Story #163 - Father's Day (2005)

Harry -
Pass the tissues, Sarah. That was an absolute sobfest -- even more than I remembered.


Sarah -
I’ve always liked "Father’s Day" but I have to admit it’s never made me cry. Maybe I’m too busy admiring its construction.


Harry -
While I go on blubbing let me say this is peak RTD right here. Companion backstory with huge emotional crescendos. We meet Pete Tyler and little Mickey, we see baby Rose, and there's chaos in the timestream as the monstrous Reapers appear through a wound in time. All because Rose wanted to see her dad.


Sarah -
One of the big differences for me this time around is that having just rewatched all of Doctor Who, "The Aztecs" was front and center in my mind. “You can't rewrite history! Not one line!”


Harry -
The Doctor's reaction here is much different. No stern admonishments, instead he seems OK with standing back and letting Rose see her Dad on the day he died.


Sarah -
He definitely has concerns about her request and warns her to be careful what she wishes for. Initially, she asked to just see Pete, so the Doctor takes her to Pete and Jackie’s wedding -- where he messes up her middle name during the vows. (Poor Jackie.) After that, Rose ups the ante and asks to be there for Pete on the day he dies.


Harry -
Perhaps the Doctor wasn't expecting her to dash out into the street to rescue Pete. Just when he started taking a liking to us stupid, emotional apes again.


Sarah -
Much like the situation with Adam, the Doctor should have known better. He’s clearly forgotten how humans can be, showing off with his “I can do anything.” The fact that you can doesn’t mean that you should.


Harry -
Indeed.

It's the seventh of November 1987, and the Tylers are going to a wedding. Pete has just picked up a vase to give as a gift. As he steps out of his vehicle, another car speeds around a corner headed straight for him. This was how he died, alone, after a hit and run. Initially, Rose's intention was to be there to comfort him as he died. She freezes up at the first opportunity and asks the Doctor if she can try again. The Doctor agrees, even though that now places two versions of themselves in the same place. The second time around, Rose can't bear to see her father get mowed down again. She rushes past the earlier Doctor and Rose (who subsequently vanish), and pushes Pete out of harm’s way. His life has been saved. Time has been altered. The Doctor is angered.


Sarah -
I love the time paradox of Rose and the Doctor watching themselves watching Pete the second time around. I don’t think Rose planned to save him, but it’s easy to understand her instincts kicking in.


Harry -
The Doctor and Rose get into a fight over what just happened, and it ends with him storming back to the TARDIS. Only, the TARDIS is not the TARDIS any longer. It's just an empty shell. I remember being freaked out when he opened those doors and nothing was there.


Sarah -
The empty police box is one of my favorite moments in the story. This has never happened before -- and it can’t be good.

The scene leading up to this shocking moment is focused on the Doctor-Rose argument, which plays out way too uncomfortably (for me, anyway) as a lover’s spat. He admonishes her selfishness, “My entire planet died. My whole family. Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?” But Rose doesn’t understand why he’s so upset, focusing only on having her father back. He demands the TARDIS key back and says goodbye. She tells him that he’ll be waiting a long time for her to come back. Meanwhile, something is attacking random neighbors and making them disappear. 

Rose and Pete head out to the wedding, where they encounter a not-very-happy Jackie. This is such an important story for Jackie, who has not been treated kindly up until this point. The moment when she asks Pete if Rose is “another one of yours” is heartbreaking. The story began with Jackie telling young Rose about her wonderful father and little by little we discover that he’s definitely not the man Rose was led to believe.


Harry -
This is a very different kind of Doctor Who story. Even though we just watched it and I know it's not the case, it felt like the Doctor was barely in this one. Rose and her family are front and centre the entire time.


Sarah -
Making "Father’s Day" perhaps the most revolutionary story in Doctor Who history!


Harry -
As everyone starts to gather for the wedding, the Reapers break through the rift in time and start attacking people. They are entirely CGI creations, and to be honest, not that convincing. As well, they don't seem concerned with who might have caused the disruptions in time, they just randomly attack anyone.


Sarah -
I find the janky effects reassuring. How else will I know I’m watching proper Doctor Who?


Harry -
Good point.  After the Doctor herds everyone inside the church (claiming the older something is, the stronger it is), he declares that the Reapers are there to sterilize the wound in time and they have to eliminate everyone present. He takes his TARDIS key and attempts to materialize his ship around it.


Sarah -
I was surprised all over again when the Doctor says that in the past, his people would have taken care of the situation. It’s feels a bit disingenuous, because we all know they’d just send the Doctor to do their work.


Harry -
During these "church under siege" scenes, we see young Mickey make a cameo and Rose encounter herself as a baby.


Sarah -
Were you surprised to learn that Mickey is at least three years older than Rose? I’d forgotten about that and was taken aback.


Harry -
It never occurred to me until you mentioned it.

Rose's appearance beside Pete sets of a new round of misunderstanding and argument between him and Jackie, who assumes that adult Rose is Pete's daughter by another woman. In the brief scuffle that follows, Rose comes into contact with her infant self. Instead of the dimension-blowing explosion that happened when two Brigadiers made contact in "Mawdryn Undead", the rift in time widens and allows one of the Reapers inside.


Sarah - 
The Blinovitch Limitation Effect strikes again!


Harry -
The Doctor draws the Reaper's attention, and it swoops down and consumes him. He is gone, and the TARDIS key falls to the ground.

Worst wedding ever!


Sarah -
And that’s counting all of Donna’s weddings!

The Doctor is taken out of the story and it’s up to those left in the church to save themselves. This is Pete’s moment. During the siege, he’s come to the realization that Rose is his grown-up daughter. She’s very careful about discussing the future with him, but he’s smart enough to realize that it doesn’t include him. Pete has been watching the car that was supposed to hit him spin around the corner of the church and disappear over and over and realizes what he has to do.


Harry -
After so many get-rich-quick schemes and disappointments, Pete in his final moments makes the toughest decision of his life -- but the right one, as his action will save the lives of everyone besieged by the Reapers.  Counter to what the bride said earlier -- "I know we're not important" -- Pete proved that even an everyman can be vitally important in the grand scheme of things.


Sarah -
Before he leaves the church, Pete helps Jackie understand that Rose is their daughter and they all embrace. Then, vase in hand, he dashes into the road to be hit by the speeding car. Rose runs to Pete and holds him as he dies. The Reapers vanish and everyone who was taken by them is returned. 

The Doctor and Rose return to the TARDIS, having rewritten one small line of history. The end took me back to "The Aztecs", when the Doctor told Barbara, “You failed to save a civilisation, but at least you helped one man.” 

The story opened with Jackie telling Rose about her wonderful father, who died alone after being struck by a hit-and-run driver. It ends with a new version of the story, where Pete ran in front of the car and the driver stayed until the police arrived, while a mysterious young woman comforted Pete as he died. Just one line.


Harry -
Just a few months ago, we were watching the McCoy era.  What a leap between then and now, not just in the production quality, but in the attention to detail RTD gives his supporting characters.  Granted, there probably isn't another story that will go this deep into a companion's family life, but to learn so much about them like this was groundbreaking.  For the rest of this season, the Doctor will reclaim most of the spotlight and there will be more companions and their relatives in seasons to come, but "Father's Day" stands out as a very unique piece in the new series.


Sarah -
I recall having read that Simon Pegg was originally going to play Pete Tyler, but was moved to "The Long Game" due to scheduling conflicts. At this point, I can’t imagine anyone other than Shaun Dingwall as Pete. The entire story rests on his shoulders and he’s fantastic.


Harry -
We'll even get to see him again, but for now I'm eager to be introduced to a certain Captain for the first time, all over again.  Shall we?


Sarah -
Before we go, I'll continue our Bad Wolf tracking. Bad Wolf was scrawled across one of the posters for ENERGIZE, which is on a wall near where the Doctor and Rose are watching Pete get hit by the car. I had to look this one up, because I didn't catch it during the episode. 

Best Line: Jackie leaves baby Rose with the Doctor - “Jackie gave her to me to look after. How times change.”

Favorite Moment: Pete realizing what he has to do. 

Lasting Image: Pete watching the car spin around the corner and disappear.

8/10


Harry -
Best Line: "Who said you're not important? I've travelled to all sorts of places, done things you couldn't even imagine, but you two. Street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. I've never had a life like that. Yes. I'll try and save you."

Favourite Moment: the TARDIS is empty!

Lasting Image: the TARDIS is empty!

7/10

Our marathon continues with Story #164: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances...

Story #162 - The Long Game (2005)

Harry -
I wonder how daft it would have seemed to us when we first watched this story, back in 2005, that humanity could be completely subjugated by nonstop streams of manufactured news. Humans rendered into mindless cattle, with all sense of curiosity dulled. 

Sadly, it didn't take 200,000 years for us to get there. Here we are, just a dozen years after "The Long Game" was first broadcast, and great swathes of society are under the sway of a hideous, bellowing creature that decides what is true and what is false.


Sarah -
It’s depressing that so many sci-fi tropes seem to have become reality in the past year. "The Long Game" felt futuristic in 2005, but now it seems downright prescient. If there was ever a time Planet Earth needed the Doctor, it’s now.


Harry -
Lines like the one about "creating a climate of fear in order to close the borders" are particularly chilling.


Sarah -
I made of note of that line, too. Tyrants are all the same in the end.

The story begins with a classic Doctor Who premise when the TARDIS lands on Satellite 5, a space station in Earth orbit during the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. The cold open has one of my favorite moments. As the Doctor and Rose exit the TARDIS, he prompts her with details about where they’ve landed so she can impress Adam with her knowledge -- “So, it's two hundred thousand, and it's a spaceship. No, wait a minute, space station, and er, go and try that gate over there. Off you go.” Rose leads Adam and the Doctor through the gate to a large viewing window -- where Adam immediately faints, leading to this exchange:

The Doctor: He's your boyfriend. 
Rose: Not anymore.

As this story will show us, not everyone is cut out to travel in the TARDIS.


Harry -
Adam was cute for about two minutes, before he started plotting to take advantage of the Doctor and Rose's good natures to enrich himself.


Sarah -
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to watching "The Long Game". It’s been a while, but my memories weren’t that positive. After this rewatch, I think "The Long Game" is generally underrated and a key story in series one.


Harry -
It's not a very pleasant story at all. We see humans regressed into a compliant herd, the supporting cast initially come off as self-serving careerists, a companion goes rogue, and the alien of the week is a very unpleasant monstrosity. Pretty sure the Jagrafess has never been cosplayed.


Sarah -
The person who successfully does so will certainly sweep the costume competition!

Significantly, "The Long Game" is the story that led to double-banking and Doctor/Companion-Lite episodes in future series.


Harry -
I had no idea the productions were so under-the-gun back then. Nowadays they can take a whole year off if they feel like it.


Sarah -
Now, now. Your bitterness is showing.


Harry -
Back to your point about rewatching "The Long Game". I may have watched it one more time when the DVDs were first released, but I never went back to it.


Sarah -
Knowing what’s coming, it feels like a moment to slow down and breathe a bit between "Dalek" and "Father’s Day", two very emotionally charged episodes. Being sandwiched between two very strong stories, penned by amazing writers, makes it easy to miss the quiet competence of "The Long Game". 

Most importantly, "The Long Game" sets up the rest of the season and the stunning series finale. (Spoilers!)


Harry -
While checking out the futuristic (yet all too familiar) food court of Satellite 5, our friends meet Cathica, one of the self-serving careerists mentioned above. A journalist, she shows them around while boasting that Satellite 5 is where they make the news -- an odd way of putting it, and the Doctor immediately becomes suspicious. His hunch is confirmed when Cathica shows off the information spike: technology that streams information directly into a person's enhanced brain. The Doctor concludes that the technology is all wrong.


Sarah -
Ninety years behind, to be exact. I found myself wondering about the decision to have the residents of Satellite 5 wear clothing contemporary to 2005 and have two theories. The first is that with the strain of putting a new series on, it was more than enough to worry about the scripts, guest actors, and sets, without having to get all wrapped up in futuristic costuming. The other is that they were afraid of alienating new viewers with clothing that looked too much like a science fiction cliche or Starfleet uniforms. Of course, this being Doctor Who, it’s most likely there was no money left for costuming and the actors were just told to wear their own clothes. Personally, I would have liked to see everyone dressed like the crew in "The Ice Warriors". This is the fashion future I want to see!

Harry -
Absolutely! All it would take is some puffy winter jackets, a few packs of coloured markers, and the power of one's imagination. I might just make one of my own!


Sarah -
Speaking of Starfleet, I couldn’t help but think that Rose’s costume felt like a Star Trek homage. She was the one person in the story who seemed to be dressed for sci-fi!


Harry -
Watching all of this toing and froing on CCTV is the Editor (hello Simon Pegg!). From way up on Floor 500, he monitors all activity on the station, and the computers have picked up a security breach. He can't yet pinpoint who is responsible, and keeps watching as the cameras zoom in on the Doctor, Rose, Cathica and Suki.


Sarah -
I was surprised all over again when Suki turned out to be the person he was looking for. Cathica is enraged when Suki is promoted to Floor 500 over her, not knowing she’s better off where she is -- creepy brain port and all. 

One of the things I most fondly remembered about this story was Simon Pegg, who was well on his way to being king of the nerds when he appeared in "The Long Game". He would, of course, go on to hit the nerd trifecta -- appearing in Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Star Wars.


Harry -
I loved seeing Pegg in this story. My introduction to him was in the comedy Spaced, which made the rounds on Canadian TV shortly before Doctor Who returned.


Sarah -
I LOVE Spaced!


Harry -
He wasn't a particularly villainous villain in this story. He spends a lot of time smiling and pulling faces, perhaps as a coping mechanism because of the monstrosity that literally hangs over his head.


Sarah -
He's just another in a line of bureaucratic middle men in Doctor Who.


Harry -
Adam, meanwhile, is getting up to no good at all.


Sarah -
It seems a little irresponsible of the Doctor and Rose to bring him into space and then let him wander off on his own with unlimited credits. He was already overwhelmed by the experience, which is how he ends up with Rose’s phone. It was nice of her to let him use it to call home, where only the dog heard his message, but she really should have taken it back. It seems inevitable that he would end up using his unlimited credits to get an infoport installed in his forehead. What a dope.


Harry -
Adam going all in for himself was probably the most shocking part of this story. For decades we've been conditioned to the Doctor travelling with trustworthy people. Taking Adam along from Utah was a rare bad call on his part.


Sarah -
To be fair, he wasn't keen to have Adam tag along and only let him come along as Rose's companion.


Harry -
The scene where Adam has the infoport installed in his head provided another moment of squee, because the nurse was played by Tamsin Greig, who was in Black Books -- another early 00s comedy I loved. It's great that so many actors from both Spaced and Black Books found their way onto Doctor Who over time. This is just the beginning!


Sarah -
Tamsin Greig is great in everything. Her low-key creepy performance is one of my favorite things about this episode.


Harry -
Gosh I'm all over the place with these asides. While I've been chattering away, the Doctor has tried to (figuratively) open Cathica's mind, to make her question things instead of taking everything at face value. And it's worked. 

The Doctor and Rose make their way to Floor 500. There, they discover the sickening set up of zombified news conveyors over which the Editor presides. He welcomes our friends with almost campy curiosity (he reminded me of a 1960s Batman villain). Before long, he has them in shackles and the Jagrafess terrorizes them from above.


Sarah -
Sadly, freedom fighter Suki -- portrayed by Anna Maxwell Martin, who has been brilliant in loads of things -- is among the zombified.


Harry -
Cathica quietly seizes the opportunity to tamper with the cooling system that keeps the Jagrafess alive. In keeping with all totalitarian regimes, information is the ultimate weapon. Feeding humans a constant stream of propaganda was enough to keep everyone subdued. There are barely any security forces in place to police the herd, which made it easy for Cathica to throw a fatal wrench into the works.

In a matter of minutes, the overheated Jagrafess swells up like a balloon until the inevitable POP!


Sarah -
Cathica saves the day! Early the in the story, the Doctor scoffs at Cathica calling herself a journalist, but she rises to the title when she exposes the Jagrafess. Sarah Jane would approve.


Harry -
Journalists are the best freedom fighters!


Sarah -
The Doctor, having upset the entire society, does what he's done countless times -- ducks into the TARDIS and leaves the survivors to pick up the pieces. 

Of course, before he and Rose can start their next adventure, Adam must be dealt with. The TARDIS materializes in his mum's sitting room and he's unceremoniously booted out the door. The Doctor erases the messages Adam left on the answering machine (how dated is that!) that would give him access to future technology.


Harry -
Considering that Adam was picked up from the year 2012, his mum's answering machine is borderline anachronistic.


Sarah -
The Doctor gets rid of Adam's access to future technology but leaves Adam with the port, which is activated by snapping the fingers, in his forehead. I find this so amazingly wrong and, in retrospect, it is the moment that leads to a development in Doctor Who that most annoyed me in these early years. This is the beginning of the smug and annoying Doctor and Rose "we're so special" BS.

The Doctor snapping his fingers over and over is a total dick move. Rose admonishes him for doing it -- and then does it herself. I kind of hate them both at the end of this story. And it's only going to get worse, isn't it?


Harry -
I always equate the Doctor and Rose's smug exceptionalism with David Tennant's first season, but it definitely starts to manifest itself here. At the very least, the Doctor could have used the sonic screwdriver to permanently close Adam's brain port before leaving him on Earth. 


Sarah -
He totally could have sonic-ed that thing to disable it. The final shot when his mother snaps her fingers is so awful. It was the angriest I've been with the Doctor in quite a while.


Harry -
We'll never see Adam again, so we can only guess how he managed.  Maybe he patented the port as a new kind of extreme body modification.

A fresh rewatch has not really improved my opinions of this story. It's bleak and dark, but not in a cool way. Humans do not come out of this one looking good at all apart from Cathica, but only because the Doctor was there to open her mind. For me, it's an early example of the misanthropic strain that occasionally pops up in RTD-era Who.


Sarah -
I would say it went up in my estimation, but I may have started off with lower expectations.


Harry -
Whole lotta yuck. Let's move on. Maybe the next story will be a cheery pick me up?


Sarah -
Oh yeah, that's going to be a laugh riot.

Before we move on, I'll continue the Bad Wolf tracking by noting that the announcement of the Face of Boe's pregnancy appears on Bad Wolf TV.


Harry -
Congratulations to the Face of Boe!

Best Line: I liked the Doctor spurring Adam to go and explore Satellite 5: "The thing is, Adam, time travel's like visiting Paris. You can't just read the guide book, you've got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me? Stop asking questions, go and do it."

Favourite Moment: Simon Pegg's campy scenes.

Lasting Image: Cathica receiving the information spike.

6/10


Sarah -
Best Line: I wrote down the same line. Clearly this happened in later regenerations, when kissing strangers is less of an issue for the Doctor. 

Favorite Moment: Cathica saving the day!

Lasting Image: The Editor surrounded by the newsroom corpses 

6/10

Our marathon continues with Story #163: Father's Day...

Story #161 - Dalek (2005)

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...