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I, Davros #1
I, Davros: Innocence
"I find it fascinating that a living creature would subject itself to such dangerous experimentation. Knowing that it would die..."
The Kaled and Thal races are at war. No one really remembers why, or when it started, but generations of people on both sides have lost so very much.
Born into an influential family is Davros. Now aged sixteen, he is being pulled in various directions -- his father wants him to follow tradition and go into the military. His sister has joined the Military Youth. And his scheming, devoted mother wants him to pursue a life of science.
But no one seems terribly interested in what Davros himself wants. So he must begin to assert himself, begin to take control over his own life, begin to work towards his destiny...
The Kaled and Thal races are at war. No one really remembers why, or when it started, but generations of people on both sides have lost so very much.
Born into an influential family is Davros. Now aged sixteen, he is being pulled in various directions -- his father wants him to follow tradition and go into the military. His sister has joined the Military Youth. And his scheming, devoted mother wants him to pursue a life of science.
But no one seems terribly interested in what Davros himself wants. So he must begin to assert himself, begin to take control over his own life, begin to work towards his destiny...
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First published September 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 28, 2019
I, Davros; Innocence is so like the first season of Gallifrey with the heavy politics and twisted characters and oh, so brutal.
Would love to have seen a cross-over story I. Davros and Gallifrey with Lady Calcula and Inquisitor Darkel. Now that would have been a story.
This is Davros, at the heart of before Genesis of the Daleks and diving into his twisted, corrupted childhood. First story and absolutely brilliant.
Would love to have seen a cross-over story I. Davros and Gallifrey with Lady Calcula and Inquisitor Darkel. Now that would have been a story.
This is Davros, at the heart of before Genesis of the Daleks and diving into his twisted, corrupted childhood. First story and absolutely brilliant.
August 8, 2021
This series has been something I've wanted to listen to for years now, it's quite old but yet it still stands up as an incredibly interesting and brilliant piece of writing/drama. Exploring a characters origin like Davros is always going to be hard and developing it be an enjoyable series with characters that stand out from its obvious parody is harder. The first part of this series just nailed it for me. It manages to capture that bleakness from Genesis with its opening of killing soldiers who ran away and throughout builds its this lovely theme that of how war Is seen. How others see it/how it actually effects others. Having Davros's family be the main focus and follow that theme of protecting your children/future in a war. But also how deception is hard to combat even in your own family. I just loved seeing there different arcs and I was happily surprised to see the directions it took.
Davros's development here is excellent I'm really glad/surprised it didn't do "he was evil at birth". Instead he was actually shaped into it by having his curiosity peeked/pushed by both his family, particularly his mother for his education and his father demanding he fight, even his sister calling him a weirdo/freak. But Davros meets his biggest influencer in the character of his tutor magarantine. We see how he started to care and be fascinated by life in a good way. He risks his life by swimming in the lake full of deadly creatures and wants to learn by them. You could say his sister throwing the rock creature to the floor also made him think in later experiments. Hes more interested in saving animal life from the horrific war and later people. But he wants to pursue science and eventually gets that opportunity with magarantine and together they carry on to learn about controlling the radiation effect on skaro. In fact it's his line of scientists needs no emotion and sacrifices must be made that turns him into a more emotionless character. He never shows his feelings for his father when he dies or sister as she cries.
The story slowly but brilliantly builds up to Davros becoming a more emotionless but emotional manipulator scientist, and later do the unspeakable. After his life was threated by his tutor magarantine, he locks him in the room and tests what the radiation will do. Even this is more as way to protect his mother and show her than an horrific idea of testing but it slowly turns to it. I just utterly loved this development. But the whole characters of his family just set up the world and complement it so well.
We originally meet Davros's father who's a Colonel, he becomes alittle extreme with killing traitors and getting ill. But hes made to give up his duty by his fellow major, butt he refuses to go home and asks to be killed. This offers an interesting insight into his dad's pride and honor, it means alot to him to die in war and he feels quite ashamed to be let home. He's also rather stubborn with Davros, he wants him to fight in the war like him and not waste time on science. He's a great character that offers this story a great chance to explore both sides of the war, the solders and the scientists. And if Davros did go that route he wouldn't off ended up how he did.
His sister also has an interesting arc, she starts off as a proud daughter who wishes to fight In the war and so follows her father's footsteps and yet sadly her family and the true horror of this war change her mind. In an excellent way we see how bad these people have become and how some are actually turning on one another. She slowly becomes attracted and flirts with a young colonel who replaced her father. At first she does it because she's a nice person and so is he but also to rebel against her mother who resents her. But when she sees that he is blamed and killed by her mother her view of war, family and this side is lost and she becomes a pace resistance believer. It's incredibly good way of showing you how people in war can manipulates you or make you worse.
The mother is possibly the most evil, and corrupt character. She's written as a mother you believe/trust to save her son and give him a better education, especially after an interesting scene in which she has an argument about the war. The war is good for her as she thinks it offers stability, rather than a victory and it's from then on it slowly makes you not like her and see how she manipulates actions to get her own way. Its revealed that she had an affair, meaning her political office partner Quested is Davros's real father. Which explains why she hates her own daughter as she is from her husband. Towards the end she becomes an evil person as she has deliberately made everyone think that the Brogan was a spy and he is killed. She says you must sometimes create a spy. Which makes me think she did this as she hates what he represents, peace especially as he couldn't kill her husband. she see him as a threat to her life and the war.
This story just brilliantly does a 180 on the characters and had them develop to be much nastier than there original intentions. Davros's mum is really part of his development as much as magrantines is. The final Nail for Davros is how he planed to kill him and his family, he has no emotion because In his own head he wants to better than him and so our Davros has begun to be born. The actor Rory Jennings is an excellent young Davros and he nails Terry Molly's thinking and calm voice very well. Overall I really enjoyed this one, yes it can be long but it's an incredibly interesting character drama. I like how big finish have decided to show you how it isn't the war that made Davros, it's the people around him and that maybe if he just followed his fake dad's footsteps as a soldier he may not have become who he is today.
Rating 4/5 8/10
Davros's development here is excellent I'm really glad/surprised it didn't do "he was evil at birth". Instead he was actually shaped into it by having his curiosity peeked/pushed by both his family, particularly his mother for his education and his father demanding he fight, even his sister calling him a weirdo/freak. But Davros meets his biggest influencer in the character of his tutor magarantine. We see how he started to care and be fascinated by life in a good way. He risks his life by swimming in the lake full of deadly creatures and wants to learn by them. You could say his sister throwing the rock creature to the floor also made him think in later experiments. Hes more interested in saving animal life from the horrific war and later people. But he wants to pursue science and eventually gets that opportunity with magarantine and together they carry on to learn about controlling the radiation effect on skaro. In fact it's his line of scientists needs no emotion and sacrifices must be made that turns him into a more emotionless character. He never shows his feelings for his father when he dies or sister as she cries.
The story slowly but brilliantly builds up to Davros becoming a more emotionless but emotional manipulator scientist, and later do the unspeakable. After his life was threated by his tutor magarantine, he locks him in the room and tests what the radiation will do. Even this is more as way to protect his mother and show her than an horrific idea of testing but it slowly turns to it. I just utterly loved this development. But the whole characters of his family just set up the world and complement it so well.
We originally meet Davros's father who's a Colonel, he becomes alittle extreme with killing traitors and getting ill. But hes made to give up his duty by his fellow major, butt he refuses to go home and asks to be killed. This offers an interesting insight into his dad's pride and honor, it means alot to him to die in war and he feels quite ashamed to be let home. He's also rather stubborn with Davros, he wants him to fight in the war like him and not waste time on science. He's a great character that offers this story a great chance to explore both sides of the war, the solders and the scientists. And if Davros did go that route he wouldn't off ended up how he did.
His sister also has an interesting arc, she starts off as a proud daughter who wishes to fight In the war and so follows her father's footsteps and yet sadly her family and the true horror of this war change her mind. In an excellent way we see how bad these people have become and how some are actually turning on one another. She slowly becomes attracted and flirts with a young colonel who replaced her father. At first she does it because she's a nice person and so is he but also to rebel against her mother who resents her. But when she sees that he is blamed and killed by her mother her view of war, family and this side is lost and she becomes a pace resistance believer. It's incredibly good way of showing you how people in war can manipulates you or make you worse.
The mother is possibly the most evil, and corrupt character. She's written as a mother you believe/trust to save her son and give him a better education, especially after an interesting scene in which she has an argument about the war. The war is good for her as she thinks it offers stability, rather than a victory and it's from then on it slowly makes you not like her and see how she manipulates actions to get her own way. Its revealed that she had an affair, meaning her political office partner Quested is Davros's real father. Which explains why she hates her own daughter as she is from her husband. Towards the end she becomes an evil person as she has deliberately made everyone think that the Brogan was a spy and he is killed. She says you must sometimes create a spy. Which makes me think she did this as she hates what he represents, peace especially as he couldn't kill her husband. she see him as a threat to her life and the war.
This story just brilliantly does a 180 on the characters and had them develop to be much nastier than there original intentions. Davros's mum is really part of his development as much as magrantines is. The final Nail for Davros is how he planed to kill him and his family, he has no emotion because In his own head he wants to better than him and so our Davros has begun to be born. The actor Rory Jennings is an excellent young Davros and he nails Terry Molly's thinking and calm voice very well. Overall I really enjoyed this one, yes it can be long but it's an incredibly interesting character drama. I like how big finish have decided to show you how it isn't the war that made Davros, it's the people around him and that maybe if he just followed his fake dad's footsteps as a soldier he may not have become who he is today.
Rating 4/5 8/10
August 28, 2020
Interesting Robert Graves style take on the life and origins of Dalek creator Davros. Full of familial and political drama with plenty of machinations and twists to keep one intrigued. Sets up the series nicely...
June 11, 2021
Wow! I was not expecting this to be this good. I, Davros is a four-episode mini-series chronicling Davros' (creator of the Daleks) rise to power. Innocence is the first part. It starts with Davros on trial by the Daleks presumably some time after Remembance of the Daleks (though possibly at some other time). And from that, we learn of his history starting at age 16. This is political, brutal drama that shows Davros starting down the path to his destiny. We meet his mother Calcula, sister Yarvell and stepfather Nasgard (though Davros only learns this at the end). While Davros is quite interesting, it's the machinations of Calcula that steal the show. If you're a fan of Davros, then you can't go wrong with this series.
July 1, 2018
I am very interested in seeing how this series progresses. I have the other installments, just need to get to them, but Davros is an interesting character, and this is a strong bit of extended universe storytelling.
January 13, 2022
This is a fairly well done audio drama, providing some backstory for Davros. I have to admit that I'm not really familiar with the already-established backstory for him. I've never seem "Genesis of the Daleks", for instance, or read/watched/listened to any other Dalek/Davros backstory stuff. So maybe this isn't the best place to start, but it was comprehensible, though it took a little while for me to get my bearings. This is a pretty dark story, of course, and I'm usually not a big fan of this kind of thing. But it's interesting enough that I think I'll keep listening to it.
If you already know some of Davros' backstory, and you like dark stories with mostly unlikable characters, then you'll probably really like this. (It's obviously not a story with a happy ending.)
If you already know some of Davros' backstory, and you like dark stories with mostly unlikable characters, then you'll probably really like this. (It's obviously not a story with a happy ending.)
May 2, 2021
This was much better than the Dalek Empire series. This is dark, twisted, sadistic and sick - just like the titular character. I was expecting that this would present a vision of Davros that would highlight how he was perhaps misunderstood and how him became a product of his upbringing and his culture. Sure that is also included here, but it also gives some insight that Davros was a dark, twisted, sadistic, sickie likely from the very beginning. This is not a redemptive backstory. This is not a fall from grace.
November 29, 2018
Depicting an iconic villain as a kid can sometimes be risky, but I thought it was handled well here. And it's kinda nice that we now have the young Davros from Doctor Who series 9 to put a face to the name this early in his life. There are some intriguing details about his family.
April 29, 2019
This series helps to fill in the backstory of the creator of the Daleks , the twisted Davros.
August 12, 2019
Awful and predictable, this story is saved from absolute oblivion by some strong performances, but this first episode runs almost like an episode of Graves' classic novel written in crayon.
November 5, 2020
A Davros origin story. Spoiler: he was a dick as a kid too! LOL
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 21, 2020
An interesting tale of the beginning of the great evil Davros, what a twisted family
March 17, 2022
The boyhood of the archetypal evil scientist. Features a well-drawn, distinctive cast of characters. Reminded me of I, Claudius and Roman stories like that.
April 18, 2024
Upon embarking my listen of this series I was obviously fully aware of what the build up was going to be. We know where point A to B is, and this series serves to fill in the gap. This story is the chapter that follows Davros’ childhood, and his family affairs. This was drawn so blatantly from Shakespearean themes, and its transparency made it so thoroughly predictable. A story with no protagonist of any sort is difficult to pull off, and this does not do so to any impressive effect. A comparison being Captain John from Torchwood who manages to carry any story on his own, simply through great writing and performances. All the performances in this story, were not like that at all; simply just flat and blunt. With no characters to take any affection towards, and knowing that by the fourth story of this series everyone will be dead, there serves very little to be invested in. I did like small moments here and there, the slight hints of Davros discovering an interest in what would lead him down his dark path. By contrast, characters like his mother and father are nothing more pantomime characters, with nothing more than eye rolling dialogue. I do not blame the writer at all, clearly he did his best with what he was given but I was consoled only by the fact that I went into this series expecting nothing more than mediocrity so I had no means by which to be disappointed.
October 22, 2012
The story of Davros as an audio play? 'Genesis of the Daleks' is one of my favourite Dr Who stories from childhood and one of the few I can say has really stood the test of time, so I thought this one had to be worth the cost of its download. Boy, was I not disappointed...
'Innocence' opens what could be as many as fifty years before the events of 'Genesis of the Daleks'. The war between the Kaled and Thal peoples on Skaro has not yet totally poisoned the planet but that process is well underway. Sixteen year old Davros is being pulled in opposite directions by the demands of his parents. His father Colonel Nasgard is insistant on his son following a military career, whereas his mother, the well-named Lady Calcula, has him down as a scientist in the making. And young Davros? Well, at first he seems quite happy at the family villa by Drammankin Lake studying the water life. Against a background of political intrigue and explosive (literally) personal and family revalations we see the beginnings of the journey from arrogant teenager to murderously insane genius.
Overall, this is play is a well produced 77 minutes worth of drama. Diehard Whovians will enjoy the backstory - for example neither the Kaled nor Thal cities is covered by a protective dome and nuclear weapons have not yet been extensively used. Drammankin Lake is not the nest of icky things it will become in time for the First Doctor's visit five hundred years later.
Some of the dialogue is quite creepily disturbing - especially that between Davros and his tutor Magrantine. As Davros' personality slides further and further along the sociopathic spectrum, he starts to take an unhealthy interest in his tutor's experiments on the effect of nuclear radiation on Skarosian lifeforms...
'Innocence' opens what could be as many as fifty years before the events of 'Genesis of the Daleks'. The war between the Kaled and Thal peoples on Skaro has not yet totally poisoned the planet but that process is well underway. Sixteen year old Davros is being pulled in opposite directions by the demands of his parents. His father Colonel Nasgard is insistant on his son following a military career, whereas his mother, the well-named Lady Calcula, has him down as a scientist in the making. And young Davros? Well, at first he seems quite happy at the family villa by Drammankin Lake studying the water life. Against a background of political intrigue and explosive (literally) personal and family revalations we see the beginnings of the journey from arrogant teenager to murderously insane genius.
Overall, this is play is a well produced 77 minutes worth of drama. Diehard Whovians will enjoy the backstory - for example neither the Kaled nor Thal cities is covered by a protective dome and nuclear weapons have not yet been extensively used. Drammankin Lake is not the nest of icky things it will become in time for the First Doctor's visit five hundred years later.
Some of the dialogue is quite creepily disturbing - especially that between Davros and his tutor Magrantine. As Davros' personality slides further and further along the sociopathic spectrum, he starts to take an unhealthy interest in his tutor's experiments on the effect of nuclear radiation on Skarosian lifeforms...
June 8, 2013
This review covers all 4 books in the "I, Davros" series. I really enjoyed this series quite a bit - Davros is by far my favorite (individual) nemesis of Doctor Who. Maybe it's that little bit of mad scientist in me, but I always get a huge kick out of his megalomania. However, this series went deeper than that, exploring the events of Davros's childhood and early adult life to shape him into the evil and/or misunderstood personality we have known in the television show - as well as what led to the creation of Daleks. Events start as a teenager and end off a little while before "Genesis of the Daleks."
I won't give any of the plot away, but his relationship with, and characterization of, his mother was excellently done. Simply learning each event that led him toward the idea of Kaled mutation and the Dalek casing was great in a Who-trivia kind of way as well. But again, the it was the character development that is really the star of this story. Would recommend to any classic or new Who fan alike!
I won't give any of the plot away, but his relationship with, and characterization of, his mother was excellently done. Simply learning each event that led him toward the idea of Kaled mutation and the Dalek casing was great in a Who-trivia kind of way as well. But again, the it was the character development that is really the star of this story. Would recommend to any classic or new Who fan alike!
August 13, 2014
I got this for a pound in the Big Finish sale and it was definitely worth a listen. There were hints of the political side like Gallifrey and a ruthless mother filled with ambition like I Claudius. But unfortunately it paled in comparison with both. The biggest problem was motivation for the characters. Why if Davros' sister was so in awe of her father and wanting to follow his militaristic ways was she feeling so much sympathy for the pacifist? Why was Davros' mother so obsessed with his future and not interested in his sisters? Why the blatant favouritism? Why was Davros so evil from such an early age? If he wasn't interested in the military, had a happy home life, and was interested in biology was he so inherently evil? It was enjoyable to listen to. The portrayal of an early Skaro was quite interesting. But the characters didn't feel like real people. I think the main range Davros story handled his early life and leanings much better.
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April 8, 2009http://nhw.livejournal.com/994704.html[return][return]In Innocence, Rory Jennings becomes the fourth actor to portray Davros, but at the start rather than end of his career, as a callous little budding megalomaniac scientist - we completely understand how the youth becomes the Davros we know. An excellent depiction of a troubled family background in an intricate and violent political situation; of all the stories, this shows the most obvious homage to Robert Graves, and that's not a bad thing.
October 18, 2020
This is absolutely a vivid picture as a boy. A genius that was always sick and demented. Liked working with radiation and deformed human bodies. His mother had no problem with his sick thoughts. No wonder he is for world domination.
December 8, 2018
A brilliant first installment of this mini spinoff series. Davros a child is surprisingly very messed up which I love. 9.5/10
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews