‘Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks’ – Ben Aaronovitch (BBC Books)



Another Doctor Who post for you today ;o) The move turned up a whole load of unread Doctor Who books and they’ve been the ideal comfort reading for a ‘last few weeks’ that have been intense for one reason or another. I’ll try and mix these up with some other reads, that I have on the go, but in the meantime, lets talk a little bit about ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’.

I had a few things to say about the TV serial, back in 2021, so it was probably inevitable that I’d pay the book a visit at some point and see how that held up against its small screen counterpart. As it happened, damn… That was not the story I was expecting, but in a good way...

With unfinished business to attend to, the Seventh Doctor returns to where it all began: Coal Hill School in London in 1963. Last time he was here, the Doctor left something behind – a powerful Time Lord artefact that could unlock the secrets of time travel. Can the Doctor retrieve it before two rival factions of Daleks track it down? And even if he can, how will the Doctor prevent the whole of London becoming a war zone as the Daleks meet in explosive confrontation?

I’ve spoken before about how Doctor Who novelisations can be divided up into those that opt to just retell what happened on the TV and those that prefer to flesh things out a little. Well, I didn’t realise until the last few days but apparently there was a third option the whole time; an option that is the exclusive residence of ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’.

We’re talking about a novelisation that is a retelling of the televised story but also so much more than the regular attempts at giving stories a little more context. Aaronovitch throws everything he has at the background scenery of ‘Remembrance’ giving us background detail on, well… everything. This means a whole load of detail around the Intrusion Counter Measures Group (a forerunner of UNIT) and its members, hinting at relationships that cast certain characters in a whole new light and really had me cheering on one potential couple in particular (not something I’ve ever done with a Doctor Who book but, here we are). The far right tendencies of Mike and Ratcliffe are also examined a little more closely which highlights the similarities between them and the Daleks and really gets you thinking.

Talking of the Daleks, they get the special treatment here with a real deep dive into their politics, lore and just highlighting what utterly nasty bastards they are. I don’t know if it’s canon (probably not) but to be honest, I really don’t care. It’s a lot of fun to read and it all works in terms of the story. That’s all I was after so I was happy :o) Who was the Other though? I need to look into that a bit more.

But anyway… This ‘chuck everything at the story’ approach really adds to the manic energy that the TV serial already had, and it all sticks. The end result is a tale that literally buzzes along and it’s not often I say this but I didn’t want to take my eyes off the page in case I missed something, there is so much happening here.

When talking about the TV serial I said that, 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. The book though? That could easily be my new favourite ‘Doctor Who’ read, give me a chance to calm down a bit and I’ll let you know.

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