Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1935 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-07-20
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 98 minutes

DVD Description
London, 1963, and the Doctor returns to Coal Hill School with his new companion Ace, where he has unfinished business. His oldest foes, the Daleks, are on the trail of Time Lord technology – an artefact the Doctor himself left behind on Earth. Enlisting the assistance of the local military, the Doctor must protect the Gallifrey an secret of time travel as two opposing Dalek factions meet in an explosive confrontation, with the fate of the entire Universe at stake!

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:

• Commentary by Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)and Sophie Aldred (Ace)
• Back to School - Cast and crew talk about the making of the story, accompanied by rare behind-the-scenes material. Featuring Simon Williams (Gilmore), Karen Gledhill (Alison),writer Ben Aaronovitch, script editor Andrew Cartmel and director Andrew Morgan
• Remembrances - Cast and crew discuss the influences and references to other Doctor Who adventures that are spread throughout the story
• Extended and Deleted Scenes - Unused scenes, introduced by Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred
• Outtakes - Bloopers and gaffes from the recording of the story
• Multi-Angle Sequences
• Digitally remastered picture and sound quality
• 5.1 Mix A new Dolby 5.1 surround mix, specially produced for this DVD
• Photo Gallery • Radio Times Billings(DVD-ROM PDFs - PC/Mac)
• Production Information Subtitles
• Trailers & Continuity & Isolated Music Track

Synopsis
In this 1988 installment of DOCTOR WHO, the seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) faces off against the ever-troublesome Daleks. However, things get even more complicated when opposing Dalek factions meet in an explosive battle.

Customer Reviews

A chunky reissue
So here it is, the third release of this story (while the other three stories of the 1988 season aren't even on the horizon...), which everyone else here is arguing about, possibly rightly.

This is a divisive story from a divisive period of Dr Who. Basically, you either love Sylvester McCoy or hate him; he started as a comedian who stuck ferrets down his trousers etc, and then, as the Doctor, was called upon to be dark and mysterious. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. This is his first story as the dark-and-mysterious Doctor, and it doesn't always sit comfortably. However there is plenty else going on; finally the series has abandoned the pantomime that blighted the previous series, and here we have a story of warring Dalek factions attempting to steal the uber-powerful "rrrremote stellar manipulator" from the Doctor - but why does he want them to have it? There is a good cast here (stunt casting of comedians is restricted to a minor character for once) and a complex plot which moves quickly enough to jump any plot holes. In one of Doctor Who's all-time cool moments, Ace beats up a Dalek with a baseball bat; another high point is the Doctor's philosophical musing about whether to have sugar in his tea. And lots of stuff gets blown up. I love it. Your mileage may vary.

Extras (2 hours)
Commentary track with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. ***
Production and trivia subtitles. ***
"Back To School" (36 min) documentary on the making of the serial. Informative and fun. ****
"Remembrances" (15 min) documentary on the many, many continuity references in the serial. Essential viewing for anyone new to Old Who, and good fun to watch. ****
"Davros Connections" (43 min) Interesting, if rather static, overview of Davros's life and portrayal, which draws on his appearances in the series up to Remembrance and also on the various audio plays about him (but not the novels). However, being a reissue from 2007, it drops the ball by failing to include any mention of Julian Bleach's portrayal from last year. ****
Photo gallery (8 min) (beefed up mightily from the original version) ***
Deleted scenes and outtakes (12 min and 4 min)(with linking narration) ***
Multi-angle sequences (2 min) (that actually work this time) ***
Trailers from the 1988 broadcast (5 min) (got me nostalgic for Joan Hickson's Miss Marple and anti-nostalgic for Colin's Sandwich)***
5.1 surround sound, a music-only option and a Radio Times article. ***

To sum up:
Definitely buy this if:
*You never had a copy before. It's a cracking story with over 90 minutes of interesting documentary material, including a very interesting 43-minute documentary on Davros which partly draws on the various audio releases.

Maybe buy this if:
*You have the original version of the disc but found it a let-down with all the general quality lapses and puny supporting extras. You're basically only paying for the extras.

Don't buy this if:
*You already have the Davros box set version. There's nothing new here.
*You can't stand Sylvester McCoy's Doctor. Obviously :)

I'll be keeping this and taking my old duff version to the charity shop.

You must remember this...
... because this 2007 version is exactly the same as the extant edition, except they've slipped a natty blue sleeve over the old-style box (the worst ever, incidentally). Just thought you ought to know in case you weren't going to get it because it wouldn't match yer other Who DVDs (you know what some people are like). It will - and as it's mid-price you can buy new at pre-owned rates. As for the show itself... one of the star performers of the unfairly-maligned McCoy era, 1963-set Remembrance goes right back to the show's origins, unfolding around the junkyard William Hartnell's Doctor first emerged in. Full of dark hints and knowing references to DW history, this was also a fresh, bold pointer as to where it wanted to go, though ultimately the plug would be pulled by the Beeb a year on - shame, because McCoy and the script team clearly had plans to both explain the Doctor's origins and add to the mystique, too. There are nods to Quatermass, UNIT is prefigured, Who stalwarts Michael Sheard and Peter Halliday are on board and - almost incidentally - the Daleks get their best story in more than a decade.
This is part of a re-booted DVD series aimed, one suspects, at tempting new, young Ecclestone- and Tennant-era fans to sample the 'classic' era, and no bad thing for that. Recommended.

How special is special?
Just now "special" this Special Edition release of REMEMBRANCE OF THE DALEKS is does rather depend on whether you bought the original version released back in the early 2000s. The new material on the main disc was all included in the DAVROS box set a couple of years back and consists of a 35 minute "making of" documentary; a 15 minute piece looking at the connections (or Metatextuality if you will) to other stories referenced in the script; and a couple of the usual bits and bobs that have now become fairly standard across the range. All the rest of the extras (including the commentary) are much the same as the original release. The picture and sound have apparently been remastered since then of course, and a couple of (blink and you'll miss them) authoring errors from the original corrected. I'm probably not an eagle-eyed enough viewer to have noticed any errors on the old version which at least tells you how significant they might be to anyone not in the know.

However, this release does include a bonus second disc which includes a 45 minute DAVROS CONNECTIONS documentary that was also included in the DAVROS box set but was previously unavailable separately. To be fair, it's not the comprehensive look at Davros that I expected it to be with large chunks of it seemingly being included to promote the audio dramas produced by Big Finish. It probably made more sense to include this material in the Davros box set as that also had the Big Finish stories in it, but here those references seem a little superfluous and, of course, the story of Davros himself has already dated when you consider the new series. Whilst the documentary is, I suppose, an in-depth look at the character as he appeared on screen and CD, it is not a look at the development of the character behind the scenes and so I found it generally rather disappointing. I imagine that the feeling was that this subject was rather better dealt with in the various documentaries and "making of"s on the individual story discs, but I'm not so sure. At least, by buying this release, you do at least get the opportunity to see it without having to buy the box set release and possibly repurchasing a clutch of stories you might already have.

Despite all that, to buyers coming new to this particular story, it does have its moments. There are some (fairly) impressive visuals in there, some fine performances from some great guest stars (George Sewell, Simon Williams, Michael Sheard and Pamela Salem probably being the best known) and some pretty memorable lines and lovely moments in an enjoyable script that takes the series back to its geographic roots and probably kicks off the Dalek War... Sometimes its reach does exceed its grasp (this IS a DOCTOR WHO story after all) and the story is a very late 1980s take on the 1960s, but there's a lot of fun to be had along the way. Sylvester McCoy seems a lot more relaxed in the part of the Doctor in this his second season in the role, and Sophie Aldred has her first adventure as the companion proper after her introduction in DRAGONFIRE (as yet unavailable on DVD but you can track down the old VHS release if you want to) the previous year.

So, if you've never bought REMEMBRANCE before, then this is probably the version you should get, but if you already have the old one (or especially if you have the DAVROS set) then it's a much tougher call as to whether to add this version to your collection. There's also the worrying thought as to how many more stories you've already bought are going to get this "Special Edition" treatment later on. If you're a collector, this could get quite expensive.