Remembrance of the Daleks

Very strong story which is a much stronger production than the series before, has some great cliffhangers and callbacks . The Doctor's manipulating is definitely interesting though destroying Skaro so nonchalantly hasn't aged that well for me. I think it's out of character even for this incarnation considering he literally criticises someone for being happy a Dalek is dead earlier in the episode. Great stuff otherwise.

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Doctor Who's 25th anniversary season did something different to what was usually expected during a Doctor Who anniversary. Rather than bringing back past Doctors to interact with the current one, producer John Nathan Turner decided to go in another direction: celebrating the Doctor's most famous enemies in the Daleks and the Cybermen. The Cybermen's story Silver Nemesis was the show's twenty-fifth anniversary episode but before that there was Remembrance of the Daleks: the story many Whovians consider to be the real twenty fifth anniversary special.

In Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) returns to 1960s London with Ace (Sophie Aldred), where two opposing Dalek factions are at war with one another and searching for the Hand of Omega: a device created by Stellar Engineer Omega to turn stars into supernovas as fuel for Gallifreyan time travel. Davros (Terry Molloy) and the Daleks want it to improve their ability to time travel. The Doctor plans on giving it to them...but why?

The way Remembrance of the Daleks celebrates Doctor Who's longevity is remarkable. It does something that the recent film Jurassic World did very well: slots in nostalgic nods and references into the story without it distracting the main story. The majority of the narrative takes place at Coal Hill School (the same school that the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Foreman was at). You get to see IM Foreman's scrapyard and the book about the French Revolution Susan borrowed from Barbara in An Unearthly Child. There is even a scene where Ace walks out of a room just as the BBC continuity announcer on the television announces the start of a brand new sci-fi television series 'Doc-'. This is the reason why many consider Remembrance of the Daleks to be the show's 25th anniversary special: it feels so much like one that it's hard to believe Silver Nemesis was the special and not this.

And the nods to the very first serial An Unearthly Child don't stop there. The story even features a mysterious child of its own. A character so mysterious she doesn't even have a name: she's simply called 'The Girl' in the end credits. The Girl is a deliberate echo of Susan Foreman: only this time, instead of being the Doctor's granddaughter she is the Dalek's 'battle computer'. Young actor Jasmine Breaks plays her brilliantly; she gives a certain menace to her performance that is surprisingly creepy for a young girl. It's also a nice idea for a story twenty five years later to take inspiration from the serial that started it all; the Girl never feels like a copy of Susan but a different mysterious child, even as a deliberate call-back to the character of Susan.

There's something I mentioned in my Agent Carter review that really applies here and that's the use of music to create the era. The music in this serial featured in the cafe scenes is nicely authentic towards the sixties' era and it feels like the seventh Doctor and Ace are actually in the 60s rather than the reality of the time it was filmed. There's never any doubt that this story takes place shortly after the first Doctor and Susan leave IM Foreman's junkyard and you can tell real research has been put into the era by sound man Scott Talbott. It's a terrific sound mix and works well for a story with call-backs to the 60s era of the show.

But this isn't just a serial that looks backwards. Like the best Doctor Who celebrations, it looks forwards. The special effects by Stuart Brisdon are ahead of their time; these are effects that are so impressive that the new series of Doctor Who borrows from them a lot. The skeleton effect that surrounds a character fired at by a Dalek looks a lot like the skeleton effect of the 2005 revival and the beam of light that emits from the Daleks' egg whisks here bears a strong resemblance to the effects used for the RTD era Daleks.

It's not only the special effects that look to the show's future either. The narrative also looks forward when it needs to. Writer Ben Aaronovitch is a genius at juggling the forwards and backwards look of the serial and crafts one of the show's all-time best cliffhangers: the moment when a Dalek levitates up the stairs. This is a moment so iconic that it is replicated in the 2005 episode Dalek, when the Dalek follows Rose and Adam up some stairs at billionaire collector Henry van Statten's museum. Yet rather unfairly, it is forgotten. People tend to think of Robert Shearman as the first person to do it, when actually it came from the mind of Ben Aaronovitch. I imagine it must have been a surprise for the audience of 1988, without the knowledge that Daleks could climb stairs: it is a chilling moment and one of the highlights of this serial.

Remembrance of the Daleks is notable to the Whovian fanbase for introducing the Counter Measures team, consisting of Captain Gilmore (Simon Williams), Rachel Jensen (Pamela Salem) and Allison Williams (Karen Gledhill). It is not surprising that these characters got their own Big Finish spinoff as they feel like the sixties' equivalent of UNIT.

Captain Gilmore in particular feels like a nice alternative to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, played with the same level of charm and authority by Simon Williams. You could believe had the classic series run of Doctor Who had continued that the seventh Doctor and Captain Gilmore would have developed a similar friendship to the Brigadier.

Karen Gledhill and Pamela Salem are good in their roles too but don't quite shine as much as Simon Williams does as Gilmore. What's great about Pamela Salem's character Rachel Jensen is she is a fun callback to the third Doctor's time with UNIT. Just like the Doctor, she is a scientific advisor to a military organisation and it is always great to see how a different character deals with the job when the Doctor's around with considerably more knowledge.

Allison Williams doesn't really do a great deal although I imagine her character is expanded upon in the Big Finish releases.

Overall, Remembrance of the Daleks is an amazing celebration of twenty five years of Doctor Who. It didn't need more than one Doctor to celebrate the longevity of the show; instead it does something that the more recent Jurassic World did with nostalgic nods and references to the history of the franchise. Yet despite the references, it still manages to look forward through the outstanding special effects and chilling cliffhanger where the Dalek glides up the stairs. The 60s sound mix convincingly recreates the sixties era and the Counter Measures team are a fun sixties version of UNIT. This serial has made me tempted to try out Big Finish's Counter Measures audios at some point and I am sure it will do the same to anybody who decides to give this Doctor Who serial a go. And you should give it a go: you don't need prior knowledge of Doctor Who to enjoy it. It's an excellent story in its own right and I would recommend it to anyone who likes recent movies such as Jurassic World.

I cannot imagine what this must’ve been like to watch in 88. Watching this directly after watching season 23 and 24, this is like night and day. More than just a good episode, it’s a return to form that still feels fresh and exciting. It’s probably the quintessential Doctor Who episode. It’s the best starting point for new viewers because it’s a promise that Doctor Who is capable of more interesting things than pantomime. Plot threads are set up here that will have a huge impact in the New Adventures novels, and the characterization of the Doctor in this one serial defined this incarnation of the Doctor forever. The look of this, the pacing, the Doctor companion relationship is all the best it’s EVER been because it has all been shocked with electricity and brought back to life from JNT hell. Remembrance holds up as the best that Doctor Who has to offer.

Easily one of the best in Doctor Who's Classic Era, there's so much to enjoy about Remembrance of the Daleks. We return to Coal Hill, Ace gets to come out swinging as a companion, the origins of Counter-Measures, this is one of the most legendary of all Dalek stories and easily an essential part of their legacy, and this was a profoundly important episode in establishing the Seventh Doctor as a character and a future direction for him.

One of the best examples of Remembrance's quality is that my favourite moment isn't any of these big, important bits between the Doctor and Davros. It's Ace looking around and finding that "No Coloureds" sign. Her reaction is extremely well done and a powerful moment all on its own, but it reflects a lot of the themes and introspective look at its origins that makes this story so special to me. Especially because there are so many great and layered moments like this throughout the four parts in a addition to some pretty memorable action. It's really well done overall, in my opinion.

If I was watching this show at the same rate it was being released, it would have been 4 and a half years since I’d seen a Doctor Who story that I had enjoyed to this degree. Remembrance is a triumph in almost every way. Sylvester and Aldred steal the show with their impressive, naturally charming and sparky chemistry. It’s the little jokes and details, such as them quickly switching places in the van, that hit home as hard as the big set pieces, like the iconic Dalek/ baseball bat scene.

The supporting cast is on top form too, with memorable, touching roles from even those cast as one off bar staff. The pseudo-UNIT team clicked together naturally. Davros is only in the show for a few frames but it hardly matters with all the Dalek factions and (gasp!) a gorgeous special weapons Dalek. Some wobbly Daleks aside, the show is looking better than ever with brilliant model shots and props.

The First Doctor has an enjoyably understated presence in this story to mark the show’s quarter of a century year with it turning out that he has tricked the various Dalek factions in his previous incarnation. It’s not fan service for the sake of it though, this all fits together into a satisfying narrative that makes the show feel mammoth and fresh.

I’m in awe of such a quantum shift in quality the start of season 25 has had compared to season 24. It makes sense that this could happen though, all the ingredients were already in place. This shift makes me confident that the classic series will end with a well earned bang.