(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.

(754) The Waters of Mars

The Water of Mars is the one special that I have been looking forward to and to save any suspense, I really like this story. If only the other specials before this had been this good then I would be over the moon. When this episode was transmitted on November 15, 2009, David Tennant had ben Doctor for 1,421 days making him the third longest serving Doctor ever. He has now been the Doctor longer than William Hartnell.

Lindsey Duncan is a proper actress and so she plays Adelaide Brooke. I think that the character is good because she comes across as harsh and not likeable at all but it was clear that she was hiding something and in a nice scene with the Doctor the moment is revealed because she saw a Dalek and the Dalek saw her but didn’t exterminate her. This happened during the Stolen Earth/Journeys End story and this was a totally unexpected moment in this story and I liked it.

There is one thing that doesn’t quite work and that is the Gadget robot think which after Wall-E looks like a bit of a cheat.

One of the things that I love about this special is that things go badly wrong very quickly. When Andy becomes the first infected its done in the background of Maggie talking and its very grim. Another thing about this story is that it’s a base under siege and if you have been following this blog since the very beginning you know I love a base under siege story. The Doctor realises quite quickly that he has to leave quickly because the crew of Bowie Base One die and for some reason he can’t change things like he normally would. This presents a great personal struggle for the Doctor because for most of the episode he says he cant and then changes his mind. This causes him to crack and decides that because he is the only timelord that he can decide who lives and who dies. This is the first time that Tennants Doctor has shown such anger.

He changes history and helps three of them (including Adelaide) survive. What I like when this happens is that Adelaide knows that this is the wrong thing and kills herself. This shows that the Doctor has gone too far and shouldn’t be taking matters into his own hands. The scene where Adelaide takes the Doctor to task over this its an unexpected scene at the end of what has been a grim and dark story. When she dies its like a slap in the face to the Doctor and the build up to his end starts.

The story uses such a simple thing as water and uses it in a wonderful way. Just one drop is enough to infect someone and this means that the body count is quite high.

The effect of the cracked lips and the water dripping from their mouth is impressive. The sight of them pretty much vomiting water is one of the best sights from this story. I don’t know who it was that came up with this aspect of the story but its one of the best monsters that the show has created since the weeping angels.

On a final note, this episode was dedicated to Barry Letts who had passed and I think that this was a perfect tribute to him. This is the sort of story that he would do and it’s the first time since Human Nature and The Family of Blood that I have felt that the story has been this good. After being slightly disappointed with The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead, it was nice that the good form has returned. There are now just two episodes left of the Tennant era and its weird to think that there isn’t much time left before the Matt Smith era.