Revelation of the Daleks

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Trouble in Paradise

Easily the best Davros story since Genesis. I really like the different spin on Davros here. Instead of being revived by the Daleks while a group of plucky rebels attempt to stop him for the umpteenth time, he's in charge of a corporation and actually doing (somewhat) good for the universe. Of course he can never be truly good and this led to an excellent twist when it was revealed what the concentrated protein actually was. Season 22 in general has been trying a bit too hard to be overly edgy and dark and that very rarely works in Doctor Who but this story is one that I think succeeded.

The only bit that fell flat for me was the weird subplot with Jobel and Tasambeker. Terry Molloy has fully won me over as Davros by now, he is by far the definitive Davros (though Julian Bleach does a great job too). Colin Baker was really great here as the Doctor, aside from one moment when he was helping Peri get across the fence I can definitely feel him mellowing out a little. Nicola Bryant was also quite good, especially her interactions with the radio DJ. I didn't like how she was getting creeped on throughout story, that element of the story wasn't at all necessary.

Overall this is a great story, much better than the previous 80s Davros story because this time it didn't bore me to death. It really is a shame I've only got one more season with Colin.

Next Story: The Nightmare Fair

Revelation of the Daleks isn't bad per se, but it doesn't really achieve anything it sets out to do.

Once again I found myself enjoying the side characters more than the Doctor and Peri (whoever decided to write the opening and make nk fewer than two comment on her weight I hope all your manuscripts get eaten by maggots). The two bounty hunters were fun, and Kara and her secretary were a delightful double act

The thing is this is not a good Dalek story. It's hard to do a good Dalek story, because they're a mostly one-note enemy that got famous amd popular and thus overused, but it's possible! The writer here didn't manage it. They remain a one-note enemy whose appearance could have been replaced with any suitably evil alien

All in all, a breath of fresh air after Timelash. Unfortunately, that's like moving to Mars because Pluto was too chilly

Orcini and Bostock are two of the best side characters the show has ever had. Bostock - the smelly, instinctual genius. Orcini - the grizzled, old and honorable mercenary, hired to kill Davros. Their fate at the end of part two hits home because of how invested Eric Saward makes us in them, in his final script. Saward may be a lousy script editor,but he has always been an amazing writer - one of the 1980’s few true stars. This is matched by impeccable direction from legend Graeme Harper who makes every scene interesting, with a turn of the camera or an unexpected, dynamic shot.

It is the second fantastic story Davros has had in a row, with Terry Malloy selling the performance beautifully. The Daley menaces are handled well here too, though I think the details around the competing factors could have been drawn out a bit more. What we lose in that detail though we gain in skin infected zombies - which are pretty intimidating!

You can’t forget the engaging, doomed relationship between Jobel and Tasambeker, Clive Swift gives an excellent performance here and a total monster, Jenny Tomasin plays the screwed up abuse victim with shocking believability. My God Doctor Who is dark in this era. Even this strong story is negatively impacted by the fact that every character feels the need to argue with each other, a weird trait of this era equating vicious dialogue with drama. Everyone is nasty and hates each other. Ah well.

Similarly to Vengeance on Varos, if this was a 5th Doctor story it would be considered one of the all time greats. I suppose that sums up the issue with season 22, easily the worst season to date, no one had a clue what they were doing with The Doctor - including Colin Baker himself. Still - thank God there were two stories that didn’t impact too much!