'Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks' (1985)

There have been a few Doctors feature here (mostly Doctors Four and Five, some Seven though and a sprinkling of Three...) but looking back, I haven't looked at any story with the Sixth Doctor in it... I've got nothing against the Sixth Doctor (although he's not a favourite of mine), it's more like none of his stories have really stuck in my mind; possibly because the Sixth Doctor wasn't on our screens for too long. I don't know.

Anyway. Amazon threw a deal my way (well, everyone's way but you know what I mean) for 'Revelation of the Daleks' and I saw it as a chance to give the Sixth Doctor a little representation here as well as getting more 'Dalek' stories in my life. Here's what I thought of 'Revelation of the Daleks'...

The Doctor and Peri arrive on the planet Necros, home of Tranquil Repose, a funeral home for the galaxy's elite. But is this the Doctor's final resting place? And why do Daleks guard the inner sanctums of the perpetually interred? Perhaps the Great Healer will have the answers...

It has been so long since I last saw 'Revelation of the Daleks', I'd completely forgotten that it's another two-parter (albeit two episodes of forty five minutes each so kind of like a regular story run time squeezed into two episodes then, odd...) That made it an easy one to watch last night, or it felt like it anyway.

What wasn't so easy to watch was the early part of the story and the constant bickering between Peri and the Doctor. Seriously, I've never met a Doctor and companion that came across like they couldn't stand each other, until this story. Honestly, bickering and fat jokes too. You know when you're out with a couple who start arguing and you're not entirely sure what to do? Yep, I kind of felt like that watching the opening scenes.

Luckily, it all calms down as the plot kicks off and you see that both of them actually really care about the other (although I suspect Peri is more concerned about who is going to get her home...) and it's good to see that this incarnation of the Doctor does have compassion in him after all. He's very good at being full of alien splendour and authority but this Doctor does have a habit of forgetting that he's really there for the little people... It's just nice to see them both take a deep breath, at the end of the story, and decide to go somewhere fun next :o)

But onto the actual story which is surprisingly dark and full of death. I mean, there's always going to be a lot of death where the Daleks are involved but we're talking murder, in a fit of passion, and a Dalek/human hybrid begging his daughter to kill him (amongst other deaths) and it just made me think how I was perfectly happy to watch this all play out as a kid. It's 'Doctor Who' so a parent begging his child to kill him was fine... There's something about a Dalek presence that just seems to bring out the worst in everyone else and to be fair, it made 'Revelation' very watchable as you're constantly waiting for someone to stab someone else in the back (sometimes literally) or for a Dalek to turn up and start exterminating. And you get to see Davros have his hand shot off! Couldn't happen to a more deserving person... And if that wasn't enough, the story goes all 'Soylent Green' as well and it doesn't get a lot darker than that.

There's a little too much lead up to all the good stuff, which makes things just a little unbalanced, but when you get there, it's worth the wait; it's no 'Game of Thrones' but there is more than enough action and intrigue to keep things ticking over nicely. And I liked Alexis Sayle as the DJ (there, I said it).

I still can't help but wonder if Peri and the Sixth Doctor are a good match, for time-travelling of course, but as far as the rest of it goes, 'Revelation of the Daleks' does it's job very well, leaving things open for Davros to return again and being a fun watch in the meantime, dark but fun ;o)