Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)

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Synopsis

The TARDIS arrives in London in November 1963, where the Doctor and Ace discover that two rival factions of Daleks - one loyal to the Dalek Emperor and one to the Dalek Supreme - are seeking the Hand of Omega, a powerful Time Lord device that the first Doctor hid there during an earlier sojourn on Earth.

The Daleks are focusing their search around Coal Hill School - the school that the Doctor's grand-daughter Susan attended - while a military unit led by Group Captain Gilmore is attempting to resist their incursions.

The Doctor tries to keep Gilmore and his team out of harm's way while the two Dalek factions battle each other for control of the Hand. The imperial Daleks eventually overpower those led by the Dalek Supreme and capture the device.

The Dalek Emperor is revealed to be Davros, now with only the last vestiges of his humanoid form remaining. The Doctor begs him not to use the Hand, but is ignored. However, this is just the final ruse in a complex trap laid by the Time Lord to defeat his old adversaries.

The Hand vaporises the creatures' home planet, Skaro, by turning its sun into a supernova, and then returns to destroy their forces orbiting Earth. The Doctor confronts the Dalek Supreme and causes it to self-destruct by convincing it that it is the sole surviving member of its race.

Plot

The Seventh Doctor and his companion Ace land the TARDIS in London, 1963, where the Doctor has unfinished business: The Hand of Omega, an ancient relic of the Time Lord civilization that the Doctor hid on Earth on a previous visit to 1963.

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 two groups of Daleks at work — the Daleks are currently in the midst of a civil war between those that accept and those that reject the leadership of their creator Davros, and each side wants the Hand for itself. The Imperial Daleks have set up an outpost at the Coal Hill School.

In the meantime, the alien activity around the Coal Hill area has attracted the attention of the military. Group Captain Gilmore and his unit engage a Renegade Dalek at the junkyard, destroying it with the help of the Doctor and Ace. The Doctor tries to convince Gilmore and his scientific advisor, Dr Rachel Jensen, that human weapons are no match for the Daleks and the best thing they can do is just stay out of the crossfire. The Doctor, however, is playing a deeper game — he wants the "right" Daleks to take possession of the Hand.

The Renegade Daleks enlist the help of a local fascist, Ratcliffe, in first obtaining the Hand, but they are soon attacked by the Imperial Daleks, who retrieve the Hand. Determining that the Imperial Daleks are from Skaro, the Dalek homeworld, the Doctor allows them to return to their mothership with it. The Imperial Daleks plan to use the Hand to create a power source that will give them mastery of time travel, a technology that the Daleks only have in the crudest sense.

However, when the Dalek Emperor, a much deteriorated Davros, activates the Hand, he also triggers a booby-trap that the Doctor has programmed into it. The Hand transports itself to the future which the Imperial Daleks have come from and turns Skaro's sun into a supernova, destroying the star system and Dalek homeworld, and then returns itself to Gallifrey. The resulting feedback blows up the Imperial Dalek mothership, but Davros manages to flee in an escape pod before its destruction. The Dalek Supreme, the last Renegade Dalek on Earth, destroys itself when told by the Doctor that it is the last of its kind.

Cast

Crew

References

  • The Renegade Daleks have a Time Controller and Battle computer on Earth.
  • While the Imperial Daleks (and Davros) use a Shuttlecraft and Transmat to gain access to Earth.
  • The Imperial Daleks' 'base' is located within Coal Hill School.
  • A Renegade Dalek is cornered by Group Captain Gilmore's men in Totter's Lane Junkyard and is eventually destroyed using Ace's Nitro-9.
  • The Hand of Omega makes its first appearance.
  • At this stage, the Daleks are seen to have split into two factions - Imperial (lead by Davros) and Renegade (Lead by the Black Dalek) Davros has augmented the Imperial Daleks with cybernetic implants, whereas the Renegade Daleks have remained 'pure'. Although not explicitly stated, it can be reasonably inferred that the Imperial Faction have control of the Dalek home planet Skaro.
  • The Daleks use a human child linked into their battle computer in order to provide a random element to their battle strategies. This tactic was developed after the stalemates of the Movellan war.
  • The Doctor constructs a Dalek jamming device which he used / built: "something like it on Spiridon".

Story Notes

  • This is the first instance of a Dalek levitating up a stair case on screen.
  • This was the first story to be broadcast in NICAM stereo sound.
  • The pre-credits sequence includes voiceovers from famous speeches including those of JFK, Charles de Gaulle, the Duke of Edinburgh and Martin Luther King.

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 5.5 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 5.8 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 5.1 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 5.0 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Location Filming

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

  • The gates to the junkyard bear the label "I.M FORMAN", as a nod to the junkyard seen in the first ever episode (An Unearthly Child), and as a continuity link. (The Doctor also has knowledge of the geography of the junkyard). The junkyard in Unearthly Child however, is advertised as "I.M Foreman"
  • When the Doctor is counting ten seconds until the Nitro-9 he obtained from Ace explodes, you can clearly see where the re-dubbed audio doesn't quite match the original footage.
  • Various details, such as the "French Revolution" book in the science lab, match up with The Pilot Episode but not with An Unearthly Child.
  • The Doctor says that the Daleks are dependant on rationality and logic, whereas Daleks are actually driven by Xenophobia and race hatred (it seems an especially odd statement to make as one of Remembrance's core themes is racial purity).
  • This inaccurate assessment of the Dalek psyche is first mentioned in Destiny of the Daleks, and frequently throughout the new series.

Continuity

DVD, Video, and Other Releases

DVD Releases

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Released as Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks, this release was the second release of 2001.

Released:

PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1040
NTSC - Warner Video E1183

Contents:

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

Rear Credits:

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.

  • 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 SFX errors and the Multi-Angle feature in the first release were corrected, the Photo Gallery revised and expanded, and the following additions made to the DVD package:

Video Releases

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Released as Doctor Who: Rememberance of the Daleks.

Released:

  • First Release:
PAL - BBC Video BBCV5005
NTSC - Warner Video E1145

Notes: Released in a special edition Dalek Tin along with The Chase and a book entitled The Daleks. The US release featured no book or tin, both stories packaged in one box without individual artwork.

  • Second Release:
PAL - BBC Video BBCV7255

Notes: W.H. Smith exclusive as part of the The Davros Collection box set.

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Target Novelisations

Remembrance of the Daleks Target Novelisation

External Links


Television

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All Media

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