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Resurrection of the Daleks Format Reviewed: DVD Review Peter Davison had to wait until his final season to encounter the Daleks, and Resurrection provides the vehicule to reintroduce the iconic adversary. The DVD release of Resurrection features a black roundel themed DVD slipcase, not unlike the inside of the Masters TARDIS as depicted in several stories. Despite the broadcast of the story as two fifty minute episodes, the decision was taken to provide the story as the standard four twenty-five minute episodes. This is because it was how the story was originally conceived and shot, only later being re-edited to the two fifty minute episodes due to scheduling difficulties. The TARDIS is caught in a time corridor and is forced into landing near a warehouse on the London docklands. The TARDIS crew are separated and eventually get taken up the corridor onto a prison ship which docks with a Dalek ship. The Daleks are trying to rescue their creator, Davros, from the prison ship and revive him to hopefully create an antidote to a virus created by the Movellans in their great war. Davros manages to take control of a Human technician and a couple of Daleks before the remainder of the Daleks lose patience and go to kill Davros. Davros releases the Movellan virus but finds it affects all the Daleks and himself, before the ships are blown up by a rogue Dalek agent, Stien. Back at the warehouse, the TARDIS crew have escaped the ships and a pitched battle is happening between the Daleks loyal to Davros and the other Daleks, and the Humans lead by Commander Lytton. The Doctor releases more of the Movellan virus and the Daleks die, meaning the TARDIS can leave soon after Lytton escapes. Resurrection of the Daleks is somewhat of a re-write of Destiny of the Daleks, but the difference really is that it has been done so much better. Many plot points are the same in that the Daleks are returning to their creator because of the Dalek-Movellan war, but from start to finish the production here is vastly superior. The tone is darker and more serious, and throughout the story you become engrossed in a way that Destiny of the Daleks never provided. The regular cast here seem to revel in the fact that they are in a Dalek story, and sonsequently give excellent performances. Peter Davison, Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding work well together and apart as The Doctor, Turlough and Tegan respectively. As far as the performances of the main cast go, this is arguably their best effort. Of the guest cast, the stand out member is Terry Molloy as Davros, but there is a generally high quality of the guest performances. Of particular note is Rula Lenska as Styles, Rodney Bewes as Stien and particularly Maurice Colbourne as Lytton. It is in the periphery characters as Mercer and Osborn played by Jim Findley and Sneh Gupta give very uncomfortable and wooden performances. These let the whole side down, but fortunately are not too central so don't completely ruin the production. A note should be made here again about Terry Molloy, as Davros was made to look somewhat of a joke character in his last story, Destiny of the Daleks, where David Gooderson failed to rally make Davros as sinister as he needed to be. Molloy though really reinvents the character and secures his place in all the subsequent Dalek adventures in the classic series. Looking back on teh story in the climate of twenty-first century television, the level of horror and violence seems to fit well in the story as it is portrayed. Back in the early 1980's though, I can see why this story was complained about by consumer pressure groups. I think this is probably about as far as the production team could have pushed the envelope back then, and looking back it really works well in my opinion. Partuclarly gruesome is the way the prison ship crew were mutilated by the Dalek gas. The departure of Tegan was also handled well here. There was never going to be scenes reminiscent of Romanas departure in Warriors Gate, but the departure of Tegan ehre really worked well, and the reasons given really made you feel strongly for Tegan. Overall, Resurrection of the Daleks is a very strong story that stands out as one of the best of the Davison era. Where it falls down slightly is that it is basically a slight rewrite of the Tom Baker story Destiny of the Daleks, and some of the peripheral actors deliver really wooden performances, but you can easily look past these faults and appreciate the story for its quality of action, acting and design. Rating:  |