Day 332 — November 28th 2021
Revelation of the Daleks Part One
Revelation of the Daleks — Part One
When it comes to the Colin Baker era, there’s broadly two camps of people. The first say that Vengeance on Varos is ‘the good Sixth Doctor Who story’, and the second says that this one takes that title. There’s been a third group growing in strength in recent years who carry a torch for Terror of the Vervoids, but for as long as I can remember you effectively had to choose between two stories. And while I can sort of see why people like Varos, I have to admit that this story has never done very much for me, and that’s held true while watching today.
It gets off to a good start — the TARDIS arrives in the first couple of minutes of the narrative and our heroes emerge immediately. Having spent the whole season complaining about how long it takes them to get out and into the story, this feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s also one of the most beautiful materialisations the show’s ever done, with the police box appearing in the snowy wastes as the wind whips up across the hillside… it’s properly gorgeous, and I think they lucked out with the unexpected bad weather during filming, because it wouldn’t look half as impressive on a wet winter morning.
Unfortunately, the episode does away with any goodwill it generates from getting our leads to the right planet from the off, because they’re away from the actual story for the entire episode. Oh sure, they encounter the mutant and hear about the ‘Great Healer’ from him, and various characters watch their approach on screens as they make the long journey to Tranquil Repose, but they don’t actually intersect with the rest of the plot at all, which is somehow worse than just having them sat in the TARDIS the whole time.
I think I’m also put off because their relationship as Doctor Who and companion has never ben more awful than it is in this episode. And yes, I’m including the moment when he tries to strangle her when making that assesment. To be blunt about it, Doctor Who is a complete twat to Peri across this episode. He makes multiple comments about her weight (the worst of which, to my mind, being ‘I’ll be lucky if I can lift you, the amount you weigh…’) which feel so misguided that I’m honestly amazed they made it to the final production. Did no one look at those in the script and think they might be a bad idea?
There’s a moment later on when Peri accidentally breaks Doctor Who’s watch and they spend a minute indulging in innuendoes on the topic before the Time Lord has a tantrum and leaves her to fend for herself while sat at the top of a wall they’ve had to scale. Their relationship has never been especially heathy, but this all feels like a new low to me. I can’t even imagine Pertwee’s incarnation being this bad, and he was a complete dick to Jo at times.
Away from our regulars, I can’t claim that I’m particularly interested in anything going on with the guest cast this week. There’s plenty of characters all with their own stories to follow, but I don’t think any of them have particularly grabbed me. I can’t force myself to care about the staff at Tranquil Repose, for example, and Davros’ associates in business leave me pretty cold, too. The characters who come closest to doing anything for me are the bodysnatchers, and only then because they get to be part of the best scene in the entire episode.
The Glass Dalek is such a brilliant idea, and the scene in which Natasha’s father begs her to kill him from inside the creature is properly brilliant. It’s about as dark as I’d ever want Doctor Who to go, but it’s such a striking image that I know it would have stuck in my head as a kid. It’s also the scene which features the best direction in the episode, with some great close ups on characters both sides of the discussion, and a real sense of energy which I think is missing in some of the other scenes.
The direction in this scene also means that the Glass Dalek gets a decent reveal where I don’t think the regular Daleks or Davros do elsewhere in the story. Yes, it’s our old friend; monsters simply showing up in the background rather than getting a proper’ reveal’ to make you sit up and take notice. I get that you couldn’t have kept them out of the narrative until the end of a 45-minute episode, but imagine how much more interesting the first appearance of the Daleks could have been if it came in that scene where Peri spots one gliding around behind them!
The same is true for the mystery of the Great Healer in this one. When the mutant mentions the name to Doctor Who it’s played as something of a moment — a mystery that needs to be solved. Just what is the identity of this ‘Great Healer’? Well, you don’t have to wait long to find out, because the revelation is just casually tossed into a discussion with Davros a couple of scenes later, and he’s already shown up in the story before now.
It’s doing very little for me, I’m afraid. 3/10.
