Like any iconic science fiction franchise, Doctor Whohas developed certain traits that make it stand out from the pack. The Doctor often travels through time and space in the TARDIS, encountering alien forces along the way. More often than not, a series of companions will join the Doctor and find their lives irrevocably changed. Every so often, the Doctor will regenerate into a new form, giving a new actor the chance to put their mark on the iconic character. But the best part of Doctor Who was established with five words in the iconic episode, “Genesis of the Daleks.”
In “Genesis of the Daleks,” the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) is charged by the Time Lords to travel to the home planet of his most nefarious foes, the Daleks, and wipe them out of existence. This leads to a tense moment between the Fourth Doctor and his companion, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), after he rigs the Daleks’ incubation room with explosives; hesitating before he can touch together a set of wires and set off the explosions, the Doctor asks Sarah Jane, “Do I have the right?” In a single sentence, Doctor Who added a new layer of meaning to its story and its protagonist.
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‘Genesis of the Daleks’ Established The Doctor’s Morality
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) meets Davros in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ (Doctor Who)Image via BBC
“Genesis of the Daleks” stands out as one of the most morally complex episodes of Doctor Who, especially when it comes to the Daleks. While previous episodes of Doctor Who established them as some of the most evil beings in the universe, “Genesis of the Daleks” shows that their creator, Davros, designed them to be weapons of war. There’s also the revelation that their home planet Skaro was ravaged by civil war, leading to the acceleration of the Daleks’ creation. Even the Doctor doesn’t escape unscathed; after seeing the horror Davros is capable of, he decides to set off the explosives… but is beaten to the punch as one Dalek accidentally triggers them and buries his future enemy in a cave. “Genesis of the Daleks” is the kind of sci-fi story that lingers with you long after its credits roll, and that’s an approach that was needed for such a heavy topic.
With the “Do I have the right?” speech, “Genesis of the Daleks” also underlined that the Doctor seeks a peaceful resolution to his conflicts. Throughout his discussion with Sarah Jane, the Doctor argues that if he triggers the explosives and kills the Daleks, he’d be participating in the same kind of evil that they’ll eventually embrace. It also draws a hard line between the Doctor and the rest of the Time Lords, showcasing that he chooses to embrace pacifism while they’re willing to solve the problems facing the universe by any means necessary. Whether it’s his sonic screwdriver, psychic paper, or quick thinking, the Doctor will find a way to save everyone he can.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like? Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky
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Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🏜️Paul Atreides
🖖Capt. Kirk
✊Princess Leia
🔦Ellen Ripley
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🔥Max Rockatansky
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01
How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher? The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.
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02
What is your greatest strength in a crisis? The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.
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03
What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for? Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.
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04
How do you relate to the people around you? Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.
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05
You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do? How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.
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06
What has your heroism cost you personally? Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.
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07
How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in? Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?
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08
When everything is on the line, what keeps you going? The answer is the most honest thing about you.
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Your Hero Has Been Identified Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…
Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
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Arrakis · Dune
Paul Atreides
You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.
You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.
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USS Enterprise · Star Trek
Captain Kirk
You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.
You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.
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The Rebellion · Star Wars
Princess Leia
You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.
You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.
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The Nostromo · Alien
Ellen Ripley
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.
You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.
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The Wasteland · Mad Max
Max Rockatansky
You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.
You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
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The ‘Doctor Who’ Revival Reshaped The Doctor’s Rivalry with the Daleks
The fallout of “Genesis of the Daleks” continued to affect Doctor Who, especially in the second series that started airing in 2005. During the episode “Dalek,” it’s revealed that Christopher Eccleston‘s Ninth Doctoris the last survivor of the “Time War,” which saw the entirety of the Daleks and the Time Lords wiped out. Therefore, the Doctor is horrified to discover that a lone Dalek survivedand wants it destroyed; only after Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) touches the Dalek does it show a measure of mercy and winds up killing itself. Writer Rob Shearman said that he and showrunner Russell T. Davies wanted to deliver an emotional hour of television:
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“Russell wanted to make it an emotional episode, something that doesn’t rely on people running down corridors…I decided to take all those things people find funny about the Daleks and turn them into something people would find memorable. This is also the first time we’ll see inside the Dalek.”
The two-parter “The Magician’s Apprentice” and “The Witch’s Familiar” takes things one step further with Peter Capaldi‘s Twelfth Doctor encountering a younger version of Davros, and subsequently abandoning him; the guilt starts to eat at the Doctor once he learns Davros is dying. In both of these cases, Doctor Who showcases how the Doctor has changed over the years, but his questioning of whether he has the right to wipe out an entire race has shaped his actions.
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Release Date
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2005 – 2022-00-00
Network
BBC
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Directors
Graeme Harper, Euros Lyn, Douglas Mackinnon, Jamie Magnus Stone, Charles Palmer, Rachel Talalay, Joe Ahearne, James Strong, Jamie Childs, Saul Metzstein, Toby Haynes, Wayne Che Yip, Nick Hurran, Richard Clark, James Hawes, Daniel Nettheim, Colin Teague, Keith Boak, Azhur Saleem, Adam Smith, Andrew Gunn, Nida Manzoor, Lawrence Gough, Paul Murphy
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