Doctor Who: The 10 Most Menacing Davros Quotes, In Chronological Order

The mad Kaled scientist Davros was late to the Doctor Who party when he made his first appearance in the 1975 serial “Genesis Of The Daleks,” but he quickly became the Doctor’s most notorious and tenacious nemesis next to the Master. The physical and psychological product of the war-torn planet Skaro, Davros’ brilliant mind would pave a road littered with billions of corpses, all thanks to his dreaded Daleks.

The ultimate megalomaniac, Davros imprinted his distorted and psychotic view of the galaxy onto his creations, and his menace only grew as the series continued. Here’s 10 of the most menacing and chilling quotes ever uttered by Davros, to make your skin crawl!

10 “Observe The Test Closely, My Friend. This Will Be A Moment That Will Live In History!”

Audiences first caught a glimpse of Davros at the very end of the first episode of “Genesis Of The Daleks,” when Sarah Jane Smith stumbled upon an outdoor test site with a prototype Dalek. Davros and his fellow scientist Gharman conducted a test of the Dalek weapons systems, which the unit passed with flying colors.

After demonstrating its lethal destructive power, Davros uttered this quote which would be the beginning of a menace that would spread throughout the galaxy, and claim the lives of untold billions.

9 “Yes, I Would Do It!”

After successfully forcing the Fourth Doctor to divulge his collected sum of knowledge regarding every known future Dalek defeat, Davros took a rare moment to discuss philosophy with him, as “men of science.” The conversation quickly shifted to a debate about morality, where the Doctor posited a scenario involving a capsule with a lethal virus that could destroy all life almost immediately.

In an attempt to reason with Davros regarding the immoral nature of his Dalek creations, the Doctor asked if he would unleash such a virus, or not. To his dismay, Davros responded positively to the idea, adding “that power would set me up above the Gods! And through the Daleks, I shall have that power!”

8 “There Is Not A Ship, Not A Prison That Can Hold Me!”

After Davros was seemingly murdered by his own creations, the Doctor was surprised to see them digging him up from his entombment on Skaro many centuries later. The Daleks required Davros’ instinct and intuition to overcome a logical stalemate between themselves and their arch enemies, the Movellans.

The Doctor foiled his plan to reprogram the Dalek battle computers in order to achieve victory, and Davros was placed under arrest by the Earth courts for crimes against all of sentient creation. Before his cryofreezing process was activated for the long trip back to Earth, Davros uttered this quote which would prove truthful on more than one occasion.

7 “My Daleks Shall Once More Become The Supreme Being!”

The Daleks required Davros’ assistance once again when their centuries-long stalemate against the Movellans was broken by the production of a lethal virus that attacked their physiology. Davros was busted out of a galactic prison station and given leeway to work on a cure, but he himself had other plans.

Realizing the Daleks were using him for their own ends, Davros feigned ignorance while lying to his creations so that he could gain the upper hand. He began this quote by proclaiming his intention to create a new and far more deadly race of Daleks to replace the originals that had turned on him.

6 “The Universe Is At War, Doctor!”

Realizing that Davros was up to no good, the Fifth Doctor decided on a course of action that he would never before have contemplated – flat-out murder. To stop Davros from enacting his ultimate plan, the Doctor confronted Davros with an energy blaster in hand, ready to snuff out his nemesis once and for all.

Davros quickly tried to convince the Doctor that he had intended to reprogram the Daleks as a positive force of good throughout the galaxy, which the Doctor scoffed at. Davros attempted to rationalize his goals by saying “The universe is at war, Doctor! Name one planet whose history is not littered with atrocities, and ambition for empire! It is a universal way of life.” 

5 “If Someone Had Treated Me The Way He Has Treated You…I Think I Would Have Killed Them!”

Davros managed to escape the events of “Resurrection Of The Daleks” before making his way to Tranquil Repose, a mortuary on the planet Necros. There, he enacted a plan to lure the Doctor to his doom, while creating a new race of Daleks in the bowels of the company building.

In order to strengthen his grip on operations, Davros manipulated the young and naive Tasambeker by showing her recordings of her mentor Jobel’s flirtations with other women. This, combined with Jobel’s psychologically abusive behavior was a catalyst for Davros to mutter these words in her ear, pushing her to murder the very man she had such strong feelings for.

4 “I Never Waste A Valuable Commodity.”

Davros’ abuse of Tranquil Repose and its inhabitants didn’t stop at the creation of a new Dalek race. It involved taking the so-called “lesser intellects” who made up the interned, and converting them into a product with a grisly, stomach-turning premise. When Davros revealed that he had chosen bodies with ambitious, dominant personalities to serve as Dalek mutants, the Doctor asked what happened to the rest.

Davros revealed all the unpleasant details, beginning with this quote, before adding, “the humanoid form makes an excellent concentrated protein. This part of the galaxy is developing quickly. Famine…was…one of its major problems!” It put forced cannibalism on the laundry list of horrifically immoral and evil crimes committed by Davros.

3 “Does It Worry You, Doctor?”

The Doctor found himself in the middle of a civil war between the traditional Daleks, and the Imperial variant with Davros as their Emperor. His quest to obtain the Hand of Omega, a powerful Time Lord weapon came with a sinister premise attached to it. The Doctor confronted his old nemesis once more and warned Davros not to use it.

Davros uttered this quote in response before laying out his grand plan to transform Skaro’s sun into a massive power source, which he would then use to exterminate Gallifrey and wipe out the Time Lords. It was the first direct confirmation that the Daleks were firmly invested in conflict with the Time Lords, which would later kick off the dreaded and devastating Time War.

2 “Planets And Stars Will Become Dust, And The Dust Will Become Atoms, And The Atoms Will Become…Nothing!”

Following the traumatic events of the Time War, Davros was revealed to have survived the conflict and was actively working on a new endgame for the Dalek race. The plan involved the hijacking of several planets (including Earth) to act as a massive transmitter for a catastrophic weapon known as the Reality Bomb.

The end result would have projected a devastating wave across the entire universe, destroying every form of life in one fell swoop. It was the physical expression of the viral doomsday scenario the Doctor pitched to Davros so many centuries before and would have resulted in the end of all things.

1 “Your Compassion Is Your Downfall!”

An aged and terminal Davros enacted perhaps his most nefarious plan when he successfully convinced the Doctor that he regretted his life decisions, and sought to make amends before his death. In truth, the entire thing was a ruse designed to convince the Doctor to give up his regeneration energy voluntarily, which reinvigorated both he and the Daleks on Skaro.

Believing his master plan to be a success, Davros gloated with this quote, which he had done several times in the past. Unfortunately for him, the Doctor knew exactly what he was up to, and his regeneration energies seeped into the sewers of the city where discarded Daleks were left to rot, causing them to revolt against their own kind.

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