Remembrance of the Daleks | Sophisticated Idiots

Remembrance of the Daleks
1988

Remembrance of the Daleks review: The Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, is targeted by a Dalek

or Having a (Ghetto)Blast(er)

or The Shoreditch Redemption

Welcome to the best Doctor Who serial of the 1980s, hands down (no pun intended, Omega).

Remembrance of the Daleks is a copper-eyestalked classic (and now, pushing 40, old enough that we’re well clear of cynics dismissing its lofty placing as recency bias). It’s up there with anything produced during the Hartnell or Tom Baker years – and it’s no coincidence that this story borrows liberally from both these golden eras.

You can picture William in the funeral home scenes or when our Time Lord is mulling his seismic decision in the café, which also conjures memories of Tom's “Do I have the right" quandary. You can practically hear Baker’s chocolate brown voice as Sylv delivers his “unlimited rice pudding" putdown to Davros.

Mind you, there’s even a dash of Patrick when the Doc is cavorting around the Dalek ship or having his stairwell heart-to-heart with Ace.

Remembrance is a Doctor Who Best Of that almost manages to be The Best Doctor Who.

It’s sweetened throughout with sugar cubes of magnificence but let’s get the ruddy obvious out of the way first: Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith (Google it, confused fans) is mightily superb in this story.

Fact: McCoy does the best job of any Classic Doctor of portraying this character’s alien traits.

His eccentric little quirks (his wiggling ears, sleight of hand, the calling card, the inexplicable drivers’ seat swap in the van) are delightful touches that restore a sense of mystery to a character we’ve got to know so well.

In his fifth story, McCoy has hit his stride magnificently. As has the show once again.

Sorry Peter and Colin, but imagine a world where Tom regenerates directly into Sylv and the 80s might have been a much more comfortable place for Doctor Who.

But the success of a story can’t rest on the shoulders of just one individual (the Great Tom apart).

After bursting onto the scene with such head-spinning sass in the previous story, Ace feels fully-formed here. Sure, Sophie’s never gonna win an Oscar but her double-act with this Doctor fizzes like electricity in a plasma ball.

We kid you not, it’s reaching Tom-Sarah Jane heights.

“Ace, give me some of that Nitro 9 you’re not carrying,” says more about the warmth of this Doc-companion relationship than any number of melodramatic sacrifices or patronising Pertwee nose-rubs – and this duo are adorable at every turn.

While praise is being heaped, let’s pile some onto our much-maligned metallic muckers.

Remembrances achieves the enormous feat of making the Daleks scary again. It’s their final Classic Who appearance and good God do they go out with a bang (yes, literally…).

The Daleks’ intro is brilliant, thanks to the conceit of the ‘anonymous’ (what could possibly be hiding out in there, in a story named so?) impregnable foe holed up in the shed.

We all know that Daleks carry more threat when they’re solitary – they can focus on being ultimate badass killing machines instead of having screechy conflabs with their pals.

Here, a lone Dalek scares the bejesus out of a whole platoon of camo-clad extras.

Remembrance delivers two more standout Dalek moments for the ages:

1. The special weapons Dalek. The best addition to the Skaro dynasty since Davros rocked up in Genesis.

2. The Dalek ascending the stairs. It’s a terrifying terrific cliffhanger, in a story that might just *takes deep breath* have the finest collection of cliffhangers of any Doctor Who story.

We’re not sure about the Dalek topping itself at the end, though. It was a goofy gimmick in Death to the Daleks and, as Einstein once tweeted, stupidity is repeating the same mistake and expecting a different outcome.

And it’s a shame Davros needlessly pops up in Part Four for one of his inevitable mega-rants. Thankfully he’s overshadowed by the schoolgirl, whose silent scorn throughout is as uber-scary as the Daleks.

The rest of the supporting cast is also great.

From Mr Bronson being as loathsome as you’d hope he’d be, to no-nonsense scientist Professor Jensen putting the wannabe-Brigadier in his place, the story relies on strong characters given the respect of being written beyond merely being good, bad or shouty.

One of Remembrance’s high points is that it manages to be all things to all people. There’s mystery, darkness but also oodles of action that serves an actual purpose.

Okay, any half-decent story can offer explosions, tension, twists and character arcs – but this one also chucks in jump scares (that damn Kaled claw…), callbacks to the Doctor’s past (obvs, the funeral home stuff is magic) and even the exposition is dynamic, whether it’s the Doc and Ace on the stairs amid hectic comings and goings, or the rightly-lauded café scene, where this show skirts perilously close to serving up serious drama.

It’s not, however, wall-to-wall perfection.

For starters, the title is weird. We guess Remembrance loosely refers to the Hand of Omega being buried in a cemetery (so therefore remembered…?) but this seems a lazy excuse for a noun beginning with ‘R’ – that hallmark of 80s Dalek tales which, like Ed Sheeran naming his albums after maths symbols, impresses nobody.

We devoted precisely 20 seconds to brainstorming and came up with the following vastly superior offerings:

• War of the Daleks
• Destruction of the Daleks
• An Unearthly Dalek
• Daleks: Endgame
• The Ace of Clubs
• School’s Out
• Racism of the Daleks
• A Spoonful of Sugar?

At least the title isn’t misleading, though. Unlike Snakedance (there's more dancing in Four to Doomsday) or City of Death (featuring a smidge of the usual death count). And don’t get us started on The Five Doctors.

Which segues neatly into…this is an anniversary celebration that takes the brave decision not to opt for the multi-Doctor approach – and absolutely bloody nails it as a result (yeah, we know, Nemesis is officially the 25th anniversary story but that’s garbage so we’re claiming this one instead).

This is serious storytelling again, the likes of which we’ve only seen fleetingly in recent years. Kinda, Earthshock and Revelation (sort of) thought about it. Resurrection and Caves got closest. But ultimately they were all hamstrung by cheapness, poor execution and/or the leading man.

Remembrance of the Daleks signals a new dawn – ironic given it’s set in the 60s and literally goes back to the show’s beginnings.

The axe was dangling over the show at this point which – irony upon ironies – actually helps here. Remembrance is produced with the unencumbered swagger of an already-relegated football team playing without fear.

Realising that anything is possible.

The shift in tone from McCoy’s debut season – although hefty – is not quite as gargantuan as it seems at first glance.

The Season 24 stories were each trying something new and became progressively more interesting. Granted, they weren’t always successful (understatement alert...) but they were at least road-testing some fresh ideas.

Remembrance of the Daleks well and truly cements this new approach, in so doing heralding two series of quality to rival any of the best stuff from the 60s and 70s.

Shall we celebrate with some rice pudding?