Rating: 
Summary: "That was a shambles!"
Review: I hate "Resurrection of the Daleks". Well, what a way to start a review, but I have to be forthright when it comes to this story. Actually, what I hate most is that it could have been a terrific story, worthy of five stars, but the final product is an overindulgent, sloppily written, violent mess. 1984 was the beginning of a troubled period for the John Nathan-Turner Show....oops, sorry, Doctor Who, which it never really recovered from. The lunatics had taken over the asylum, or putting it another way, the fans had taken over the show's production. This meant that their whims and indulgences became part of the programme's canonical history. Nathan-Turner had an obsession with continuity, especially with (often gratuitous) references to classic stories, companions and enemies. This was certainly the case with "Earthshock", which brought back the Cybermen and a certain revisionist rewriting of Doctor Who. That was penned by Eric Saward, who also wrote this story. But "Earthshock" is much better, even with its gaping plotholes. "Resurrection of the Daleks" could be seen as the Dalek version of "Earthshock", with references to the show's history (the production team showing off their knowledge of Who), and of course, the obligatory flashbacks, this time of companions, for some reason excluding Leela. Here there are characters called Styles and Galloway (character names from previous Dalek stories), and references to the Movellans from the Tom Baker story "Destiny of the Daleks", all mixed into a somewhat confusing plot. At the same time the Daleks are attempting to rescue Davros because they are losing the war against the Movellans, capture the Doctor AND assassinate the High Council of Gallifrey (why? - this is never explained. The idea of the Daleks planning to invade Gallifrey, or at least a story in which the two races interact in some way is a very interesting one - a concept that could have been a story in itself - but not what was put forward here). There is indeed too much plot, which in stories like "Death to the Daleks" can be beneficial. But in this case, it creates more confusion. It is never clear what is exactly happening. There are other elements to this story that make it so unlikeable - the character of Davros is a glaring example. This is his third appearance; to put it frankly, he should not have made a second one. Michael Wisher's original portrayal of Davros in "Genesis of the Daleks" is one of the best performances of a villain ever - on television, stage or film. Wisher made Davros a true megalomaniac, with the importance of background and a slight sympathetic edge, but clearly allowing no justification for his actions. The decision to bring back Davros a second time in 1979 for "Destiny" was unwise - David Gooderson's portrayal did no justice to Wisher's, while bringing him back a third time is unforgivable. Terry Molloy's portryal is undoubtedly the worst; he is simply another thug; another baddie. Perhaps the worst aspect to the story, which would also have long term consequences for Doctor Who, is the violence. Doctor Who has always had people being killed, from the very beginning. But in most cases the deaths were sanitised - simple, laser gun deaths, with images that weren't disturbing. In "Resurrection of the Daleks" there are people being mowed down with machine guns; there are several close-ups of horribly burned faces after the gas is released into the prison. There are twisting, screaming and moaning (not to mention over the top) death scenes. John Nathan-Turner always intended to make Doctor Who a more serious, adult show - but is this the way to do it? Increase the violence, and so graphically? I believe not (but then, what would I know?) However, there are some positives to "Resurrection of the Daleks". The location footage of the warehouses by the Thames are haunting, extracting a sense of loneliness and desolation. The story is also boosted by mainly fine performances (although there are many bad ones - Rula Lenska as Styles is a character who could have been developed into an interesting person, but instead is reduced to walking around corridors, while Rodney Bewes as Stien alternates between good and awful). The best performance of the story is Maurice Coulbourne as the mercenary Lytton - he oozes mystery and menace. Lytton is also the best written character, with subtleties and something to hide. It is good to see him still standing at the end, walking off into the streets of London, initiating the prospect of encountering him again (which, of course, happens only a few stories away). Del Henney as Colonel Archer is another fine performance, especially the contrast between helpful ally and malicious, almost sadistic replicant. (Although his death is one of the terrible, over the top scenes mentioned above). Janet Fielding's last performance as Tegan is also very good; her departure is a tearjerker, but somewhat manipulative (another example of JNT trying to foster a sense of drama?) And, even though at the beginning I stated my stance on the story in no uncertain terms, it is well made. The direction is superb, and there is a glossy look to it. It is certainly one of the more generously budgeted stories of the season. The sets are good, and there are certainly plenty of big bangs. But it's an empty vessel. It is style over substance. It could have been better; it could have been decent, if not for the strings being pulled in the background.
Rating:
Summary: WB could come out with BETTER stories...
Review: I love the Fifth Doctor, but this was not one of the better stories if his era.In this DVD, some visual and audio fx are missing in part 4 where people are apparently shot by Daleks yet make pitiful sounding screams, no audio or visual for the blast. It looks like a total farce when it should be a disturbing slaughtering. The plot is also way too contrived, also pointlessly featuring an eventual invasion of Gallifrey (ugh) and throwing in a pointless clipshow of all the Doctor's previous companions, except for Leela of course. (ugh) Also, they shove a Dalek out of the second floor of the warehouse where it crashes outside. For the rest of the warehouse scenes, the Dalek's bits are scattered throughout the INSIDE of the warehouse, nor suggesting anybody was stupid enough to move the wreckage inside... And did the Supreme Dalek really have duplicates of all the world's major leaders in place to cause the destablization of Earth?! Why does Stein do any number of things to help the Doctor when he apparently was a Dalek Duplicate ordered to capture the Doctor?! Tegan's leaving scene almost makes up for this rubbish, but she claimed her travels stopped being fun. If you looked at a handful of adventures (threatened with rape, mind taken over by a malevolent entity - TWICE, threatened to be killed, interrogated by a lizard after watching "The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy" thinking the Doctor - like Ford Prefect - came from Guildford, always complaining about the Doctor's inability to get her home, and so on, it didn't come across as being fun...) This also has a 5.1 remix for the audio. While the DVD menu is nothing less than brilliant, the re-mix for the story itself is an embarrassment. Which is sad as the 5.1 remix for "The Five Doctors" special edition was superb by comparison. If Warner Bros would release the following stories, I'd be a happier customer: THE TWO DOCTORS (whose features alone will make it an instant purchase for me, but the story is very good too!)
THE SEEDS OF DEATH (an excellent story)
EARTHSHOCK (another excellent story)
THE THREE DOCTORS (may as well finish up the ___ Doctors stories but this one is entertaining) and THE CURSE OF FENRIC (which I originally hated but has grown on me since) I know other fans will be happy over "The Talons of Weng Chiang" which is about to be released, but that one always bored me. As for "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", it's got nice outdoor location work but the plot and the final two episodes are so slapdashed and haphazerdly written that I can't ignore them, forget the part that the Daleks want to turn the Earth into a mobile spacecraft when they can already make their own. (ugh)
Rating: 
Summary: A good story made into an excellent DVD
Review: I must congratulate the BBC's DVD department. They just cram these Doctor Who discs full of features. This is a pretty good story anyway, continuing the story of the Davros character from a previous story, but it stands alone as well, so you will not be lost if you have not seen the other story. The Doctor's party arrives at Shad Thames in London (Some particularly good filming of a historic dockyard, shortly before 1980s redevelopment into trendy restaurants and flats) where the Daleks are operating a time corridor into the future with the assistance of a mercenary called Lytton, robot duplicates and fake policemen. The Daleks' plan is to rescue their creator Davros from imprisonment, and er... well probably take over the Earth or something. The plot's not that important sadly, but the dialogue and performances more than make up for this. The regulars turn in good performances, particularly Peter Davison, whose Doctor goes through the mill in this adventure, showing great sadness at the end of the story as one of his companions departs. There are perhaps too many guest stars (the story is a little cluttered with characters) but the calibre of actor is very high, with Rodney Bewes and Maurice Colbourne particularly worthy of note. Terry Molloy is also pretty good as chief villain Davros, having a difficult job to take over the role from another actor at short notice. The DVD has an informed and interesting commentary by Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, and director Matthew Robinson. They treat their work on the programme with both a great seriousness and also an irreverent humour, which is just right for the subject matter. The isolated music score is a little curious. I can't really see anyone watching the DVD with just the music and no dialogue/effects noises. I tried this and it looked curiously like a silent movie. Perhaps this is more for fans of the music, which is a pretty good score by Malcolm Clarke. The TARDIS-Cam No. 4 features a small underwater scene and is nothing spectacular. The Breakfast Time interviews are interesting and good to have on this DVD as they help put the programme into the context of its time. The on-location documentary is a little short and is hampered by the fact that producer John Nathan-Turner was interviewed separately from the director and writer. The subtitled production notes are informative but there's so much information it's difficult to follow these at the same time as the commentary. The extended and deleted scenes are nothing special, but it's nice to have them, and the same goes for the BBC1 trailer. There was supposed to be something called 'Whose Who' (it's listed on the back) but I couldn't find it! The Photo gallery is well-presented as usual, and much more watchable than most DVD galleries. One point must be made, that the DVD transfer is very clear, the sound quality is superb, in particular the stereo re-mastering of the score and soundtrack. All in all, an excellent product.
Rating:
Summary: great fun
Review: I'm very happy they're putting out Dr. Who on DVD finally and I hope it won't be 15 years to get them all on there like they did VHS!
Rating: 
Summary: Tegan finally leaves the Doctor and Turlough! Dalaks return
Review: In this episode the Doctor meets his old enemies the Daleks.The Daleks are copying people and sending their andriod clones to earth. The Daleks rescue Davros in this episode. The Doctor with the help of Tegan,Turlough and the help of a few people from the future defeat the Dalaks. The Doctor prepares to leave earth.Tegan tells the Doctor and Turlough she is leaving.This is one of Doctor Who most emotional moments in the series history! Also in this episode we lose one of my favorite companions Tegan! But for the Dalek story at least it's a improvement over "Destiny of the Dalaks"!
Rating: 
Summary: Davison and the Daleks
Review: It seems a bit underrated, because of good acting and a new foe seen again in the 6th Doctor era, but the overall impression is not as good as Genesis of the Daleks for example... or is it the different voices of the Daleks?
Rating:
Summary: Like a deranged child...
Review: Poor production values, a convoluted plot, dismal dialog and a complete lack of tension -- these are not a few of my favorite things. It was my memory that put me off watching RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS again. But eventually I got around to the DVD, basically to revisit my impressions of this serial.
Unfortunately, the memory did not cheat.
The opening is fairly decent and atmospheric. The scene of the refugees being gunned down works well as a standard action sequence. But everything following this just looks silly. You see, that first scene works and the following don't because of basic production values. The first thing to do if attempting a cinema-styled action-adventure on a television budget is to hide the fact that there's no money.
I watched EARTHSHOCK recently enough that I could do a comparison. While EARTHSHOCK occasionally suffers minor flaws because of budget, RESURRECTION looks far cheaper (and I can't imagine the actual per episode money was much different). None of the futuristic military equipment looks like it weighs more than an ounce. The doors look light, the walls look light, the guns look light, the debris looks light. They try to get away with describing the space station as "run-down", but "run-down" doesn't mean "made out of cardboard". One wonders why people bother taking cover behind this stuff; it looks like a good sneeze could blast through it.
That first sequence worked because there was nothing distracting from what the director was trying to achieve. You see the policemen with machine-guns and you don't stare at them thinking, "Gee, what a fake looking prop. Couldn't they build something more credible?" You just notice what you're supposed to. This is rarely achieved again. It's hard to blame the actors. It's difficult to look like a hard-ass when you're hoisting around a featherweight prop gun and wearing a hat that's goofier than all get out.
It really goes downhill once the Daleks appear early in episode one and the story switches from gritty realistic battle sequences to cheaply produced sci-fi fights. And the Daleks themselves are one of the stories bad points. I generally like the Daleks, but I don't like them enough to care about Dalek politics. Too much time is spent on Dalek politics; it even makes up one of the cliffhangers. The problem here is the same one that Finn Clark insightfully mocks in his review of WAR OF THE DALEKS. Will Davros or the Dalek Supreme rule the Dalek race? Who cares? We're never given any reason to invest any time worrying about the outcome. What difference would it make if Davros is successful in his coup? The script never bothers to tell us why this is supposed to be interesting.
And that brings us to another problem. This is not a case of production values ruining a well-written script. This is a script with problems, both big and small. First of all, the plot. Just what on Earth is going on here? The Daleks have about half a dozen schemes going, which would be impressive if a) the plans had anything to do with each other and b) the individual schemes had any real impact. Take the "assassinate the High Council" plot point. It's brought up out of nowhere, dominates a few minutes of screen-time, and then is promptly dropped, never to be mentioned again. None of this stuff builds on anything; there's no momentum. It's just a series of shock moments with no structure or reason.
Small problems abound too. There are cameras supposedly everywhere on this space station, which only seem to be working whenever the plot requires them to work. The Doctor's coercing of Stein is similarly convoluted. It's bad enough that the two Dalek sentries leave the room for no good reason, but they also order the troopers to leave the Doctor and Stein alone.
The two companions have very little to do in this one. Turlough spends most of his time wandering around the space station being threatened by soldiers. Tegan is on injured reserved, having suffered a small cut on the forehead. These would be, perhaps, forgivable sins if not for the fact that this is Tegan's swansong. Tegan deserved a better departure than this; she deserved a send off that wasn't so abrupt. Nicely acted though.
As for the other characters, the serial is populated by the usual Sawardian suspects. That is, people with no first names barking macho dialog. I liked the practical Earth scientist. Unfortunately, she's one of the characters that Saward doesn't know what to do with, so kills off abruptly. Like the plot twists that have no future, characters who no longer have a point just disappear -- usually with a goofy looking special effect.
I didn't like the serial, but must admit that the DVD extras are quite good. The commentary track is amusing, though I got a little tired of hearing director Matthew Robinson refer to everything under the sun as "famous". Can someone who edits episodes of Eastenders really be considered famous? The production text option is worthy, although it oftentimes lapses into a dry listing of other shows and movies that the actor on the screen appeared in. The "On Location" mini-documentary is well done.
RESURRECTION OF THE DALEKS desires a triumph of style over substance, but unfortunately it lacks both. It looks cheap, flimsy and shallow. I didn't like it then; I don't like it now. The only part of my opinion to change was that I appreciated the incidental music. But everything else was just a mess.
Review extras (things that will probably amuse only me):
1) As the DVD commentators take pains to point out, there are quite a few "big name" guest stars. I'm sure this was much more interesting to UK-based viewers. All I could think was "Wow, the star of 'Take A Letter, Mr. Jones' finally appears in Doctor Who! Golly!"
2) Davros' possesses a device to turn people into obedient zombies... Gee, that would have been handy during his trial, huh?
3) The Dalek-helmets that the troopers wear. Goofiest hats in Doctor Who history. And that's saying something.
Rating:
Summary: Beginning of end of the Peter Davison era
Review: Resurrection of the Daleks is the beginning of a phasing out trilogy. In May 1983, Peter Davison (The Doctor) decided that the upcoming season would be his last one, so scripts were rewritten to phase out Tegan, Turlough, and the Doctor. When it happened, it took place in the last Peter Davison stories. In 1984, a series of mysterious cylinders have been found in a London warehouse and are under investigation by Colonel Archer of the Bomb Disposal Squad. This was also the same scene where a pair of policemen gun down all but two of a group of escaping fugitives. The survivor, the cowardly and wounded Stien, meets the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough, who have been dragged down to Earth by a time corridor. In space, a group of commandos led by Lytton and some Daleks lead an attack on a space station holding Davros prisoner. It's not too difficult, as the low morale and a lackadaisical attitude observed by recently-arrived Lieutenant Mercer lead to nearly all the crew being killed. The seeds for the Dalek schism that would plague both remaining Dalek stories are set here, as Davros, who has been freed to help the Daleks develop an antidote to a virus that led to their defeat in a war against their foes the Movellans (q.v. Destiny Of The Daleks), has decided to create some new Daleks obedient to him and not to the Supreme Dalek. He gains followers in his circle, including human troops, whom he conditions. Yet, he rants and raves throughout most of this story, and at times, his dialogue is unintelligible, maybe because of microphone troubles beneath the mask or it being drowned by the music. Interesting effects in this story is a scary scene of someone's whose face is rotting away, and the way the Daleks succumb to the virus. Maurice Colbourne (Lytton) and his two bodyguards would reappear in Attack of the Cybermen where they would be killed off. The character of Lytton, the ruthless and no-nonsense mercenary unafraid to tell the Daleks off, is one of the few interesting ones. Same with Stien, a cowardly, uncertain, and later on, divided personality, and Rodney Bewes does a good portrayal to that effect. All the other characters seem unimportant, as many are unnamed or unidentified until later episodes. As this is Tegan's departure story, Janet Fielding has a good emotional leaving scene, where her character is sickened by the carnage that has taken place. Indeed, only three humanoid characters survive in this extremely high body count story. This story has been compared to Earthshock, which was also written by Eric Saward and featured the Cybermen, and has been criticized for being all gloss and no substance. While the action sequences and regular characters are good, the lack of strong characters, and maybe too many characters who just fill up the story and get killed off.
Rating:
Summary: Beginning of end of the Peter Davison era
Review: Resurrection of the Daleks is the beginning of a phasing out trilogy. In May 1983, Peter Davison (The Doctor) decided that the upcoming season would be his last one, so scripts were rewritten to phase out Tegan, Turlough, and the Doctor. When it happened, it took place in the last Peter Davison stories. In 1984, a series of mysterious cylinders have been found in a London warehouse and are under investigation by Colonel Archer of the Bomb Disposal Squad. This was also the same scene where a pair of policemen gun down all but two of a group of escaping fugitives. The survivor, the cowardly and wounded Stien, meets the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough, who have been dragged down to Earth by a time corridor. In space, a group of commandos led by Lytton and some Daleks lead an attack on a space station holding Davros prisoner. It's not too difficult, as the low morale and a lackadaisical attitude observed by recently-arrived Lieutenant Mercer lead to nearly all the crew being killed. The seeds for the Dalek schism that would plague both remaining Dalek stories are set here, as Davros, who has been freed to help the Daleks develop an antidote to a virus that led to their defeat in a war against their foes the Movellans (q.v. Destiny Of The Daleks), has decided to create some new Daleks obedient to him and not to the Supreme Dalek. He gains followers in his circle, including human troops, whom he conditions. Yet, he rants and raves throughout most of this story, and at times, his dialogue is unintelligible, maybe because of microphone troubles beneath the mask or it being drowned by the music. Interesting effects in this story is a scary scene of someone's whose face is rotting away, and the way the Daleks succumb to the virus. Maurice Colbourne (Lytton) and his two bodyguards would reappear in Attack of the Cybermen where they would be killed off. The character of Lytton, the ruthless and no-nonsense mercenary unafraid to tell the Daleks off, is one of the few interesting ones. Same with Stien, a cowardly, uncertain, and later on, divided personality, and Rodney Bewes does a good portrayal to that effect. All the other characters seem unimportant, as many are unnamed or unidentified until later episodes. As this is Tegan's departure story, Janet Fielding has a good emotional leaving scene, where her character is sickened by the carnage that has taken place. Indeed, only three humanoid characters survive in this extremely high body count story. This story has been compared to Earthshock, which was also written by Eric Saward and featured the Cybermen, and has been criticized for being all gloss and no substance. While the action sequences and regular characters are good, the lack of strong characters, and maybe too many characters who just fill up the story and get killed off.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Dalek storys ever
Review: The Daleks return. This time they release Davros from the cryogenic imprisonment to help them find a cure for a virus that has whiped most of their fleet out. This episode proved to be a very entertaining and original story. Its loaded with action, entertainment, reasonable special effects, good scripting and great acting. Peter Davidson plays The Doctor wonderfully. Ever if your not a Doctor Who fan, this one is still worth having a look at.
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