Destination: Skaro (TV story)

Destination: Skaro — also simply titled Doctor Who Children in Need Special 2023 — was a televised minisode broadcast on 17 November 2023 on BBC One for Children in Need, written by Russell T Davies in celebration of the 60th anniversary.

While mainly comedic in tone, Destination: Skaro is notable for bringing the Fourteenth Doctor back to the creation of the Daleks, where he appears to inspire key elements of their development. Namely, he accidentally gives away the name "Dalek" for the Mark III Travel Machine to Castavillian, as well as "Exterminate", their battle cry, and hands him a sink plunger in place of the multi-dextrous claw he'd destroyed... inspiring the classic manipulator arm.

This story also marked the first time an adult Davros has been shown before his disfigurement in a visual medium, and the second time he's been seen on screen without the need for his life support chair, coming after his appearance in and. Other stories, most notably I, Davros by Big Finish Productions, have placed his disfigurement earlier in Davros's personal timeline.

Most notably, however, much like the 2005 Children in Need special had done with the Tenth Doctor, this special marked the first full appearance of the Fourteenth Doctor on screen, following his debut in. In the interim, he'd had multiple appearances in other media, including the comic story, which takes place over an hour and leads directly into this story by bringing this new Doctor to Skaro.

Publisher's summary
In this special Children in Need episode, the Doctor hurtles through space and time to a crucial point in the Daleks’ history.

Plot
A pre-disfigured Davros and his assistant, Mr Castavillian, are building the first iteration of a mutant-housing Mark III Travel Machine. The assistant tries coming up with a new name for this machine, using different anagrams of Kaled, none of which Davros likes. Hearing a request from Nyder, Davros leaves. There is an inexplicable wheezing, groaning sound.

Suddenly, the TARDIS crashes into the room, smashing into a wall. The Fourteenth Doctor opens the door and says "Hello!". He mentions that he regenerated from a "really brilliant woman" an hour ago and has somehow ended with an old face. He realises his violent landing has accidentally smashed off a part of the Machine, a multi-dextrous claw, and apologises. Then he sees the machine, and says in terror, "That's a Dalek." The assistant notes down this name approvingly. He notes that he was lucky that he wasn't "exterminated" before realising that he must have accidentally travelled to the "genesis of the Daleks". Hurriedly, he legs it back to the TARDIS, retrieves a plunger, and throws it to Castavillian. The Doctor runs back into the TARDIS and tells the assistant he was "Never here". The TARDIS dematerialises. Panicking, the assistant sticks the plunger on to the machine in place of the claw.

Davros re-enters and sees the plunger stuck on to the Dalek. The assistant looks at his boss nervously, yet he approves: "I like it."

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Mr Castavillian - Mawaan Rizwan
 * Davros - Julian Bleach
 * Voice of the Daleks/Nyder - Nicholas Briggs
 * Dalek Operator - Barnaby Edwards

Kaleds and Daleks

 * Davros mentions that the war caused the Kaleds to mutate.
 * Davros identifies the bonded polycarbide shell, multi-dextrous claw and ruby ray blaster as part of the Travel Machine's arsenal.

Temporal theory
more to be added
 * When the Doctor realised that he was creating a bootstrap paradox, he exclaimed that the "timelines and canon are rupturing."

Continuity

 * This minisode references the fact that, in-universe, an hour has passed since his regeneration; this aligns with Davies' intent that COMIC:, set after TV: , takes places over the course of a single hour. Also in direct reference to the ending of Power of the Doctor, the Doctor mentions being "a really brilliant woman" and having "this old face back again".
 * The Doctor mentioning "60 minutes ago, I was this really brilliant woman" draws a parallel back to the Series 11 episode, in which the Thirteenth Doctor exclaims that "half an hour ago, I was a white-haired Scotsman."
 * This story is a prequel to TV:, positing that several parts of Dalek culture were introduced by the Doctor via a bootstrap paradox. This story also refers to the creation of the Daleks as the "genesis of the Daleks", a name for the event that had previously been used in various spin-offs. This was also a tongue-in-cheek reference to the aforementioned episode.
 * The Doctor calling the time period the "genesis of the Daleks" in dialogue also acts as a nod to TV:, in which the Saxon Master similarly dubbed his Cyber-Foundries as the "genesis of the Cybermen".
 * One of the anagrams Castavillian proposes is "Klade"; the Klade, as seen in several BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures novels such as PROSE:, were often hinted at being the future evolutions of the Daleks.
 * The Doctor mentions the concept of canonicity as a concept similar to a timeline; many sources have also referenced canonicity in this way, such as PROSE: establishing that the Time Lords have a Tower of Canonicity.
 * Furthermore, the Fourteenth Doctor's exclamation that "the timelines and canon are rupturing" is very similar to a line in GAME:, where it is stated that "there's been a rupture in time and the Doctor needs to know [...] what's changed between two realities."
 * The view of Skaro from space closely resembles its appearance in TV:.
 * Dalek casings being created from polycarbide was established in TV:

Home media releases
to be added