Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks

4th Doctor Novelisation

By: Terrance Dicks

Narrated by: Jon Culshaw, Nicholas Briggs

Jon Culshaw reads this exciting classic novelisation of a Fourth Doctor TV adventure, featuring the first appearance of the Daleks’ creator, Davros.

“Attention to detail is the hallmark of this always excellent range” Doctor Who Magazine

The place: Skaro
Time: The Birth of the Daleks

After a thousand years of futile war against the Thals, the scientist Davros has perfected the physical form that will carry his race into eternity: the dreaded Dalek. Without feeling, conscience or pity, the Dalek is programmed to exterminate all lifeforms it deems inferior.

At the command of the Time Lords, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry travel back through time in an effort to totally destroy this terrible menace of the future. But as events spiral out of control in horrific ways, it becomes clear that even the Doctor cannot always win...

Jon Culshaw reads Terrance Dicks’s complete and unabridged novelisation, based upon the 1975 TV serial by Terry Nation, first published by Target Books in 1976.

Critic reviews

BBC Audio's team gives these releases a hallmark of quality

Back to the Beginning!

"Genesis of the Daleks" is a classic Doctor Who story from 1975 and the Target novelisation was a reasonably straight forward adaption of that story, written by Terrance Dicks who could almost churn out Doctor Who Target novelisations in his sleep! This audiobook version is narrated excellently by John Culshaw with Nicholas Briggs voicing the Daleks/Davros.

The Fourth Doctor and his two companions, Sarah-Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are on Skaro. The Time Lords have a mission for The Doctor, destroy the Daleks at birth and the Universe will be a better place in the future. A simple mission in theory, right? Enter Davros, the creator of the Daleks... and The Doctor has met his match. "Genesis of the Daleks" is a Doctor Who story that is basically a battle between good and evil, but the lines between them are sometimes blurred. So to complete his mission from the Time Lords The Doctor will have to face the ultimate moral dilemma, to commit genocide, or not?! This is one of the best Dalek stories ever, even though they don't feature too much in the early part of the story.

Jon Culshaw makes "Genesis of the Daleks" an entertaining story to revisit as his Tom Baker voice is as good as it gets. A 'dead ringer' if you like! ;-) You can almost hear the Fourth Doctor when he speaks. The story itself is as enjoyable now on audio as it was on the TV all those years ago. So I highly recommended this as a great Doctor Who audiobook to listen to. For me, it is a classic Doctor Who story from the 'classic era' of the TV show.