Resurrection of the Daleks (TV story)

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Resurrection of the Daleks was the fourth serial of season 21 of Doctor Who. It was the final regular appearance of Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, who left the Fifth Doctor for the second time. It also marked the return of Davros and the Daleks after their last appearance in Destiny of the Daleks. Lytton makes his debut and, strangely for villains of the time, survives with no ill effects.

Notably, this story was separated into two 45-minute episodes in place of the usual four 25-minute ones, a format that would temporarily become the norm during Season 22; the 45-minute length eventually became the established episode length for the series following its revival in 2005.

Synopsis

Captured in a time corridor, the Doctor and his companions are forced to land on 20th century Earth, diverted by the Doctor's oldest enemy - the Daleks. It is here the true purpose of the time corridor becomes apparent: after ninety years of imprisonment, Davros, the ruthless creator of the Daleks, is to be liberated to assist in the resurrection of his army.

Not even the Daleks foresee the poisonous threat of their creator. Indeed, who would suspect Davros of wanting to destroy his own Daleks - and why?

Only the Doctor knows the truth. Will he descend to Davros' level of evil to stop him?

Plot

Part one

A group of futuristic humanoids are running down Shad Thames in 1984. As they attempt to escape, they are gunned down by two policemen led by Commander Lytton in the uniform of an inspector. Two of the humanoids, Galloway and Quartermaster Sergeant Stien, escape into the adjacent wharf where a time corridor is situated. Galloway is killed, leaving Stien alone. Lytton transports back to his battle cruiser and prepares to attack a prison space station. Its only prisoner is Davros, the creator of the Daleks.

Meanwhile, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are being dragged down a time corridor in the Doctor's TARDIS, following on from the events at the end of Frontios. They land in an apparently disused part of London.

The Dalek Empire attacked the prison station and tries a direct frontal assault on the outside of the station airlock with poor results. The station crew, led by Dr Styles and Lt. Mercer, fight back in force. Lytton persuades the Dalek Supreme to use poisonous gas to dispose of the crew. This proves a success and the Daleks have little trouble taking over the station. Following orders, Watch Officer Osborn tries to destroy Davros, first with a non-functional automated system, then in person. However, Lytton and an engineer break into the cell and kill Osborn before she can complete her mission. Then they release Davros from his cryogenic imprisonment.

The Doctor and his friends have by now met a traumatised Stien. He joins them in returning to the warehouse to hunt for the time corridor, but Turlough is suddenly discovered to have vanished. They meet a military bomb disposal squad, led by Colonel Archer, who were called in after builders uncovered what they believed unexploded bombs. While the others were distracted, Turlough had stumbled into the time corridor and ends up on the Dalek ship.

Having learned the Doctor is in the warehouse, the Supreme Dalek dispatches a Dalek to detain him. The Dalek travels through the time corridor and appears in the warehouse. The Doctor yells at everyone to take cover as it prepares to exterminate them.

The Dalek kills several men before the Doctor gets them to focus their fire on its eyestalk, blinding it. In the struggle, Tegan is hit by the Dalek's sucker arm, but the others push the Dalek out of the loading bay doors, whereupon it hits the ground and explodes. Tegan has suffered a head injury and blacks out. On the prison station, only Styles, Mercer and two guards are left alive of the original crew. Disguised in uniforms taken from Lytton's guards, they plan to blow up the station with its self-destruct system.

Davros explains to Lytton that his cryogenic sentence lasted for "ninety years of mind-numbing boredom." He vows revenge on "that meddling Time Lord," the Doctor. Lytton insists he is in their grasp. While Davros' travel chair is undergoing maintenance by the engineer Kiston, Lytton explains the Daleks lost their war against the Movellans due to the development of a virus that specifically attacks Dalek tissue. They have woken Davros to find a cure. Despite Lytton's reservations, Davros demands he remain on the prison station while working on the virus. It may be necessary for him to be refrozen. When Lytton leaves to discuss this with the Supreme Dalek, Davros uses a hypodermic-like mind control device to take control of Kiston.

A Kaled Mutant attacks a soldier.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and the members of the bomb disposal squad have brought the remnants of the wrecked Dalek back inside. They search for the Kaled mutant inside. They find and kill it after it wounds one of the squad's men. The squad's scientific advisor, Professor Laird, looks after the victim and a recovering Tegan. Colonel Archer decides to radio his H.Q. for reinforcements, although his own radio is dead. Leaving the Doctor his gun-belt in case any more Daleks arrive, Archer leaves to find a telephone. Archer finds a telephone box, but the phone has been vandalised. Stepping outside, Archer finds two policemen and asks one of the officers if he can use his radio to call for assistance. The policeman silently obliges, but when Archer tries the radio, it doesn't work. The other policeman then holds a gun to Archer's head.

The Doctor and Stien head into the TARDIS to find out what is happening at the other end of the time corridor.

On Earth, the soldier attacked by the Dalek mutant behaves very strangely, wandering away, mumbling nonsense, and running upstairs. Sergeant Calder follows the soldier but finds himself confronted by four Daleks. Tegan and Laird hear the sound of gunfire upstairs and try to leave the warehouse — only to be caught by Archer, Calder and the soldiers. Archer tells them the warehouse is now under martial law and he will have them shot if they try to leave. Out of the soldiers' earshot, Tegan mentions to Laird that's not the real Archer, as the Colonel gave the Doctor his gun-belt and yet he's wearing one.

The TARDIS materialises inside the Dalek ship and narrowly avoids being captured. The Doctor tells Stien they should find Turlough and make a swift exit. Stien points his own weapon at the Doctor, revealing himself an agent of the Daleks...

Part two

A squadron of Daleks close in to exterminate the Doctor, but Lytton enters and tells them the Supreme Dalek has ordered the Doctor is not to be killed — yet. The Daleks confirm this and lead the Doctor away. On the prison station, Turlough joins forces with the remnants of the crew. He tells them of the time corridor to escape the station's self-destruction.

The Daleks reveal their plan of cloning the Doctor and his companions and using the clones to assassinate the High Council of Time Lords on Gallifrey. Stien begins the mind-copying sequence while the Doctor tries to talk him into resisting his Dalek mind conditioning. Styles and the two station guards are killed while trying to activate the station's self-destruct system.

Back on Earth, Tegan tries to escape by running east down the Thames Path, pursued by Lytton's "policemen", and shouts for help to a man with a metal-detector down on the mud banks. But the man has his back to Tegan and is wearing headphones so he can't hear her. The "policemen" recapture Tegan, and then one of them callously shoots the man — even though he saw and heard nothing. Back at the warehouse, Archer orders the soldiers to put the women into the time corridor, but Laird panics and runs; the soldiers open fire and kill her. Tegan is taken through the time corridor to the Dalek ship.

Meanwhile, in the duplication chamber, Stien is overcome by confusion. The Doctor has realised Stien's conditioning is unstable. He challenges his ability to think for himself. As the mind-copying sequence nears completion, Stien breaks his conditioning and stops the process, freeing the Doctor.

A Dalek is turned to Davros' cause.

The Doctor finds Turlough and Tegan. They return to the TARDIS with Stien and the last surviving station crew member. Rather than depart, the Doctor decides he must destroy Davros once and for all. With Stien and Lt. Mercer he heads to the station lab. He leaves Tegan and Turlough in the TARDIS, which he has secretly programmed to return them to the warehouse on time delay. In the lab, Davros has heard the Doctor has been taken prisoner by the Daleks. He announces that once the Doctor has been exterminated, he will build a new race of Daleks which shall be even more deadly. They shall again become the supreme beings.

The Doctor confronts Davros in the lab. His chance to kill him is lost when Stien's conditioning reasserts itself long enough to let Lytton's troops kill Lt. Mercer. Horrified by his actions, Stien refuses to accompany the Doctor back to the time corridor. He runs off into the station.

Davros' army (a biochemist, Kiston, a soldier, and two Daleks) is growing. He dispatches his newly Imperial Daleks and loyal troopers to Earth. Anticipating resistance from the now Renegade Daleks led by the Supreme Dalek. Davros opens a capsule of the Movellan virus. Two Daleks enter to exterminate him but are killed by the virus.

Davros succumbs to the Movellan virus.

Back at the warehouse, a battle rages between Davros' new loyal Daleks and the Supreme Dalek Daleks. The TARDIS arrives and the Doctor returns through the time corridor. He now knows the "unexploded bombs" discovered earlier are canisters of the Movellan virus. He opens a canister that Turlough and Tegan have brought into the TARDIS. He places it behind the Daleks, who all start to die.

Lytton has escaped. He gleefully watches the Daleks' demise. He swaps his Dalek uniform for that of a policeman and joins his two fellow "bobbies" on their next vigil. Back on the space station with the Imperial Daleks defeated, Davros prepares an escape pod to flee from the station, but the Movellan virus attacks and seems to kill him.

Back on Earth, Daleks from both factions are dead. Tegan is appalled at the deaths. The Dalek Supreme appears on the TARDIS scanner and threatens the Doctor, claiming the Daleks have duplicates of prominent humans all over Earth which makes it just a matter of time before Earth falls.

Tegan says goodbye to the Doctor.

Meanwhile, a wounded Stien tries to activate the self-destruct sequence. Just as he is about to finish, the Renegade Daleks enter and exterminate him. Although dying, he manages to complete the sequence, destroying the station and the Dalek ship.

The Doctor calls for them all to leave, but Tegan refuses. This has been one massacre too many. She no longer enjoys her adventures and wants to give it up, so she says a brief goodbye to the Doctor and Turlough before running off. The Doctor sadly remarks that he originally left Gallifrey for much the same reason that Tegan has just left him; he had tired of the nature of their lives and notes that he should try and mend his ways. With that, the Doctor and Turlough return to the TARDIS and as it vanishes, Tegan runs back, remembering the Doctor's old admonishment: "Brave heart, Tegan." She calls out to the empty air that, despite everything, she will miss him.

Cast

Crew

References

Animals

  • A cat is mistaken for a Dalek mutant.

Daleks

  • The Supreme Dalek is in charge of one Dalek faction.
  • It is explicitly shown that Daleks can electronically communicate with each other without words. An electronic sound is heard each time this happens.
  • The Daleks can clone subdued humanoids in duplication chambers. The duplicates were meant to infiltrate strategic Earth positions and to hit the High Council of Gallifrey through a Doctor's duplicate.
  • The Daleks identify Turlough as a companion of the Doctor, despite having not met him directly yet.
  • Davros has got a device for mind control for both humanoids and Daleks. He uses the device on two Daleks, which subsequently become the first Imperial Daleks.
  • When infected by the Movellan virus Daleks begin to lose control of their casings, and they lose vision while a white substance spurts out of their casings. Davros is also vulnerable.

The Doctor

Individuals

  • Tegan quotes her dead aunt Vanessa to justify her decision to stay on Earth.
  • Lytton disguises himself as a policeman. His henchmen do likewise.

Locations

Time travel

  • The Daleks use time corridor technology to travel between their spacecraft, the space station and Earth in 1984.
  • The Cloister Bell can be heard ringing while the Doctor is trying to free the TARDIS from the Daleks' time corridor.
  • Inside the time corridor, the Doctor's TARDIS is thrown around.

Weapons

  • The Doctor handles a pistol, killing a Dalek mutant.
  • The Movellans hid a number of anti-Dalek virus containers on Earth, possibly knowing that Earth is a prime candidate for future Dalek anti-Movellan operations.
  • The Daleks equip their android duplicates with time period specific weapons, such as sub-machine guns for Lytton's faux-policemen. This causes some consternation for Lytton, who abhors the waste of useful slaves/subjects for experimentation after the prisoners escape.
  • Dalek Troopers are armed with laser weapons that have no visible beam but are lethal to humans in a single shot and can damage a Dalek with enough shots.

Story notes

  • This story had the working titles of Warhead, The Return, and The Resurrection.
  • Although recorded as four separate episodes, it was broadcast as two forty-five-minute episodes to free up transmission slots for the broadcast of the 1984 Winter Olympics.
  • The forty-five minute episodes used the closing credits prepared for the twenty-minute parts one & three. Consequently Kiston is uncredited on the forty-five minute part one as he does not appear until the twenty-five minute part two.
  • Rodney Bewes (Stien) is erroneously credited as 'Stein' in Radio Times for part one.
  • Leslie Grantham (Kiston) is credited both on-screen and in Radio Times under the name Les Grantham. He is uncredited on-screen for part one, but is credited in Radio Times.
  • An article by Russell T Davies in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 suggested that the Dalek Supreme's attempt to assassinate the High Council was one of the initial clashes in the Last Great Time War mentioned in the 2005 series.
  • Eric Saward was unsatisfied with the story, saying in a DVD commentary that it was too frantic, with too many ideas. The main plot was the Daleks releasing Davros so he might find a cure for the Movellan virus. There were several sub-plots: the creation of duplicates to invade the Earth; the capture of the Doctor to create a clone to assassinate the Time Lords' High Council; Davros's scheme to create a new race of Daleks. As none of these are dealt with at any length, he felt they distracted from the central plot.
  • John Nathan-Turner hated the Dalek-like helmets of Lytton's troops, but did not have the time to change them.
  • Michael Wisher (who had played the original Davros in TV: Genesis of the Daleks) was unavailable to reprise his role due to theatrical work, so he was replaced by Terry Molloy.
  • A clip of the battling Daleks was used in the first episode of the TV series James May's 20th Century; This clip was used to illustrate an item about lasers.
  • This story has an unusually high body count, even for Doctor Who. Besides the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, only Davros, Lytton and his two policemen survive (the Dalek Supreme may also have survived, as it's unclear whether it is actually on the Dalek ship at the time of its destruction). Much of the violence appears gratuitous, such as the murder of Laird, the killing of a crew member infected by a disease, and the shooting of the man with the metal detector whose attention Tegan tries to attract.
  • This story was never officially novelised during the original run of Target Books due to unsuccessful negotiations with Eric Saward, but Saward later novelised the story in 2019
  • The story was the first of a consecutive three serials, along with Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani, that saw the departure of one of the season's regular cast members. In this serial, Janet Fielding departs as Tegan.
  • The visual effect used for the space station's self-destruct was later reused during the Fifth Doctor's regeneration in The Caves of Androzani.
  • This is the last Dalek story in the Classic Series to include scenes in the TARDIS control room, and the last overall until Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways.

Ratings

  • Part one - 7.3 million viewers
  • Part two - 8.0 million viewers

Myths

  • It was due to the success of the double-length episode format of this story that the BBC decided to adopt the format for the whole of the following season. (It had already been decided before this that season twenty-two would consist of thirteen episodes of approximately forty-five minutes each).

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • Near the end of part two, three Daleks go into the time corridor — but four come out.
  • Many of the broadcast videotapes of parts three and four episodes seen on PBS stations in the US lacked sound effects; actors pointed lasers at each other noiselessly and the final explosion was silent. (This was due to an unfortunate mix-up of videotapes at BBC Enterprises, which resulted in undubbed copies being supplied. US viewers should perhaps have felt privileged, as the only people to see these particular tapes are the programme-makers themselves!)
  • In part two when the Dalek shoots the army soldier, the laser goes nowhere near where the gunstick is pointing.
  • The Dalek pushed out of the warehouse's loading bay doors at the beginning of part two differs from the Dalek in the studio-shot combat scene just before. It's a different colour, its eyestalk is shorter, and the rings around its mesh are mutilated with severe dents.
  • When the Doctor shoots the Dalek mutant, no bullet holes appear in the sheet.
  • When Davros says the line, "Now for the Daleks", his mouth does not move at all.
  • In part one in the TARDIS, you can see the shadow of the boom microphone.
  • In many scenes the 'cuffs' on the Dalek grills vary positions between each other throughout the entire story.
  • On some grey Daleks there is no wire mesh between the solar panel slats.
  • Terry Molloy's left eye can be seen in a scene underneath Davros's mask.
  • In a scene in part four when the Doctor goes to collect the explosive charges (in the same room as the Time Corridor entrance), there is an audible rattling as the camera moves backwards. As he walks towards the Time Corridor's entrance, the rattling is heard again.
  • In part one, when Turlough comes across the room containing the corpses of the Daleks' victims, including the real Colonel Archer and Sergeant Calder, the body of the Colonel is still wearing the gun-belt he gave to the Doctor.

Continuity

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

Released as Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks, the UK DVD release was the 4-part edition untransmitted in the UK, which came with an additional rubber case that went over the top of the standard packaging.

Released:

PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1100
NTSC - Warner Video E1759

Contents:

Rear Credits:

Notes:

  • Region 2 UK DVD cover

    Region 2 UK DVD cover

  • Region 4 DVD cover

    Region 4 DVD cover

  • Region 1 DVD cover

    Region 1 DVD cover

  • Region 2 Netherlands DVD cover

    Region 2 Netherlands DVD cover

  • Davros Region 1 cover

    Davros Region 1 cover

  • Region 4 Davros cover

    Region 4 Davros cover

  • Davros Region 2 cover

    Davros Region 2 cover

Special Edition release

This story was released as Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks: Special Edition

Released:

  • UK 28 March 2011 Region 2
  • Australia 5 May 2011 Region 4
  • TBA - Region 1

Special Features:

Notes:

  • It is only available in the UK and Australia as part of the Revisitations 2 box set.
  • Region 2 DVD UK cover

    Region 2 DVD UK cover

  • Region 4 cover

    Region 4 cover

  • Revisitations 2 Region 2 cover

    Revisitations 2 Region 2 cover

  • Region 4 Revisitations 2 cover

    Region 4 Revisitations 2 cover

VHS releases

This story was released as Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks.

Released:

  • First Release:
  • UK November 1993
PAL - BBC Video BBCV5143
NTSC - Warner Video E1261

Notes: It was presented in the non-broadcast (original edit) four-part format.

  • Second Release:
  • UK September 2001
PAL - BBC Video BBCV7253

Notes: W H Smith exclusive as part of the The Davros Collection box set.

  • US VHS cover

    US VHS cover

  • Australian VHS cover

    Australian VHS cover

  • UK VHS cover

    UK VHS cover

  • UK VHS box set cover

    UK VHS box set cover

  • UK box set spine art

    UK box set spine art

  • UK VHS re release cover

    UK VHS re release cover

  • VHS AUS box set cover

    VHS AUS box set cover

  • Australian VHS re release cover

    Australian VHS re release cover

External links

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For the purposes of this list, a "Dalek story" is one in which one living, authentic Dalek plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as The Space Museum are not counted due to the Daleks' appearance being defined by their importance to following stories, while stories such as The Wheel in Space and The Waters of Mars are absent due to the Daleks' only contribution being references to past Dalek stories. Stories like The Wedding of River Song, Hell Bent, Once, Upon Time and The Vanquishers are also not included due to the Daleks' appearance being restricted to a single scene of no consequence to the plot of the story, while the TV movie is also absent due to the Daleks only being heard from off-screen.
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