Revelation of the Daleks
Written by Eric Saward
Directed by Greame Harper
Directed by Greame Harper
Starring:
Colin Baker as the Doctor
Colin Baker as the Doctor
Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown
Terry Malloy as Davros
“Revelation
of the Daleks” is the final story of season 22 of Doctor Who. It also is the last
story arc to be presented as multiple 45-minute episodes until 2005. If you
couldn’t guess by the title, “Revelation of the Daleks” is yet another
Dalek-based story; however, this is from back when Dalek episodes were a rare
thing, unlike recent years of the series, in which they have already appeared
numerous times. So, how does “Revelation of the Daleks” stack up against other
Dalek episodes? Let me tell you.
“Revelation of the Daleks” is
mainly based on the planet Necros, where the funeral home Tranquil Repose is
located. The odd thing about this place is that people are actually frozen
before they die, so they can await a cure for whatever afflicts them. Tranquil
Repose is where most of this story centers. A Great Healer works within the
funeral home, helping to supply the galaxy with a new food source to keep
famine at bay. Of course it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together and
understand what the food that comes from this funeral home is made of, or that
this “Great Healer” is none other than Davros, creator of the Daleks, or that
he is yet again building up an army of Daleks. For a Dalek story, though, we
are at least treated to a unique setting, an interesting cast of characters,
and the great Colin Baker as our Doctor.
A pleasant thing about Colin Baker
and Nicola Bryant is that they work so well together. They bounce their lines
off each other in a very natural way, like they’ve known one another for years.
At times they seem more like an old married couple rather than friends; this adds
a lot of charm to the Colin Baker years, which was a very vexing time for
Doctor Who. Michael Grad, at the time the controller of BBC1, gave Doctor Who a
hard time, to say the least. He constantly criticized the show for its violence
and out right dislikes Colin Baker, eventually leading to Baker being fired.
Doctor Who did it’s best to go on though, with dropping ratings and nearly a
whole year with being off the air. A common hindrance to Colin and Peri’s run
is that normally Peri wears clothing that exposes her “assets” regularly.
(Short shorts and breast cleavage abound!) Thankfully this adventure is
amazingly short on that aspect, and it’s frankly very nice, as it allows me to
focus more on what’s going on rather than critiquing the BBC’s obvious try at
making the female companion overly sexy to generate higher ratings.
One of the more annoying aspects of
this adventure is a DJ whose role in Tranquil Repose is to keep the frozen
people up to date with current media events and, apparently, to talk aimlessly
and irritatingly. As if his annoying voice and dialogue weren’t enough to make
me hate him, he also wears two outfits that frankly hurt to look at. One of
these outfits is, as best as I can fathom, supposed to be some sort of hippie
garb, but just makes him look like he’s pretending to be a large brown slug.
Truthfully, if he had been wearing a slug suit, I probably would have enjoyed
the character a lot more—especially if it came with a mask to muffle his
grating voice. His second outfit is vaguely Elvis-like, in a “leather fiend
who’s never actually seen a picture of Elvis” sort of way; in other words, not
much better than the first one. The character honestly serves little purpose in
the overall story, and I’d rather have watched Daleks performing Swan Lake than
suffer through this DJ’s abrasive performance.
Speaking
of Daleks! The victims of Davros undergoing the procedure to be turned into
Daleks look grotesque. This is perfect, as the transformation process should
not look pleasant. The makeup job for this is surprisingly well done, with exposed
and pulsating brains, torn and bleeding flesh, and mutating skin. The special
effects for this look surprisingly real, except one tiny little eyesore: you
can literally see some of the wire mesh they used to form the grotesque
features around the human heads sticking right out. It’s clearly visible; so
much is viewable that I have to wonder if it was intentional. It gives the
impression Davros is cutting costs on Dalek creation by going the wire-mesh
papier-mâché way.
It
wouldn’t be much of a surprise if this batch of Daleks Davros creates isn’t of
the highest quality. He must have been intoxicated when creating them, as they
seem almost useless. The Daleks can’t even seem to aim their weapons right. The
only time they can hit something with their weapons is at point-blank range. The
only thing more curious than why Davros has made such inferior Daleks is why
the guns in “Revelation of the Daleks” look more like cake decorators than
lethal killing devices. Thankfully Davros is focused on much more than his
Dalek creations in this arc. Davros himself is as enjoyable as ever, being the
ever manipulative abomination of flesh and science that we all know and love.
Despite
some technical flaws and a certain annoying character, “Revelation of the
Daleks” is rather enjoyable. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant work so wonderfully
together that you can feel their chemistry drip off the screen and into your
heart, clogging your arteries with their charm. While the Daleks themselves are
a flop, we are saved by the fact that Davros is more the focus than his
creations. An interesting premise helps save this adventure from being solely
carried upon the backs of its stars, or from being simply a subpar Dalek story.
Rating: 3/5
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