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| "So, what do you want for Christmas, m'boy?" "A lifetime supply of carrot juice, to Michael Grade's house." |
Revelation Of The Daleks is Doctor Who as a genuinely morbid horror, far beyond the safe Hammer homages of the Hinchcliffe era, and though the script is messy, that chilling atmosphere and the concepts introduced make it one of the most memorable stories in the show's run.
WRITTEN BY
Eric Saward, contemporary script editor. You recognise his stories because they look better than anyone else's, but make no sense. Oh yeah, and everybody dies(he is almost literally the reason why "everybody lives" was such a big moment in The Empty Child).
PLOT
Davros has set himself up as "the Great Healer" of the galaxy, providing unlimited food from mysterious sources. However, his factory owners are tired of losing all their profits to him and hire a pair of noble assassins to kill him in his hiding place at Tranquil Repose, a funeral home where the rich are in suspended animation, waiting to be cured.
Also the Doctor's there or something.
ANALYSIS
Okay, so the story has holes that you could drive a TARDIS through. In fact, pretty much everyone's motivations are skewed to some degree. And of course, Saward's penchant for dramatically killing off characters and cutting their storylines dead is in full force here. Time and time again, it seemed like my investment was wasted or if it wasn't, I shouldn't have had it to begin with.
But horror has never been known for making sense. It's visceral and based in concepts, imagination. And Revelation is anything, but unimaginative. It deals with themes of cannibalism and consumerism much like George Romero's iconic Living Dead movies, only adding a central, malignant villain to push people over the edge.
The direction is excellent, courtesy of the brilliant Graeme Harper who employs a lot of cinematic camera moves and unusual flourishes much like he did in The Caves Of Androzani.
CHARACTERS
Without a doubt, this is Colin Baker's peak performance as the Doctor, purely because the script dispenses with his poor behaviour towards Peri within the first 10 minutes or so, and lets him focus on the mystery of Tranquil Repose as, you know, a proper Doctor would.
Whilst Peri is almost nonexistent in the plot and gets to be leered at - again! - she doesn't at least cry and whimper through the whole hour and a half. Plus, she has some genuinely fun scenes with the DJ.
Oh yeah, the DJ. There's a legit DJ in this, for no apparent reason(I thought Davros used all the bodies? Is he tuned into the Daleks?). All he does is provide OTT commentary from time and time and bash a few Daleks with a sonic cannon blasting rock and roll. Brilliant.
Terry Molloy returns as Davros. This story gives him a bit more to do than just rant, which is nice, although it might actually give him a little too much. Not only can Davros suddenly fire lightning from his fingers and eye(through plastic, no less) and E-LE-VATE, but he has become a complete sadist, executing Jobel for petty reasons by turning his would-be lover against him. It's... weird.
William Gaunt and John Ogwen are spectacular as the reserved, dry-witted Knight of the Order of Oberon Orcini and his filthy, but loyal squire Bostock, and portray such a strong bond that I'd honestly watch a spin-off with these well-rounded characters.
Meanwhile, Eleanor Bron and Hugh Walters seem to think they're in some campy comedy and distract with a humorous, satirical corporate double-act that would be funny in almost any other story, but gives a tonal whiplash here.
Jenny Tomasin's Tasambeker is... unspeakably bad. You remember Jenny Laird from Planet Of The Spiders? Now imagine that in a Shakespearean tragedy. Yesss. Some of her line deliveries count as the worst in the show's history, before or since.
NOTES
*Were the names of the writers always in Caps Lock in the titles or is that a recent development?
*The place where the Doctor intended to take Peri at the end of the episode was Blackpool, to set up The Nightmare Fair which would've featured the return of the Celestial Toymaker. However, since season 23 was reimagined as one story, the line had to be altered.
*Director Graeme Harper requested that the voice modulation on the Daleks be toned down a little to suggest their human origin, one of his few wrong decisions as it makes them sound like chipmunks.
*Why did the mutant attack the Doctor and Peri? He later claims the Sixth Doctor's attempt at hypnosis caused him to feel like he was being attacked(for no explained reason), but he was already pretty vicious before that.
*When checking the passes of the funeral workers, the Dalek patrol totally turns its eye stalk around before the second one even gets his pass out. It's like those lazy Daleks from The Chase all over again.
*So, nobody suspects Davros of wrongdoing even when he's constantly on the verge of evil ranting?
*"Oh, I do wish you'd get used to my sense of humor." Smooth. I gotta use that one sometime.
*Grigory grumbles a variation of "How did I let you talk me into this?" about three times in one episode.
*So the Sixth Doctor is 900 years old, yeah? Thanks for the update, I'll remember that.
*The death of Arthur Stengos has to rank as one of the best scenes in the entire franchise, it's absolutely brutal.
*Although one does wonder, if Stengos really wasn't the kind of person to prolong his death, what was he doing there? Did Davros invite him?
*And speaking of invitations, why did Davros lure the Doctor there, and how did he even know what his sixth incarnation looked like?
*What was the point of the Doctor making a big fuss over the blue costumes if they were going to take them off as soon as they got to the funeral home anyway? I know Saward wanted to hide the Doctor's costume, but then... why not go all the way?
*As silly as it may seem, I kinda like the touch of Bostock never having heard of swords given how outdated they are.
*What exactly was the point of sneaking Orcini and Bostock into Tranquil Repose if they were just going to blow up the first Dalek they saw? Master assassins, indeed!
*It's never really explained what Davros's crimes against the Daleks are. I assumed it's him trying to create human Daleks(which was a big no-no for the Daleks in the RTD era), but since those Daleks are merely taken in for conversion, I guess it was his trying to brainwash the Daleks sent to rescue him back in Resurrection Of The Daleks?
*The appereance of the Doctor's gravestone in this story seems to mark the first time the show tries to pretend the Doctor's death is inevitable.
*You know how anyone killed by a Dalek blast usually scrunches up in pain and collapses? Well, Hugh Walters must've gotten the tickly setting because he just spazzes out for like 5 seconds before finally looking his boss in the eye and falling.
*The guy playing Takis is so mild-mannered, he almost looks like a fan who wandered in and agreed to do some filming.
CONTINUITY ADVISOR
1) The Doctor mentions that Davros's ship had blown up the last time they met, alluding to the events of Resurrection Of The Daleks. Fair enough, they ought to catch us up to date with what Davros has been up to.
BEST QUOTE
"Destroy that meddling DJ!" - I never imagined I'd hear these words coming out of Davros's slimy black lips.
CONCLUSION
The script could've used some ironing, but otherwise it's a real chiller, that's for sure.
Season 22 was... eclectic, to say the least. Whilst there was a lot more variety than any of the Davison seasons, it was at the cost of believability. I simply cannot imagine the Sixth Doctor and Peri living in the TARDIS between adventures and they don't even bother trying with that sort of thing nowadays. It's all too... theatrical, sterile.
From a story perspective, it's quite a solid season, with the worst offender probably being Mark Of The Rani(no particular reason - I just think it works the least well). All of them have issues, but I wouldn't call any of them bad, and that's a big plus, leaving me with a fonder feeling than I expected, given my overall exhaustion with the Sixth Doctor.
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