Doctor Who: Remembrance
of the Daleks Story No. 152
Written By Ben Aaronovitch
Directed by Andrew Morgan
“Ace! Give me
some of that nitro-9 you’re not carrying!”
Earth, London, 1963.
The Doctor and his granddaughter Susan kidnap two teachers from Coal
Hill School when they discover his TARDIS in an abandoned junkyard. That same year, The Doctor (Sylvester
McCoy), and his latest companion, Ace (Sophie Aldred) return to Totters Lane to
take care of some unfinished business.
The Doctor’s deadliest enemy, the Daleks have returned as well,
searching for ancient Time Lord tech that The Doctor himself left behind. Technology that the Doctor doesn’t want them
to have, technology that could make the Daleks the most powerful destructive
force in the universe.
The twenty-fifth series of Doctor Who starts with a bang
with Ben Aaronovitch’s Remembrance of the Daleks, arguably the strongest
story of the programmes anniversary year.
Strong performances by McCoy, and Aldred who in only their second
adventure together on screen already show a tremendous chemistry with each
other that only gets better as the series progresses. Stellar performances by the supporting cast, especially the trio
of Group Captain Gilmore (Simon Williams), Dr. Rachel Jensen (Pamela Salem),
and Allison (Karen Gledhill) who would go on to reprise their characters in the
Counter-Measures series of audio dramas by Big Finish.
Aaronovitch has crafted a story that not only highlights all
that is good about Who in the ‘80s, but also a tale that pays proper homage to
the roots of the programme. Something
that quite frankly doesn’t happen nearly enough since the series revival in
2005.
Sci-Fi in general works best when it takes contemporary
issues and lays them bare in the guise of speculative fiction. Aaronovitch’s Remembrance of the Daleks
takes a very important issue, that of racism, and gives us a fantastic, action
packed, character driven tale that is so good it almost makes one forget how
poor series twenty-four was!
Since the story’s initial DVD release, Remembrance is
so far the only McCoy era story to receive a feature laden “Special Edition”
release which I’m sure is awesome, however this review is of the original 2001
release so the special features are minimal, but include an amusing audio
commentary with actors Sylvester McCoy, and Sophie Aldred, Deleted Scenes and
Out-Takes, Multi-Angle Scenes, Pop-Up production notes, a Music only option, as
well as the usual BBC trailers.
Why should you revisit this story? Because it’s a cracking good Dalek story, it has some great
performances, and some social commentary thrown in to boot. Oh yeah, and the Daleks finally solve their
problem with stairs…
Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks gets FIVE
hovering Daleks out of FIVE.
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