Davros, creator of the Daleks, shed his original form in 2023’s Children in Need special, being shown for the very first time without his chair or wrinkled skin. So does this mean that Davros as we know him will never return?
In Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary month, viewers were treated to a special minisode featuring one of the series’ most iconic villains, the Daleks. Titled ‘Destination: Skaro,’ this charity instalment was special in many ways, not least because it was the first to feature the Fourteenth Doctor David Tennant. It was also the first official Russell T Davies-penned Doctor Who episode since he left the show in 2009.
Moreover, ‘Destination: Skaro’ saw the return of the classic Doctor Who villain Davros, who hadn’t been seen on screen since 2015’s ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ and ‘The Witch’s Familiar.’ Davros, as many of you will know, is the creator of the Dalek race, and was introduced in the 1975 adventure ‘Genesis of the Daleks.’ In this particular story the mad scientist devises a way for his people to survive the long and bloody conflict with their sworn enemies the Thaals. He knows his people will ultimately mutate and will need a life support system to sustain them.
His solution is an armoured travel machine, a bit like a mobile tank, to contain the mutated creatures – and this, of course, is the familiar Dalek shape that we all know and fear.
Moreover, in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ Davros is depicted as someone who is reliant on his own motorised base (fitted with a life support system) in order to move around. His eyes appear to have been scratched away, and he only has the use of one hand. Over the years, this look has largely gone unchanged, although he did adopt an artificial hand after the events of ‘Revelation of the Daleks,’ where it was blown off in a gunfight.
However, ‘Destination: Skaro’ showed us a walking, chair-less Davros, free from his life support system. This was a radical departure, although the character was still played by Julian Bleach, who has portrayed Davros on-screen since 2008.
In the scene, Davros is finalising his plans for the Dalek shell, and it is stated that this moment truly is the genesis of the monsters’ creation. This suggests that the scene takes place close to the events of ‘Genesis of the Daleks’; after all, in that particular story, it is suggested that Davros has only recently completed the design of the Dalek case.
This causes something of a head-scratcher for Doctor Who canon as, obviously, the two Davroses are strikingly different in appearance. The Doctor himself addresses this conundrum by saying that “the timelines and canon are rupturing.” This could be a fancy way of saying “time can be rewritten,” as in, time is constantly in flux, and the smallest alterations to the timeline can have dramatic consequences. And one of these consequences may have been a sudden shift in Davros’ personal history.
Certainly, there is a potential explanation for this in previous episodes. 2021’s Doctor Who: Flux, for example, saw the destruction of a large portion of the universe, and this catastrophe was never resolved. The universe was never repaired.
(C) BBC
And yet, remarkably, events continued to play out as if nothing had ever happened. The universe had clearly been destroyed, and yet the Doctor and her friends (and enemies) were acting as if everything was fine. And in the episodes that followed, everything had the appearance of being fine, too. Something clearly wasn’t right.
So perhaps the dramatic shift in Davros’ appearance is a result of this. Indeed, Russell T Davies said in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine that: “The history of the Flux and the Timeless Child is dealt with very slightly in this episode to acknowledge the brilliant work Chris [Chibnall] did and to say that’s absolutely part of our history as well.”
But what of the real world explanation for the change in Davros’ appearance? “We had long conversations about bringing Davros back, because he’s a fantastic character,” said Davies in the first episode of Doctor Who Unleashed. “Time and society and culture and taste has moved on. And there’s a problem with the Davros of old in that he’s a wheelchair user, who is evil. And I had problems with that. And a lot of us on the production team had problems with that, of associating disability with evil. And trust me, there’s a very long tradition of this.”
And, presumably, this means that Davros’ traditional appearance will be retired and never again seen on our TV screens. From now on, Davros will be shown without his motorised chair.
It’s a big departure, but it’s not (quite) the first time it’s happened. Some of you will remember that a chair-less Davros appeared in ‘The Magician’s Apprentice’ and ‘The Witch’s Familiar’ when the Doctor encountered him on the battlefields of Skaro. But this occurrence required fewer ruptures to the timelines and canon, as it was a child Davros, long before he turned evil and developed a taste for unimaginable power and unlimited rice pudding, etcetera.
(C) BBC
But if the current appearance of Davros is making you dizzy with confusion, there is a simpler explanation which honours the established canon. Maybe Davros experienced some horrific accident in between ‘Destination: Skaro’ and ‘Genesis of the Daleks‘ which led to the loss of his eyes and the dependence on a motorised chair and life support system. Perhaps he carried out some kind of experiment on himself as he was developing his Kaled mutants and Dalek shells.
We may never know. But in the meantime, it seems clear that the Davros of old has been consigned to the history books.
How do you feel about this change of direction in Davros‘ appearance? And what do you think is the in-universe explanation for the shift? Let us know in the comments below.
The producers have said that having Davros shown without his chair was more appropriate in the modern age. Sounds like political correctness to me.
Part of Davros appeal is that he is the epitome of the twisted, evil, megalomaniac villain. Showing him as ‘normal’ is brave but ignores 50 years of the classic series.
The only thing it’s good for is possible prequel (to Genesis) episodes
One thing that puzzles me about this is that I thought they explored Davros’ backstory in Big Finish’s anthology “I, Davros”. So does any of that even matter now?
I’m also still split on the whole Flux/Division thing. An interesting concept, like The Timeless Child…but I don’t think the execution was the best in the show’s history personally. Loose ends are still hanging around untied for both these things, and while mystery is a great big part of Doctor Who, I personally also like to balance that out with some answers here and there.
The thing is Davros isn’t in a wheelchair, his lower body is inside a Dalek casing
Don’t like the change. Russel is wrong about wheelchairs! DON’T MESS WITH ESTABLISHED CHARACTERS!!!
I really enjoyed the Big Finish I Davros series of audios and as far as my personal Whoniverse is concerned Davros is essentially as he appears in Genesis.