Doctor Who – Children of the Revolution
Issues: 312 – 317
Story: Scott Gray
Art: Lee Sullivan
Colouring: Adrian Salmon
Letter: Roger Langridge
Editors: Alan Barnes & Clayton Hickman
Companions: Izzy
Episodes: 6
Summary:
The Doctor has taken Izzy to an underwater exploration vessel called the Argus where a friend of the Doctor’s, Dr Alison Lavelle, is checking up on her medical condition. Whilst the Doctor passes time with the crew of the Argus, Dr Lavelle puts a suggestion to Izzy that will really test out her condition. When the Doctor finds out that Dr Lavelle wants Izzy to go swimming outside the ship he initially protests but Izzy talks him round. She sets off and begins to get high on adrenalin. As she swims from the ship, the Argus is suddenly attacked by an electromagnetic pulse that cripples it. Izzy swims on and encounters a party of daleks. As the crew of the Argus try to rescue themselves, they inadvertently let the daleks on board. The Doctor and Allison get on board through a breech in the hull and the Doctor admits that he’s worried that the ship is about to explode. They race to the reactor core but the Doctor fears things are too late, until a group of the daleks save them. Overhearing Allison call the Doctor by name, the Doctor tries to convince the daleks that he isn’t their greatest enemy but in fact someone else. The daleks don’t believe him but instead of exterminating him, they praise him as their saviour. Baffled by the daleks’ actions, the Doctor asks to be taken to their leader. The daleks take the Argus into their hidden city, Azhra Korr, where the Doctor and the crew of the Argus are met by thousands of unarmed and highly decorated daleks. The Doctor is introduced to the “first-born”, a dalek called Alpha that the Doctor knew from the time of the Emperor and the Doctor realises that these daleks are the daleks that he once gave the human factor to. Alpha demonstrates the daleks’ powers by levitating the Time Lord and showing him around the dalek city. All the daleks at Azhra Korr worship the Doctor but the humans want to know what their future is. With everyone off the Argus, the daleks destroy it and tell them that they will live in peace together forever. Alpha tells the Doctor of how it and the other human daleks fled Skaro and set up their own home on Kyrol. It also denies that it attacked the Argus in the first place. The crew of the Argus start to become uneasy at their situation and accuse the Doctor of siding with the daleks. The Doctor builds a hand-held E-M Tracer to locate the source of the attack that crippled the Argus and as he entrusts Izzy with a mission to track down the TARDIS, some of the other human daleks question the actions of Alpha. Izzy swims to the wreck of the Argus but is attacked by something. Alpha and the Doctor explore the tunnels under Azhra Korr to try and locate the source of the electromagnetic wave and find that the tunnels are covered with symbols. In Azhra Korr, the humans start attacking the daleks and the daleks attack back with their telepathic abilities. Alpha and the Doctor discover a creature called Kata-Phobus living under their city and it informs them that it is the last native Kyrolian. It was responsible for firing the electromagnetic blast, which it did in order to protect the daleks. Kata-Phobus shows Alpha what’s happening in the dalek city and Alpha is horrified to learn that the humans are attacking and killing the daleks. The Doctor tries to convince Alpha that Kata-Phobus is actually manipulating the daleks but Kata-Phobus silences him by showing him that he has both Izzy and the TARDIS captive. Kata-Phobus persuades Alpha to fire upon the Doctor but the Doctor manages to avoid the blast. He manipulates Alpha into a position where it fires on the Kyrolian instead and as it shrinks back in pain, it releases both Izzy and the TARDIS. Kata-Phobus surfaces in Azhra-Korr and reveals its true intentions. It has been encouraging the growth and reproduction of the daleks as it needs to feed on their psychokinetic energy. As it draws the daleks close to itself to feed, the daleks realise that there is only one course of action left to them. so that the humans can survive, they allow themselves to be drawn into Kata-Phobus and self-destruct. Disgusted at the humans’ actions, the Doctor and Izzy return to the TARDIS where they find two glowing energy creatures waiting for them. Izzy is taken and the Doctor knocked unconscious. The two creatures say that they are taking Izzy back to Oblivion…
Episode Endings:
One – As Izzy swims away from the ship she finds herself surrounded by daleks.
Two – The daleks surround the Doctor… and praise him as their saviour!
Three – The daleks inform the Doctor and the humans that there is no turning back, they will live with the daleks forever.
Four – Whilst exploring underwater, Izzy is grabbed by a tentacle.
Five – Alpha turns on the Doctor and attempts to exterminate him.
Six – Izzy has ben taken by two glowing creatures and the Doctor lays unconscious at the foot of the TARDIS.
Continuity:
By the time we join the story, the Doctor and Izzy have been on the Argus for a week or so. The story itself takes place over three or four days. It takes place on the planet Kryol, a planet that was colonised by humans a couple of centuries in the future (so around 2200 or 2300).
The Doctor knew Jacques Cousteau and bought him his first pair of flippers. He also invented the snorkel when he and Jacques were stranded on the Great Barrier Reef. He confirms that his costume (still the blue jacket, yellow cravat and now a yellow, double-breasted waistcoat) is based on Wild Bill Hickock’s outfit (which is a reference to where he got the initial set of clothes from in the TV Movie).
In her new body, Izzy has the constitution of a Mako Shark (according to Allison). Thanks to nutrient treatments, Izzy can now stay out of the water for days at a time rather than hours. She clearly knows “Stingray” very well as she refers to Julius as being like Troy Tempest and sings about Aqua Marina. She calls the Doctor Buzz when he’s in his underwater gear (a reference to Buzz Lightyear from Disney’s Toy Story).
Marine biologist Dr Allison Lavelle is an old friend of the Doctors. There’s no sign that Izzy has met her before and so presumably the encounter took place some time before “End Game”. There’s no indication of which body the Doctor was wearing when they first met. At some point in the past, she discovered some orange plankton that may have hallucinogenic properties. She knows what a Ferrari is.
The Captain of the Argus is Julius Otago, he used to be in the military but now explores the underwater surfaces of Kyrol. He thinks that the Doctor has moulded himself on Lord Byron. He eats Norwegian Chilli for breakfast. The Argus has been charting Kyrol for eight years. He breaks large numbers of treaties by carrying weapons on board. The Argus is powered (on the cheap) by an ectotronic fission reactor. Julius didn’t know the Doctor wasn’t human.
Other crew on the Argus include Theo (who studied dalek cybernetics at Oxford), possibly a psychiatrist, someone called Sarah and a Tony, a Carol, Peter and Dave. Overall there were three hundred crew.
The dalek city is hidden in the Asamda Ridge, 2500 kilometres long and the crew of the Argus had hoped it would contain various minerals, possibly specifically protranium. The daleks have been on Kyrol for decades. There is a statue of the second Doctor in the city. The daleks are covered extensively by the TARDIS library. They identify the Doctor through use of a sonic scan. Rather than kill the crew of the Argus, they simply stun them. Apart from Alpha, dalek names include Makkith, Sukatri, Odalon and Adellus. At some point in the (recent) past, daleks wiped out a colony on Santhorius. It’s possible to build a device that scrambles a dalek temporarily from a neutron-flux circuit board, a toaster battery and a pile of hair pins.
Kata-Phobus lives about a mile under Azhra Korr. It is the last Kyrolian and introduces itself as “The lord of the labyrinth, high guardian of the fractured circle and the last surviving native Kyrolian”.
Past dalek stories that get mentionned are “Death to the Daleks” and “Evil of the Daleks”.
Comments:
Wow. Just when you thought there wasn’t much left you could do with the daleks, “Children of the Revolution” gives us a whole new take on things. A couple of minor quibbles though. The ending of the story seems a little rushed (almost as though there were a few frames cut out for time reasons), which is a pity as the build up of the story is superb. Also, in “Evil of the Daleks”, Alpha was killed. Possibly. According to the telesnaps it’s a little difficult to tell but the implication was certainly that Alpha was dead. However, two minor quibbles most definitely don’t spoil this fantastic story. With superb characterisation, terrific artwork and dialogue that just screams “act me”, this is certainly a dalek story that the comics can be proud of. The cliff-hangers are all great examples of “what the f…”, from the surprise arrival of the daleks in part one, the terrific twist of “All hail the saviour” in part two through to the brilliantly scripted end of part five (“Say the magic word” being possibly one of the best lines from a dalek story to date), everything about this story comes together to provide a fantastic read. Definitely a classic to be treasured.
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