Revelation of the Daleks

How inconvenient. Do you know how difficult it is to find good secretaries?

I've noticed that Eric Saward has a somewhat negative reputation as a writer among Doctor Who fans as he writes stories that are exceptionally violent and have very high body counts. One could also argue that he doesn't do the relationship between the Doctor and the companion particularly well either. However, Earthshock is highly regarded among the fans as is Resurrection of the Daleks, so perhaps it is only when he sticks his oar into other's work that he garners a bad reputation. I don't hear much about Revelation of the Daleks except about the cutoff joke at the end where the Doctor is going to say "Blackpool" so I went in to this story somewhat blindly.

Plot Summary

The Doctor and Peri land on the planet Necros, where the Doctor has learned that an old friend of his, Arthur Stengos, has been interred in the suspended animation facility of Tranquil Repose. As this is unlike the personality of his friend, the Doctor is suspicious. He lands the TARDIS well away from the facility and he and Peri walk through the snow towards the facility. Along the way they are attacked by a man who has been mutated. He goes for the Doctor and Peri is able to knock him out with a blow to the head with a tree branch. The blow clears his mind and he dies telling them that his condition was brought about by one known as "The Great Healer."

In the facility, the chief embalmer, Mr. Jobel, is finishing the preparations on the President's wife who has just died and is expected shortly. As he dismisses his staff to prepare, two body snatchers, Natasha and Grigory, slip past. Natasha is the daughter of Arthur Stengos and is just as suspicious of his internment in the facility as the Doctor is. The two manage to make it to Arthur's registry but they find his cryogenics chamber empty. They are discovered by guards and they make their way to another chamber where they find brains held in jars. They also find Arthur, suspended in a clear Dalek casing, his head mutating into a Dalek. He appeals to his daughter as the Dalek thought processes begin to take over and she blows him and the casing up.

Monitoring events from a secret chamber is Davros as a head suspended in a jar, attached to a machine. He orders Daleks on patrol. He also orders the snatchers caught as well as one of the junior embalmers, Tasambeker, brought to him. Davros also contacts Kara, the owner of a protein processing factory that has been working with Davros. He supplies her with raw protein material and she in turn funnels money back to him for his research. He requests additional funds and she agrees. However, she is determined to be rid of Davros and shortly after finishing the call with Davros welcomes Orcini, a disgraced knight and highly skilled assassin, and his squire Bostock and hires them to kill Davros. Orcini readily accepts, forgoing payment as he sees killing Davros as a badge of honor.

Natasha and Grigory are apprehended by two workers, Takis and Lilt. They are locked into a dungeon and Lilt tortures Grigory, attempting to get the truth of who sent them and what their mission is out of him. Meanwhile, Tasambeker is brought to Davros where he has her observe Jobel, with whom she loves, though he despises her. Davros has notices a strong streak of anger in her and hopes to turn her love into a vein of hate and make her into a Dalek.

The Doctor and Peri arrive at the facility, having been forced to climb a wall to get in. The Doctor is unnerved when he observes a monument garden with his picture on it as he believes that it means that he will die there. The monument of him suddenly falls on him and he appears to be crushed. Peri rushes over but she is stopped by Jobel, who observed the event and has developed a lust for Peri. But the Doctor emerges, the monument not being made of stone after all. They dismiss Jobel and enter the facility.

Inside, the Doctor and Peri are greeted by Tasambeker and the Doctor inquires her about their facilities. Unable to get the full answers from her, he asks to see the Great Healer. He dissuades Peri from going with him and she instead goes to see the DJ who plays music and observes the facility. The DJ is flattered by Peri's appreciation of his aping 20th century Earth DJs and shows her around his studio. The Doctor meanwhile is captured by two Daleks and taken to the same dungeon as Natasha and Grigory. Davros, pleased with the Doctor's capture, dispatches a group of Daleks to the protein plant to arrest Kara. They also kill her secretary and accomplice, Vogel.

While the Daleks are gone, Orcini and Bostock sneak further into the facility. They release the three prisoners to create a diversion while the two of them enter Davros' lab. The Doctor radios Peri and orders her to get back to the TARDIS and radio the President's ship to leave off as the facility is under control of the Daleks. Davros is alerted to this and sends more Daleks to stop her. Unable to get out, Peri uses the DJ's radio to signal the ship. The President's ship breaks off it's approach and they also observe another ship heading towards Necros.

Tasameker, ordered by Davros to kill Jobel, instead tries to warn him of Davros' plan. He mocks her and laughs her off. Enraged at his condescension, she stabs him with a syringe of embalming fluid, killing him. She runs off and runs into the Daleks heading toward the DJ studio and they kill her.

The Doctor sends Natasha and Grigory to destroy the lab they found earlier while he tries to get to Davros. Natasha and Grigory succeed in getting to the lab but find their weapons depleted. They set the controls to overload but before they can get out, a new Dalek teleports in and kills them. It is destroyed with the lab when the controls explode.

Orcini and Bostock reach Davros' lab and succeed in destroying Davros' head at the control panel. However, this was just a mock up and the real Davros, in his chair, emerges. Both Orcini and Bostock are wounded by Dalek guards, though Bostock appears dead. Orcini is propped in a chair and Kara is brought in, confronted with her failed plan. She is forced to admit that she also supplied Orcini with a hidden bomb, intending for all parties to be destroyed by it. Orcini stabs her with his hidden knife for her treachery, killing her.

Peri and the DJ manage to hold off and destroy several Daleks before they break through and the DJ is killed. Peri is brought to Davros' lab where she is reunited with the Doctor, who was also captured by several patrolling Daleks. Davros expounds on his new facilities to create Daleks, even going so far to tell him about how unused parts are turned into raw protein which are then shipped throughout the galaxy as a food source. Davros prepares to activate his other facilities, replacing the one that was destroyed when Bostock rises and shoots off Davros' hand. He is then gunned down by a Dalek.

While distracted, the unidentified freighter lands, revealing a faction of Imperial Daleks, invited by Takis and Lilt. They take them through the corridors where they destroy the Daleks loyal to Davros. They enter the lab and arrest Davros and escort him out, preparing to take him to Skaro for trial. The Doctor, Takis and Lilt create a distraction and Orcini destroys the Dalek guard. Orcini, wounded, is unable to go with them and volunteers to stay behind and detonate the bomb given him by Kara, which will destroy all of Davros' facilities. The group runs out and reaches the ground level as Orcini detonates the bomb. This destroys the facilities but the Imperial Daleks and Davros lift off in their ship.

With the facility destroyed the Doctor offers to show them how they can process the native weed flower plant, which is similar to the soybean on Earth, to continue to meet their protein deliveries. He then promises to take Peri to a fun location, though the scene ends before he can reveal where.

Analysis

On one hand, I can understand why this story is looked down on and why Eric Saward is not highly regarded as a writer. But on the other hand, I can't help but admit that I really enjoyed this one. Looking at it squarely, I believe that this might actually be the Sixth Doctor story I enjoyed the most. The fact that it goes for several long stretches in Episode One without the Doctor might say something about my overall attitude towards the Sixth Doctor.

In his limited capacity, I did enjoy the Sixth Doctor. He was a bit less pompous in this story than in other stories and I thought there was a more introspective air about him. He also was a lot less condescending towards Peri in this story. There were still moments where he was rude and negative towards her, but there were also moments of compassion. He actually comforted her in a limited way after the mutant died that she did it in self defense. He also went so far as to show trust and care for her welfare in suggesting she go visit the DJ and then signalling to her to return to the TARDIS to radio the President's ship. That is a lot more confidence than he has ever shown her before and he did it without any form of backhanded insults.

Peri herself also wasn't too bad. She didn't have the wibbly whimper that she often has, even if she did spend a lot of time suggesting they run back to the TARDIS. But she did show herself useful in a couple of instances and there were even some moments where she showed compassion for the Doctor, even if she then spent just as much time whining about how she would be left on Necros.

The real assets of this story though were the secondary characters. Davros was entertaining in his megalomaniacal way and although you can miss the quieter and more cunning Davros, he still got the drop on just about everyone. Indeed, his only real flaw in this story is that he went James Bond villain and had to explain his plans to the Doctor, giving Bostock more time to recover and the Imperial Daleks time to arrive. I did enjoy the couple second fake out where you actually think Davros has been killed by Orcini. Of course, having seen later episodes, I knew that Davros would survive but I was at a moment of genuine curiosity when I saw the control panel blow up and Davros' head cave in as to how they would bring him back.

Unquestionably, the character I enjoyed the most was Orcini. There was a quiet confidence in both the character and in the actor portraying him. He had an excellent rapport with Bostock and a genuine quiet menace about him. There was no bluster or talk. He was deadly and you could feel that deadliness as he walked around. It was also nice to see the two of them actually take out Daleks and not just be overwhelmed and pray for a Deus Ex Machina at the end. They went in and they meant to see the job done and I appreciated that.

For the most part, I liked Kara as well. She was better in Episode One where she was more subtle in her motivations. You could tell that she was conspiring against Davros and she was a bit oily with Orcini and the transponder/bomb, but there was room in her interpretation that she wasn't as conniving as you might expect. However, she gave way to tropes in Episode Two, especially with the standard villain exposition of the plan to the henchman for the audience benefit. I actually liked the fact that Orcini straight up murders her for her betrayal of him and that Davros is completely unphased by his having a hidden dagger. She is a minor villain but done fairly well and dispatched readily when her part is over.

I thought the sets and camera work was pretty good for the 1980's. It is just an unfortunate by-product of the 80's that the sets generally look worse than the ones in the 70's, but I thought these were fairly well done. I did like the outdoor filmed scenes quite a bit, especially with the snow on the ground. It gave a harsher look to the environment and helped set the mood properly. Of course, most things look better on film so that's always an improvement.

There were a few things I didn't care for. Some of the secondary acting wasn't great. Tasambeker stood out for me particularly. She wasn't bad when doing the demur mouse, but her appeals to Jobel weren't done well and her jilted lover bit where she stabs Jobel was particularly poorly done. Jobel himself was also not the best. He was alright when doing the overbearing administrator or the plotter, but his attempts to be creepy infatuated were overdone and a bit too rape-y for my taste.

I also thought the DJ was way over the top and didn't really understand his commentary of things through the story. He didn't make much sense to have in the story to begin with other than as a place to keep Peri until the last bit. His fight was decent but his death was somewhat dumb as he just stood up to be shot rather than staying hunkered down. It was odd and felt rather pointless in a fairly dense story.

The Daleks were fairly well done but there were small problem with them as well. I liked that they were somewhat vulnerable to the weapons but in doing so, the models were revealed to be a bit cheap. When the Doctor shoots off the eyestalk of the guard Dalek near the end, you can see the top wobble as it spins. It's also a bit disappointing that the Imperial Daleks provide a Dalek Ex Machina ending rather than the Doctor figuring a way out of the dilemma.

This story is definitely not for everyone given that it is uber-violent and delves in some pretty dark humor for a family show. It also has some odd cutaways that border on silly at times. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story and would probably pick it over nearly every other Sixth Doctor story to watch. I think only Vengeance on Varos or Mysterious Planet would compete with it. So for me, this is quite a good one.

Overall personal score: 4 out of 5