The Randomizer: Genesis of the Daleks

Genesis of the Daleks is really very good. I mean, I knew it was a classic, but somehow it wasn't on my mental radar in the way some of the more typical Phillip Hinchcliffe productions like Pyramids of Mars were. This is possibly because its a strangely rambling story that succeeds in spite of its structure, where the Gothic horror style tales that typify Hinchcliffe's time are often quite enclosed with a small cast and claustrophobic locations.

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This is an ambitious story, imagined on a large scale (which the production almost rises to, give or take the giant clams and the fact there are, apparently, no female kaleds). It's nothing like the later Baker stories for which the era is famous and is, perhaps, more like the later Pertwee era stories which often had an interest in the rise, fall and interaction of civilisations and empires. It really shouldn't work given the way it rambles all over the place, and the ending in which it is unclear if the Doctor has achieved anything much at all, but somehow it does.