December 13: Remembrance of the Daleks Parts Three & Four

Nope, those first two episodes definitely weren't a fluke; Remembrance of the Daleks handily sets itself up to be a standout tale.  These installments are a little more action-packed, as we get to see some Dalek vs. Dalek battles and some skirmishes with people as well.  And like the first two episodes, there are a lot of intelligent moments throughout; the reveal that that Dalek chair thing wasn't actually Davros but was in fact the sinister little girl who'd been lurking in parts one and two is a nice bit of misdirection, while the Doctor's plan to move the military to Coal Hill School -- and thus away from the Dalek action -- is also well done, even if it turns out he's mistaken as to where the Imperial Daleks plan on landing.

It's also during the Coal Hill segment in part three that we get a conversation between the Doctor and Ace about the Hand of Omega (a Gallifreyan stellar manipulator -- "it's called that because Time Lords have an infinite capacity for pretension," the Doctor tells Ace).  Which wouldn't in itself be terribly noteworthy except for a line muttered offhand by the Doctor at the end: "And didn't we have trouble with the prototype."  It seems Nathan-Turner and Cartmel want to inject some mystery back into the Doctor, like in the old days before we knew he was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, and so there are going to be some suggestions that he's (all the fans join in now) more than just a Time Lord.  It's not too bad here, although by Silver Nemesis it's going to get a bit irritating.

The Special Weapons Dalek. (Remembrance of the Daleks Part
Four) ©BBC

But like I said, there are some impressive set pieces, like the Daleks destroying Ratcliffe's warehouse doors (in a massive explosion that set off all sorts of car alarms and got the police involved, apparently), and while the Daleks are pretty terrible at hitting each other in their standoff (maybe we should assume they have some sort of projected energy weapon deflector built in), as a child I thought the Special Weapons Dalek was incredibly cool, and now that I'm an adult I find it just as cool.  And the Imperial Dalek shuttlecraft that lands is full-size!  Great job there.  And I like both how they've made the Emperor Dalek look rather like the TV Comic one and how he's revealed to be Davros -- which still gives Davros an appearance in this story without causing him to overwhelm the Daleks themselves.

Remembrance of the Daleks is a stylish, confident production that reinvigorates both the Daleks and the Doctor, as we see him plot against the Daleks in an effort to get them to destroy themselves.  It's fascinating to watch Sylvester McCoy's Doctor quietly and shrewdly maneuver his way through events -- it's a side of the Doctor that we've not really seen before, and one that works a lot better than any attempts to add mystery to the character.  All that and a proto-UNIT group that's just as entertaining.  Remembrance of the Daleks is a gloriously entertaining reaffirmation of the show's principles -- filled with a sense of history (like a 25th anniversary season story should be) but emphatically looking toward the future.  An outright classic.