Day 670: Remembrance of the Daleks Part 3

I mentioned yesterday about the undercurrents of racism within this story. It's quite a big theme behind the adventure, and it makes sense, given that the initial concept behind the Daleks was that they were essentially Nazis. And funnily enough, actual Nazis appear within this story, in the form of Mr Ratcliffe and 'The Association', which is a secret group of British fascists. Mr Ratcliffe has seen himself to ally with the Daleks, presumably out of a wish to gain more power, as well as be on the winning side of a war after his side lost World War 2. Indeed, he states as much in the Part 2 when he has a conversation with the Dalek Battle Computer, saying "This country fought for the wrong cause in the last war. When I spoke out, they had me imprisoned".

But, most interestingly, the Daleks are going through a particular type of race hatred in this story, especially with regards to themselves. You see, there are two groups of Dalek factions: the White Daleks, who have been augmented, and the Grey Daleks, who remain pure. Aside from providing some ridiculously fun Dalek on Dalek action in Part 4, they also provide some interesting commentary on the nature of the Daleks themselves. These are bubbling lumps of hate, genetically engineered to despise all that is not like them. So what happens when the Daleks start to become different, and how do they react to the perceived impurities within each other?

This sort of fighting, and the stupidity of it, also reflects a bit on our society, where we can see that we in fact have a lot more in common with people of other races than we might think, at least from an outsider's point of view. It also acts as a mild reinvention for the Daleks, shifting their original concept as Nazis into a concept based more on racism, to work a bit better for a new audience, who may not be as familiar with the ever-present threat of the Nazis than those who watched the original Dalek serial just 18 years after the War ended. It's a shame that this through-line was never really carried on through to the rest of the Daleks' appearances, but we'll get to them in due course, and how they use the Daleks in new and interesting ways. But for now, let's just finish off Remembrance of the Daleks.