Dalek

The Daleks had been ridiculed, often imitated, and had generally lost their edge. No longer were they the stuff of nightmares; they were now the figures of fun. With this in mind, Robert Shearman had a hard task in writing this Episode, and it is a pleasant surprise that it was as great as it is.

Slowly but surely, the Dalek strips away all possible points of humour: the sink plunger arm becomes a sucking, lethal, and head-breaking (literally) weapon, as well as one able to break codes and absorb information; the circular balls on the Daleks’ bases are no longer pretty, decorative attachments but are instead spherical bombs which are used to commit suicide, or self-extermination if you prefer; the gun turret in the Dalek centre can now swivel around 360°, making any notion of sneaking up behind them and, say, pushing them into a freezing cold lake on Spiridon no longer reasonable. This Dalek could single-handedly wipe out the entire Thal army in less time than it takes to surmise the plot of… well, a ‘Doctor Who’ story with very little plot- insert your own parallel here!

The actual plot of ‘Dalek’, rather famously now, borrows the lone-Dalek-in-a-cell scenario from the beyond-excellent Big Finish play ‘Jubilee’, but scenario aside there is very little in the way of similarities, which is a good thing as it saves me having to write out lengthy comparative paragraphs, though I shall come back to it later on nevertheless.

Here we have what everyone believes to be the last Dalek. Ever. The Daleks are no more; they fought a war against the Time Lords and were wiped out, though quite why they were fighting each other and what it actually entailed is something we never learn throughout Series One. This is a Dalek which is alone, and consequently confused. It kills, because that is what it does. It exterminates because it is a Dalek, and Daleks exterminate.

After some nifty DNA-extraction from a certain Rose Tyler (o, she of the easy deception), our entrapped friend is free to begin its killing spree, and kill it does. The bodies fly thick and fast, the screams echo and in one very memorable scene, the Dalek even makes sure everyone is watching it as it gloatingly murders a room full of base personnel in a rather imaginative way. The actual repair of the Dalek seems a bit convenient, though I cannot really see another way in which it would have worked, considering how the Episode ends. The use of a solitary Dalek was a superb way to make them seem all the more hostile and threatening. After all, if one Dalek alone could cause the immense damage this one did, imagine a whole army of them…

The supporting characters Shearman has created are just as memorable as the Dalek’s actions within the Episode; Henry van Statten- played with obvious relish by Corey Johnson- is the perfect ‘Doctor Who’ baddie. He is selfish, arrogant, rude, and out only to save himself at the expense of everybody and everything else. Bruno Langley debuts here as Adam, and he gives a performance that shines, so when he joins the TARDIS crew at the end of the Episode, it is a pleasant and most welcome surprise. As Van Statten’s aide, Diana Goddard (played by Anna Louise Plowman) is just as cold as her boss, but so less vocal that she gets away with not being shouted down by the Doctor. Alas, she is given little to do compared to Van Statten and Adam but she still makes an impression.

Once more, Billie Piper as Rose Tyler is a joy to watch, from the slow way she is tricked by the Dalek to the moving conversation she has with the Doctor via Mobile Telephone. If this wasn’t enough, Christopher Eccleston turns in his best performance to date as the Doctor. This is a Time Lord scarred by all he has seen, witnessed and fought in, and his sheer anger throughout the Episode is gripping stuff; you cannot help being drawn in. Everything, from his one-on-one conversations with the Dalek to his rant at Van Statten following Rose’s apparent demise, is so good that one is compelled to watch.

The Director of ‘Dalek’ was Joe Ahearne, and he is quite simply terrific. The ambience he creates fits the Episode perfectly; when it is meant to be moody, it is moody; when it is meant to be a bit lighter in tone, it is lighter in tone. From the reveal of the Cyberman head in a glass case near the start of the Episode to the interplay between Van Statten and the Doctor to the scenes with Rose and Adam talking about extra-terrestrials, everything is as close to perfection as can be achieved. Complimenting this very nicely indeed is Murray Gold’s incidental music; his score is big, loud, operatic and grand, and lives up to the expectations of the visuals every step of the way.

The very ending of the Dalek in ‘Dalek’ is good, though arguably not clear enough. Many people have complained that it is shown to be weak and full of heart due to having a conscience, but in truth it has anything but that. It does not kill itself because it has gone ‘soft’ and seen the error of its ways. It kills itself because it can no longer kill. It wants to exterminate all living things, but cannot. It wants to see the destruction of all things, but is prevented from doing so, so it kills itself. It is not a happy ending; this Dalek has not been redeemed. If anything, it shows itself to be just as nasty as it has done throughout the Episode. It wants to kill, but it cannot, so it kills itself. It dies through lack of sadistic alternative.

If I had two complaints, they would be that, as mentioned above, the ending lacks the clarity that it really should have, and also, from a personal point of view and one largely irrelevant to the Review, I preferred ‘Jubilee’.

For a start, I think that its four-episode format allows the supporting cast to develop more, and also the Dalek undergoing similar treatment reaches the same state as the one in ‘Dalek’ without the lack of conscience, making for, in many ways, a more powerful ending and certainly a more interesting Dalek. Perhaps I just wanted ‘Dalek’ to be longer than it was, but for me ‘Jubilee’ wins the crown as the better story. Despite this, I still think that its television equivalent was superb, so it’s a bit like comparing sublime with fantastic- they’re both good, but one has the edge.

‘Dalek’ was a chance to make everything the Daleks once were prominent in the viewers’ minds, and Shearman has succeeded remarkably. This is an Episode that could have gone so badly, but it doesn’t. Everything shines from the acting, to the Direction, to the golden Dalek casing (which looks brilliant and quickly quenched any thoughts within which wanted the Dalek casing to be silver like in ‘Death To The Daleks’ in my deepest, darkest fanboy dreams). Okay, so the ending lacks the clarity it deserves and, for me at least, the source of inspiration (‘Jubilee’) remains superior to this, but that is not to say that I disliked this. In fact, I loved it, as the rest of this review will show. ‘Dalek’ is a resounding triumph, which does ‘Doctor Who’, Christopher Eccleston and- above all- Robert Shearman proud.