The inclusion of this story at the bottom of the Best list does not, does not, does not mean that it's a bad story. Far from it. If anything, it's an indicator of the cutoff point between a complicated Dalek story that works despite itself and a Dalek story that is too complicated for its own good. There's a lot going on in this one: multiple nods to the series' past, the introduction of a proto-UNIT which we'll unfortunately never get to see again, an escalation of the Dalek civil war first teased in Revelation of the Daleks, the first appearance of an Emperor Dalek since 1967, an awesome weaponized Dalek... and best of all, a stairs-capable Dalek! Sure, it's a bit heavy-handed at times in addressing the racial climate of the 1960s and drawing a parallel between human xenophobia and that of the Daleks themselves. But how many people can do that sort of thing and manage to fit an actor from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in there? Even Davros' entirely unsurprising appearance in the story doesn't pull it down, though we'll of course never hear another word about why he's in that ridiculous shell nor why he eventually abandons it. And to be fair, it doesn't matter. Remembrance of the Daleks may not be the best Dalek story from the '80s, but no one can argue that it's not the best televised Dalek story featuring the Seventh Doctor. Right?
Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
