Doctor Who: Into the Dalek

As follow-ups go, that was pretty alright.

So this episode does its job of following up on a strongish opening. As far as reviewing goes, there’s a few really interesting bits in it.

The plot:

Some humans are fighting some Daleks in an asteroid field and they’ve captured a damaged Dalek that seems to think that Daleks are evil and must be destroyed. As the Doctor puts it  “Morality is malfunction.”

With that interesting premise already in place, now we get the really good stuff  - shrinking people to tiny size and letting them explore inside the Dalek like it’s a ship or building. So we get the idea of a good Dalek and the opportunity to look around and gain more understanding on how a Dalek works.

That much is pretty cool. But what’s even cooler is watching the Twelfth Doctor handle it. At one point he practically kills a guy to gain an escape plan. This is something that would have enraged both Ten and Eleven and no doubt several fans. It makes us ask the question is this part of his new persona or is this just him going onto battle mode, like Nine discarding his no guns rule when faced with the Daleks.

The Doctor’s own hatred having an effect on the Daleks comes up again. This has been a constant theme in Moffat’s Dalek stories during his tenure. It’s good, but I wish it had been demonstrated as well in the past as it is in this episode.

Missy makes an appearance again, this time to welcome someone else who died because of the Doctor. Interestingly the other bit part (whom the Doctor didn’t like very much) doesn’t appear to have been taken to paradise.

There are problems though. It takes Clara to figure out how to stop the Dalek once it’s been repaired, but I don’t see how the Doctor couldn’t have figured it out himself. True, the Daleks bring out the worst in him; this case seemingly making him give up on anything but explosions. The Doctor’s main weapon over the years has been his cunning and the thought that the eventual solution would not occur to him at all seems a bit odd.

But that’s easily offset by the writing, acting and THE CAPALDI. As I said, this is an alright follow up. It’s better than many before it, but I can’t say that my attention was completely held throughout.

Doctor Who: Deep Breath Review

Well that was good…I think…

This is the problem with the way that Moffatt puts together a series; the formula is predictable. We get a first episode to introduce the core themes of the episode and then a set up for the series’ red herring (this case being the “promised land”).

The problem is I can’t figure out if that offsets the quality of the writing, acting etc. on an episode by episode basis. I’ve got some thoughts about what the promised land is and who that woman is, but I can’t say that I’m half a as curious about it as I was about the Pandorica or the Silence. So we’ll just have to see how this pans out; you never know; maybe Moffatt’s brave enough to put in a red herring that’s supposed to look like a red herring and is actually a red herring for a red herring.

Anyway, onto the episode.

We now have an openly Scottish Doctor, which leads to many new independence and moaning jokes; supposedly to replace the ginger jokes from Eleven’s era. I will say they’re pretty well put together and Capaldi (as ever) has a great talent for comedy. At the same time he avoids becoming Malcolm-Tucker-Doctor, as many had expected, by toning down the anger and upping the general confusion and quirkiness of the character.

The point at which things start to get violent is a really good example of how he can switch the character up. “I have a horrible feeling I’m going to have to kill you” is a line I don’t think any other Doctor could have delivered and that’s saying something considering that this is Capaldi’s first time out in the role.

I also like the way that the fan reaction is incorporated into the Doctor’s dialogue. He wonders out loud why he would now be older than his two predecessors, suggesting that he unconsciously chose a form that had “frowned lines onto” it’s face.

Jenna Coleman does a good job as Clara. Her reaction to a newly regenerated Doctor is a thousand times better than that of Rose in The Christmas Invasion. Clara remains unsure who the new Doctor is but (after some prompting by Vastra) accepts that it’s him and that he’s dealing with a crisis. Rose by comparisome appeared to take it a personal slight that the Doctor would change his appearance without first consulting her and sat around saying things along the lines of “yeah there’s an alien invasion happening by what about my problems?”

We have another goodbye from Matt Smith, which wasn’t strictly necessary, but was a nice way to resolve Clara’s issues with the new Doctor.

Overall, nice episode but the series set up we’re seeing is something we’ve all seen before.