Resurrection of the Daleks

"Exterminate the Doctor!"

Writer: Eric Saward

Format: TV

Broadcast: 8th-15th February 1984

Season: 21.04

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough

Synopsis 

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 - but both linked by one terrible purpose. The Daleks are back, and once again they are in search of their evil creator, Davros...

Verdict 

Resurrection of the Daleks is an excellent story and really does resurrect the Daleks in style! It had been quite a while since their last outing by the time this adventure was broadcast and this incarnation of the Doctor was yet to meet his greatest enemies. That all changed here though and just in time too with a regeneration not far away at all. I am aware that the story was broadcast as a two parter with both episodes consisting of 45 minutes. However, I was unable to view the story in that format which was rather annoying as the DVD release did not seem to offer any way of watching it in the two extended parts. There was nothing wrong with watching it in four parts (the majority of the Classic era consists of that length stories) but I would like to have watched it as the audience of 1984 had. I thought the balance between the present day Earth and Dalek ship settings was done very well and I really liked the Time Corridor concept. The problems that posed for the TARDIS were good and it provided some rare action in the control room. The trio of the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough has always seemed a bit of a contrasting one to me but I think it actually worked really well in this story. Turlough found himself on the Dalek ship after stumbling across the Time Corridor and that left the Doctor and Tegan together which can sometimes be a very bad thing. I thought the Daleks were fantastic here and I loved how the production team weren't afraid to cause damage to the props! We must have had at least three Dalek explosion and we even had one chucked out of a building. There was a lot of action which was brilliant. With the Daleks returning, that also meant that Davros was back and it seemed that he had been in frozen isolation ever since the events of Destiny of the Daleks. He was conscious for every second and was then horrified to find out that the Movellans had defeated his prized creations. Their virus was deadly and still present and that obviously served as the means of the Dalek defeat. Stein was a superb character and I loved the cliffhanger where he revealed he was actually a Dalek agent. Lytton was a very good villain and I liked how he escaped death in what was a very casualty heavy story. It wouldn't be long before his return in Attack of the Cybermen. I thought Laird was also a wonderful character and she reminded me a lot of Osgood which was excellent. The confrontation between the Doctor and Davros was brilliant and any scenes where they're in the same room rarely disappoint. They're just sublime together. The Daleks using duplication was a bit of a throwback to The Chase but I loved how they wanted to duplicate the Doctor and his companions so they could go to Gallifrey and assassinate the High Council of the Time Lords. This could be an origin point for the start of the Time War but Genesis of the Daleks was also referenced and some argue that acts as the starting point. Tegan's departure was quite a sad one because the Doctor didn't want to see her go. I couldn't blame her for deciding to stay on Earth though with the amount of death that occurred. That's what happened when the Daleks were around and for her just stopped being fun. Overall, an excellent story! Braveheart, Tegan.

Rating: 9/10