Davros

Mega-conglomerate company TAI is known as the most agressive corporation in the known galaxies, controlling virtually every avenue of commerce and producing all manner of consumer goods. With Peri away on a botany seminar, the Doctor takes the time to investigate claims that TAI is engaged in shady business dealings, and finds instead that they now employ Davros on their technical products division. As the galaxy expands TAI aims to stay ahead of the demand for new products and with Davros on board they feel that they have the edge over the competition. The Doctor does not for one moment believe that Davros has any intentions of helping and becomes an employee of TAI himself to keep an eye on him, buy are his suspicions warranted, or has Davros indeed turned over a new leaf?

This is an incredible story. Second in the villains series this story not only picks up where Resurrection of the Daleks left off but also flashes back into the past before Davros began his work at creating the Daleks, back to when he was a normal man, an ambitious scientist on a planet being ravaged by war. Davros does not immediately understand the circumstances he finds himself in; he is 90 years out of his time and light years away from Skaro where industry was always geared towards war, so the concepts of stock markets, commodities and volatile futures are new to him. But there is one constant he recognizes: the power that comes from controlling everything. Aided by the naive Lorraine Baynes (played by Wendy Padbury - our own Zoe!) Davros explores the new world around him and relalizes that he doesn't need a Dalek army to reign over this galaxy - he can get rich and buy it.

The interplay between the Doctor and Davros is fantastic, evoking the chemistry of Tom Baker's fourth Doctor and Michael Wisher's original Davros and expanding it further; you can feel that Colin Baker and Terry Molloy thoroughly enjoyed their roles as the Doctor and Davros, and the dialogue between them is superb. Nothing irritates Davros more than a clown, and he uses his leverage to convince his employers that the Doctor is a menace, and as nothing irks the Doctor more than abused authority, he strives to frustrate Davros even further. The pairing of the sixth Doctor and Davros is inspired here, and it is fitting that Colin Baker be given an incredible script like this to work with given how his Doctor was never given enough material to really develop and become a favourite while on television. If this sort of tale has been available back then, it's possible Colin Baker would have been allowed a much longer run as the Doctor.

The big question of Davros is this: can the most twisted scientist ever, the creator of the Daleks, change his ways and serve the greater good? The flashbacks to his time before being confined to his life support systems show him to be a man capable of emotion, a man like any other who wants the war on his world to end, so is it a stretch to believe he would regain that compassion and use his brilliance to ease the problem of famine on developing worlds, and create new tools to make the work of colonists and terraformers easier? Or is the Doctor right, and is Davros merely biding his time and waiting for the right opportunity to embark on a new reign of terror? We all know Davros just wouldn't be Davros without a death toll somewhere behind him. But hey he wouldn't have to work too hard to justify killing; if something gets in his way, he gets rid of it - lest we forget that he sold out the entire Kaled race to the Thals in the last days of the war to ensure that the Daleks would go on.

There has always been this big movement to go back to Daleks stories without Davros to do all the speaking for them; indeed with such a powerful central figure the Daleks fade away to mere set decorations. But rather than remove Davros, author Lance Parkin has taken away the Daleks and let the Davros character run away with itself. And the result is incredible. And the sheer length of the story is incredible as well: two 75 minute episodes, which makes the adventure longer than a six episode televised adventure. Brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant.

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