"Smell My Glove!"
Tachyon TV present an alternative tongue-in-cheek DVD commentary for Resurrection of the Daleks Parts 3 and 4.
Topics up for discussion in this bumper double issue include: the Winter Olympics, big red buttons, Rodney Bewes' on-screen out-takes, Colin Baker's masterplan, Grandfather Paradox, dead taxi drivers, and 'Gangsters'.
Daleks are boss. This episode isnt.
Sorry I'm falling behind with the reviews and that's all I have to say on the matter.
It does seem trendy to criticise the hell out of original series Doctor Who these days, doesn't it?
When Logopolis first aired it was the done thing to think Pertwee was the best thing since sliced bread and that Graham Williams was a traitor to mankind. Oh how things have changed. There's a PhD in here somewhere, but I may just wander down to William Hill and place a bet on the exact day that people wake up and dare to utter the words: 'Boomtown was a bit shite really, wasn't it?'
Laver's Law suggests that fashion goes through a 160-year cycle:
10 years ahead of its time: Indecent
5 years ahead of its time: Shameless
Now: Smart
1 year after its time: Dowdy
10 years after its time: Hideous
20 years after its time: Amusing
50 years after its time: Quaint
70 years after its time: Charming
100 years after its time: Romantic
150 years after its time: Beautiful
I suspect Doctor Who inhabits its own cycle - similar categories, different timescale.
Well here's the thing. Logopolis is one of my favourite stories. I admit, the last episode's a bit poor but I forgive it for the quality of the first two (I'm ignoring the whole flushing the Master out story-line, mind you - brain the size of a planet and Bidmead thinks that's a good idea?)
So in true Behind the Sofa Fashion let's ignore the question as set and wander off on a tangent all my own (I failed my English Lit O-level for much the same reason).
The first two episodes of Logopolis are a wonderful exploration of depression. I must have worn down several Betamax copies of this story in my teens as it chimed so perfectly with my own sense of impending doom. I could recite the words, hum the music, feel the angst. Even the bad dubbing seems to fit perfectly, adding a layer of distance to the whole thing. Watching it as a nine year old at the time I, like others here, thought the world was coming to an end. The Doctor was dead.
Okay it all goes downhill with the introduction of Tegan (who ends up being a good companion) and Nyssa (who never does) and the 'oh-my-god-did-they-learn-nothing-from-season-8' appearance of the Master (the legendary 'fifth Beatle companion') but before then, before then I offer you 50 minutes of classic Who.
And then there's Resurrection of the Daleks. So the plot makes little sense, the guest cast clearly rehearsed the wrong script, and I could never quite understand how people can hear a Dalek coming from round the corner and hide. I'd be crapping myself so bad it would be audible.
But the opening of the story offers a splendid few minutes (even though it has no connection with the rest of the story so far as I can tell) that make you want to call your friends in and say 'look! Wobbly sets my arse!' It was FUN, damn you, and Doctor Who hadn't been that much fun since... well, a long time.
At the time - and this is the key factor here - Logopolis and Resurrection were top notch Who that I seem to remember I and my friends enjoyed immensely and watched time and time again. And I can still enjoy them now, for all their faults, because those faults are forgivable for the time.
In 150 years people will be fighting over these... Logopolis and Resurrection of the Daleks: beautiful.
I have always had a soft spot for Resurrection of the Daleks. It was one of the stories that really stuck with me after watching it on first broadcast. The bit that I most remember is the bits at the end where all the Dalek’s spurt shaving foam. I also remember Tegan leaving, although that didn't really register with me till much, much later when I was able to appreciate Tegan in that short leather skirt. I was only nine years old at the time of the original broadcast.
The Daleks are good in it as well but I do wonder whether or not they actually needed to have Davros there to be honest. I mean what did his prescence bring to the story that it would have lacked had he not been there? To be honest I don’t think that you would have noticed that he hadn’t appeared. Sadly this was just another one of the stipulations of Terry Nation that Davros had to appear in every Dalek story after Genesis of the Daleks. Thank god that they resisted the temptation to have him in the new series.
Having said that Terry Molloy does a pretty good job with what he is given here and does take a very good part here. Also of note is Maurice Colbourne as Lytton (easily the best character on display here and certainly one of the best things about Attack of the Cybermen) who manages to get away with wearing that hat and still appear hard bitten and tough.
What is it with Eric Saward and his own characters being given better material than the Doctor in his stories? It is almost as if the Doctor isn’t that important a character in Saward’s mind. You see it time and time again in the majority of the stories he wrote.
The plot is virtually non existant and there is enough continuity to shake a stick it with mentions of almost every other Dalek story written plus a montage of all the Doctors and Companions (except Leela, which I have never worked out, since they had a picture of Katarina and the Brigadier. Does Leela not count as a bona fida companion? Answers on a post card).
Rodney Bewes sounds very stilted in the role as Stein (I know you were supposed to believe that he was a duplicate) but even in part two when he starts to think for himself he still seemed very stilted. It is very watchable though but maybe doesn’t stand up to repeated viewings. Chloe Ashcroft does nothing but scream. Rula Lenska is ok but isn't really trying that hard. Plus she isn't in the second episode much. I also thought that the actors tried to hard to be 'different' when they were duplicates. Wouldn't it make more sense to make them as realistic as possible?
There were some nice set pieces through the episode but that is also typical of Saward stories. I actually enjoyed watching it but it really is a piece of old tosh when you look at it.
The direction however is very good and Matthew Robinson’s direction really did stand out at that moment due to its fluidity but you do notice that his direction on location is far better than his direction in the studio (as it is in Attack) which can be rather stilted and static.
It was only recently that I realised that in this story the Doctor hardly does anything at all in this story. His only major moments were when he was having his memories sucked out and the scene when he confronts Davros. Otherwise he is very passive in the story.
Like Earthshock, Resurrection of the Daleks is basically a collection of set pieces and action searching for a plot. Not one for the general public I am afraid.
Cue seductively smug southern accent spoken by some plummy broad who's usually only to be found at the grouse counter in Harrods.
This is not any old Davros. This is oak smoked, vintage reserve, non-Gooderson Davros with a hint of The Archers. This is no ordinary creator of the Daleks, this is Molloy in a feature hugging, newly fashioned, prosthetic mask. And this is not any old script writer. This is corn fed, free range, slightly matured Saward, in a fine brandy and silage sauce. Topped off with Quails in aspic. This is not just Doctor Who, this is M&S Doctor Who. Molloy and Saward, that is.
Resurrection of the Daleks - Episode 2 (or Episodes 3 & 4)
There has to be some reason why my DVD of Resurrection of the Daleks comes in a plastic sheath. As if it were some novelty Dalek condom designed to prevent the spread of this particularly nasty piece of work. Well, unfortunately my Dalek prophylactic split wide open and I was left with Saward everywhere. Just like the adverts for Boots' Insignia. Remember those - billed as the "One all over smell". Much the same with this. In fact, I'm surprised he didn't offer to write the theme tune and sing the theme tune. Writer, script editor, Dalek operator masseuse, walker of JNT's pink poodle - the man's everywhere.
I swear blind that re-watching these "classics" is a very, very bad idea. Once upon a time I had some fond memories of this one. But now... Sweet'n'Sour Davros Pork Balls! The Dalek ship appears to have taken on the interior decoration of a Chicago sushi restaurant. All you needed was one of those little conveyor belts with pieces of mutated Dalek flesh rolling around on little plates and you'd have been ordering Saki before you could be poisoned by a piece of Blow Fish.
The acting throughout has the feel of a primary school nativity play, very fitting to have a Play School prole on board (not so much stunt casting as stunned casting). Rodney "Mr Rodney" Bewes is not much better. But as for Les "Leslie" Grantham, he's obviously limbering up for his web cam shenanigans in later life because his nob is always out when he's in the background of any shot. Was this made after the murder but before he started snogging, on screen, Brian May-a-like Anita Dobson? Who'd have thought that this was the pinnacle of a career?
The Play Schooler, who's name I neither know nor care about, is particularly gruesome - with Mr Magoo's spectacles her myopic "acting" seems to fit in remarkable well. Perhaps she believes that she's merely gone through the arch window, because she's delivering the lines as if she's narrating a film about abattoirs for a group of 4 year olds. And the removal of one of the one quarter buried Movellan virus canisters, from a bed of soft peat, has to go down as the most stressful piece of method acting since Hambel had to simulate sex with Humpty to illustrate to kids where babies come from.
At this point I'm just getting plain distracted. They seem to have managed to duplicate Turlough and Tegan without the need to pop them onto a comfortable couch - pinned only in place by some half-tubes of perspex guttering. The Doctor appears to have gained some fillings at some point during this regeneration - another continuity loop hole that Big Finish could no-doubt exploit. And Davros has his customary ranting episode, again with Kitson in the background swinging low and free.
The sheer insanity of it all gets to Stein who manages to break free of the brain washing technique that's clouded the general public, namely "It's got the Daleks in it, it has to be good.", and goes mental. Unfortunately, his acting gets no better as he stutters and stammers his way through the remainder of the piece. Every time his conditioning breaks down he looks like he's got a severe attack of wind. His time to shine comes at the end where he stands there, just like Partridge, and proclaims "I'm Batman!" in front of precisely no-one as he manages to sort out the self-destruct chamber. Poor Rodney. All he has left to look forward too over the next 20 years are royalty cheques from repeats of The Likely Lads and a cameo in a dreadful Ant'n'Dec remake.
There's a lot of tedious references back to something that happened in 1979 with the Movellan virus and even more groundwork established here about the schism that's apparently building between Daleks loyal to the Supreme Dalek and those loyal to old scrotum face himself, Davros. It's like choosing between God and Tony Blair. You can either pray to a high power and get your reward in the next life, or donate cash to Tony and get your reward in the upper House.
You can almost hear the death rattle of Doctor Who here... And in a show with so much wooden shite on display Maurice Colbourne is wasted. Not to worry, Ken Master's will be pulled down to this level in the next series...
The Bumper Book of Made-up Doctor Who Facts has this to say about part 2 of Resurrection of the Daleks: The Unghuntu Tribe, of South-Eastern Samoa, worship Eric Saward as their living god and regularly sacrifice well structured plotting, compulsive narrative and intriguing story-telling on an alter dedicated to his name.
Can you feel the love on the blog? Can you? It's like we've turned into Outpost Gallifrey or something! It's all my fault, of course, having lined up a veritable smorgasbord of Tesco's Finest tripe for us all to wade through. However, just think, by the time McCoy starts ranting about fighting like animals the new series will be just around the corner; and their cat-people make-up looks a lot better, if nothing else. And besides, at least we have a bona fide classic to watch on Monday, eh?
Anyway, that's enough preamble, I'm busy. Insanely so. In fact, I'm far too busy to actually sit down and write a proper review of this story (no matter how many bloody parts it's in!). However, thanks to the magic of the internet I've managed to unearth a piece I cobbled together five years ago (back when rec.arts.drwho was still cool and my writing style was even worse than it is today, if that's possible). And so, with sincere apologies, here it is again:
Is there a more disappointing story in the history of Doctor Who?* Sure, there are arguably worse atrocities (The Time Monster, anyone?), but this one could have been a contender. The 5th Doctor's encounter with the Daleks should have been special and memorable; the fact that it's astonishingly bad on almost every conceivable level is a bitter pill to swallow.
Resurrection is full of sound and fury, signifying sod all
Rodney Bewes commits some atrocious crimes on the acting profession in this story. In fact, didn't Equity take his card away from him after it was transmitted? I seem to recall that they actually cut it up in front of him. That such a "big" name should turn in such an am-dram performance leaves your jaw scraping the floor. Stunt Casting with a Capital C. Everything about the way Bewes plays Stein is wrong. The moment where he tells the Doctor he is a Dalek agent he is so wooden, so excruciatingly awful, you'd be mistaken for thinking that he'd just ordered a pint of mild. Did he even bother turning up to the RSC's one-day stuttering workshop they ran back in May 1975?
The manner in which Bewes finally destroys the Daleks is nothing short of hilarious; it actually gives Ingrid Pitt's impromptu karate kicking a run for its money. Did Stein muster up enough strength for one last, heroic stab at the destructor code? No, that would have been far too easy. Instead, he lunges like a pregnant salmon onto the console whilst sporting a pained look of anguish that reeks of honey-roasted pig. It should never have been allowed to happen!
The next offender is Eric Saward's "plot". Contrived, complicated and full of carnage, it's nothing like the Doctor Who we know and love. Of course, when I say 'carnage' I really mean endless scenes of Equity-less idiots wearing oversized Dalek hats falling down with a pathetic "awwwww!", as the sound of high pitched "ray-guns" echo around the studio like a Top Ten hit from Billy Ocean. Sprinkle in an incomprehensible plot to take over Gallifrey and an improbable excuse for littering Docklands with some anti-Dalek gas and you are left with a resounding "Huh?"
Resurrection is full of sound and fury, signifying sod all. It thinks it's hard and complex when it's really just muddled and raucous. None of the characters are remotely sympathetic and when they die (and believe me, they will) you are actually relieved that there's one less subplot to brush up against and one less hyperactive voice to contend with.
The Doctor is also completely out of character in this story. He waltzes around with various weapons in tow, he shoots unprotected Daleks at point blank range, he lobs chemical weapons around, almost garrotes a cat, and then, to top it all, he strolls into Davros' lab with the intention of killing him in cold blood/toothpaste. Not so much, "Do I have the right?" as "Do I have the bottle?" The Doctor doesn't follow through on his threats, of course; he appears to change his mind because he is distracted by something louder happening off-screen in a nearby corridor. So much for ethics and morality...
OK, I admit it, there are some creepy scenes scattered in amongst all the pyrotechnics. The emotionless coppers killing innocent passerbys is a chilling image (if not an entirely responsible one) and the Docklands scenes in general are pretty atmospheric and grim. The Daleks themselves look pretty good too, staying firmly on smooth floors to cut down on the wobble factor. However, the less said about their creamy filling, the better.
The only other highlight is Lytton (played by Maurice Day of the Triffids Colbourne). This guy oozes pure menace and it's a crying shame that he remains completely two dimensional throughout the story. I wanted to learn more about this cold-hearted rat bastard; just look at the way he smells the glove in that screengrab! It's hardly surprising that the production team will bring him back to face the Cybermen next season. And then balls that up as well.
Another reason why Resurrection is so highly regarded in some circles is thanks to the departure of the "mouth on legs". Thank God for small mercies. Luckily for us (and her) she doesn't suddenly fall in love with one of the show's extras (mainly because they are all dead), instead she chucks it all in because she's sick to her back teeth of watching amateur dramatic thesps clutching their stomachs and moaning. She's seen enough horror for one day, thank you very much.
But what's really telling is the fact that the Doctor hardly shrugs his shoulders at the news. Sure, on the surface he appears to be vaguely upset and hurt, but look how fast he's back inside the TARDIS, locking the doors and taking off. He knows full well that she's done this kind of thing before, and - lo and behold! - if she doesn't rush back two seconds later to change her mind (the feminist!). But the Doctor, the wily fox, has already legged it. And fandom breathes a collective sigh of relief.
I wonder where Leslie Grantham puts this on his CV. Do you think it's above or below murder?
The Bumper Book of Made-Up Doctor Who Facts has this to say about Resurrection of the Daleks Part Whatever!: Ian Levine's first job as unpaid continuity whipping-boy/consultant was putting together the obligatory flashback scene in this episode. He still maintains to this day that Louise Jameson doesn't actually exist and he has Philip Hinchcliffe's memories and an old fag packet to prove it.
*this review was written before Aliens of London was transmitted.
If you'll indulge me, Resurrection of the Daleks is the inspiration for my Davros theory of who can play Doctor Who. When the new series was announced I realised that the best way to decide whether someone is good enough to 'wear the scarf' was to imagine them in a room with Davros. If they could win a shouting or glaring contest with the 'genius' or at the very least outwit him, then he was going to be fine doing anything else.
So of course I'd disregarded Alan Davies straight away with his weedy voice and disconcerting manner...
Alan: See thing is what I don't understand is why you keep going aroun' y'know doin' these things.
Davros: BECAUSE I AM DAVROS! I AM A GENIUS! MY DALEKS WILL BECOME THE SUPREME RULERS OF THE UN-I-VERSE!
Alan: Right. Hmm. I don't 'spose you just couldn't. Y'know.
But as soon as Christopher Eccleston was announced. Yep. Made sense. In fact if you look at Dalek, that scene with the, well, Dalek -- that's pretty much what I had in mind. When you've got that presence in the room, you need someone who can overpower it.
I think David Tennant has the same mojo too. But his key weapon is sarcasm. The only reason that Davros has any power is if people believe he's scary and can do some very bad things indeed. If he's being put down or his foe doesn't believe that he has the capacity he tends to crumple. A quick quip about Stannah Stairlifts and the battle will be won.
Or something like that.
In the Series 27 Shooting Scripts – well worth someone else’s cash solely for Steven Moffat’s intro to TEC/TDD – as RTD describes the Emperor Dalek he says, “he’s NOT Davros...” and I can see why. Not the best of villains. Although I haven’t seen him in his better episodes, so perhaps I’ll change my mind and repent having watched Genesis in April. And since I’m living in Nigeria and watching this on DVD, this is part 3 & 4. So there.
So, accompanied by his hooker and the eighth member of The Madness, Doctor ‘Flinty’ has to battle the evil Daleks. Whoopdedoo.
The way the action is split between London and the Dalek ship is very clumsy. In Part 1 it’s much worse but here it’s still awfully choppy and pointless. In fact, the entire structure is pretty dodgy. Why bother keeping the deadly virus on earth? The Daleks know that in about 200 years there’s going to be a serious continuity problem and they’re desperate to invade on time. But seriously – there’s a lot of backwards/forwards between the two and so much seemingly random treachery it’s hard to see who’s double crossing who.
I can see why having everyone feuding might work but in execution it’s just messy. One moment, the Daleks are poking Davison with their suckers (I’ve realized quite how that sounds,)and declaring allegiance to the creator and the next they’re nonchalantly ordering Davros’ extermination. Well, I say nonchalantly but they have so little inflection as to render it totally devoid of emotion. Yeah, I’m spoiled with stuff like Dalek; who’d ever heard of an emotional Dalek? Meanwhile, Davros is plotting against them and making them spurt No-Gapsä
Never mind that simply everyone’s dying. When that many people get killed and we can’t even give a damn, you know there’s a problem. And I for one don’t get the fuss about Lytton. But I agree on Stien who just clutches his head and makes a lot of noise. He plays the possessed, barren of emotion zombie incredibly well; just a shame he takes it too far. Still, he saves the world despite being killed by a rubbish effect so maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
Ah, oh look: Tegan’s been arrested for plying her trade by the docks. That, and giving a disproportionately anguished cry of “No!!!” when a hobo meets his fate.
And so, Tegan leaves. ‘A lot of good people died today,’ she says; as did a lot of bad actors.
TnT aren’t that bad, I suppose. It doesn’t help that Tegan is paired up with a dyke withnae a clue and Turlough’s busy trying to weasel his way out of doing the right thing. Here’s where I have a problem: is Turlough constantly a weasel or is this a special case? He certainly doesn’t give a good first impression here, (yeah, this isn’t meant to be a first story but it’s a first for me) with his school-boy fetish and new levels of wooden acting. It could be worse – he could be rubber.
And all the scenes with Davros in them are spoiled by his wobbling gimp-mask and Hawking-style voice. Everything must be shouted and everything takes twice as long to say as is strictly necessary. At the end of Part 3, (or the middle of Part 2 if you’re that way inclined) the gloves come off and he launches into a tedious rant claiming dominance for his Daleks etc etc.
Put shortly, there is one good scene in Resurrection: where Davison chats away to Davros and tries to kill him. Davison is lovely throughout but both he and Molloy raise their game here and it’s a good example of how scripts can work, just why not make the whole thing watchable? It’s only marred by the rubbish excuse they gave him for not shooting the blighter. It would have been an awful mistake to have him kill Davros – but he stepped out for a breath of fresh air and, oh, the door shut? Weak, weak, weak! And then for Davros to die in a fountain of shaving cream...
What to say of the final battle? Unfortunately, any semblance of tension is spoiled coz I keep thinking, ‘surely the floor’s gonna break under all those Daleks?’ And the Doctor, unable to shoot Davros, has no qualms about killing a roomful of Daleks with a deadly virus; quite the contrary—he’s remarkably cheerful going about it.
And so, Tegan leaves. ‘A lot of good people died today,’ she says; as did a lot of bad actors. And she departs – the stupidest thing any companion ever does. Who would? And what do you do after TARDIS life? No: better that they all die. Anyway, she goes and the Doctor and Turlough forget all about ‘informing Earth’s authorities,’ (who deals with all these crack-pot reports that Earth’s world leaders are actually evil clones bent on humanity’s destruction and society’s collapse? Probably a call centre in Mumbai,) and pop off, changing their ways and all.
Thank goodness for Robert Shearman.
Bugger it! I’m tired of defending much maligned stories in the face of overwhelming indifference from other Tachyon writers. So I’ve decided to give up and just let popular opinion wash over me. And still defend the show I know and love to the hilt, regardless.
Right then, what’s next?
Resurrection of the Daleks - Part Two
Shit!
Where do I begin (certainly not at the start, as this is part two after all)? And no précis of the plot is going to help the uninitiated anyway. Anyhow, those who frequent these pages hardly need reminding what story they’re watching at any time, so all I’ll say is: Daleks, Davros, Bob Ferris, Dirty Den and lots and lots of toothpaste. In fact so much that some foreign prints actually carry a contractual acknowledgment to Colgate. And not even Andrew Pixley knows that one.
Hard to believe, but at the time this story promised so much: Doctor Who on for forty-five whole minutes (yes, actually a novelty at the time), the return of the show’s most infamous monsters after a five year break and the chance for Davison’s Doctor to go mano-a-mano with their creator. So what - in a nutshell - went wrong?
Well, everything obviously. Let’s get the good points out of the way first: Maurice Colbourne and - despite a poor mask - Terry Molloy: two performers in dire need of a much better script (or even some kind of script, at least). Colbourne at least seems to think that he’s appearing in something a lot better, while Molloy has Michael Wisher’s iconic sibilants down pat. And both would get second bites at the cherry the following year (although to wildly varying degrees of success).
As for the rest.
Let’s play spot the guest star, shall we? Chloe Ashcroft (who used to appear in some programme or other for five-year-olds. And on this evidence, still is). Rodney Bewes (yes, he’s a serious actor folks despite only being known for a sitcom. Now, where had we heard that one before in the 1980s?). Maurice Colbourne (who, to be fair, had yet to appear as human-coffee-table Tom Howard of Howard’s Way). And someone called ‘Les’ Grantham, whose steely eyes and ‘leave it aaht’ attitude would be perfect for some cockney wheeler-dealer type role if only there was one about a year down the line. Oh, and the bloke who rapes Susan George in Straw Dogs - no wonder Eric Saward thought he was writing something adult and gritty.
Christ, have you noticed how each scene only lasts about thirty seconds? Presumably done to make the action appear twice as fast, the effect is to make you wonder if your telly back in 1984 was jumping between channels (though the lack of Seth Armstrong in any of the scenes sadly makes such musing defunct). And there’s more macho posturing than a pay-per-view WWF Smackdown event. The problem here - as with all of Saward’s Who work - is that all this testosterone-fuelled machismo only works if it is leavened by a humorous script (as with the following year’s ‘Revelation’). But the pandering of both writer and producer to the show’s more militant fans to make things more ‘adult’ (whatever that means) results only in Doctor Who 1984-style being a cross between Gangsters and the Children’s Film Foundation.
Okay, I’ve managed to avoid all reference so far, but let’s take a quick (and I mean quick) look at that plot in full: the Daleks want Davros back to cure the Movellan virus, whilst replacing a human bomb-disposal squad with duplicates, whilst luring the Doctor to Earth so that he can be captured (and duplicated) and sent to Gallifrey to assassinate the High Council. All I can say it that it must have been a bloody big cigarette packet that JNT had on him the day they thrashed this one out. When Stein said ‘I can’t stand the confusion in my mind’, it was all I could do not to stand up and join in…
And if you reckon Eccleston’s Doctor was ineffective, check out Davison in the Nigerian version of part three: incarcerated for the duration and subject to this season’s obligatory (and totally unnecessary) flashback scene. (I’m guessing that Louise Jameson refused on the grounds of how shit the story is). By now of course Doctor Who was well and truly disappearing up its own canonical colon (with, hard to believe watching this, much much worse to come). But it’s hard to remember a story from even this time when all the disparate elements seemed to belong to other stories so entirely. Infamously, the 45-minute episodes originally spawned from the Beeb’s then Winter Olympics coverage, with the increase in viewing figures dictating the following year‘s format; but it’s fitting that ‘Resurrection’ is the template for Season 22 to follow: dull, unnecessarily violent and incomprehensible to all but sufferers from Asperger’s Syndrome.
And for a story which offers so little in either entertainment or intelligence, it’s depressing to realise just how influential it would be over the next year. Especially in the recasting of the Doctor as a vengeful crusader who wouldn’t balk at using violence to combat violence (where Davison here fails, Colin Baker’s Doctor would succeed time and time again). And the whole notion of Dalek factions - set to dominate the remainder of the original show’s lifespan - has its roots here. It’s also the last story until 2005 in which the Doctor would travel with more than one companion (which, given Turlough’s customary skulking about and Tegan doing little more than sport what every well-heeled hooker was wearing in 1984, is perhaps no bad thing).
But it’s not all bereft of hope: Saward - with no little assistance from a director who actually seemed to give a shit - would learn many lessons for the following year’s ‘Revelation…’ And no story - no matter how bad - can be without its unintentionally hilarious moments; with ‘Resurrection’s toothpaste-fight between rival Dalek factions being a whole ‘jump-the-shark’ moment for this story alone. On which point, is it me or does Davros look as though he’s masturbating at one point; as sticky white fluid erupts from his chair (with one hand, you’ll notice, suspiciously concealed from sight)? And I thought the TV Movie was Who’s greatest dalliance with hardcore porn…
Last word though goes, appropriately enough, to Tegan (who is, at least, given a half-decent leaving scene). ‘If you stop enjoying it, give it up’, she advises the Doctor on departure. And despite Davison’s resolve to ‘mend his ways’, surely that never meant ‘strangle my replacement and wear the worst coat in the history of time’, did it?
At least Michael Grade took her words more literally.
(‘The Bumper Book of Made-Up Doctor Who Facts’ has this to say about the above atrocity: despite evidence to the contrary, Eric Saward was on mind-bending drugs while writing this story).
Relax Rodney, that's how everyone felt when they read the script. Boom boom. They say you should trust the tale not the teller, but in this case I'll make an exception, and won't bother arguing with Eric Saward's own opinion of this farrago of non sequiturs and general guff. In fact it's quite useful to watch the second episode in isolation as you can pretend that the story makes sense except that you must be missing crucial information supplied in the first episode. But the plot holes, or even the Daleks, aren't all that scary when compared to the massed rank of light entertainment stars that the Doctor has to face in this episode. A murderous soap star, a former Rock Follie, and a rubbish Play School presenter would be bad enough, but Rodney Bewes for the love of God! And I haven't seen Rodney look as uncomfortable as this since he first moved into the Elm Lodge Housing Estate with Thelma. When he's a brainwashed Dalek agent he recites his lines woodenly. When he's not a brainwashed Dalek agent he recites his lines woodenly, but inexplicably throws in a bit of stuttering Arkwright from Open All Hours. Still at least he got over it and now lives a relatively normal life. Leslie Grantham wasn't so lucky, and recently lost his job on Eastenders for feeling himself up in front of Abduction of the Daleks. Some people never recover from the psycho-sexual trauma of Dalek love.
But I suppose Resurrection of the Daleks looks more like the new series than most episodes of classic Doctor Who, and not just because of its length. There's the procession of familiar guest stars with widely varying talent, lots of action that leaves no time to ask questions, and a fairly random bit about Time Lords v Daleks. But at least the new series has decent writers and a sense of humour, whereas this is so po-faced as to be unintentionally comic. The death count is so pointlessly high that you begin to wonder if Saward had shares in Co-op Funeral Services. 
The most gratuitous death has to be the hapless and blameless beachcomber who takes a head shot from a duplicate copper for no other reason than being 200 yards away from a very confusing alien invasion. Now that's unlucky. And he'd just found the film can of episode seven of Evil of the Daleks which, thinking about it, is presumably why Saward had him swiftly dispatched. But having said all that the whole thing remains strangely watchable, and that's because Peter Davison is a very good actor who can even carry a long sequence being wired up by Rodney Bewes. When you have a good actor in the lead role, you can get away with almost anything.
It's even better when there's a great supporting actor as well, and for once JNT's scattergun approach to casting came up trumps with the mighty Maurice Colbourne as Lytton.
Colbourne's performance as Lytton is tremendous - the only man in history who could wear that crazy helmet and rubber gloves and still come out looking cool. They had to bring the character back. Unfortunately they brought him back in Attack of the Cybermen and pissed the opportunity up a wall. Instead they should have given him a blank cheque and open-ended contract as a new companion. As well as changing the future of Doctor Who, he would have avoided Howards' Way which, while great fun, was not Colbourne's finest moment. He might not go down in television history for his performance in Resurrection of the Daleks, but there's a strong chance he will for his starring role in Gangsters which is shortly to be released on DVD. This frankly bonkers BBC drama, written by Philip "Vengeance on Varos" Martin has to be seen to be believed, and Colbourne carries the whole thing off brilliantly. A great actor, sadly missed, whose presence in Resurrection of the Daleks is about the only reason I could occasionally raise an affectionate smile when watching it.
The other reason to raise a smile was finally seeing the back of Tegan. "It's stopped being fun Doctor." When did she ever have fun? I think I only saw her smile twice, and both of those occasions were in Black Orchid. Good riddance.
