Into the Dalek

"You can't put me in there."

Writers: Phil Ford & Steven Moffat

Format: TV

Broadcast: 30 August 2014

Series: 8.02

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara

Synopsis

A Dalek fleet surrounds a lone rebel ship, and only the Doctor can help them. As he faces his greatest enemy, he needs Clara by his side. Confronted with a decision that could change the Daleks forever, he is forced to examine his conscience. 

Verdict

Into the Dalek was an excellent episode to continue our modern era rewatch! I'm loving revisiting the Peter Capaldi era already because whilst the basic premise of these episodes remain familiar, this is the first time I am watching them in a decade and the first time alongside my long suffering partner Gemma. I am the reason she was brought back into fandom because she fell off from being a fan due to Capaldi's Doctor, but here we were laughing hysterically at some of his lines here. I loved the Twelfth Doctor in this episode and I think watching far removed from this being new really does help. I know what to expect from the Twelfth Doctor now with his personality and character defined and bookended, whereas at the time it might have felt a little uneasy to have such a change from Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. I actually reread my blog entry from broadcast in 2014 on this episode whilst watching and I was fascinated by my dislike of the arrival of Danny Pink. I concur with those sentiments but it's not because he's a bad character, I just wish Clara wouldn't use the TARDIS as a hop on-hop off bus tour of the universe. I echoed those sentiments back in 2014 and they remain strong feelings today. I think she's great here as she is still getting to know this Doctor following regeneration and the lines the Doctor provided when asked about her appearance were hilarious. Capaldi's delivery is stellar and so genuine that just makes it absolutely shine. It is nice though in describing her appearance he mentioned she makes up for any defects with a great personality. I'm not sure his comments on how she looked were accurate though! She's confident too as she quickly ensured she grabbed a date with Danny. His role as a solider was paralleled with that of Journey Blue here which was brilliant and I love how that sets the play for a frosty relationship between the Doctor and Danny. He doesn't like soldiers, and I can't blame him. Journey was a fantastic character and the fact she wanted to join the Doctor on his travels was testament to their relationship, but she was declined by virtue of being a soldier. This is some way to introduce that aspect of Danny's past! The concept at the heart of the episode takes The Invisible Enemy to another level in miniaturising the Doctor and Clara and placing them inside a Dalek. The episode is strong in its simplicity in having the Doctor repair a Dalek of radiation poisoning and that brain chemistry returning to normal ensuring the Dalek was back to being bad. Of course there was no such thing as a good Dalek! I think it's fun for the Doctor to nickname the Dalek as Rusty because this is a different Dalek for sure that deserves an identity. Whilst the means to return him to wanting to destroy the Daleks came from the Doctor's hatred of them, it was a decent mission statement for a Dalek that the Doctor now has let loose! Victory wasn't great for the Doctor in this regard, but you win some and you lose some. His matter of fact nature about what was happening was superb, none more so than the protein section in saying Ross was the top layer if they wanted to say goodbyes after he was taken out by the Dalek antibodies! Hilarious. I also really liked the throwback to The Daleks and how this first visit to Skaro made him realise being the Doctor was not being the Daleks. A really nice touch. Overall, a fantastic episode to continue the series along! 

Rating: 9/10