Doctor Who “Remembrance of the Daleks” (1988), title card [Doctor Who Collectors’ Wiki]
Remembrance of the Daleks
Background
Remembrance of the Daleks was the first serial of season 25 of Doctor Who. The story’s setting brought the Doctor back to 76 Totter’s Lane in the year 1963, where the series began in An Unearthly Child.
Radio Times
19:35 – Doctor Who
“Remembrance of the Daleks” Part 2
Second part of a four-part adventure by Ben Aaronovitch
Starring Sylvester McCoy
London, 1963: the Doctor wants to bury the past – before it buries him…
K9 was the designation given to a series of intelligent, dog-like robots who served as companions of Professor Marius, the Fourth Doctor, Leela, Romana, and Sarah Jane Smith.
K9 Mark I, II, III, and IV addressed whoever was directing them as “Master” or “Mistress” depending upon gender, and used the formal “affirmative” and “negative” rather than “yes” and “no”. They were programmed to be both loyal and logical, with a penchant for taking orders literally, almost to a fault. Their striped collars mirrored the Fourth Doctor’s trademark scarf.
K9 had a personality very consistent across the models with some contact with the Doctor. He was polite and formal, with pedantry bordering on condescension. Though he often displayed feelings such as sorrow and self-regard, he often stated that he had not been programmed to have emotions.
He did not use contractions such as “you’ve” for “you have” and addressed others by titles such as “Master”, “Mistress”, “Doctor-Master” (to refer to the Doctor) or “Young Master” (Adric). Though he did not seem to resent his subordinate status, he sided with the Doctor’s companions over the Doctor and showed a dark side, regarding other artificial intelligences with contempt.
With his great intelligence, he had a tendency to bore people with facts and did not stop immediately when asked, as he did to Leela on Pluto. When being told that he would have to stay behind in the TARDIS, K9 often argued, giving the Doctor reasons why he should go such as “he would be a good dog.” K9 always wanted to assist the Doctor.
K9 Mark I
Professor Frederick Marius, who invented the first K9 in the year 5000 while working on the asteroid K4067, described him as “my best friend and constant companion.” Marius had a dog on Earth, but weight requirements did not allow him to bring his real dog into space, so he built K9. Marius used his own medical computer, a state-of-the-art intraresponsive brain app, protective anti-radiation cladding, probes, a laser scalpel, a vision and voice box and two scanning antennas.
The Professor offered K9 to the Fourth Doctor as the same weight requirements made him unable to take Mark I back to Earth. After adventures with Leela and the Doctor, Mark I decided to stay on Gallifrey with his “mistress”.
Appearances
The Invisible Enemy (from Part 2)
Image of the Fendahl
The Sun Makers
Underworld
The Invasion of Time
K9 Mark II
The Doctor obtained or constructed at least one backup model of K9. Immediately after leaving Mark I behind with Leela, he unpacked K9 Mark II. This version of K9 accompanied the Doctor and his new companion on their quest to locate the segments of the Key to Time.
This K9 exhibited the ability to sense and warn others of danger. He was also more mobile than his predecessor.
K9 travelled to E-Space with the Fourth Doctor and Romana II, where they met Adric. Damaged by the time winds, K9 Mark II could not cross back into N-Space with the Doctor. He decided to stay behind at the Gateway with Romana II to help her free the remaining Tharils from slavery.
Appearances
The Invasion of Time (Part 6, boxed)
The Ribos Operation
The Pirate Planet
The Stones of Blood
The Androids of Tara
The Armageddon Factor
Destiny of the Daleks
The Creature from the Pit
Nightmare of Eden
The Horns of Nimon
The Leisure Hive
Meglos
Full Circle
State of Decay
Warriors’ Gate
K9 Mark III
A third model, K9 Mark III (again either obtained or constructed by the Doctor), was shipped in 1978 to Sarah Jane Smith at the home she had shared with her Aunt Lavinia in South Croydon during her companionship of the Third and Fourth Doctors (A Girl’s Best Friend).
After several adventures, K9 Mark III slowly began breaking down and eventually ended up deactivated in a cardboard box in Sarah’s attic. When the Tenth Doctor met Sarah Jane, he reactivated K9 and made temporary repairs. However Mark III ended up sacrificing himself whilst fighting strange, bat-like creatures.
As a heartbroken Sarah Jane watched the Tenth Doctor depart, the TARDIS dematerialised to reveal Mark IV. K9 said the Doctor rebuilt him with “new omniflexible hyperlink capabilities”.
Bruce Forsyth’s Big Night (1978), title card [UKGameshows]Bruce Forsyth’s Big Night was a TV show screened on ITV on Saturday nights throughout the autumn and winter of 1978. It starred Bruce Forsyth. A total of 12 episodes were broadcast between October 7, and December 31, 1978. A further one off special was shown on April 4, 1980.
The show was made by London Weekend Television. Following the huge success enjoyed by The Generation Game, Forsyth was poached from the BBCfor a reported £15,000 a show with each show having a budget of £250,000. The idea was that the show would provide Bruce with a vehicle for his many and various talents. The show was designed to take up an entire Saturday evening on ITV and win the ratings battle with the BBC. However, it was poorly received and was broadly unsuccessful with The Generation Game (now hosted by Larry Grayson) winning higher audiences. The first episode topped the UK television ratings, but episode two didn’t feature in the top 20, causing several attempts to revamp the format. Eventually, the show was cut to just 90 minutes in length and moved to a much earlier Saturday night slot, but still the ratings did not improve. Forsyth claimed in many subsequent on-screen interviews that the retooling did result in an increase in ratings, but this was not borne out by contemporary data.
The show featured some mini-games, like “Beat The Goalie” (a phone-in game with similarities to The Golden Shot) and little games with the studio audience – it also featured mini-comedies, such as a revival of 1960s series The Worker, with Charlie Drake as The Worker and Henry McGee (one of Benny Hill‘s stooges) as the man at the labour exchange, and also The Glums, a TV adaptation of short sketches from the radio series Take It From Here, with Jimmy Edwards reprising his role he immortalised on radio as Mr Glum, Ian Lavender (Private Pike from Dad’s Army) playing the role of Ron (played by Dick Bentley in the radio series) and Patricia Brake as Eth, the role played on radio by June Whitfield. Both those series were eventually made into a full series in their own right, but they were short-lived. The show also featured Cannon and Ball doing their own sketches, but the producer decided to axe their part from the show every single week, as they believed more Bruce was the answer to the problems to the show.
Each show also featured a game of The £1,000 Pyramid, hosted by Steve Jones, which was the first UK adaption of the popular American game show Pyramid. This show later became a standalone programme on ITV, with Jones remaining as host. In addition, Jones would go on to be one of the hosts of the UK adaptation of Jeopardy!
Bruce in sparkling style fronting his brand new star-spangled series of 12 entertainment specials. Games for the studio audience plus viewers at home, situation comedies, music, celebrity spots and, what’s more, Anthea Redfern helps Bruce to host the shows.
Games included Teletennis, Beat the Goalie, and the £1,000 Pyramid. The first episode features situation comedies based on The Glums, starring Jimmy Edwards, Ian Lavender and Patricia Brake, plus Charlie Drake as The Worker, with Henry McGee. Rod Hull & Emu were visiting towns around the country, and Bette Midler performed with Alyn Ainsworth & his Orchestra.
Doctor Who “Remembrance of the Daleks” (1988), title card [Doctor Who Collectors’ Wiki]
Remembrance of the Daleks
Background
Remembrance of the Daleks was the first serial of season 25 of Doctor Who. The story’s setting brought the Doctor back to 76 Totter’s Lane in the year 1963, where the series began in An Unearthly Child.
Remembrance was the final televised appearance of the Daleks and Davros until the BBC Wales revival, although both would frequently recur in other media. It continued a narrative of chronological confrontations between the Doctor and Davros that had begun in Genesis of the Daleks, and included Destiny, Resurrection, and Revelation of the Daleks. It also concluded the Dalek Civil War story arc, which had previously spanned throughout Resurrection and Revelation.
At the time of broadcast, it unambiguously showed the onscreen destruction of the Dalek homeworld, Skaro. This act was largely forgotten by future Doctor Who writers; it was shown in the Doctor Who TV movie and in various BBC Wales episodes. Writer John Peel proposed a story called War of the Daleks, where Skaro would later be saved from destruction during the planned 27th season of the series.
Peel later adapted the unmade episode into an Eighth Doctor Adventures novel which showed that the planet destroyed at the end of Remembrance was Antalin, a decoy passed off as the real Skaro.
Synopsis
Scene from “Remembrance of the Daleks” (1988) [TARDIS Data Core]London, 1963: The Doctor returns to the place where it all began — alongside his latest companion, Ace, with unfinished business.
Not for the first time, unusual events are unfolding at Coal Hill School. At 76 Totter’s Lane, the Doctor discovers that his oldest foes — the Daleks — are on the trail of stolen Time Lord technology that he left on Earth long ago. The Daleks are planning to perfect their own time-travel capability, in order to unleash themselves across the whole of time and space.
The Doctor, with the help of the local military, must stop his oldest enemies from stealing Gallifreyan secrets, but the lines between allies and enemies are tested to the limit, and the Doctor and Ace must trust no-one in order to survive.
As two opposing Dalek factions meet in an explosive confrontation, the fate of the whole cosmos hangs in the balance…
Radio Times
19:35 – Doctor Who
“Remembrance of the Daleks” Part 1
Starring Sylvester McCoy
A four-part adventure by Ben Aaronovitch.
London, 25 years ago: The Doctor has returned to conclude some unfinished business. Unfortunately, some old acquaintances are waiting for him. Ace doesn’t like the music in 1963. Wait until she meets the old acquaintances.
