What if you would be able to kill Hitler as a child, preventing the atrocities of the Nazi’s and the Second World War? This moral question lies at the basis of this Doctor Who serial. This record contains the spoken version of this 4th serial from the 12th season, aired in 1975. The record was originally released in 1978, with this particular record re-released in 2016 for Record Store Day.
In those days Doctor Who was still broadcast in serials, small collections of short episodes that belonged together and told one story. In the early days these serials could be as long as 12 different episodes of half an hour. In the 70s they were pretty much standard length and always four episodes long.
Dalek creator Terry Nation was asked to do something more original with his Daleks this time, and he came up with the concept of their creator. This Davros was the mad scientist that wanted to do good by creating this superrace, but his creation eventually got the better of him and went on to be the killer race of the universe. Interestingly, the comparison with Hitler went further than mere lip service: the aesthetics of some of the uniforms is clearly based on it, and there is even an actor with a iron cross on his neck.