Revelation of the Daleks BFI Southbank Special Event

Normally when a limited edition Blu-ray is promoted by the BFI there is a confirmed release date. However at the time of writing The Doctor Who: The Collection Season 22 is unconfirmed which makes a preview of some of the content just a little bit more exciting.

The BFI (British Film Institute) on the London Southbank ran a special event showing the 6th Doctor story, Revelation of the Daleks, the last story of the season on the 5th of March. BFI host Justin Johnson (Lead Programmer for BFI) and Dick Fiddy (BFI Archive Television Programmer) were the hosts for the event

Starting with a quiz to give away some free limited-edition or signed items that had been donated by, The Who Shop and Chris from Eaglemoss is always a good start. You do have to be super-fast and know your classic Who to an obsessive degree to stand a chance to win a prize though as usually before the question is finished by our moderators the answer has been called out. After the quiz, Justin Johnson read a message from a guest who really wanted to be at the screening but due to filming commitments couldn’t be.

I cannot express enough to you how fed up I am that I cannot be there today and sit alongside two of my favourite people Nicola and Colin. What an amazing Doctor Who he is and Nicola is up there as one of the most loved assistants to have ever travelled with Peter Davison and Colin Baker… they will tell you the love that both crew and artists gave to the making of Doctor Who… thanks for all your support for the show over the years. You managed to convince the people that run the BBC, in the programme’s dark days that the Doctor really wasn’t going to go away in a hurry. I really enjoyed making Revelation of the Daleks, Nicola and Colin were on top form and we had an amazing array of fabulous and very quirky guest artists to create the world of Necros…

Director Graeme Harper.

Gareth Kavanagh – Cutaway Comics

Before episode one was shown the audience was treated to a guest who has had an interest in the expanded universe of Doctor Who for a long time. As the person who runs the company, Gareth was very passionate about the work Cutaway Comics has done with various writers from Doctor Who. Their Doctor Who works is described as a splintered and extended universe, where various characters from the 1980s Who such as Lytton, Orcini, Pex from Paradise Towers as well as Omega are explored, away from the doctor. Created as a result of lockdown Gareth described how Eric Saward was the first person, he thought of to start the project.

Despite a reputation for using violence and guns the work produced by Eric Saward for the first character that launched the idea of Lytton was described by Gareth as “surprising” and “whimsical”. Eric Saward wasn’t the only writer they have used as they also worked with Bob Baker.

Bringing the ideas to life are also the artists, some have been established from Doctor Who magazine such as John Ridgeway and Martin Geraghty. Others such as Silvano Beltramo have come from an open artist submission that was used for Paradise Towers. Gareth also revealed there will be further comics to come with more Lytton by Eric Saward, plus new content for Happiness Patrol and the alternative universe of Inferno ( by Garry Russell ). Gareth Kavanagh also mentioned the latest Kickstarter project of a 12 issue Marvel-style comic called Gods and Monsters including Omega, Sutekh, the Tharils, Drax and Iris Wildthyme Thyme.

The discussion moved to the bonus content included with the comics – the DVDs/CDs which include audio commentaries with Doctor Who guest stars, writers, and directors of classic Who stories, (moderated by Justin Johnson). The recordings often end up with unexpected content and are a lot of fun to do. Gareth Kavanagh spoke about the latest comic Omega- Vengeance audio adaptation starring actor Brian Blessed and the bonus features they included which was a commentary of the 23^rd season classic Who story Mindwarp. Justin Johnson, who moderated the Cutaway CD recounted a very funny story of the force of nature that is Brian Blessed digressing from Flash Gordon to the marvellous audience reaction to “Pearl” (meaning companion Peri) and how the arrival of actor Kenneth Branagh for tea totally flustered Brian Blessed.

Interview with Roger Limb – Composer

Roger Limb was a part of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for over twenty years and composed eight serials including Revelation of the Daleks. Since 2009, when the Radiophonic Workshop were encouraged to get back together to perform at live events they have done over 200 concerts. Roger Limb disclosed he had driven to the BFI from a convention at Coventry cathedral the day before celebrating Delia Derbyshire’s life.

Explaining a childhood interest in music where he had piano lessons, he also was in the school orchestra and jazz band learning to read and write music at university. Roger joined the BBC as a studio manager and was asked to be a newsreader on the radio for the BBC World Service before joining the Radiophonic Workshop in the early 1970s initially on a temporary basis due to there not being a vacancy.

Roger Limb became good friends with Delia Derbyshire, driving her to studio film dubbing sessions and Delia would go to his jazz gigs, or they would go to concerts together. By the time Delia left the Radiophonic Workshop Roger had gained a permanent position in 1972. It was a time of transition from the tape cutting techniques Delia Derbyshire had used prolifically in the 1960s with another composer from the workshop John Baker. Synthesisers had been developed, alongside multi-track working and Roger embraced the technology of the DX7 synthesisers range and their successors using a rich orchestral sound for “Revelation of the Daleks”.

Discussing the restrictions of his role he acknowledged having no difficulty working to a house style and being expected to understand what would work for a story. The music would be added in post-production first using a VHS tape of story scenes, going through with the director. Roger felt that they also had to please John Nathan Turner and most of the time he would be happy with the result. Discussing the main theme tune by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire Roger said that whilst there were eyebrows in the workshop raised as new producers came in asked for a fresh arrangement over the years the 1980-1985 updated theme by Peter Howell was praised.

Of course, the main event is watching a classic Who story at the BFI…

Reviewing Revelation

In the 1980s Doctor Who went through a phase of unimaginative story titles with Dalek stories so having Resurrection, Revelation and Remembrance of the Daleks closely together doesn’t instantly distinguish this story from the others. Eric Saward is well known for falling out with John Nathan Turner later in their working relationship and leaving Doctor Who and this is his last full story, credited to him.

What was interesting during the showing of the story at the BFI were the audible murmurs of disapproval as the 6^th Doctor berates Peri for weighing too much during episode one and she also then calls him porky. These comments would probably be considered a bit sensitive these days. Being reminded of their somewhat dysfunctional relationship is the least interesting aspect of this story which thankfully is brief as they are separated in episode two.

Remembering the reaction to the violence of Colin Baker’s first series I was interested that while promoting the novelisation of both Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks in 2019 an interviewer from The Who shelf interviewing Eric Saward commented that Resurrection “was brutal”. Eric Saward however refuted that as he felt that modern drama needed to reflect the violent world. Revelation of the Daleks does have some horrific ideas and a high body count.

There is the image of Natasha’s father as a human Dalek experiment and most of the characters don’t survive. Actually, does anyone really care about the people in the state at Tranquil Repose? No, not really. The black humour Eric includes in the script does much to divert from dwelling on the ghastly reign of “The Great Healer”.

In the real world, there is conflict and wars. Dictators take over and the consequences are hard to handle. The harsh truth is that people die in certain situations. Sometimes good people try to fight a cause. You can’t put a veneer over abject evil

Eric Saward interviewed in 2019 for The Who Shelf

It’s a decent story for Davros as he is given far more characterisation than just behaving like a raving megalomaniac and it’s really enjoyable to see. Davros is having to survive on Necros ( which comes from the Greek for the dead) and the unexpected snow on location adds atmosphere and a certain bleakness to the proceedings. The dark humour, as Davros needs Kara and Vogel, so he simpers “my dear Kara” whilst holding his murderous tendencies in check is fascinating. Davros also has an almost childish glee as he revels in his plan against the 6th Doctor who is at a disadvantage most of the time as to who he is up against.

Eric Saward was close friends with Robert Holmes and has also learnt a trick or two creating more duos than I have seen in some time. The structure allows the characters to bounce dialogue off each other and most of the actors are top-notch in exploiting their desires. Kara plotting with Vogel, Jobel’s disdain for his intern and Tasambeker’s not completely blind adoration, Orcini and Bostock comrades in arms (which reminds of Blackadder and Baldrick in tone), Takis and Lilt, Grigory afraid of the Daleks and Natasha’s determination to retrieve her father’s body.

Yes there is Alexei Sayle as the DJ and in part, he is stunt casting but in a script that deals with dark ideas, his wacky DJ persona highlights all that is wrong at Tranquil Repose.

Sneak peek at the Special Features

It felt quite joyful to hear the laughter of other people at the BFI to reactions in the expected Behind the Sofa. There are some insightful feature-length interviews with the Blu-ray collection from Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Michael Grade, the BBC 1 Controller at the time the classic series was cancelled. It was quite a tongue in cheek introduction to the Michael Grade interview with Matthew Sweet.

From the little preview snippet of the interview, Michael Grade still had little remorse at imposing a hiatus on the classic series and hasn’t lost any of his original arrogance. He acknowledged that although Doctor Who was well-known none of the fans seemed interested in his reasons for wanting to cancel the show. Michael Grade had met with Jonathan Powell, Head of Drama and Bill Cotton Jnr, Managing Director of the BBC as they wanted to feel justified in their position in cancelling as the culture of the time meant he felt the board governors of the BBC “couldn’t deal with (media) controversy”.

Interview with Chris Chapman – Producer of BBC Studios

Before the previews of some of the content, Chris Chapman came to the stage. He works on the Blu-ray releases and talked about the discussions about what content is decided for each Blu-ray and some of the challenges of recent documentaries because of COVID. They want to keep content fresh and it was decided that for the documentary content Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant would be taken back to the three main British locations for season 22.

They travelled to urban alleys in London used in Attack of the Cybermen and the Shropshire location for Mark of the Rani, IBM Building in Portsmouth as well as going to Hampshire for Revelation of the Daleks. Chris talked about the fortuitous event of snow that added a memorable alien-ness for Necros and gave a story of the very helpful farmer at Bolinge Hill Farm clearing trees so they could have the Tardis by a lake in Episode 1.

Interview with Colin Spaull (Lilt), Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant

Colin Spaul who played Lilt, one of the orderlies at Tranquil Repose came on stage first. Asked about his role as Lilt he revealed originally he was offered the role of the mutant, but this was changed to the character of Lilt. The story was that Laurence Olivier, the famous actor and director was interested in a role in Doctor Who and apparently had been offered the role of the mutant which he subsequently turned down. Lilt was part of a duo with Trevor Cooper as Takis and Colin knew Trevor as they did a play called Schoolboy Boys together. Colin Spaul expressed how overjoyed he was to read the script and realise there were Daleks but then also 28 years later also to work with the Cybermen in “Rise of the Cybermen” and “The Age of Steel”. He was chuffed to work with two iconic monsters.

Nicola Bryant gave a frank reaction to coming back as Peri for the mini-episode Doctor Who The Eternal Mystery -The Collection: Season 22 Announcement Trailer Nicola had enjoyed the drama of Peri being killed off in Mindwarp and despite Peri’s ending being subsequently changed and the development of different versions of her fate from Big Finish Nicola didn’t really feel the real story was told. Approached by Pete McTighe, (in the audience at BFI) she got what was a “fabulous ending “joking Peri was now in charge of the Tardis. When Colin Baker came up on stage what was lovely was he got emotional watching the mini-episode which he thought was “magical”.

I must say I have loved the last few mini-episodes that Pete McTighe has done for the Blu-Rays as he does seem to capture the spirit of the characters. Nicola Bryant talked about the excitement she felt being in a Dalek story and the kudos of being an assistant against classic enemies. She revealed Revelation of the Daleks was meant to be the first story that had a levitating Dalek but they ran out of time to do it.

Justin Johnson highlighted the story showed a maturing relationship between the Tardis crew where the Doctor was more protective of Peri. Colin Baker talked about how as actors himself and Nicola talked about developing the relationship between the 6^th Doctor and Peri to change the emphasis from bickering with each other to bantering or badinage. When quizzed on the perceived violence of his era Colin considered that Doctor Who should be scary as children love and learn from stories. An example he cited was how violent fairy tales can be.

It shouldn’t be graphic and most of the time the Doctor uses his head to solve problems but sometimes the Doctor has to result in a more physical reaction because he does not have a choice. To remove it completely, in his opinion would be against the reality of our lives where bad things do happen, inferring indirectly to the current conflict in Europe.

When the discussion moved to the hiatus (which occurred in between the end of Revelation of the Daleks and season 23), Michael Grade and the “Doctor in Distress “record Colin Baker felt at the time the record wasn’t very good. However, as the lead actor, he felt he couldn’t be the loudest to complain. Colin of course wanted the series to come back but he understood John Nathan Turner was under a lot of pressure. He bowed to the request of his “close friend” to do the record but felt shame-faced about it. Colin also commented about the media and cited a couple of funny incidences with Peter Davison where the common occurrence of their disagreements, which were opinions, led to the media taking quotes out of context.

There was a question and answer at the end of the screening and both Nicola and Colin ( Baker) discussed their character’s costumes. Nicola loved wearing her shorts in Lanzarote but filming in England in February wasn’t so much fun in the same costume It’s well known that Colin Baker’s multicoloured coat wasn’t the first choice with him preferring a “black voluminous number” to feel more mysterious. However his consolation, he joked, was it outsells the other Doctor costumes as children are attracted to the bright, mismatching colours.

What came across in this panel is the great affection and humour both Nicola Bryant and Colin Baker have for the programme even after all these years. Their time was cut short in the Tardis but both seemed of the same opinion they would still be travelling in the Tardis given the choice.

Special Postcard

After the viewing, there was a signing with, Gareth Kavanagh from Cutaway Comics and the actor’s Colin Spaull Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. As with previous recent releases, there was a special postcard produced by the BFI for the event showing the amazing cover for the Season 22 Blu-ray.

Thank you, BFI and we look forward to coming back soon.

Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 22 – Limited Edition Packaging blu ray is available to pre-order from Amazon for £41.99 and all the usual online retailers.