'Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks' (1988)


A lot of my posts seem to be starting with 'Sorry, but this is going to be a quick one...' Guess what? Today is no different ;o) On top of work, the girls are on summer holiday now so things are going to get busy over the next few weeks. No work today, of course, but I was out of the house for a large chunk of it, having a look at the Wildlife Photography exhibition at the Natural History Museum. Hence this being a quick post, hope you don't mind ;o)

It's a Saturday so it's time to look at another 'Classic Doctor Who' of yesteryear, this time with added Daleks...

London, 1963, and the Doctor returns to Coal Hill School with his new companion Ace, where he has unfinished business. His oldest foes, the Daleks, are on the trail of Time Lord technology – an artefact the Doctor himself left behind on Earth. Enlisting the assistance of the local military, the Doctor must protect the Gallifrey an secret of time travel as two opposing Dalek factions meet in an explosive confrontation, with the fate of the entire Universe at stake!

Absolutely nothing to do with the story itself, which is brilliant but more on that later, I've always wondered why 'Remembrance of the Daleks'? What led to that particular title? The closest I've got to an answer is that the Doctor finally remembered that he needed to go back to Earth and deal with the Hand of Omega and the Daleks chasing it. If that was the case though and the Doctor was originally on Earth to take care of business... Does that mean that the Doctor always knew about the Daleks right from the start? There's a whole load of 'First Doctor' stories that I've never seen so I really need to do something about that now. But anyway...

All of my random thoughts to one side though, 'Remembrance of the Daleks' is bloody good, it really is. Solders fighting Daleks, Daleks fighting Daleks (the 'Special Weapons Dalek' is always awesome) and all the while, the Doctor is at the centre of it all and pulling strings to make sure it all ends up the way he needs it to. It's not often that I've seen the Doctor like this, fiercely intelligent but using it to ends that are really quite dark. Sylvester McCoy's portrayal of the Doctor is quite unsettling, in that regard and it's bang on the money here. The Doctor plays everything close to his chest and you can't help but wonder what (or who) he is prepared to sacrifice for what he sees as the greater good (although seeing that it's the Daleks, you can't help but see his point). It's kind of funny then that he is saddled with Ace for the whole thing, someone who's a little too perceptive and won't stop asking questions. It does make for some amusing moments where you can almost see the Doctor thinking that this could all be done with if Ace wasn't there.

There is a lot going on in this story then and no matter how many times I watch it, I'm always sucked in and ready to go again the next time. The story doesn't stop there though, drawing interesting parallels between the Dalek's race war and the more insidious struggle taking place in nineteen sixties Britain (and probably still has something important to say about how we are, as a society, today). Like I said, there's a lot going on in 'Remembrance of the Daleks' and that is why it stands up to repeated viewings.

I don't know if 'Remembrance of the Daleks' is my favourite 'Doctor Who' story but I'd have to say that it's right up there with the best of them. As always, definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

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