Dalek

The last Dalek television story was ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ in 1988; a story which, like many earlier stories featuring the famous monsters, ended with the total annihilation of the Dalek species. Unsurprisingly, this is overlooked in ‘Dalek’ and yet the story begins with Skaro’s inhabitants having already suffered a calamity which has left only one surviving example of its malevolent species. This individual soldier is being held captive at an exhibit in a privately owned museum in a Utah of the near future. Initially, the creature is in an sorry state of extreme decrepitude, unable even to exterminate the Doctor when the chance presents itself. However, thanks to the clumsy intervention of Rose the Dalek is able to regenerate itself, recover the power to activate its’ laser and go on the rampage. What then follows are some of the best sequences of the new series so far, with the Dalek doing what is does best and single headedly wiping out several groups of heavily armed soldiers.

There are one or two differences between this Dalek and the more familiar predecessors, but they are mainly in the form of new tricks which it is capable of performing rather than radical re-imaginings of the creature’s character. We all know that the Daleks could fly in the old series, as they did so clearly in ‘Remembrance’ and it was inferred that they did so in ’Revelation of the Daleks’ also (how else did that Dalek fire from such an elevated position in episode two?). The Dalek in this story also flies, doing so at several points in the story. It is also capable of rotating not only the dome on top of its shell, but the central area at which the arm and gun are mounted. The suction cup on the end of the arm is now capable of moulding itself into different shapes—firstly to crush the skull of a scientist and then to hack an electronic keypad. The laser blasts look less like the thunderbolt-look from ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ and ‘The Five Doctors’ special edition and more like the tradition blue beam of energy from the earlier stories. When the targets die though we are now treated to a stunning x-ray death akin to those seen in the Doctor Who comic strips. Towards the end of the story the bonded polycarbide armour of the Dalek opens up to reveal the mutant inside, probably the longest and most generous footage ever allowed of the actual mutant but very much in keeping with earlier appearances. Finally the Dalek commits suicide using the half-spheres around its base. How exactly these worked is never explained, but they seemed to create some kind of destructive field around the Dalek which completely wiped it out. Other tricks the Dalek displayed in the episode include drawing energy from a television monitor whilst simultaneously downloading every piece of information available on the internet, using it’s casing to set fire to or extrapolate DNA from whomever touches it, and generating a defensive shield around itself which caused all bullets to disappear before making contact.

The writing for this episode was unlike anything yet seen in this series so far. It avoided the irritatingly facetious levity of Russell T Davies’ episodes and allowed for the most dramatic exchanges of dialogue we’ve yet had from the 9th Doctor. The scenes in which he verbally spars with the Dalek are mesmerising and powerful, and even the Dalek’s perspective is given an convincing angle. There are also several surprises thrown in, including the Cyberman head on display in the museum, the reference to Davros and the acquisition of a new assistant in Adam, something I really wasn’t expecting.

One aspect of the story which narrowly avoided being disappointing was the emotional baggage that seems to be passed from one episode of this new series to the next. Like earlier stories, there were gratuitously soppy scenes of Rose and the Doctor facing death and once again telling one another how they’re glad they met each other. I’m getting a little tired of these scenes and am hoping they wont carry on into the 10th Doctor’s era, but clearly the production team think they are necessary. One genuinely moving aspect of the story was the Dalek itself. True, it kills lots of people and shouts exterminate in the voice we all love, but it also demands the sympathies of the viewer. The suicide of the Dalek at the end of the episode could so easily have been derived from the same sentimental trash as that seen in ‘The End of the World’, and indeed I can imagine a Russell T Davies version of this story ending with the Dalek killing itself because it was lonely (as in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks). Thankfully though, writer Robert Shearman comes up with a much better justification of the self destruction: because of Rose’s DNA the Dalek is mutating into something other than a Dalek, therefore it considers itself to be impure and can’t face a none-Dalek future. In short, it is killed by it’s own xenophobia. This theme of ethnic cleansing it one that lingers at the heart of the Dalek legend, featuring prominently in stories like ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ and ‘Evil of the Daleks’ as well as many others. In fact, ‘Dalek’ draws many comparisons to ‘Evil of the Daleks’ in its treatment of the idea of Dalek nature contaminated by humanity. Being about twenty years too young to have seen ‘Evil of the Daleks’ and having only experienced it through the soundtrack and single remaining episode, it was a wonderful opportunity for me to see this adventure—a story which promises great potential for future episodes. Lets hope the next story is just as dramatic.