Sunday 29 January 2012

Unlimited Rice Pudding (Etcetera, Etcetera)

Our most basic common link is that we all watch Doctor Who. We all love the same Time Lord. We all cherish the show's future... er, hold on, is that a Dalek battlecruiser up there?


Season 25's action-packed opener, Remembrance of the Daleks, was shown not once, but twice during the early hours of Sunday 11th January 2003, first appearing on UK Gold between 12.30-2.15am and then again, five hours later, from 7.15-9.00am.

The channel's idents were particularly mundane at this time, consisting of a kettle boiling, someone running a bath and, in this case, a woman cutting and buttering a baguette in a bakery window. Evocative of British traditions or just plain cheap and dull? You be the judge.


Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the 'Part One' caption is missing, and those with keen ears will hear the anachronistic Peter Howell theme at the beginning of some episodes; they were in fact the same videotapes prepared for the story's initial screening on Gold in December 1994, and in those days the Howell theme was often used for the programme's break bumpers.


Remembrance of the Daleks reappeared a few months later, as part of the channel's second Dalek Day (on Monday 26th May 2003 in the much more sociable timeslot of 6.10-8.00pm). Sadly, Terry Nation's estate, managed by his agent and family, decided to place an embargo on any of his work (and that of others featuring his Dalek creations) being shown on television during the latter half of 2003 and beyond. And so Remembrance was laid to rest, now absent from British TV schedules for almost a decade. Will it ever turn up again? Time will tell... it always does.

Right, I'm off down to Harry's for four bacon sandwiches and a cup of coffee. Many thanks to benriggers for providing the VHS tape. See you back here on Sunday 12th February 2012 for another trip down continuity lane.

No comments:

Post a Comment