| “ | To hold in my hand, a capsule that contained such power. To know that life and death on such a scale was my choice. To know that the tiny pressure on my thumb, enough to break the glass, would end everything. Yes! I would do it! That power would set me up above the gods! And through the Daleks, I! Shall! Have! That! Power! | „ |
| ~ Davros |
Davros is one of the main antagonists in the Doctor Who television series, and is responsible for the creation of the Daleks, the single most recurring and dangerous of the Doctor's many enemies. Despite having been killed many times, he always returns leading some to believe he is immortal, which he has claimed to be.
He is played by Michael Wisher in 1975, David Gooderson in 1979, Terry Molloy from 1984 to 1988 by Julian Bleach in 2008 and 2015.
Personality
Davros suffered from megalomania and narcissistic personality disorder, bordering on psychopathy and was an omnicidal maniac.
However, despite this, he also possesses a sympathetic side born a child in a thousand year war on the planet Skaro against the Kaleds and the Thals and then being dangerously crippled, leaving him with barely any of his original self and witnessed his mother murder his father, sister and aunt before using her dead body as scientific research. As a child Davros was extremely determined and followed his dream to become a scientist despite all of his ancestors becoming a solider, while other people feared him, his mother was the only person who believed in him. Davros was a militaristic genius and the chief in charge of designing weaponry and gadgets for the Kaleds and then was able to build a life support for himself after he was wounded by a Thal bombardment.
Even before his descent into madness, Davros was a clear-cut egomaniac, experimenting on living organisms and then teaching them to speak his name. After he did lose whatever remained of his sanity Davros' narcissistic tendencies became even more noticeable, believing that the Reality Bomb was the "apotheosis of (his) genius" and an entire empire of Daleks praising his name only fed his already superego. Davros showed a level of respect for the Fourth Doctor however this did not stop him from ignoring his pleas to make the Daleks a peaceful race. In a way what Davros considered to be a strength also proved to be a downfall, when he had just activated his creations, the Daleks they exterminated his assistant Nyder and then planned to make their creator a second victim, he pled for mercy only for the Daleks to have none.
While in the past he had a sound mind, Davros is now an insane, depraved, megalomaniacal, zealous and twisted tyrant. Davros became even more malevolent and cruel, he was especially sadistic towards the Doctor and took great pleasure in psychologically tormenting the Tenth Doctor after he had abducted him and his companions aboard the Crucible, saying that he turned people into weapons and murderers. He truly believed that his Daleks were the pure species and believed that they should be the only thing allowed to live in the universe and in doing so created the Reality Bomb that would wipe out every other race in the universe.
Davros was devoted towards the Dalek cause and as were they to him which was shown when they became an intergalactic power and then sought a way to revive their creator so that might offer a way out of the impasse of a war with the Movellans however when he was saved from his death at the Nightmare Child, the Daleks refused him as a leader and instead installed a Supreme Dalek as their commander but still did not exterminate him however when the detonation of the Reality Bomb failed to detonate, the Supreme Dalek came close to actually murdering him. Davros appeared to value his creations as his children even if he didn't treat them like it but he did revive the entire Empire using his own cells. The Doctor even commented that Davros has become the pet of the Daleks but despite this he still has some command over them and assisted the stealing of 27 planets to construct the bomb. Given the regeneration of the Eleventh Doctor Daleks have a newfound loyalty towards their creator.
He can be exceedingly arrogant at times but he is still a fierce and cunning mind, he was also intelligent enough to imprison the Doctor when he had him aboard The Crucible because even a defenseless Time Lord was still a threat. Near his deathbed, Davros was able to trick the Doctor into allowing him to absorb his regenerative energy and use it to revitalize himself and the entire Empire.
Davros remains fairly level-headed and calm through most of the series, he is able to carry a very hushed and somewhat gentle tone of voice however this only covered up his obvious derangement. When he either became enraged or excited his voice would rise to an extremely high pitch and reveal his obvious fury. He is a hypocrite as well, when the Crucible was in self-destruct mode, he named the Doctor "the Destroyer of Worlds."
What's interesting is that Davros has seen to have died dozens of time which has led many people to believe that he was immortal however this proved false as he was seen on his deathbed by the Twelfth Doctor. Davros is also extremely intelligent but can also be manipulated as Dalek Caan did while he was left blinded by sheer pride.
History
Origin
Davros before he was crippled
Davros is a scientist from the planet Skaro whose people, the Kaleds, were engaged in a bitter thousand-year war of attrition with their enemies, the Thals. The conflict left him horribly scarred and crippled, with one functioning hand and one cybernetic eye mounted on his forehead to take the place of his real eyes and a self-designed mobile life-support chair which encloses the lower half of his body. As head of the Elite Scientific Division, Davros created to devise new military strategies in order to win the war yet realized that the overuse of nuclear and biological weapons is mutating his people. Artificially accelerating the process to examine the ultimate evolutionary end product, he created the beings that he would christen the Daleks. As a result, Davros's research was frown upon as he schemed to have the remaining Kaleds opposing him killed off. But Davros, finding his creations to be beyond his control, is shot by a Dalek and placed in suspended animation while buried in the underground of Skaro.
As a young boy, Davros was surrounded by Handmines and shouted for help. The Twelfth Doctor attempted to help, but upon discovering who the boy was, he fled. However, the Doctor returned from the future and used a Dalek gun to kill the Handmines and took Davros to safety.
First encounters with the Doctor
The fourth incarnation of the Doctor, along with his companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, was sent to Skaro by the Time Lord to negate the creation of the Daleks to avert a future time when Daleks would dominate the universe. However, the attempt failed as the Doctor eventually realized the consequences that would occur. Several years after being buried, Davros is sought by the Daleks to help them break a logical impasse in their war against the android Movellans. However, the Doctor destroys the Dalek groups and hands Davros over to be placed in cryogenic suspension to stand trial on Earth. Found guilty, he was placed in a space station prison for nine decades until he is freed by a small Dalek force aided by human mercenaries and Dalek duplicates.
Vowing to get revenge on the Doctor, Davros learns that Daleks lost their war against the Movellans due to the development of a virus that specifically attacks Dalek tissue, and have awakened Davros to find a cure. Despite Lytton's reservations, Davros demands that he remain on the prison ship while working on the virus, as it may be necessary for him to be refrozen. However, feeling his creations to be too treacherous as he placed them and the humans under his control, Davros ultimately releasing the virus to kill off the Daleks with the intention to create a new and improved Dalek race. But the virus appeared to kill him, too, and the end appeared for him when the prison ship blew up. But it wasn't to be death for him...
Dalek Civil War and Time War
After eluding the Doctor's Fifth incarnation, Davros encounters the Sixth Doctor while he assumed the identity of the planet Necros's "The Great Healer" to create new white-colored Imperial Daleks from frozen bodies. Davros also created a clone of his head to serve as a decoy for assassins. However, the Daleks loyal to the Supreme Dalek learned of their creator's location and manage to take Davros to face judgement at Skaro for his actions against them. However, the Imperial Daleks followed with a civil war among the Daleks with Davros physically transplanted into a customized Dalek casing and calling himself Emperor of the Daleks. Fearing the Daleks' civil war, the Seventh Doctor tricks Davros into using the Time Lord artifact known as the Hand of Omega which makes Skaro's sun go supernova to wipe out Skaro and the Daleks. However, Davros entered his escape pod and escaped his destruction.
Eventually, Daleks and the Time Lords led by Rassilon engaged in a mutually destructive Time War with Davros leading his creations before what was thought to be his died during the first year of the Time War, when his command ship was devoured by the Nightmare Child at the Gates of Elysium despite the Doctor's failed efforts to save him.
Creation of the New Dalek Empire
Davros in the Vault.
But in reality, though the event was time-locked to prevent temporal tempering, Davros was saved by Dalek Caan of the Cult of Skaro. Guided by the maddened Caan's gained prophetic visions, Davros created new Dalek race using most of his flesh. Though Davros talks about his "new empire", he is kept prisoner in the Crucible's Vault and used by the Daleks for his scientific knowledge as he instructs them to steal 27 planets, including Earth, and hide them in the Medusa Cascade, one second out of sync with the rest of the universe. Davros planned to detonate a "reality bomb", a wavelength transmitted by the stolen planets which cancels out the electrical field binding atoms, reducing the whole of creation to nothingness with only Crucible and its contains unaffected.
Though the Tenth Doctor attempted to stop him, Davros breaks him by pointing out that he turned his companions into killers and caused countless deaths in the process. By that time, however, Davros finds himself betrayed by Caan, who realized the evilness of his race from seeing the entirety of time and his prophecies and influence to cause the Daleks' destruction with the Doctor's companion Donna Noble being infused with Time Lord DNA and the human Doctor clone created in the process. Though the Doctor attempted to save him, Davros furiously refuses the Doctor's offer to take him to safety while screaming his final words as the Crucible self-destructs: "Never forget, Doctor, you did this! I name you forever: You are the Destroyer of the Worlds!"
Encounter with the Twelfth Doctor
Davros survived the destruction and returned to Skaro and sometime later sent his servant, a snake-like creature called Colony Sarff to find the Doctor and bring him to him. Sarff failed to find the Doctor, but Davros told him that to find the Doctor, he should find his friends.
Sarff, followed the Doctor's companion Clara Oswald and Missy to 12tg century Essex and found the Doctor and brought him, Clara and Missy to Skaro, where the Doctor was brought to Davros and Clara and Missy remained in their cell. They escaped but where caught and supposedly exterminated by the Daleks. Davros says that what the Doctor did to him, caused this to happen.
The Doctor later removed Davros from his chair and fled the infirmary in it, but Sarff's snakes recapture him and return him to Davros. Back at the infirmary, Davros says he is glad that the Doctor saved Galifrey and looks at him with his actual eyes for the first time. Davros says that he wishes to see the sun rise one last time before death, so the Doctor places him next to a window. When Davros says that he can't open his eyes, the Doctor uses his regeneration energy to try and help, however when he touches the cables there, it is revealed to be a trap and that the cables where Sarff's snakes who drain the energy from the Doctor to improve the Daleks and make them stronger than ever before.
Just then Missy arrives and frees the Doctor who reveals that he knew it was a trap and that the Daleks living in Skaro's sewers where affected by the regeneration energy and they come above land and attack and kill the other Daleks causing the city to collapse.
Quotes
| “ | Evil? No. No, I will not accept that. They are conditioned simply to survive. They can survive only by becoming the dominant species. While all other life forms are suppressed. When the Daleks are the supreme rulers of the Universe, than we will have peace. Wars will end. They are a power not of evil, but of good! | „ |
| ~ Davros about the Daleks. |
| “ | You are soft, like all Time Lords. You prefer to stand and watch. Action requires courage, something you lack. | „ |
| ~ Davros to the Fifth Doctor. |
| “ | Your voice is different, yet... its arrogance is unchanged. Welcome to my new empire, Doctor. It is only fitting that you should bear witness to the resurrection and the triumph of Davros, lord and creator of... the Dalek race. | „ |
| ~ Davros to the Tenth Doctor. |
| “ | Across the entire Universe. Never stopping, never faltering, never fainting. People, planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become... nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift of the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every SINGLE CORNER OF CREATION! THIS is my ultimate victory, Doctor: The destruction of reality ITSELF! | „ |
| ~ Davros about the reality bomb. |
| “ | The Doctor, the man who keeps running, never looking back, because he dare not... out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor: I have shown you yourself. | „ |
| ~ Davros |
| “ | Never forget, Doctor, YOU did this! I name you, forever: YOU are the DESTROYER OF THE WORLDS! | „ |
| ~ Davros |
Gallery
Trivia
- In continuing the Nazi themes with the Daleks, Davros could be compared to Josef Mengele in inhuman experiments for the sake of genetic perfection.
- Davros is similar to Darth Sidious from Star Wars:
- They are ancient beings with the power to shoot lightning from their hands.
- They've created villains (Davros: Daleks, Sidious: Darth Vader) who serve them.
- They serve as an Emperor.
- Both have been physically disfigured by an accident.
- They are Big Bads, God Wannabes and Pure Evil.