Day 395: Genesis of the Daleks Part 4

The underlying theme of this story is one of preventing a great horror. The Time Lords have seen that the Daleks will become far more evil and have thus decided to send the Doctor to either destroy them or introduce a weakness to be exploited in the future. This is a remarkably interesting move, as it portrays the Time Lords as uncharacteristically willing to change the course of history. Granted, they have done this sort of thing before in the Pertwee era, but never on this scale. This is the dark side of the Time Lords, the side where they are willing to use their god-like powers for the benefit of what they see as right.

The move is also rather interesting as it allows the series to play with the concept of time travel. Now more than ever we are confronted with the fact that time can be rewritten, for better or for worse. Indeed the cliffhanger to this episode is Davros forcing the Doctor to tell him of every single Dalek defeat, so as to prevent future Dalek defeats. Other cliffhangers feature the Doctor in danger, or a significant plot element being revealed. This time, it's history that's in danger, and the Doctor is powerless to stop it.