Review of Into the Dalek
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.
If you’d told me a month ago that one of the episodes of this series would be The Invisible Enemy meets Dalek, I’d have been, shall we say, dubious at best. Yet that’s what we got in Into the Dalek, and I have to say I think it worked.
The very fact that I’m willing to mention this episode in the same breath with Dalek, a personal favorite from the post-Hiatus era, tells you something about how much I enjoyed it. Granted, is was not completely flawless (though to be honest, I doubt such a beast exists), but it was, for me, certainly one of the best since Moffat took over as showrunner.
Yet while the main conceit of the episode—literally getting inside a Dalek’s head—is new and therefore interesting, it was not, in fact, the driving force of the story. Instead, it’s a character piece.
Most of the character development is for our new Doctor. We the audience are still getting to know him (as is Clara and, let’s be honest, he is himself), so this is important stuff for us to see. And I was fascinated to realize both that I like Twelve less than I did in his debut, and that I find him an infinitely more interesting character than most of his predecessors. This distinction is important to me, so let me put it another way to be sure I’m making myself clear: this Doctor is not nice, but I adore him.
Maybe it’s because he has more of the edge that Eccleston’s Nine had, and as Nine was my first Doctor, I’ve imprinted on him; in my heart of hearts, that’s how the Doctor is “supposed to” be. But Twelve takes things to a different level of callousness:
“I materialized the time capsule exactly around you and saved your life one second before your ship exploded, but do please keep crying.”
“My brother just died!”
“His sister didn’t. You’re very welcome.”
No “I’m sorry—so sorry” here. Instead, it’s “Dry your eyes, Journey Blue. Crying’s for civilians; it’s how we communicate with you lot.” Cold much? Though even that pales to the way he rebuffs poor Journey when she asks to come with him at the end, telling her she’s probably “nice” before dismissing her with “I just wish you hadn’t been a soldier.”
Which brings us to Clara’s new boy-toy, (former) soldier Danny Pink. It’s so painfully obvious that things are being set up so that Danny will somehow change the Doctor’s mind about soldiers that I cringed every time the Doctor snarked at Journey about her profession. And though the idea wasn’t originally mine, but my friend Paul’s, I must admit that the hypothesis that Danny Pink is actually Journey Blue’s “dead” brother makes a sick amount of sense, especially given Moffat’s penchant for using similar names for relatives (Pond/River and Pink/Blue—please tell me it’s just a coincidence, and I’m being paranoid…).
I have yet to form a strong opinion of Danny, but I have to say I like that he was actually the exact opposite of his ladykiller reputation, banging his head on his desk in self-recrimination. To her credit, Clara wasn’t exactly a smooth operator herself, as I’d have expected from her previous characterization, which helped her standing in my eyes.
What helped most, though, was the fact that Clara is finally getting the chance to show some actual character. The way she bounces off Twelve is oh-so-much more interesting to me than the flirty cat-and-mouse she and Eleven engaged in. “You are not my boss; you’re one of my hobbies” does loads more to endear her to me than “down, boy!”
More importantly, though, she does what all the best Companions do: both help the Doctor find the solution to the problem at hand, and give the Doctor a much-needed reality check.
“Daleks are evil; irreversibly so. That’s what we just learned.”
“No, Doctor. That is NOT what we just learned!” she insists, incredulous.
Setting aside the slap (a physical assault I could’ve done without), I love that Clara finally takes on the true role of a Companion (moral compass, rather than puzzle to be solved). The comparison others have made between her pairings with Eleven/Twelve and Sarah Jane Smith’s pairings with Three/Four are apt: each Companion really came into her own with her latter Doctor. While we’re still quite early in this duo’s run, it’s showing a lot more potential than I’ve seen in a great long while.
“You need to get up there, find that moment, and reawaken it,” the Doctor tells Clara.
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Good idea.”
“How?”
“I haven’t the foggiest. Do a clever thing.”
And then, by gum, she does. I’ve never been so pleased to be proven wrong about a character. Clara is finally turning into a Companion I could get behind.
Before all’s said and done, though, the Doctor’s had another nasty shock. Far from embracing his love of adventure and awe at the infinite wonders of the universe, a Dalek allowed into the Doctor’s mind recognizes only his hatred—specifically, his hatred of the Daleks. It turns conveniently into a useful weapon for the “good guys,” but it’s a blow nevertheless. The Doctor is shaken.
“You looked inside me and you saw hatred. That’s no victory. Victory would’ve been a good Dalek.”
“I am not a good Dalek. You are a good Dalek.”
The echoes of the lone creature Nine encountered in van Statten’s vault in Dalek are loud: “You would make a good Dalek.” However, in Nine’s case, his adversary meant that the Doctor would perform admirably as a Dalek. In Twelve’s, it’s a moral judgement: Twelve is equivalent to a Dalek with a conscience. Whether or not the Doctor recognizes it on a gut level, that’s a massive shift, and—in my opinion—a fascinating one.
Because that one statement really boils down to one of the show’s fundamental tenets, something the Doctor himself observed, as he ranted to Rusty about his first trip to Skaro all those centuries ago: “The Doctor [is] not the Daleks.” It all comes back around to his question to Clara, and her answer. Whether or not the Doctor actually is a good man is hard to say, but he tries to be. That is what separates him from the Daleks—and Doctor Who from everything else out there.
I’m glad to see someone else
I’m glad to see someone else got out of that exactly what I did. Specifically the empasis on trying to be a good man even if you aren’t and dare I say that in an age of being told to check your privilege that is a very positive and important message for boys and people in general.