Classic Doctor Who - Season 22 - Revelation Of The Daleks (1985) - Review
Starring: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy, Eleanor Bron & Clive Swift
Written By: Eric Saward
Directed By: Graeme Harper
Revelation
Of The Daleks partly
came into existence as a result of writer and script editor Eric
Saward's own dissatisfaction with his last Dalek story. Resurrection
Of The Daleks,
broadcast in the previous year, was littered with problems and I can
certainly share and understand Eric Saward's own dissatisfaction with
it, and I'd go as far as to say it's probably one of my least
favourite Dalek stories. Revelation Of The Daleks
was
something of a second attempt, and with many elements changed since
Season 21, what was the result?
The
Doctor and Peri arrive on the planet Necros, planning to attend the
funeral of a friend. However, they find something very wrong going on
at Tranquil Repose – a facility that allows the newly-deceased
bodies of the wealthy to be cryogenically frozen until elusive cures
for their ailments have been discovered. The Doctor and Peri soon
learn of the presence of someone called the 'Great Healer' on Necros,
and that he is responsible for solving the galaxy's famine problems.
But the 'Great Healer' is in reality Davros, and he is using the
bodies in cryogenic storage to build a new race of Daleks ...
Easily
the biggest area of improvement for Revelation Of The Daleks
when compared to
Resurrection Of The Daleks,
is that Eric Saward does a far better job when it comes to handling a
bleak tone. Instead of going overboard with excessive and nasty
deaths that had no meaning or dramatic impact behind them, Revelation
Of The Daleks is still bleak
and grim, but feels naturally so. It's possibly one of Doctor
Who's best examples of dark
comedy, and certainly its most noteworthy. This is a pitch black
comedy with so many good, quotable and cynical lines, such as: “'We
prefer to stand.' 'Of course, how foolish. As men of action, you must
be like coiled springs – alert, ready to pounce.' 'Nothing so
romantic. I have an artificial leg with a faulty hydraulic valve.'”
and “'Did you bother to tell anyone that they might be
eating their own deceased relatives?' 'Of course not! That would have
created what I believe is termed 'consumer resistance'.'”.
The sense of dark humour on show goes a long way in preventing
Revelation Of The Daleks
from becoming bleak and miserable just for the sake of it. There's
even a bit of satire thrown in, such as when Davros and Kara finish
their call with each other, and then both express how much they
despise the other (you can imagine many video call business meetings
going a similar way). It all goes hand in hand with the more grisly
stuff, such as Davros converting the near-dead of a funeral facility
into a new race of Daleks, and using those who were deemed not to be
intellectually superior as a food source. It's an interesting way of
addressing problems such as food shortage, but still pretty
grotesque, and it's exactly the kind of thing I could imagine Davros
doing.
Speaking
of Davros, it's another improvement for Eric Saward as he puts him
and the Daleks to far better use this time, and gives them some much
meatier stuff to get on with. It's mostly Davros who takes
centre-stage, with Terry Molloy making his second appearance in the
role, and if you ever wanted a reason why he's my favourite actor to
play Davros (even better than Michael Wisher), it's here. Davros gets
plenty of manipulating, maniacal rants and more to do, and Revelation
Of The Daleks shows the
character at his best. Not only is he pulping the near-dead into food
and selling it to unsuspecting consumers, there's also his
manipulation of Tasambeker into killing Jobel, despite her affections
for him. It isn't because he can't send some Daleks to go and kill
Jobel, but he does it just for the fun of it, and even when
Tasambeker completes the task, she herself is killed by the Daleks.
That right there is a perfect summation of just who Davros is.
Towards the end, the 6th
Doctor and Davros share their only on-screen appearance together, and
like any scenes between the Doctor and Davros, it really brings out
the best in both characters. The Daleks themselves once again play
second fiddle, which is a bit of a shame, but not entirely unexpected
given how Davros has already overshadowed them in the past. To be
honest, while I liked the white and gold design in Remembrance
Of The Daleks, here for some
reason I'm not too fond of it, and their more human voices don't help
too much either. It really isn't until the grey Daleks show up in the
last ten minutes that the Daleks get anything to do, and the Renegade
vs. Imperial factions that we see in their next appearance get set
up. Although to be fair, there is one brief exception to this where
Natasha discovers her father's mutating head inside a glass Dalek.
Seeing him slowly lose his humanity to the Dalek conditioning is a
horrifying moment, beautifully done and definitely a standout scene.
One
criticism that's been made of Revelation Of The Daleks,
is that it sidelines the Doctor and Peri and doesn't give them much
to do. This is certainly true for the first part as they don't even
encounter any of the supporting cast. But to be honest, the Doctor
and Peri featured quite prominently in this season as it is, and with
the exception of the brilliantly cheeky fob watch moment, their
constant bickering was starting to grate. Taking the Doctor and Peri
out of the main action does in this case allow a fantastic guest cast
their time to shine. Clive Swift stands out as Jobel, and it's a role
very different to other things I've seen him in. Jobel is
narcissistic, crude, creepy, arrogant and foolish, and Clive Swift is
surprisingly good at playing such a ridiculous little man. Eleanor
Bron and Hugh Walters are fantastic as Kara and Vogel respectively,
at one point even being described as a double act, and I couldn't
have put it better myself. Kara is someone very good at sounding
elegant and in control, but that facade quickly breaks when she's in
danger, while Vogel makes for an irresistibly camp secretary, with
one of the most over the top yet brilliant death scenes I've ever
encountered. Another standout character is the assassin, Orcini.
Orcini could have easily ended up a flat and forgettable character,
but there's something about the dignity and nobility William Gaunt
brings to the role that elevates him above this.
There
are only a couple of characters here where I struggle to know what to
feel towards them. The first is the DJ. The DJ has proved off putting
for a lot of fans when looking back at this story, and I can see why.
I personally feel his inclusion was bit overkill, and aside from a
couple of funny lines, his scenes really could have been left on the
cutting room floor. Honestly his best scenes are those he shares with
Peri, where he's revealed to be more shy and introverted than his
radio personality, but even these moments don't add a great deal in
the grand scheme of things. The other character I'm a bit dubious
towards is Tasambeker. I'm not sure what Eric Saward was aiming for
with her character, and whether she was supposed to be painted as
sympathetic, underhand, or at times a source of comic relief, but I
can never quite decide what I feel about her when I re-watch this
story. To be honest, there isn't anything that goes massively wrong
with Revelation Of The Daleks –
just a certain number of things that don't quite work here and there,
such as an occasionally duff character, or a lack of anything for the
Daleks to do. The cliffhanger to Part One is included with this, as
the Doctor is crushed by a rather shoddy-looking statue, as once
again it doesn't really add anything to the actual story as it's
solved easily in Part Two and barely mentioned again.
But
something that remains consistent throughout Revelation
Of The Daleks is the fact
that it's well directed by Graeme Harper (my favourite Doctor
Who director), who adds a
constant sense of dread and menace throughout. Admittedly, it's not
quite as strong as the work done on The Caves Of
Androzani, but then few
things are as insanely high quality as that story. Necros feels like
a hostile world right from the start, with the opening shots of the
TARDIS landing on a snowy landscape making a misty and uncomfortable
surrounding. The scenes that take place in the bowels of the Tranquil
Repose facility are laced with atmosphere and are disturbingly
gritty, with the highlight being the secret room where human material
is mutated into Dalek matter. It's incredibly well lit and even
reminiscent of Doctor Who's
Gothic horror days when Philip Hinchcliffe was at the helm of the
show. The use of prosthetics and practical makeup is also pretty
strong here, with the mutant that attacks the Doctor around the
beginning of Part One looking surprisingly better than I'd
remembered, and the duplicate Davros head in the machine looking
quite effective too.
I
must confess that for a time I really didn't like Revelation
Of The Daleks, but over time
my opinion of it has improved quite a bit. Many people cite this as
Colin Baker's best televised story, and I know some people really
love it. While there's a couple of Colin Baker's stories I'd call
better (such as Mindwarp),
Revelation Of The Daleks is
still incredibly solid. Set aside a couple of issues, and its use of
dark humour is on point, the guest cast are strong, Terry Molloy's
Davros is at some of his best, and it's a huge improvement from Eric
Saward's last story.
Revelation Of The Daleks
7/10