Children of the Revolution

"You are the Doctor! You are the one foretold! The saviour of the Daleks! All hail the saviour!"

Writer: Scott Gray 

Format: Comic Strip

Released: January - May 2002

Printed in: DWM 312-317

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Izzy

Synopsis 

A submarine is cruising the area, when it is supposedly attacked by Daleks. Nobody is killed and everyone is taken prisoner. 

When the Daleks find the Doctor, he attempts to trick his way out of the room before the Daleks hail him as their saviour.

Verdict 

Children of the Revolution was a simply stunning comic strip adventure. I think I mentioned in my blogging of Ophidius that this story was the reason I bought the Oblivion graphic novel and there's no doubt that the £9 I paid has been absolutely worth it! What a story this was. A sequel to The Evil of the Daleks! That in itself almost seems impossible seeing that it was deemed to portray the final destruction of the Daleks - something we seemingly saw! But no, amazingly Dalek Alpha returned! I just couldn't believe it. He'd (is it right to refer to Daleks as male?) gathered an escape party on Skaro shortly before the destruction took place. Had that simply been started then I'd have questioned the believability but because we were shown that escape in glorious black and white flashback I loved it. It made since and fitted the story expertly. I adored how Alpha was referred to as 'first born' and that's exactly what he was. Still bearing the mark the Second Doctor had given him way back in the aforementioned serial. I remained sceptical throughout over the humanised Daleks' motive and I really did think there was an alterior motive. But as the story got on time was running out for a larger plan to take centre stage and it genuinely seemed that these Daleks were 'good Daleks'. The human factor seemed to have done its job. Although I'm yet to listen and blog the second series of Dalek Empire, named Dalek War, I know from the conclusion of Project Infinity that 'good' Daleks appear but I just can't imagine them being anywhere near the scale of these humanised Daleks! These were Daleks that genuinely idolised the Doctor. Cracking sentence that was! They even had a monument of the Second Doctor's head to remind them of the man who distanced themselves from the Daleks as we know them. Davros claims to have created the most powerful race in the cosmos, but I would argue that award goes to the Doctor for these humanised Daleks. It was mentioned in the story the irony around them becoming much more powerful than we've ever seen them before. The irony hadn't befallen Alpha either which I thought was good. Izzy's story during the adventure was intriguing and I like how the Doctor had taken her to Alison to try and help Izzy with this still newfound change. She mentioned in The Way of All Flesh how the one thing she feared was getting used to not seeing her human face in the mirror. To not feel uncomfortable in this alien skin. But after she seemingly got high on the thrill of swimming and rushing through the alien ocean, that unknowing feeling was relinquishing. She was getting used to the form of Destrii, even if it meant her getting kidnapped at the end! Kata-Phobus was an interesting creature, massive in size, and was the true enemy of the story. He was the one who had shot down the ship causing fifteen deaths. He'd brought the humanised Daleks to Kyrol and allowed them to live in secrecy. But he was plotting their downfall. Alpha's describing of the pain of existence was absolutely incredible. Because they were Daleks, every race in the cosmos wanted them dead. But they weren't evil, and that's why the rest of the Dalek race wanted this breakaway group dead as well. So they had to live in secrecy despite their incredible advancements in technology. They'd grown significantly in numbers, eight thousand was a figure mentioned, but it was all a plot of Kata-Phobus. He'd farmed the Daleks to engulf them giving him one big surge of food supply. He'd already cannibalised the last of his own race and now the Daleks were next on his list, ready for the humans to come next. However, in an incredible act of sacrifice, the Daleks at the command of a stunning speech by Alpha, self-destructed. Every single one of them. Despite Alpha being distraught at the Doctor going against his word, they saved the humans. Amazing. Overall, an astounding comic strip adventure with a cliffhanger that's got Izzy in a spot of bother! 

Rating: 10/10