Genesis of the Daleks is one of the most beloved of all of the Doctor Who television adventures, consistently featuring in the top five of polls. However, Terry Nation’s 1975 classic with the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry had a very different beginning.

Daleks! Genesis of Terror, released today from Big Finish Productions, is based on Nation's original storyline, the first episode of which has now been adapted into a full-cast audio dramatisation starring Tom Baker, Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor. Stage directions from the first draft script are read by Nicholas Briggs, who also provides the voice of the Daleks. Terry Molloy guest stars as Davros (a part he inherited on television from the late Michael Wisher).

The remaining episodic storylines are read by individual members of the cast. In addition, the box set contains over two hours of extras, including behind the scenes interviews and a conversation between Genesis of the Daleks producer Philip Hinchliffe and journalist Samira Ahmed.

Doctor Who – The Lost Stories: Daleks! Genesis of Terror is now available to own for just £12.99 (as a collector’s edition CD box set + download) or £10.99 (download only) exclusively here.

In a paved garden outside time, the Doctor is presented with an awful prophecy: the conquest of all time by the Daleks. To prevent this terrible fate, the Time Lords have decided on a radical course — to weaponise time themselves, and destroy the Daleks before they were ever created. And they want the Doctor to carry out this extraordinary task!

Soon, he and his companions Sarah and Harry are on the battle-ravaged planet Skaro, where a war has been raging for centuries. The war is now waged by teenagers using the last surviving weapons. Everything is desperate. But the Kaled’s chief scientist has a new weapon that he thinks might just change everything...

A full cast bring to exhilarating life Terry Nation’s original draft for what became the first episode of Genesis of the Daleks — voted by readers of Doctor Who Magazine to be the greatest Doctor Who story of all time!

Producer Simon Guerrier said: “Daleks! Genesis of Terror was fascinating to record because it’s full of telling differences that reveal choices made by the TV series’ script editor Robert Holmes, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and their team.

“Tom Baker also had quite a bit to say about the version of ‘his’ Doctor in the script which gave me a sense of how hard and how conscientiously he’d worked in those early days to create the character of the Fourth Doctor.”

Nicholas Briggs added: “Senior Producer David Richardson and I thought that the power of Terry Nation’s original script for episode one was the visual aspect of it. The stage directions are pure Terry Nation action prose, and I felt strongly that it would be extremely entertaining for listeners to hear these.

“It was in the physical representation of the story that this episode differed the most from the broadcast version so we opted for me to read the stage directions. I also had the fun of playing Tom’s Doctor when we recorded the session with the rest of the cast, Tom having already recorded his bits separately.”

Big Finish listeners can save money by purchasing Daleks! Genesis of Terror together in a bundle with 2023’s second Doctor Who – The Lost Stories title, The Ark, for just £25 (collector’s edition CD box set + download) or £23 (download only).

Big Finish is currently operating a digital-first release schedule. The mail-out of collector’s edition CDs may be delayed due to factors beyond our control, but all purchases of this release unlock a digital copy that can be immediately downloaded or played on the Big Finish app from the release date.