Sunday, May 08, 2022

Remembrance of the Daleks Part Two


The one where Ace attacks a Dalek with a baseball bat...

The resolution of the cliffhanger is just as exciting as the build-up, with Ace regaining consciousness and kneeing the headmaster in the goolies before unlocking the cellar door to let the Doctor out. The Doctor falls onto his back as Ace slams the door in the face of the rising Dalek, which then blasts its way through the door with explosive effect. It's a well-executed scene, typical of this story that all the money is squarely on the screen. All credit to director Andrew Morgan for making this story look as glossy and expensive as he could.

Darting outside, the Doctor and Ace pick up some handily-just-arrived anti-tank rockets, and then go back into the school with the intention of destroying the transmat, presumably so no more Daleks can beam down. Just as you think you've got chance to draw breath, the cellar Dalek emerges and starts firing at our heroes, who have to dive behind an upturned table for cover. Sparks fly, explosions erupt, and Ace aims for the Dalek's eyepiece. BOOM! The Dalek's wiped out, as is the school's trophy cabinet.

Sylvester McCoy is magnificent throughout, especially when the military arrives and Gilmore states that it's good that the Dalek has been destroyed. "It is not good," the Doctor snipes. "Nothing about this is good. I've made a grave error of judgement. I'm going to wish I'd never started all this." What a wonderfully ambiguous line, suggesting the Doctor has been plotting this for some time (since An Unearthly Child?). He knew the Daleks were following him - that is, the Imperial Daleks - and he knew they were after the Hand of Omega. But what he wasn't expecting was two antagonistic Dalek factions: the Imperials and the Renegades.

The seeds for the factionalised Daleks were sewn in Revelation of the Daleks, with Davros creating his own Imperial Daleks (white and gold) to counter the Supreme Dalek ("that upstart") and his original grey liveried Daleks. In this story we see who we might assume is Davros siding with the Renegade Daleks, and the Imperials (may their shells be blighted) are his enemies, which is a complete about-turn. So what's been going on back on Skaro? Has there been some kind of civil war? All very intriguing... 

Ace goes with Mike and the others back to his mum's B&B for the night, while the Doctor revisits the "buried past". He calls in at Harry's cafe, the sound of foghorns hooting in the night, and decides to have a cup of tea. This scene is another of those Doctor-defining moments which McCoy seems to have so many of (certainly more than most of his predecessors). The Doctor is understated, dark, brooding and contemplative, that hint of melancholy creeping in with a twinge of self-doubt.

It's odd that the Doctor knows Harry runs the place, because he didn't meet Harry in part 1, but we do know the Doctor is aware of this cafe from before, and he's certainly aware Harry's wife will give birth to twins. Actor Harry Fowler was 61 when this story was recorded, so he must have had a much younger wife! I'm not sure why Harry is swapped for John here, but it does make the scene so much more effective as the Doctor considers the repercussions of his actions, and relates it to sugar plantations and black slavery. "Every great decision creates ripples," the Doctor ponders, "like a huge boulder dropped in a lake. The ripples merge, rebound off the banks in unforeseeable ways. The heavier the decision, the larger the waves, the more uncertain the consequences..."

Doctor Who is getting deep, but it's well-written, meaningful stuff that is impossible to imagine in Eric Saward's time. It's inconceivable that Peter Davison or Colin Baker would have been afforded such scenes in their time, but thankfully McCoy had Andrew Cartmel as script editor, a man who knew Doctor Who could have depth and meaning like this. It's only a little scene, but it casts a light on the Doctor's character, his inner thoughts, his self-doubt. And McCoy delivers it masterfully, perhaps his greatest ever single scene. The fact "the moment" is beautifully undercut by John's nonchalant aside - "Life's like that. Best thing is just to get on with it" - allows the action to start up again and the story to move on.

The Doctor visits the local funeral director, where he left a casket (housing the Hand of Omega) in his first incarnation. This is yet another Doctor-defining scene, in which McCoy exudes power and intellect through his stillness and muted delivery. We get to see this darker Doctor operating alone, scheming on the go. It's the way he quietly closes the door after Martin's left the room which does it for me. The Doctor means business, talking to the Hand like it's his pet, and using it to add some kind of super power to Ace's baseball bat. And then he walks out with the casket floating behind him (how does he get down the street without turning heads?), and Martin faints at the sight. Martin's expectation that the Doctor should be "an old geezer with white hair" is the icing on this particularly well-baked cake.

The Doctor takes the casket to be buried at the local churchyard, where the grave has been dug and ready for a month, according to the vicar. This is a bit odd, because if this is supposed to be November 1963, the grave has been ready since October. But the reason the grave was never filled was because the Doctor "had to leave suddenly", which I presume is a reference to An Unearthly Child, which was also November 1963. Mind you, the dating of this story is notoriously problematic, because nobody's talking about the assassination (which everybody would be doing) and evening scenes seem to take place in broad daylight.

Doctor Who is pushing boundaries. Never before could I imagine the programme taking on big, serious issues such as racism (as it does in both the cafe scene, and when Ace finds the 'No Coloureds' sign) or fascism (Ratcliffe says the UK fought for the wrong cause in the last war, making him a Nazi sympathiser), but now it's taking itself seriously, and has something to say. It's not heavy-handed (as some people accuse the Chibnall era of being), but it makes its views known without being in-yer-face. Ace going out for "a breath of fresh air" says everything.

And what is that TV programme starting on the BBC? It's 5.15pm on a Saturday teatime, it's supposed to be November 1963, the programme is a new science-fiction series and it starts "Doc-". It's a lovely in-joke, but one best avoided from a continuity standpoint. If we try and make Doctor Who exist as a fictional programme within the Doctor Who universe, it may all implode!

Quickies:
  • Mr Parsons thinking he could take Mike from behind (ahem) is a little unconvincing. Parsons is in his girthy 50s, Mike is in his spunky 20s - of course the younger man's going to succeed. I like how Morgan shoots Parsons lying in repose on a grave marked 'In Loving Memory', as well as the lovely shot looking up from inside the grave as the Doctor throws soil on top of the camera.
  • The Doctor reads Doctor in the House by Richard Gordon, a 1952 novel which spawned a radio series in 1968 starring Richard Briers (oo-er!). The Doctor must like reading books about doctors, following his interest in The Doctor's Dilemma in Dragonfire.
  • There's a running joke involving the Doctor stealing other people's pens and pencils, something which sadly never makes it beyond this individual episode. I think it would have been quite amusing if pen theft was one of the Seventh Doctor's ongoing traits!
The scene where the Doctor and Ace have their first mini ding-dong is great too (is there anything about this story that isn't great?). It's the hallmark of a good, believable friendship when people fall out and argue. They always make up again, because that's what friends do, but proper friends have the freedom and confidence to disagree, in the knowledge that it won't harm what they have. When the Doctor snaps "I haven't got the time" at Ace, she's visibly hurt, and he sees this too. He softens towards her, gripping her shoulder kindly, and appeals for her trust. They're OK again within moments, but the fact they can have these moments of friction, and still get through it, is truthful. It's a far cry from the days when Peri and the Sixth Doctor would bicker tiresomely for 20 minutes in an effort to portray "a relationship".

I like how the Doctor is taking all this so seriously. He's concerned that the humans may be wiped out in the crossfire between the Dalek factions, and he's fully aware the Imperial Dalek mothership, containing up to 400 Daleks, can crack the Earth open like an egg. He acknowledges the gravity of the situation, and coupled with the quite obvious firepower and strength of the Daleks in this story, it's probably the first time the old favourites have seemed this threatening since the Pertwee era. "Frightening, isn't it?" says the Doctor. "To find there are others better versed in death than human beings."

As Imperial forces begin massing in the cellar - why did the Doctor not completely destroy that transmat when he had the chance? - Ace returns to the school to get the ghetto blaster she left in the lab. These climactic scenes in the corridors of Coal Hill are masterfully directed by Morgan, as Ace discovers there's literally a Dalek around every corner, down every staircase, and through every door. This includes the now iconic scene of Ace attacking a Dalek with a baseball bat - now that's character-defining! - as well as the fiery destruction of the science lab, Ace smashing her way through a window to escape, and then avoiding more Daleks at every turn as they aim their weapons at her.

It's wonderful, exciting stuff, putting the companion in very direct danger as she's chased through a school by loads of Daleks. How wonderful must kids have found that back in 1988? This episode was seen by 5.8m people, the highest rated episode since Revelation of the Daleks (ironically) three years before. That level sadly wasn't maintained, but it's a reflection of how successful Season 25 was at the time, despite being up against the mighty soap Coronation Street in the schedules.

The episode ends with Ace cornered by no fewer than three Daleks screaming "Exterminate!" as the credits roll. This is by far the most exciting and action-packed story Doctor Who has had in years, maybe even to date. It feels like a big-budget movie done on a BBC TV budget, and much of the credit for that must go to director Andrew Morgan.

First broadcast: October 12th, 1988

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The cafe scene.
The Bad: Maybe there are a few too many characters. What is the point of Alison, for instance?
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★★


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