TV Review | Doctor Who: "Destination: Skaro" [2023 Children in Need Special] by Russell T Davies

Russell T Davies has been back at the helm of the TARDIS for five minutes (well, 4:54, to be precise) and already the show is bursting with the heart, humour and intrigue that defined his original tenure. The show’s 2023 Children in Need special, untitled on screen but widely referred to as “Destination: Skaro” in various social media posts, serves as a delectable entrée to the three-course meal of specials that are about to be served up.

Paying homage to the fan-favourite 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks, “Destination: Skaro” sees David Tennant’s new Doctor crash-land on Skaro some time prior to Tom Baker’s Doctor’s notorious meddling in the planet’s history, at a point when Davros’s prototype Mark III Travel Machine has just rolled off the production line. Davies’ wry script delights in poking fun at the ridiculousness of the Daleks’ anagrammatic nomenclature and infamous sink-plunger appendages, while also treating long-standing viewers to some unashamedly nostalgic Easter eggs such as Peter Miles’ reprising the role of Nyder from Genesis.

Tennant is instantly back to his exuberant best, almost literally bouncing off Mawaan Rizwan’s (Sex Education) confused Kaled scientist to superb comic effect. It is another Kaled scientist, though, that is the skit’s main talking point: Davros, soon-to-be creator of the Daleks. Whilst Big Finish audio dramas have explored Davros’s life prior to the incident that left him disfigured and disabled, all we have seen of that life on screen is the few moments from his childhood that formed part of Steven Moffat’s “The Magician’s Apprentice” / “The Witch’s Familiar” two-parter back in 2015. “Destination: Skaro”, inventively, gives Julian Bleach the opportunity to portray the megalomaniacal scientist - this time without the straitjacket of prosthetics. This, in of itself, makes this little charity special a real treat.

Like many viewers, my thoughts as I watched this minisode were simply that its events must have taken place prior to Davros’s life-changing injuries; however, those who tuned into the series’ new companion show, Doctor Who Unleashed, as I did, will have learned there was more to this than merely giving long-standing fans an illicit thrill. Keen to right a wrong that has persisted since the earliest days of theatre in which the disabled and/or disfigured are often portrayed as villains, Davies has taken the bold decision to no longer depict Davros as a “wheelchair user”. Whilst personally I have never heard anyone refer to the self-styled “Lord and Creator of the Daleks” as a wheelchair user – “Half-man, half-Dalek” seems to be the phrase ubiquitously thrown around by casual viewers, and, truth be told, by the late ’80s Davros wasn’t much more than a head – I have to admire the boldness of Davies’ conviction and, once again, his incredible vision for what Doctor Who can and should be.

That distinctive Davros silhouette, perhaps used most effectively in Davies’ own “The Stolen Earth” fifteen years ago, has been a cornerstone of the show’s mythology for almost fifty years, and as a result there won’t be many honest fans out there that won’t lament its loss going forward. However, most of us will readily admit that Davros’s disabilities have always been superficial – he was designed to be deliberately monstrous for no reasons other than tradition and cliché. Lance Parkin’s seminal twenty-year-old, eponymous audio play even went so far as to describe Davros’s injuries as being “the least of his problems”, or words to that effect, yet they have had a massive impact on how performers have been able to play him. With actors’ reduced to near immobility and unable to use anything but the most extreme of facial expressions, in the past the role of Davros has been almost entirely vocal. Terry Molloy in particular made an art of channelling everything through his voice, imbuing Davros with a distinctive brand of hysterical mania that, for decades, has been as defining as Darth Vader’s mechanical breath. Now, all of a sudden, Bleach has been given the opportunity to use all the tools at his disposal to take a fifty-year-old character somewhere new and potentially groundbreaking – and there’s nothing more Who than that.

Times change, and time can be rewritten. Doctor Who has reached the sixty-year mark because of its adaptability, not in spite of it. The series’ ability to stay relevant in an ever-changing world remains one of its core strengths. “Destination: Skaro” may ultimately prove to be nothing more than an interesting footnote on Davros’s Wikipedia page; a statement of intent from a returning showrunner. I hope, though, that it’s the shadow of many a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey Skarosian adventure to come – adventures that could see the Doctor and Davros finally go toe-to-toe.

“Destination: Skaro” is available to stream on iPlayer, home of the entire Whoniverse. Well, nearly.

I, Davros and Doctor Who: Davros are available to download from Big Finish Productions for £12.99 and £2.99 respectively.