Doctor Who – Revelation of the Daleks – Review

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Doctor Who – Revelation of the Daleks
by Eric Saward

Story # 143, 1985
Colin Baker as The Doctor
Nicola Bryant as Peri

Eric Saward turns in his second mess of a Dalek story.

Plot
The Doctor and Peri arrive on the planet Necros to investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of the Doctor’s friend.

Meanwhile body snatchers are searching for (coincidentally, it appears) the body of the Doctor’s friend.

Davros is creating a new army of Daleks, loyal to him using the bodies in Necros. He’s also feeding the galaxy with the leftovers.

His business partners have hired and assassin to kill him.

For “comedy” there’s are plots with a lovelorn intern and the chief embalmer and another about a DJ who entertains the corpses.

Hell, there was no plot in this one. I’m not even going to bother.

Analysis
Having just watched Resurrection of the Daleks, Eric Saward’s previous Dalek attempt, last night my complaints from that story continue into this one. Too many subplots are floating around and the Doctor does mostly nothing. In fact, he’s hardly seen in the entire first episode. That’s worse than you might think because this is from the one hour episode era and this is only a two parter. The Doctor doesn’t even make it inside the building before the first episode ends.

I watched this episode with the subtitles turned on because Davros often becomes incoherent and I thought I might finally discover what he says. What became apparent was that the subtitlers couldn’t understand him either.

I really don’t mind a complex story, but this was about as neatly tied up as a two-year old’s shoelaces. Eric Saward really just didn’t know how to write a Doctor Who story. The Visitation, a minor effort in the Who cannon, was his best work. As with Resurrection, all of the subplots ended in dead ends – the characters involved are all killed off, completely unsuccessful in their goals.

The character of the comedy-relief DJ is played by Alexi Sayle, and one can only suppose the part was written in as part of the guest star of the week mentality that had taken hold during that era. For most of the episode he’s just an annoying commentator on the action, although he does get to (briefly) interact with Peri before his ultimate demise.

It’s hard to say Colin’s Doctor is on his top of form here, since he’s given so little to do. He’s given one of his obligatory indignant remarks, typically in a form like this:

Peri: Who was this guy, anyway?
Doctor: “Guy”?… “GUY?!?!!!!”

He’s given one of his melancholy turns when he sees his own tombstone and gets all contemplative.

Although he is given one of those moments that makes him stand head over heals over the other John Nathan-Turner cast Doctors: Davros has been wounded, his one remaining hand blown off, and he is now a prisoner of the Dalek forces being lead out of the room. The Doctor offers to shake his hand, knowing full well Davros hasn’t got one. That’s it. Just that, but it shows Colin’s Doctor has more potential personality than Davison or McCoy combined.

It’s really sad to say that’s the highlight of this story. It may have been the highlight of the season.

My next review should either be Pertwee’s Inferno (yeah!) or McCoy’s Curse of Fenric (uggh. Well, at least it wasn’t written by Saward).

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2 thoughts on “Doctor Who – Revelation of the Daleks – Review”

  1. For some reason I quite like this one.

    I can’t deny the plot’s a bit of a mess. In fact what’s needed is a script editor (Oh? He was? Then what’s needed is a good script editor.) Because there are lots of things to like: Tranquil Repose, stealing the not-quite-dead to create a new race of Daleks, a deteriorated Davros with his head in a tank, the cape hiding Colin Baker’s costume, Colin Baker being given so little to do…

    But they don’t tie up, they’re just thrown together: potentially excellent guest stars Eleanor Bron and Alexie Sayle are given embarassing “comedy” roles and little attempt is made to tie in the peripheral subplots. Still, despite all this I did find it entertaining: it’s a refreshing change when compared to some of the more routine Dalek stories, Davros is on top form and despite (perhaps because of?) being given so little to do, Colin Baker’s Doctor feels more convincing than usual.

  2. For some reason I quite like this one.

    I can’t deny the plot’s a bit of a mess. In fact what’s needed is a script editor (Oh? He was? Then what’s needed is a good script editor.) Because there are lots of things to like: Tranquil Repose, stealing the not-quite-dead to create a new race of Daleks, a deteriorated Davros with his head in a tank, the cape hiding Colin Baker’s costume, Colin Baker being given so little to do…

    But they don’t tie up, they’re just thrown together: potentially excellent guest stars Eleanor Bron and Alexie Sayle are given embarassing “comedy” roles and little attempt is made to tie in the peripheral subplots. Still, despite all this I did find it entertaining: it’s a refreshing change when compared to some of the more routine Dalek stories, Davros is on top form and despite (perhaps because of?) being given so little to do, Colin Baker’s Doctor feels more convincing than usual.

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