Doctor Who: Every Dalek Story In The New Series Ranked WORST To BEST
3. The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar (2015)
One of the problems with Davros’s appearances in the classic series is that none of them were as good as his first.
After the renowned masterpiece that is Genesis of the Daleks, every other Dalek story up until the show’s cancellation felt they needed to include him, even if he added absolutely nothing by being there. By 1989, he just felt unnecessary.
The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End helped make him seem less irrelevant, but it was the Series 9 opener that really brought him back to his former glory.
The Twelfth Doctor meets a young Davros facing almost certain death on a battlefield and initially decides not to save him from his fate. The older Davros remembers this while on his deathbed and summons his old nemesis to Skaro to say goodbye.
The conversations between these two old men, both scarred by years of war and suffering, are some of the best exchanges between the Doctor and a villain ever seen.
Davros’s newfound compassion turns out to be a bluff, of course, but the final message on the power of mercy above all else is exactly the sort of kind thinking that Doctor Who is so good at promoting.