Whovians were still grumbling about Sylvester McCoy's debut series when the powerhouse that is Remembrance Of The Daleks blasted onto our screens. Season 24 had been characterized by a mish-mash of graphic novel grit and camp silliness. The twenty-fifth year of the show however opened with a different kettle of Kaled altogether. The crumbling brickwork of Shoreditch and the classic location of Coal Hill School provided the London'y goodness in Ben Aaronovitch's witty and action-packed script. Long before Clara Oswald rocked up to teach English, Ace was getting kneed in the unmentionables by a zombified Headmaster, in addition to de-ocularizing Daleks with her electric baseball bat! It was also the first story to start depicting the capital properly, as a multicultural landscape away from the spick and span outlook of the BBC. A great example of this is the Seventh Doctor's exchange about the nature of sugar with cafe worker John, played by The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air's Joseph Marcell: "If this sugar thing had never started, my great grandfather wouldn't have been kidnapped, chained up and sold in Kingston in the first place. I'd be an African!"
I am a journalist and comedian who enjoys American movies of the 70s, Amicus horror compendiums, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, Naomi Watts and sitting down. My short fiction has been published as part of the Iris Wildthyme range from Obverse Books.
