Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 3, 2021

Family reunions over the holidays can often be fraught with discord and dysfunction, and that seems to be the case with the Doctor Who family as well, at least as evidenced by Revolution of the Daleks, which was premiered on television as a New Year's Day special on January 1, 2021. Considering what a year 2020 was, some might think there might have been a remarkably festive spectacular featuring Doctor Who (Jodie Whittaker) in some kind of attempt to help people forget the problems of their real lives, but while there are some admittedly fun and funny moments in Revolution of the Daleks, with the almost kind of lovable Roomba like nemeses up to no good, this is yet another "transitional" Doctor Who "event" that (and I'm not considering this a spoiler, since devoted Whovians will have known about it for months now) says goodbye to some supporting characters. The special offers a number of special guest stars who were heavily touted at the time of the first broadcast, including most notably John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood fame, as well as Chris Noth reprising his role from an episode in Doctor Who: The Complete Eleventh Series as nogoodnik Robertson, and Harriet Walter as Jo Patterson, a British politician who could give Margaret Thatcher a run for her Iron Lady money and/or moniker.

A number of parallel stories are introduced which are unsurprisingly woven together as things progress. On the Dalek front, a kind of "previously. . .on Doctor Who" recap is followed by a brief vignette documenting the planned transportation of what might be called a Dalek husk to a secure location, which expectedly goes awry. This is just one moment in Revolution of the Daleks that more than pushes credibility, as the "kidnapping" of the badly damaged Dalek is only accomplished because the driver taking the ruins to someplace safe just happens to stop at a roadside tea emporium that of course is being run by a nefarious conspirator. That overly convenient coincidence aside, the story soon shows Robertson trying to woo Patterson with a "new, improved" kinda sorta Dalek outfitted with water cannons, CS gas and artificial intelligence in order to act as a veritable RoboCop to quell increasing violence by pesky rioters.

In the meantime, the good Doctor has evidently been very, very bad, as she's still stuck in prison. There are some brief scenes of her enduring her confinement, which is both solitary and at least intermittently shared with a number of frightening cohabitants. None other than Captain Jack Harkness shows up to break her out of stir. Also in the meantime, the Doctor's trusty companions Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh), Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill) and Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole) have been holed up trying to figure out where exactly the Doctor has gotten to.

Due to exigencies in the spacetime continuum, or something like that (an explanation of sorts is proffered, but as with so much in Doctor Who, it really doesn't make a whale of a lot of "scientific" sense), it turns out that the Doctor thought she had only been gone for a brief moment in Earth time, when in fact Graham, Yasmin and Ryan had been fretting about her for months. Her return with Captain Jack in tow ultimately sets everything into motion, though kind of interestingly the Doctor's three acolytes have already become aware of Robertson's plans with regard to the high(er?) tech Daleks and have in fact confronted him about it to little avail.

There's definitely enjoyment to be had in this special episode, and it's probably notable to assuage any worries by stating those "goodbyes" alluded to above may in fact be more sweet than sorrowful, as with some previous exits of companions. Any episode with a Dalek is probably going to instantly be of interest to many Doctor Who devotees, and this one has them in abundance, including in what might be termed different "versions" or even different "classes", the latter of which is kind of interestingly utilized. But the whole effort just doesn't have the ebullience that is often part and parcel of the Doctor Who holiday time episodes.

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of BBC with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. The IMDb lists the Arri Alexa Mini, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. This is another largely sharp and nicely detailed presentation in the Doctor Who canon, though this effort also has some almost lurid lighting and grading choices that can temporarily make fine detail levels in particular fluctuate. For example, some of the Doctor's prison scenes are veritably bathed in deep reds, and later there are sequences awash in purples and blues, and even a few greens, most of which tend to mask fine detail at times (the green sequences actually came off best in that regard, at least to my eyes). Outdoor material in relatively normal lighting conditions can pop agreeably, and detail levels are typically excellent in these scenes. Some of the special effects are a little goofy looking, as they can tend to be with Doctor Who, and there are a few stylistic quirks that are introduced that play with imagery at times.

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks features an enjoyable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. Some of the almost comical forays by various groups of Daleks provides good surround activity as well as occasional bursts of LFE, and even the Doctor's almost magical reappearance to her friends is accompanied by some nice "whooshing" sound effects (hilariously, the Closer Look piece included as a supplement documents the use of little leaf blowers to make the actors' hair in this scene move). Outdoor material has good ambient presence on the whole. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:06)


• Closer Look (1080p; 5:08) is a brief EPK which offers snippets of the show and some interviews.


• Best Moments: Brad and Tosin (1080p; 3:02) features interstitial talking heads discussing the best moments.


• John Barrowman Plays 'What's My Line' (1080p; 4:14) features the evidently kind of goofy Barrowman guessing (usually correctly) what some of his lines have been.

Doctor Who: Revolution of the Daleks Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you've been a longtime Doctor Who fan, and if you've grown to rather like Jodie Whittaker in the role, you'll more than likely find enough to enjoy here, but this may be an instance when some curmudgeons may be asking, "Is 'enough' really 'enough'?" The goodbyes in this episode are heartfelt, and it's nice to see them accomplished without problems like, you know, death involved. Technical merits are generally solid for those who are considering a purchase.