Dalek

Episode six’s writer, Robert Shearman, was always expected to deliver an excellent script based on his reputation forged in the Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas. Perhaps particularly so given that Dalek was based on one of the most successful of those scripts, Jubilee, a tale featuring the Sixth Doctor encountering a lone Dalek imprisoned in the Tower of London in an alternative timeline. Taking the basic set-up of the lone Dalek and its relationship with its captors and being alone in the universe, Shearman manages to craft an effective tale less than half the length of the play upon which it is based, which is similar enough to retain what made Jubilee so good, but different enough not to make thus of us who have heard the earlier story feel cheated. While I did have problems with some of the story elements, there was nothing I felt to be badly written as such, with the exception of one line. The Dalek’s “What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?” was without a shadow of a doubt the worst piece of dialogue to have been uttered so far in the new series, so bad it sounded exactly like the sort of tagline a third-rate Hollywood movie might have. That it came from the pen of usually so reliable a writer as Shearman makes it all the more surprising, but then again when the only piece of dialogue you can fault in an episode is one brief line, it shows what a difference there is between this and your average classic series story.

Outside of this, Shearman’s use of the Dalek was interesting – for the first time since the 1960s we got to see a Dalek that was more human in its dialogue, something that is particularly noticeable if you go back to the original Dalek story, long before they started to become mere caricatures of themselves. There is also a distinct Power of the Daleks feel in terms of the Dalek’s use of guile and cunning, but I have to confess that I do like my Daleks to be the hard-arsed bastards of the universe, killing anything that gets in their way, so I did take a particular sadistic joy in the scenes of the creature going on the rampage and wiping out van Statten’s troops. Of particular note was the electrocution scene, another ingenious example of the Dalek – and the writer of the episode! – putting some thought into things, even if the pedantic might put out that showing us a shot of the rubber soles of the soldiers’ boots surely suggests they ought to have been insulated from the electricity…

I’m not sure about the end of the story, however. The idea of it being ‘infected’ with Rose’s DNA was a good one, and there is an established link of a Dalek bonding in some way with a young human female, touched upon in Remembrance of the Daleks and expanded upon in the novelisation of that story. But still, the way it ended… I can accept that in a way it was the Dalek being true to how we’ve always known them before as it wanted to destroy itself rather than to live with the sickness with which it had been infected, but I think the idea of trying to make us sympathise in a way with the Dalek was a mistake. Daleks should be irredeemable, evil, merciless destroyers, and despite the fact that it’s just killed two hundred people Rose won’t let the Doctor destroy it, which seemed wrong to me.

Having said that, Rose’s appalled reaction to the Doctor wielding a gun was an excellent piece of scripting. Most fans would be horrified at the Doctor packing a weapon, and it was awful when he said ‘lock and load!’ after finding a gun that worked. (Although the “broken… broken… hairdryer” line almost made up for it!). I can accept, however, that it’s his sheer fear of the Dalek, his horror at finding one still alive, which drives him to this – after all, it was Resurrection of the Daleks which showed the usual pacifistic Fifth Doctor happily wielding a pistol at a loose Dalek mutant. Plus the Doctor’s horrified realisation of what he had become at that moment – earlier foreshadowed by the Dalek’s taunt of ‘You would make a good Dalek!’ – justify the brief, horrible image of the Ninth Doctor as gun-wielding action hero, and provide a neat contrast between what the Doctor should be and what he occasionally lets himself become, and why perhaps he needs Rose’s humanising influence around him. This is a Doctor clearly scarred by the events of the time war, the great conflict about which we learn so much in this episode – good, intriguing backstory that helps add to the mystery and enigma of this incarnation of the Doctor, and factors which always go towards making good Doctor Who.

Rose continues to shine, with Billie Piper performing as excellently as always in this episode, never putting a foot wrong. Despite my misgivings over the Dalek plotline, Rose’s reaction to it and the sympathy she felt early on before she knew the true nature of the creature were all excellently written and portrayed. My only problem with the character in this episode was the moment of amazing stupidity she displayed at the end of the pre-titles sequence, happily mentioning that the Doctor is an alien. Is it not, to put it bluntly, a bit bloody thick of Rose to point this out when they’re surrounded by dead, stuffed, mounted and encased bits of alien and several troops with guns?

Not being an American I can’t comment on how authentic the accents were of the US characters, although I believe that all of them were genuine Americans aside from Anna-Louise Plowman, who according to the IMDb hails from New Zealand, and the “tin robot” guy sounded off even to me. Wherever they were from, they were mostly excellent, with Henry van Statten being one of the best villains seen so far in the series. His interplay with the Doctor, his arrogance and his intelligence all came across well, with my favourite scene between him and the Doctor being the discussion over the alien musical instrument. The Doctor’s simple delight in playing the thing, and his gently instruction to van Statten are wonderful, and van Statten’s sudden discarding of the instrument, throwing it carelessly into a corner, is really quite sad – I love the little upset look briefly visible on Eccleston’s face as he does that. This sets up the contrast between the two men very well.

Plowman was also very good as van Statten’s No. 2, Goddard, who seemed like she’d stumbled in from the solicitors Wolfram & Hart in Joss Whedon’s Angel. That’s by no means a complaint, however – no, I’ll save those for Bruno Langley as Adam, who I wasn’t particularly taken by. He did seem to improve as the episode went on, I admit, but he lacked anything in the way of charm, charisma or anything else that might make me want to take an interest in his fate. All he seemed to be was, as the Doctor said, “a bit pretty”, and that’s not enough to interest me. For one thing, if he’s such a genius, then why has he never bluffed his way down to the cage before? He clearly wants to, and manages it easily enough when Rose wants to go down and stop the Dalek from being tortured. Perhaps he’ll improve in the next episode, but I have to say I am relieved to know that he won’t be travelling in the TARDIS beyond that.

One problem that did arise from characterisation was that, for the first time this series, the pace did seem to be something of a problem for me. The first half of the episode flew by too quickly for my tastes, and I would have liked a while longer to get to know the various characters, particularly those who were being killed off. Di Maggio’s decision to attempt to stand and fight the Dalek on the stairwell and allow Rose and Adam more time to escape, for example, would probably have been a lot more affecting if we had been given a little time to get to know Di Maggio first. I accept that such characterisation is probably difficult in the confines of a 45-minute episode, but establishing sympathetic characters in minimal screen time has been a particular strength of Russell T Davies’ scripts thus far in the series, and the contrast is notable. The problem didn’t affect Mark Gatiss’ The Unquiet Dead, as he was working with such a small cast of characters in the first place.

On the production side of things, Joe Ahearne was always the most hotly-anticipated director to be hired to work on the series, given his experience in UK telefantasy productions such as his own Channel 4 vampire serial Ultraviolet and Andrew Marshall’s Strange for BBC One, and more recently the docu-drama Space Odyssey – Voyage to the Planets. Indeed, so limited has been the production of fantasy-orientated dramas in the UK that Ahearne is probably the only director currently working in British television who is particularly associated with the fantastical. This expectation that he would thus deliver the goods for Doctor Who is more than justified here – my own personal favourite shot was the Doctor’s face and head being encased within the reflection of the Cyberman head on the glass early on. Whether you take this to be a sign of the Doctor’s forthcoming ruthlessness and desire to destroy later in the episode or just a nice piece of framing, it’s still a nice touch. I also liked the Doctor’s comment in that scene about “the stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit” – a comment on what happened to the old series after it ended, perhaps? And the Doctor reaching out as if to brush away the tears moulded into the eyepieces of the mask was also a lovely little touch.

Ahearne proves more than adept at handling the action sequences too, giving great style and flair to the sequences of the Dalek wiping out van Statten’s troops. Overall the direction gives much more imagination and creativity than the rather flat approach of Keith Boak in the previous two-parter, perhaps no surprise given Boak’s background in more standard BBC drama fare such as Holby City.

The whole look of the episode was wonderful – from the fan-pleasing selection of alien nasties in the museum to the superbly-realised Dalek itself. The other production areas more than kept up – some have complained about the look of the Dalek in its CGI state, but I didn’t have a problem with any of the effects. Perhaps I am just easily pleased!

Overall then, I have to say that despite all the build-up, Dalek was not the best episode of the series so far, for me anyway. It was, however, a wonderful piece of Doctor Who, well-written, well-performed and well-made. If the series can keep up this high standard for the rest of the run then I will be more than happy – however, I can only hope that the Daleks themselves will be given another chance to show what utterly malevolent, destructive pepperpots they can be somewhere along the line.