In part 1 the Doctor recorded his memories of the Time Lords sending him and his companions to the very genesis of the Dalek race. His mission was to delay or destroy them at birth. But this was a dangerous mission. Skaro was a world lain to waste due to a 1000 year endless war.
Caught in the middle of a fire fight between the Thals and the Kaleds, the Doctor and Harry Sullivan are taken into the Kaled’s bunker and interrogated. They attempt an escape but are thwarted by a particularly ruthless Security Commander called Nyder. Meanwhile, Sarah Jane Smith has been left alone, unconscious, and with no knowledge where her companions have gone.
The following record is taken from Sarah Jane Smith’s personal archive, and reveals what happens next to this young reporter, caught up in the Doctor’s mission from the Time Lords.
Sarah Jane Smith – Archival Record 0495.C
Little did I realise the danger that the Doctor had brought us into this time. First, we had fought strange giant insect-like creatures on a futuristic space station, then potato-headed aliens on a near-abandoned Earth. Now, instead of arriving back at the station and to the safety of the TARDIS, we ended up somewhere else entirely, this time in the middle of a warzone.
For a moment we were all reunited but it didn’t last long. We were attacked and I fell unconscious. The next thing I knew I was wandering aimlessly amongst the wastelands of the battlefield. Soon enough, I realised that I was being followed. I ran, then, I stumbled and came across a crumbling structure that had been bombed to near-oblivion. Inside, I observed a crippled man, his skin distorted and his body malformed. It appeared that he was unable to speak without the assistance of technology. He sat inside some kind of mobile chair which he controlled with a wizened hand.
Standing near him was another man in some kind of military uniform. He was setting up several man-shaped targets in the corner of the ruined building. I listened carefully and picked up their names. The crippled man was called Davros, his assistant Gharman. But then I realised that there was someone else, or something else with them. I observed as Davros flicked a switch on his chair and a familiar shape emerged out of the shadows.
I held back a scream: it was a Dalek!
Davros ordered the Dalek to fire at the targets. I felt a shiver run up my spine as he uttered the word “Exterminate!” I had heard that word before when I encountered the Daleks on the planet Exxilon. That was not a pleasant memory.
I’m unsure what to do now. I’m alone on a battlefield somewhere and there are Daleks here. I don’t have to wonder for long. The creatures who were following me before have caught up with me. They surround me and knock me unconscious.
I wake up sometime later, feeling awful. There I discovered that it was a so-called ‘Muto’ (short for mutated I presume), who took me prisoner. His name is Sevrin and he apparently fought with another Muto to protect me from harm. However, we were then all captured by a Thal patrol.
The Thals, I learn from Sevrin, are fighting an everlasting war against their enemies the Kaleds. It was in their region of the battlefield that I had been found, suggesting that the Doctor and Harry were probably captured by the Kaleds. They might be the lucky ones. The Thals are warlike brutes and completely unsympathetic to the plight of the Mutos, of which at least Sevrin seems friendly. They immediately put us to work as slave labourers in a highly irradiated area of their dome housing a giant rocket. Our task is to pack the nose cone with something called distronic explosives.
It seems that the Thals are placing all their hope (and resources) into this rocket, intending it as a final solution to destroy the Kaleds entirely. If you ask me, they are talking about nothing less than genocide, and at worst mutual annihilation.
When we are finally given a rest break, exhausted from the work but also feeling ill effects from the distronic toxaemia, I try to convince the other captured Mutos and Kaleds to attempt an escape before we all become too weak. Most of them are already broken and resigned to their lot, but my words seem to have enough effect to convince them to try.
We overpower the guard. We then rush over to the scaffolding holding up the rocket and start to climb. It’s harder than I thought. I’m tired and ill, each rung is hard for me to reach. I begin to feel dizzy. But I know that I must continue or I’m dead. Suddenly I hear shots being fired at us; several of the Mutos fall. Momentarily I freeze. Sevrin tries to help me, but before he can help, I slip and fall…
Notes
This account records events from “Genesis of the Daleks” Part 2. This is the fourth serial from series 12 of the classic Doctor Who series.
This story continues immediately from the two previous serials, “The Ark in Space” and “The Sontaran Experiment” which saw the Doctor, Harry, and Sarah on board a colony ship heading to a rejuvenated, but mostly empty, Earth. To help the colonists the Doctor agreed to use their transmat beam to repair the receiving system on the Earth. After an encounter with some Sontaran’s he is successful in this mission, but then the Time Lords redirect the returning beam to ancient Skaro.
This is not the first time that Sarah Jane Smith has encountered Daleks. She previously met them in “Death to the Daleks” with the Third Doctor.
Whilst Sarah Jane Smith is a captive the lead scientist explains to the Doctor and Harry that the Daleks are genetically created creatures, experiments based on Kaled DNA. The machine casing is needed for them to survive outside the incubation room and to enable them to move around. However, Davros has also altered the research to make the ‘new Kaleds’ immoral creatures.