| REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS by Ben Aaronovitch |
| Story 151 Synopsis: Earth, London, Shoreditch, 1963. The Doctor brings the TARDIS and Ace so that he can deal with some business. Ace messes about, and the Doctor has a grave situation to deal with, arranging a burial for an amazingly powerful artefact. It soon transpires that the Daleks are in town, or to be precise, the Renegade Daleks. The ICMG are failing to deal with this new threat, but the Doctor helps out. There are shenanigans at Coal Hill School, where the Headmaster keeps something nasty in the cellar. There are Imperial Daleks, led by an Emperor, waiting in orbit, ready to strike. Ace finds that there are neo-Nazis to watch out for, too. Things heat up, when the Doctor's artefact turns out to be what the Daleks want. It is the Hand Of Omega, a remote stellar manipulator, and both sets of Daleks think it'll tip the war in their favour. The Renegades have the upper hand, until the Imperials land, and with the use of a Special Weapons Dalek, they win and take the Hand. The Emperor turns out to be Davros, but the Doctor has a trick up his sleeve. He has already pre-programmed the Hand to slip from the Dalek's clutches, head to Skaro, and destroy the Dalek's homeworld. A side-effect is that the Imperial ship, with Davros appears to be destroyed too. Pausing only to kill the Renegade leader, the Black Dalek, the Doctor and Ace leave town. |
| Review:- In the Autumn of 1988, it was Heaven to be alive. Even the delay of the new season because of the Seoul Olympics couldn't dampen this. I am here today to tell you that this show punched the right buttons. I was at school, and we really made a big deal out of it. The story is quite good, with cross and double-cross, and some exciting cliffhangers, upping the stakes every time. Group Captain Gilmore is a clever trick, and the finest non-Brigadier until Blood Heat. Simon Williams is jolly entertaining, and called Simon, too, of course. The Imperial-Renegade conflict is a good extension of the Dalek story, and the fact that this story sets out to finish it all off is a bit of a shame. Of course, John Peel hit the old reset button in War Of The Daleks, and no-one seems to have wanted to return to the subject. The Special Weapons Dalek is one of the greatest inventions connected with the Daleks, maybe second only to Davros. This advancement, that Daleks could be more powerful than other Daleks is intriguing, and JP again follows this up, I think anyway, with the Strider Daleks. On the downside, this story is about 10 minutes of plot, padded to 4 episodes. Almost all the characters are dull (save the Doctor and Davros), and the storytelling leaves a lot to be desired. I suppose the reason we raved about this at school was the action. The action scenes are many, and memorable. Ace's escape from the Chemistry lab is not as good as the subsequent cornered-by-3-Daleks cliffhanger. The first Dalek encounter in the scrapyard is a little gem. The Doctor's entry of the Dalek shuttle. The first episode cliffhanger. The scenes where the Imperials wipe the floor with the Renegades. All so good. But there is a price, and that price is the Cartmel MasterPlan. This seems to be summed up, as The Doctor Strikes Back! Suddenly, and for no good reason, the Doctor seems keen to thwack all the baddies in the Universe, and so he sets up traps, waits for the baddies to fall into them, then springs the traps. Garbage, total garbage. Also, we see the first steps along the road to the deification of Ace. Having seen the plot of Death Comes To Time, it is heartening to wonder whether it was all worth it. Lungbarrow only suggested what was planned. The story of Ace now has a beginning, a middle and an end. I still like this story, for it hits its targets. Oh, and the audacity of putting Michael Sheard in a school setting deserves some praise. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book, and seen the story. |