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Resurrection of the Daleks


Earth, 1984: the TARDIS becomes trapped in a Time Corridor and is drawn off course, emerging in London's deserted docklands. Deep space, the far future: a prison ship comes under attack from unknown forces. Two seemingly unconnected events - but both linked by one terrible purpose. The Daleks are back, and once again they are in search of their evil creator, Davros.

-- from the DVD release, 2001

The return of the Daleks to Doctor Who after a 5-year break was cause enough to choose this story for a celebratory rubber-enshrined DVD release.

Episode timings on DVD: 24'08", 24'29", 24'38", 24'39"
Episode timings on PasC: 46'24", 46'52"
(Transmitted in two omnibus parts, DVD release formed original 4-part version)

 

VHS releases



01/11/1993: UK - BBC Enterprises - BBCV5143
09/02/1994: Aus/NZ - PolyGram - BBC51432 [deleted January 1996]
??/??/1994: US - CBS/Fox - 8104 [renumbered as E1261by WHV in 2000]
18/09/2001: UK - BBC Worldwide - BBCV7253

In 1994, Hollywood Online joined forces with Fox to offer a free floppy disc with purchases of The Aztecs, Terminus, Robot, City of Death, Resurrection of the Daleks and Planet of the Spiders - this promotional item is available to download here (2.25mb).

The 2001 release was part of the WHSmith exclusive Davros boxset (BBCV7241), which also included Genesis, Destiny, Resurrection and Revelation of the Daleks. This set was limited to 10,000 copies and the videos were simply new runs of the existing VHS releases - except Remembrance, which was taken from the current PAL master at the time - with the corrected effects that would only appear on the NTSC DVDs, but the Billy J Kramer version of Do You Want To Know A Secret as on the PAL DVD, and also Genesis, which was taken from the cleaned up version prepared in 1999 for the BBC2 repeat. With the exception of Revelation (which already had a Black Sheep design), the covers were all created anew in the style of the current VHSs (but with a linking spine illustration), and the new Remembrance cover was used on the following year's US DVD release.

DVD releases



18/11/2002: UK - BBC Worldwide - BBCDVD1100
30/01/2003: Aus/NZ - Roadshow Entertainment - Cat# Unknown
01/07/2003: US - Warner Home Video - E1759
27/07/2007: UK - 2|entertain/Amazon - Cat# Unknown
26/11/2008: UK - 2|entertain - Cat# Unknown

UK cover art by Clayton Hickman for UK/Aus. At the last minute, the shot of Davros was reversed, at Restoration Team member Steve Roberts' suggestion, to show him looking into frame rather than out (the early cover did, however, show up on an advert in the UK's Starburst magazine - see left).

Also, this DVD featured an outer packaging made of rubber as a marketing exercise for Christmas (see right).

In early 2007, Amazon exclusively packaged together The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Genesis of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks and Remembrance of the Daleks into a box set - the contents and sleeve designs were as before, just with an added slipcase.

For Christmas 2008, 2|entertain released The Davros Collection. This packaged together the existing discs for Genesis of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks, Revelation of the Daleks along with an enhanced Remembrance of the Daleks, the simultaneously-released Destiny of the Daleks and a new disc featuring the documentary Davros Connections, plus an eighth disc containing the Big Finish Davros audios along with a new production The Davros Mission.

DVD Bonus features

On Location (18'32")
New documentary interviewing Matthew Robinson, script editor Eric Saward and producer John Nathan-Turner in and around the original locations of the story. This was shot in 2002 just weeks before the producer's death.
  • Nathan-Turner talks about the beauty of the opening shot, Robinson recreates the shot in the original location and talks about the difficulties making it originally.
  • Saward remembers how he was self-commissioned, and Nathan-Tuner on why the Daleks returned.
  • Nathan-Turner talks about how well the story still stands up and Saward and JN-T about the 2-part nature of the original broadcast.
  • Saward and JN-T discuss the themes of survival and violence, and Saward specifically on what he'd do differently now.
  • Nathan-Turner on having Davros forced upon them, and his relationship with Terry Nation.
  • Saward on having fun with the Daleks and being a script editor.
  • Nathan-Turner on Ian Levine's involvement and Saward on Tegan's departure. Nathan-Turner also talks about companions leaving.
  • Saward and Robinson on how little the place has changed, and having to switch locations quickly because of the traffic.
  • Robinson on Nathan-Turner being annoyed with him for telling Saward about his shot plans.
  • Robinson talks about the location of the TARDIS' materialisation, why it was picked, and the temperature.
  • Robinson discusses how to make props appear and disappear (clips from the film trims are used).

Pillarboxed clips of Resurrection throughout.
Interviews: Peter Finklestone
Videotape Editor: Amrik Manku
Produced & Directed by Paul Vanezis
BBC Worldwide
(C) BBC MMII
 
 
Extended and Deleted Scenes ('7'05")
A compilation of sequences trimmed from the final version.
 
 
Information Text
By Richard Molesworth
 
 
Photo Gallery
38 colour photos from the making of this story.
 
 
5.1 Dolby Digital Soundtrack
Isolated Music
2 audio options
 
 
Commentary
By Peter Davison, Janet Fielding and Matthew Robinson.
 
Tardis-Cam No 4
The fourth of these specially shot clips produced for BBCi.
Visual Effects Supervisor: Mike Tucker
Lighting Cameraman: Peter Tyler
Gaffer: Alan Graham
Sound Design: Mark Ayres
For BBC Fictionlab
Editor: Jamie Cason
Commissioning Editor: Martin Trickey
Producer: James Goss
Executive Producer: Richard Fell
www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho
(C) BBC Fictionlab 2002.
 
Easter Egg: Timecards
Click left from the BBC Trailer option. The original timecards.
 
Easter Egg: Clean Credits
Click left from the Photo Gallery option. Opening and closing credits devoid of lettering.
 

Restoration Notes

Although the video release had contained the 2-part edition as broadcast (except in Australia, where apparently a 4-part version was released), for the DVD release the Restoration Team decided to go back to the original 4-part edit (the 2-part version being necessitated by scheduling at the last minute, and not being the way in which it was recorded or edited).

This was the first DVD to be encoded using a new PAL decoder that minimised noise and thus helped MPEG encoding - all future releases would use this equipment. The telecines of the original film inserts were used in order to lessen the generational loss inherent in the original masters, with the clean opening titles being used for the very opening shot of each story, which crossfades through. The TARDIS materialisation was cleaned up considerably, with a very obvious jump being digitally corrected and some accidental image softening reversed. During the scene in Part One where Lytton arrives back aboard his ship, the very poor slow-motion originally applied (done at the last minute in order to remove a microphone boom which appeared in shot, whilst retaining the same length) was fixed using Realviz Retimer, the same hardware used in The Tomb Of The Cybermen, which used motion-estimation to insert extra fields where necessary to smoothen it out.

Classifications

19/10/1993 - Passed as 'PG' by the BBFC for the UK
10/12/1993 - Passed as 'PG' [Low Level Violence] by the OFLC for Aus/NZ
29/07/2002 - Extras passed as 'PG' by the BBFC for the UK
11/03/2003 - Episode 1 and Episode 1 of 'The Seeds of Death' passed as a 'PG' by the OFLC for a public exhibition (50m) in Aus/NZ