Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

*cue catchy jingle*

Twelve more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween.
Twelve more days to Halloween - Silver Shamrocks!

Welcome Boys and Ghouls to Month of the Living Dead, my thirteen day (and then some) tribute to that most wonderful of holidays ever - Halloween! Join me, wont you, as I watch the sinister and the silly, the morbid and the macabre, the violent and gruesome in a two week bloodletting that comes to a boil on the eve of all saints.

*cue thunder and lightning effect*

So sit back, turn the lights down low and get ready for today's presentation of. . . .

REVELATION OF THE DALEKS!! Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

*cue commercial break*

"Wait a second," I hear you proclaim, "Doctor Who isn’t horror!" Well, putting aside the thousands of traumatized children hiding behind the couch that would disagree with you - this episode fits in with the theme month because it features Zombie Daleks. Well, kinda sorta. First, let me bring the people who have no idea what I'm talking about up to speed.

From 1963 to 1989 (and a couple of false starts thereafter) the BBC ran an immensely popular family program called Doctor Who. The main character is called The Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He travels the universe in the TARDIS, a wondrous spaceship that can go anywhere in time and space - provided that the Doctor can steer it correctly. During his adventures, he and his companion (usually a young human female with weak ankles and good lungs) combat evil and injustice wherever they find it. Key to the longevity of the series - Doctor Who can do what the James Bond movies have done several times. When fatally injured, Time Lords have the ability to regenerate, totally changing their faces and personalities, allowing the ability to swap out the lead roll when the actor wants to leave the series. So there have been several Doctors with different faces (ten, so far), but all of them the same character.

Oh, and the name of the show is Doctor Who. The main character is simply called The Doctor.

So, where was I? Oh yes - Zombie Daleks.

The TARDIS arrives on Necros, home of Tranquil Repose, a mortuary that provides an extra service: cryogenic storage of the galaxy’s wealthy and elite, who are frozen until science can cure whatever killed them. The Doctor has come to attend the funeral of an old acquaintance, Professor Arthur Stengos.

Things however are not what they seem - the Great Healer, the driving force behind Tranquil Repose, is really Davros - the scientific mastermind that created the Daleks. Davros is currently in collusion with Kara, a wealthy factory operator who supplies food for much of a hungry galaxy. Davros owns shares of Kara’s factory and demands more money to continue his hidden researches.

Growing weary of Davros' growing demands on her business, Kara’s hires Orcini, former member of the Knights of the Order of Oberon and now a well paid assassin, to remove this thorn in her side once and for all. Orcini is anxious to accept the challenge, seeing this as a final mission of honor to avenge any past misdoings on his conscience.

Meanwhile inside Tranquil Repose, two people arrive to retrieve the body of Stengos: Grigory, a medical scientist, and Natasha, Stengos’ daughter. What they find, however, is a mannequin where Stengos’ body should be. Deep in the mortuary’s lower levels, they locate Stengos's head - encased in a clear Dalek frame. Apparently, the Great Healer plans to turn the deceased occupants of Tranquil Repose into a new army of Daleks at his command!

Written by then script editor Eric Saward (who also wrote the previous Dalek outing: Resurrection of the Daleks), we get more of what turned Resurrection into a mess - there was too much going on that was irrelevant to the core of the story, and the characters varied between the forgettable and the wasted, and a high body count for no good reason other than to serve as an exercise in pointlessly killing extras.

You have to admit that Saward learns from his mistakes - while Resurrection was a chore punctuated by some good moments, Revelation came together nicely. The supporting characters were well done, and the seemingly wandering story lines all come together properly at the end. The only serious complaint is that the Doctor was more or less an extra in his own series - which is forgivable a necessary evil like the double banked episodes from the new series (although it Revelation was a good as Blink, I'd overlook it) but there's no excuse here. While there was a very strong guest cast, it feels like the Doctor has been forgotten about. I can only suspect that Saward was uncomfortable writing for the Doctor and sidelined him as much as he could to cover for it.

Revelation of the Daleks almost - but not quite - captures the success that was The Caves of Androzani. They both have Graeme Harper as a Director (who also helmed the wonderful series two finale Army of Ghosts/Doomsday); they both have Nicola Bryant reminding us all how good an actress she can be; they both sport a great musical score by Roger Limb; and they are both have a really good supporting cast. Yeah, Saward is no Robert Holmes, but then few writers are - and the script is strong in its own right.

Speaking of the guest cast, I would be remiss in my duties if I did not mention Terry Molloy as Davros. For once Davros is given something to do other then be a ranting, raving megalomaniac, showing his intelligent cunning manipulator side - and Terry totally sells it. Every line he delivers is a gem, and - at least in this story - outshines even Michael Wisher (from Genesis of the Daleks), long considered to be the definitive Davros.

No, it's not all perfect - the Doctor and Peri take ages to reach Tranquil Repose, spending most of Episode One wandering around padding up the plot and trying to find a way in. The episode one cliffhanger makes no sense whatsoever, and some of the effects were too ambitious for a Doctor Who budget. The flying Dalek is a nice idea, but was hamstrung by the execution and ends up more confusing than anything. Fortunately this has been corrected with the DVD version.

In the end, the quality of the show didn’t matter. The entirety of season 22 had been looked upon by the Powers That Be as the breaking point of a show that had long stuck in BBC controller Michael Grade's craw. The hammer fell and the show was rested for eighteen months. While the show would come back, Collin Baker wouldn’t get a story this good again for the remainder of his tenure as the Doctor.

TOTAL BODY COUNT: 17 (and countless Daleks)
MOST MEMORABLE KILL: The deflating Davros head.
GALLONS OF BLOOD USED: .3 (when Davros' hand is blown off)
SPRING LOADED CATS: 0
THE MORON OF THE MOVIE AWARD GOES TO: The BBC for resting the series for 18 months at the end of this story
BREASTS ON DISPLAY: 0
BEST LINE(S):
"Did you bother to tell anyone they may be eating their own relatives?"
"Certainly not! That would have created what I believe is called 'consumer resistance'."

THE DVD -
Lovingly restored frame by the restoration team to their typical high standards. The episode looks and sounds gorgeous!

THE EXTRAS -
Typical of the bounty of riches that we get from a typical Doctor Who DVD release, we are inundated with stuff. We start out with a lively commentary from Nicola Bryant, Terry Molloy, Eric Saward Graeme Harper. Then there's a well done documentary featuring interviews with Saward, Harper, Alan Spalding (designer), John Brace (Visual Effects), Roger Limb (incidental music) and Pat Godfrey (costumer designer), plus cast members Trevor Cooper (Takis), Clive Swift (Jobel), Roy Skelton (Dalek voices), Terry Molloy (Davros), William Gaunt (Orcini), Hugh Walters (Vogel) and Colin Spaull (Lilt), as well as archive interview footage with Alexei Sayle. We get the some raw footage shot during some of the studio recording sessions. Then there are the (optional) modern updated special effects - lasers, flying Daleks and hovering effects all done with modern day effects processing and look amazing.

Finally, there's an isolated music score; an optional Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround mix (which just sounds weird in the context of Doctor Who) some continuity announcements, three short deleted scenes and the usual photo gallery, subtitle production notes and an Easter egg.

THE BOTTOM LINE -
A good story with some fine acting bundled up in a wonderful package? Put me in the game, coach!

My Month of the Living Dead reviews:
* THE EVIL DEAD
* NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
* PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE
* THE FOG
* REVELATION OF THE DALEKS
* DAWN OF THE DEAD
* THE LAST MAN ON EARTH/HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL
* DAY OF THE DEAD
* RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
* THE OMEGA MAN
* NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D
* THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED UP ZOMBIES
* LAND OF THE DEAD
* MASTERS OF HORROR - HOMECOMING
* 28 DAYS LATER
* WHITE ZOMBIE
* HALLOWEEN



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12