November 13: The Twin Dilemma Parts One & Two

So, new Doctor, new look title sequence.  It's still a lot like the old one (same logo and general starfield), but they've put it through a sort of prism filter to create a riot of colors, while the sixth Doctor grins inanely at the camera (thank heavens they didn't follow through with the "winking" idea).  The effect is like the 70s tunnel sequence.  A bit.

And then the thing actually starts...

It's really, really hard to believe that this is the story that follows The Caves of Androzani.  It barely looks like the same series, let alone the following week.  It's astonishingly lurid, and the introduction of twin geniuses Womulus and Wemus (well, that's how they pronounce it) makes the heart sink.  Every moment not in the TARDIS in part one manages the dual feat of being both uninvolving and hideous to look at.  Almost none of the guest cast come out unscathed -- Maurice Denham, as Professor Edgeworth/Azmael, almost manages it, but he has to deliver great swathes of plot and have mental conversations with the giant slug Mestor.  Oh, and, surprisingly, Oliver Smith as Noma, the main Jacondan, feels very naturalistic despite looking like a bird/man hybrid.  Everyone else wavers from barely acceptable (Kevin McNally, who gets better once he's away from the space police office set -- what is up with that set, by the way?  It's a really awkward mishmash of props --- everyone seems to be doing their work on late '70s desk calculators, for instance -- that looks like a rush job more than anything else¹³³) to almost unwatchable (Helen Blatch as Fabian, sad to say), and the fact that the plot is revolving around the twins does this story no favors whatsoever.

The only redeeming qualities of part one are the TARDIS scenes.  Colin Baker doesn't give us a particularly likeable performance as the sixth Doctor, but then he's not supposed to, and you can tell he's not taking anything for granted.  The moment in the wardrobe room where he hides in the clothing racks and laughs in an unhinged fashion is strikingly good.  In general, though, Baker chooses to play the part with a more artificial, theatrical bent, and he spends lots of time declaiming and standing proudly.  You can tell this is deliberate though (as Peri comments on it), and besides, it's about the only way an actor can survive inside that coat.  Now, truth be told (and it's possibly because 30 years' worth of familiarity has lessened its effect), I actually kind of like the colorful patchwork quilt coat, but it's not an outfit for small performances.  Fortunately Baker delivers.  Where things get less successful are the mood swings -- not so much that they're there at all (you can tell what they're going for), but that some of them are genuinely frightening (the attack on Peri) and others seem designed just so that Peri and the Doctor can bicker, which isn't very entertaining to watch.  Still, at least they're keeping things unsettled and therefore not safe.

I wish I could say it gets better in part two, but it doesn't.  The main plot might be quite good, but it's frankly hard to tell under such an awful veneer.  And while there are some more interesting Doctor moments (such as cowering in fear behind Peri), the moment he's introduced to that main storyline the fun gets sucked out of his performance too.  Now that he has to pretend to know people and actually act generically heroic, it's just less interesting to watch.  Baker still does his best (and the rubbing of the cat badge for (presumably) luck is a nice touch), but it's frankly hard to care by this point, so much has the rest of the proceedings drained the audience's good will.

It can only get better from here, right?  Right?







¹³³ And special mention for how the BASIC program that makes the screen display X.V.773 LAST LOCATION etc., complete with the word RUN ready for the actor to hit RETURN and execute the code, is clearly visible for a second or two before the program actually runs.

November 12: The Caves of Androzani Parts Three & Four

The Doctor is determined to save Peri. (The Caves of
Androzani Part Three) ©BBC

These final two episodes deliver just as much as the first two did, but this time you start to really see the wheels turning: Morgus spots the Doctor in Stotz's ship via video screen and makes a series of wrong assumptions that help lead to everyone's downfall.  The Doctor is the catalyst, even though he's barely done anything.  All he wants to do is save Peri.  And to do so he goes to great lengths -- even, as we see, the cost of his own life.

Yet because of the Doctor's presence, the entire balance of power on Androzani Minor is upset.  He helps rescue Salateen, which leads to him returning to Chellak with information about Jek's base.  He ends up captured by Stotz, which leads to Morgus's precipitous actions (murdering the President and heading to Androzani Minor), which themselves lead to both his death and the death of Sharaz Jek, as Jek wants nothing more than to take his revenge on Morgus.  "Do you think bullets could stop me now?" Jek cries, tearing off his mask.  "You stinking offal, Morgus, look at me!"  And it's the Doctor and Peri's presence that leads to Jek capturing them in the first place, as he wants someone of great beauty and someone intelligent to talk to.  Just by being there, the Doctor changes everything.

These last two episodes also continue the brutality on display; these are not nice people, but they almost all are dead by the end (as has been noted elsewhere, Krau Timmin and Peri (and possibly that guy in episode one who's taking care of the copper mine) are the only ones to escape the bloodbath).  But here it never feels like Robert Holmes is just getting rid of characters (the way Resurrection of the Daleks felt at times) because they've outlived their usefulness; Holmes is instead deft at maneuvering them into positions that not only lead to their deaths but feel proper and fitting -- Salateen is killed by hubris (assuming the robot beltplate "passes" still work), Krelper and the other mercenary are killed to reinforce a character point about Stotz (that he's completely ruthless), and Chellak dies in a mudburst because he couldn't handle Jek's true appearance.  It's violent, but there's a purpose behind it.

Peter Davison regenerates into Colin Baker. (The Caves of
Androzani Part Four) ©BBC

However, while this story is really well-plotted and gorgeously directed (and I forgot to mention the lighting last time, with lots of dark shadows and unusual colored lights for the characters to move around in), it's ultimately building to the final moment of the Doctor's death.  Holmes's script (the only regeneration story he ever wrote, curiously enough) is also structured so things feel more and more desperate, with increasing tension and pressure as events continue.  Things are building to a fever pitch -- even the music gets in on the action.  The desperation and determination that the Doctor displays (starting with his capture of Stotz's ship), even as his body is increasingly wracked by spectrox toxaemia, also contribute to this build-up -- and I like the way the Doctor starts to see the regeneration effect near the end of part three before shaking it off.  But he's able to beat almost impossible odds to save Peri -- though he dies in the process.¹³²  The regeneration itself continues to build, with a strange light effect as the Doctor sees his old companions -- even Kamelion -- as he dies (and, touchingly, his final word is "Adric?" as he sees the companion he couldn't save).  It all builds to a crescendo (Graeme Harper likened it to the end of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life", which is an apt comparison) of noise and light, and then with a climactic boom (the same sound that ends the credits), the newly-regenerated sixth Doctor snaps to a sitting position -- and he even gets a couple lines (unusual at the time, although now it's standard practice).  "Doctor?" Peri asks tentatively.  "You were expecting someone else?" the new Doctor responds, somewhat imperiously.  "I- I- I-" Peri stutters.  "That's three I's in one breath," the Doctor interrupts.  "Makes you sound a rather egotistical young lady."  "What's happened?" Peri wonders.  "Change, my dear," the Doctor says, now looking into the camera.  "And it seems not a moment too soon."  The fifth Doctor has regenerated into the sixth.

It's a violent story -- an old-fashioned revenge drama in many ways -- though there's a narrative purpose to the violence, and everyone willing to use violence ends up paying the price by the end.  But at its heart, The Caves of Androzani is about the Doctor trying to save the life of a girl he barely knows, and he's willing to move heaven and earth to do so.  Season 21 has shown us a Doctor increasingly steeped in violence (the events of Warriors of the Deep and Resurrection of the Daleks, the willingness to personally kill Kamelion (even if it is a mercy killing), and the inaction while the Master burned to death), but saving Peri redeems him.  The Doctor sacrifices himself for the life of one person, and that is what this story is all about.  The fact that everything around this helps create one of the finest stories in the entire history of the series is a bonus.

So farewell to Peter Davison, who had some incredibly large shoes to fill, following after Tom Baker.  But Peter Davison didn't make the role his own, the way Baker did, so much as he inhabited the character of the Doctor.  We were treated to a Doctor full of energy and charm who, while occasionally looking like he was out of depth and not in control, nevertheless was able to navigate the situations he was presented with intelligence and a sense of delight.  But it felt like these were the fifth Doctor's traits, rather than Peter Davison's, so well did Davison inhabit the character -- a lot like Patrick Troughton in this respect.  It's debatable whether Davison succeeded in completely escaping Tom Baker's long shadow in the public's eyes (but then, it's also not a feat that any subsequent actor would manage until David Tennant -- and arguably not even then), but the fact that he succeeded as well as he did is a tribute to him.

However, we're not quite done yet -- in a very unusual move, John Nathan-Turner has elected to use the last story of season 21 as Colin Baker's debut (a decision that to date has never been replicated).  The Twin Dilemma awaits...







¹³² Although this is the one real flaw in the entire story -- why doesn't the Doctor take some of the queen bat's milk (aka the antidote) right away while he's still there and able to get more if needed?  If nothing else it would make rescuing Peri a hell of a lot easier if he wasn't having to fight off increasing paralysis and "thermal death point" at the same time.   Maybe he was just under so much stress that he didn't think about it that way.

November 11: The Caves of Androzani Parts One & Two

Standard and special edition DVDs

So here we are: Peter Davison's final story as the Doctor.  And after a six-year absence, Robert Holmes has returned to the Doctor Who world to give the fifth Doctor his sendoff.

But while Holmes's script is well-written and tightly plotted, the star of this production is Graeme Harper for his directorial debut on Doctor Who.¹³¹  His direction gives a real sense of energy to everything -- there are handheld shots, lots of camera movement, tight closeups, slow fades between scenes (rather than the usual cuts)... even direct addresses to camera, as Morgus delivers his asides directly to the audience (this was a misunderstanding by John Normington of what Harper was asking for, apparently, but Harper loved the effect so much he kept it).  This isn't to say that the other directors working on Who have been bad, but Harper is a revelation -- this is his triumph more than anyone else's.

However, where these two episodes excel is that they've been given a script that almost matches the work Harper is putting into things, and everyone involved seems to be rising to the occasion.  We get more flashes of the sarcastic, facetious Doctor that's been cropping up periodically throughout season 21, but here he's repeatedly put in completely powerless situations, which makes these verbal jabs feel much more dangerous.  Both General Chellak and Sharaz Jek warn the Doctor about his comments, but they're really the only weapons the Doctor has.  Nevertheless, you get a distinct feeling that the Doctor could get himself killed this way.  It doesn't help that everyone in this story is rather ruthless and amoral -- even General Chellak, who's the closest this story comes to a moral person, is willing to have the Doctor executed on orders and to sacrifice troopers just to maintain his reputation.  It gets to the point where Sharaz Jek is just about the most reasonable person here, and he's clearly mad.

Sharaz Jek with the Doctor and Peri. (The Caves of Androzani
Part Two) ©BBC

But what works for these two episodes, what sets them apart from stories like Warriors of the Deep or Resurrection of the Daleks, is that the Doctor and Peri aren't drawn into the violence and brutality that surrounds them.  Those earlier stories had the Doctor getting his hands dirty, but here all he wants to do is get Peri out of there -- and then later to cure her of the spectrox toxaemia she's contracted.  He has no interest in the power struggles going on over the spectrox (other than a mild curiosity as to what spectrox is, such that it's causing these problems -- it's a drug that extends the lifespan, apparently) and would much rather be somewhere else.  "I'm sorry I got you into this, Peri," the Doctor says.  "...I should have never followed those tracks.  Curiosity's always been my downfall."  Keeping the Doctor and Peri out of the violence but nevertheless still a catalyst for the events that are occurring is a good move on Robert Holmes's part: it essentially lets them have their war movie cake and eat it too.

So we get some fabulous direction (another gem: watch the way Morgus walks around the video projection of Chellak, and the way Chellak watches him move around the room), a cracking script, and a cast who are more than willing to rise to the occasion -- Peter Davison feels like he's playing with fire, Nicola Bryant acts genuinely terrified around Sharaz Jek, John Normington underplays the ruthless Morgus with a cold detachment while Christopher Gable gives a performance of barely controlled rage, ready to go off at the slightest provocation...  The only real complaints are that Nicola Bryant outs herself as not American in the first episode (no American would pronounce "glass" the way she does, with an ah ([a]) sound), and the Magma Beast, with its too-big head and always open mouth, isn't the most convincing monster ever -- although it's still leaps and bounds ahead of almost any other monster the Davison era has given us.  The final story of the fifth Doctor is off to an excellent start.







¹³¹ Officially, at least; apparently Harper directed a chunk of Warriors' Gate when the production took its toll on Paul Joyce.

November 10: Planet of Fire Parts Three & Four

Although the majority of this story takes place on Sarn, the plight of its people takes a backseat to learning more about Turlough and his history -- this is the plotline that takes up most of the audience's interest.  Even the Master's storyline can't compete, and it's his last story ever!  Allegedly.  (And not actually, as it turned out -- but Anthony Ainley's contract was up at the time, so that's why the Master's fate seems more definite than usual.  But don't worry, he'll be back next season.)  But maybe that's because he spends most of his time cut off from the rest of the story, using Kamelion as a surrogate instead.

No, the interesting bits are about Turlough -- not only did he find the wreck of his father's ship, but he has reason to believe that Malkon is his brother.  Turlough is rather reluctant to reveal more details, which starts to frustrate the Doctor.  "If you're holding back anything that will aid the Master, our friendship is at an end," the Doctor tells him.  But in part four we learn the reasons behind Turlough's reluctance: "The Misos Triangle is the mark of a prisoner, and Sarn is a prison planet for very special people.  That's why my father was sent here," Turlough tells the Doctor.  " ... There was civil war on my planet.  My mother was killed.  My father was on the wrong side and was exiled here with my younger brother.  I, for my sins, was sent by the regime to Earth."  The Trions have agents on "every civilised planet" and thus will know that Turlough has left Earth.  And even despite this, Turlough decides to call on the Trions for help with the remaining inhabitants of Sarn -- he's finally left his cowardice behind, and this is the most important moment of Planet of Fire, second to none.

Oh yes, the Master is still around, in a miniaturized size, we learn in the part three cliffhanger -- apparently he had an accident while experimenting on his Tissue Compression Eliminator and needs the healing powers of the main volcano on Sarn (which can tap a rich source of numismaton gas, a healing substance -- fannishly, one wonders if it's related to the Elixir of Life) in order to regain his full size.  And there's some stuff with Kamelion begging for death -- which the Doctor doesn't really hesitate to provide -- and then the Master standing in the flames, being healed but then burning as the flame changes to a regular flame.  "Won't you show mercy to your own--" he starts¹³⁰, before disappearing into the flames while the Doctor just watches in vague horror.

Peri watches as the Doctor and Turlough say goodbye. (Planet
of Fire Part Four) ©BBC

And that's about it, except for one last thing.  Turlough has learned from the Trion rescue ship that he can now go home.  "I don't want to go, Doctor," he says.  "I've learnt a lot from you.  But I have to go back to Trion.  It's my home."  It's the completion of Turlough's story, from sniveling coward to upright citizen, and this farewell feels correct: a reasoned, steady goodbye as Turlough resolves to shoulder his responsibilities.  It's understated, but a lovely scene nevertheless, as we say goodbye to one of the more interesting (and easily one of the best acted) companions of recent years.  But the Doctor won't be lonely -- he'll be taking Peri on as his new traveling companion.

It's not a terribly big or important story, and the main plot about the people on Sarn is almost an afterthought (and the anti-religion stance Planet of Fire takes is almost an afterthought as well, it seems).  What makes this worthwhile are the revelations we get about Turlough, which are genuinely interesting.  Even though this sees the (sort of) death of the Master, there's a feeling that this isn't the main thrust of the story -- writer Peter Grimwade is more interested in closing a chapter he started: that of Turlough.  But there's nothing about the rest of it that's particularly dull or uninteresting; no, this is another one of those pleasantly average stories Doctor Who occasionally turns out -- fun while it lasts, even if it's not likely to linger in the memory for long.







¹³⁰ Obviously (and deliberately), this line has led to all sorts of speculation as to its intended completion, with "brother" being the most generally accepted candidate (although the recent "Death in Heaven" suggests a slightly different childhood relationship between the Doctor and the Master).

November 9: Planet of Fire Parts One & Two

I can understand the appeal of wanting to get as much use out of their exotic location filming (the island of Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands) as possible, but it does mean that what we get is occasionally confusing as we switch between an alien planet and Earth, both of which more or less look the same (volcanic rock and blue oceans in the distance).  It's only really a problem on the first viewing, but it's still there.

To be honest, the Earth scenes are more compelling in the first episode than the Sarn ones -- it's not really clear what's going on on Sarn, other than some form of heresy, but the Earth scenes have the Doctor and Turlough wandering around Lanzarote looking at ancient artifacts, using alien currency to pay for things, and rescuing drowning girls.  This last action is performed by Turlough, who then brings the drowning girl -- Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown -- into the TARDIS to recover.  And yes, that bikini she's wearing is quite racy for Doctor Who, but we also get Peri's father Howard shirtless and Turlough in a shirt and short swimming trunks, so at this point you can't complain too much.

But perhaps the most surprising thing about these two episodes is the return of Kamelion -- remember him?  Not seen since The King's Demons¹²⁹, here he's causing problems with some sort of alien signal, trying to get to some sort of "point of contact".  The net effect of this is that we get to see Turlough be devious again, as he seems to recognize the distress signal being broadcast and clearly wants nothing to do with it.  He's not terribly successful at stopping the signal though, as Kamelion takes them first to Earth, where there's an alien beacon, and then to Sarn, which bears the same mark on a column as on the beacon.  "The Misos Triangle," Turlough says.  "...It means there are people from Trion here.  My home planet.  This must be an old Trion colony."  But while the Doctor and Turlough are out exploring, Kamelion turns first into Peri's stepfather and then into the Master.  (Cliffhanger!)  Yes, it seems the Master has managed to regain some control over Kamelion.

Part two, sad to say, isn't very interesting (which isn't to say it's bad -- it's just not terribly engaging).  The best bits involve revelations about Turlough's background (the fact that he has a Misos Triangle on his arm like Malkon does is good, but the best bit comes near the end: "Doctor, you don't understand.  I think this equipment [lying around the Hall of Fire on Sarn] came from my father's ship"), but these are few and far between.  Instead we get extended sequences of Kamelion-as-the-Master chasing Peri across Sarn's surface while the Doctor and Turlough get involved (peripherally) in the holy war (well, argument, then) between believers and disbelievers of Logar, the Sarn Lord of Fire, but the disagreement isn't presented in a particularly interesting way -- it's instead supposed to be obvious that Timanov and the other believers are wrong.  Still, at least the end of part two involves the Doctor finally encountering the Master (well, Kamelion, but he doesn't know that), which means that something more interesting may happen -- particularly since the Master has convinced Timanov that he is the Outsider that was prophesied to appear as the messenger of Logar, and that all the disbelievers should be burned...







¹²⁹ One of the more entertaining things about the Wikipedia articles for the stories between Kamelion's two appearances is that every entry except The Five Doctors feels compelled to note that "[n]o explanation is given for companion Kamelion's absence from this story", as if this was of great concern or something.  But does he count as a companion?  He didn't show up in the companion roll call last story -- but, of course, neither did Leela...

November 8: Resurrection of the Daleks Part Two

The Doctor prepares to execute Davros. (Resurrection of the
Daleks Part Two) ©BBC

So the Daleks have a couple plans running at the same time -- one offensive, one defensive -- and I think they generally make sense.  I'm just not sure why they're both happening in the same place at the same time.

The offensive plan seems to involve making Dalek duplicates of key individuals so that the Daleks can bring various places down from the inside.  This is what takes up the majority of the first half of part two, as they hook the Doctor up to their duplicate-making machine and record the contents of his mind -- which seems to mainly consist of companions (and far be it from me to buck the trend and not point out that they've forgotten Leela -- although apparently that's a genuine mistake, as a clip was prepared).  The Daleks want to use the Doctor to infiltrate the High Council and kill them all -- although one wonders how much damage that would cause, given that The Five Doctors wiped most of them out.  Maybe the Time Lords would just shrug and say, "Well, here we go again."  There's also some stuff at the end of the episode about how the Daleks have replaced key people around the Earth with Dalek duplicates -- but as Stien illustrated and the Doctor hopes, the duplicates are unstable and will presumably break their conditioning.  (This is a plot element that's never followed up on or even mentioned again.  About Time speculates that it might be intended to be a joke at the expense of 1984's world leaders.)  The plan makes some sense and is nicely devious for the Daleks, but the conditioning problem is always lurking in the background, even though they don't actually get to make their Dalek duplicate of the Doctor.

The defensive plan involves trying to cure this Movellan virus -- that seems to have backfired on the Daleks, though, since Davros is more interested in reestablishing a power base than in helping the Daleks.  Still, it makes sense -- it's just not clear why this is happening in the exact same location as the duplication plan.  And there's still no clear reason to involve Earth in this (beyond some hand-wavy "it's a secure location" guff).  You'd think having both of these things happening in the same place would cause problems.  Except it doesn't end up mattering anyway; other than placing the Doctor and Davros in the same place, these plots have little interaction with each other.

The Doctor and Turlough say goodbye to Tegan. (Resurrection
of the Daleks Part Two) ©BBC

But the real thing to notice is how brutal this continues to be, particularly in the second half of the episode, as all sorts of people are killed once they've outlived their usefulness to the plot.  We even get the Doctor in on the action, prepared to cold-bloodedly kill Davros at point-blank range (he only fails because he walks through a door which locks behind him), and then killing a bunch of Daleks with the Movellan virus.  Huge numbers of people are dead by the end of this (Resurrection of the Daleks notoriously has more on-screen deaths than any other Doctor Who story), and in fact the only people to emerge from this unscathed are the Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, Lytton and his two policemen, and (as we find out next season) Davros.  It's been pointed out that this is essentially a war story, so of course people will die, but there's still a sense in which people are being killed off just so Eric Saward doesn't have to deal with them anymore (notice the way in particular Lytton kills off the guard with him just before the end of the story).  All the deaths even get to Tegan, who decides to leave the TARDIS for good this time.  "It's stopped being fun, Doctor," she tells him emotionally.  "No, no, don't leave, not like this," the Doctor protests, but it's too late; she's gone.  "It's strange," the Doctor says bleakly.  "I left Gallifrey for similar reasons.  I'd grown tired of their lifestyle.  It seems I must mend my ways."

Being an action-packed war story isn't the worst of sins, but the problem with Resurrection of the Daleks is that there's nothing redemptive about any of it.  It's an incredibly bleak story that no one comes out of well (with the possible exception of Turlough, who's managed to spend most of it uninvolved with the main plots) -- not even the Doctor, who should normally be relied on to be our moral compass for things like this.  (Although I'll be floating the argument that this does help make his regeneration in two stories' time more meaningful -- but we'll get there when we get there.)  There's nothing particularly wrong with the plotting, but Resurrection of the Daleks is told in such an unpleasantly dark fashion that one simply feels exhausted and numb at the end, and this makes it a very difficult tale to derive any real enjoyment from.

November 7: Resurrection of the Daleks Part One

Standard and special edition DVDs

So remember how season 20 was going to conclude with a Dalek story called The Return, only for that story to be killed by industrial action?  Well here's that story, now retitled Resurrection of the Daleks and reedited into two 45-minute episodes (in order to work around the BBC's coverage of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo).  Was it worth the wait?  Well...

The first thing you notice about this episode is how brutal it is.  Fleeing people are shot down in London streets with machine guns, station personnel in the future are gassed with some sort of horrific deformity-causing agent while others are shot down by Daleks, Dalek mutants are attacking British soldiers by biting them in the neck... even the Doctor gets in on the action, pointing a pistol around a warehouse and (apparently) unloading several rounds into said Dalek mutant.  ("Apparently" because after this he immediately hands the pistol to Professor Laird, who takes it by the barrel without any problems -- suggesting that it wasn't actually fired.  Or that the actors didn't think about this when they worked it out.)  And while watching the Doctor and company shove a Dalek out of an upper-story window to the street below, where it explodes spectacularly, is a satisfying viewing experience, it doesn't help with the feeling of brutality prevalent in this episode.

It's also worth noting how quickly writer Eric Saward sidelines the two companions.  Tegan suffers a head wound after the Dalek appears (in what would have been -- and was for overseas viewers, who got the four-part version -- the cliffhanger to part one) and is confined to a sleeping bag in the bomb disposal unit's temporary headquarters, while Turlough disappears not long after the TARDIS arrives in 1984 London -- it transpires that he's entered the time corridor that brought the TARDIS to this location in the first place, but he spends the rest of his time this episode wandering first the Dalek ship, and then the space station that the ship is docked with, and not much of anything else.

Davros prepares to take control of engineer Kiston.
(Resurrection of the Daleks Part One) ©BBC

No, here the action is focused squarely on two figures: the Doctor, and Davros, who's been locked up for ninety years after the events of Destiny of the Daleks and is the reason the Daleks have attacked the space station.  In a somewhat rare nod to previous events (albeit very much in keeping with this phase of the show's (often slavish) adherence to continuity), this story is pitched as a direct sequel to Destiny of the Daleks, with the Daleks unable to find a cure to the Movellan virus that was introduced in between these two stories -- thus, they're hoping that Davros will be able to help them find that cure.  Davros has been recast again -- this time as Terry Molloy, who is significantly better than David Gooderson was in Destiny of the Daleks but isn't quite as controlled as Michael Wisher was in Genesis of the Daleks -- Terry Molloy's version seems to be more inclined to rant.  It's not just ranting, though, and Molloy excels in the quiet moments as well -- they made a good choice this time around. 

And while Davros remains cunning as ever, the Doctor seems still in the dark -- he knows that the Daleks are involved, and that they've established a time corridor between Davros's time and 1984 London for no obvious reason whatsoever (maybe they'll explain in part two), but that's about it.  And so he leaves Tegan in the hands of the army while he goes to the TARDIS with escaped Dalek prisoner Stien to trace the time corridor back to its source.  He doesn't know that the leader of the bomb disposal squad (there because some Dalek tech was mistakenly thought to be a UXB (UneXploded Bomb -- typically left over from World War II, though it doesn't have to be)), Colonel Archer, has been taken over/replaced with a Dalek agent (thanks to some sinister fake policemen wandering around) and now has Tegan and Professor Laird under his control.  No, the Doctor is too busy arriving on the Dalek ship and being betrayed by Stien, who, it turns out, has also been a Dalek agent all along...