Resurrection of the Daleks (TV story)

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Resurrection of the Daleks was the fourth story of Season 21 of Doctor Who. This story was the first to be broadcast in 45-minute episodes and the final regular appearance of Tegan Jovanka, who leaves The Fifth Doctor for the second time. It also marks the return of Davros and the Daleks since their last appearance in Destiny of the Daleks.

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 that the true purpose of the Time Corridor becomes apparent: after 90 years of imprisonment, Davros, the ruthless creator of the Daleks, is to be liberated to assist in the resurrection of his army.

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

Only the Doctor knows the truth. But will he be capable of descending to Davros' level of evil in order to stop him?

Plot

Part One

A group of futuristic humanoids are running down a London alley in 1984. As they attempt to escape, they are gunned down by two policemen led by Commander Lytton. Two of the humanoids, Galloway and Stien, escape to a warehouse 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 whose only prisoner is Davros, the creator of the Daleks.

Meanwhile, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are being dragged down a time corridor in the TARDIS Where they find themselves in the London docklands.

In the meantime, the Daleks try a direct frontal assault on the prison station which yields poor results, as the station crew, led by Dr. Styles and Lt. Mercer, fight back with considerable force. Lytton then persuades the Dalek Supreme to use poisonous gas to get the crew out of the way. The plan proves to be a success and the Daleks have little trouble taking over the ship. Following orders, Watch Officer Osborn attempts to destroy Davros, first using 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 release Davros from his cryogenic imprisonment.

The Doctor and his friends have by now met a traumatised Stien, who joins them in returning to the warehouse to hunt for the end of the time corridor. There they meet a military bomb disposal squad, called in after builders uncovered what they thought to be unexploded bombs. While the others are distracted, Turlough stumbles into the time corridor, ending up on the Dalek ship.

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

Part Two

The Dalek kills several of the squad's men before the Doctor advises them to focus their fire on its eyestalk, blinding it. In the resulting struggle, the humans push the Dalek out of the warehouse window, and it explodes on hitting the ground. Tegan suffers a head injury, and blacks out. Meanwhile, 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 via its self-destruct system.

Speaking to Lytton, Davros explains that his cryogenic sentence lasted for "90 years of mind-numbing boredom." He then vows to take his revenge upon "that meddling Time Lord," the Doctor. Lytton insists he is in their grasp. While Davros's travel chair is undergoing maintenance by the engineer Kiston, Lytton explains that the Daleks lost their war against the Movellans due to the development of a virus that specifically attacks Dalek tissue, and have awakened Davros to find a cure. Despite Lytton's reservations, Davros demands that he remain on the prison ship while working on the virus, as 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.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and the members of the bomb disposal squad, having brought the remnants of the destroyed Dalek machine back inside, are searching for the Kaled mutant that was housed inside it. They eventually find and kill it, but only after it wounds one of the squad's men. While the medical officer of the squad looks after the victim and a recovering Tegan, the Doctor and Stien head into the TARDIS to find out what is happening at the other end of the time corridor.

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

Part Three

A squadron of Daleks close in to exterminate the Doctor, but Lytton enters and informs them that the Supreme Dalek has ordered that the Doctor must not be killed - yet. The Daleks confirm this as the truth and lead the Doctor away. On the prison ship, Turlough joins forces with the remnants of the crew, informing them of the existence of the time corridor, as a possible way of escaping the effects of the ship's self-destruct. On Earth, the man attacked by the Dalek creature is behaving very strangely and wanders away, mumbling nonsense. The group commander, Colonel Archer, decides to radio for help, although his own radio is dead. He heads outside, finds two policemen (Lytton's associates), and asks them for assistance. As he tries the radio, a policeman holds a gun to his head. The Daleks reveal their plan of cloning the Doctor and his companions, and to use 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. While this is going on, Styles and the two station guards are killed when trying to activate the station's self-destruct system.

Back on Earth, Colonel Archer returns to the warehouse, obviously under Dalek control. Tegan makes an escape attempt, but is soon recaptured by the policemen and taken through the time corridor to the Dalek ship. The squad's scientific advisor, Professor Laird, is shot while trying to flee the soldiers. Meanwhile, in the duplication chamber, Stien is overcome with confusion: the Doctor has realized that Stien's conditioning is unstable and begins challenging his ability to think for himself. Just as the mind-copying sequence nears completion, Stien breaks his conditioning and stops the process, freeing the Doctor.

The Doctor finds Turlough and Tegan, and they return to the TARDIS along 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, leaving Tegan and Turlough in the TARDIS, which he has surreptitiously programmed on time delay to return them to the warehouse. 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, and they shall once more become the supreme beings...

Part Four

The Doctor confronts Davros in the lab, but his chance to kill him is lost when Stien's conditioning re-asserts 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, and runs off into the station.

Davros' army (consisting of a biochemist, Kiston, a soldier, and two Daleks) is growing and he dispatches his Daleks to Earth. Anticipating resistance from the Daleks not loyal to him, Davros breaks opens a capsule of the Movellan virus. Two Daleks then enter with the intention of exterminating him, but are themselves killed instead by the virus.

Back at the warehouse, a huge battle is taking place between Davros' Daleks and those loyal to the Supreme Dalek. The TARDIS has arrived and the Doctor returns through the time corridor. He now knows that the "unexploded bombs" discovered earlier on were in fact canisters containing the Movellan virus. He opens a canister that Tegan and Turlough have brought into the TARDIS, and places it behind the Daleks who soon all start to die.

Lytton has escaped, and 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, Davros prepares to use an escape pod to flee from the station, but the Movellan virus attacks and seemingly kills him.

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

Meanwhile, a wounded Stien is trying to activate the self-destruct sequence. Just as he is about to finish, the Daleks enter and exterminate him. With his last ounce of life, he completes the sequence and destroys both the station and the Dalek ship.

The Doctor calls for them all to leave, but Tegan refuses; this has been one massacre too far. She no longer enjoys her adventures and wants to give it up, so she runs off. The Doctor is saddened by this, and he and Turlough leave. As the TARDIS vanishes, Tegan runs back, remembering the Doctor's old admonishment: "Brave heart, Tegan." She calls out to the empty air that she will miss him.

Cast

Crew

References

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.

The Doctor

Locations

Time travel

  • The Daleks use time corridor technology to travel between their space craft, the space station and Earth.
  • The Cloister Bell can be heard ringing when the Doctor is trying to free the TARDIS from the Daleks' time corridor.

Weapons

  • The Doctor handles a pistol, killing a Dalek mutant.
  • The Movellans secreted a number of anti-Dalek virus containers on Earth, possible 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 caused some consternation for Lytton, who abhorred 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, The Resurrection
  • Although recorded as four separate episodes it was broadcast as two 45 minute episodes in order to free up transmission slots for the broadcast of the Winter Olympics.
  • 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 in order that he might find a cure for the Movellan virus. There were several other sub-plots: the creation of duplicates to invade the Earth; the capture of the Doctor in order to create a clone that would assassinate the Time Lords' High Council; Davros's scheme to create a new race of Daleks. None of these are dealt with at any length, and they distract 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 DW: Genesis of the Daleks) was unavailable to reprise his role as Davros due to theatrical work so he was replaced by actor 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 is noted for its unusually high body count, even for Doctor Who. Besides the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough, only Lytton and the Dalek Supreme survive. 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 a man with a metal detector.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 7.3 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 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 same 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 episode 2, three Daleks go into the time corridor — but four come out.
  • Many of the broadcast dupes of the third and fourth episodes seen on PBS stations in the US lacked sound effects; actors pointed lasers at each other noiselessly, and the final explosion was silent.
  • The Dalek that is pushed out the window at the beginning of episode 2 bears little resemblance to the Dalek in the combat scene just before. It's a different colour, and its eye stalk is short.
  • When the Doctor shoots the Dalek mutant, no bullet holes can be seen in the sheet.

Continuity

Timeline

For the Doctor:

For Davros:

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

6p-dvd.jpg
File:6p-dvd5.jpg
6p-dvd2.jpg

Released as Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks, the UK DVD release 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:

VHS releases

File:6p-video.jpg
File:6p-video2.jpg
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Released as Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks.

Released:

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

Notes: Presented in the non-broadcast (original edit) four part format.

  • Second Release:
PAL - BBC Video BBCV7253

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

Novelisation and its audiobook

External links

Template:Season 21

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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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