Ressurrection Of The Daleks has the Doctor's old enemy the Daleks show up and try to release their creator Davros from a prison space station. Peter Davison is the Doctor, Janet Fielding is Tegan and Mark Stickson is Turlough. It's the 4th serial of the 22nd season and it was presented as two 45 minutes episodes, instead of the more normal 22 minutes, and broadcast on two wednesdays, February 8 and 15 1984, instead of the usual thursday and friday. This was because of the Olympics. The story was written by Eric Saward and directed by Matthew Robinson. The serial is the last regular appearance of Janet Fielding as companion Tegan Jovanka.
The Tardis puts the gang down on the docks of 1984 London. There's some activitiy and killing a block over. The Doc and the companions rush right in to find that it's tied in with the Daleks latest invasion of the Earth. They have also set up a time corridor to a prison space station which houses the frozen Davros. There's a huge body count, the largest according to the commentary, as the various groups battle for the control of the station. Davros is freed but he's a loser and the Daleks are dopes so the battle doesn't pan out to well for them.
Teagan leaving the show was only soured by Turlough staying. I did read ahead that he leaves the next serial, so that's something. It was an ok serial with lots of running about and action. I did like the 45 minute format. It would become the norm in the future. I did enjoy the Doc pushing a Dalek out a 2nd floor door and it blowing up on the ground. They blow up a few Daleks during the serial and one of the gooey creatures inside escapes and manages to bite some people before it's blasted. There seems less of the Doctor in this one.
The extras on the first disc include the usual commentary, this one with moderator Nicholas Pegg, Terry Molloy (Davros), Peter Wragg (visual effects designer) and Eric Saward (writer and series script editor). There's a making of, a location featurette, a clip with Janet Fielding and John Nathan-Turner on Breakfast Time, extended and deleted scenes, a trailer, isolated score, The Last Dalek (1967 shots of the effects guys blowing up some Daleks), Tardis Cam 4, Radio Times listing and a coming soon trailer for Death To The Daleks.
The second disc has another copy of the serial, this one in the 4 part format. That's just a space waster but the is another commentary with Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and director Matthew Robinson. It was more interesting than the commentary on the other disc. There are a handful of extras to look at. There's an hour long documentary on the 5th Doctor and the various workings behind the scenes at the BBC. It's hosted by David Tennant and there are plenty of interesting people interviewed. The Tomorrow's Times looks at Doctor Who coverage in the varous British newspapers. Walrus is a short with a Dalek, there's a photo gallery, info text and a coming soon trailer for Death To The Daleks.
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