“Clara, be my pal. Tell me: am I a good man?” – It’s the question that fans first wigged out over when the BBC first started rolling out its teasers for the eighth season of the revived Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi’s first. For long-standing fans, it’s a question we know has been plaguing our favourite Time Lord for years now and it’s with the second episode of Season 8, “Into the Dalek”, that we see the seeds of this being sown quite obviously into an arc which will thread the whole season together.
Now, I was the first to write this off before it even aired – Daleks, again? Please. When Tennant’s spliced 10th Doctor basically committed genocide against them at the end of Season 4, I was slightly happy, because it meant we might be spared a reappearance of the pepper pots for a few seasons at least. But no, they popped up frequently through Matt Smith’s era and now here we were again. Dalek, schmalek. Taking into account that most of the recent Dalek-centric episodes of Doctor Who have failed in the memorable stakes due to the writing behind them as well, I wasn’t going into this with high hopes. I can happily say that with this adventure however, I was easily proved wrong.
Let’s break it down. The Doctor saves rebel soldier Journey Blue from being exploded to smithereens and upon returning her to her space station, the Aristotle, he comes across a Dalek who is hooked up to what looks to be an elaborate life support machine. Cue The Doctor’s usual quips about the Daleks being undeserving of any help/goodness but then plot twist: this Dalek is for the destruction of his kind. That’s right, for it. Snatching the Doctor’s interest (because let’s face it, he can’t just walk away from it), he returns to Clara, who has been flirting up a storm with hot new work colleague Danny Pink and together, they head back to the Aristotle to solve this mystery of whether or not a Dalek can actually ‘turn’ good and attempt to find the answer to the Doctor’s original question: is he a good man?
The writing of “Into the Dalek”, courtesy of Phil Ford and showrunner Steven Moffat, has to be commended here – I don’t think I remember a Dalek episode since “Dalek” that I’ve enjoyed this much. Where season opener “Deep Breath” may have fallen short in giving Capaldi enough leash to explore his Doctor (and that’s saying something, given how long that episode was), “Into the Dalek” is a great insight into the man piloting the TARDIS this year. From his opening scenes with Journey through to when we see him reunite with Clara after a three-week absence, we see a Doctor who is more than happy to school you on manners and then greet you with a coffee without so much as an acknowledgement of your prolonged time away. While it’s been made clear that this is a Doctor who isn’t going to be clouded by romance or any flitting emotions, he’s still clearly torn up over whether his decisions make him fundamentally decent. The fact that he trusts Clara enough to be his compass in this regard, is a great character point to note, as I assume this is going to be an element of their dynamic which will be explored in more detail.
The relationship between The Doctor and ‘Rusty’ as he comes to call the Dalek of the hour is also a brilliantly written one – we’ve got a man who has literally seen and experienced universes and their wonderment, but we’ve got this creature we know is pure evil, who has seen the ‘beauty’ of a star being born and as a result, has decided to flip a lifestyle switch and become good. Though it’s obvious not is all as it seems, the fact that The Doctor almost scoffs at the notion of seeing one star’s birth being a catalyst for such a change only furthers this new aspect to his personality. Matt Smith’s 11 probably would’ve cried out of reflection. But still, we see 12, Clara and a select bunch of the Aristotle’s crew do a Rick Moranis and become miniaturised in an attempt to determine what is making Rusty this way – an excellent opportunity for the show to flex their budget and take the fans inside The Doctor’s worst enemy, in his words: the most dangerous place in the universe.
It’s obvious that the inside of a Dalek is going to be as dangerous as its outside, so I felt it was a bit of a stupid move, writing-wise, when the crew members decided it would be fine to start shooting griphooks inside. Surely that’s just common sense, right? That gets shoved aside however, when we see The Doctor use the death of Ross to their advantage. In a similar way to the droid’s ‘suicide’ in the previous episode, this is the second time we’ve seen this Doctor react almost callously to the death of another. He won’t kill anyone, still abhors gun use, but still, he used Ross’ death here to their advantage. Is he a good man? No wonder Clara can only utter a ‘I don’t know’, even I was slightly stunted.
There are some brilliant moments between The Doctor and Clara which only makes me more excited to see Capaldi and Jenna Coleman onscreen together; it’s becoming more obvious that they’re not joined at the hip travel companions, yet when they are together, they still trust each other completely. When he tells her he needs her help, she goes with him almost instantly, but doesn’t hold back when he needs to be pulled back in line (that slap was magnificent). You can tell that he’s equally impressed by her even though may not show it as directly as his predecessor, but nevertheless, she’s Clara Oswald. She’s the Impossible Girl. She cares so he doesn’t have to.
In terms of action sequences, “Into the Dalek” is pretty standard. You have Daleks exterminating humans all over the shop before The Doctor and his team put an end to it. The scene where The Doctor lets Rusty see his soul as an attempt to reawaken his ‘good’ side is excellent, because of course as we know, he’s beautiful and wonderful and all that jazz but at the same time, The Doctor’s hatred and fearfulness is what leads his enemies to freaking well form alliances and make the most impenetrable prison ever, if we remember oh so fondly. So while his companion can’t even tell him if he’s a good man or not, we’re sure as hell not going to be surprised if this Dalek can tell him so after he sees a montage of his kind being blown up from seasons past. It’s a sad but poignant moment to remember, as we then see Rusty exterminating his own, an aim he seems pretty hellbent on continuing after this fiasco is over and he’s got the people out of his brain. Either way, can we get a Rusty spin off?
In usual Who fashion, the end of the episode leaves the viewer with more questions and fuel to stoke the theory fire.
Who is Danny Pink? Obviously, he’s being set up as a love interest for Clara, which is a good thing. Former soldier with some clear emotional baggage, there’s going to be an interesting to and fro between him and The Doctor who, as we saw with his blunt rejection of Journey at the end of this episode, isn’t too keen on them. He’s got a secret and what that means for Clara, I’ve not got the foggiest. He’s played well by Samuel Anderson though and I hope he sticks around for a while yet.
With Missy’s reappearance, there’s a good chance that she’s collecting characters whose deaths have been caused by The Doctor, directly or indirectly, as opposed to offering them a cuppa when they reach ‘Heaven’. How this is going to culminate by the end of the season, I’m unsure, but my money’s on our Doctor being put back on trial somewhere along the way.
“Into the Dalek” was a highly entertaining continuation on from the Season 8 opener and only goes further in cementing Capaldi as a surefire contender for many future ‘Favourite Doctor’ lists. As Clara notes, she’s not sure if The Doctor is a good man, but the fact he’s trying to be is the whole point. So who knows where this personal crisis is headed. All we know is that we’re headed for Sherwood Forest next week and, if Robin Hood in the Whoniverse is anything like Will Shakespeare, this is going to be a fun romp.
Review Score: FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Doctor Who airs Sundays on ABC TV in Australia and streams on iView. Stay tuned to The Iris for weekly reviews, as well as our podcast “The Doctor Is In”!
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