25 – Twenty-Fifth Season – Sylvester McCoy

Remembrance of the Daleks

This story reflects beginnings and endings. From the beginnings side, it is set in Coal Hill School, and inside Ace finds a book on the history of the French Revolution. And there is also the junkyard at 76 Totter’s Lane. And it is set in 1963. All of this is a callback to the very first Doctor Who story, An Unearthly Child. All in all it is a miracle they didn’t run into Susan, Ian, and Barbara in the school. As for the endings, this is the last story to feature the Daleks in the classic series. We wouldn’t see them again until 2005 with Christopher Eccleston. And it being 1963 Ace is introduced to racism and sexism and doesn’t particularly appreciate either of them.

This story is the beginning of Andrew Cartmel’s plan to make the Doctor more mysterious. McCoy’s Doctor is very devious in this story, and drops some the silliness he had in Season 24. For example, he no longer mangles common sayings, and is decidedly serious throughout the story. In a scene where he confronts Davros there was originally an exchange where Davros calls him “:”Just another Time Lord” and the Doctor replies that he is far more than just another Time Lord. This is part of Cartmel’s plan, but unfortunately they had to cut scenes to get the running length down, and this exchange was left on the cutting room floor. I wish it had been kept in.

What we have here is a Dalek v. Dalek conflict, with the Imperial Daleks in charge of the school, and a rebel Dalek faction in charge of the junkyard. And what they are all after is the Hand of Omega, though it is not a hand, that is just the name for the device that was used by Omega to turn a star into a power source for the Time Lords’ control of time. The Doctor is also after it, as he is the one who left it here in a previous visit, probably when he was the William Hartnell Doctor since the man at the funeral home says he was expecting an older man with white hair. Ace initially assumes that the Doctor wants to get the Hand of Omega and keep it away from the Daleks, but his plan is much more devious: he actually wants the right group of Daleks to get it.

The Imperial Daleks’ mothership is in geostationary orbit above the school, and they have been sending Daleks there via a transmat device, but the Doctor disables it. so they send down a shuttle craft with more Daleks to attack the rebels. The initial group meets fierce resistance, so the Imperials bring out the Special Weapons Dalek, only used in this instance (Though it appears in Asylum of the Daleks in derelict condition). This Dalek does the trick, and the Imperials take the Hand of Omega back to the Shuttlecraft, and then up to the mothership. And this was the Doctor’s plan all along, because he reprogrammed the Hand of Omega. Devious, he definitely is. But it all adds up to a fantastic story, probably the best Sylvester McCoy story, and in the top 10 of all Doctor Who stories.

In this story they made a point of showing a scene where a Dalek goes up a staircase just to put that one to bed once and for all.

Reviews

The Happiness Patrol

The Doctor takes the TARDIS to a colony of Earth called Terra Alpha, but unlike in other stories where the Doctor accidentally stumbles into a situation, this is a case where he knew something was wrong and came here deliberately.The colony is ruled by a woman named Helen A. and she is a tyrant. In this case she has decided that everyone must be happy, and to accomplish this she kills anyone who seems to be unhappy. She is intended to be a parody of Margaret Thatcher, which pretty much everyone involved in the show hated. And to keep the parody going, the Doctor gets the drones to down tools and go on strike. Helen A constantly exhorts people to be happy, but behind closed doors the evil and ruthless side of her comes out. One of her top henchmen is a robot called the Candyman, who kills people by drowning them in liquid fondant. And the others are a group of women called the Happiness Patrol, who all have similar hair and clothes, making them hard to distinguish as individuals, which I think was the point. A blues harmonica player becomes one of the Doctor’s allies as he attempts to overthrow the regime of Helen A.

The point which the Doctor makes to Helen A. at the end is that there can be no happiness without also having sadness, which he calls the two sides of one coin. As everything is collapsing around her Helen A. attempts to flee in a space shuttle, only to find that is has already been commandeered by her husband and one of her top aides, who have up until ow hidden their hatred for her. But when she finds her dying pet Stigorax, Fifi. Fifi was killed in the pipes by a falling mass of candy, and this gets through to Helen A. who now weeps bitterly. Perhaps we are not meant to be happy all of the time. But the harmonica player decides to stay and teach people the blues.

By the way, if you ever hear someone say that “Doctor Who is getting political, it’s not like it used to be,” this show is one of many exhibits that Doctor Who has always been political. And I really liked this story.

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Silver Nemesis

This is the 25th season, and the first episode of this story aired on November 23, exactly 25 years since the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, aired in 1963. So of course Silver had to feature prominently here.

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The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

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Season 25

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