July 09, 2013
As Doctor Who’s 25th anniversary approached, script editor Andrew Cartmel began a project to make the Doctor’s character darker, more mysterious and more of a controlling force in adventures. The season opener, written by a new young writer, Ben Aaronovitch, was the first in this mould, seeing the Doctor return to where it all started – Shoreditch, 1963 – to observe the Remembrance of the Daleks.
Doctor:
The start of a second season for the Seventh Doctor
Companions:
Ace, embarking on her first, full televised adventure as a solo companion.
Plot:
The Doctor returns to where his adventures began, but something nasty is lurking in 76 Totter's Lane. As Ace struggles with 1960s morality, a duplicitous Doctor must hand over an extraordinary weapon to an old enemy, without Earth being caught in the crossfire.
The story so far…
- When they were last seen in Revelation of the Daleks (1985), the Daleks had split into two factions – ‘Imperial’ Daleks, loyal to Davros their original creator, and ‘Renegade’ Daleks, loyal to the Dalek Supreme. The civil war between the two tribes forms the background to the action in Remembrance.
- This adventure makes numerous references to the first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child. Coal Hill School is where Ian and Barbara taught, and Susan was a pupil. The junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane is where the TARDIS was located when Ian and Barbara discovered it.
- ‘The Hand of Omega’ is a tool named after Omega, a stellar engineer who collapsed a star, and gave the Gallifreyans a power source for time travel. He was lost in the supernova and left for dead by the Time Lords. When he tried to cross back into this universe, the first three Doctors united to fight him.
Best bit:
The Doctor, in retrospective mood, contemplates consequences with cafe-worker John (played by Joseph Marcell, who later found fame as Geoffrey the Butler in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air):
Key quote:
Ace: We did good, didn't we?
Doctor: Perhaps. Time will tell. It always does.
Why it’s worth a watch
Remembrance of the Daleks manages the tricky task of being both an explosion-filled action romp, and an interesting, character-driven story. The Doctor is darker than he's ever been, in control of events, looking down on them from on high. The supporting cast is excellently rendered, leading to some truly beautiful character scenes like the one highlighted above. But it's also more full of action scenes than any Doctor Who before. The introduction of the Special Weapons Dalek, the space craft landing in the playground, the first enhanced extermination effect and the now-legendary cliffhanger to episode one are all worthy of note. Most importantly, Remembrance returns the Doctor's arch enemies to the highest level in the pantheon of baddies. After years of playing foot-soldiers to Davros, the Daleks get their own narrative - a civil war over racial purity. Cleverly counterpointed against Ace's disgust at 1960s racial politics, this is something special and the shape of things to come.
More:
Read more about Remembrance of the Daleks at the BBC Doctor Who website, or get to know more Doctor Who adventures.
