Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story): Difference between revisions

Remembrance of the Daleks was the first serial of season 25 of Doctor Who. The story's setting brought the Doctor back to 76 Totter's Lane in the year 1963, where the series began in An Unearthly Child.

It was notable for a marked change in character for the Seventh Doctor, who had previously maintained a jolly and comedic demeanour. Here, a Machiavellian side to his personality was brought to light, beneath the lighthearted exterior, and he began to reveal a manipulative nature that persisted into the rest of his era.

Clues were also given that the Doctor had a secret past on Gallifrey, the first glimpse of the so-called Cartmel Masterplan.

As with The Talons of Weng-Chiang, some members of its guest cast were deemed interesting enough to justify the creation of a Big Finish audio series. In 2012, Counter-Measures continued the adventures of the serial's Group Captain Gilmore, Professor Jensen and Allison Williams.

Remembrance was the final televised appearance of the Daleks and Davros until the BBC Wales revival, although both would frequently recur in other media. It continued a narrative of chronological confrontations between the Doctor and Davros that had begun in Genesis of the Daleks, and included Destiny, Resurrection, and Revelation of the Daleks. It also concluded the Dalek Civil War story arc, which had previously spanned throughout Resurrection and Revelation.

At the time of broadcast, it unambiguously showed the onscreen destruction of the Dalek homeworld, Skaro. This act was largely forgotten by future Doctor Who writers; it was shown in the Doctor Who TV movie and in the BBC Wales episodes Asylum of the Daleks, The Magician's Apprentice, and The Witch's Familiar, along with the adventure game City of the Daleks, which was executive produced by Doctor Who series 5 and 6 executive producers Steven Moffat, Piers Wenger, and Beth Willis, and written by Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures television writer Phil Ford. Writer John Peel proposed a story called War of the Daleks, where Skaro would later be saved from destruction during the planned 27th season of the series. An explanation for Skaro's continued existence is given in The Witch's Familiar, as Davros explains that the planet has been reconstructed.

Peel later adapted the unmade episode into an Eighth Doctor Adventures novel which showed that the planet destroyed at the end of Remembrance was Antalin, a decoy passed off as the real Skaro. Daleks in Manhattan, which was produced after the TV movie and before City, suggested a "great war" destroyed Skaro, apparently referring to the BBC Wales series' Last Great Time War which wiped out much of the Dalek race.

Synopsis[[edit] | [edit source]]

London, 1963: The Doctor returns to the place where it all began — alongside his latest companion, Ace, with unfinished business.

The Doctor and Ace arrive at Coal Hill School where Ace's ghetto blaster seem to attract attention from a young girl.

Not for the first time, unusual events are unfolding at Coal Hill School. At 76 Totter's Lane, the Doctor discovers that his oldest foes — the Daleks — are on the trail of stolen Time Lord technology that he left on Earth long ago. The Daleks are planning to perfect their own time-travel capability, in order to unleash themselves across the whole of time and space.

The Doctor, with the help of the local military, must stop his oldest enemies from stealing Gallifreyan secrets, but the lines between allies and enemies are tested to the limit, and the Doctor and Ace must trust no-one in order to survive.

As two opposing Dalek factions meet in an explosive confrontation, the fate of the whole cosmos hangs in the balance...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part 1[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Seventh Doctor and his companion, Ace have landed the TARDIS in London, 1963, where they are noticed by a young girl at Coal Hill School, presumably due to Ace's ghetto blaster. Outside the school, there is a black van with no mark which the Doctor decides to examine, but Ace is more interested in going to a cafe. Investigating the school playground, the Doctor finds some strange scorch marks on the asphalt, unaware of the girl watching him. The Doctor returns to the van and enters, much to the surprise of the van's occupant, Professor Rachel Jensen. Before she can know who the Doctor is, she gets a call from her superior.

In the cafe, Ace meets a young man named Mike Smith who helps her when she finds out that the money that the Doctor gave her is pre-decimal. On the way back to Rachel Jensen's van, Ace finds out that Mike is actually a Sergeant and that the Group Captain has encountered some trouble at Totter's Lane.

At Totter's Lane, Group Captain Gilmore and his men have had one of their soldiers, Matthews, killed by an unknown force. The Doctor inspects the body, and determines he was killed by some kind of energy weapon. As two soldiers begin to take Matthews' body away, the unseen force that killed him also shoots and kills another soldier. Certain that they are dealing with a Dalek, the Doctor tries to tell Gilmore to retreat, but Gilmore refuses. Mike and Ace appear to help with the situation. When Mike attempts to radio for more help, the unseen force fires at Mike, just narrowly missing him. Gilmore then orders three rocket propelled grenades to be fired where the unseen force is hiding. Even though Gilmore tries to assure the Doctor by saying nothing remotely human could survive that explosion, the Doctor states that is the point; that thing in there isn’t even remotely human.

The unseen force then finally reveals itself; it is indeed a Dalek. As the soldiers fire at the Dalek, the Doctor borrows some of Ace’s Nitro-9 and distracts the Dalek. The Doctor lures the Dalek into the path of the lit Nitro-9, which explodes and destroys it. The army then order the destroyed Dalek casing to be covered in tarp and transported.

The Doctor and Ace borrow the black van to drive back to the school. Along the way, the Doctor explains that he has unfinished business: the Hand of Omega, an all-powerful, ancient relic of the Time Lord civilisation that the Doctor hid on Earth during a visit to 1963 in his first incarnation.

Unfortunately, the Daleks have also heard about the Hand of Omega, and are trying to find it before the Doctor does. To complicate matters, there are rival factions of Daleks at work — the Daleks are currently in the midst of a civil war between those who accept and those who reject the leadership of their creator, Davros. Each side wants the Hand for itself.

The Doctor and Ace investigate Coal Hill School, where the Imperial Daleks have set up an outpost. The Renegade Faction, however, have their base in a warehouse where a Battle computer is and where Mr Ratcliffe and his group of fascists called 'The Association' work for the Renegade faction. The Doctor and Ace investigate inside Coal Hill, and locate the transmat, which is used to teleport Imperial Daleks into the school. After changing the transmat’s controls to prevent an Imperial Dalek from transmitting into the school, Ace states something this important must be guarded. As the Doctor realises this, an Imperial Dalek appears and orders the Doctor and Ace to halt. They run upstairs, but the Imperial-Dalek-controlled Headmaster of Coal Hill School knocks Ace out, and traps the Doctor in the basement with the Dalek. As the Doctor screams to be let out, the Dalek flies up the stairs, recognises the Doctor as an enemy of the Daleks and prepares to exterminate him.

A Dalek ascends the stairs to attack the Doctor.

Part 2[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor manages to escape thanks to Ace waking up in time. They escape the school, as the Imperial Dalek arrives and demands to the Headmaster that the transmat must be fixed. The Doctor and Ace find the army, and after informing them that the Imperial Daleks have set up base in the school, Mike leaves after receiving a phone call.

The Doctor and Ace head back to the school, and are promptly fired upon by the Imperial Dalek. Ace quickly destroys the Dalek with an RPG she found at the army’s truck.

Whilst the Imperial Daleks are watching from their Mothership, the Renegade Daleks dispatch Ratcliffe and his men to retrieve the Hand Of Omega. Ratcliffe receives information from their informant about the school. This informant is revealed to be Mike.

Mike is found and interrogated by the Imperial-Dalek-controlled Headmaster of Coal Hill School in the graveyard. But Mike is not without his reflexes, and subdues the Headmaster — forcing the Imperial Daleks to terminate their agent.

The Doctor finds the Hand of Omega and has it follow him to a cemetery where he buries it with the help of a blind priest. The Doctor later gifts Ace a baseball bat imbued with the Hand of Omega’s power; but tells her to remain at the boarding house owned by Mike’s mother. Rachel, Captain Gilmore and the army make a plan to fight the Daleks. The Doctor makes a sonic device that can scramble the Daleks.

Ace gets bored of being cooped up in the boarding house and heads out to the school on her own so she can retrieve her ghetto blaster. Mike phones his mother to discover Ace is no longer there. The Doctor and company immediately go to try and find her. Ace arrives at the school, and is promptly chased by an Imperial Dalek, which Ace is able to blind by destroying its eyestalk with the baseball bat. Ace attempts to escape but is promptly cornered by three more Daleks who all circle her and prepare to exterminate her.

Part 3[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor shows up in the nick of time with the sonic device that disorientates and scrambles the Daleks, allowing the military to destroy them with plastic explosives. After destroying the Imperial Daleks' transmat to prevent more Daleks from beaming to Earth, the Doctor and the others regroup in the café.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ratcliffe finds the Hand of Omega in the cemetery. Although he and his men haul it out of the cemetery, the Imperial Daleks aboard the Mother-ship detect this. A Imperial Dalek calls the Emperor Dalek to assess the situation. Upon the Hand of Omega arriving at the junkyard, Ratcliffe is betrayed by the Renegade Daleks, and his men are gunned down by the Renegade Supreme Dalek. Ratcliffe himself is held hostage.

Ace travels with the Doctor to locate the location of the Renegade Daleks’ HQ. They find it, and the Doctor shows Ace the Battle Computer. He tells her that if the Daleks are over-reliant on rationality and logic, the solution would be to get a young, imaginative child to enslave to the battle computer. The Doctor tinkers with the Time Controller to 'manipulate the enemy'.

His plan works, but with consequences; the Renegade Daleks return to the base to find the Time Controller has been disabled. The Doctor and Ace flee, pursued by Renegade Daleks. Several soldiers attempt to hold off the Daleks, but are promptly exterminated. After making their way back into the school, Mike wonders aloud why the Daleks want the Hand of Omega, however he realises that he is not meant to know that. When asked how he knows this, he says Ace told him. Realising that Mike is an informant for the Renegade Daleks, she outs him as the informant, and has to be held back from attacking him. Mike attempts to reason with Gilmore, saying he was unaware that it was the Daleks he was giving information to, but Gilmore arrests Mike for treason.

The Renegade Daleks are informed of the Imperial Daleks' shuttle approaching the area and return to protect the Hand of Omega. The Doctor states that the Daleks will not land their shuttle in the playground, as it is too far from the action, only to be cut off by the shuttle landing on the playground.

Part 4[[edit] | [edit source]]

The shuttle lands on the playground, and several Imperial Daleks pour out. The Supreme Dalek, via the Battle Computer, orders the Renegade Daleks to withdraw and defend the Hand of Omega from the enemy. After Imperial Daleks are sent out to retrieve the Hand of Omega, the Doctor, Ace and the soldiers plan to invade the Imperial Dalek Shuttle. Mike tries to justify himself to Ace that he just wanted to do Mr. Ratcliffe a favour in keeping the outsiders out, but Ace refuses to listen, as she is hurt by her betrayal. Upon finding out that the Imperial Daleks have control of the planet Skaro, the Doctor disables the massive ground defence and gets out of the Assault Shuttle with the team.

Several Imperial Daleks scout the streets and are promptly fired on by Renegade Daleks. The Imperial Daleks promptly retreat after one is destroyed. The Emperor Dalek orders the deployment of the Special Weapons Dalek. Guided by several Imperial Daleks, the Special Weapons Dalek destroys two Renegade Daleks with a single powerful blast.

Mike escapes to the Renegade base, finding Ratcliffe a prisoner. The repaired time controller powers up, enabling the Renegades' escape. The Supreme Dalek orders the extermination of Mike and Ratcliffe, but the base is attacked by the Imperials, who overwhelm their few remaining opponents with the help of the Special Weapons Dalek. Ratcliffe and Mike flee with the Time Controller, and the Supreme Dalek orders the controlled girl to recover it. Using her Dalek-augmented abilities, she kills Ratcliffe and pursues Mike. The victorious Imperial Daleks return to the shuttle with the Hand of Omega. Meanwhile, the Doctor tells Ace to follow Mike.

The Emperor Dalek is informed of the recovery of the Hand of Omega. Soon after, the Doctor contacts him and demands the surrender of the Hand. The Emperor reveals himself as Davros. He declares his scheme to use the Hand on Skaro's sun, granting the Imperial Daleks the power to overthrow the Time Lords. The Doctor insults Davros and his Daleks, angering Davros to the point that he activates the Hand of Omega. The Doctor begs for Davros to not use the Hand of Omega, only for Davros to gloat at the Doctor’s emotions. He fires the Hand of Omega.

Skaro is destroyed.

It turns out that the Doctor booby-trapped the Hand: It creates a supernova, obliterating the Daleks' homeworld Skaro. The Hand smashes back into the Mothership, but not before Davros and a Dalek begs for pity. Before the mothership is destroyed, Davros escapes in an escape pod. The Doctor declares that the Hand is travelling back to Gallifrey.

Ace is captured by Mike, who is still holding the Time Controller. The girl tracks him down and kills him before turning her attention to Ace. The Doctor seeks out the Supreme Dalek, telling it that it is the last Dalek and that Davros is dead and that Skaro is a burnt cinder circling a dead sun. Convinced of its absolute defeat, it kills itself, breaking the link with the controlled girl who screams as this happens. The girl then breaks down in tears and Ace comforts her.

Smith has been denied a military funeral, and only six mourners attend the service: Mrs. Smith, Gilmore, Rachel, Allison, and Mike's uncle and aunt. Ace wonders if what the Doctor did was good. "Time will tell," the Doctor replies. '"It always does."

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
Ace - Sophie Aldred
Gilmore - Simon Williams
Mike - Dursley McLinden
Rachel - Pamela Salem
Allison - Karen Gledhill
Ratcliffe - George Sewell
Headmaster - Michael Sheard
Harry - Harry Fowler
The Girl - Jasmine Breaks
Embery - Peter Hamilton Dyer
Dalek Operators - Hugh Spight, John Scott Martin, Tony Starr, Cy Town
Voices - Roy Skelton, John Leeson, Royce Mills, Brian Miller
Vicar - Peter Halliday
John - Joseph Marcell
Martin - William Thomas
Kaufman - Derek Keller
Davros - Terry Molloy
Black Dalek Operator - Hugh Spight

Uncredited cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Himself - Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. (stock audio)
Himself - John F. Kennedy (stock audio)
Himself - Charles de Gaulle (stock audio)
Himself - HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh (stock audio)
Mrs Smith - Kathleen Bidmead
Soldier - Jack Talbot
Constable - Peter Gates-Fleming
Dalek Operator - Norman Bacon
Pallbearers - Douglas Stark, Colin Thomas, Gary Dean (all DWMS Summer 1993)

Crew[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Mike Smith is placed under close arrest on suspicion of offences contrary to the Official Secrets Act. He is guarded by a corporal.
John mentions his great-grandfather's experiences in Kingston.
John mentions his father.
Stevens is a gravedigger.

Ace[[edit] | [edit source]]

Ace wears a Batman earring in her left ear.
Ace prefers the Beatles to Elvis Presley.

Daleks[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Imperial Daleks have access to teleportation technology.
The Doctor states that the Imperial Daleks could obliterate Earth, but would act with caution and not just blatantly damage the timeline.
Both Dalek factions have time corridor technology.

Foods and beverages[[edit] | [edit source]]

Much tea is consumed, both in the cafe by the Doctor and Ace and by the military.
Ace orders "four bacon sandwiches and a cup of coffee" whilst in the cafe. Ironically, Sophie Aldred is a vegan.

Time Lords[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor states he has nine hundred years' experience with alien technology and also describes himself as "the Doctor, President-elect of the High Council of Time Lords. Keeper of the legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time, Protector of Gallifrey."
The Doctor tells Ace the story of Omega, and how he and Rassilon founded Time Lord society. He momentarily slips when talking about the prototype of the Hand of Omega, implying his presence at its creation.

Weapons[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor uses the Hand of Omega to charge Ace's baseball bat with energy.
Ace uses an anti-tank rocket (ATR) to destroy an Imperial Dalek.

Planets[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor mentions Spiridon.

Literature[[edit] | [edit source]]

Mike's mother has a copy of Doctor in the House.

Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

Terry Molloy was credited by the pseudonym of "Roy Tromelly" for part three to preserve the surprise of Davros' return in part four. To further avoid spoiling the surprise, Molloy was left uncredited in Radio Times for the final episode.
This story had a working title of Nemesis of the Doctor.
Roy Skelton is credited as "Voices" for parts one to three, and as "Dalek Voices" for part four.
Royce Mills and Brian Miller are credited as "Voices" for parts two and three, and as "Dalek Voices" for part four.
For the week of transmission of part one, and the start of Season 25, Radio Times (cover dated: 1–7 October 1988) published a full-page colour article titled Unexterminated! by John Davies, which included comments from John Nathan-Turner, Sylvester McCoy and Ben Aaronovitch. The introduction for the article read “Those evil, heartless, cruel, diabolical Daleks are back — and the latest Doctor Who is rather pleased about it! John Davies finds you can't keep a bad monster down”. (original published text)
The Radio Times programme listing for part one was accompanied by a black-and-white publicity shot of the Doctor and Ace in an open alley doorway with the accompanying caption: "Behind the times? The ever-fashionable Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) take a leap back to the swinging 60s to meet an old enemy... / BBC1, 7.35 p.m. Doctor Who". (original published text) For part three, the programme listing was accompanied by a black-and-white photograph of Ratcliffe standing with his hands raised before a foreground Renegade Dalek with the accompanying caption reading: "Exterminate... Exterminate... Will Ratcliffe (George Sewell) die at the nozzle of a Dalek? / BBC1, 7.35 p.m. Doctor Who". (original published text)
This is the first instance of a Dalek levitating up a staircase on screen. However, Davros appears to have the power of flight in Revelation of the Daleks, achieved with the same special effect. In The Chase, a Dalek is seen to elevate from sand and it is implied they can move between the decks of the Marie Celeste.
This was the first story to be broadcast with NICAM stereo sound, and therefore the first to be mixed for more than one audio channel.
This is the first instance of a "skeleton effect" caused by Dalek weapons. This effect would be used in every subsequent Dalek story to date.
The teaser sequence includes clips from famous speeches including those of John F. Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, the Duke of Edinburgh, and Martin Luther King. It had been originally been hoped to use a clip from a speech by Queen Elizabeth II when opening the Commonwealth Telephone Cable Link on 2 December 1963, but when the production team contacted Buckingham Palace for permission to include the material, this was denied; allegedly, the Queen did not wish to be quoted on a fictional television programme. However, the Palace did give permission — albeit reluctantly — for the Duke of Edinburgh to be included in the sequence.
This is the first televised story to show the full interior of a Dalek. An Imperial Dalek drone's inner workings are visible while attempting to materialise in the basement of Coal Hill School.
This marks possibly the first time that Doctor Who has referred to itself as a series within the context of the show, when Ace turns on the television as she leaves the boarding house in part 2, and the announcer says, "This is BBC Television. The time is a quarter past five, and Saturday viewing continues with an adventure in the new science fiction series, Doc", before being cut off. Interestingly, Bernard Quatermass and the British Rocket Group are both mentioned by a worried Rachel and Allison. However, it's unclear in the context of the show whether it's a pop culture or intertextual reference.
- The 2014 episode, In the Forest of the Night has a shot where a bus can be seen advertising Series 8 on it. This can, however, be seen for only a second.
The original script called for the Doctor to destroy the Imperial Dalek that ambushes him and Ace in the school with the anti-tank rocket and to attack the Supreme Dalek with a "Finger of Omega", in a parody of western showdowns. These instances were altered after Sylvester McCoy cited the Doctor's dislike of weapons.
This was the third time that the Daleks appeared in a season opener. Day of the Daleks opened Season 9 and Destiny of the Daleks opened season 17.
This story marks the final appearances in the televised series of Michael Sheard and Peter Halliday, both of whom had appeared in numerous Doctor Who stories over the years.
In the original script, the Special Weapons Dalek was developed by the Renegade Daleks to counteract their Imperial counterpart's flying battle platform. Originally, the Special Weapons Dalek lacked the increased firepower but instead had the ability to fire around corners. Both concepts were dramatically altered with the mobile platform removed due to cost.
Russell T Davies has stated in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 that the destruction of Skaro in this story is one of the first acts of the Time War, alongside the abortive efforts of Genesis of the Daleks, the planned assassination of the High Council in Resurrection of the Daleks and the invasion of Gallifrey in The Apocalypse Element.
The usual castors underneath the Dalek props' skirting were replaced by large balls of the type used on garden barrows. This allowed them to move over coarse surfaces outside studio sets.
In part two, the Imperial Daleks telepathically order the Headmaster to apprehend and interrogate Mike for the location of the Renegade Dalek base. Before transmission, a Dalek voice was heard directing the Headmaster. In the broadcast version, all Dalek lines in the scene were omitted to keep with the continuity of the Headmaster's previous encounter with the Doctor and Ace. Originally, when Mike overpowered the Headmaster, the Dalek voice indicated their agent would be terminated as a security risk — which explains the Headmaster's soft, frightened "No" before he collapses and dies.
- The Daleks telepathically talking to Parsons didn't appear in the initial DVD release, although they did appear in the serial when it was released on DVD Files. However, they didn't show up on the subtitles.
This story was aired on BBC America along with The Doctors Revisited - The Seventh Doctor. It was also edited into an omnibus format, with the cuts to the credits between cliffhangers removed.
- With regard to the omnibus editing, the videotape recordings were produced in a way that made the editing out of the credits jarring. A few notes of the Keff McCulloch theme remain audible between the cuts to black. Another complication was presented within the first episode, displaying the words "PART ONE" superimposed over filmed material crucial to the episode. Although it is possible to digitally edit out the words, the process is notoriously time-intensive and delicate, requiring editors to edit each separate frame of film that contains the lettering. For simplicity's sake, it was ignored and left intact upon rebroadcast.
- For an as yet unknown reason, unlike the other stories that accompanied the Revisited specials, it was not shown when the special aired in the United Kingdom later in the year on 2 November on the Watch channel. Instead, Battlefield was shown in its place.
Ace's act of damaging the Imperial Dalek with a baseball bat would stay with Sophie Aldred as one of her most favourite scenes to film in the series, both personally and among the public. Ace would later damage a Dalek again using a baseball bat in The Power of the Doctor.
When the Doctor gives Ace her baseball bat, script pages are visible sticking out of the left pocket on his jacket. According to Sylvester McCoy on the audio commentary, he always carried "Scenes To Do" in the left-hand pocket and "Scenes Done" in the right.
In the rehearsal script, a near-retired Gilmore referred to his group as the Special Incursions Counter-Measures Unit and that the Army wished to take over. He said they had "some bright boy, Captain Tunbridge-Steward or something, [who had] worked for the SOE during the war," lined up for the role of commander. If included in the final episode, this would have contradicted a large number of older UNIT and Brigadier stories. (DWM 464)
The Doctor is seen reading the book Doctor in the House. This was a running gag developed by Sylvester McCoy. Each time the Doctor pulls out a book to read, it has the word "Doctor" somewhere in the title. (Source: DVD audio commentary)
Michael Sheard was chosen to play the Headmaster as he would be familiar to children. Sheard had to be released from his regular role as Mr Bronson on Grange Hill to participate; Peter Tilbury was briefly considered for the role if Sheard could not make it.
Andrew Cartmel was particularly proud of the scene where Ace finds a NO COLOUREDS sign in the window of Mrs Smith's boarding house. When it was screened to the BBC Head of Drama, he rewound the tape because the Head of Drama had missed the sequence due to a phone call. The Head of Drama felt that Ace should have torn the sign down, and Cartmel agreed it was a missed opportunity. Andrew Morgan wanted to cut the scene, but Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred argued that it was the essence of the story, as it was about racism.
Sylvester McCoy ad-libbed the Doctor nicknaming Gilmore "Chunky". This stemmed from an incident at the Steam Museum when Simon Williams misinterpreted the script's description of his character's “chunky service revolver” as the name of a specific type of gun, much to the amusement of his castmates.
Ratcliffe was originally called Gummer. However, there was a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government with the same name, so it was changed. It was also considered too similar to Gilmore.
Sylvester McCoy wanted to perform the stunt where the Doctor slides down a wire with his umbrella, but he wasn't allowed to.
Sylvester McCoy's favourite scenes are the one in the cafe where the Doctor weighs on the decisions he must make and Ace finding the NO COLOUREDS sign.
Sophie Aldred did many of her own stunts, bonding with the new stunt coordinator, Tip Tipping. She found the experience "terrifying" at first. She was also trained in firing guns for the scene where she shoots a Dalek. She also accidentally sustained a mild injury when jumping through the window after damaging the Imperial Dalek with the baseball bat.
Tom Adams, Nicholas Ball, Tom Chadbon, Michael Cochrane, Lewis Collins, Del Henney, Ian Ogilvy, Tim Piggott-Smith, Neil Stacy, Simon Ward and James Warwick were considered for the role of Captain Gilmore.
Joss Ackland, George Baker, Keith Barron, Steven Berkoff, John Carson, Kenneth Colley, Kenneth Cope, Peter Gilmore, Del Henney, Bernard Hill, Glyn Houston, Stratford Johns, Ronald Lacey, T. P. McKenna, David Warner and Frank Windsor were considered for the role of Ratcliffe.
Sophie Aldred and Karen Gledhill were awed to work with Simon Williams, having been fans of Upstairs, Downstairs.
John Leeson was asked to make his voice sound like Davros', to trick viewers into thinking the Dalek battle computer was Davros, and watched past episodes for reference.
Mark McGann was originally considered for Mike Smith. His brother Paul would later play the Eighth Doctor.
Filming at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum in Brentford was occasionally interrupted by a radio traffic news helicopter circling overhead.
The cemetery filming was attended by some fans who came to watch.
While the Imperial Daleks were original props, the Black Dalek's forces largely consisted of existing props. Two were assembled from surviving 1960s elements and a “goon” skirt section made for Planet of the Daleks. Three more (including the Black Dalek itself) consisted of parts built for Revelation of the Daleks. With the fourth 1985 casing unavailable due to its use in exhibitions, another Dalek was cast from the same mould and augmented with existing spare parts.
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.
The Imperial Daleks were built with bigger wheels that would roll easier on location.
Ben 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.
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. Sylvester 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.
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.
A thermal imaging camera was used for Dalek perspective shots.
In one of the classrooms, Ace picks up a book on the French Revolution just as Susan had in An Unearthly Child. Sophie Aldred studied the scene to try to mimic Carole Ann Ford's stature.
The inability of Daleks to climb stairs was an urban myth and a joke, with the Doctor even joking about it in Destiny of the Daleks. Remembrance was intended to put it to rest, though Andrew Cartmel noted that the joke was still prevalent.
Ben Aaronovitch felt that destroying Skaro at the end seemed like a logical conclusion, but he noted that it might not be the best decision in the long run.
Ben Aaronovitch considered making use of other elements of Dalek continuity — including the Thals and the Ogrons — but eventually rejected these for fear of over-complicating the story.
In the original script, the two Dalek factions were the "Red Daleks" led by the Emperor Dalek and the "Blue Daleks" led by the Black Dalek (also called the Dalek Supreme).
Ben Aaronovitch had overwritten his scripts for this serial, and therefore several subplots were eliminated. These included a threatened nuclear strike on London, a dangerous trip from Totter's Lane to Coal Hill School for the Doctor and Ace, and Harry's extermination by the Daleks.
Rachel's surname was originally Israel instead of Jensen.
Andrew Cartmel watched previous Dalek stories for research and felt that only Destiny of the Daleks made the creatures look menacing. He decided to use similar shots and shared his ideas with Andrew Morgan - shoot low and lots of ceilings. He also told Ben Aaronovitch that there must be no capturing and no corridors.
According to Andrew Cartmel, the superstitious Andrew Morgan was alarmed to learn that the street location for Coal Hill School was called Macbeth Street.
Observing that Terry Nation had always intended the Daleks to be a metaphor for the Nazis, Ben Aaronovitch drew upon the burgeoning racist and fascist sentiment in early-1960s England; he was keen that his story not present an overly romanticised depiction of the period.
While filming the scene where Ace attacks the Dalek, Sophie Aldred, sensitive to cigarette smoke, asked John Nathan-Turner if he would stop smoking for the next take. He obliviously lit up another one and blanked her. While looking at her on the monitor, he said, "Find the camera, you dizzy cow". He also objected to her adding badges to her jacket, as it caused continuity problems and took umbrage with her request for a taxi to take her home from rehearsals.
The Hand of Omega was originally called The Hand of Rassilon.
The Special Weapons Dalek was originally part of the Black Dalek's Renegade forces, whereas the Imperial Daleks made use of a floating assault platform.
In episode four, the Black Dalek originally had nuclear charges attached to the Hand as a safeguard against an attack by the Emperor, only for the Doctor to commune with the Hand and induce it to disarm the explosives.
Mike Tucker was a fan of the series and had always wanted to build a domed Emperor Dalek prop which would split open to reveal Davros inside. Ben Aaronovitch had been sceptical of using Davros, whom he felt tended to overshadow the Daleks and reduce them to mere henchmen, but he now adapted Tucker's idea as the serial's climax.
Terry Nation initially objected to the script, particuarly the minimal role Davros played in the story.
The original script explained that that the Daleks had been divided into factions following their decimation by the Movellan virus, which had resulted in different groups no longer recognising each other's legitimacy.
Stuart Brisdon was eager to modernise the Dalek props, but John Nathan-Turner was resistant to his proposed changes; the designer's principal victory saw the manipulator arm revised to be less obviously akin to a toilet plunger.
It was decided that the Daleks' colour scheme should reflect the liveries seen in Revelation of the Daleks. As such, the Imperial Daleks would be cream with gold trim (instead of red with black trim) while the Renegade Daleks would be grey with black trim (instead of blue with silver trim).
Sophie Aldred inadvertently damaged a real Dalek casing in the mistaken belief that it was an effects prop.
Amongst the extras posing as Coal Hill students were the children of Simon Williams, Andrew Morgan and costume designer Ken Trew, plus the sister of Jasmine Breaks.
The Coal Hill Headmaster was named H. Parson, in reference to videotape editor Hugh Parson.
It was originally hoped that Terry Molloy could voice the Dalek battle computer, as part of the pretence that it was Davros, and not the little girl, who was working with the Renegade Daleks. However, when other commitments prevented him from attending the recording session, John Leeson agreed to provide a Davros-like performance in his stead.
Bob Dylan turned out to be a fan of the show and he offered the use of an excerpt from "Only A Pawn In Their Game" for free, although it was not retained in the final edit.
Ben Aaronovitch scaled down his references to An Unearthly Child when he was told that Attack of the Cybermen had previously re-visited the same setting.
It was originally revealed that the Daleks had been divided into factions following their decimation by the Movellan virus in Resurrection of the Daleks, which had resulted in different groups no longer recognising each other's legitimacy.
Originally, it had been hoped that the London Scrapyard might be used for Totter's Lane, as in Attack of the Cybermen, but there was concern about the proximity of private residences, given that large explosions were planned.
John Nathan-Turner directed a second unit to capture street scenes in Acton.
Episode one was the first instalment to be broadcast in stereo sound, and, indeed, one of the first such programmes on British television.
Several scenes were cut or edited in production:
- The café scene originally ran longer, but it was cut down by about half.
- Ace originally defused the tension between her and the Doctor when he left her at the boarding house.
- The Doctor curing Ace's leg at the beginning of the third episode.
- The issuing of instructions from the Dalek controller through an earpiece.
- The Doctor telling Davros that he is "far more than just another Time Lord", which was meant to foreshadow the Doctor's origins as part of the Cartmel Masterplan.
This story has the distinction of being ranked as Doctor Who Magazine readers' favourite Seventh Doctor story in all four of their major polls, in 1998, 2009, 2014, and 2023. (DWM 592)

Ratings[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one - 5.5 million viewers
Part two - 5.8 million viewers
Part three - 5.1 million viewers
Part four - 5.0 million viewers

Myths[[edit] | [edit source]]

(Formerly appearing in many places on this very page.) There is nothing to indicate that the episode takes place in November 1963. (At one point, a calendar indicating this very thing is clearly seen. However, it's true that the weather and the timing of nightfall in part three don't jibe with this. However, in the Special Edition DVD featurette on the making of the story, writer Ben Aaronovitch acknowledges that it was intended to be November, but that the timing of daylight was wrong for that time of year.)
The Doctor tells Davros that he is "far more than a Time Lord". (This occurs, but in a deleted scene. However, this line may have been included in either the PBS or YTV Canada broadcast of the story, as some fans recall seeing this scene long before it was ever released to DVD. However, this may also have been due to the scene's appearance in the 1993 documentary More than 30 Years in the TARDIS.)
Andrew Morgan wanted to improve upon his last effort, Time and the Rani. Feeling that the script was worth it, extra money was put into the production. However, production on the serial went over-budget by £13,000, and as a result Morgan was barred from directing for the programme again. (Despite the claims, research by Richard Bignell has shown lack of evidence or documentation for any such action being taken or policy existing for barring over-budget directors. Additionally, previous overspending directors on the show had later returned to direct further stories, and Philip Hinchcliffe has indicated that he was unaware of any such policy existing.)

Filming locations[[edit] | [edit source]]

Theed Street, Southwark, London (Final confrontation with the Supreme Dalek)
Wootton Street, Southwark, London (Imperial and Renegade Dalek battle)
Braybrook Street, East Acton, London (Some of the conversation between the Doctor and Ace driving)
Wulfstan Street, East Acton, London (Some of the conversation between the Doctor and Ace driving)
TAVC, Horn Lane, Acton, London
Macbeth Centre, Macbeth Street, Hammersmith, London (Landing site of Imperial Dalek shuttlecraft)
Windmill Walk, Southwark, London (Ace and the Doctor running away from Ratcliffe's yard)
Kew Bridge Steam Museum, Brentford, Middlesex (Foreman's Yard)
Old Oak Common Lane, East Acton, London
Willesden Lane Cemetery, Willesden, London
John Nodes Funeral Service, 181 Ladbroke Grove, London
Macbeth Street, Hammersmith, London
BBC Television Centre (TC8), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors[[edit] | [edit source]]

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

The gates to the junkyard bear the label "I.M FORMAN", as a nod to the junkyard seen in TV: An Unearthly Child. However, the junkyard gate is labelled "I.M Foreman" here. Though this was later retconned by a couple of books, it was nevertheless a genuine production error, as admitted on the DVD release's production notes extra feature. According to the production notes on the DVD release, the sign had already been corrected once on the day of shooting, as it was originally painted as L.M. rather than I.M., but no one evidently noticed the surname error. (For details of the retcon, see the discontinuity discussion.)
When the first soldier shot by the Dalek hits the fence, the wire attached to his back is clearly visible.
At the end of part one, the Imperial Dalek is shown to have a wire on its left side in the front shot.
Although set in 1963, then contemporary houses and a red London bus are visible in the background during the struggle between Mike and the Headmaster at the cemetery.
In part two, during the scene in the undertaker's, Ace's baseball bat appears to suddenly switch from the Doctor's left hand to his right. The error is remarked upon by both Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred on the DVD commentary of this story. Similarly, in another scene, the first soldier to be exterminated on-screen has a gun in his left hand then it switches to his right hand when he gets exterminated.
At another point in part two, when the Renegade Daleks move onto the streets, in a close-up shot, you can see the section between the head and middle section coming off.
Also in part two, Sylvester McCoy mispronounces Spiridon (pronouncing it as Spe-ridon rather than Spy-ridon).
When Ace ducks under the table after damaging the Imperial Dalek with the baseball bat, a director can be vaguely heard saying the next lines for the Dalek operator in the background.
At one point, a continuity announcement on a television in the background establishes the time as 17:15. Given that the episode is implied to be set in November in London, that should make it dark outside. However, it is not only light but the Doctor subsequently asks people out to lunch. While a convoluted narrative extrapolation might be possible, the simplest reading is that the continuity supervisor, among others, dropped the ball.
At the start of part three, Mike sticks some C4 on the Dalek to the left, but it is the one on the right that explodes first.
When Mike Smith enters the backyard with a message for Ratcliffe in part four, the back wall has graffiti with the number '87' on it, revealing that the episode was filmed in the 1980s while supposed to be taking place in the 1960s. Sophie Aldred points this out on the DVD audio commentary.
Near the end of part four when the Girl knocks Mike back against the stairs, they can clearly be seen to move away from the wall, revealing the plain grey backing of the set wall. Also, Mike's body clearly comes to rest on the stairs, but he is later shown to be lying on the floor in front of the stairs.
The gate of Ratcliffe's yard is clearly a rather ill-fitted prop. When the gate opens, the path of its swing does not match the groove in the floor. This is most clearly seen when Mike Smith is sneaking into the yard.
Just after the gate is destroyed, one of the Imperial Daleks is briefly shown to have lost a few hemispheres to the blast. In the very next shot, however, no damage is shown.
When the Imperial Daleks leave Ratcliffe's yard with the Hand of Omega in part four, the floating casket containing the Hand of Omega doesn't have a shadow underneath it.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor constructs a device to disorientate the Imperial Daleks to rescue Ace, stating that he "rigged something like it on Spiridon". (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
AUDIO: Terror Firma follows up on Davros' fate.
Ace reads a book on the French Revolution. (TV: An Unearthly Child, The Curse of Clyde Langer)
Most of the action in Coal Hill School takes place in a chemistry lab. Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright met in a chemistry lab to discuss an unusual student in their classes. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
The Headmaster assumes the Doctor came to apply for the job of caretaker of Coal Hill School. He would later assume that position in his twelfth incarnation. (TV: The Caretaker)
PROSE: Lungbarrow explains the detailed history of the Hand of Omega and how the Doctor obtained it.
PROSE: Interference - Book Two explains some of the history behind I.M. Foreman's junkyard.
A Dalek ascends a flight of stairs by levitating. (TV: Dalek)
- Daleks were previously seen floating, (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) and the Daleks were on two levels of the Marie Celeste. (TV: The Chase)
- On Spiridon, a Dalek uses an anti-gravitational disk to pursue escaping prisoners up a shaft. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)
According to PROSE: In the Community, the girl used as the Daleks' battle computer is named Judith Winters.
The Doctor mentions Yeti in the London Underground (TV: The Web of Fear) and the Zygon Gambit with the Loch Ness Monster. (TV: Terror of the Zygons)
Davros later encounters the Doctor during the Time War, and then during his tenth (TV: The Stolen Earth/ Journey's End) and twelfth incarnations. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice/ The Witch's Familiar)
Bernard Quatermass and the British Experimental Rocket Group are mentioned. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
The Doctor's final exchange with Davros -- "You tricked me!"; "No, Davros. You tricked yourself." -- mirrors a similar confrontation his previous incarnation had with the Borad. (TV: Timelash)
The Eighth Doctor Adventures novel War of the Daleks, written by John Peel, includes a long passage detailing how the planet destroyed was not Skaro, but a decoy world called Antalin.
This story takes place contemporaneously with the events of TV: The Cambridge Spy.
The Doctor and Ace would visit 1960s London again in AUDIO: Thin Ice, AUDIO: The Assassination Games and briefly in COMIC: Operation Volcano.
The Doctor may have been partially aware of the Shoreditch Incident, including his own involvement with it, prior to his seventh self's arrival in 1963. After defeating WOTAN on 20 July 1966, (TV: The War Machines) the First Doctor checked to see if the Hand of Omega had been buried in Shoreditch Cemetery as per his instructions, only to discover that it had been removed. He determined that his future self would arrive at an earlier point in order to deal with it. (PROSE: The Rag & Bone Man's Story) Furthermore, his sixth incarnation once commented to his companion Evelyn Smythe that, from what he has heard, his future self is "always blowing up planets." (AUDIO: The 100 Days of the Doctor)
The Daleks previously employed a remote control transceiver on their slaves in TV: The Evil of the Daleks and a cruder radio-controlled headset for mass robotisation in TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Third Doctor also encountered similar thumbnail-sized transceiver technology employed by the Master in TV: The Mind of Evil.
The Doctor explains the origins of the Daleks to Ace. (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
In his investigation of reports of a series of agents provocateur known as "the Doctor", the journalist James Stevens found evidence of the Doctor and Ace's involvement in the Shoreditch Incident. The records indicated that the Doctor was "a short, quirkily dressed man, with a slight Scottish accent and immense intelligence." He noted that the two matched the description of an enigmatic pair also known as the Doctor and Ace who were heavily involved in the ULTIMA Incident in Maiden's Point in 1943. However, he was sceptical about the possibility of them being the same people as neither of them seemed to have aged in the intervening 20 years. In the interim, Stevens discovered that this Doctor was present during a holiday alert in a Welsh holiday camp called Shangri-La in 1959 but that he was in the company of another young woman named "Mel." (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
During the incident, everyone living within a three-mile radius of Coal Hill School and 76 Totter's Lane was evacuated under the Peacetime Nuclear Accident Provisions. Newspapers of the time attributed the evacuation to a gas leak in the basement of the school and the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb found in a nearby builder's yard belonging to Mr Ratcliffe. James Stevens noted that several soldiers seconded to the ICMG died during the Shoreditch Incident but that one, Sgt Mike Smith, was denied a military funeral and was buried privately five days later. Following the disbanding of Counter-Measures in the late 1960s, Gilmore campaigned for a replacement group with greater facilities and a permanent rapid-reaction capability. Despite the successes of the New Counter-Measures group, his efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy, AUDIO: Who Killed Toby Kinsella?)
The remnants of one of the destroyed Imperial Daleks salvaged after the Shoreditch Incident would later be stored in Department C19's Vault and was one of its first trophies. Earlier in his personal timeline, specifically during his third incarnation, the Doctor had seen its lower half in the Vault but noted that he had never seen a Dalek of that configuration before, least of all on 20th century Earth. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)
UNIT had records of Ace's involvement in this incident in the 2020s. (AUDIO: Signs and Wonders)
The Doctor describes himself as "the Doctor, President-elect of the High Council of Time Lords. Keeper of the Legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time, Protector of Gallifrey," again in PROSE: Vampire Science and Unnatural History, while K9 attributes these titles to Romana in PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles.
The Daleks would reconstruct Skaro by the time of the Doctor's twelfth incarnation. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice/ The Witch's Familiar)
During the incident, one Imperial Dalek travelled to 2018 through a space-time rift. It learnt about the Daleks' failure and tried to warn other Daleks. However, this attempt was stopped by Miss Quill, Charlie Smith and a future Ace. (AUDIO: In Remembrance) Another survivor attempted to exterminate the First Doctor in the London evening, but was destroyed by the Seventh Doctor. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)
Mike tries to explain to Ace the pre-decimalised pound silver sterling currency such as the number of shillings to a pound. When Ian and Barbara visit the junkyard one evening to investigate Susan's mysterious residence, Barbara recalls her incorrectly (for the time-period) thinking that the pound-sterling was already decimalised. (TV: An Unearthly Child) Ace is already from a time after which it was decimalised. (TV: Dragonfire et al.)

Home video and audio releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

DVD releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

Released as Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks, this was the second release of 2001 and the first to feature the Seventh Doctor. It features a different image of Sylvester McCoy on the cover to later releases (in common with The Robots of Death, The Caves of Androzani and Vengeance on Varos, the first stories released for the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Doctors).

It was released:

First Release:

Region 2 - 26 February 2001

PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1040

Region 4 - 13 May 2002, Special Edition 1 October 2009.

Contents:

Deleted Scenes/Out-takes
Multi-Angle Sequences
Trailers
Music-only Option
Photo Gallery
Production Subtitles
Commentary: Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred

Rear Credits:

By Ben Aaronovitch
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Andrew Morgan
Incidental Music by Keff McCulloch

Notes:

An error was made and the Region 2 DVD is missing some SFX from certain shots.

The Australia/NZ release is in NTSC format, not the standard PAL format, due to an inability to clear the music and the SFX problem which had been corrected for the US DVD.

Region 2 DVD Cover
Region 2 DVD slip-case cover
Region 1 DVD Cover
Region 4 DVD Cover

Second Release:

This second release was as part of the Davros box set (along with Genesis of the Daleks, Destiny of the Daleks, Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks). The two-disc set made numerous amendments to features present within the initial release, with the SFX errors and the Multi-Angle feature being corrected, and the Photo Gallery being revised and expanded.

Special features:[[edit] | [edit source]]

Commentary by Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor) and Sophie Aldred (Ace)
Back to School - Cast and crew talk about making the story, accompanied by rare behind-the-scenes material. Featuring Simon Williams (Gilmore), Karen Gledhill (Allison), writer Ben Aaronovitch, script editor Andrew Cartmel and director Andrew Morgan
Remembrances - Cast and crew talk about the influences and references to other Doctor Who adventures in the story
Davros Connections - An in-depth look at the history of the Daleks' creator
5.1 Mix - A new Dolby 5.1 surround mix, specially produced for this DVD
Extended and Deleted Scenes - Unused scenes, introduced by Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred
Outtakes - Bloopers and gaffes from the story
Multi-Angle Sequences - View two key scenes from a choice of angles
Trailers & Continuity
Isolated Music Track
Photo Gallery
Radio Times Billings (DVD-ROM PDFs - PC/Mac)
Production Information Subtitles
Easter Egg: Out-take of Sophie Aldred preparing one of her intros for the Deleted Scenes. To access this hidden feature, press left at Remembrances on the Special Features menu to reveal a hidden Doctor Who logo.

Notes:

Remastering for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.
The special edition version of the story was released on its own on 20 July 2009.
It was released with DWDVDF 29 on 3 February 2010.

Region 2 Special Edition Cover
Region 2 Special Edition Slipcase Cover
Region 4 Special Edition Cover

North American release[[edit] | [edit source]]

The use of a Beatles song created problems when it came to issuing the story to DVD Region 1 (North America). In November 2007, BBC Video announced a March 2008 release for the story, but in December 2007 this was cancelled, with licensing issues cited as the reason.

In November 2009, two years later, BBC Video announced that Remembrance of the Daleks was finally released to DVD in North America on 2 March 2010. The release, dubbed a Special Edition, included the bonus content included in the UK release of the Special Edition and substituted another recording of the Beatles song in place of the original recording.[1]

Region 1 Special Edition Cover

VHS releases[[edit] | [edit source]]

This story was released as Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks.