Remembrance Of The Daleks (1988) Review

"Oh for fuck's sake Davros, at least brush your teeth!"

Remembrance Of The Daleks is a slick, high-octane action-adventure that only lacks in character.

WRITTEN BY

Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who fan, now renowned for his Rivers Of London series of books.

PLOT

The Doctor draws the Daleks to 1963 Earth to bait them with the Hand Of Omega - a remote stellar manipulator that is the basis of time travel technology and has the capacity to turn planets to dust.

However, when a renegade faction of Daleks intervenes, it's up to him and Ace to both maintain the deception and ensure that Group Captain Gilmore's Counter-Measures army unit isn't killed in the crossfire.

ANALYSIS

Refreshing is the word. After a season of kooky, off-the-wall adventures(preceded by a complex, continuity-heavy season which in itself was preceded by an unpredictably violent season), Remembrance is a sober, well balanced and exceptionally directed story. It felt mainstream in a way that Doctor Who hadn't been for years.

The storyline is extremely intelligent, not just as a subtle analysis of the 1960s, but as a Dalek story, drawing on their past(specifically Genesis and Resurrection of the Daleks) and of course the show's past(the return to the original setting and the use of a proto-UNIT team), all without bluntly making it an unnecessary and distracting Part 2 of those events. One is not required to see those stories to understand this one, but it's lovely to see Aaronovitch acknowledge the show's roots and reuse and build on successful elements from the past.

The production is mostly topnotch(love all the location filming), though I do have to point out that the Daleks wobbling on cement and the continued practice of shooting on video gives it a bit of a cheap feel.

CHARACTERS

For me, what lets down Remembrance the most are its characters. Don't get me wrong, this is as solid a cast as Doctor Who could ever get, but whilst their chemistry is strong, none of them ever really develop in any way.

Sure, Ace has a little storyline with Mike, but that only serves the 60s agenda. The story focuses so much on revamping the show's style and bringing back the Daleks that the cast get very little material. At no point does anyone take the initiative aside from the Doctor and so even when they should(he basically barges into the situation and everyone just go with it), leaving them feeling quite static and stale and even useless, since the Doctor is actually trying to keep them out of the way so he could handle the Daleks himself.

Sylvester McCoy is impeccable when it comes to acting like a know-it-all imp, and this story instills some lovely confidence in him, which hopefully means this is the last we'll see of his more aggravating bumbling(aka the pratfalls and crawling around on Glitz in Dragonfire). The only thing letting him down here is that he's written to be constantly irritated by humanity, even when their actions make sense(I mean, I know he's an alien, but whenever that is used as an excuse to lack common sense about soldiers or female beauty, it just irritates me).

Sophie Aldred is infinitely better here than in her debut. The childishness is well toned down, making room for some bat-ass bat-bashing. Those Daleks never stood a chance. But yeah, her and McCoy have an obvious rapport, and I love how much she looks up to him, which, let's face it, hasn't been a thing since Leela or maybe Nyssa.

Simon Williams does a surprisingly good job as a younger Brigadier type, with the same earnest Britishness that made the character work back in the 60s. It's kind of a shame that the Doctor actively tries to sideline him and his troops, because Williams has an excellent chemistry with McCoy and you could see them working just as well as Pertwee and Courtney did in the 70s.

Pamela Salem's professor Rachel is basically a combination of Barbara Wright and Liz Shaw, with the best of both(the former's wisdom and the latter's brains and steel) and though her interactions with the Doctor are limited, she definitely had companion potential. Same goes for her assistant Alison, played by Karen Gladhill. It's interesting to think of a companion pair who've already been friends for a while before joining the Doctor in his travels. Plus, I like the idea of a companion having her own companion in a way(since Alison clearly looks up to the professor).

Terry Molloy is back as the least interesting Davros(hey, at least Gooderson was good as laughingstock). I'm sure he's terrific in Big Finish and to be honest, Molloy's acting is fine, but his Davros never really got anything noteworthy to do on TV. At least his confrontation with the Seventh Doctor is easily the best one he ever did.

Dursley McLinden's Sgt Mike Smith is a superb character, as he's set up to be your everyday heartthrob to be left behind at the story's conclusion, only to be revealed as... well, more of a real person with huge flaws. But at the same time, Mike isn't strictly a bad man either, which makes it harder to judge him.

Jasmine Breaks' little girl/Dalek battle computer is one of my favourite aspects of Remembrance, as she puts her everything into the performance. She is genuinely threatening, proof of the Daleks' malevolence and an awesome red herring for Davros(John Leeson's impression is awesome).

NOTES

*Why does Ace just leave her boombox in Coal Hill's chemistry classroom before anything remotely threatening appears?

*It can't be stressed how ludicrous it is that the Doctor can just jump into a military van and ride to the scene, later steal said van and then also borrow anti-tank rockets with nothing, but a signature.

*The musical sting after the computer tells Ratcliffe that the other Dalek was a tool is just amazing. DUN DUN DUUUN!!

*How on Earth did the Dalek transmat operator fail to notice the Doctor and Ace meddling with the equipment until after a Dalek was destroyed?

*And why doesn't he just exterminate them? I know missing their targets is a Dalek trait, but in this story, they have their victims in crosshairs for what feels like minutes.

*If this is supposed to be a sequel to the events of An Unearthly Child, how does the Doctor know that Harry will have twins(unless the Sixth Doctor and Peri visited the same cafe off-screen)? A rare example of the Seventh Doctor sharing his next self's precognitive powers?

*Why did the Doctor abandon the Hand of Omega in a random funeral home?

*The blind priest really doesn't suspect anything when he's being led by a man with a different voice, accompanied by pallbearers who never make a sound?

*People constantly hold onto the charged portion of the bat without any ill effects.

*How could Ace's boombox pick up Dalek frequencies and not the army(I mean, I guess they weren't looking, but you'd think somebody somewhere would notice and trace it).

*Continuing my pet peeve with the previous story, what was the point of constantly leaving Ace behind at Mike's house? Okay, I get that the Doctor wants her to remain safe, but wouldn't this work much better if he just admitted to the deception and the immense threat?

*The Doctor makes a big fuss over the uselessness of the army, but apparently the anti-tank rockets are very effective against the Daleks, so... why not just use more of those?

*There is no way that Dalek didn't notice Ace before being batted(yeah, as glamorous as they are in this story, this seems to be them at their most incompetent).

*Is the symbol on the Hand of Omega's grave a reference to something? If so, I don't get it.

*WHY IS DAVROS CONSTANTLY SHOUTING AS THE EMPEROR DALEK?!??

*How does the Doctor know that the Renegade Daleks acquired the Hand of Omega?

*How did either of the Dalek factions locate the Hand of Omega? I mean, presumably the Doctor's been with Ace this whole time, so he couldn't have tipped them off. And if he did, why suddenly create this trap? Was he just bored and decided to go Dalek hunting?

*What happened to the Renegade Daleks' spaceship?

*How does Ace know why the Daleks are in civil war?

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) When pointing out humanity's ignorance of alien activity(the very first time this is addressed, I think) to Ace, he uses the "Zygon Gambit with the Loch Ness Monster"(Terror Of The Zygons) and the Yetis in the Underground(The Web Of Fear). as examples. Honestly, I think the entire conversation was just fanwank.

2) The funeral home worker mentions that the Doctor who brought in the casket(of the Hand of Omega) was "an old geezer with white hair", obviously referring to the First Doctor. It's not necessary at all, but a nice reminder of the Hand's backstory and the iconic nature of the setting.

3) And yes, of course, the big one: this story is set around Coal Hill School, just like the very first episode, An Unearthly Child. And whilst that doesn't really add anything apart from the timey-wimey, it was intentionally added to celebrate the 25th anniversary so I won't argue(plus this is the only time where it actually looks vaguely like the same place)

4) The Renegade Daleks are in fact the original Daleks untampered by Davros(whose white-clad Imperial Daleks we saw created in Revelation Of The Daleks). It's honestly amazing how all the Dalek stories from Genesis onwards flow into one another.

5) Speaking of Genesis, the Doctor gives Ace the cliff notes version of that story, which I don't think was really necessary. Davros made them and they're xenophobic, that's really all you need to know. I mean, if this story was actually focused more on Davros, maybe...

6) The Doctor wistfully says out loud that he rigged a Dalek suppressor(or whatever that thingamajig is) on Spiridon as well, a callback to Planet Of The Daleks. Yeah, this is the worst, most forced in type of reference.

7) The remote stellar manipulator is named the Hand of Omega. It was established in The Three Doctors that Omega harnessed the power of stars going supernova to provide Time Lords with time travel. So yeah, this is perfect.

8) The Doctor points out that Daleks possess rudimentary time travel technology, enough to create time corridors(as seen in Resurrection Of The Daleks), which... fair enough, it's good to catch the audience up on their abilities. However, this does mean that this story is a prequel to The Chase, The Daleks' Master Plan and The Evil Of The Daleks. Damn, gotta get round to that Dalek timeline chart sometime...

9) Okay, so I don't think this is actually a reference, but the Seventh Doctor does the same transmogrifying thing with his calling card(which actually just pops outta nowhere) that the Third Doctor did with that tape in The Ambassadors Of Death. And it still makes no sense.

10) The Doctor claims that the Daleks are "returning to their ancestral seat". Really? Still? Wasn't this already a thing waaay back in Destiny Of The Daleks? This just confuses me.

BEST QUOTE

"... ALL-POWERFUL! CRUSH THE LESSER RACES, CONQUER THE GALAXY, UNIMAGINABLE POWER, UNLIMITED RICE PUDDING, ET CETERA, ET CETERA!!!" - Pure awesome.

CONCLUSION

Remembrance is kinda shallow in places, but it's the kick up the butt that the show needed.

Also, since I forgot to do this last time, let's also briefly touch on season 24. I thought it had a pretty dismal start and a lame ending, but the two stories in-between were some of the most imaginary and fun Doctor Who I've ever seen and a real sight for sore eyes after modern Doctor Who.

I know the McCoy era is now changing, but I hope that boundless creativity and pace persists.