Wow. I mean just......wow. What a way to start a new season of Doctor Who, eh? Remembrance of the Daleks in and of itself is a fantastic story, but particularly impressive is that it comes out of a Doctor Who time period known for its mediocrity. How many stories or seasons do you have to go back before you find a story as good as this one? Try not counting The Caves of Androzani and repeat the exercise. How many? Six seasons? Seven? Eight?
To give you some context as to how astonishing this is, season 24 (the season just before Remembrance) is considered to be the worst Doctor Who season of all time. In a recent poll that ranked 200 Doctor Who stories based on their entertainment value, every story from season 24 was in the bottom 10% percent. The average ranking of all the stories from the season came in at a whopping 189.25th place out of 200 stories. Remembrance of the Daleks, which started airing only nine months after the previous season concluded, stood at 14th.
Although the 60s are seen as the golden age of the Daleks, and rightfully so, Remembrance can also claim to be one of the finest Dalek stories ever done. The Daleks are brutal in this story, as they should be, with more destructive capabilities than ever. Even Terry Molloy, whom I have criticized in the past, played his part as Davros nicely. In the poll, Remembrance comes in as the second best Dalek story of all time, behind only Tom Baker's legendary Genesis of the Daleks, a story almost worshiped by fans. Perhaps most importantly, Remembrance shows off quite a few changes from the previous season, and reintroduces mystery and drama to the series. Sylvester McCoy is clearly finding his feet as the Seventh Doctor, the story shows off a new companion in Ace, and the production and writing seems quite specifically designed to suck the viewer in and set the tone for the season. Here are three things we learned from Remembrance of the Daleks....
To give you some context as to how astonishing this is, season 24 (the season just before Remembrance) is considered to be the worst Doctor Who season of all time. In a recent poll that ranked 200 Doctor Who stories based on their entertainment value, every story from season 24 was in the bottom 10% percent. The average ranking of all the stories from the season came in at a whopping 189.25th place out of 200 stories. Remembrance of the Daleks, which started airing only nine months after the previous season concluded, stood at 14th.
Although the 60s are seen as the golden age of the Daleks, and rightfully so, Remembrance can also claim to be one of the finest Dalek stories ever done. The Daleks are brutal in this story, as they should be, with more destructive capabilities than ever. Even Terry Molloy, whom I have criticized in the past, played his part as Davros nicely. In the poll, Remembrance comes in as the second best Dalek story of all time, behind only Tom Baker's legendary Genesis of the Daleks, a story almost worshiped by fans. Perhaps most importantly, Remembrance shows off quite a few changes from the previous season, and reintroduces mystery and drama to the series. Sylvester McCoy is clearly finding his feet as the Seventh Doctor, the story shows off a new companion in Ace, and the production and writing seems quite specifically designed to suck the viewer in and set the tone for the season. Here are three things we learned from Remembrance of the Daleks....
1) The fun and games from the previous season are over. Season 24, in addition to being considered the worst season ever, is also known for its silliness. I mean, Richard Briers in a Hitler outfit? Aliens vacationing on 1950s Earth? Though some of this clowning was seen as good television at the time, most of it was considered to be over the top, overbearing or nonsensical. For this new season, Doctor Who needed to be able prove to its audience and the BBC that it was capable of producing serious drama. Enter Remembrance of the Daleks. Not only is Remembrance serious and dramatic, it is engaging and much more spellbinding than say Paradise Towers or Time and the Rani. Remembrance makes a point to start the story quickly and keep it moving. Watch the video below; this action scene occurs within twenty minutes of the opening credits. The Doctor lands on 1960s Earth and essentially walks into a skirmish between the British army and a Dalek. The special effects team clearly relished this opportunity and the explosions are aplenty. Does this look anything like the previous season? It's obvious the series has decided to change to a much more serious style and that the fun, songs, and games from the previous season are over. Don't know why the video has the weird psychedelic background, by the way.
2) Ace is for real. Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, Peri, Mel. Which of these companions stand out most in your mind as a well developed and thought out character? Seriously? Nyssa is probably the best of them (she has a B+ on my website), but even she has plenty of problems and missed potential. Let's face it; none of these companions are particularly good characters neither did they capture the audience's imagination in a way that say Leela or Jamie did. What makes this so terrible is that these companions represent seven years of Doctor Who. That is seven years without a companion that has been well written. Frankly, it's been depressing watching them come and go, each one more cookie-cutout than the last one. Ace, however, might be the one to change all that. After a somewhat ho-hum introduction in Dragonfire, she really shows off what a great companion she can be in Remembrance. She's engaging, she's active, and she's capable, albeit she doesn't always do what the Doctor orders. Oh, and she's generally likeable! Who's the last companion to possess all these qualities? I will most definitely keep tabs on our little baseball wielding teenager, but all the signs so far say that Ace might be the best companion we have had in a very, very long time.
3) The Daleks have finally conquered their most brutal and unforgiving enemy; and just when you thought it was safe to go upstairs.... Yes, the Daleks have defeated a set of stairs for the first time on-screen, as can be clearly seen in the picture on the right! This is somewhat hilarious considering the Daleks have crude time travel technology, and that they have enslaved or destroyed countless races and planets, but yet up to this point we, as an audience, still had no idea how the scourge of the universe might overcome a basic building construction concept. All things considered however, the scene where the Dalek does hover over the staircase is quite well done and works wonderfully well as a cliff-hanger. Yes, it took a while for the Doctor Who production team to answer this puzzling paradox, but as a Doctor Who fan, I think I can safely say the answer was worth the 25 seasons of waiting.
Well, that's it for today. Thanks for visiting, and I hope to hear from you soon. Cheers!
Well, that's it for today. Thanks for visiting, and I hope to hear from you soon. Cheers!