Dalek

When I discovered that Robert Shearman would be writing the first Dalek episode of the new Doctor Who series my heart sank, since I had heard that the episode would feature a lone Dalek and predicted that Shearman would rehash the basic plot of ‘Jubilee’. Whilst Shearman is my favourite Big Finish writer, ‘Jubilee’ is my least favourite of his audio stories, and although the vast majority of the viewing public would not have heard it, I also found it vaguely disappointing that a writer of Shearman’s calibre would recycle his own material. Fortunately however, ‘Dalek’ is sublime, a stripped down, leaner version of ‘Jubilee’ without the awful, generically unconvincingly “mad” Rochesters and the nonsensical temporal paradox, and the result is, for me at least, by far the best episode of the new series to date. It also occurs to me that it is actually highly appropriate for Shearman to write a new Dalek story by plagiarizing his prior work, since Dalek creator Terry Nation was never a man to let an idea go un-recycled.

‘Dalek’ is, in keeping with Russell T. Davies direction for the new series, a character piece. Shearman’s gift for characterisation means that virtually every supporting character makes a mark upon the memory, but it is the interaction between Rose, the Doctor and the Dalek that leaves an indelible impression. As in ‘Jubilee’, Shearman has a fine grasp on the Doctor’s most popular enemies, exploring the Dalek as a character without actually resorting to twee rot; the audience is invited to feel sympathy for the Dalek, especially during the poignant ending, but the writer remembers that the Daleks are above all else cunning, manipulative psychopaths, who only become even remotely sympathetic when they’ve either gone mad or been infected with the human factor. So here we get a Dalek that proves supremely capable of not only going on an impressively directed killing spree, but also of getting under the Doctor’s skin and bringing out the worst in him. The moment the Doctor realises what van Statten’s “Metaltron” actually is, he hammers on the door of the cage and starts screaming “Let me out!” Once he realises that the Dalek’s gun isn’t working, he positively gloats, shouting at it, “If you can’t kill, then what are you good for, Dalek?” The ensuing scene is fascinating, as we learn, rather predictably, that the Time War mentioned throughout the series was the final battle between the Daleks and the Time Lords, in which both perished. The Doctor snarls, “You all burned, all of you. Ten million ships on fire, the entire Dalek race wiped out in one second.” He sounds utterly traumatized, and the Dalek capitalizes on the moment, smugly adding, “And the coward survived.” It then adds, “I am alone in the universe. So are you. We are the same”, prompting the furious response, “We are not the same!” before he tries to destroy it.

The point of all of which is that we get a reminder of just how much the Doctor hates the Daleks, none of which would have any impact, if the acting were crap. Having admitted that Christopher Eccleston’s performance was starting to irritate me in ‘Aliens of London’/‘World War Three’, I was far more impressed with him here, as he conveys the Doctor’s sheer hatred extremely well, as well as his obvious fear and near-panic when trying to convince van Statten to release him, insisting, “That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us… it’s woken up, it knows I’m here!” The scene in which he screams at the Dalek on the communication screen shows the Doctor at his most vitriolic, as he demands, “If you want orders, then follow this one… why don’t you just die?” The look of shock on his face as the Dalek ripostes, “You would make a good Dalek” is magnificent. Of course this all culminates in the climax of the episode, as he stands facing the increasingly vulnerable and confused Dalek with a massive gun, forcing Rose to stand in the line of fire to stop him destroying it. When she asks him, “What about you Doctor? What are you changing into?” he again looks terribly shocked, and Eccleston is superb when the Doctor starts weeping and tells his companion, “Oh Rose, they’re all dead.” It’s another insight into just how badly he’s been traumatized by the Time War, and it’s a powerful moment. Eccleston gets some other great moments here too, including the Doctor’s gentle use of the alien musical instrument and his subsequent coldness when van Statten discards it, and his deadly seriousness when he informs van Statten that the population of Salt Lake City is dead if they can’t stop the Dalek. His impassioned rant at van Statten when he thinks Rose is dead, as he tells him, “”You’re about as far from the stars as you can get. And you took her down with you” is convincingly delivered.

Impressive though Eccleston’s performance is however, he’s almost upstaged by Nicholas Briggs, who finally gets to voice a Dalek onscreen after several years of honing his performance for Big Finish. As an avid fan of Doctor Who, one can assume that Briggs was like a dog with two dicks when given the role, and he gives it his all, fully exploiting Shearman’s dialogue. Anyone who has seen such “classic” Dalek stories as ‘Planet of the Daleks’ and ‘Death to the Daleks’ might find it surprising that a single Dalek could pose much of a threat, but the script gives us a Dalek that is phenomenally dangerous; we learn at the start that the last person who touched it burst into flames, and it’s got a fair few other new tricks as well. Exactly how it is able to absorb the DNA of a time traveller in order to regenerate itself is not clear, but this isn’t important; what is important is that as soon as it realises that Rose is the Doctor’s companion, it starts spouting self-pitying dialogue such as “I am dying” in order to make her feel sympathetic in an example of cunning and understanding of the human psyche not seen since ‘The Power of the Daleks’. The moment she pats it, a note of triumph enters its voice, as it starts to regenerate, and snaps its chains. Briggs delivers all his lines here extremely well, emphasizing the fact that the Dalek is very, very devious. Having plaintively told the Doctor, “I am a soldier, I was bred to receive orders”, it quickly proclaims that the Dalek race survives through it, and quickly decides, “I shall follow the primary order, the Dalek instinct to destroy!” Its subsequent killing spree is magnificently directed by Joe Ahearne, and the Daleks have never seemed so dangerous; we get the amusing sight of a Dalek actually making use of its sucker arm, firstly to kill its torturer and secondly to override computer locks; we see the Dalek single-mindedly gliding through a hail of bullets and finding a computer terminal through which it absorbs most of the national grid and the whole of the internet (as the Doctor tersely notes, “The Dalek’s a genius”); we get a hugely impressive gun battle in which the Dalek almost elegantly rotates its torso section and blasts dozens of guards down; and best of all another generation of kids gets to see a Dalek floating up a stairwell. The silliness of the Dalek saying, “elevate” before it does so is quickly forgotten under the circumstances. Best of all is the Daleks elaborate slaughter of the guards by silently rising into the air, then setting off the sprinklers to flood the room and then electrocuting them all, simply to show off to the watching Doctor. With the swanky new gold-coloured design, they’ve not been this impressive for a long time. The Dalek’s new means of opening its casing is also rather impressive, as is the Dalek creature inside; although we’ve never full seen one before, we’ve seen enough bits of Dalek over the years and the creature revealed looks absolutely right, a cross between Raymond Cusick’s original design from the nineteen sixties as seen in Jeremy Bentham’s Doctor Who – The Early Years, and the tentacled green blobs glimpsed in ‘The Five Doctors’ and ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’. Its self-destruction is also quite nifty, although as some fans have noted, it seems strange that a Dalek would be designed with a self-destruct mechanism that limits collateral damage.

‘Dalek’ is also a good episode for Billie Piper. Rose gets a nice scene with Adam, when he tells her “I honestly believe the whole universe is teaming with life” and she tries to keep a straight face, but her best scenes are of course with the Dalek. Having inadvertently resuscitated it, she drives it insane, as it absorbs rather more than just DNA from her, and it cries in anguish, “I am contaminated!” Having gained emotions beyond the usual Dalek repertoire, it exploits them; when the Doctor proves willing to sacrifice Rose to stop the Dalek once, he can’t bring himself to do it a second time, as it holds her hostage and asks him, “What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?” Piper conveys Rose’s fear extremely well when she thinks she’s going to be exterminated, and is also very good when Rose tries to bond with the Dalek. When it asks her in frustration, “Why are you alive? My function is to kill! What am I?” she takes advantage of its confusion to save Van Statten’s life by dissuading it from killing. Despite Rose’s attempts to save the Dalek, Shearman resists the temptation to have it happily go off travelling in newfound happiness; it wearily tells her it wants freedom, and blasts a hole through the roof to see sunlight before it dies. The scene in which it opens its casing to feel sunlight on its skin, and raises a slightly phallic tentacle to the light, is strangely poignant, but it remains true to its race, insisting, “This is not life, this is sickness. I shall not be like you!” and ordering a reluctant Rose to order it to self-destruct. It’s great stuff, and Piper portrays a whole battery of emotions largely through facial acting and body language.

‘Dalek’ also demonstrates Robert Shearman’s gift for characterisation in the supporting characters, most of whom are memorable, even if they don’t do a great deal. Corey Johnson’s Henry van Statten is a stereotypical ruthless billionaire, who secretly owns the internet, wipes the memories of fired staff members, and chooses the outcome of presidential elections, but he works rather well, especially when he starts to crumble under pressure. He panics once his guards are shot down, and is desperate to flee until his assistant Goddard sharply informs him that there is no power to the helipad. Having half stripped and tortured the Doctor, he is forced to ask him for help, and he becomes increasingly frightened, most notably when he desperately tries to think of a way to bargain with the Dalek. The Doctor stonily informs him, “If the Dalek gets out, it’ll kill everyone. That’s all it needs” and he snaps, screaming, “But why would it do that? Why?” He looks utterly horrified when the Doctor replies, “Because it honestly believes they deserve to die.” Having failed to save any of his soldiers, van Statten is inevitably hoist by his own petard, as Goddard orders him to be taken away and have his memory wiped. Then there is a new (temporary?) companion in a shape of Bruno Langley’s Adam, who brims with enthusiasm, is pragmatic enough to stash weapons so that he can, if necessary, fight his way out of van Statten’s base without having his memory wiped, proclaims himself a genius, and obviously fancies Rose. Interestingly, the Doctor treats him in a similar way to Mickey, offering him withering sarcasm, and pointing out his flaws to Rose in very jealous fashion, which culminates in his worried observation, “Rose, he’s a bit pretty.” Even the female soldier who tries to stop the Dalek on the stairs is memorable, desperate to prevent further deaths and sacrificing herself in an attempt to give Rose and Adam time to escape.

‘Dalek’ also contains some nice but unobtrusive nods to the past, such as the Doctor wistfully telling the Cyber head, “Look at you… the stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit” and his reference to Davros in the lift with van Statten. Murray Gold’s incidental score is also perhaps the best of the series so far, managing for the most part to be stirring and epic, and only occasionally intrusive and pompous. Overall, ‘Dalek’ is perhaps the first episode of the new series that I might genuinely call a classic.