Product Description

The TARDIS takes the Doctor and Peri to the planet Necros, where the Doctor plans to visit his old friend Professor Arthur Stengos. But after an encounter with the Great Healer, Stengos is not quite the man the Doctor once knew. The Great Healer works in the catacombs beneath Tranquil Repose, the galactically-famous final resting place for the dead and the not-quite-yet-dead. In the upper chambers the busy workers prepare the deceased for their final burial, while deep below the Great Healer is using their bodies for a sinister project of his own. For the Great Healer is also known by another name - Davros, creator of the Daleks, who's using the bodies to build himself a brand new Dalek army. The Doctor attempts to stop Davros while Stengos' daughter searches for her missing father and the local DJ uses rock 'n' roll music as a defense against the Daleks. Many are searching for Davros, but the evil scientist has a plan that will eradicate all opposition and enable him to lead his Daleks on a new mission of universal conquest... This stylish adventure with its uniquely dark humor was first broadcast 23-30 March 1985.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42568 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2006-06-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.com
The sixth embodiment of Doctor Who, Colin Baker, faces his long-running foes the Daleks in this two-part story from 1985. Revelation has the Doctor and companion Peri (Nicola Bryant) traveling to the planet Necros, where a plan to pay respects to a late friend uncovers a scheme by Dalek scientist Davros (Terry Malloy, the only actor to play the role more than once) to use the bodies of the recently deceased to build a new and terrible Dalek army. The only Dalek story to be produced during the Colin Baker years, Revelation doesn’t quite rise to the level of classic Dalek episodes from the past (like Genesis of the Daleks, with Tom Baker), but Who fans will still find much excitement and intrigue to enjoy here. The story is probably better known for its historical impact as the last Doctor Who serial to be produced before the BBC imposed an 18-month hiatus on the series in 1985. Extras include commentary by Bryant, Malloy, writer/script editor Eric Saward, and director Graeme Harper, as well as the featurette "Revelation Exhumed," which examines the story through interviews with the cast and crew (including comedian Alexei Sayle, who contributes an amusing performance to the story as a DJ), though Baker is noticeably absent. There’s also an optional video track that allows viewers to watch the story with improved visual effects, as well as an isolated score audio option, and a selection of deleted scenes. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews

A first-rate Dalek story. The peak of an under-rated era.
The Doctor and Peri arrive on Necros, the 'planet of the dead', where there is a whole complex filled with people in suspended animation whilst the Great Healer works on cures for whatever diseases they are suffering from.

But before long the 'Great Healer' is revealed to be none other than Davros, sinister genetic engineer and creator of the Daleks. Having been abandoned by the original Daleks, he is engineering replacements.

This is not only the best Colin Baker story, but also one of the finest Dalek adventures ever made. There is a very grown-up feel about it with genuine suspence, sexual undercurrents and horror which is suggestive rather than tasteless. The whole thing is filled with strong characters such as bounty hunters (a space-age knight and his squire), a superbly cold-hearted female villain and a futuristically-weird DJ. Davros and the Daleks (with impressive new white casings) are at their dramatic best and the music and scenery are first-rate. Watch for one partically memorable scene involving a glass Dalek.

Highly recommended. Even if you dislike Colin Baker (though personally I think he was an under-rated Doctor who should have been given more time in the series), this adventure is still unmissable.

Welcome to Tranquil Repose...and to ivory and gold Daleks
The final story of the 22nd season of Doctor Who has the Time Lord dealing with his worst enemies, those Dalek pepperpots, only this time they have a really nice ivory and gold colour scheme.

The Doctor and Peri are paying their respects to Arthur Stengos, one of the galaxy's finest agronomists. His body is lying in the Tranquil Repose on the planet Nekros (perfect place for a funeral planet!). TR is a cryogenics repository where people with incurable diseases are suspended and later restored to life when a cure for their condition has been found. At the same time, TR's vain and arrogant supervisor, Jobel is ready to make funerary history, as he has just finished the president's wife and is ready, with his staff to receive the president. Jobel is played by Clive Swift, best known as Richard, Hyacinth's husband in Keeping Up Appearances. He has a great line at the Doctor's expense. After being insulted by the Doctor, who has survived a phony statue falling on him, Jobel retorts, "If the statue had been made of stone I doubt if would've killed you. ... It would take a mountain to crush an ego like yours."

Then there's Grigori and Natasha, the latter Stengos's daughter, who break into the catacombs, where the vaults are. She suspects her father's body has been stolen, and indeed it has. But where's the head? She and her partner find it, and it's being put to grotesque use.

However, that's not all the work going on at Tranquil Repose. The turbaned Kara (Eleanor Bron) is in charge of a factory manufacturing a high protein concentrate ready to sell to developing planets at such a low price, their accountants are embarrassed. Whatever profit she gains is being squeezed by the Great Healer, an alias used by Davros, creator of the Daleks and now master of a new breed of Daleks subservient to him rather than the Supreme Dalek. However, not to worry-she has hired Orcini, a professional assassin and excommunicated member of the Grand Order of the Knights of Oberon to get rid of Davros, and he is dedicated. He has an artificial leg with a faulty hydraulic valve, and rather than getting it replaced, he prefers the inconvenience as a reminder of his mortality and to keep his mind alert. He's also conscientious, as he gives any fees he gets to charity. Assassinating Davros is an honourary job he is willing to undertake.

Davros himself is aware of the Doctor's presence, but he has eyes and ears around TR. He rants against Jobel, who refused his offer of immortality, and uses Tasambeker, played by Jenny Tomasin (Ruby from Upstairs Downstairs) a fawning and not too good looking female employee infatuated with him, as a loyal servant, and later, orders her to kill Jobel, who conspires with employees Takis and Lilt against him. And he thinks the DJ, a prattling disc jockey, played funnily by Alexi Sayle, who pipes in announcements and 50's/60's music to the bodies in state, knows too much.

There is all sorts of violence here. A leg is blown off one person, a hand off another, but Script Editor Eric Saward defended the violence as being realistic instead of the phony violence one sees in US action movies. If you shoot someone's hand at close range, it gets blown off, plain and simple.

Saward had read Evelyn's Waugh's The Loved One, which takes place in a funeral parlour, where Aimee Thanatogenos, a crematorium cosmetician becomes infatuated with artiste embalmer Mr. Joyboy. Here, Joyboy becomes Jobel, and Thanatogenos becomes Tasambeker. Indeed, a line from Jobel on the president's wife also mentions the title: "she's a loved one who's passed on to pastures finer and lusher than those she knew in life."

There are actually places like Tranquil Repose on Earth, but would they be economically feasible? With overpopulation, future generations have no incentive to cure the sick from generations back, as they would be technologically and culturally out-of-date. What could they do if cured?

A worthwhile story, given that most of the story dealt with the non-Dalek shenanigans going on in TR, but afterwards, it was clear that Doctor Who was living on borrowed time.

BE AT PEACE
By 1985 DOCTOR WHO had not only been wounded, but it was bleeding and blood was in the water - it was only a matter of time before the axe fell and the show once believed would never die would be dead. And died it did - but not before REVELATION OF THE DALEKS was finished and ready for release. Had the show stopped here, some might have been disappointed - while others might have rejoiced. Either way going out with a Dalek story, and a Dalek story about death and rebirth - you couldn't have asked for better.

REVELATION is one of the few DOCTOR WHO stories that is so much a DOCTOR WHO story, yet almost has NOTHING to do with DOCTOR WHO. Both Peri and the Doctor play secondary roles here. They arrive on the scene at the end of a much longer, and mostly unseen, story and fall into and fill in the gaps and the cracks in the plot. The Doctor literally takes a backseat here. He's always playing catch up, and when he finally gets caught up, he's being pushed out of the story by bigger and better characters, larger plots and a final showdown between his enemies with him stuck in the background only able to look on. Peri's role is expanded a little here as she's allowed to wander off into trouble and not be resuced at the last moment by the Doctor. Death is literally around every corner - and there is the very real sense that anyone could really die.

There's also love, passion, romance, lust, revenge and villiany - and Daleks. Davros is back and has taken his new Daleks deeper into racial purity by casting them in cream white cases with gold accents. They're the new Angels, and his old creations are his own Fallen, and they're back as well looking to punish their creator. Everything about this story screams invention, ideas, concept, charm and wit. Funny, scary, brutal, over the top and underplayed all at once, it bookends neatly with the true, final story of DOCTOR WHO - GHOST LIGHT.

Just as in REVELATION the Doctor in GHOST LIGHT takes a back seat to all the action, deep characters and already involved story. And they both nearly end the same as well - with the Doctor and his companion sharing a moment, a musing and moving on. In the case of the Seventh Doctor it would be in SURVIVAL, as for the Sixth it would be into limbo... and public outcry.

This is another well stocked DVD with a host of extras that help to accent the already excellent story. Commentary is included and is very fun. Everyone involved is very involved with the story and with each other, they bring the facts with them, their memories and the good times are brought to the fore with a lot of laughter. The only real downside is that Colin Baker is not on had to add his own thoughts to the mix.

There's a solid MAKING OF documentary and the production notes help to add more background to both the production and the story. But by far the best feature is IN STUDIO A another look at the show from behind the camera where everything is happening at once. Action, direction, special effects, problems, retakes and makeup - you name it, it's all going on. The Doctor also takes a back seat here as well - it's the Daleks, Davros and the rest that get the most camera time - a fantastic feature (and one that appears on the release of GHOST LIGHT as well).

For some this story was a waste of time. For others it was just another Dalek story - for myself, it was another example of just how flexible this show could be when allowed to run. REVELATION OF THE DALEKS is one of the best the series produced and a must for those new to the series and us old hands (just watch your fingers).