Four Episodes (aired as 2x 45 minute episodes)
Aired between 8th February 1984 and 15th February 1984
Written by Eric Saward
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Matthew Robinson
Synopsis
On a wet, run-down, London street, a bunch of strangely dressed men pile out of a warehouse and run away. London Policemen come out of the warehouse and mercilessly gun down the men, and an innocent bystander with sub-machine guns.
The Chief Constable then takes a strange device out of his pocket and moves a switch, transporting the dead men and the guns somewhere else. The Policemen then go on their "beat" like nothing had happened.
The TARDIS rather than going to the centre of the universe, instead gets pulled down some form of time corridor.
The Doctor manages to break free of it and lands in a run-down part of the docklands near Tower Bridge. He, Tegan and Turlough go out and try to find the end of the time corridor to figure out what's happened. As they do, they find one of the scruffy clothed men who managed to escape the murderous Policemen. He collapses in exhaustion at first, but when he comes around, he tells them that they're in danger and not to go looking for the corridor.
Meanwhile, the Chief Constable and the bodies are beamed aboard a spaceship in the far future. The Chief, Lytton is working for none other than the Daleks in some kind of scheme that required the men as test subjects. They weren't supposed to be killed, but it's only a temporary setback. He turns his attentions to their big prize, a prison station in the depths of space.
On this station, a demoralised skeleton crew is present, and newly arrived Lt Mercer complains hopelessly to the stations Doctor, Styles about the poor condition of the crew and the apathy of them. His case is soon made as the Dalek ship attacks the prison station and the crew scramble to put up a defence. Their weapons are useless as Daleks blow the airlock and move in, but their mines prove effective and force the Dalek force to withdraw.
Lytton is scathing to the Supreme Dalek and uses some type of gas that horribly disfigures the crew, allowing them to move in.
Back in the warehouse on earth, the Doctor convinces Stein to come with them back to the upper floor. Stein tells them that soldiers are nearby, but the Doctor is unconcerned and continues to look for the entrance to the corridor. Turlough mysteriously disappears and the TARDIS crew's shouting brings up the British soldiers led by Col. Archer. They begin to question the Doctor, but are soon shaken as a Dalek appears in the warehouse! The Dalek kills several soldiers before the Doctor coordinates their attacks and gets the men to fire at its eyestalk, blinding it enough for them to push it out of the upstairs window and smashing down onto the cobbled street below.
Back on the prison station, the human Dalek Soldiers fight their way to the cryogenic section, where the sole prisoner of this place is held - Davros! The soldiers manage to kill the security guard as she tried to terminate Davros, and Lytton gives the order to un-thaw the creator of the Daleks.
Dr Styles, Lt Mercer and a few others manage to escape the slaughter and look around for ways to stop the Dalek soldiers, stealing uniforms in the process. Turlough, having been accidentally taken in the time corridor, sneaks out of the Dalek ship and onto the station, running into the surviving crew. Together, they look for a way to blow up the prison station and end the threat of the Daleks.
Once thawed out, Davros is briefed by Lytton. He's told that the Daleks lost the Movellan war because of a weaponised virus.
Davros has been freed to find an antidote for that virus so the Daleks can once again be supreme. Davros is weary of the Daleks past abuse of him though, and demands to stay on the station, despite a distress call having been sent back to earth. As Lytton leaves, Davros begins to put his own plans into motion, taking control of the mind of Kiston, the human sent to help ensure he's healthy.
Through conversation, the Doctor finds out that the soldiers are a bomb disposal squad, sent to look at some strange artefacts found in the warehouse. The Dalek that was pushed out of the window attacks the soldiers in its squid form, ultimately being killed, but it's enough to convince Col. Archer that he's in over his head.
He agrees to go call for help whilst the Doctor and Stein go to search for Turlough using the TARDIS. Tegan is left with the soldiers and Professor Laird, the groups scientific advisor.
Archer goes out and comes across the Policemen who murder him. The other soldiers are also murdered, but when Tegan and Prof. Laird try to escape, they encounter the same soldiers, although very cold, and calculating. They're effectively held prisoner.
The Doctor gets to the Dalek ship in the TARDIS, but as soon as they leave, he's captured by Stein who turns out to be a Dalek agent.
He's taken prisoner and the Daleks try to replicate him, using a duplicate that is brainwashed to serve the Daleks. The Supreme Dalek gloats that the time corridor and samples of the Movellan Virus (that the soldiers mistook for bombs) were planted on earth to draw the Doctor in so he could be duplicated and sent to Gallifrey to assassinate the High Council.
On Earth, Tegan tries to escape, but after more innocents are gunned down to prove a point, she is re-captured. Prof. Laird is shot trying to escape and Tegan is shoved towards the time corridor, being taken to the Dalek ship for duplication.
Meanwhile, Davros has discovered that the Doctor is in the area and he sends some of his brainwashed Daleks down the time corridor to capture the Doctor and his TARDIS.
Turlough and the station crew find the station self destruct and whilst they set it up, Lt Mercer agrees to go with Turlough to the Dalek ship to find a way to escape down the time corridor once the self destruct is activated.
Whilst they're gone, Lytton and his men show up and kill Styles and the remaining station crew, stopping the self-destruct process.
Luckily, Stein overcomes his Dalek conditioning after a chat with the Doctor and the duplication process is stopped. They soon meet up with Tegan and Turlough and the pair are sent back to the TARDIS. The Doctor goes with Lt Mercer and Stein to confront Davros. They get there and the Doctor threatens to end Davros' life, but he's ultimately intercepted by Lytton and his men.
In the firefight, the Doctor gets away, but fails to kill Davros and Stein goes off on his own, fearing that the Dalek conditioning is gaining control again.
The Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Lytton and his men all end up at the Warehouse, either trying to escape, or being ordered to stop Davros' Daleks. The Doctor gets samples of the Movellan virus and drops a canister in the place, taking care of the Daleks.
On the station, the Supreme Dalek abandons all pretence of a plan and orders both Davros and Lytton killed. The Daleks turn up to kill Davros, but he uses his sample of the Movellan virus to destroy them. The joke's on him however as he also suffers from the effects of the virus and begins squirting shaving foam out of every pore.
Back on earth, Lytton realises the cause is lost, and being a hired hand and mercenary for the Daleks anyway, he decides to cut his losses, grabs his Police uniform (from somewhere) and leaves.
The Supreme Dalek contacts the Doctor and tells him they still have conditioned spies across places of authority in human areas.
Stein finally ends it by fighting his conditioning and completing the self-destruct sequence, blowing up the Dalek ship and the prison station in the process and disabling the time corridor.
The Doctor is satisfied that the Dalek threat has ended, with the duplicates ultimately returning to normal now the Daleks are all killed. Tegan has had enough though and says it's stopped being fun and despite the Doctor's protests, she runs off and leaves them.
The Doctor is saddened at her leaving and remarks that he must change his ways (hinting that he's now too mired in violence).
Back on the cobbled streets of London, Lytton and the two murderous Policemen steadily walk off.
Trivia
- This story was meant to go in the previous season as one of the big monsters returning, but multiple re-writes stopped that happening
- The show was eventually broadcast as two episodes, not four as had been expected. This was because they needed to free up the slot to show some of the 1984 Winter Olympics. The production team liked the format so much that they would go on to use it for some of the 6th Doctor story's
- If you didn't know, Kiston was played by Leslie Grantham. This was his first on-screen role, and when the director of this story would go on to help make Eastenders (a popular UK soap opera), Grantham would be cast in the role of the iconic "dirty" Den Watts. He was recommended the role for this by none other than Leela a.k.a Louise Jameson. She would in turn go on to play a part in the history of Eastenders.
- Micheal Wisher said he was very interested in reprising his role as Davros, but when it came to filming this story, he was unfortunately unavailable. Terry Malloy stepped in to fill his shoes though
- The Dalek trooper helmets were created late in the process, and although most hated them, it was too late to change them before filming began
- There is a rumour that one of the original scripts for this story featured Kamelion in a prominent role, likely that of Stein. It would have followed on from the Kings Demons and would make a lot more sense in the treachery part of it. Obviously, this was changed because the robot was pretty useless. The team would effectively re-hash that plot in the next story
- Janette Fielding had put in her resignation before Peter Davison, and Mark Strickson's contract was coming to an end too. John Nathan-Turner however thought it better to split up the departures of the cast over multiple stories.
The Review
At first glance, the justifications for this story feel like those given for The Sea Devils or Earthshock. There's serious issues with some of the plot, but somehow it retains a high score. Well, first I would argue that this story holds up better than the others in that regard. It's much more logical.
The main issue that people can level at this story is the fact that there's too much going on. The main plot of releasing Davros to find a cure for the Movellan virus is solid. The inclusion of Lytton and the Dalek troopers adds in a humanising sense. What I mean by that is that Maurice Colbourne as Lytton can emote on screen, showing frustration and anger to play very well against Terry Malloy's Davros.
Speaking of Davros, Terry Malloy is brilliant here, succeeding fantastically in making the character scheming, ruthless and thoroughly convincing. Yes, he loses some of the subtlety of Michael Wisher's efforts, but this Davros has had 90 years cooped up inside a freezer. He's bound to be a little unhinged now!
A big criticism levelled at this story too is the death toll. It is one of (if not THEE) largest in all of Doctor Who for on-screen deaths. As you'll know from previous stories, I'm fine with that. It's not because of my cold, dead heart either. It's because the death toll in this particular story raises the stakes. It puts the Dalek's smack bang where they should be. It gives you a feeling that the Daleks are merciless killers and when partnered with Lytton, pose a very real threat.
When innocent bystanders are getting shot by Policemen of all people, just because they got in the way...it jump-starts you with a shock to the system that puts you on the edge of your seat and you start to believe that anything bad could happen here.
This is EXACTLY what the Daleks should be. They are frightening, and as a five year old boy watching this, it captivated and scared me in a way that many young people watching Doctor Who hadn't been in a very long time.
The place where this story falls down is the other sub-plots included, namely the duplicates and the assassination of the High Council of Time Lords. It feels exactly how it looks, padding to fill the time and the acting is put together in such a way as to just make that aspect worse. These things are small for me and I revel in the fact that this story puts the Daleks and Davros in the position of being scary once more. The lighting, music and effects all play to emphasise this and Tegan's departure sums it up nicely. It forces you to stop and take stock of what's happened here, a lot of people have died and yes, the Doctor won, but at great cost.
Criticise this story all you like, but for me, it will forever be in my top 5.
Rating
10 out of 10!
Re-Watchability Factor
9 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- Revelation of the Daleks
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