Who Review: Into the Dalek
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I said last week, it’s not fair to judge a new Doctor by his first story. “Deep Breath” gave us a good introduction to Number Twelve, but this past Saturday’s adventure was the one to watch. And what better test of a new regeneration than to pit the Time Lord against his oldest foe: The Daleks? Journey Blue’s space shuttle is under attack by Daleks, but the Doctor’s intervention saves her. The Doctor returns her to the command ship Aristotle where he is called upon to help with their latest patient: a battle-scarred Dalek that seems to have turned good. Meanwhile, at Coal Hill School, Clara meets a new colleague, Maths teacher Danny Pink, an ex-soldier who fought in Afghanistan. Not long after inviting him for a drink, Clara runs into the Doctor who asks for her help. He takes her back to the Aristotle with him where they are recruited for a dangerous mission: to go inside the Dalek and find out why it’s being so well-behaved. The Doctor, Clara, and a some of the Aristotle crew are miniaturized and sent down the Dalek eyepiece to figure out what’s going on…
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
As the first “real” story for the Twelfth Doctor, this hit all the right notes. This is a Doctor who is confident in his abilities, even if he’s not so confident about his motives (“Am I a good man?”). There are elements of the story that rehash old Who ideas, the big one being the “Dalek-turned-good,” though in the past this has been due to some form of Dalek-human cross-contamination (see “Evil of the Daleks,” and “Dalek”). There were also elements of the story reminiscent of 1977’s “The Invisible Enemy,” where the Doctor and Leela are duplicated and miniaturized to go inside the Doctor and hunt out an evil infection. But there were also some good original elements, not least of which was the whole idea of traveling inside a Dalek.
This Doctor is certainly not the sympathetic Time Lord of last year. When Clara refers to herself as his “caretaker,” he interprets that to mean “she cares so I don’t have to.” On the lips of Doctor #10, that would have been delivered with a smile. With Doctor #12, you believe it. And then he sacrifices one of the crew, who was admittedly as good as dead, so they could track the Dalek’s antibodies that were attacking them. Again, not something that Doctors 10 and 11 would have done without much moral anguish. Indeed, there’s a lot of the 9th Doctor about Capaldi’s incarnation. Echoes of the way he played judge and jury with Cassandra (“The End of the World”), and is ready to destroy the last Dalek (“Dalek”). But the Ninth Doctor had just come from the Time War, and over the course of the season developed compassion (thanks largely to Rose Tyler). The Twelfth has lost a lot of those soft edges, and I don’t know we’ve been told why. I’m not complaining; I think it’s a good direction for the character and the show. But in terms of the Doctor’s story, other than unpredictable DNA, what’s driving this harder character? Maybe we’ll find out… unless we’re supposed to know, in which case if you have any hints for me…!
Also new to the show (at least from Season 7), is the fact that the companion is no longer a resident of the TARDIS. Clara has a life outside the big blue box, and the Doctor drops in on her from time to time to take her on adventures. I get that this is a fresh take on the Doctor-companion relationship… but I don’t like it. It makes no sense. Traveling companion means traveling companion. The companion has a room in the TARDIS. Occasionally they check in with the companion’s home, but never to stay long. With all of time and space at his disposal, under the current arrangement, the Doctor could dump Clara, pick up Jamie McCrimmon again, have a couple of seasons’ worth of adventures, and then drop back in on Clara, or Amy, or Adric, or anyone else. At least when the companions lived in the TARDIS, you knew why the Doctor kept traveling with them. Especially with this Doctor, if Clara annoyed him, he could take off and she’d never see him again.
I understand we’re going to see a lot more of Danny Pink in the future. Given his back story (ex-soldier with confidence issues), I’m sure we’re in for some juicy confrontations with the Doctor.
I enjoyed this episode. It was a good story (I believe the first co-writer credit of the New Series: Phil Ford (“The Waters of Mars”) and Steven Moffat*), without much to fault in terms of acting, effects, etc. This is shaping up to be a good season! Let’s hope the next episode, “Robot of Sherwood,” continues the trend.
What did you think? I’m sure there are tons of things about the episode I didn’t mention that deserve mentioning. Please add your voice to the comments!
* Though, as Russell T. Davies has admitted in his book THE WRITER’S TALE, many of the episodes written under his watch were at least polished, if not re-written by Davies. The only exception to this was Steven Moffat’s scripts which he thought were perfect as they were.
RTD has a book? I’m going to have to find that immediately…
I both agree and disagree with you on Clara leaving the TARDIS. I don’t like it either, but I think that’s more because of the way it’s handled than the concept itself. It doesn’t make sense and there’s no real justification for her leaving. There’s also the matter that I don’t actually care about Clara. Not anywhere near as much as I cared about Rose, Martha, Donna, and Amy. I think that Moffat is trying too hard to make her interesting (souffle girl, the impossible girl, the fact that she goes home after each adventure) rather than writing her as she is and allowing her to stand on her own. I feel the same way about Danny Pink. He reminds me of Mickey in the same way that Clara is like a substandard Rose.
I’m actually really excited about “Robot of Sherwood” if only because of Robin Hood and the fact that it was written by Mark Gatiss.
Yes, RTD has a book… well, *had* a book–I’m not sure if it’s still in print. THE WRITER’S TALE talks about Season 4, and then in an updated edition he discussed David Tennant’s last stories and the transition to Steven Moffat and Matt Smith. It’s full of great insights, and writing tips too. In fact, I serialized RTD’s discussion on dialog from the book (search the blog for “Russell T Davies” and you’ll find the posts). Definitely a book worth getting if you can find it.
I like Clara, but maybe the whole “Impossible Girl” storyline got in the way of us really getting to know her. It’s almost as if this is the first season where we actually dig a little deeper into who she is. We’ve certainly seen some good character development over the last couple of stories. More to come, perhaps?
I’m looking forward to “Robot of Sherwood” too–Mark Gatiss usually turns in a good story. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Rachael!
I am enjoying this new take on the Doctor. I wonder if he’s harsher because 11 hid all the dark emotions. He always had a smile, was goofy, maybe that was just a mask to hide darker emotions. I read some interesting theories on him over at Tumblr (a long time ago and not sure I could find them again) that had to do with his emotions and how he acted. Maybe 12 isn’t as concerned with putting on a friendly face as 11 or 10 were.
So 10 and 11 acted goofy and fun-loving as a front to hide the darkness, and now the front has gone? Interesting thought. I’d still like to know *why* the front has gone, or why he no longer feels the need to be as friendly. Perhaps it’s just the “luck of the regeneration draw”… or maybe there’s more to it than that? Whatever the answer may be, I too am enjoying Capaldi’s Doctor.
Thanks, Patricia! 🙂
After the silliness of 10 and 11 (which I did quite like, don’t get me wrong) I like this new side to the Doctor. As well as an older Doctor, I think we’ve needed one who is much darker and more alien. The elements of the story were, like you said, similar to past ones but I think that might be something used often in this season as a way of 12 trying to remember who he is. It works well, IMO.
Hello, Robin! I have no complaints with 10 and 11, but I agree, it was time for a change. I also have no problem with similarities to past stories, but Moff needs to be careful. Back in 60s and 70s, Doctor Who continuity was not an issue because most people didn’t remember the stories that well, and they couldn’t go back and watch videos. Aside from the novelizations, what you saw on the TV on a Saturday evening was it. Now, however, we have DVDs of nearly every episode of Who, and Moff will be hauled over the coals for anything that seems like a continuity error.
That’s a good thought, about these similar elements being used to help 12 remember who he is. You may be right! 🙂