After sitting through the miserable Sixth Doctor era and the disastrous first season of the Seventh Doctor, Remembrance of the Daleks in one fell swoop propelled the show’s quality up significantly and stands as the best episode of Classic Who since The Caves of Androzani. I’m guessing that the combination of bringing Andrew Cartmel on board the creative team and the show entering its 25^th year was enough of an incentive to put more effort into Season 25. Looking back on Season 24 (which is a strong contender for the worst Doctor Who season of all time), it seemed clear that nobody cared at that point after a near cancellation, Colin Baker’s firing, showrunner JNT wanting to leave but being forced to stay by the BBC, the atrocious intro episode for the Seventh Doctor, it seemed like everyone involved was just going through the motions waiting for the inevitable cancellation. But with Andrew Cartmel having a clear vision for where the show could potentially go and with Doctor Who celebrating its silver anniversary, something seemed to click, and the stories ended up getting far more effort and creativity thrown into them. From The Happiness Patrol being a satire of Thatcher’s politics, to the finale The Greatest Show in the Galaxy which is a clever and surprisingly humble commentary on Doctor Who’s poor status in the eyes of the fandom, how it was once the number one show in sci-fi but had now become a shell of what it used to be. Season 25 is far from the best, with Silver Nemesis being a massive weak link that drags it down, but the effort on display is commendable.

Remembrance of the Daleks opens the season in a literally explosive way as we’re treated to one of Doctor Who’s most action-packed episodes of all time. The Doctor and Ace are caught up in a war the Daleks are waging, on each other! Two Dalek factions use 1960s London as their battleground as they seek out the Time Lord weapon called the Hand of Omega. On top of being a thrilling and intense action piece with real explosions being used for the production and the introduction of the most awesome Dalek variant ever, Remembrance of the Daleks features an incredible performance from our two leads as Sophie Aldred helps elevate Ace to one of the most badass companions of all time with her attack on a Dalek with a baseball bat and blowing another up with an RPG. But notably this is the story where the Seventh Doctor’s true persona begins to crystalise as Sylvester McCoy finally gets to work with his Doctor without the clownish and silly writing of the previous season. Now he delivers a more intense take on his incarnation as it is slowly revealed that the Dalek’s attempt to steal the Hand of Omega whilst the two factions destroy one another is all part of a grand scheme of his. This all builds to one of the best climaxes in the show’s history where in a final onscreen showdown with Davros for the Classic show, the Doctor uses reverse psychology to make him use the Hand of Omega on Skaro’s sun, thinking that it will make the Daleks just as powerful as the Time Lords, when it turns out the Doctor programmed the Hand to instead destroy any sun it’s used on. And then for an encore, the Doctor finds the last surviving Dalek of the battle and talks it into committing suicide!

This story also features some great themes on racism with the two Dalek factions who hate one another for reasons regarding their appearance, also a reflection on the time period with a seemingly nice landlady having a “No Coloureds” sign on her window as well as white supremacists teaming up with one of the Dalek factions, and lastly we have what is considered by many to be the Seventh Doctor’s defining scene where he contemplates the ripple effect through a conversation he has with a cafe worker about how slavery shaped his family history. It's quite heavy stuff for a show geared primarily towards kids and I love it!

Remembrance of the Daleks is one of the last great triumphs for the old show, its biggest success being the Daleks getting one hell of a final story to go out on. This is a must watch for any Doctor Who fan and for those looking to get into Classic Who but want to start with something relatively close to Modern Whom this is a great way to ease yourself in.