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| Standard and special edition DVDs |
While there was a definitely a feeling of renewed energy in season 24, one thing that season lacked was a sense of confidence -- you occasionally got the sense that they didn't quite know who they were making this show for anymore. That's emphatically not the case for Remembrance of the Daleks, which is absolutely brimming with self-confidence and self-assuredness. They've decided to make this show in a certain way and they're confident that the audience will come along for the ride. (That the ratings are still down has more to do with scheduling Doctor Who against Coronation Street, one of the most popular television shows in all of Britain, for the duration of McCoy's tenure as the Doctor (matched with the fact that ratings at this point don't take into account people who record a show to watch it later) than with problems with the show itself.)
Setting this story in the same place and time as "An Unearthly Child" is a good move, as it gives everything a sense of history. But wisely, writer Ben Aaronovitch doesn't dwell on that history but instead uses it as a backdrop for the actual story he's interested in telling. There's some stuff about how when the Doctor was first there he left something called the Hand of Omega behind that the Daleks are interested in, but that's about as much understanding as you need to enjoy this. This is a script that sparkles with wit and energy. From Ace being confused about pre-decimal coinage to part one's climactic cliffhanger of a Dalek hovering up a flight of stairs, Remembrance of the Daleks is able to tell an exciting tale that's also thoughtfully scripted. And we get some lovely dialogue exchanges as well: the Doctor's discussion with John in the café late at night is justly lauded, but there's also some sly fun-poking at the previous times Earth has been invaded by aliens:
DOCTOR: What do you make of that?...
ACE: A landing pattern for some kind of spacecraft, isn't it?
DOCTOR: Very good.
ACE: But this is Earth, 1963. Well, someone would have noticed. I'd have heard about it.
DOCTOR: Do you remember the Zygon gambit with the Loch Ness Monster? Or the Yetis in the Underground?
ACE: The what?
DOCTOR: Your species has the most amazing capacity for self-deception, matched by only its ingenuity when trying to destroy itself.
The other good move that Aaronovitch has made is sidelining Davros. I like Davros as a character, but he tends to overshadow the stories he's in; here we get someone who might be Davros (the chair looks about right and the voice sounds like a decent match, even if we don't get to see a face) in charge of the Renegade (grey and black) Daleks, but this story isn't about him -- it's about the Daleks. No direct confrontations between the two Dalek factions yet, but the Daleks we do see are dangerous and powerful. (Great extermination effect, by the way, with the skeleton of the squaddie briefly visible as he's blasted by the Dalek in the junkyard -- and yes, they've spelled "Foreman" wrong on the junkyard door, but oh well. McCoy pronounces "Spiridon" wrong too -- ['spi.ɹɪ.dən] instead of ['spaɪ.ɹɪ.dən] -- but there's no need to get worked up about it.)
And while we don't get any real Dalek action yet, other than a few skirmishes, the script tries to mirror the Daleks' fascistic tendencies with some of the people we see: so Ratcliffe was apparently a Nazi sympathizer, while Mike's mother is a racist (judging from the "No Coloureds" sign hanging in the window of her boarding house) -- although, smartly, this sign is the only real indication that she's anything other than a standard old lady. People, even friendly ones, can be monsters too, the script seems to be saying.
So these two episodes have action, character, and a good deal of intelligence. If the last two episodes are like this, Doctor Who will have turned out one of its first bona fide classics in some time.
152 This feeling gets more acute when you get to the actual 25th anniversary tale, Silver Nemesis, which, other than featuring a handful of cameos (in long shot, so it's not like you can tell anyway) and a plot that revolves around 25-year periods being important, feels like it could have been shown at any old time. In the days before Internet, when PBS was showing these without any extra fanfare, my father refused to believe that Remembrance of the Daleks wasn't the genuine 25th anniversary story and that Silver Nemesis was. It's not hard to see his point.