the Dalek
Chronicles:
Genesis of Evil
2009
Altered Vistas
are a fan production team, centred around Stuart Palmer, who
have been
producing animated adaptations of classic Doctor Who-related comic
strips for several years now. These productions, created using up-to-date
rendering and animation software, are provided free of charge to anyone
who requests them. These productions are made out of affection for the
original strips, but the time and effort that must be put into them, and
the quality of the finished product, is quite easily of a professional
standard.
The main focus
of the productions is the ongoing Dalek comic strip serial, originally
printed in TV Century 21 in the 1960s, and later reprinted in
Doctor Who Weekly in the early 80s. Collectively known to fans as ‘The
Dalek Chronicles’, these strips, written by David Whitaker based on Terry
Nation’s original concepts, charted the history of the Daleks, from their
creation thousands of years ago, to the point where they were just gearing
up to invade the Earth (as seen in the classic serial The Dalek
Invasion of Earth). Genesis of Evil is the first instalment in
this series, and it provides a rather different version of events than
those described in The Daleks or seen in Genesis of the Daleks.
Genesis of Evil
begins with a swift prologue describing the terrible world of Skaro, “deep
in hyperspace,”, and its inhabitants, the Thals and the Daleks (not Kaleds!
Not Dals!) Providing a sterling message of tolerance to impressionable
minds of the 1960s, the Thals are described as beautiful and therefore
peaceful, while the Daleks are ugly, and thus vicious and evil. To be
fair, these humanoid Daleks aren’t really ugly at all; they’re just blue.
But they certainly seem to be a nasty lot; with the exception of wise
leader Drenz, they seem committed to the annihilation of the Thals.
The tale is told
in a rather odd way. We never see the Thals, only hear the Daleks talk
about wiping them out. War Minister Zolfian, a thoroughly nasty piece of
work, sets about his final solution, stockpiling neutron weapon material,
while his right hand man, Yarvelling, builds a force of war machines, with
a rather familiar look about them. unfortunately for them, a meteorite
strike causes the neutron store to explode, wiping out all Dalek
civilisation on the continent of Darren (snigger). Only Yarvelling and
Zolfian survive intact, hiding in a cupboard for two years.
Yet, we discover
there are other survivors – mutated creatures, described as “all brain,”
who are now using the war machines as life support carriers. The Daleks as
we know them are born. Once they’ve made their presence known, they
immediately decide they must conquer the universe, for some reason. What
else would we expect?
It’s pulpy, it’s
silly, the dialogue is terribly over the top and none of it makes too much
sense
if you look
closely at it. Which is just how we like it. A full adaptation only runs
about twenty minutes, making this a fun, diverting piece of space
melodrama. The best feature is the Emperor, a Dalek who takes control and
gets himself decked out in a special gold casing with a massive head and
six Dalek light bulbs, instead of the requisite two. He was clearly the
inspiration for the similarly bulbous Davros Emperor Dalek seen in
Remembrance of
the Daleks
twenty-five years later.
Altered Vistas
have done a marvellous job in recreating this story. This story formed the
basis of their first release, but has now been recreated from scratch,
with greatly improved animation and rendering. The original version was a
fairly static affair, more like a partly animated comic strip, whereas the
AV20 version is a fluid, striking animation. The performances are suitably
over the top, and the Dalek machine voice are excellent. The new release
also comes with several special features, including a brief but
informative documen-tary on the original TV Century 21 comic, and a
look at the era of the Dalek strips, high-lighting news coverage and chart
music of the time, as well, more importantly, what episode of Doctor
Who was currently on the telly. The release is rounded off with the
truly dreadful 1964 Go-Gos single I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With a
Dalek, which tells the familiar tale of a friendly Dalek who come
round for Christmas dinner. Fortunately, Altered Vistas have supplied an
amusing piss-take video to accompany it.
Other releases
in the series have included such features as filming at Doctor Who
exhibitions, overviews of creatures such as the Mechanoids and Cybermen,
reviews of classic Dalek comics, and, wonderfully, the heart-warmingly
twee Give-A-Show slide projection stories. Of the productions I’ve seen so
far, perhaps the best is AV19, Shadow of Humanity, in which a Dalek
rediscovers the love of beauty, leading to wonderfully surreal images of
flower-covered Daleks chanting “BEAUTY! BEAUTY!” and a truly trippy Dalek
dream sequence. Beyond the main Dalek Chronicles line, other productions
have included classic Doctor Who Weekly / Doctor Who Magazine
strips such as the Cyberman story Black Legacy, the Abslom Daak
stories and the cracking eighth Doctor strip Children of
the
Revolution, as well as a few non-comic productions, such as an
adaptation of the 1965 World Distributors novella Doctor Who and the
Invasion from Space, which clocks in at around seventy minutes!
Anyone with a
taste for nostalgia, or like me fancies a chance to see a part of
Doctor Who history that was long gone before their own time, should
really head over to the Altered Vistas website (link below) and
have a gander at their various treats.
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