Production code 7H

First Transmitted:
1-05/10/1988 19:35
2-12/10/1988 19:35
3-19/10/1988 19:35
4-26/10/1988 19:35

Cast
Sophie Aldred : Ace
Jasmine Breaks : The Girl
Harry Fowler : Harry
Karen Gledhill : Allison
Peter Halliday : Vicar
Peter Hamilton Dyer : Embery
Derek Keller : Kaufman
John Leeson : Voice
Joseph Marcell : John
John Scott Martin : Dalek Operator
Sylvester McCoy : The Doctor
Dursley McLinden : Mike
Brian Miller : Voices / Dalek Voices
Royce Mills : Voices / Dalek Voices
Terry Molloy : Davros
Terry Molloy was credited as 'Roy Tromelly' - an anagram of his name - on Part Three so as to conceal from viewers the fact that Davros, a character he had played in the two previous Dalek stories, was within the Emperor's casing. Pamela Salem : Rachel
George Sewell : Ratcliffe
Michael Sheard : Headmaster
Roy Skelton : Voices / Dalek Voices
Hugh Spight : Dalek Operator
Hugh Spight : Black Dalek Operator
Tony Starr : Dalek Operator
William Thomas : Martin
Cy Town : Dalek Operator
Roy Tromelly : Emperor Dalek
Simon Williams : Gilmore

Crew
Ben Aaronovitch : Writer
Henry Barber : Studio Lighting
Hilary Barratt : Production Associate
uncredited
Stuart Brisdon : Visual Effects
Andrew Cartmel : Script Editor
Barry Chaston : OB Cameraman
June Collins : Production Associate
Martin Collins : Designer
Ron Grainer : Title Music
and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Keff McCulloch
Lynn Grant : Assistant Floor Manager
Christine Greenwood : Make-Up
Val McCrimmon : Assistant Floor Manager
Keff McCulloch : Incidental Music
Dick Mills : Special Sounds
Andrew Morgan : Director
John Nathan-Turner : Producer
Rosemary Parsons : Production Assistant
Robin Sutherland : OB Cameraman
Scott Talbott : Studio Sound
Tip Tipping : Stunt Arranger
Ken Trew : Costumes

Plot Outline from Wikipedia

The Seventh Doctor and his companion Ace land the TARDIS in London, 1963, where the Doctor has unfinished business: The Hand of Omega, an ancient relic of the Time Lord civilization that the Doctor hid on Earth on a previous visit to 1963.

Unfortunately, the Daleks have also heard about the Hand of Omega, and are trying to find it before the Doctor does. To complicate matters, there are two groups of Daleks at work — the Daleks are currently in the midst of a civil war between those that accept and those that reject the leadership of their creator Davros, and each side wants the Hand for itself. The Imperial Daleks have set up an outpost at the Coal Hill School.

In the meantime, the alien activity around the Coal Hill area has attracted the attention of the military. Group Captain Gilmore and his unit engage a Renegade Dalek at the junkyard, destroying it with the help of the Doctor and Ace. The Doctor tries to convince Gilmore and his scientific advisor, Dr Rachel Jensen, that human weapons are no match for the Daleks and the best thing they can do is just stay out of the crossfire. The Doctor, however, is playing a deeper game — he wants the "right" Daleks to take possession of the Hand.

The Renegade Daleks enlist the help of a local fascist, Ratcliffe, in first obtaining the Hand, but they are soon attacked by the Imperial Daleks, who retrieve the Hand. Determining that the Imperial Daleks are from Skaro, the Dalek homeworld, the Doctor allows them to return to their mothership with it. The Imperial Daleks plan to use the Hand to create a power source that will give them mastery of time travel, a technology that the Daleks only have in the crudest sense.

However, when the Dalek Emperor, a much deteriorated Davros, activates the Hand, he also triggers a booby-trap that the Doctor has programmed into it. The Hand transports itself to the future which the Imperial Daleks have come from and turns Skaro's sun into a supernova, destroying the star system and Dalek homeworld, and then returns itself to Gallifrey. The resulting feedback blows up the Imperial Dalek mothership, but Davros manages to flee in an escape pod before its destruction. The Dalek Supreme, the last Renegade Dalek on Earth, destroys itself when told by the Doctor that it is the last of its kind.

Analysis by Cuisle

There is a real sense of looking back in this episode. It begins with the pre-title sequence with voice overs of familiar historical figures of the 1960s - Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Armstrong, and then takes us to 1963, the year Doctor Who began, to a stand off with the Dakeks that takes place in what could be called The Doctor's old home, Foreman's scrap yard in Totters Lane. The early action takes place there and at Coal Hill School, where Susan was taught by Ian and Barbara, although in this version it looks a bit more like Grange Hill - ironically as Michael Sheard, a long standing member of the cast of that show plays the headmaster.

Long term fans will, of course, have noticed that coal hill school appears to also be in Totters Lane, which is a mistake, but otherwise the nod to the original opening episode is a nice reminder of just how long Doctor Who has been a British Tv icon. Though we might also wonder, if we wanted to be picky, why Ian and Barbara never noticed the funny goings on in their school.

The action is supposed to take place about a month after The Doctor and companions left for their adventures in time and space. And The Doctor apparently made preparations for his departure like seeing that the Hand of Omega was safely hidden in an undertakers. This again needs explaining as in the first episode the departure WAS unplanned. But suspension of disbelief is all a part of Doctor Who, and after all, he is a Time Lord. He is telepathic etc. Perhaps he knew more about his plans at the time than he ever let on!

There are several other nods to the past. The Doctor casually mentions the Dalek Invasion of Earth in the 22nd century - the classic episode when Susan left him, and of making a Dalek disrupter on Spiridon - Third Doctor and Jo in Planet of the Daleks. The return of Davros, of course, also reminds us of Genesis of the Daleks.

And the cheekiest reference of all - the TV announcer on the TV in the boarding house announcing a new family science fiction programme "Doctor...." Ace turns the tv off just in time. It would be churlish to point out that at 5.15 in November it is dark, of course.

There were some concerns about the level of violence in this story, not counting the crew causing a false alarm for anti-terrorism police with their controlled explosions in central London. Apart from blowing Daleks to bits and two Human casualties of the battle, there is the question of whether The Doctor, a pacifist, really would allow the Hand of Omega to destroy a whole planet. We know genocide is not something he would contemplate. In the DVD commentary it is pointed out that Skaro SHOULD be empty now. The Thals moved off it at the time of Planet of the Daleks. The Daleks were apparently attempting to re-colonise it. The recoil of the weapon also killed off the Dalek fleet apart from the Emperor/Davros, who escaped. But that was their own fault for allowing themselves to be sucked into the trap.

This, the last Dalek episode before the 2005 series, thus puts the question that is partially answered in the new episodes. The Doctor STILL has a problem with genocide, but we are led to believe that he has been involved in something very similar when the Daleks were destroyed in the Time War.

This episode, like Battlefield, is notable for a lot of strong characters we never see again. Rachel and Allison the two Cambridge scientists ‘drafted’ in by the military to deal with the strange situation are prime examples. Anyone seeing the show for the first time would have taken them as regular cast members. Those who know it of old probably thought the same as I did, that Rachel was a lot like an older version of Liz Shaw, also a civilian scientist from Cambridge, drafted into U.N.I.T. as their scientific adviser in the early 1970s. Could Rachel have been Liz’s tutor? The Doctor does say that he thought he knew her. Was he recognising traits?

The Doctor saw familiar traits in Group Captain Gilmore, too. At one point, in exasperation he calls him ‘Brigadier’. The Doctor has always been impatient of the military habit of shooting first and asking questions later. In this instance, he is motivated by a desire to stop the Human military personnel from being caught in the crossfire of a Dalek civil war. Preserving life is his first motive. But then it always has been, for as long as we have known him.