REVIEW: Doctor Who: 'Resurrection of the Daleks' by Eric Saward

It all started off so well, didn't it? 

We open on a grey and gritty shot of London, and some people in strange uniforms are getting violently gunned down by silent and impeccable policemen. Some die quite badly, and the policemen continue on their beat. It's an excellent opening, setting the scene for what promises to be an exciting adventure.

Broken promises. After this wonderfully enigmatic opening, Resurrection of the Daleks goes badly downhill, and degenerates into one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever made. The main problem is the complex plot. That's not usually a problem in Doctor Who (see the excellent Ghost Light), but here the plot is so ridiculously and boringly played out that when the end came it took me another 25 minutes to recover. When the Daleks mention the Time Lords, I wonder how we got from point A to point B. Many talk about the Fifth Doctor's xenophobic tendencies in this story. I would enter this debate if the story weren't so full of itself that I really didn't care less.

When the story fails, at least a decent director can pull it out of the flames. Well, Matthew Robinson does a great job with the location scenes, but the studio scenes don't cut the mustard. Dramatic shots come across as flat and bland. To be fair to him, the cast don't do him any favours. This story contains some totally awful guest actors (mostly aboard the spaceship) with a few good performances (Lytton, Davros, Styles, Stien). "The morale on this ship is appalling." Yep, and so is the acting.

The Daleks deserved much better, too. They come across as stupid soldiers that just shoot at people. Davros has also passed his prime, though Terry Molloy gives a good performance.

But really, I'm just skirting the issue. The real problem with this story (notwithstanding the horrible "plot", terrible guest acting, uneven direction, pointless and ridiculous violence, continuity obsession, and rubbish Daleks) is the way the TARDIS crew are treated. Let's see, upon discovering Stien inside the warehouse, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough investigate. Turlough vanishes, Tegan gets injured and the Doctor joins up with some army men and Chloe Ashcroft to walk around inside the warehouse doing nothing but poke sticks at cats and wait for some answers to some obscure questions no one seems to be asking. Turlough, meanwhile, walks around the Dalek ship, looking shifty and not really doing anything significant (at least Eric Saward's being consistent here). This is all intercut with boring scenes of Rula Lenska's Styles trying to figure out how to stop the Daleks, and boring guest stars moaning about the morale on their vessel. Slightly more interestingly, a mysterious man called Lytton resurrects Davros to tell him that the Daleks lost the war with the Movellans (but everyone's forgotten about Destiny of the Daleks, JNT, so no one really cares). This is all played over with excruciatingly awful music from Malcolm Clarke.

That's about as dramatic as it gets. The Doctor gets the occasional tense close-up, with poor Peter Davison doing his absolute best to inject some interest. Eventually, doubles of everyone pop up everywhere, so the Doctor gets aboard the Dalek ship, we get pointless flashbacks of past companions and Doctors, and the Doctor considers killing Davros. A big bomb goes off and kills lots of Daleks, but by this point everyone is dead anyway so what's the point?

In the midst of all this dreck is Lytton, a genuinely interesting character skilfully played by Maurice Colbourne. Lytton has his own motives for reviving Davros, but always keeps his cards close to his chest. He can't be trusted for the slightest second, and his return appearance was indeed warranted.

Fortunately, the story hugely picks up five minutes before the end credits. Tegan's emotional departure is both well written and convincingly portrayed by Janet Fielding and Peter Davison. This was quite a big deal at the time, as Tegan had been with the Fifth Doctor since before Day One, and her ultimate decision to leave is understandable. A brilliant scene, and wonderfully downbeat.

So, a great beginning and a great ending, shame about the middle. Says a lot about 80's Doctor Who as a whole, really...