For Day 3 of our year with the Doctor we decided to watch an episode that would be a new experience for both of us, with this in mind we decided to watch the iconic Sylvester McCoy episode ‘The Remembrance of the Daleks’. This episode which was first aired in October 1988 marked the beginning of the 25th Season of Doctor Who, a remarkable feat. As before the episode aired as 4 segments of 25 minute duration over 4 consecutive weeks and was the last appearance of Davros and the Daleks on television until the show’s revamp in 2005.
One of the great things about this episode (and there are
many great things) is the number of little references to Doctor Who and its
origins. This episode is set in 1963 around the time that the first Doctor Who
was filmed and aired, in the very location that the first episode was set. We return to Coal Hill School which Susan
attended and to the junkyard at 76 Totter’s Lane where the Doctor first parked
his Tardis.
Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor and his assistant Ace have been
drawn to 1963 in the course of the Doctor’s quest to secure the hand of Omega. The
hand of Omega is a tool designed by a Legendary Time Lord and stellar engineer who
created it as a way of manipulating stars to allow the Gallifreyans to time
travel. During his research Omega was caught in a supernova caused by his own
tool and was sucked into a black hole where he was trapped for the remainder of
his life.
The Omega Device is a powerful and dangerous tool which
could be incredibly dangerous were it to fall into the wrong hands, it is also
the secret to the Time Lords mastery of time travel and this is why the Doctor
has had the hand sent to earth hoping to keep it out of harm’s way.
Unfortunately when Ace and the Doctor find themselves in the middle of a Dalek
civil war it becomes obvious that they are not the only ones looking for this
legendary piece of equipment.
Our episode begins with Ace and the Doctor making friends
with a scientist named Professor Jenson and a Sergeant named Mike Smith. They
are investigating some unusual magnetic patterns emitting from two locations in
Shoreditch, one is the Coal Smith School and the other the junkyard. Whilst
investigating the fluctuations at the junkyard alongside Group Captain Gilmore
and his men they are attacked by an unknown assailant. The Doctor stops the
grey Dalek in its tracks using some of the explosives that Ace ‘isn’t carrying’.
The Doctor is troubled by the presence of this Dalek, not because it is a Dalek but because it is the ‘wrong dalek’. As he and Ace head back to the school to take a look around the Doctor explains that the Daleks have followed him through time and space to this time in the hope of securing the hand of Omega for themselves but he expresses a concern that there may in fact be two factions of daleks present in Shoreditch at this very moment in time. Meanwhile Mike Smith organises for a friend of his named Mr Ratcliffe who runs a building firm, to collect the remains of the Dalek and take it away.
Whilst the Doctor and Ace search the school they find a transmat
device in the basement, the Doctor immediately sets about disabling the transmat
so as it cannot be used when they are attached by a sentinel Dalek who has been
programmed to protect the device from harm. The Doctor and Ace run up the
stairs and Ace escapes into the hallway just before the headmaster comes around
the corner and deliberately shuts the door on the Doctor leaving him stuck on
the stairs of the basement with a Dalek levitating towards him intent on his destruction.
Thankfully Ace attacks the headmaster and just manages to free the doctor
before he can be exterminated, it is then that the Doctor realises that the
headmaster is under the control of the Daleks as he has a microchip just behind
his ear.
Group Captain Gilmore and Sergeant Mike Smith arrive just in
time and Ace uses one of their anti-tank rockets to destroy the Dalek by aiming
for the eye-piece. This attack tells the Doctor all he needs to know and he is
now certain that there are two entirely separate Dalek factions after the very
prise he had smuggled to earth to ensure its safety. The Doctor decides to take
action and, leaving Ace with Mike heads off to visit a undertakers in the local
area.
Once at the undertakers it becomes apparent that the Omega
device is being stored in a casket which the Doctor takes to be buried in a
freshly dug grave in the local cemetery. The hand of Omega is given a very
peculiar send off as it is lowered into the ground with the Doctor and a blind
priest presiding over the ceremony, they do not realise however that they are
being watched by a curious Mike Smith. Before Smith can get out of the cemetery
he is attacked by the headmaster from Coal Hill School who asks him repeatedly
where the renegade Daleks can be located, Smith denys knowing anything about it
and eventually manages to overpower the headmaster, leaving him passed out on a
gravestone.
Meanwhile Ace who is annoyed at being left behind and has
gotten bored realises that she has left her Stereo back in a classroom at the
school and decides to go and get it. Upon arriving at the school however she
discovers that it has now become overrun with imperial Daleks, apparently the
headmaster was able to repair the transmat device before he went for his walk
to the cemetery. She manages to take out one by destroying its eye stalk with
her baseball bat however there are too many and she finds herself surrounded.
Elsewhere the Doctor, Professor Jenson and the professor’s
assistant Alison have been able to detect the presence of an imperial dalek
mothership in orbit around the earth and discover that they have dispatched a
troupe of Daleks to the school. The Doctor uses some spare parts collected for
him by Mike and Allison to create a Dalek scrambling device and they all set
off towards the school and arrive just in time to save poor Ace who has been
set upon by three daleks all at once. The Doctor then destroys the transmat
again in order to buy himself a little more time.
In the meantime Mr Ratcliffe proves himself to be as suspicious
as he seemed when we discover that he has been working directly with the
renegade daleks. Ratcliffe and his men have been following the instructions of
a Dalek battle computer all along, it has made them aware of the burial location
of the Omega device which the locate and bring back to their yard. When
Ratcliffe returns and tells the battle computer that the Omega device has been
secured he is shocked to see a hatch on the computer open up.
Throughout the show there has been a young fair haired girl
who has been watching almost everything that has happened, she has been around
the school watching the Doctor work and she was also seen at the cemetery watching
Ratcliffe’s men dig up the device. It is this little girl who steps out of the
battle computer when it opens, she takes control of the Daleks, commands them
to kill all of Ratcliffe’s men and takes him prisoner.
When the Imperial Daleks realise that the renegade daleks
have taken possession of the Omega Device they send a shuttle to earth to
recover the device from the rogue daleks who are ignoring their emperor’s rule.
The Doctor instructs Group Captain Gilmore to set up defences
at the school then heads off to the base of the renegade daleks where he
quickly realise that the situation has not turned out well for Ratcliffe and
his men. The Doctor manages to escape the clutches of the Daleks but not before
damaging the time travel device that they plan to use in order to return to
their own time with the Omega device, buying himself some time.
Managing to make it back to the school despite being set
upon by a squad of daleks the doctor waits with Gilmore, Jenson and Ace in the science
classroom for the arrival of the imperial daleks, it is here that Smith reveals
himself as a traitor. He slips up and reveals that he knows about the hand of
Omega and tries to blame his knowledge on Ace who has only just found out
herself. Smith is taken prisoner by his own group captain for failing to adhere
to the laws on secrecy; however Smith is resourceful and manages to escape. Smith’s
momentary freedom was short lived however, as he is then taken prisoner again
but this time by the daleks and their young leader.
The Doctor is certain that the Daleks would not land their
assault squad at the school what with it being so far from the renegade Dalek
base but he discovers that he is mistaken about this when they all have to duck
for cover following the arrival of a ship full of Daleks. Ever resourceful the
Doctor manages to break into the Dalek ship via a duct on the top which is
surprisingly easy to access. The Doctor then quickly disarms the one Dalek left
to guard the ship and is able to access information on their plan and location.
Back at the building yard the renegade daleks find
themselves under attack from the imperial daleks who have enlisted the help of
a Special Weapons Dalek (a Dalek with a heavy duty, tank like upper half with a
powerful gun). The imperial daleks defeat their inferior renegade rivals but
just as they contact their mothership to report their victory the Doctor uses
the transmat from the basement to open his own lines of communication with the
mothership.
In the meantime Smith has managed to escape the young girl
who has been possessed by the Daleks and has taken the time travel device into
his custody in doing so. The Doctor learns of this and sends Ace to shadow
Smith, she follows him back to his home where he takes her prisoner under gun
point.
The Doctor’s communication with the Daleks reveals Davros as
the emperor Dalek. As is quite consistent with his character Davros proceeds to
reveal his plan to overthrow the Time Lords as the masters of time travel which
leads the Doctor to shout the immortal line ‘Powerful! Crush the lesser races!
Conquer the galaxy! UNIMAGINABLE POWER! UNLIMITED RICE PUDDING! ET CETERA, ET
CETERA!’
Needless to say the Doctor does something very clever, he
has reprogrammed the hand of Omega so that the moment Davros tries to use it on
Skaros sun it creates a supernova, much like the one that eventually killed
Omega, and the whole of Skaro (the Dalek’s home planet) is sucked into a black
hole destroying it. The Doctor saves the earth and the whole of time and space
just in time to stop the young girl possessed by the Daleks from killing Ace.
As our first episode with the Ace and the seventh Doctor we
were both very excited to see what it would be like. The chemistry and
relationship between a new doctor and a new companion can either be absolutely
amazing and perfect to you the moment you see it or it can take a little bit of
getting used to. In this case for us it was an instantaneous appreciation for
just how well these two worked together.
Sylvester McCoy played the Doctor in quite a playful way on
the surface but there was something underneath, a darkness that became very
much evident if you looked hard enough. The seventh Doctor did not seem quite
so opposed to killing as some of his predecessors did in fact he was actively
involved in blowing up Daleks and in bringing about the destruction of their
planet. This was quite a dark ending as far as Doctor Who goes with the Doctor
choosing to allow who knows how many lives end.
There is a real burning anger that seems to emanate from
Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor he’s seen so much death and destruction in his
hundreds of years and you get the feeling that it is beginning to affect his
tolerance levels. Nevertheless he still shows the same love of watching his companion
experience things, the same joy in the face of a challenge and the same keen
wit and playful nature that we have come to expect from our Doctor.
Ace is a very interesting character she is a very strong and
confident woman who has no shortage of street smarts and guts. Sarah Jane Smith’s
time with the Doctor served to introduce a stronger and more active role in the
series for the companion, with that being the case I feel like Ace, though
still a beautiful girl, helped to break away from the concept of the companions
all having to be feminine and girly. Her fashion sense and mannerisms would
have been entirely relevant of the time and really promoted the idea of a tough
modern woman who doesn't take any stick.
There were a couple of really cool little ‘Easter eggs’
planted in this episode for fans linking back to the first ever episode. Not
only was the episode set in 1963 and located in Shoreditch but, when visiting one
of Susan’s old classroom Ace picks up a book on the French revolution from one
of the desks. Though the shot is fleeting and doesn’t affect the storyline in
anyway really, fans of the first episode with William Hartnell may remember a
very similar shot with Susan in a very similar classroom. Then later in the
episode Ace turns on a TV which displays the BBC logo and then a voice announces
that ‘Now stay tuned for Doctor…’, or something along those lines, a tribute to
the airing of the first episode of Doctor Who one evening in 1963.
There are a few other things that a viewer might want to
look out for. Any fans of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air might enjoy seeing a familiar
face appear to give the Doctor some advice midway through the episode. Then for
the continuity buffs out there it is quite fun to spot the modern vehicles
driving through shots and the brilliantly identifiable 80s block of flats that
appears in the background of the church yard. All of these little
inconsistencies just remind us that the makers of Doctor Who really were doing
something brand new and location continuities were not as important as telling
the story, and after all isn’t that one of the reasons we love it so much.
All in all we both thoroughly enjoyed this episode and have
agreed that Sylvester McCoy was a brilliant Doctor, can’t wait to see more.
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