Christopher Morley wraps up our Sixth Doctor month with a look at the Marmite Doctor's sole on-screen Dalek encounter, Revelation Of The Daleks.
Perhaps its kindest to call the Sixth Doctor
'Marmite' in Whovian terms - you either love him or want to do to him
as he did to Peri Brown post-regeneration in The Twin Dilemma.
Whichever camp you fall into on the issue, shield your eyes from that
coat as we swan-dive into what might be termed the Second Dalek Civil
War- The Evil Of The Daleks (this should give you some clue as to how it turns out) making for quite
some first battle.
Of course there's
a certain sense of overlap between the two in more ways than one. Six
has only fairly recently met his Second self (The Two
Doctors, which for the younger
incarnation is his second Celestial Intervention Agency mission-
immediately following the World Game
novel) & now finds himself headed straight into trouble.
Having journeyed
to Necros to pay some manner of last respects to an old friend,
Professor Arthur Stengos, it soon becomes apparent that Tranquil
Repose isn't quite such a nice place in which to spend your last
days...accosted by a mutant on the way, it becomes apparent that the
mystery of ' The Great Healer' must be solved! At least he's keeping
them in suspended animation until cures can be found for their
ailments. Beat that, NHS. And at least the Healer has no need of an
'out of hours' phone line, eh?
Plus there's a DJ
on hand to keep everyone entertained. Sadly, it isn't the late great
John Peel, but be grateful for small mercies, its not Tony Blackburn
or Steve Wright either, & for that they should all be grateful.
In fact he comes in the form of Alexei Sayle...
Arthur's about to be shaken out of his listening pleasure though. Too
bad, as he'd already lodged a song request! But his daughter Natasha
& son in law Grigory have come to visit at least- isn't that
nice?
They haven't
exactly come in legally, but there's a good reason for that. They've
got their suspicions as to what's really going on, only heightened
when Tasha finds her dear old papa inside one of the so-called
Healer's new creations- the Glass Dalek. As the name implies its a
vaguely ornamental glass version of the standard Dalek casing, with
the mutated reanimated corpses of Tranquil Repose patients inside.
The process hasn't quite killed off the ' old' Arthur yet though, as
he recognises her...
The Healer, by
now recognisable as someone altogether nastier, is apparently in a
similar state to most of his test subjects. If you've watched
Futurama & seen the heads in
storage tanks/jars, that's him ( which could retrospectively be said
to have been Matt Groening's inspiration?).
Forget ye not also the Fourth Doctor's Simpsons cameos in a nice display of multi-Bakerism.
Nice to see him considered an 'esteemed representative of
television'!
One of Davros's
cronies- Kara, who's been taken for something of a ride by the
creator of the entire Dalek race (Genesis Of The Daleks)
has her mind set on revenge. And its quite an ambitious scheme too!
She's hired the assassin Orcini & his accomplice Bostock to do
what the Doctor's earlier self couldn't bring himself to all that
time ago back on Skaro- with him gone she'll have both money &
power aplenty with which to control the entire galaxy. So in a way
she's just as bad as he is.
With full
conditioning starting to take hold of poor old Arthur, he begs the
apple of his eye to put him out of his misery. Following some
dithering she pulls herself together enough to give him the last
rites with a bullet. The Doctor & Peri have taken some time out
to stop & smell the roses in the Garden of Fond Memories-
horticulture being a secret passion of Six's.
He's just about to tell
Ms Brown about his attendance at the first Chelsea Flower Show in the
genteel Kensington of 1862 when he's dumbstruck by the sight of a
funerary tribute statue of himself!
All before they
can nip back to the TARDIS in time to tune to Radio 4 for
Gardeners Question Time, sadly.
Most inconvenient! He might not have time for the dulcet tones of
Eric Robson should the thing topple on him, & he won't be able to
pay a visit to Bob Flowerdew either. That Pippa Greenwood's a bit of
a fox, too...
Best not tell
Peri, though. She's too busy screeching in alarm as the Statue Doctor
falls on the real one! Luckily she's able to get help from Mr Jobel.
He's the chief embalmer around here, so of course he's going to
presume the worst. Namely that Six is dead. Just when Ms Brown might
be preparing herself to witness yet another change of face for the Doctor
there's quite a revelation. He's completely unhurt, as the thing
wasn't made of stone...the way's clear for them to enter the Repose
facility.
Peri decides she
wants to meet the DJ, having never been to a Radio One Roadshow-
while the Doctor is quickly captured by his old foes once more! Not
having had the pleasure of meeting the Time Lord in his current form,
Davros is somewhat surprised- not just by his complete lack of any
fashion sense...
Before that though, Six is thrown in a cell with Natasha & Grigory. Before he can regale them with tales of a certain Russian Mad Monk of a similar name whom he met in his First incarnation ( The Wanderer, an audio story), then again two bodies later in the novel The Wages Of Sin, they're freed by Orcini.
Just before the
Doctor gets to the good bit too- 'Greg' as he calls him surviving a
glass or two of poisoned wine! War just might be about to erupt down
on Necros though..some Renegade Daleks ( from back home on Skaro)
have arrived to oppose Davros's Imperials ( created, of course, at
Tranquil Repose).
Its all a bit of
a mess, but Revelation
is notable for very nearly being the last 'classic' Who episode ever
made- Michael Grade, arguably the greatest villain the Doctor has
ever faced or indeed ever will holding fire on bringing the axe down
at least until Survival.
There's the small
matter of an eighteen month period of 'gardening leave' and a
messy divorce between Colin Baker & the BBC. Ever wondered why
there's a sudden freeze at the end, before Six can tell Peri where
they're off to next? He was to have taken her to Blackpool for the
scrapped serial The Nightmare Fair,
which would have seen the return of the Celestial Toymaker.
It would later see the light of day as part of the Big Finish Lost
Stories series.
Next up on
screen, though, was the Trial Of A Time Lord
arc, from The Mysterious Planet
up to The Ultimate Foe- and
while he would be exonerated following the Valeyard's escape, next
time anyone sees him after that he'll be a tiny Scottish bloke in a pullover who likes to rroll his 'rrr's.
Execution delayed until December 6, 1989!
Execution delayed until December 6, 1989!
