Adam Duncan reviews

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Cert:

Cat.no: BBCDVD 1040

Running time: 93 minutes

Year: 1988

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2,4, PAL

Chapters: 24 plus extras

Sound: Stereo

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-Enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras: Audio Commentary from Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, Music Only Option, Photo Gallery, Multi-Angle Scenes, BBC1 Trailers, On-Screen Production Notes.

Director:

Andrew Morgan

Producer:

John Nathan-Turner

Screenplay:

Ben Aaronovitch

Music:

Keff McCulloch

Cast:

The Doctor: Sylvester McCoy
Ace: Sophie Aldred
Mike Smith: Dursley McLinden
Professor Rachel Jensen: Pamela Salem
Ratcliffe: George Sewell

The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and Ace (Sophie Aldred) arrive on Earth in 1963 to deal with some unfinished business. Two rival factions of Daleks are after The Hand Of Omega, an ancient timelord device capable of great power.

The Daleks' plan to use the device to perfect their own time-travel capability so they can conquer time and space. The Doctor uses the help of a local military unit to fend off as many Daleks as possible while he tries to find a solution.

Remembrance Of The Daleks is one of the best Doctor Who stories of the late 80's and possibly one of the best ever made. It's great to see the Daleks at battle and the action scenes are pretty lavish. The script does has its more serious issues particulary racism which is highlighted throughout the story.

Okay the effects are not exactly movie standard but they are quite good for a 13 year old programme.

Remembrance Of The Daleks was first transmitted from October 5th to October 26th, 1988.

The picture quality is very good and is very close to broadcast standard.

The sound is Stereo and was the first Who story made in that audio format. While the Stereo is fairly functional, a 5.1 mix would have done wonders for the many explosions in this tale.

Extras:

Chapters: There are 24 chapters spread throughout the feature as well as the option of which episode to choose from.

Languages and Subtitles: The language and subtitles are in English.

Audio Commentary: A commentary from Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred is on the disc although it is not advertised on the box but it is included on the leaflet inside. The track is excellent as the two reveal all kinds of interesting facts about the making of this show such as that an explosion set off all car alarms in the location area and bought out the emergency services!

Deleted Scenes: There is 10 minutes of deleted and extended material on the disc and is a nice inclusion but could have had the option of integrating this into the feature courtesy of seamless branching.

Outtakes: There are 4 minutes of fairly amusing outtakes which mostly shows McCoy goofing around on set and fluffing lines.

Music Only Option: This allows you to listen to Keff McCulloch's score on its own.

Photo Gallery: The gallery has 67 images of main actors, daleks and behind the scenes stills including a few shots of the infamous explosion in London.