Remembrance of the Daleks (novelisation)

 was a novelisation based on the 1988 television serial Remembrance of the Daleks.

1990 Target Books edition
Shoreditch, London, 1963. Two teachers follow an unnervingly knowledgeable schoolgirl to her home - a blue police telephone box in the middle of a scrapyard. The old man whom the girl calls "grandfather" is annoyed at the intrusion: there is something he has to do, and he has a premonition that he will be delayed for some time...

Six regenerations later the Doctor returns; and Ace, his travelling companion, sees London as it was before the Sixties started swinging — and long before she was born.

But a Grey Dalek is lurking in Foreman's Yard; Imperial Daleks are appearing in the basement of Coal Hill School; and both factions want the Hand of Omega, the remote stellar manipulator that the Doctor has left behind. Has the Doctor arrived in time to deprive the Daleks of the secret of time travel?

2013 BBC Books edition
With unfinished business to attend to, the Seventh Doctor returns to where it all began: Coal Hill School in London in 1963. Last time he was here, the Doctor left something behind — a powerful Time Lord artefact that could unlock the secrets of time travel. Can the Doctor retrieve it before two rival factions of Daleks track it down? And even if he can, how will the Doctor prevent the whole of London becoming a war zone as the Daleks meet in explosive confrontation?

An adventure featuring the Seventh Doctor as played by Sylvester McCoy and his companion Ace

Chapter titles

 * Prologue
 * 1) Shoreditch, November 1963 - Friday, 15:30
 * 2) Friday, 16:03
 * 3) Friday, 17:30
 * 4) Saturday, 02:17
 * 5) Saturday, 06:26
 * 6) Saturday, 07:31
 * 7) Saturday, 12:13
 * 8) Saturday, 14:15
 * 9) Saturday, 14:55
 * 10) Saturday, 15:00
 * 11) Saturday, 15:31
 * 12) Saturday, 15:42
 * 13) Saturday, 15:50
 * 14) Saturday, 16:05
 * 15) Saturday, 16:11
 * 16) Saturday, 16:15
 * 17) Saturday, 16:32
 * 18) Saturday, 16:34
 * 19) Saturday, 16:45
 * 20) Saturday, 17:15
 * 21) Skaro
 * 22) Saturday, 17:37
 * 23) Thursday, 11:30

Deviations from televised story

 * Like The Curse of Fenric novelisation, this commission was given an unlimited word count and, in the light of the forthcoming range of New Adventures and the edicts of new editor Peter Darvill-Evans, the writers were encouraged to take a more adult-orientated approach to the story. In particular, Aaronovitch's thematic exploration of racial prejudice, as well as the implication a young Gilmore and Jensen had sex, and more details about the period setting.
 * As is the norm for novelisations, many characters are given fleshed out backgrounds and names. These include Gilmore and Jensen having worked briefly together in the war, Jensen's childhood, and Ratcliffe having been a constant presence in Mike Smith's life. Mike is also aware of the Renegade Daleks being Ratcliffe's allies and so is lying when he later tells Ace he didn't know about them.
 * Group Captain Ian Gilmore was a lieutenant in World War II in 1940. He was terrified during a massive German bombing raid and after the base landline was cut, he spent the night with Jensen (then a radar operator). The next morning, he was transferred to Scotland for training command. Since then, he would have recurring bouts of fear that he covered up with his uniform and bearing.
 * Rachel Jensen grew up in the Jewish community at Golders Green and was in the Girl Guides during the 1930s. She worked with Alan Turing and was never able to eat porridge thanks to Turing comparing the human brain to eight ounces of it. By the end of the story, the repeated display of advanced tecnhology and its implications leave her quietly shaken, which lead to her decision to retire in 1964.
 * George Ratcliffe was a member of the Shoreditch Association during the 1930s. They took part in a march down Cable Street, espousing their patriotism and their pride in fighting against Bolsheviks, Jews and other minority groups. During the 1950s, he made use of his contacts to gain work aiding in the post-war reconstruction efforts around London's East End which had been ravaged by the Blitz. His builder's merchant career prospered as a result. He also turned his efforts to the challenging prospect of rebuilding the Association. He made use of an influx of immigrants to recruit other like-minded individuals to the Association He found immigrants had become an easier target than Jews were in this endeavour, as they were "more obvious" and "more different." In the longer term, Ratcliffe hoped to stage a coup and bring the Association to power. However, as the economic conditions weren't as severe as the 1930s, he despaired that not enough people required scapegoats and the Association couldn't recruit as many people as it used to.
 * Mike Smith's father was killed in 1943 during one of the Royal Navy's Arctic convoys supplying the Soviet Union via Murmansk. Only a boy when World War II ended, he would play on bombsites in Shoreditch where he met Ratcliffe, who gifted him with a German chocolate bar. Over the years, he had many further meetings with Ratcliffe, who imparted upon him his ideology. Ratcliffe warned of bankers and communists working in league with each other and of a ploy by the British government to reduce wages by replacing white workers with black immigrants. This aided in the rise of Smith's prejudices. Smith would later become a sergeant in the RAF, serving eighteen months in Malaya by 1963, where he was often bored but also witnessed at least one sudden death. He also witnessed a bar fight in Singapore almost turn murderous.
 * Generic soldiers are given names and scenes.
 * Several subtle hints are given towards Mike's eventual betrayal of the team in the form of various racist, sexist and anti-semitic comments to and about others, including being relieved Ace isn't an alien as he wouldn't want to date a "foreigner".
 * Dalek dialogue to each other is often rewritten as network transmissions as part of a cyberpunk treatment.
 * There is a short prologue featuring the First Doctor, portraying a scene from An Unearthly Child.
 * While summarising the Daleks' history to Ace, the Doctor recalls his own first encounter with them. In an interesting display of continuity, his recollection of Temmosus, begging for peace while the Daleks gunned him down, bears a striking resemblance to David Whitaker's depiction of events in Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks.
 * The Dalek initially guarding the transmat receptacle in Coal Hill crashes through a brick wall before chasing the Doctor and Ace from the cellar.
 * The Doctor's meeting with John doesn't take place in the cafe set. Instead, John is running his own place: an outdoors establishment near the docks.
 * Gilmore refers to the government's "sensitive state" in the show is now explicitly referring to the in the book, after Allison jokes, "Thanks to ".
 * A reason is added for why the Daleks don't kill Ace at the end of episode 2 but are simply yelling "exterminate": they are directed to capture her and the screaming is an intimidation tactic.
 * The book contains far more detail on the Special Weapons Dalek, known to its peers in the novelisation as the Abomination. In the book, its motives are explored in greater detail. From its inception and creation as the ultimate weapon to the surprising fact that the firing of its main weapon caused it to mutate and become self-aware. As a result, it is closely monitored and even "feared" by other Daleks. The patrol leader resists the urge to exterminate it for its impurity. Ace and the Doctor encounter the Special Weapons Dalek personally as it and the Imperial Daleks attack the Renegade Daleks in Ratcliffe's Yard.
 * Various Dalek campaigns are mentioned such as the Spiridon campaign and the Movellan War. The Special Weapons Dalek is noted to have participated in three distinguished campaigns: Pa Jass-Gutrik, the War of Vengeance against the Movellans, Pa Jaski-Thal, the Liquidation War against the Thals, and Pas Jass-Vortan, the Time Campaign — the War to End All Wars.
 * There are two extracts from an in-universe book series called The Children of Davros, Volume XX and Volume XIX, published in 4065. (The subtitle for Volume XX is A Short History of the Dalek Race) It is stated the Movellan virus killed 83% of the Daleks and cut off Skaro, cauisng the various surviving sector commands to become the factions "that characterize Dalek politics to this day". Davros' "subversion" of the "imperial Skarosian Daleks" is also part of a technological renaissance centred on Skaro. The Doctor expands on the Dalek civil war over racial purity, stating the factions normally wouldn't fight as they "bang databases" and one Daleks listens to the other, but the Imperials and Renegades don't recognise the other as Daleks.
 * The Imperial faction employs scout Daleks with "overpowered motor[s]" that navigate and attack using sensor signals from bulb housings on their torsos. They may bear an ancestral resemblance to the reconnaissance drone depicted in TV: Resolution.
 * The Renegade Dalek faction employs electronic countermeasure pods, a form of in-built intrusion countermeasures electronics (ICE), in their defence. These devices allow them to infiltrate and confuse the targeting computer and life support systems of any Imperial Daleks who come into range. During their first face-to-face encounter in London, the Renegades overwhelm their opposition by distorting their foes' aim and eventually drown them in their own nutrient tanks. (Finding and destroying the ECM pods is an explanation for why the Daleks are sometimes firing at the tunnel walls in part four.)
 * The Daleks know the Doctor by the titles of Ka Farq Gatri, Enemy of the Daleks and the Bringer of Darkness. These were reused commonly in 1990s/2000s spin-off media, but most prominently for COMIC: Metamorphosis, Emperor of the Daleks!, PROSE: Love and War, The Quantum Archangel and for the Second Doctor in COMIC: Bringer of Darkness.
 * The Doctor mentions the Movellan War to Ace, Rachel and Allison. The Movellan virus apparently fragmented the Daleks and left them in isolated factions.
 * Skaro's destruction is depicted up close and in great detail. From its beetles and rock leopards in the mountains to the Dalek city of Mensvat Esc-Dalek and the one-thousand-million Daleks that dwell within it. The mountains and seas boil, the sky turns white and the atmosphere is blown out into space by the supernova triggered by the Hand of Omega.
 * The novelisation expands on Davros's origin, depicting the bombardment that led to him becoming crippled and chief scientist of the Kaled scientific division. The Kaled High Command attempted to persuade him to suicide after he was lamed. Citing his genetic impurity. Davros instead came to the realisation that they were too weak to abide by their principles. They couldn't kill him or even exile him and that weakness was incorporated into the Dalek design. This rejection and the bombardment were depicted in AUDIO: Davros and AUDIO: Corruption, respectively.
 * The novelisation is notable for providing many points of reference for lore in the Virgin New Adventures. Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, an ancestor of the character who later appears in Transit, is introduced as the author of the oft-quoted The Children of Davros. Flashbacks to ancient Gallifrey introduce "the Other", a prominent figure with links to the Doctor and the mysterious third member of the founding Triumvirate with Rassilon and Omega.
 * The fourth wall break from the end of part two is absent from in the novelisation.
 * The vicar is named Parkinson. He went to Oxford and enlisted to fight in World War I. At the rank of captain, he was blinded by a German mustard gas attack in Verdun, France. He felt he had been 'called to God' and felt His presence while being treated at a dressing station.

Releases

 * First paperback edition, priced £2.50 (UK), estimated print run: 25,000 copies.
 * This novel was reprinted with a new cover by BBC Books in 2013 as part of the 50th Anniversary Collection.
 * This novel was reprinted in hardcover with Prisoner of the Daleks by Barnes & Noble on 29 July 2016.

Editions published outside Britain

 * Published in the USA by BBC Worldwide America in 2016 as a combined Hardback edition, it comprised this story and Prisoner of the Daleks. The book was published with a special leather cover.
 * Published in Germany by Bastei Lubbe in 2017 as a paperback edition, translated by Axel Merz and published as Die Hand des Omega.

Audiobook
This Target Book was released as an audiobook on 19 February 2015 complete and unabridged by BBC Audio and read by Terry Molloy, with Dalek voices by Nicholas Briggs.

The cover blurb and thumbnail illustrations were retained in the accompanying booklet with sleevenotes by David J. Howe. Music and sound effects by Simon Power.

The audiobook version was reissued as part of The Second Monsters Collection on 28 January 2021.