Genesis Incident

The Genesis Incident was the Time Lord designation for the mission they gave the Fourth Doctor, to interfere with the creation of the Daleks at the hands of Davros. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks, PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Origin of the Daleks
On the planet Skaro, during the later part of the Thousand Year War between the Kaleds and the Thals, both sides suffered mutations caused by nuclear, biological and chemical agents. Some of the mutant survivors, known as mutoes, survived in the wastelands. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks) Shan, a young Kaled scientist, authored a paper which formulated a solution to the threats of perpetual war or mutually assured destruction. With both Kaleds and Thals competing for resources, she claimed that the only way out of this dilemma was through a process she called "the Dalek Solution". Davros presented the paper to the Kaled Council as his own, though he omitted several of Shan's more controversial conclusions, such as the fact that the Kaled race would be completely replaced by the new species. (AUDIO: Davros)

Another account had it that the name Davros gave his creations came from a prophecy found in the forbidden Book of Predictions, written in the extinct language of the Dals, which stated "...and on that day, men will become as gods". In the original language, the final word was pronounced "Dal-ek". (AUDIO: Guilt) In yet another account, information from the Matrix on Gallifrey stated that Davros created the word Dalek as an anagram of the word Kaled, to represent the reconfigured Kaled life form within. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

Later, Davros, now crippled, became one of the Kaled Scientific Elite. He concluded that the Kaled race would have to evolve into a new species, not only to survive but thrive in the ever-worsening conditions of the planet e.g. able to breathe the poisoned air and eat irradiated food (AUDIO: Davros). It was Davros's view that although the resultant species need not be aesthetically pleasing, they would require a strong intelligence and survival instinct. He also held the view that natural selection and evolution would logically conclude with one species in total control of the world, with all other life-forms gone. Although other Kaleds did not relish the idea of such a world, Davros would later instill this belief into his creations on a universal scale.

According to Ronson, Davros produced "the ultimate creature" their race would become by treating living cells with chemicals and accelerating the mutations (TV: Genesis of the Daleks). However, later accounts state that the earliest Dalek creatures were also created from Kaled infants (AUDIO: Guilt) and "undesireables" within the Kaled Dome, such as artists (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro).

He had begun experiments on living subjects to ensure the survival of, and later deify the Kaled race. Due to the radiation and chemical pollutants in the atmosphere, infant mortality rates and still-births were rising in the Kaled domes. Davros pushed through legislation enabling authority (and ownership) of all Kaled infants under five years of age to be delivered to Pediatric Facility K99, which he used as a laboratory for surgical experiments. Davros later transplanted the irradiated brain from Baran, a captured Thal spy, into a Mark I Travel Machine, ironically meaning that the very first functional Dalek was technically Thal, rather than Kaled in origin. (AUDIO: Guilt)

During the last days of the war, Kaled artists were deemed "not necessary" and forcibly recruited for a "special project". They too were forcibly mutated, requring multiple implants to stop their screams of pain (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro). According to Klinus, the pain was ever-present even after being installed into their travel machines. Obeying orders marginally lessened the pain, but only temporarily.

The Daleks believed, at a later much stage in their history when they were led by the Dalek Prime, that although he took credit for the travel machines' designs, Davros had actually stolen them from other Kaled scientists. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) Alternatively, a historical chronicle stated Davros based the Dalek travel machine design off his own life support system, which it credited him with designing, (PROSE: The Whoniverse) whereas another account stated Davros had designed a new chair after noting the fear an early Dalek struck in General Ravon. (PROSE: Davros Genesis)

Davros did not immediately show the results of his Dalek experiments to the Kaled Scientific Elite. He improved and developed the shell for the organic components of the Daleks, housing them in tank-like and armed Mark III Travel Machines similar to his own life support chair. He maintained a nursery of embryonic Dalek young. As well as nurturing the physical form of his creations, Davros shaped their minds. The Daleks did not understand concepts such as pity. It did not exist in their "vocabulary bank[s]". (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)

The Time Lords Intervene
The Daleks were brought to the attention of the Time Lords by the Second Doctor during his trial, as he told them that they were the most dangerous of all his foes. (TV: The War Games) It was suggested by The Dalek Conquests (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests) that the Third Doctor negating an alternate timeline in which the Daleks successfully conquered Earth by starting World War III in the late 20th century, (TV: Day of the Daleks) was noticed by Time Lords, (AUDIO: The Dalek Conquests) who accepted the Doctor's plea to guide the TARDIS to Spiridon, where the Doctor neutralised the Dalek army in 2540. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)

Early in his fourth incarnation, the Doctor, along with companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, were diverted to Skaro, where the Doctor met a Time Lord messenger, who claimed that the Time Lords had foreseen a time when the Daleks had destroyed all other lifeforms and became the dominant creature in the universe. The Doctor's mission, given to him by the Time Lord was to either avert the creation of the Daleks', affect their genetic development so that they evolved into less aggressive creatures, or learn enough about their very beginnings so as to discover some inherent weakness. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)

By one account, the messenger was the final incarnation of Deliavatsud, a director of the Celestial Intervention Agency who went rogue in an attempt to subvert the APC Net's predictions of total Dalek domination. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem) By another account, the messenger was Ferain, a member of the Celestial Intervention Agency. (PROSE: Lungbarrow) According to one other account, this messenger was Valyes, who was sent in disguise by Narvin after the Daleks invaded Gallifrey in the future. (AUDIO: Ascension) By yet another account, the leader of the team who identified the Daleks' threat to the universe and developed a plan to stop them was named Jelpax. (PROSE: Divided Loyalties)

Immediate aftermath
The Time Lords considered the Doctor's mission a failure, at least in the immediate term. By one account, in the fallout, they observed that changes to the timeline had freed thousands of worlds from the tyranny of the Daleks, but not the millions hoped for. Following the Doctor's subsequent actions in the weapons research facility of Deepcity, however, the Time Lords foresaw the rise of a race of robots that would challenge the Daleks and lead to the fall of the Dalek Empire. (PROSE: A Device of Death) By another account, the Celestial Intervention Agency's own documentation, the mission to Skaro had ended up a bootstrap paradox, as the Doctor's actions only ensured the timeline they were already living in had come to pass. (PROSE: The Dalek Problem)

As the Time Lords predicted, (PROSE: A Device of Death) the Daleks engaged in a destructive war against the Movellans. (TV: Destiny of the Daleks) Although the Dalek Prime later claimed the war had been staged, (PROSE: War of the Daleks) the Daleks sought revenge on the Time Lords in the aftermath of the Movellan conflict and the subsequent Dalek civil war. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks)

The Time War
The Eternity Circle later considered the Time Lords' act of trying to prevent their creation to be the beginning of the Last Great Time War, (PROSE: Engines of War) as did the Dalek Time Strategist. (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage) The Eleventh Doctor shared this opinion, believing he had fired the "first shot" of the War. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone) The Time Lord Rojan saw the incident as an early event of the Time War before hostilities escalated (PROSE: The Stranger) During the conflict, Lord President Eternal Rassilon met Narvin, who had instigated the plot according to one account, (AUDIO: Ascension) and expressed his approval for his scheme, though Narvin claimed his choice of agent had been hasty. (AUDIO: Assassins)

Ironically, scholars on wartime Gallifrey came to believe that if the Time Lords had allowed the Dalek timeline to evolve without interference, and so let Davros refine his creations at that early crucial stage, then they might have become the less aggressive creatures that they had sought to create. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)

During the Time War, the Time Lords held the Anti-Genesis codes which enabled the user to reach the creation of the Daleks, though were forbidden to use them. stole them and used them to interfere even earlier in the Daleks' creation, (AUDIO: From the Flames) supplanting Davros and creating an alternate race of Daleks loyal to him. (AUDIO: The Master's Dalek Plan) He arranged for his Daleks to ambush and kill the Fourth Doctor and his companions upon their arrival. (AUDIO: Shockwave) The Master's interference was later undone by himself, along with a parallel universe counterpart of his and the Dalek Time Strategist. (AUDIO: He Who Wins)

Inspired by the Time Lords' methods, the Daleks conducted further experiments on their own race in alternate timelines. The result was the creation of the unstable and unpredictable Skaro Degradations, which the Daleks deployed as a weapon of war. (PROSE: Engines of War)

Davros remembers
Having been rescued from death in the Time War, Davros was embroiled in the 21st century Dalek invasion and came into contact with both the Tenth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. Recalling his "death" at the hands of the Daleks, Sarah Jane was shocked to hear his voice, while Davros was pleased to see her among the Children of Time. (TV: Journey's End)

Receiving the Twelfth Doctor on the rebuilt Skaro during the Hybrid Incident, Davros replayed several of their prior confrontations to him, ending on the Fourth Doctor rhetorically asking if one could kill a child who would grow up to become a totally evil and ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice)

Behind the scenes

 * The Discontinuity Guide made the claim that, originally, Davros was killed and forgotten, and that the Fourth Doctor's interference with the creation of the Daleks created a new timeline where Davros survived. As a result, whilst the Daleks originally had a solid, cohesive empire, always with one purpose, Davros' presence reduced them to "a mess of squabbling factions" which were "incapable of the unity needed to develop dimensionally transcendental time travel. Published before the Last Great Time War was established in Doctor Who lore, The Discontinuity Guide went on to claim that "whilst Davros lives the Daleks will remain disorganised, and will never become the threat that the Time Lords so feared."
 * In a deleted scene from the end of Return of the Cybermen, the Time Lord messenger would have appeared in the TARDIS to tell the Fourth Doctor that his failure to succeed in his mission had caused his own history to reoccur in slightly different ways and may lead to a Time War. This was meant to explain the contradictions between Return of the Cybermen and Revenge of the Cybermen, as well as between The Haunting of Villa Diodati and Mary's Story, and Human Nature and Human Nature.