Revelation of the Daleks

Eric Saward's last Dalek story boasted one of the worst scripts he ever wrote and, Revelation of the Daleks shares one of the main problems with its predecessor (and, indeed many other Saward scripts)- the Doctor is not the prime mover of the plot. However, if you ignore the fact that the Doctor (and, indeed, the Daleks) play lesser roles in the plot, it becomes evident that this is easily Saward's best script. Despite containing a few redundant sub-plots, it maintains a coherent narrative and has great dialogue and characterisation. Saward wrote this story after a very enjoyable holiday and his joy in writing it clearly shows. One oft-cited inspiration for this story is Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One, which pokes fun at the morbid tackiness of American funeral homes as only the brilliant, if odious, Waugh could. To this, Saward adds Soylent Green style cannibalism and intimations of necrophilia. Needless to say, this would never have made today!

The excellent script by Saward is more than matched by the very welcome return of Graeme Harper as director. Again, his understanding of using the camera to tell the story is obvious in every scene, creating unease and tension by composition or angle. He is backed up by excellent production values across the board- look at the nauseatingly realistic make-up on the mutant, the flawless matte work and excellent set and costume design, with the garish colour schemes that characterised the Colin Baker era actually being used to the story's advantage. A very underrated triumph of Harper's is to take several varying moods- black comedy, a portrayal of an alcoholic, some of the strongest violence of the season, Alexei Sayle- and make them fit together and work.

Harper is also a master of marshalling actors, and with a cast this impressive, the characters are a joy to watch. Saward seems to be doing his own take on Holmesian double-acts and they are realised very successfully- Eleanor Bron and Hugh Walters seem to anticipate Wilhelmina and Marc from Ugly Betty by 20 years (not that I watch it…ahem) and Trevor Cooper and Colin Spaull are excellent as Takis and Lilt. There is William Gaunt's dignified, yet knowing portrayal of Orcini which effortlessly shows both the man's morality and ruthlessness. Then there is the relationship between Tasambeker and Jobel. Clive Swift is excellent, but he could do this role in his sleep. Jenny Thomasin's performance is actually very skilled, making Tasambeker both sympathetic and unlikeable- a very tall order. A special mention must be given to Terry Molloy's best performance as Davros, making him seem, for the first time, as cunning and as dangerous as he was in Genesis of the Daleks.

The Doctor is not only a minor player in the story, but seems to have become a bit less likeable on paper. However, thanks to Colin Baker's complete understanding of the role and Harper's direction, this portrayal works excellently. Peri is again the object of lust, but this is a minor point and Nicola Bryant puts in a very effective performance.

Revelation of the Daleks has very little to do with Daleks or the Doctor and, it could be argued, that this raises the question of whether it works as a Doctor Who story at all- however, it is a great piece of television drama by any standard, easily the best Colin Baker story.

NEXT: The Trial of a Time Lord

Resurrection of the Daleks

Despite its success, the Peter Davison era needed a little something extra to fully validate it in viewers' eyes- an appearance by the show's most iconic adversaries. It had been five years since the last, somewhat disappointing Dalek story, which is probably why writer Eric Saward sees fit to cram as many plot points into it as possible. We have the Daleks losing a war to the Movellans, which prompts them to resurrect Davros. We have the Daleks also planning an attack on Gallifrey. We have Dalek agents, who are duplicates. We have Davros plotting secretly to gain control of the Daleks. This does read like it could be a Byzantine plot of power struggles and intrigue. Instead, what we are given is a series of set pieces that are so clumsily joined together it makes one wonder at Saward's appointment as script editor on a basic level- for example, the Doctor never meets Styles, a major character and only shares one scene with Lytton, in which they don't actually converse. The dialogue is generic and uninspired and the characterisation is so bad, that if this were a radio script, the listener would totally lose track of who was who. Most seriously, Saward gives the Doctor virtually no role in the resolution of the plot- he is carried along by events almost as much as the supporting characters.

What makes this story watchable is the realisation. Matthew Robinson creates many memorable scenes- the wonderfully shot opening sequence on the Shad Thames, the memorable first appearance of the Daleks (lovingly ripped off from Darth Vader's entrance in Star Wars), the horrific scenes of the faces of the space station crew dissolving. Even the special effects, which are not much better technically than with other stories of the era, seem better due to the direction. This, combined with effective production design make this story very nice to look at.

The guest performances contain a few standouts, most notably Maurice Colburne as Lytton, who is utterly compelling from the first moment he appears. Rula Lenska also does good work as Styles and Rodney Bewes manages to rescue his badly written, poorly thought out character. However, some of the other actors are not as successful. Jim Findley is not exactly bad as Mercer, but he is clearly out of his depth and Sneh Gupta, whilst being very good looking, lacks the chops to fully realise her character. Matthew Robinson marshals these variable talents to the best possible level, although he makes Chloe Ashcroft scream in a very feral way, for some reason and Del Henney's death scene is ridiculous. Terry Molloy makes a far better Davros than David Gooderson, although the subtlety of Michael Wisher's portrayal has largely been lost.

This is the final story for Janet Fielding. Tegan was often poorly characterised, but Fielding always managed to make Tegan interesting to watch and made her, in my opinion, one of the great companions. Her leaving scene is the only unqualified success of the story, beautifully written, acted and shot. Mark Strickson again makes Turlough shine, but it is Davison who takes the laurels again. As said before, the Doctor is treated worse in the script than any previous story, but Davison manages to make us believe that it is the character we know and love.

They say you can't polish a turd, but Resurrection of the Daleks proves that you can, at least, varnish one. It works as entertainment if you watch it once, but the more you watch it, the more the sheer incompetence of the script becomes evident.

NEXT: Planet of Fire

Earthshock

In evaluating Earthshock, one has to look no further than the title. It’s a very cool title, evocative and sounding fantastic. The trouble is, it’s not actually a proper word. Earthshock seems to exist largely in the moment- Eric Saward writes scenes of great tension very well, but their linking together to form a coherent story is less successful. It is very fast paced- it can, indeed, be seen as two frenetically paced ‘base under siege’ stories, each having the Doctor blamed for mysterious deaths. However, it does just about work as a story, despite some very poorly thought-out plotting- the androids draw attention to the bomb, rather than protect it from discovery, the Cyber-plan seems like it was made up on the spot, the ship jumping back through time is a totally random development. The memorable scene of the Cyberman getting frozen in the door is typical of this- we are led to believe that the Doctor focuses all his efforts on one door, but totally ignores the other one. It is, perhaps, in this story that Eric Saward understands the character of the Doctor best- he solves the first crisis with a combination of scientific knowledge and wild improvisation and, even though he uses a gun, is directly involved in the climax of the second crisis. Characterisation is efficient, if colourless as is the dialogue. The script has its flaws, but it is better written than one would expect.

However, the production values are stunning. Immediately, the story looks expensive- the uniforms for the troopers look futuristic without looking dated- I wouldn’t be surprised if the costume designers for Starship Troopers were subconsciously ripping Earthshock off. Peter Grimwade manages to match the frenetic pace of the script, with montages as frenetic as those on The Leisure Hive. There are an embarrassment of memorable scenes- the Cybermen breaking out of the silos, the storming of the TARDIS. Episode one, in particular, is a mini horror masterpiece. The androids are simply, but extremely effectively realised and there is the horrible fate that awaits those who are shot by them- a pool of slime and blood, which is really near the knuckle. The guest performances are excellent, making up for the stock characterisation. Special mention must be made of Beryl Reid whose vast talent compensates for her miscasting.

All this talk, and I have barely touched the two things that this story is famous for. After seven years, the Cybermen return with a brand new look. Visually, this design was the most effective yet (with all due respect to the Tenth Planet and Invasion versions). The key genius touch is the moving silver chin, which manages to get over the fact that these creatures used to be human in a way that hadn’t been done since their debut. The voices, however, are too emotional, but they are, at least, far better than those on Revenge of the Cybermen. Again, the Cybermen show emotion and irrationality when they profess to be incapable of either, but this is nothing new, to be frank.

This story also sees us saying goodbye to Adric. It has become a cliché to criticise Matthew Waterhouse’s performance, but such criticism has some justification. It was only in Black Orchid that he ever put in a performance that could actually be called good and his performances before then were inoffensive at best and abysmal at worst. In Earthshock, Waterhouse manages to convey the emotions required, which is enough to ensure that his death is affecting, as well as the complete shock it must have been at the time. Janet Fielding again demonstrates she is easily the best actor amongst the companions, but Sarah Sutton puts in a nice reactive performance. Peter Davison is excellent. As usual.

Despite its flaws, Earthshock is excellently made and is, for my money, the second best Cyberman story of the 20th Century.

NEXT: Time-Flight

The Visitation

After three highly unusual stories, The Visitation looks like an oddity, simply because it is a straightforward ‘pseudo-historical’. The plot has a lot in common with The Time Warrior- an alien crashes in pre-industrial England and uses the local population as slave labour. The plot is very straightforward, but is half-baked in places- the Terileptils’ aims have clearly not been thought through by Eric Saward and there is a good deal of padding- a lot of it very entertaining, but blatant padding nonetheless. However, the script shows a quality not often associated with Saward: love. Saward clearly loved writing the character of Richard Mace and was clearly enjoying creating the Terileptils. Although their aims are unclear, Saward does a great job in giving the Terileptils a culture and a history, clearly because they existed as a fully formed race in Saward’s mind, rather than a stock alien menace. Saward portrays them as desperate criminals, rather than evil conquerors, which makes the interaction between the Terileptil leader and the Doctor interesting and the outcome unclear- will the Doctor talk them out of their plan? He doesn’t- in fact, the Doctor’s involvement in the outcome is not as great as it could have been.

The production is of a very high quality, with very effective period detail, as one expects from the BBC. The sets for the Terileptil ship are also very well done, although the ‘beautiful’ android is beautiful only in a gaudy 80s way, unfortunately. The Terileptils are very convincing, all things being considered. They are designed to be a cross between a man, a lizard and a fish which works very well. The fact that the voice is not treated in any way is startling and works well in this case, making the Terileptil a person as well as a monster. Even the gaffes in the Terileptil’s realisation work in its favour- occasionally Michael Melia’s chin can be seen inside the Terileptil’s mouth, but it actually looks like a tongue. Perhaps the biggest production drawback is the direction. Peter Moffat could make a scene visually interesting via editing- the wonderful opening scene is a great example- but he has no idea how to use the camera itself to tell a story- the first revelation of the Terileptil’s face is wrecked by Moffat’s shot choices and he is hopeless at directing fight scenes.

Of the guest performances, as said, there are only two real characters. Michael Melia gives the Terileptil leader dignity and menace and Michael Robbins is, predictably, wonderful as Mace. Of the regulars, Peter Davison continues to impress, as usual as does Janet Fielding. This is, unfortunately, not a story that plays to Matthew Waterhouse’s very few strengths- he is, frankly, bloody awful in parts. Happily, this is a good story for Sarah Sutton and Nyssa finally gets a bit of personality.

It won’t blow your mind or change your life, but The Visitation is great fun and well worth a punt.

NEXT: Black Orchid