Revelation of the Daleks Part One

The one where Davros is in charge of a funeral home...

What a beautiful opening sequence! Closely echoing the way director Graeme Harper opened The Caves of Androzani, we begin by hurtling down towards a planet as we hear the grinding materialisation of the TARDIS. Only this time, the police box doesn't appear in a sandy wasteland, but amid a snowy landscape. Who knew how beautiful the TARDIS could look surrounded by thick rolling snow, laced with wisps of fog? It's a stunning opening salvo from one of Doctor Who's all-time snazziest directors.

Putting Peri, and especially the Doctor, in the funerary colours of the planet Necros helps the viewer to focus on the story and performances, now that the Doctor's migraine-inducing coat is covered up. Colin Baker looks splendid in purple (actually, he'd probably look splendid in any one colour, rather than 17). It's a pity Peri insists on wearing heels though, not the most practical way to navigate snowdrifts, but her little beret is quite sweet. And boy, does it look cold!

The Doctor and Peri are purposefully kept separate from everything else going on in this episode. It takes 45 minutes for the Doctor to even get into the grounds of Tranquil Repose, where everything else is happening. While this is something of a hallmark of Season 22 - having the Doctor and Peri take rather too long to get involved in the story - it doesn't feel quite as bad this time around, even though it's blatant. It's almost as if the story is more interesting without them...

The Doctor and Peri's journey through the icy tundra of Necros, on their way to pay their respects to the late agronomist Professor Arthur Stengos, is beautifully shot by Harper, making the most of the snowy conditions. I'm enjoying a definite softening of the brittle relationship between them, with the Doctor's prickliness more of a gentle tease than boorish bombast, and Peri indulging her botanical bent for the third time this season. However, it's not long before the Doctor is attacked by a raging mutant, his skin peeling like a burns victim, and it's actually quite physical. The Doctor tries to hypnotise the mutant to calm him, but when that fails, the two end up rolling around in the untrodden snow as the assailant tries to strangle our hero to death. The mutant's constant snarling and raging is disturbing as he gnashes his mangled teeth and throws the Doctor about.

Stuntman Ken Barker (to think they briefly considered casting Sir Laurence Olivier in this part!) does a creditable job, especially after Peri clubs him with a stick and he ails in the Doctor's arms. "It's not been much fun being like I am," he says, explaining that he is the victim of the Great Healer's experiments (there's an awful lot of experimentation in Season 22). The well-spoken mutant's death is rather moving considering his actions, and the regulars' reactions spot on (for a change). Peri is appalled that she caused his death - "I killed him, and he forgave me" - but look at the indignant rage in Colin Baker's eyes as he computes the tragedy before him. It's nice to see that "my" Doctor is in there somewhere.

The Doctor and Peri's trek continues, climbing over a wall accompanied by some daring innuendo about the Doctor's broken pocket watch, and another allusion to Baker's weight (Peri calls the Doctor Porky!). It's also a nice bit of continuity that they seem to be sticking to the vegetarian diet mentioned at the end of The Two Doctors, although I struggle to imagine the Sixth Doctor cooking up a nut roast.

Our heroes' journey ends up in the Garden of Fond Memories in the grounds of Tranquil Repose, shot on location at IBM in Portsmouth and an aerodrome in Sussex. It's pleasingly unusual to see this Doctor in such an industrial location (very Season 7). There's a nice bit where Peri glimpses what we know is a Dalek. "Some sort of machinery," is how she describes what she saw, which means that while she knows what the Daleks are (she mentions them in Timelash), she doesn't know what they look like. The Dalek's brief appearance as it glides past the camera is well shot by Harper, even if it is slightly unbelievable that it's able to completely disappear so quickly!

The cliffhanger comes when the Doctor sees a huge marble tombstone carved with his own face, which means he must die on Necros and never regenerate again. Baker gives the Doctor a sobering despondency as he realises he's nearing the end, but then the tombstone seems to rock and crack, before tumbling down on top of him. The irony of being killed by your own tombstone!

With the Doctor and Peri's shenanigans out of the way, I can turn my attention to everything else. It's rather fitting that the final story of Season 22 - The Season of Death! - should be set in a funeral directors', full of mortuaries, corpses and those on the cusp of death lying in suspended animation as they await a medical cure for their condition. It's very dark, and perhaps not the ideal subject matter for family viewing, but by this point I'm kind of used to it. Just as with video nasties and torture porn horror films, the more you see, the more immune you become to their power.

Alan Spalding's set design is magnificent, with Graeme Harper making the most of the cavernous chapel of rest, adorned with peacock feathers and a grey and gold palette. Costume designer Pat Godfrey picks up the funerary indigo theme and runs with it, dressing the staff in pale blue coveralls topped with mauve skull caps. It's also great how Dorka Nieradzik blends the elaborate make-up into the skull caps, proving that the design department really did sit down and have a chat together before starting work on creating Tranquil Repose as a believable world.

But it is Spalding who wins the gold medal for the breadth of his vision. As well as the decorated, patterned chapel and corridors of Tranquil Repose, there's Kara's 80s sci-fi office, as well as the curiously tumbledown temple domain for Davros (populated by broken statues and eerie frescos) and the lower catacombs where the bodysnatchers discover the horrors of Davros's experiments (lit beautifully by Don Babbage - that hot pink is gorgeous!).

And then there's the characters too. This is written by script editor Eric Saward, not known for his multi-layered approach to characterisation, but here he seems to have taken a leaf or three out of his hero Robert Holmes's book and concocted some really interesting dynamics.

While tomb raiders Natasha and Grigory are the least well-rounded, their mission has an emotional catalyst, in that Natasha is trying to find her father's body, which the authorities refuse to release to her. Her father just so happens to be Professor Stengos, which weaves a connection to the Doctor's imminent arrival. Natasha and Grigory tend to be Saward's stock-in-trade, which is two antagonists sniping at one another, but they're played well by Bridget Lynch-Blosse and Stephen Flynn. Perhaps Grigory could be a little more tactful when referring to Stengos's liquefied remains in front of his daughter, but the detail that he's a possible alcoholic adds a bit of colour.

The pinnacle of this episode comes halfway through when Natasha and Grigory discover the horrific remains of her father's head as a mutated mass of flesh at the heart of a glass Dalek frame. We glimpse the glass Dalek only very briefly unfortunately, but it harks back to David Whitaker's 1964 novelisation of the very first Dalek story which featured just such a creation. The scene where Stengos recognises Natasha, and fights with the growing Dalek indoctrination until he becomes a ranting puppet of Davros's creations is deeply disturbing, and probably one of the most unsettling and upsetting scenes in Doctor Who's history. And all the while Roger Limb's rattlesnake score fizzes and spits in the background.

Alex Linstead is powerfully divided, as the human and Dalek sides of Stengos do battle. "It's my father..." says a stunned Natasha. "We are all to become Daleks," Stengos reveals, before his Dalek state takes him over, amid one final, tragic plea to his daughter: "KILL MEEEE!" And the fact she does, because it is the humane thing to do, is heartbreaking. Apart from the Cronenberg-esque make-up effects, the emotional impact of this scene is pretty strong stuff for younger viewers, and while it's executed marvellously, it probably crosses a line.

Meanwhile, the Tranquil Repose staff have their own fascinating dynamics, not least that between the pompous Jobel and his timid aide Tasambeker. It's obvious to everyone, including camp coupling Takis and Lilt, that Tasambeker has a very soft spot for Jobel, but that it is far from reciprocated, or even recognised. Tasambeker's unrequited love for her boss is rather sweet but plainly misplaced, because the man is an utter sod. Clive Swift is wonderful as the imperious chief embalmer, and the moment where he adjusts his toupee in the mirror and then remembers he's being watched is genius!

Sadly, Jenny Tomasin is not so strong as Tasambeker, although in some ways her thespian failings make the character seem more vulnerable, and so more endearing. Tasambeker is a woman with a degree of authority over Takis and Lilt, but who struggles to use that authority convincingly. She lacks the respect of her peers, possibly because she's a woman but probably because her fawning desire for Jobel makes her seem pathetic. Nevertheless, Tomasin struggles to cover the character completely, and when she fumes "FIND THE INTRUDERS!", it's really embarrassing.

Still, this all proves that Saward is thinking about his characters and giving them more than one or two dimensions. These are people with desires, foibles and failings, not just archetypes running around with guns and gags. Take Kara and her secretary Vogel, every inch Saward's attempt at a Holmesian double act (Bostock even refers to this in the dialogue!), and played with fruity enthusiasm by Eleanor Bron and Hugh Walters. Whether Vogel is supposed to be gay isn't explicit, but I like to think he is (he's a past master at the double entry, after all), which makes Kara not just his boss, but his fag hag! Bron and Walters work really well together, clearly enjoying the ride and savouring the witty dialogue.

And then there's hired assassin Orcini and his smelly squire Bostock, the third example of a double act in this story. William Gaunt gives Orcini a stiff, dignified air, complemented well by John Ogwen's rough and ready Bostock. Kara has hired Orcini to assassinate Davros aka the Great Healer, who is taking all her profits to fund his own evil machinations.

The presence of Davros and the Daleks in this story feels unnecessary (the Daleks barely feature at all, even if they do look splendid in their new white and gold livery), but Terry Molloy has a field day playing the grotesque genius. He piles on so much nuance, which is a real achievement considering he's just a head in a vase. His uncontrolled glee as he watches the Doctor slowly walk into his trap is perversely childish, and although it can be a bit comical seeing his head swing round in a plastic tube, he delivers Davros's lines with the right balance of threat and charm, especially when struggling to keep his temper in check with Kara. This story is, by far, Molloy's finest moment as Davros.

The truth of what Davros is actually up to has yet to become fully clear, but it seems to involve manufacturing a high protein concentrate which can feed the starving, side by side with running a mortuary and funeral home placing people into suspended animation. There may be a clue in the fate of Arthur Stengos, however, and his assertion that "we are all to become Daleks"...

This episode is magnificently stylish, intelligent, gruesome (perhaps too gruesome, but that's the way this season rolls) and intriguing. But if there's one thing I really dislike, it is Alexei Sayle as the DJ. He's awful. The less said about him the better.

First broadcast: March 23rd, 1985

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The scene where Natasha discovers her father in the catacombs.
The Bad: The DJ.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Word repetition: 7

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

Revelation of the Daleks is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Revelation-Daleks-DVD/dp/B0009WIMWC