NuWho Review: Series 1 Episode 6 “Dalek”

By: Robert Shearman

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

            Here it is, folks: the episode that made Daleks badass again (and that is not a term I use lightly!). But before we get into the praise and snark – a bit of history on the Daleks.

            First introduced in 1963 by the second serial of the show, appropriately titled The Daleks, these evil pepperpots catapulted Dr. Who into fame. In this version of Dalek history, the Dalek planet of Skaro was once home to two races – the peaceful and scientifically advanced Kaleds/Dals and the warlike Thals. After a terrible nuclear war between the races, the Dals were mutated and became the insane, Nazi-metaphor Daleks. These Daleks were more or less confined to their city because the motive power for their shells was electricity that had be conducted via metal walkways.  

            The Thals were protected from mutation by radiation by (what else?) anti-radiation drugs. The Daleks, upon finding that these drugs would kill themselves, planned to use a neutron bomb to increase the radiation in Skaro’s atmosphere. But the TARDIS crew convinces the Thals to fight against the Daleks and by the end of the serial, the Daleks were seemingly wiped out when their power source was destroyed.

            However, the popularity of the Daleks ensured the survival of at least a token few. They appeared again in 1964’s story The Dalek Invasion of Earth and continued to appear with increasing frequency as the years went on. Because of their rather goofy design (they really do look like giant salt shakers with a toilet plunger attached), the apparent ease that The Doctor came to defeat them, and these facts combined with their apparent inability to manage stairs caused the Daleks to suffer through an identity crisis by the time the 1988 Remembrance of the Daleks came around (even though they were pretty badass in that story). To put it bluntly: the Daleks were no longer menacing. What the series needed – if they were going to continue to have the Daleks as The Doctor’s great foe – was something to breath new life and threat into the metal-clad mutants.


Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- The Doctor and Rose, following an alien distress signal, land the TARDIS in a Utah underground bunker owned by collector Henry van Statten. And Mr. Van Statten is no ordinary collector of Ming vases or Norse blades. He collects alien artefacts. The museum itself is a treasure trove for any Whovian, filled with nostalgic pieces (such as a Classic Cyberman helmet) and paying homage to many past adventures of The Doctor. For the new viewer, well, it’s an alien artifact museum! That’s cool no matter what.

- After The Doctor touches a glass-covered exhibit, he and Rose are captured by security and taken to van Statten himself who we learn is filthy rich and ruthlessly retcons any staff who don’t do his bidding. Henry van Statten demands The Doctor’s help with a new requisition he had stored in his vault; an artifact that no one has been able to open. The artifact has been dubbed ‘The Metaltron’. Seeing no other option (and secretly curious himself) The Doctor heads down to the vault to inspect this Metaltron.

- What follows is a brilliant scene where The Doctor comes eye-to-eyestalk with the last surviving Dalek. Not only do we get to see The Doctor scared out of his mind (and an amusing comment about ‘the great space dustbin’ – in reference to the gunless Dalek) but we also get more information about the Time War along with a glimpse of the darker side to The Doctor. While on the surface he may be all wide smiles and goofy ‘fantastic's’ – the last Time Lord is really quite a dark persona under it all and here we get to see that in action as he goes and tries to exterminate the Dalek before being pulled away by van Statten’s goons.

- One of the things I love within this episode are the parallels that are drawn between the last Time Lord and the last Dalek. The fact that both are so consumed with hatred for each other that they end up betraying each other to the same man who will ‘collect’ them both is actually quite sad to watch.

- Another thing that this episode does beautifully is making the Daleks intelligent again. They might be insane, mutated, and xenophobic, but they are also very smart. The first conversation between Rose and the Dalek is so cleverly written, and acted that it actually succeeds in making you feel pity for the evil thing. You can actually see why Rose would reach out in compassion. Of course, most of that sob-story was really just the Dalek manipulating her human emotions (I say most because I don’t doubt that it actually was in pain) but the fact that we, the viewers, felt sorry for the Dalek before its abrupt change in attitude serves to highlight the manipulative ways of Skaro’s children.

- And then all hell breaks loose. Quite literally. One of the problems of former (and following) Dalek stories is that there would be an insanely large fleet invading somewhere and in the end The Doctor would defeat/annihilate the entire lot of them. This scenario might work once (as a season finale) but when used again and again it only turns the Daleks into laughing stocks. Not able to rely on their design to inspire terror, the Daleks have always had to build on their reputation and schemes and when both start to go down the tubes any sense of peril they could bring goes right with it. That is why it is ten times more menacing to have one Dalek (one desperate Dalek, no less) than an entire exterminating fleet. And that is exactly what this episode does. Rose touches the Dalek, it revitalises itself from her DNA, and basically goes on a killing spree as it makes its way up through the levels in search of The Doctor and in search of its own people.

- There is something very cold about the way the Dalek calmly and calculatingly picks off the soldiers one by one. This is what I feel Daleks should be like rather than just croaking out ‘Exterminate’ every second. A prime example is when the sergeant (or whatever rank he is – we’re never told) tells The Doctor that he can manage one metal robot before the Dalek proceeds to coolly take out the entire regiment with just two shots – one to the sprinklers to wet everything and another into the water to electrocute everything, all whilst making The Doctor watch the entire thing. That is cold, that is cruel, and that is what a Dalek should be like.

- And the Daleks can nicely manage stairs, despite what jerk Adam might say. Yes, he is a jerk. Did you catch his comment about how funny his almost causing WWIII was? 

- Also, why didn’t he let Rose go in front of him when the vault was sealing? A true gentleman would have put her in front of himself instead of leaving her to the tender mercies of the Dalek. He didn't even stick around and try to lift the door for her. He just kept running to save his own pathetic skin.

- So the Dalek got some of Rose’s compassion when it took her DNA. If this had been handled differently, I would have said that it was the biggest wimp-out since the Daleks were defeated by a flight of stairs. But as it is, between the Dalek’s confusion and its cries of being contaminated, this plot twist is introduced without destroying the reputation for toughness and danger that had been rebuilt. (Even though I'm not entirely sure how personality is transferred by genetics. Technobabble, maybe?)

-  By the end of the episode, you actually feel pity again for this lone survivor. You feel sorry that it must be terminated, yet you know that it can never be allowed to escape. The Doctor had every right to shoot and kill it, and some might say that Rose was wrong to stop him. But that’s one of the morals that Doctor Who teaches. Just because you have a right to vengeance, that doesn’t necessarily make it right. At that point, no one was really in danger. The weary Dalek was simply soaking up the sun for the first and last time in its life. It had no further purpose and decided to end its life rather than live on as a contaminated last of its species. This was a beautiful and powerful ending to an epic episode.

            This should have been the last Dalek episode, I think. It would have been a way for the iconic monsters to go out on a high note. It had such large shoes to fill (being the first Dalek episode of the NuWho) and it did so better than anyone could have imagined not only delivering a Dalek that was a threat again, but also some genuinely touching moments and a moral question that was actually followed through on. I give Dalek a 9/10 in terms of emotion, storytelling, and overall premise. There needs to be more episodes like this one!

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?