Book Review: Doctor Who - Resurrection of the Daleks

Resurrection of the Daleks is another Doctor Who story I’ve not had the liberty of watching before. Peter Davison’s era as the 5^th incarnation of The Doctor is one that I personally never had that much interest in.  I know it’s very dismissive of me to say that on the basis I never have really seen any of his stories, but I just find when looking back at the iteration of the show, it was Davison’s period which looked the most uninteresting from an external perspective.  I do intend to prove myself wrong one day though when I sit down and watch his seasons on the Doctor Who Collection box sets. Until then though, the Target novelization of Resurrection of the Daleks by Eric Saward serves as a small glimpse into the era of the show.

Eric Saward was a screenwriter behind some of Davison’s most iconic stories during his run-on Doctor Who.  Having written The Visitation and Earthshock, some of Davison’s top touted stories from Season 19.  Resurrection of the Daleks served as the 4^th serialized story in Season 21 of the show.  It aired in two weekly parts from February 8^th 1984 to February 15^th 1984.  It’s a story known for it’s dark and gritty approach and serves as the one and only time Davison’s incarnation of The Doctor came to face his mortal enemy; the Daleks.

The story of Resurrection of the Daleks follows The Doctor and his companions Tegan and Turlough as they end up getting trapped in a time corridor while travelling in the TARDIS. The time corridor is the work of the Daleks and their hired mercenary force led by the nefarious mercenary Lytton. Ending up in Shad Thames in 1984, the Doctor and company end up embroiled in the Daleks war to retake their creator Davros and resurrect the Daleks supremacy in the wake of their defeat by the Movellans. This causes a conflict on two fronts, as the Daleks fight to control Shad Thames and a battle cruiser in the far future in their plot to destroy the Doctor once and for all.

It's hard to form much of a concrete opinion regarding the narrative in this story.  I appreciate the stakes are established hard and fast and it’s the brutality of the story which really makes it memorable.  I think I take issue with the way in which the events play out though, as the aspects relating to Shad Thames feel almost superfluous to the actual narrative taking place.  The story only seems to draw momentum when it focuses on events in the far future and the conflict to seize Davros from his captors.  I assume it’s a production requirement but the sequences on Earth feel more like filler in a story which I feel should have been primarily set within the confines of one setting.  Character motivations are another hard thing to pinpoint in this story, especially The Doctor’s.  He seems to recognize the severity of the situation quickly enough, but his persona seems to shift dramatically at the behest of the narrative and it often feels jarring. When the narrative focuses on the Dalek conflict however, I really enjoyed it; it’s great to see how imposing a threat the Dalek force can be if utilized within the appropriate context.

In terms of tone and pacing, the book works in one area but not in the other.  There’s no mistaking the serious attitude of this story, as it reminds you all throughout with cold and brutal deaths and action sequences.  It’s a story that take’s itself seriously in the most appropriate ways, we are dealing with the Daleks after all, the magnitude of their threat is well realized.  Saward however seems to drag on a fair bit with the formatting and pacing of the story.  He seems like a writer that loves to describe scenes in great detail, and while it’s appreciated to a degree, I felt it often held the story up somewhat from moving forward when it needed to.

I enjoyed Resurrection of the Daleks moderately on reflection.  I appreciate the idea behind the story, and the fact Saward is able to utilize the Dalek threat in a way that isn’t inviting of ridicule as was often their reputation in that era.  I just feel the story struggles to keep a tight focus when it juggles between two different time periods when it seems a lot of the story comes from one particular one.  I think maybe it’s also the wrong format to experience this story in for the first time too.  I imagine as a story it feels a lot more cohesive in its original TV format as opposed to the written prose.