Sarah -
I'd like to start with an apology to Rob Shearman. Despite his best efforts, I regretfully admit that I still enjoy "Dalek", these twelve years on. I feel I've let him down after all his support of this project.
Harry -
Robert is an interesting character. We know this, because we have actually met him multiple times. He is very modest -- almost maniacally modest -- to the point where he constantly runs down this story in public. But he shouldn't! It's very good! And I'm not just saying that.
Sarah -
Rob is lovely and a very good writer. In addition to the brilliant Running Through Corridors, I quite like his short stories. He's also the most self-deprecating person I've ever met.
Harry -
His Big Finish story Jubilee formed the basis of this episode, which is set in the year 2012 and the Doctor and Rose encounter the last Dalek left in existence.
Sarah -
Thanks for the reminder, I just purchased the download, as part of my ongoing plan to give all my money to Big Finish.
Harry -
The Dalek is being kept deep under the Utah desert as part of a collection of alien artifacts owned by Henry van Statten, who also happens to own the Internet. Oligarch pricks running the world for their own gratification, not the stuff of fantasy these days!
Sarah -
So many things from the past are hitting closer to home these days.
The underground setting is wonderfully claustrophobic, which raises the stakes. It’s a base-under-siege story -- and the siege is within. I literally jumped off the sofa and started jumping up and down the first time I saw the trailer for “Dalek.” We’ve discussed the various boxes we ticked off in our minds as we watched the first series of Doctor Who’s return -- but there is no box bigger than the return of the Daleks.
Harry -
RTD (re)introduced the Daleks brilliantly, beginning with a story with just one of them in order to showcase the destructive capability that they possess.
Sarah -
Still, for a story called “Dalek” it’s really about the Doctor coming to terms with his role in the Time War, isn’t it?
Harry -
This is a very fast-moving story, except for that confrontation scene between the Doctor and the Dalek. Everything slows right down as the two foes mock and jeer each other. The Dalek hits all the Doctor's sensitive spots. That was probably more painful than a shot from its blaster.
Sarah -
The Doctor’s reaction to the Dalek reminded me of "Power of the Daleks" -- which we’ve rewatched recently thanks to the new smashing animated version. Once again, the Doctor is trying to warn everyone around him about the Daleks, and no one is listening.
Harry -
Watching the scene via CCTV is van Statten, who has up to this point been unable to communicate with the "metaltron" as he called it (humans should not be allowed to name things!). He has the Doctor taken for examination and orders his staff to get the machine talking again.
Sarah -
I find van Statten to be one of the weakest links in the story, which I think comes down to performance. He’s played as an over-the-top comic book baddie. I find myself imagining a alternative-universe van Statten, played by Kevin Stoney. The malevolence would just drip.
Harry -
While this has been going on, Rose has struck up an acquaintance with fellow Brit Adam Mitchell, one of van Statten's lackeys.
Sarah -
Oh, Adam. Poor Adam. Sci-Fi fans simply do not like boy geniuses. He was doomed from the start.
Harry -
Clearly smitten, he shows Rose his workshop filled with alien tech. He also lets her in to see the tortured machine down in the cage.
Sarah -
I love the way Rose humors Adam, pretending to be impressed by his collection.
Harry -
Down in the cage, Rose can't help but feel sympathy for the chained up creature. Sneaky Dalek! It manipulates Rose's emotions and coaxes her into laying a hand on its casing. Her DNA and time energy of the TARDIS enable the Dalek to regenerate itself to full working form. And the rampage begins.
Sarah -
Once again, Rose’s compassion leads her to make a connection with someone in distress. But, unlike all the other times, this time goes so wrong. The rampage is brutal, as the single Dalek takes out the the entire security staff. Perhaps the most horrifying moment is when it sets off the sprinklers and electrocutes a room full of soldier and scientists. It’s so calculated -- and this is what it takes for van Statten to take the Doctor’s warnings seriously. They never listen, do they?
Harry -
I guess this was a second time in the story when things slowed right down, so we could observe the Dalek's calculated extermination of the security staff.
Sarah -
A small old-school fan quibble: the moment when Adam taunts the Dalek on the stairs might have been surprising to new viewers, but we’ve known Daleks were capable of levitation since "Remembrance of the Daleks".
Harry -
I suppose that could be explained away because neither Adam nor Rose would have known that the Dalek was capable of going airborne.
Sarah -
There is no appealing to reason when fan entitlement is being invoked. I must be catered to! *shakes fist in the air in a useless sort of way*
Harry -
When Rose is trapped underground with the Dalek (nice work, ADAM), the Doctor is faced with the devastation of losing her.
Sarah -
After nearly getting her killed in the previous story!
Harry -
But no, it was faked. The Dalek was being sneaky again! Perhaps it was Rose's human DNA already going to work, forcing the Dalek to question its prime direction. Soon enough, it becomes confused. It no longer wants to kill, and it reveals to Rose the thing it desires most is freedom.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has picked up an alien blaster and made his way back underground. He finds Rose with the Dalek. It has opened its casing, exposing the Kaled mutant within to pleasing rays of sunlight. The Doctor orders Rose aside so he can finish it off. Shocked, Rose questions what the Doctor is turning into.
Sarah -
This may be my favorite moment of the story:
DOCTOR: Get out of the way. Rose, get out of the way now!
ROSE: No. I won't let you do this.
DOCTOR: That thing killed hundreds of people.
ROSE: It's not the one pointing the gun at me.
Harry -
Another great moment where the smug time lord is given a slap of cold reality, and it leaves him momentarily speechless.
Unfortunately for the Dalek, its programming has gone haywire. It cannot reconcile its inbred nature with the humanity that Rose's DNA has infused in it. It experiences an existential crisis and decides to commit suicide. Rose gave it a new perspective on life, but years (decades?) of Dalek programming were too much to overcome, and it self-destructs. There are several other Doctor Who stories that look at the meshing of Dalek DNA with that of other species, and it never quite takes -- at least, in such a way that the resolution would end their endless campaign of annihilation.
Sarah -
The meshing of Dalek and human DNA probably works in this story because it wasn’t intended. Rather than a devious plot that was inevitably going to go wrong, it was just something that happened.
Harry -
His callous behaviour being responsible for the deaths of dozens, van Statten is seized by remaining security staff. His assistant Goddard orders that his mind be erased, and he be dumped by the side of the road. His collection is to be filled with cement and sealed underground.
Sarah -
Just to keep the Bad Wolf tracking going, I’ll point out that it’s the name of van Statten’s helicopter.
Harry -
Newly unemployed, Adam is invited to join the TARDIS crew. I remember watching this for the first time and thinking we were about to get a new "TARDIS team" like we last had in the Peter Davison era. But, it won't quite work out that way as we'll soon see.
I understand that Robert Shearman's maniacal modesty prevents him from being boastful about this little masterpiece, and that reflects well on him. So let us do the boasting for him!
Sarah -
It’s an excellent story and one of the most important ones in Series 1. Well done.
Harry -
Not to keep banging on about the pacing of a story, but it is absolutely perfect here. Too often in the classic series there were stories that would drag, and too often in the new series there are stories that speed away from viewers. "Dalek" is an example of how to get it right, and every writer and director would do well to follow this example.
Sarah -
Good observation.
Harry -
So we've seen Autons and a Dalek, we've met a parade of new aliens, and we've had a Victorian period piece. This season is bouncing along nicely. Shall we see where we land next?
Sarah -
Best Line: “You would make a good Dalek.”
Favorite Moment: Rose calling out the Doctor when he wants to kill the Dalek.
Lasting Image: Rose and the dying Dalek.
9/10
Harry -
Best Line: "Doctor, what are you changing into?"
Favourite Moment: the Doctor-Dalek confrontation in the cage.
Lasting Image: the Dalek elevates.
9/10
Our marathon continues with Story #162: The Long Game...
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