Overview: Doctor Who Classic: Davros Stories

Davros in Season 30's two part finale,

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Ah, Davros. Such a wonderful villian, the scheming megalomaniac in control of the Daleks. In the classic series he was portrayed in five different stories by three different actors, and his effects on the story vary greatly. So; here's a quick run down of all of the stories in which Davros appears.

Genesis of the Daleks

Take the most popular villians on the show and give them an origin story packed full of fearful real-life echoes and a main villian that would wipe out his own people for science, and you have something very good. The budget was medium range, and yet it was used so well and the story just gleams. Acting is top notch, Tom Baker is on form and we get our first, and sad to say, last performance by Michael Wisher.
     The Daleks in this story are mere underlings, but when they appear they do hold stark contrast to the human fighters from previously in the serial. Those human fighters were intimidating, and so this more alien death machine works perfectly to show how perverted their race has/will become. Davros here is the quiet schemer, never predictable, never understandable. He had a subtle ruthless streak that made his very presence intimidating, and his command of these scary, Nazi-like Kaleds is a great garnish to the dish.

Destiny of the Daleks

Cheap, tatty and a terrible excuse for a story - Terry Nation's Dalek swansong is unintentionally poor, with a real lack of effort made to use the visuals budget well. It seems many of the ideas have slipped as well, and now the Daleks are for some reason robots. Which is wrong.
          There's a big distinction between Davros and the Daleks here, the inverse of what we saw in Genesis. We're supposed to feel like Davros has power over the Daleks, who come to find him so that they can win their war with the Movellans. But in fact, it comes off quite differently; without Davros, the Daleks are more ruthless and are much better villians because of it. On the other hand, David Gooderson;s performance as Davros is pityful, shouty more than anything else. The way that The Doctor drags Davros around while he shouts inanely can be nothing more than a reference to elderly people. It's just too over-the-top not to be intentional. This story is a real let down.


Resurrection of the Daleks

So, JNT asked scriptwriter Eric Saward to do an Earthshock for the Daleks. What resulted wasn't quite along those lines, instead practicing a lot of fanwank as JNT stories do. However, among the nest of inconvenient and oddly place subplots, we do have a more convincing return for Davros, this time played by the wonderful Terry Molloy.
          Terry manages to make a good balance between Wisher's scheming and Gooderson's ranter, as well as adding his own brilliance to the role. The Supreme Dalek is brilliant, but overall the Daleks pale in comparison to the rest of the cast. And in a story of this low quality, that's saying something.

Revelation of the Daleks

Ah; after two bad Dalek stories, we find this gem. A wonderful piece, examining several themes ranging from honor to caniballism. Terry Molloy again here, and now we have Colin Baker as the Doctor. The main problem with the Daleks in this story is that they're a bit of an afterthought; any villian could have been The Great Healer, and the inclusion of Davros seems to be only for the viewing figures. Otherwise, a brilliant story.

Remembrance of the Daleks

A final farewell, it seems. This last Dalek story, added in for the show's 25th anniversary, is a triumph. It has brilliant Dalek action, the complete and total revival of the villians from their slump. Here they are intimidating and cunning, and seeing the brilliant Dalek Civil War is just too awesome for fans of the show to miss.
     So, with the Daleks being so awesome here, surely we missed out Davros? It is true that he seems attatched onto the story; an unwelcome visitor that spoils the party, but his appearance does give The Doctor some of his best lines in the season. Overall a wonderful story.

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Review: Doctor Who Classic: Resurrection of the Daleks

To complete my Davros Story reviews, I present to you 1984's Resurrection, which was the first and only story of Davison's era. It's an Eric Saward script, and so is unrelentingly messy and complicated (For more examples of Saward doing this, see Attack of the Cybermen, Revelation of the Daleks) It saw the return of Davros after five years, this time played by Terry Molloy (who would go on to play Davros in his next two appearances.) This Davros was a much better send off to Michael Wisher, despite keeping some of Gooderson's ranting.
     The basic plot is that the Movellans have created a virus that kills Daleks, and are using it to win the war. They attack a prison ship holding Davros in suspended animation, and release him. He pretends to start work on a vaccine, but instead plots his revenge...
    It's some more of the JNT classic fanwank, taking ideas from all of the past Dalek stories. There's also a sense that it was a little thrown together; Davros seems to be holding the plot by a very thin string while random schemes are thrown about to explain stupid behaviour. For example, the Daleks are A.) Trying to find a cure for the virus via Davros, B.) Trying to duplicate the Doctor and have him assassinate the Time Lords, C.) Duplicating key world figures to collapse Earth's government, and D.) Fighting lots of wars. B.) and C.) are litterally thrown in, mere sentences that may have seemed tense but instead are paper-thin excuses. So, while the characterisation of Davros is sound, the rest doesn't make up for it.

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P.S. The commentary's nice though.

Review: Red Dwarf: Better than Life

Following on directly from Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, BTL is another wonderful piece of writing. It combines elements from many Series Three episodes as well as having a surprisingly large amount of new content, some of which would be used in later episodes of the show.
     As before, it helps to have watched the show a little, but here is the point where having done so does reduce the experience. I found myself cringing when Polymorph was wedged inbetween original content, and found it hard to visualise Norman Lovett reading lines that were used, to my knowledge, by Hattie Hayridge.
    Familiarity issues aside, it's another great read that expands nicely on the first book while giving is smashing new original content and a good mix of stories from the show. Things to note are the brilliantly characterised Talkie Toaster and the eventual fate of our good planet Earth...

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Review: Doctor Who Classic: Destiny of the Daleks

1979. After Season 16's Key To Time arc, Season 17 was to open with the return of an old monster - in this case, the Daleks, who had last been seen in their retcon beginnings story, Genesis. Also, Mary Tamm refused to return as Romana, and so she was replaced by Lalla Ward (currently married to Richard Dawkins, and used to be married to Tom Baker.) Michael Wisher, who played Davros in Genesis, was also unavaliable, and so he was played by David Gooderson.
      The randomiser drops the TARDIS off on Skaro, Romana having regenerated and K9 with laringitus. There, they find the Daleks, at war with a race known as the Movellans, androids with whom the Daleks share their logic. In an attempt to escape the stalemate, the Daleks are burrowing down beneath the ruins of Scaro to find their creator, Davros, who seemingly survived his extermination at the end of Genesis.
      I think I'll start with the negatives of this story. The Daleks are a little shoddy, the fakes being obvious, and there are a few logical inconsistencies. The ressurrection of Davros is a massive cop-out, and David Gooderson completely misunderstands the character, changing him from omnicidal mastermind to ranty grandfather. The Daleks' need for emotion is the story is completely unfounded, as Daleks are usually extremely emotional.
     In the positive, the Daleks in this story are on the whole more menacing and likely to entertain, mainly in the areas where they aren't squabbling over their leader. The Movellans are unsettling if gaudy, and there's some good acting from Ward and Baker. The whole thing is ultimately quite entertaining, if deeply, deeply unnecessary.

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After my week-long break, I've decided to review each Blackadder series as a whole. I'll also be reviewing the X-Factor live segments when they come around. Thanks.

Review: The Defamation of Strickland Banks

The Defamation of Strickland Banks, by Plan B (2010)

Ben Drew presents to us a very different direction in his musical tone. While his prior efforts had been gritty street-rap, he has now exploited the more high-pitched side of his vocal range and created this piece of brilliant modern music, a sort-of fusion between soul and rap.
     And even better, that fusion works. It works perfectly. His lyrics and almost supernatural sense of rhyme portray a gritty urban reality, clear and persuasive. The religious themes of some of his songs occasionally make him sound like a one-man gospel choir.
     One often finds that there are too few ways of saying that something is good. And that applys here. It's sylish, modern, and yet it's got something sincere to get across about our urban culture and how that has influenced his music and his life. Simply brilliant.

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Characters: Red Dwarf

A basic run down of all of the characters present in Red Dwarf, so that you're able to better understand my reviews. Unlike Survivors, any insults I throw at these characters were provided by the program itself.

Dave Lister

Dave "Cinzano Bianco" Lister, both his own father and son, was the last human alive. Born through artificial insemination on Starbug, in around 3,002,200, he was taken back in time by his older self and left under a pool table, with the word "Ouroboros" written on the side. As he grew up, he lost his virginity at the age of 12 on a golf course. Then, on a drunken pub crawl around London, he for some reason used all of his money to get a space-flight to Mimas, a Spanish-colonised moon.
    After waking up drunk, with only a passport with the name of Emily Berkenstein, he took up stealing taxi-hoppers and gathering the five-thousand Dollarpounds needed to return to Earth. It was on Mimas that he first met Arnold Rimmer, who was on Space-Leave from Red Dwarf, and took him to a brothel. It was this incident that inspired him to join the Space-program in an attempt to get home. Lister bought a cat on Mimas and smuggled it on board, meaning that after a period of working under Rimmer, he would be put in Stasis for the rest of the trip back to Earth.
    However, when Dave woke up, he found that there had been a radiation leak on Dwarf soon after he was put in stasis. This leak had killed everyone on the ship, and had taken 30 million years to fade away to a safe level. He was, in effect, the last human being in existence. Beknownst to Lister, not only had a race of creatures evolved from his cat and left one survivor, the ship's computer had ressurrected Rimmer in android form.
   Lister is one of the two main characters, but he is never given as much focus as Rimmer. He is a slob and idle by nature, often unable to complete the most simple tasks, but he is also very intuitive and is often the voice of reason. He is also deeply moral, a form of chaotic good, and believes the same of everyone else. Over the series, he becomes more mature and begins to take a greater interest in more philosophical ideas, although he still takes basic pleasures.

Arnold Rimmer

Arnold Judas Rimmer, Bronze Swimming Certificate, Silver Swimming Certificate, was a Second Technician about Red Dwarf. He was born the fourth son of mad parents; his father was obsessively bitter about not getting into the Space Corps, and always expected much from his children, while his mother was ignorant and adulterous. Rimmer and his brothers were often stretched on a rack to meet the Space Corps height limits, and Rimmer was constantly picked on by his brothers to the point of abuse.
      In boarding school, he wore boxing gloves to bed and had the nickname "bonehead", although he always wanted to be known as "Ace". As his brothers advanced into their respective fields, Rimmer remained a Second Technician, and was always humiliated, and steeped in self-loathing. One of the more traumatic events of his life, in his eyes, was when he was invited to the Captain's table and proceeded to ask for his cold soup to be re-heated. Before the accident, Rimmer had only one sexual encounter - a one-nightstand with officer Yvonne McGruder.
     Rimmer took the Astro-engineering exam, the exam that one needs to pass to rise in rank past Technician, a total of eleven times. It was his stress-induced coma during the last of these tests that prevented him from fixing a faulty drive-plate, the consequences of which led to the radiation leak. After he was resurrected, he felt deeply responsible due to this fact.
     Red Dwarf is essentially the study of how Rimmer is humanised by Lister, how he comes to terms with the negative aspects of his personality and becomes the ideal Rimmer, as his Parallel Universe counterpart(s) display. His final act on the show was an act of bravery, and he finally had enough self-confidence (and humility) to become Ace Rimmer.

The Cat

Cat is a creature born to a cripple and an idiot, one of the last few members of the Cat people, a race that evolved on Red Dwarf from the off-spring of Lister's pregnant cat. Like real cats, he's vain (taken Up To Eleven), sex-crazed and obsessed with preening and style. In later series he develops a much greater sense of smell, which adds some exposition.

Kryten

Kryten is a droid created by Crapola, designed as a sanitation droid to scrub toilets and fix pipes. He was working as a general servant droid on the Nova 5 when he decided to give the circuitry a good clean, accidnetally making the ship fly into an android. He looked after the crew for three-hundred years (long after their deaths) until he was picked up by the crew of Red Dwarf around 3,002,300 AD. There, he broke his programming and gained a personality. Soon afterwards he left on a space-bicyle, and after he had been blowen up by a passing asteroid, the crew of Dwarf picked up his remains and put him back together again, albeit with a new personality.
   
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Review: Doctor Who Classic: Remembrance of the Daleks

1988. From the first of the new Dalek stories, to the last. There were five new Dalek stories, and this was the fifth. Remembrance is interesting because even though it is a little fanwank, returning to the original location and reviving the Daleks for a civil war, it's somewhat more bearable because it's an anniversary year on the program. For the first time, the boasts by the Doctor feel earned.
     Superb direction, brillaint writing and excellent turns by all actors involved, this story seems to be half-knowing that the series was coming to an end. The Daleks are excellent in this story, both varieties, and it just advances the idea wonderfully.
     1963, and The Doctor and Ace return to Coal Hill School, where the Daleks have come together to find an artifact called the Hand of Omega, a star-accelerator. They're split into two factions; the Imperials are bound into their shells and are pure white, while the Renegades are free and have more firepower. The Doctor left the Hand of Omega in Shoreditch during his first incarnation, waiting for anyone that would come to claim it...
     In essence it's a wonderful tale that has a touching look back upon the history of Doctor Who, and it stands out as one of the best in the 25th season.

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Review: The Black Adder: The Foretelling and Born to Be King

The Black Adder, Episode One - The Foretelling

Blackadder is one of the big greats of British comedy, written by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, it takes a fun look at history with a satirical eye and a brilliant manner.
     But where did it all begin? In this wonderful episode, we learn the basics surrounding the alternate history that the show presents, in which the Battle of Bosworth Field was won by Richard III, but he had his head chopped off by his nephew, Edmund (Rowan Atkinson). Edmund's father (Brilliant Brian Blessed) then becomes King, leaving him Prince Regent. Along the way he nurses a man back to health (Who turns out to be Henry Tudor) and plans to become the king of England.
     It's a very funny episode, that seemlessly and hilariously introduces the basics. In this series in particular we see the dynamic; The Black Adder (Edmund) and his trusty servants Baldrick (Tim Robinson) and Lord Percy (Tim Mcinnery). Edmund and Percy are stupid; Baldrick is unfortunate but more cunning. This would evolve as the series went on.

The Black Adder, Episode Two - Born to Be King

 We get to see a lot more of Edmund's innate cunning here, but also his power-madness. He will go on ramges against those he dislikes despite it interfering with his ultimate plans, and his companions' pandering to his needs goes unnoticed.
       In this episode, King Richard (IV) has gone off to the crusades, leaving Edmund and his brother to ook after the castle. Upon his immenent return there arrives a mad scotman that Edmund loaths, although he has some information that Edmund might need...
     This series so far is witty and brilliant, not sparing the blood and guts to make the comedy work. Another excellent episode.

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Review: Red Dwarf/Film: Back To Earth

Spoilers. Ten years after Only the Good... and we find that TV-Channel Dave wants to satiate the appitite of the Dwarf fanbase. Dave broadcasts regular repeats of Red Dwarf from all series, and so, where better to show new material?
     Dave is part-owned by the BBC, and so there were no rights issues to work around. Here, with original cast and crew, we have a 90-minute film.
     Set 9 years after Series Eight, and after the fictional Series Nine and Ten, Holly is offline and Kochanski is believed dead. After Kryten comes back after a holiday, they find a large squid in the water tank on G-Deck. After that, a hologram appears named Katarina, a Russian scientist who is taking over from Rimmer. She creates a dimension-cutter for Lister to return to Earth, and they do.
     The dimension the four end up in is in fact our reality, in which Dwarf is fictional. What results is a fun piece of meta comedy, with the four going across Britain trying to find their creator, bumping into fans. It sounds horrifically bad, but it's actually done quite well; it helps that the whole thing is written like Series Six, with the fast-paced comedy. In turn, the series has lost its laugh track and it's now a "comedy-drama". While the move towards serious drama, this time done much better than in Series Seven, affects the film, it is still much funnier than most of Series Eight.
     The good? The CGI is now more convincing and used to better effect, the writing is powerful and evocative and, most importantly, funny. The bad? Not only does the crew visit Coronation Street, they also end the show with the twist from Back To Reality, in that they've been under the influence of a Despair squid.
     It's a much better episode than all of Series Eight, and a good semi-pilot for the next two series in 2011. I'm looking forward to it. I think that the series still has some heart left in it, and as long as that remains, there could still be some good, high quality Dwarf.

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Review: Doctor Who Classic: Genesis of the Daleks

1975. The Doctor's greatest enemies, The Daleks, are suffering from a lapse in popularity, as the Third Doctor's encounters with the Daleks were formulaic and complicated. Terry Nation, their creator, decided to write a story that would put the focus back on the Daleks and rejuvinate their history.
     Genesis is a powerful story, making use of excellent writing and the acting talents of Micheal Wisher, perfect in the role of new villian, Davros, creator of the Daleks. The backstory is introduced smoothly, and the two sides of the war are characterised in chillingly familiar ways.
     On the planet Skaro, the Kaleds and the Thals are two fascist races who are fighting an everlasting war. The war has been going on for so long that more primitive weapons are developed to make up for the lack of supplies. Eventually, the scientists of the Kaleds find that if the nuclear war continues, they will evolve into horrible mutants.
     Davros is the greatest scientist on Scaro, scarred by life-experience and confined to a life-support wheelchair. He has invented a new way of containing these mutants - the Mark III Travel Machines, or Daleks. He is staunchly fascist and obsessed with racial purity, condemning any none-Kaled life as scum. To the anger of his scientist colleagues he gives these traists to his Daleks.
     The Doctor arrives on Scaro at the bequest of the Time Lords, tasked with either averting the creation of the Daleks or making them less aggressive. He and his companions Sarah-Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan get caught up in the war that envelops the planet, and the creation of the machines that will one day be feared in the Universe.
     In short, a masterpiece. There's wonderful cold-war imagery floating through it, an echo to the conflicts in our own world that makes the world of Scaro more frightening. The Daleks are a little clunky when compared to the modern versions, but they still manage to be sinister. Also of note are the Nazi-like Kaled army, and the brilliant performance as aforementioned. Davros really comes across as a schemer, a genius whose ideas lead him towards eugenics. This is by far the best Dalek story, short of 2005's "Dalek," and to some it is the greatest story of them all.

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