Davros is the evil genius Kaled scientist who created the Daleks. Born on the planet Skaro during a thousand-year war with the Thals, the crippled Davros created the Daleks as the next step in terms of the evolution of his people, the Kaleds. Davros and the Daleks have ultimately gone on to cause destruction and death across the universe. Davros programmed the fascistic Daleks to be motivated purely by hate and racial purity, making them the most evil creatures in existence. The Doctor, our hero in Doctor Who, has encountered Davros and his despicable creations, the Daleks many times throughout his lives. However, it turns out that the Fourteenth Doctor had a humorous hand in Davros’ creation of the Daleks. The Daleks were created by Terry Nation as an allegory for the Nazis and some fans have argued that Davros is also an allegory for Adolf Hitler. This is very apparent in Genesis of the Daleks, a story that contains overtones of Nazi Germany. Sadly, Trump’s America is the new Nazi Germany.

Genesis of the Daleks

★★★★★

TX: 08/03/1975 – 12/04/1975

Written by Terry Nation    Directed by David Maloney

The Time Lords send the Fourth Doctor, Sarah-Jane and Harry back in time to the planet Skaro in order to prevent the Daleks from ever being created. Skaro is at the end of a thousand-year war between the Kaleds and the Thals. It is a war of attrition and both sides have been reduced to the level of trench warfare. However, the evil Kaled scientist Davros has decided the fate for his own race. They will become mutants encased inside a Mark III Travel Machine, later known as a ‘Dalek’. Davros’s servant Nyder and the other Kaled security officials are based on SS Officers and the whole story is an allegory for Nazi Germany. Davros deliberately sacrifices his own people (by giving the Thals the formula to expose the Kaled city dome to their powerful rocket) thereby ending the war but also giving the perfect excuse to launch the Dalek programme. The Doctor realises that he needs to stop Davros. Steven Moffat revealed that the inspiration for Boom was from a scene in Genesis of the Daleks where the Fourth Doctor is standing on a landmine and he can’t move without Harry’s help.

However, Davros is a disabled genius and he realises that the Doctor and his companions are from the future. Davros interrogates the Doctor about future Dalek defeats, providing him with vital knowledge about how to make the Daleks invincible. The Doctor, Sarah-Jane and Harry escape and the Doctor rigs the Dalek incubation chamber to explode. But, at the final moment, the Doctor can’t bring himself to destroy the Daleks because he doesn’t feel that he has the right to commit genocide and therefore become no better than the Daleks themselves. The racist Daleks turn on Davros and apparently kill their creator, because they refuse to accept any being as being superior to them. The Doctor, Sarah-Jane and Harry leave using the time ring given to them by the Time Lords. The Doctor consoles them by saying that he has at the very least delayed the Daleks’ evolution by a few thousand years. The Daleks were created by Terry Nation as an allegory for the Nazis and some fans have argued that Davros is also an allegory for Adolf Hitler. This is very apparent in Genesis of the Daleks, a story that contains overtones of Nazi Germany. Sadly, Trump’s America is the new Nazi Germany.

Destiny of the Daleks

★★★☆☆

TX: 01/09/1979 – 22/09/1979

Written by Terry Nation    Directed by Ken Grieve

The Daleks return to their home planet of Skaro in order to find their creator, Davros. The Daleks need Davros’ help to win a war with the robotic Movellans, who, like the Daleks, are slaves to logic. The Daleks need Davros to reprogram their battle computers so that they can outmanoeuvre the Movellans. But the Fourth Doctor and the newly regenerated Romana intervene and show to the Movellans that their stalemate with the Daleks is never-ending because they are both logical. Davros orders a squad of suicide Daleks to destroy the Movellan ship on Skaro, but the Doctor detonates their explosives before they can reach the ship. Davros is captured by rebels and placed into suspended animation.

Resurrection of the Daleks

★★★★☆

TX: 08/02/1984 – 15/02/1984

Written by Eric Saward    Directed by Matthew Robinson

The Daleks have lost the war to the Movellans. The Movellans developed a virus that exclusively kills Daleks. The Daleks (with help from mercenaries like Lytton) now seek out Davros to find a cure. Lytton releases Davros from his prison and reveals to him the outcome of the Dalek-Movellan war. Outraged, Davros resolves to find a cure to the Movellan virus. Meanwhile, the Daleks make duplicates of the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough in order to send them to assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. The Doctor confronts Davros who deceives the Doctor into believing that he wants to reprogram the Daleks for good. Instead, Davros decides to wipe out the old Dalek order and create a new race of Daleks loyal to him. He releases a virus thinking himself immune to it, but this apparently kills him too, shortly before his ship explodes…

Revelation of the Daleks

★★★★★

TX: 23/03/1985 – 30/03/1985

Written by Eric Saward    Directed by Graeme Harper

On the funeral planet of Necros, the Sixth Doctor decides to visit his old friend Arthur Stengos with his friend Peri. However, all is not well at Tranquil Repose – the mortuary that stores corpses on the planet. Davros has installed himself as the Great Healer at the facility. However, two members of Davros’ staff plan to have him assassinated by Orcini and his squire Bostock. Orcini was excommunicated from the Grand Order of Oberon. The Doctor, Peri and two other intruders discover that Davros is turning the bodies of the recently and nearly deceased at Tranquil Repose into a new race of Daleks. However, the original Daleks arrive to take Davros back to Skaro against his will. Orcini and his squire Bostok sacrifice themselves to try and destroy Davros, leaving just enough time for the Doctor and his friends to escape. But Orcini detonates his bomb too late to stop Davros’ ship. Revelation of the Daleks is loosely based on The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh.

Remembrance of the Daleks

★★★★★

TX: 05/10/1988 – 26/10/1988

Written by Ben Aaronovitch    Directed by Andrew Morgan

A civil war has broken out on Skaro between two different Dalek factions: the Imperial Daleks loyal to the Dalek Emperor (Davros) and the Renegade Daleks. The battleground moves to London, Earth in 1963. The Seventh Doctor and Ace have arrived there too because the Doctor wants to trick Davros into obtaining an ancient Time Lord artefact called the Hand of Omega. This remote stellar manipulator has the ability to destroy suns. The Doctor reprogrammed the device so that when Davros and the Imperial Daleks use the Hand, it destroys Skaro’s sun, Skaro and also Davros’s ship.

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End

★★★★★

TX: 28/06/2008 – 05/07/2008

Written by Russell T Davies    Directed by Graeme Harper

The Daleks capture the Earth and 26 other planets in a pocket of time in the Medusa Cascade in order to create a wavelength to project Davros’ nightmarish latest invention: the reality bomb. This device cancels out the electrical field surrounding atoms causing the atomic structure of a particular being to fall apart. The net result of sending out this wavelength across the entire the cosmos will be the destruction of all reality itself. The Tenth Doctor and his many companions must stop the insane Davros from completing his diabolical plan.

After being taken prisoner onboard the Dalek Crucible one-by-one, the Doctor and his ‘Children of Time’ stand witness to Davros’ horrifying experiments. However, the Doctor’s companion Donna Noble has accidentally caused a meta-crisis by touching his hand in the jar inside the TARDIS, which was bursting with regeneration energy from the Doctor. The meta-crisis makes Donna into a genius and she and the Duplicate Doctor (created by the meta-crisis) use the Dalek ship controls to thwart Davros’ plan, send 26 of the 27 stolen planets back home and to destroy the Daleks. The Dalek Crucible disintegrates. The Crucible is similar to the Death Star in Star Wars. The Doctor and his many companions tow the Earth back home through the use of the TARDIS. After saying goodbye to his other companions, the Doctor has to take the power out of Donna Noble by sadly wiping her memory of all of their adventures together.

The Magician’s Apprentice/The Witch’s Familiar

★★★★★

TX: 19/09/2015 – 26/09/2015

Written by Steven Moffat    Directed by Hettie MacDonald

Davros’ agent, Colony Sarff kidnaps the Doctor, his companion Clara, the TARDIS and the Master (Missy) and takes them to Skaro, the home-world of the Daleks. Davros talks to the Doctor about his philosophy and about their first meeting when Davros was a child. Meanwhile, Clara and Missy (who have both survived extermination) navigate their way through the Dalek city thanks to Missy disguising Clara as a Dalek. The dying Davros tricks the Doctor into believing that he has a better side and out of compassion, the Doctor unknowingly helps Davros by pouring regeneration energy into the Dalek race through Davros’ life support cables, making them invincible. Missy arrives, kills Sarff and rescues the Doctor in the nick of time and the time travellers make their escape after Missy pokes Davros in the eye. The regeneration energy also poured into the insane Daleks that were disposed of in the sewers beneath the Dalek city, which Missy and Clara made their way through. The regenerating insane Daleks attack the Dalek city causing a civil war. In the ensuing destruction, the Doctor and Clara escape in the TARDIS whilst Missy is captured by the Daleks. The Doctor notes (after a trick played by Missy, into trying to make him kill Clara encased in a Dalek) that the word ‘mercy’ was programmed into the vocabulary of the Daleks. The Doctor travels back in time to save a young Davros from the handmines on the battleground of the Kaled-Thal War on Skaro, thereby teaching him an important lesson about mercy for the future. In the 2023 Children in Need sketch starring David Tennant, which served as a prequel to Genesis of the Daleks, Davros (Julian Bleach) appeared outside his wheelchair for the first time onscreen. Russell T Davies successfully removed the trope of sci fi villains being disabled, which is unfortunately a stereotype that Davros also fell into when the character was created way back in 1975.