The first in a new series of articles in which Andy Frankham-Allen, range editor of Candy Jar's Lethbridge-Stewart novels, takes a look back at some of his most important Doctor Who memories.
“You Haven’t Been Born Yet”
Remembrance of the Daleks
You
know, I could talk about Remembrance of
the Daleks forever. It has its flaws, especially now, twenty-six years on
(yikes! Yes, over a quarter of a century already), like the wobbly Daleks or the
incorrect edition of The French
Revolution book, but it has so much going for it. It was the perfect
opening adventure for the twenty-fifth anniversary season (indeed, I still
think it should have been the
twenty-fifth anniversary story); it was set in the same fictional location as
the very first Doctor Who episode,
it had the Daleks (a staple of 1960s Doctor
Who), and it had more continuity than you could shake a stick at. Never too
obtrusive, but enough to please the long-time fans. There is so much more I can
say. I could even tell you the story of how my VHS cassette onto which I taped
the story had a problem – the first episode would speed up and slow down at odd
moments, rendering some of the most interesting dialogue in twenty-five years
of Who – such classics lines, like
the Doctor, after hearing Gilmore’s bewilderment at the idea of a death ray,
saying ‘not as predictable as spots’. And Allison, upon learning that a soldier
had been shot by a Dalek questions it with, ‘daddy, are you sure?’ For years I
was puzzled by such dialogue, until the video got released some years later.
‘What a predictable response’ and ‘dead, are you sure?’ make a whole lot more
sense, I’m sure you’ll agree. But you know what? I’m not going to tell you that
story. I have two others I want to share with you.
The first is from 1988, before the story was even
transmitted. Back then (twenty-six bloody years ago!), I lived in a place called White City in London. I had
only been back into Doctor Who for a
year (don’t ask me why, but Time and the
Rani episode two brought me back to the fold), and so was rather looking
forward to this new season. I had started getting Doctor Who Magazine again and knew all the rumours. The Daleks were
coming back! Woo! Good time to get back into Doctor Who, right? One of the places I visited the most was
Hammersmith, King’s Street, the hubbub of shopping for those living in West
London. I knew the area pretty well, spent a whole load of time there. Except
for one particular week. And that week just so happened to be the one the Doctor Who team were filming Remembrance of the Daleks in Macbeth
Street, Hammersmith. I only found out the next day in the local paper. I
couldn’t believe it! I’d have loved to gone and watched Daleks trundling along
the streets, the Doctor differing over whether to enter the TARDIS or not. But
no, I had missed it totally. Years later, in 2005, I had moved back to Wales
and guess who followed me there? Yes, the Doctor
Who production team! I’m pretty sure they knew. So, believe me, I made sure
I was on hand for at least one day of location filming. Should have been uber
exciting, but it turned out to be a rather tedious and long night of exploding
market stalls, falling Christmas trees and Santas with flamethrower trombones.
Oh, and Billie Piper and Noel Clarke. I often wonder if watching Remembrance of the Daleks would have
been more fun. Would rather have seen them land a shuttle in a playground than
a large Christmas falling down. 1988, I was fifteen, so yeah, most likely would
have been. Daleks! Hmm, come on, who wouldn’t want to meet the Daleks in real
life? No? Just me, then? Okay.
They turned a corner into
Macbeth Street, and once they had neared the school that stood there, Jake
noticed the police box in an alley alongside a block of flats. Jake smiled. At
last they were getting somewhere.
This little excerpt is from a short story I wrote
for Big Finish back in 2004, and fans of Remembrance
of the Daleks may just well recognise the above place as the location used
for Coal Hill School in that story. When I wrote that story I intentionally set
it in and around Hammersmith because it’s a place I know so well from my own
youth, and it’s always good to write about what you know. Having set it in such
a location, I couldn’t resist having the TARDIS land in the same place the
police box prop had once stood in 1988. I may have missed the location filming,
but in my fictional universe of Doctor
Who I could at least visit it through the eyes of Jake Morgan. Plus, it
made a nice little Easter egg for fans of the show. To my knowledge, other than
my sister, no one picked up on it. But, you know, that’s fine. Every time I
think of that scene, I find myself wondering why the Third Doctor never spotted
Coal Hill School opposite. Maybe he did. Maybe he even went inside and replaced
the incorrect French Revolution book
with the one Susan actually borrowed in 1963. Maybe.
