Remembrance of the Daleks
148[1] – Remembrance of the Daleks | |||
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Doctor Who serial | |||
Cast | |||
Others
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Production | |||
Directed by | Andrew Morgan Season 25 | ||
Running time | 4 episodes, 25 minutes each | ||
First broadcast | 5 October 1988 | ||
Last broadcast | 26 October 1988 | ||
Chronology | |||
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Remembrance of the Daleks is the first serial of the
In the serial, alien time traveller the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace (Sophie Aldred) travel back to 1963 to retrieve the Hand of Omega, a powerful device created by the Doctor's Time Lord race, and keep it from the Daleks.
The serial contains many references to the history of the show, featuring settings from the first Doctor Who episode,
In reader polls conducted by Doctor Who Magazine from 1998 onwards, Remembrance of the Daleks has consistently been voted as one of the greatest Doctor Who stories of all time.[2][3][4][5][6]
Plot
The
Smith is a secret associate of Ratcliffe, leader of a group of fascists, reporting to a Renegade battle computer, which uses a schoolgirl as its eyes and ears. The Doctor has the Hand buried in a local cemetery, but Ratcliffe finds it, tipped off by Smith. Imperial Daleks arrive to seize it from the Renegades, but the Doctor and Ace defeat them and destroy their transmat. Anticipating a siege, the Doctor has Gilmore fortify the school while he disables the Renegade "time controller", fleeing with Daleks in pursuit, returning to the school just as the Imperial Daleks land. The Imperials eventually defeat the Renegades after deploying a Special Weapons Dalek, wiping out all but a Supreme Dalek, allowing Ratcliffe and Smith to escape with the controller, pursued by the schoolgirl, who kills Ratcliffe.
The Imperial Daleks take the Hand to the mothership, leaving for their home planet, Skaro. Ace follows Smith to recover the controller. The Doctor establishes communication with the Dalek Emperor, who is really their creator, Davros, who means to destroy the Time Lords with the Hand. The Doctor mocks him but then feigns fear. Davros launches the Hand, Skaro's sun goes supernova, and Skaro is destroyed, the force of the explosion also wrecking the mothership. The Hand returns to Gallifrey.
Smith captures and attempts to kill Ace, but the schoolgirl finds them and kills Smith first. The Doctor persuades the Supreme Dalek to relinquish control of the girl. The Supreme Dalek self-destructs, and the girl screams and faints, but is unharmed. At Smith's funeral, Ace asks the Doctor if what they have done was good, to which he responds: "Time will tell".
Continuity
An undertaker says that he thought the Doctor was supposed to be an "old geezer with white hair," referring to his first incarnation.[7]
Production
Conception and writing
Producer
Remembrance of the Daleks, the first story in Doctor Who's
Casting
To protect the secret of Davros' presence in the story, Terry Molloy was credited in part three under an anagram, "Roy Tromelly".[12][16] Ian Ogilvy was approached for the role of Gilmore, but did not accept;[9] Neil Stacy was also considered.[8] The role went to Simon Williams, who was known for his role as James Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs. Sophie Aldred and Karen Gledhil, who had watched the programme when they were younger, were awed to work with him.[9] Williams had trouble handling the character's gun and also misunderstood a stage direction in the script describing it, which earned him the nickname of "Chunky".[9][8] This nickname was carried on into the character, with McCoy adding the line, "...why his men call him 'Chunky' I've no idea."[9]
The computer was voiced by
Remembrance of the Daleks was the first story in which Ace was a regular companion,[9] having joined at the end of Dragonfire.[8] Cartmel worked with Aldred to make Ace different from most companions: less of a "screamer" and more tomboyish.[18] Aldred recalled that taking on the Daleks made her feel like a "real assistant".[18] Aldred did many of her own stunts, bonding with the new stunt coordinator, Tip Tipping. She found the experience "terrifying" at first.[9] Aldred has said that she is proud of the scene where Ace beats up a Dalek with a baseball bat, calling it one of the best things she has done in her life.[9][18] Aldred was also trained in firing guns for the scene where she shoots a Dalek.[9]
Filming and effects
The director, Andrew Morgan, wanted to improve upon his last effort,
For the levitating Dalek, a scaffolding was built over the stairs, and the Dalek prop was placed in a tray that was hoisted up by a rail-mounted trolley.[9][8] Two of the six Renegade Daleks were reused props from the 1960s.[8] Imperial Daleks were built with bigger wheels that would roll easier on location.[9] Aaronovitch expected the Dalek ship to be cheap-looking and achieved with colour-separation overlay, and was surprised when a model ship was constructed and "landed" with the help of a crane.[9] For the final battle sequence between the Renegade and Imperial Daleks, the BBC Effects Department's pyrotechnics were so loud and the explosions so realistic that the London Fire Brigade was dispatched to the scene by local residents who feared that an IRA bomb had gone off. McCoy recalled that after the first explosions, a number of car alarms in the neighbourhood went off, and the emergency services drivers were surprised when they arrived to see Daleks coming at them from out of the smoke.[9] The junkyard gate was part of ITV's storage facility, and the pyrotechnics not only destroyed it for the effect of the Special Weapons Dalek blowing it up, but also smashed windows in the nearby building.[9] A thermal imaging camera was used for Dalek perspective shots.[8]
Post-production
The first episode begins with a cold open, the second serial to have a specially-shot pretitles sequence after Time and the Rani (1987), though Castrovalva (1982) began with a reprise of Logopolis (1981) and The Five Doctors (1983) featured a clip from The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) before the title sequence.[7] Remembrance's cold open features a shot of the Earth with audio clips from 1963, including John F. Kennedy's American University speech and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Other clips from the early 60s were planned but did not make the final cut.[7] Many songs from the time period can be heard in the background during several scenes in the serial.[7]
Themes and analysis
James Chapman, in his book Inside the TARDIS (2006), reported that the plot to revisit the Doctor's past and origins has been compared to a comic book trend in the 1980s to reinterpret the origin stories of comic-book characters. He also noted that the many continuity references in the story displayed a knowledge of the series' history, but that Remembrance of the Daleks was "neither a celebration of the Doctor Who legacy" like The Five Doctors (1983), "nor an exercise in fan-obsessive continuity" as was displayed in Attack of the Cybermen (1985).[21]
The battle between Dalek factions has been likened to racism, which is apparent in the 1960s setting as Ace sees a sign that says "No Coloureds".[22][23] The subtext was intentional, as Aaronovitch drew on the Daleks' Nazi theme and applied it to the setting. Cartmel was particularly proud of the scene and, when it was screened to BBC Head of Drama Mark Shivas, rewound the tape because Shivas had missed the sequence due to a phone call. Shivas felt that Ace should have torn the sign up, and Cartmel agreed it was a missed opportunity.[9]
Broadcast and reception
Episode | Title | Run time | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [24] |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Part One" | 24:33 | 5 October 1988 | 5.5 |
2 | "Part Two" | 24:31 | 12 October 1988 | 5.8 |
3 | "Part Three" | 24:30 | 19 October 1988 | 5.1 |
4 | "Part Four" | 24:36 | 26 October 1988 | 5.0 |
This was the first time the programme was transmitted – albeit only in the London region – with
Reviews were mostly positive. Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping wrote in The Discontinuity Guide, "The best Doctor Who story in some considerable time, Remembrance of the Daleks reintroduced mystery and magic into the series with much intelligence and revisionist continuity".[12] The A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn, despite noting that the production had not aged well visually, called Remembrance of the Daleks "the Seventh Doctor era at its best". He was positive towards how going back to An Unearthly Child allowed Aaronovitch and Cartmel to "showcase their new, more devious master-planner version of the Doctor", as well as the action and the character moments for Ace.[25] DVD Talk's J. Doyle Wallis, reviewing the original DVD release, gave the story three and a half out of five stars, calling it "a good ... adventure" and noting the shift in the Doctor's personality.[23] Alasdair Wilkins of io9 called Remembrance "by a pretty wide margin the best anniversary special the show has ever done", praising the return to the 1960s and the various continuity references.[11]
Patrick Mulkern of
In the Doctor Who Magazine 1988 season poll, Remembrance of the Daleks was voted as the best story of season twenty-five with 64% of the vote, 46% ahead of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.[2] Ten years later, the magazine conducted a poll of readers to find the most popular Doctor Who stories of all time for the programme's 35th anniversary; Remembrance of the Daleks was voted 6th.[2] In 2003, the magazine conducted a poll for the programme's 40th anniversary – this time, Remembrance of the Daleks finished 7th.[3] Remembrance of the Daleks placed 14th in the magazine's 2009 "Mighty 200" reader survey, which ranked the 200 Doctor Who stories made up to that point.[4] In the magazine's 50th anniversary poll, released in 2014, it placed 10th.[5] In 2023, the story finished in 9th position in the magazine's 60th anniversary poll.[6]
The 2021
Commercial releases
In print
ISBN 0-426-20337-2 | |
The novelisation was rereleased in 2013 as part of a 50th anniversary collection of novels reprinted for each Doctor. Remembrance of the Daleks was the only novelisation in the range.[33]
Home media
Remembrance of the Daleks was released on VHS with The Chase in September 1993 as a special Dalek tin set titled The Daleks: Limited Edition Boxed Set.[34][35] It was re-released in 2001 as part of The Davros Collection, which was a limited-edition box set, exclusive to UK retailer WH Smith.
The serial was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on 26 February 2001, remastered by the Doctor Who Restoration Team. The original Region 2 DVD release has some video effects missing from episode 1 and the start of episode 2. This was an unforeseen consequence of the Restoration Team using earlier edits of these episodes to minimise generational quality loss, made before certain effects were added.[36] The problem was corrected with subsequent DVD releases, including Region 1. This DVD also was not able to include two songs by The Beatles, "Do You Want to Know a Secret" and "A Taste of Honey", due to copyright; the former was replaced by the Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas' version, while the latter was replaced with "generic production music".[7][36]
The story was included as part of a limited run box set in 2003 with The Dalek Invasion of Earth and Resurrection of the Daleks.[37] A remastered version of this story was released on Region 2 in November 2007, as part of The Complete Davros Collection and as a two-disc standalone release (including the 'Davros Connections' documentary from the boxset) on 20 July 2009. It includes the effects that were mistakenly left out and songs by The Beatles that weren't clearable for the original release but subsequently fell under a blanket music licensing agreement for the UK. There is also a newly remastered stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix. In the original Davros Boxset release version, there were two total mutes of the 5.1 soundtrack during episode one. 2entertain fixed the master within a few days of release and faulty copies could be exchanged for fixed ones via mail-in. The standalone version of the release uses the fixed version. The two-disc Special Edition was delayed due to clearance issues and was held off until it was released in the United States and Canada on 2 March 2010.[38]
This serial was also released as part of the
In 2013, (in the USA and Australia) it was released on DVD for another time as part of the "Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 5–8" box set, alongside Earthshock, Vengeance on Varos, and the TV movie.
Notes
- ^ Leeson voiced the Dalek Battle Computer in Parts 1–3, and Skelton, Mills and Miller voiced the Daleks. An uncredited fourth Dalek voice appears in Parts 3–4.
References
- releasesfollow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
- ^ a b c "6: Remembrance of the Daleks". Doctor Who Magazine (265). Panini Comics: 16–17. 3 June 1998.
- ^ a b "Remembrance of the Daleks". Doctor Who Magazine (Special Edition 6: We Love Doctor Who). Panini Comics: 21. 2003.
- ^ a b Griffiths, Peter (14 October 2009). "The Mighty 200!". Doctor Who Magazine (413). Panini Comics.
- ^ a b "The Top 10 Doctor Who stories of all time". Doctor Who Magazine. 21 June 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
- ^ a b Spilsbury, Tom (October 2023). "Magnificent Heaven". Doctor Who Magazine (597). Panini Comics.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Arnopp, Jason (22 August 2013). "The Fact of Fiction: Remembrance of the Daleks". Doctor Who Magazine (464). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 56–67.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Richard Molesworth (compiler) (2007). Remembranceof the Daleks with Information Text (DVD). Remembrance of the Daleks DVD: BBC Worldwide.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Aaronovitch, Ben, Sophie Aldred, Andrew Cartmel, Karen Glendhill, Sylvester McCoy, Simon Williams (2007). Back to School: The Making of Remembrance of the Daleks (DVD). Remembrance of the Daleks DVD: BBC Worldwide.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Aaronovitch, Ben, Sophie Aldred, Andrew Cartmel, Karen Glendhill, Sylvester McCoy (2007). Remembrances (DVD). Remembrance of the Daleks DVD: BBC Worldwide.
- ^ a b Wilkins, Alasdair (23 November 2012). "The Complete Guide to Every Single Doctor Who Anniversary Special Ever". io9. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
- ^ ISBN 0-426-20442-5– via reprinted on BBC Doctor Who website.
- ^ a b c d Aldred, Sophie and Sylvester McCoy (2007). Deleted and Extended Scenes (DVD). Remembrance of the Daleks DVD: BBC Worldwide.
- ISBN 1-903111-89-7.
- ^ Howe, David J; Stammers, Mark; Walker, Stephen James (2005). The Handbook. Telos. p. 726.
- ^ Gallagher, William (27 March 2012). "Doctor Who's secret history of codenames revealed". Radio Times. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
- ^ "1. Counter-Measures: Series 1 Boxset". Big Finish Productions. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ^ a b c Brew, Simon (14 February 2008). "The Den of Geek Interview: Sophie Aldred". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
- ^ Pixley, Andrew (13 April 2005). "Remembrance of the Daleks – Archive Extra". Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition: The Complete Seventh Doctor (Special Edition #10): 47.
- ^ a b c Mulkern, Patrick (25 August 2012). "Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks". Radio Times. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
- ISBN 1-84511-163-X.
- ^ McGrath, James F (9 April 2012). "Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks". Patheos. Retrieved 18 January 2013.
- ^ a b Wallis, J. Doyle (23 August 2002). "Docotor Who – Remembrance of the Daleks". DVD Talk. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
- ^ "Ratings Guide". Doctor Who News. Retrieved 28 May 2017.
- ^ Bahn, Christopher (5 August 2012). "Remembrance of the Daleks". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
- ^ Sinnott, John (11 April 2010). "Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks". DVD Talk. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
- ^ Anders, Charlie Jane (31 August 2010). "Greatest Doctor Who cliffhangers of all time!". io9. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
- ^ Blair, Andrew (28 August 2013). "Doctor Who: 10 stories that would make great musicals". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^ "Russell T Davies filmed a surprise Doctor Who scene for new drama It's a Sin".
- ^ "It's a Sin: Remembering lost friends". 4 February 2021.
- ^ ""It's a Sin" has #Daleks in it! Tribute to @DoctorWho actor Dursley McLinden (SGT Mike Smith) who died of AIDS".
- ISBN 978-0-9759446-6-0.
- ^ Coombs, Andy T (4 September 2013). "Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Novels #7 – Remembrance of the Daleks". WhatCulture. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- Amazon.co.uk. September 1993. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ISBN 0-595-27618-0.
- ^ a b Roberts, Steve (4 March 2001). "Remembrance of the Daleks – DVD". Doctor Who Restoration Team. Archived from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2013.
- ^ The TARDIS Library: 40th Anniversary Dalek box set
- ^ Lambert, David (5 November 2009). "Doctor Who – Remembrance of the Daleks: Special Edition Re-Announced: Date, Details, New Box Art". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
- Doctor Who DVD Files. Archived from the originalon 24 August 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
External links
- Remembrance of the Daleks at BBC Online
- Remembrance of the Daleks on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
- Script to Screen: Remembrance of the Daleks, by Jon Preddle (Time Space Visualiser issue 39, May 1994)