Resurrection of the Daleks (2002)

Commentary Highlights:

Janet Fielding being grateful for wobbly stuff.

I Didn’t Know That Before I Listened to the Commentary:

JNT encouraged Matthew Robinson to go for a big-name cast because he wanted the first Dalek story in five years to have as many guest stars as possible; at one stage Mel Smith was under consideration for the role of Stien.

Extras:

- On Location, in which Matthew Robinson and Eric Saward revisit the location (now seemingly turned into flats, wine bars and specialist shops) in pouring rain while John Nathan-Turner stays at a riverside cafe-bar.

- Deleted Scenes, which don’t really add much to our appreciation of the story or understanding of the characters.

-Breakfast Time; two slots from an edition hosted by Guy Michelmore and Sally Magnusson (Nepotism at the BBC? Surely not.) mostly notable for Janet Fielding’s posh interview voice and JNT plugging The Companions book.

-BBC1 Trailer (but definitely not the one I remember going out after the last episode of ‘Frontios’).

-Music-Only option

-Photo Gallery

-TARDIS-Cam 4; probably my favourite one, set in an undersea base.

In a first attempt at reaping the potentially lucrative Christmas market, BBC Worldwide thought it would be a good idea to release ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ in fetish gear. Whether this had something to do with the commissioning executive’s personal preferences is a matter for speculation, but the fact remains to this day that if you line all your Doctor Who DVDs up together, ‘Resurrection’ is the one which looks as if it’s got tickets for the Rocky Horror Show. Now when the time comes, of course, ‘Planet of Fire’ may be released in fishnets, while ‘Frontios’ sports lipstick and mascara laid on with a trowel, but to date ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ is the only story to dress kinky (although in its defence, after six years the rubber-effect cover no longer smells).

Now while this particular review didn’t involve me in any actual physical pain (to carry on with the fetish metaphor for a while), it was nevertheless a difficult one because I really can’t stand ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ and pretty much everything it stands for. It’s bleak, cynical and bloodthirsty- in fact pretty much everything Peter Davison’s Doctor wasn’t about- and while in some ways it comes off as a dry run for the following season’s style, on balance Colin Baker’s Doctor tended to be better equipped to deal with death on this kind of scale. For that reason, I didn’t delve as far into the story as I might have done, stopping roughly at the point where the Doctor has a pistol in his hand and nobody sees what’s wrong with that particular picture, but the combination of Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Matthew Robinson on commentary is a lively one; in particular, Robinson’s enthusiasm for talking about the practicalities of making television is infectious and also a nice balance to Davison and Fielding’s recollections of the actor’s side of the process. As would become the norm with many 1980s stories, the DVD of ‘Resurrection’ makes use of the availability of readily available additional material to add value and also allow a few insights behind the scenes, but the location feature is also interesting in its own right- nevertheless, the logistics of getting JNT and Eric Saward contributing to the same project must have involved the application of generous amounts of tact and diplomacy. It’s perhaps sad, however, that Nathan-Turner’s contributions to the DVD project are so limited and that although the contemporary interviews are there, he was denied the opportunity to answer some of the more controversial questions about his tenure as producer. But as I’ve said about some of the other releases, it doesn’t really leave the impression that there’s much more to be said about ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’.