In 1963 London, the Doctor and Ace encounter a military taskforce led by Group Captain Gilmore and his scientific adviser, Prof Rachel Jensen. They are tracking Dalek activity, concentrated around Coal Hill School and the junkyard at Totter's Lane. The Doctor realises that the Daleks are seeking the Hand of Omega, a powerful Gallifreyan relic he left behind in his first incarnation. Ace is befriended by Sergeant Mike Smith, unaware that he is involved with a sinister organisation led by Ratcliffe. The Doctor believes he has events under control... until he discovers that he is actually facing not one, but two rival Dalek factions.

One of the hallmarks of Doctor Who's twenty-fourth season had been the efforts of producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Andrew Cartmel to recruit younger, untried writers to the programme. This ethos would remain as they began planning for the as-yet-unconfirmed Season Twenty-Five. As such, Cartmel was intrigued when fellow script editor Caroline Oulton forwarded him a proposal entitled “Knight Fall” by Ben Aaronovitch. Cartmel didn't think the submission was right for Doctor Who, but he saw enough potential in it to warrant a meeting with Aaronovitch at the end of May 1987, where he encouraged the writer to try again. In June, Aaronovitch was working on a proposal entitled “Transit”. By the end of the summer, he was making better headway with “Storm Over Avallion”, which was inspired by the legends of King Arthur.

In late August, the BBC informed Nathan-Turner that Doctor Who would indeed continue into its twenty-fifth season. Sensitive to the expectations of such a milestone year, Nathan-Turner wanted the season to start with a major attraction. He soon settled on bringing back the Daleks, who had last been seen in 1985's Revelation Of The Daleks. On October 9th, the production office began securing permission to use the Daleks from their creator, Terry Nation. Although “Storm Over Avallion” had not yet been formally commissioned, the production team had seen enough of Aaronovitch's progress to observe that he had a flair for the kind of fast-paced action they wanted for the new Dalek story. As such, Aaronovitch was asked to cease work on the Arthurian tale and instead begin developing the Season Twenty-Five premiere. “Storm Over Avallion” would later be resurrected as 1989's Battlefield.

Andrew Cartmel wanted to hint that there was more to the Doctor's background than had been revealed

In addition to pitting the Doctor against his oldest enemies, Nathan-Turner and Cartmel were keen to start addressing their shared concern that Doctor Who had lost some of its sense of wonder, and that the Doctor himself was no longer a very mysterious figure. Cartmel, in particular, wanted to begin laying hints that there was more to the Doctor's background than had heretofore been revealed. This notion was greeted enthusiastically by Sylvester McCoy, who had finally had time to think more thoroughly about his approach to the Doctor, having been cast scant weeks before the start of production on Season Twenty-Four. He now wanted to invest the character with a greater sense of darkness and moodiness.

On October 30th, Aaronovitch was commissioned to write the first episode of “Nemesis Of The Doctor”, which was planned to be the third story of Season Twenty-Five into production. Aaronovitch decided to tie his story directly to the very first Doctor Who serial, 100,000 BC -- and particularly its opening episode, An Unearthly Child -- by revealing just what the Doctor was doing in 1963 London. Subsequently, however, it was pointed out that the 1985 story Attack Of The Cybermen had also revisited the setting of An Unearthly Child -- albeit two decades on -- which prompted Aaronovitch to scale back some of his references.

Aaronovitch also drew on the idea put forward in Revelation Of The Daleks that there had been a schism in the Dalek ranks. Consequently, he included two Dalek factions -- the Emperor Dalek's Red Daleks and the Blue Daleks, led by the Black Dalek. Observing that Terry Nation had always intended the Daleks to be a metaphor for the Nazis, Aaronovitch seized upon the burgeoning racist and fascist sentiment in early-Sixties England; he was keen to avoid a romanticised depiction of the period. He also considered making use of other elements of Dalek continuity -- such as the peaceful Thals who shared the Dalek homeworld of Skaro, and the Daleks' brutish Ogron servants -- but he eventually rejected their inclusion for fear of over-complicating the narrative.

Cartmel encouraged Aaronovitch to make substantial use of Ace, as part of a broader plan to give the character more exposure than many past companions. In November, Sophie Aldred met with Aaronovitch and Graeme Curry, who was writing The Happiness Patrol, to discuss potential directions for Ace. Further conversations between the new season's writers and both McCoy and Aldred would take place in early 1988. Aldred's option for Season Twenty-Five was officially taken up on December 1st, although she and Nathan-Turner had agreed to her continued involvement with Doctor Who back in August, while recording Ace's debut in Dragonfire. McCoy's contract had already been renewed on November 19th.

The Time Lord artefact was briefly called the Hand of Rassilon

The last three episodes of “Nemesis Of The Doctor” were commissioned on December 18th. The Time Lord artefact was briefly called the Hand of Rassilon before swapping ancient Gallifreyan pioneers and becoming the Hand of Omega. At this stage, the head of the Association was Mr Gummer, while Rachel's surname was Israel instead of Jensen. The Special Weapons Dalek was part of the Black Dalek's Renegade forces, whereas the Imperial Daleks made use of a floating assault platform. In Episode Four, the Black Dalek had nuclear charges attached to the Hand as a safeguard against an attack by the Emperor, only for the Doctor to commune with the Hand and induce it to disarm the explosives. In the story's closing moments, the Doctor killed the Black Dalek with a handheld weapon generated by the Hand -- referred to as a Novagun or the “Finger of Omega” -- in a scene intended as a parody of the quick-draw tradition in Hollywood westerns.

One notion which had evolved out of the regular discussions between Cartmel and his writing team was the idea that Doctor Who was set in a universe where some fictional characters are actually real, much like the Doctor himself. To this end, Aaronovitch included the Episode Two scene in which a BBC continuity announcer referred to the imminent broadcast of a new science-fiction series -- the intention being that this would be the Doctor Who universe analogue of Doctor Who itself. Likewise, reference was made to Professor Bernard Quatermass and his British Rocket Group, created by Nigel Kneale for the BBC's science-fiction serial The Quatermass Experiment in 1953 and revived in several sequels. Near the end of the story, Aaronovitch also intended to allude to the replacement of Gilmore's Countermeasures Unit with the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who had featured prominently in Doctor Who during the early Seventies.

As Aaronovitch completed work on his first draft, he happened to speak with visual effects assistant Mike Tucker. A Doctor Who fan, Tucker mentioned that he had always wanted to build a domed Emperor Dalek prop -- akin to the version depicted in the mid-Sixties Dalek comic strip published in the pages of TV Century 21 -- which would split open to reveal the Daleks' creator, Davros, inside. Aaronovitch had been sceptical of using Davros, whom he felt tended to overshadow the Daleks and reduce them to mere henchmen, but he now adapted Tucker's idea as the serial's climax. Unfortunately, after receiving Aaronovitch's draft scripts in January, Nation objected to “Nemesis Of The Doctor”, and the minimal role played by Davros in particular. Happily, Nathan-Turner was able to assuage Nation's concerns, and his agents gave the project their formal approval on February 16th.

A lengthy battle sequence was deleted from Episode 3, as the Doctor and Ace travelled to Coal Hill School

By now, it had been decided that the Dalek story would be first in the production queue for Season Twenty-Five. It would be directed by Andrew Morgan, who had made Time And The Rani the year before. Aaronovitch continued to work on his scripts, especially in light of concerns that they were substantially overlong; one significant deletion was a lengthy battle sequence in Episode Three, as the Doctor and Ace travelled from the builder's yard to Coal Hill School. Also eliminated was an explanation that the Daleks had been divided into factions following their decimation by the Movellan virus -- alluding to the events of 1984's Resurrection Of The Daleks -- which had resulted in different groups no longer recognising each other's legitimacy. The final confrontation with the Black Dalek was reworked to have the Doctor talk it into destroying itself, as both McCoy and Morgan felt that the use of the Finger of Omega was out of character. At this stage, Gummer became Ratcliffe to avoid confusion with Group Captain Gilmore, while the serial was retitled Remembrance Of The Daleks.

A major task which confronted visual effects designer Stuart Brisdon was the accumulation of sufficient Dalek props for the new serial. In addition to the brand-new Emperor Dalek and Special Weapons Dalek casings, there was also the need for enough Daleks to make up both the Imperial and Renegade factions. It was decided that the Black Dalek's forces would largely consist of existing props. Two were assembled from surviving Sixties elements and a “goon” skirt section made for 1973's Planet Of The Daleks. Three more -- including the Black Dalek itself -- consisted of parts built for Revelation Of The Daleks. With the fourth 1985 casing unavailable due to its use in exhibitions, another Dalek was cast from the same mould and augmented with existing spare parts.

The Emperor's troops, on the other hand, were four entirely new constructions. Brisdon was eager to modernise the Dalek props, but Nathan-Turner was resistant to his proposed changes; the designer's principal victory saw the manipulator arm revised to be less obviously akin to a toilet plunger. It had now been decided that the Daleks' colour scheme should reflect the liveries seen in Revelation Of The Daleks. As such, the Imperial Daleks would be cream with gold trim (instead of red with black trim) while the Renegade Daleks would be grey with black trim (instead of blue with silver trim).

Production on Season Twenty-Five began on April 4th, with the start of the London-based location shoot for Remembrance Of The Daleks. The first day took Morgan's team to Southwark, where Ratcliffe's yard was actually a property on Theed Street owned by ITV, while the Episode Four battle between the Dalek factions was filmed under a rail bridge at Windmill Walk. The explosions detonated by the visual effects team drew the attention of the police; they arrived to investigate the possibility of an attack by the Irish Republican Army on the nearby Waterloo East train station, and were surprised to encounter Daleks instead. Cast and crew subsequently returned to both locations, completing the work at Theed Street on the 5th -- when more pyrotechnics exploded violently enough to set off car alarms and damage several of the Dalek casings -- and at Windmill Walk on the 6th.

The rest of April 6th and the entirety of the 7th were spent at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum in Brentford, for scenes in and around Totter's Lane. Originally, it had been hoped that the London Scrapyard might be used, as in Attack Of The Cybermen, but there was concern about the proximity of private residences, given that more large explosions were planned. Unfortunately, a continuity error occurred when a sign painter printed the name on the junkyard gate as “L.M. Forman” instead of “I.M. Foreman”. Although the leading ‘L’ was easily changed to an ‘I’, the missing ‘e’ could not be corrected in time for recording. April 8th was a busy day, with material at the graveyard filmed in Kilburn at Paddington Old Cemetery. Meanwhile, Nathan-Turner directed a second unit to capture street scenes in Acton at Old Oak Common Lane, Braybrook Street and Wulfstan Street. Establishing shots of the Army HQ were recorded at the Territorial Army Drill Hall in Acton, while the exterior of the funeral parlour was really the Notting Hill premises of John Nodes Funeral Service.

On April 9th, work began on various sequences in and around Coal Hill School; they were filmed at St John's School in Hammersmith, which was between terms, and on the adjacent Macbeth Street. Following a day off, recording there continued from April 11th to 13th. For the scene where Ace wielded her souped-up baseball bat, Aldred inadvertently damaged a real Dalek casing in the mistaken belief that it was an effects prop. On the 12th, McCoy ad-libbed dialogue giving Gilmore's nickname as “Chunky”. This stemmed from an incident at the Steam Museum when actor Simon Williams misinterpreted the script's description of his character's “chunky service revolver” as the name of a specific type of gun, much to the amusement of his castmates. Amongst the extras posing as Coal Hill students were the children of Williams, Morgan and costume designer Ken Trew, plus the sister of Jasmine Breaks, who was playing the mysterious girl. Signage gave the Headmaster's name as “H Parson”, in reference to videotape editor Hugh Parson.

Although not required on location, Terry Molloy was booked to make his third appearance as Davros following Resurrection Of The Daleks and Revelation Of The Daleks. It was also hoped that he could voice the Dalek battle computer, as part of the pretence that it was Davros, and not the little girl, who was working with the Renegade Daleks. However, when other commitments prevented Molloy from attending the recording session on April 16th, John Leeson -- who had been the voice of the Doctor's robot dog K·9 in the late Seventies -- agreed to provide a Davros-like performance in his stead.

John Nathan-Turner took umbrage at Sophie Aldred's request that he refrain from smoking around her

With so many scenes recorded on location, Remembrance Of The Daleks was allocated just a single studio block, from April 27th to 29th, at BBC Television Centre Studio 8 in White City, London. On the first day, sets in use included the cafe, the Army HQ, and the Coal Hill School entrance hall. More of the latter material was taped on the middle day, together with sequences in Mike's living room, the bridge of the Dalek shuttle, and the school stairwell and cellar. Remaining cellar scenes were then completed on the 19th, together with those in Ratcliffe's office, the funeral parlour and the Imperial Dalek mothership. Unfortunately, the relationship between Aldred and Nathan-Turner had now become strained, as the producer took umbrage at the actress' requests that he refrain from smoking around her -- due to her sensitivity to cigarettes -- and for a taxi to be hired to safely convey her home after studio recordings.

In spite of the effort to trim Aaronovitch's scripts, the initial edits of all four episodes substantially overran their twenty-five-minute timeslots. This inspired more aggressive cuts, although McCoy had persuaded Morgan to retain some of the quieter, more character-oriented moments, including the scene between the Doctor and John in the cafe, as well as Ace's discovery of the “No Coloureds” sign. One notable casualty was Davros accusing the Doctor of being “merely another Time Lord,” to which the Doctor responded that he was “far more than just another Time Lord.” Had it aired, it would have been the first explicit statement of the new direction which Cartmel had planned for the character. He and Aaronovitch had roughed out ideas about the Doctor being somehow linked to a shadowy figure from Gallifreyan legend called “the Other”, who was one of the three pillars of ancient Time Lord society alongside Rassilon and Omega.

The serial's opening montage was originally intended to be longer, but permission was denied for the inclusion of some of the planned clips -- most notably Queen Elizabeth hailing the activation of the Trans-Pacific Cable on December 2nd, 1963. On the other hand, Bob Dylan turned out to be a fan of Doctor Who, and he offered the use of an excerpt from his 1963 protest song Only A Pawn In Their Game for free, although it was not retained in the final edit. To preserve the surprise of Davros' appearance, Episode Three credited the role of the Emperor Dalek to “Roy Tromelly” -- an anagram of “Terry Molloy”. Remembrance Of The Daleks would be the final Doctor Who serial for both Molloy and Morgan.

For Season 25, Doctor Who was shifted from Monday to Wednesday evenings

For Season Twenty-Five, Doctor Who was shifted to Wednesday evenings from the Monday timeslot allocated to the 1987 run. However, cast and crew were disappointed to learn that the show was still scheduled at 7.35pm, opposite the ITV soap opera behemoth Coronation Street. While this strategy had been described as a counter-programming move by the BBC, the low viewing figures for Season Twenty-Four suggested that younger viewers were being prevented from watching Doctor Who by their parents, given that many households still had only a single television.

It was originally thought that the season would begin airing on September 7th, but coverage of the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea prompted a revision of these plans. Instead, Episode One of Remembrance Of The Daleks heralded the start of the silver anniversary season four weeks later, on October 5th. For the second year in a row, Doctor Who was scheduled after Wogan, and it now led into Miss Marple. The timeslot had not had a regular occupant for more than two months, when the wildlife series King And Company had finished its run. Episode One was the first installment of Doctor Who to be broadcast in stereo sound -- and, indeed, one of the first such programmes on British television.

• Doctor Who Summer Special 1993, “Archive: Remembrance Of The Daleks” by Andrew Pixley, Marvel Comics UK Ltd.
• Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #10, 13th April 2005, “Doctorin' The Tardis” by Andrew Pixley, Panini Publishing Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Complete History #44, 2017, “Story 148: Remembrance Of The Daleks”, edited by Mark Wright, Hachette Partworks Ltd.
• Doctor Who: The Eighties by David J Howe, Mark Stammers and Stephen James Walker (1996), Virgin Publishing.
• Doctor Who: The Handbook: The Seventh Doctor by David J Howe and Stephen James Walker (1998), Virgin Publishing.
• In·Vision #96, May 2001, “Production” edited by Anthony Brown, Cybermark Services.