as something other than the mustache-twirling cartoon villain he usually is.

And yeah, I know: I have a bad habit of hoping for the impossible. But that's just how things roll sometimes, right?

All that said, I want to especially praise this story for its pacing and tension. I don't normally pay attention to writers' names (they have to really impress me), so I don't know whether or not this is a common trait of Molloy's work, but in this case at least it made for some very engaging adventure storytelling. And, as-always, Colon Baker does an absolute bang-up job.

One thing I'm curious about, though--and maybe this is just an idle, pointless thought--is how this story might slot into the larger, mostly nonsensical continuity. As I recall, this story takes place in relatively "early years" for Davros--presumably before he/the Daleks achieved time travel tech and the whole timeline turned to mush. At this point in time, the Daleks would be a relatively new threat... so does this story occur near or at about the same point in time as The Davros Mission story included in the I, Davros set?