From The Boss Dungeon Vaults: Doctor Who Series 8 First Impressions (Episode 2: Into The Dalek)

(In case you missed it, these are old writeups I did as Series 8 of Doctor Who was airing. Originally hosted on a nice website called Boss Dungeon. I've been rewatching the series as I archive this stuff onto my own blog, and below my original thoughts are new thoughts! Hooray! With that done, let us see what the me of 2014 thought of Daleks.)

Well. That's more like it.

Doctor Who debuted in November of 1963. It wasn't until the end of the year that it introduced an element that would send England into a fever. By January 1964, the Daleks were named, and the whole of Britain was beginning the throes of Dalekmania. Over the next 50 years, they would become the iconic foe of the Doctor across time and space. Multiple Dalek stories have become absolute classics in the annals of fandom, such as Genesis Of The Daleks or Remembrance Of The Daleks (both suggested if you're curious about classic Doctor Who). Into The Dalek isn't quite on par with those stories, but few stories are. What we have here is an above average story that has cleared up any nagging doubts I had about the Capaldi era post-Deep Breath.

The premise is almost like a greatest hits of Doctor Who for any anorak familiar with the program's history. You have a possibly broken Dalek chained up by some people, and the Doctor arrives to check it out and all hell breaks loose from there. It bears some resemblance to the 2005 episode, Dalek... but only some. The main crux of the episode involves the Dalek having "gone good", and the Doctor and friends being miniaturized and injected inside the Dalek to figure out what in the world went wrong with it. There have been stories dealing with a shrunken Doctor before, like Planet Of Giants or The Invisible Enemy, but none have combined that concept with Dalek iconography. The story beats are familiar, yes, but when mixed together they create an interesting brew.

The real highlight of the episode is Peter Capaldi. With no post-regenerative heebie-jeebies to deal with, this is our first extended look at the new Doctor. Confronted with the Daleks and their hatred of everything, we have a Doctor who is somewhat questioning of his own moral standing. This is nothing new for Doctor Who, not really, but the 12th Doctor definitely stands in more of a shadow than previous Doctors. He's less likely to grieve over a bad situation, and more likely to turn a victory from it... or attempt to. The moment that stands out in this episode is the death of a secondary character; the Doctor has him swallow something, and we're meant to think it will save the man from peril. He then dies, and the Doctor declares the man was "dead already" and his actions were done to save everyone else. A few moments later, and he's making offhand remarks about the man's death, and then witty puns. It sounds callous, but here is a Doctor who is committed to getting the job done.


Even better is his dynamic with his companion. There's no abandonment issues here; the Doctor and Clara are in this together. We get something we rarely see from Doctor Who; the Doctor is not a know-it-all. Oh, sure, he may know how the insides of a Dalek work, or how to operate a complex piece of space-time machinery... but he's flawed like the rest of us. His own prejudices against the Daleks leave him declaring the situation hopeless once things take a turn for the worse, and it's Clara who reminds him that there's another way. Clara, the schoolteacher, teaching a centuries-old alien to let go of his own preconceptions and remember what he's learned from his interactions with the "broken" Dalek. The writing for Clara has generally improved with this new series; instead of the blank cipher "mystery girl" to be solved at the end of the series from last year, we have a proper equal to the Doctor. Someone who can learn from him, and help him learn. What a great team.

Those are the main takeaways from Into The Dalek, so let's finish off with a few asides.

-The Danny Pink character seems interesting enough. He may even become a companion, if gut feelings are correct. Not sure how I feel about that, as Clara's growing on me now. Nevertheless, change is a part of the show.

-More mystery and intrigue with "Missy". I'm not fond of having a mystery waved in the audience's face to keep everyone speculating until the big reveal in the finale; it's sort of old hat after having it be a major part of every one of Matt Smith's series. The theories are all over the place, and I'm not sure how I feel about them. I'm pulling for her being an original character, as opposed to some returning foe.

-I had a friend who wasn't happy about the lack of Dalek exterminations in the previous two Dalek stories of Matt Smith's run. Considering Into The Dalek has them by the bucketload, I'd say he's pleased right about now.

-Boy, the Daleks were an effective scary force this episode. A far cry from the "million billion Daleks" model of their previous appearances. Just one saucer and a squad of them are what suffice.

And that is Into The Dalek! It's very very good, and if we get more episodes with this quality of innovation and Doctor/companion interaction, then this series will be a real treat. All of my worries following Deep Breath are cleared. I like this new Doctor. I like his relationship with his companion. I'm excited for what will come next.


...Which is "Doctor Who meets Robin Hood", apparently. Sounds fun!



AND NOW WHAT I THINK... NOW

Wow, that didn't take long, did it? Deep Breath had wobbled its landing for me, but I suppose if we go with the narrative of all those meta references and pleas to the audience, Moffat knew that we'd be on shaky ground. So the second episode is a Dalek episode! Which, there's no guarantee of that being good, but the Doctor and the Daleks are tentpoles of this show so it's a pretty safe bet. Then you've got the moral quandries and ambiguities surrounding Capaldi, which became sort of a running thing in this series. With the show on stable ground again now, at least, Moffat starts throwing in things that will run through the undercurrents of Series 8. Danny Pink is officially introduced, and I thought he would be a companion. Not quite. Really, the hints were right in this episode with the Doctor's dislike of soldiers... which we will get to. It's a strange dissonance. We go from a broken Dalek and a shocked Doctor... to romcom awkward flirting between Danny and Clara. Here's where I'm going to plant another gonzo theory-flag; Danny and Clara are the season arc of Series 8. Not Missy. Missy's the bait, essentially. Something for all us Doctor Who fans online to debate and theorize and ponder for eleven weeks. Except we're way too good at that, and the first answer we came up with was the correct one. Besides, it's not like Moffat gave us much to work with other than the name and that whatever she was doing had to do with dead people. Really, if Missy was supposed to be the season arc, she would have shown up more. Off the top of my head, I think she makes two more little cameo appearances before the finale, and then the next episode makes mention of the "Promised Land". Let's be real, more of her showing up and giggling about while Steven Moffat all but CGIs in neon signs around her head that say THIS IS THE SEASON ARC PLEASE SPECULATE THIS FOR ELEVEN WEEKS ON TWITTER would be bad. I and many others would get sick of it. Unless of course, he revealed a little more about the mystery each time, which is almost what he did.

Again, though, that doesn't matter! Steven Moffat was playing another shell game, and doesn't that just make the blood of the "Fuck Moffat" crowd boil? No, Series 8 is not about Missy and her plan. It's important to the finale, but what Series 8 is about is shown in this episode; it's about Danny and Clara and the Doctor, all trying to find out what kind of people they are. The first one up is the Doctor, and he ponders if he is a good man or not. As I said a year ago, he knew that guy was dead the second he shot those grappling hooks at the Dalek. There was nothing he could have done. David Tennant would have pulled an "I'm so sorry" right out of his head and said that a bunch, as he often did. Capaldi just had a plan and he stuck to it. Clara is his carer here, so he's focused and doesn't need to. Then there is Clara herself, who takes the sensible role as she did way back in Day Of The Doctor. It's her caring that snaps the Doctor out of his funk (or slaps him out of it, tee hee hee) and makes him realize the age old tradition of a Doctor Who story; when you're faced with a choice between a bad thing and another bad thing, an impossible choice... well, you're the Doctor and you say "to hell with it", rewrite the rules of the narrative, and make the third choice that fixes everything. That's what the Doctor tries here... but of course, it goes wrong, and the very prejudices that make the second choice of killing the Dalek bad end up tainting and twisting the mind of poor Rusty. The Doctor is a madman with a box who likes to show twentysomething English girls the wonders of the universe, but he's also the Lonely God, the Oncoming Storm, Centuries of seeing what those Daleks can do in killing everything has him hating them to his core, and just as he's trying to figure out if he's a good man or not, it's all reflected right back at him. Hey, like all those mirror shots in Deep Breath! Symbolism! Then there's the final ambiguity, when Rusty calls the Doctor "a good Dalek". Does he mean it in a moral sense, or a sense of identity. A Dalek who is good, or good at being a Dalek? Killing and hating? I think he meant the second one, but it's up in the air. Things being up in the air will be important soon.

Okay, see y'all tomorrow for Robin Hood shenanigans.