Resurrection of the Daleks

Dave

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Starring Peter Davison.

Earth, 1984, the TARDIS becomes trapped in a Time Corridor and is drawn off course, emerging in London's deserted docklands. Deep space, the far future, a prison ship comes under attack from unknown forces. Two seemingly unconnected events -- both linked by one terrible purpose. The Daleks are back, once again they are in search of their evil creator, Davros...

For me this is a rather poor story. I think Davros got overused, so it was good that he finally got killed here, though he had already got the chop twice earlier and came back. The premise is that the Daleks need him to cure a deadly virus. Davros had other plans and the Daleks themselves return to being schemers and tacticians rather than monosyllabic killers.

Seeing London's Docklands just prior to their redevelopment is interesting, the DVD has the director revisit the same sets in 2002.

The episode also marked the farewell of Tegan, one of the longest serving assistants on 'Doctor Who'.
 
A good episode and a little spooky around the docks at the beginning. Good atmosphere. If I remember correctly Davros does indeed return again after this episode in Remembrance of the Daleks, but he only makes an appearance at the end.

I remember finding Tegan really annoying all the time, but her leaving scene at the end is actually quite moving.

I forget the characters name but we also see the alien agent (the head policeman/dalek agent) make his return. I think we originally saw him in a cyberman episode and it was cleverly written to bring him back in here.
 
This vicious bloodbath of a Doctor Who story was one of my favorite stories as a kid. I just watched it for the first time in 20+ years... and I still love it. Plotwise, it is a giant mess but what it does so well for me is sustain a grim, menacing mood throughout. By 80's Who standards it's pretty lavishly made, and the special effects aren't completely embarrassing. I love the Dalek troopers' costumes... yes, from a functional standpoint they're silly and over-the-top but dammit they look cool.

I've said before I think the return of Davros after Genesis was a mistake overall, and I still feel that way, but this is definitely one of his better post-Genesis moments. He knows he is being used, that he is disposable to the Daleks who rescued him, and he uses all his cunning to make the best out of very limited options. And he does not upstage the Daleks themselves this time- they have grabbed back some of their personality. Well perhaps "personality" is too strong a word, but we find them scheming, laying traps, and generally thinking for themselves here. And they are scary. The actors playing their victims do a great job selling the deaths- I don't know of any other story where it looks so agonizing to die from a Dalek ray. They contort their bodies, scream, and twitch horribly before falling lifeless.

The Doctor himself is far, far from the deified Doctor of McCoy and later. He is presented as a naive, ineffectual, even cowardly idealist in the midst of a brutal and uncaring universe. I wouldn't want the Doctor to be like this all the time, but it's good to be reminded that they are mortal, limited in power, and deeply flawed.

This story was written by the same person as Earthshock but whereas I found the latter to be pretty dreary, I found Resurrection to be much more effective and entertaining. And while I would not attempt to defend the plot of Resurrection of the Daleks there are enough striking and horrific images and enough grim atmosphere throughout this story as to cover up the deep flaws. Think of it as a Lucio Fulci take on Doctor Who... the plot is almost besides the point!
 

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