(802) Into the Dalek

It could be argued that classic monsters are bought into help a new Doctor in their first season. It’s happened with each Doctor so far and so its happened with Capaldi’s Doctor. However instead of a normal Dalek story we get one that is quite inventive. Phil Ford returns to writing for Who after co-writing The Waters of Mars. This time is he co-writing with Steven Moffat and I wonder when he will be allowed to write a story on his own. The Doctor’s story gets started from the very beginning before the title plays and at that point he doesn’t have Clara with him so it’s a nice to see him going solo even if its just for a short while. The scene ends with the Doctor being asked to inside a Dalek and the Dalek saying Doctor which immediately raised a question as to how the Dalek new that the Doctor was standing in front of him. Then the title plays and the action moves back to Coal Hill School. That is an interesting shift in tone and one that works quite well but after a while I wanted the story to go back to the Dalek.

One of the things that doesn’t quite work in this series is the character of Danny Pink (played by Samuel Anderson). Sadly the character is annoying but that is more down to the writing that Anderson himself. Thankfully he starts off less annoying and seems rather amusing.

The Doctor asks Clara if he is a good man and she doesn’t know how to reply. I think that this one of the many good moments that take place in this episode. She doesn’t answer until the end when Clara says that he tries and that is enough which is probably a diplomatic way of saying that he could do better. The Doctor then says that Clara is his carer and she cares so that he doesn’t have to. This is another clear sign that this Doctor is less smiley than before. There is a bit where everyone thinks that the Doctor is saving one of the soldiers when in fact he was just trying to find where he gets dumped. This isn’t the sort of thing that other Doctors would have done or at least would have been a bit warmer about it.

The Doctor and Clara get miniaturised and its very similar to the film Innerspace which is gets referenced to during this episode. For me this is when the episode really starts to get enjoyable because we get to see inside a Dalek. The Dalek is suffering from a radiation leak and that is what the Doctor has to try and fix it and it happens but the clever thing is what happens next because the Dalek goes on a killer rampage and tells the other Daleks where it is and the Doctor is stuck inside the Dalek and cant do anything.

There is another appearance from Missy although Michelle Gomez isn’t credited at the end. She appears when Gretchen is killed by the Antibodies inside the Dalek. It’s a little scene that doesn’t have much impact on the overall story arc but works well for this episode.

As a Dalek story it was very inventive and there were some visually impressive moments and Ben Wheatley continues to show what a great director he is. Two episodes in and the series has settled down a bit with both Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman getting use to the new relationship and the next episode is one that I have had mixed feelings since I saw it last year.