Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor's 15 Greatest Stories

2. Genesis Of The Daleks

Do I have the right? Simply touch one wire against the other, and that's it? The Daleks cease to exist? Hundreds of millions of people, thousands of generations, can live without fear, in peace, and never even know the word "Dalek"?

The greatest Dalek story ever told, Tom Baker's third story went back to the very origins of his greatest enemy. It is a finely crafted, dark tale of morality, war fare and posed the question, if you could go back and kill Hitler - would you? Instead of Hitler, Genesis of the Daleks introduced Davros, a criminal mastermind renowned for creating the almighty enemy race. Michael Wisher is phenomenal here as Davros. Cruel, merciless and cunning, he tortures the Doctor's companions to extract the secrets of the Doctor's mind. Davros not only obliterates his enemies, the Thals, but commits genocide against his own people just to ensure victory. He is the greatest match for the Doctor but the real tragedy is our hero being unable to complete his mission, killing Davros and destroy the Daleks even when he has the chance. At this stage, genocide of another race - even one as heinous as the Daleks - is ultimately a step too far. If there was any doubt about how good Tom Baker's Doctor could be, this story proved that he was more than capable of delivering. A six part episode where not one single moment is wasted.