Resurrection Of The Daleks (1984) Review

"Parlay?"

Though Resurrection Of The Daleks is actionpacked and exceptionally well paced, it drowns in padding, convoluted plotting and the transparency of the whole story.

WRITTEN BY

Eric Saward, current script editor, whose fondness for antiheroes led to an overall downbeat theme for this season.

PLOT

Seeking a cure for the Movellan virus, a few remaining Dalek survivors invade the space prison containing Davros. However, he has plans of his own, particularly when the Daleks' time corridor gets a hold of the Doctor and pulls him into the picture...

ANALYSIS

What did Earth have to do with anything?!

This is a big question. Half of this serial takes place on Earth. It's where the Time Corridor takes the TARDIS. The Dalek agents are there... gunning down the Dalek duplicates for some reason.
We do see that the canisters of the Movellan virus are concealed there and I do understand that it's smarter to keep them off the Dalek ships, but on another planet in time? Specifically one that the Doctor frequents? It's sheer lunacy.

It's one of several examples of the insane amount of padding in this story. The actual story is very simple: the Daleks have a problem, they go get Davros. He turns against them so they ditch him.

This is surrounded by endless action scenes between the human jailers and the Dalek agents, plus the military fighting against the Daleks protecting the canisters on Earth. And then the duplicate military protecting the canisters by... having Tegan and professor Laird sit next to them. Turlough has the best part of all. In a lovely callback to season 20, he wanders around. A lot. Watching stuff happen. For three episodes.

Basically, a lot is happening all the time to cover the fact that absolutely nothing of relevance is going on. The spectacular direction from Matthew Robinson hides the fact really well and his work is indeed the star of the show. His camera work is quite masterful, and the score by Malcolm Clarke only emphasises it. Visually, this could be one of the best serials yet.

Initially, it got me pumped, but as time went on, I couldn't help, but get bored waiting for something substantial to occur. A random last-minute plot twist involving Gallifrey did not help.

CHARACTERS

The Fifth Doctor's characterisation is a little iffy here. I mean, the scene in which he declares Davros must die is certainly impressive and shocking, but it comes across as hollow after seeing him blow a Dalek mutant to bits with a handgun in the same story. I did enjoy his interactions with Stien, and how he was able to convert undo the Daleks' conditioning on him.

Poor Mark Strickson almost never gets anything to do. He'd have been an excellent villain, I think he's got exactly the appropriate kind of theatrical acting ability for it, not to mention a really shady look. Even as an antihero, he'd be cool. But for some reason, no one can really figure out what to do with him, since the Fifth Doctor fills the traditional male hero part.

Tegan, Tegan, Tegan... she was quite the character, wasn't she? You can say all you want about 80s companions, but Tegan certainly changed for the better over the course of her adventures with the Doctor.
She was downright intolerable in season 19 when all she cared about was Heathrow, but from Arc Of Infinity onward, I found myself enjoying her toned down pragmatism and even occasional enthusiasm. She's sarcastic, but not heartless. And it made her softer moments stand out much more because they were genuine.
I also have to express my admiration of Janet Fielding, who improved dramatically as an actress over the years. It's a shame she never really had a career in that area, because as a villain, she was sublime in both Kinda and Snakedance.
Brave heart, Tegan. I'll miss you.

Terry Molloy sits into the wheelchair of Davros, who is basically the lynchpin of the entire story. The hunt for Davros, his subsequent machinations to overcome the Daleks' hold over him and the Doctor's difficult decision drive the plot. Molloy does a great job of imitating Wisher's vocals and his more deformed mask helps to make him look intimidating(especially when he speaks softly), but the character now comes across as a parody of himself.
The point of Davros, from my perspective, is to give the Doctor someone to discuss and argue the nature of the Daleks. Thus giving the Dalek stories that he's in a bit more depth than they would otherwise. Defending the Daleks on a moral level is what defines him. Here, however, the two don't even meet until the end, and their single confrontation ends with the Doctor simply walking out of the room.
So for the rest of the story, Davros is an intelligent, but unremarkable baddie, making all of the effort that went to releasing him rather anticlimactic.

The rest of the characters are paper-thin, but I'll try saying a few words: Maurice Colbourne gives a strong performance as the tough, independent Dalek agent Lytton, but is underused. Rodney Bewes is very subtle(that stammer was a nice touch) as the conflicted duplicate Stien, though his character doesn't make much sense.

Everyone else are just... good. To their credit, nobody gives a flawed performance, but they are all ciphers, set to die in meaningless battles, so there's just not much to say about them. Although I do think the early Spock/McCoy-esque interactions between Jim Findley's Mercer and Rula Lenska's Dr. Styles did a good job of at least introducing the prison environment.

NOTES

*So, is Lytton taking over that plan to replace Earth's leaders with duplicates? Is he a duplicate himself?

*The helmets on the Dalek agents look almost as stupid as the eyesticks coming out of the skulls of those infected by the Dalek nanovirus nowadays.

*Why was the prison so poorly run? You'd think even lazy people would be more careful if they're working in a prison for just one man... think how dangerous he must be!

*Was there a particular reason for the complete revision of Davros's design? He looks almost nothing like he did in the first two stories. Even his chair seems to be completely different.

*And couldn't he have used that handy brainwashing device to convince the Kaleds to let him keep experimenting in Genesis? Or to turn the Doctor to his side?

*What convinced Tegan to leave now of all times? Wouldn't it be more likely for her to have this breakdown after Snakedance?

*What caused Stien's conditioning to start breaking down?

*When did the Daleks find out that Davros was lying to them? Surely such a momentous revelation couldn't have happened off-screen!

*The ending of this story makes it seem almost like this is yet again the end of the Daleks for good. I mean, if you missed that line about them being scattered to different corners of the universe, you wouldn't be remiss for at least wondering that when we see all the Daleks and Davros himself get eaten away by the Movellan virus without any kind of twist.

*How come Davros didn't expect any Dalek casualties from the Dalek-Movellan War? He turned them into suicide bombers last time!

*I love Davros's reaction when he's told the Daleks lost. It's like he snarls and gasps at the same time.

*How did the Movellan virus affect Davros? He explicitly says it shouldn't, so... what happened?

*Why on Earth do the Daleks need to be reminded of/alerted to their own orders by Lytton? What would have happened to the Dalek Supreme's big plan if they just exterminated the Doctor there and then?

*I love how the Doctor just assumes Davros is somewhere around when he sees the Daleks.

*How does Davros know what the TARDIS is? It was completely absent in Genesis and I don't recall him discovering it in Destiny either.

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) The Dalek-Movellan War was introduced in Destiny Of The Daleks. It's quite neat that Saward decided to carry on straight from that story as opposed to just bringing the Daleks back on their own.

2) The TARDIS is still caught in the Time Corridor, following the cliffhanger from last week.

3) Davros announces that the Daleks will not abuse him again, as they attempted to kill him in Genesis Of The Daleks. This, again, is a nice bit of continuity that I think Destiny Of The Daleks completely ignored.

4) Images of all the previous Doctors and companions are shown on-screen when Stien attempts to duplicate the Doctor and his mind. I think it's pretty gratuitous.

BEST QUOTE

"HE MUST BE EXTERMINATED... AS SOON AS IT IS CONVENIENT TO THE DALEKS!!"

CONCLUSION

A blockbuster that can't decide what it really wants to do.