Dalek

Of course this was the episode we have been waiting for - the long overdue television confrontation between the Doctor and his nemesis. And what a result! We finally see the Doctor getting rattled - and with good cause. The Dalek portrayed here is fare deadlier than anything we have previously seen.

Some reviews I've noticed criticising this episode for it's portrayal of teh Doctor as prepared to kill or losing control and temper - as opposed to Sylv 'reasoning' the black Dalek to death. I have to say that one is certainly not more Doctor-ish than the other. The Sylv thing always sort of rankled with me anyway as there really wasnt much 'reasoning' going on. "Your planet's dead" causes the Dalek to blow up? A bit too convenient.

But here, the Doctor has been through a lot more with the Daleks than ever before. He has seen them wipe out his people. He has seen them reach heights of atrocity never before seen in the series - and as such it would be a major stretch to imagine that this wouldn't have affected the Doctor's attitude towards them.

And he has certainly been capable of destroying Daleks before with violence, even to the point of encouraging Ace to kill Daleks with that bat in Remembrance again.

This was the Doctor at his most desperate, confronted with a vision from his worst nightmare. Whereas previously he always approached the Daleks with a sort of smarmy arrogance, here he is genuinely terrified of them and we can only guess at the true extent of the time war.

This was a jaw drop of an episode and Joe Ahearne has squeezed every last bit of tension from the script. Shearman has turned in something exceptional and the reasoning way in which the Dalek coldly destroys the humans whilst slowly moving through the bunker was truly chilling. Who else was incredibly impressed by the way the Dalek dispatched an entire squad with the sprinkler system and one blast? Rob did more than just present a Dalek mindlessly killing, he presented a highly developed killing machine and then continually upped the stakes.

Bravo. This episode has put the Daleks back where they belong, in people's nightmares and shown that they can exist outside of the shadow of Davros at long last.