Absolutely magnificent!

This was not only comfortably the best episode of the new series but, quite possibly, the best Doctor Who story ever - and I know I'm not the only one to say that. In exploring the allegorical potential of science fiction, the episode took up the gauntlet thrown down so dauntingly by the likes of the new Battlestar Galactica and beat them at their own game. We were shown the Doctor as refugee (and, perhaps, war criminal) a man (alien?) struggling to come to terms with his own past and, in his torment, posing some serious questions for our own world.

There is no need to rhapsodise at length about the tautness of the plot, the excellence of the special effects or, even, how well Billie Piper performed as Rose; others have covered that ground and said nothing with which I would disagree. For me, it was the overwhelming sadness of the episode that ensured its classic status. The moment when the Dalek learned that he was all alone in the universe was genuinely moving. And has the series ever produced a finer moment of acting than Christopher Ecclestone's utter devastation in response to the Dalek's "You destroyed us"? The actor conveyed perfectly the Doctor's realisation that he, too, was a mass murderer, no better, and probably worse, than the creature he was so violently taunting.

But even that was topped by the Dalek's melancholy response "You would make a good Dalek" to yet another of the Doctor's bile-filled rants. How easy it would have been to make that line a flippant throwaway, an infantile "one-liner" with an instant, and unsatisfactory, payoff. Instead, it added a bleak resonance to the Dalek's earlier remark that he and the Doctor were alike. The Dalek had meant that their loneliness united them. In fact, as the creature came to understand, the common ground was irrational hatred.

At such moments, the programme was much more than an entertaining piece of fantasy hokum, but a profound exploration of the human condition. Of course, such existential speculation has always been begged by a series with the title Doctor Who; many more episodes like this and they're going to have to start writing it with a question mark.

This episode promised alot and delivered. The Daleks once again have some street cred which - without changing what is in many ways a very dated design - is a huge achievement.

Later on I make some sneaky comparisons with other stories as I feel casual viewers will be doing so with the episode from the previous week and this will effect their expectations of later installments.

The opening in an underground museum with stuffed alien relics and artefacts was lovely and very reminiscent of the original series. In the old series a moment like that would have been alot more drawn out and involved more of a 'lets explore' exchange with the companion which would have been great, but with these 45 minute episodes there understandably isn't time for that kind of measured drama. I got a twinge of excitement when the cyberman head appeared as an exhibit, though was a little surprised that the 1970s chunky version was used. Though it seemed to work with Christopher Ecclestone's very weighty perfomance which was the best we've seen so far.

This was really an episode for Ecclestone to get his teeth into and he seemed to enjoy the opportunity to up the tension and energy. I quite like the backstory that we're given about the time war and the Doctor being the last Time Lord left alive and am perfectly happy with this having damaged his psyche somewhat - the outbursts and uncharacteristic lack of control the Doctor has over his anger and hate. Though it did seem to jar at one point towards the end of the episode. I'm thinking of the scene where the Dalek opens its casing to feel the sunlight (what a treat that was - big smile, very happy. And they carried off tentacles without them looking too phalic!). Seeing the Doctor wield a large gun and appear to lose his usual attitude towards violence is presumably intended to put across how very damaged and alone he is, following the destruction of his people. The comparison between such total loneliness in the Doctor and in the last Dalek was a wonderful moment and made a powerful statement, leveling two sworn enemies in mutual despair. However (some people are never satisfied;) I wish we could have had a less trite line than 'I didn't... ...I wasn't...'. I also felt that having the Doctor ridicule someone for their reliance on knowledge (his comment to Adam about his A-levels) and then brandish a (comically) large gun and deliver the line 'lock and load' was going a bit too far. Despite the effort and conviction in Ecclestone's perfomance, this just isn't the same character - psychological trauma or not - and it starts to look a mite self-conscious. The leather jacket is fine so long as it's not a deliberate attempt at a macho charactersation. And Ecclestone's Doctor frequently isn't that, but now and again he comes over as too much of a knee-jerk reaction to the camper or more gentlemanly previous Doctors and can be really unpleasant to others. Colin Baker suffered from this when the programme makers had him try to throttle his companion shortly after regenerating, and Ecclestone's repeated telling people to shut up or undermining of anyone who isn't a pretty girl (what IS going on here?) really starts to grate. Efforts have been made to make the Doctor less sexist, but it may come full circle because of the pseudo-sexual tension he has with any young man who talks to Rose!

Back to the main stars of the episode. The part where Rose reached out to comfort the Dalek was the best moment in the whole series and in a lot of Doctor Who ever. The cunning of the Dalek and sudden reversal of mood in the scene when it 'extrapolated' a sample of Rose's genetic material was so exciting and well executed. It was a moment where the direction, the music and Nick Brigg's perfect portrayal of the melodic ascension in pitch in the Dalek's voice all worked perfectly together. I was definitely twelve again and was definitely watching Doctor Who!

All in all this was one of the two best episodes in the new series. It's almost meaningless to directly compare it with some of the others because of the change in tone and atmosphere, but alongside Mark Gatiss's episode it was an unparalleled piece of family television and a juicey slice of what the series should be like. And no one farted. It worries me a little that the stories I have enjoyed the most so far and that I have found more casual watchers were impressed by were those not penned by RTD. I don't quite understand how the man who's skill and vision is almost solely responsible for the return of the show can have introduced such clangers like the burping bin and the wind-breaking slitheen. A friend who is not a fan but has been enjoying the new series commented that the farting aliens from the previous story were more like characters from Austin Powers! 'Dalek' acheived a wonderful 45 minutes of drama and excitement without anything that unsubtle and when we look back at the best and worst parts of the show's history, it is the excess of humour and absecne of seriousness that is criticised the most. I do hope RTD and the rest of the team take note of how differently both journalists and the public seem to have responded to the more serious stories as opposed to the more childish episodes. Perhaps I'm forgetting what children enjoy on television as the show must fundamentally appeal to the pre-teen audience (though obviously I'd rather it was just for me!). And I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that this isn't the early sixties when like the Slitheen would have been called the Flatulatons from the planet Fartos. Fingers crossed we'll get some more wind-less Dalek stories before this run is over!

American Doctor Who fans are a funny lot. We accept that the series is created for children (or "Family audience", if you will..) but most of us old-time fans began watching the series in our teens. I, myself, began a life-long love for the program in the early eighties as a teen sci-fi fan looking for something more fun to watch than Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. What fun! What charm! It's meant to be ..what?

Scary?

Honestly, I could just never get my head around the idea. Millions of English children diving behind the sofas in sheer terror of the Daleks. The Daleks?

Don't get me wrong, I love The Daleks to bits. Really. I love the single-mindedness and the blind "dislike for the unlike" and those fantastic scratchy/electronic voices....

But I can't imagine anyone being scared of them.

Fast forward. I'm a typical fan with loads of videos and Dapol Dalek action figures and Big Finish audios. I'm also the step-dad of a wonderful young girl named Jessica Jones, who I very much want to enjoy the series with me. Over the years, I tried many different items. Pyramids Of Mars? Yep. Dapol toys mixing with her own toys? Sure, I tried that.

Not much interest.

Over time, she would watch episodes with me. Peter Davison episodes ,mainly. Season twenty. No monsters. Still, her opinion of Doctor Who was pretty low. One night, we were driving home and I knew that the trip would take roughly thirty minutes. "Hey, guys..", I said, "how about an episode of Doctor Who on the cd player? Just so happens I have one in the car." My better half, Teresa, rolled her eyes and sighed that particular sigh (the "what a geek" one) and settled in for some Doctor Who. "Jubilee" episode four played in tandom with a clear starry night as I drove home listening to another class production from Big Finish. That's when I learned something.

Jessica is TERRIFIED of The Daleks. She can't so much as look at them, let alone listen to those evil-filled voices.

Really?

In recent months, I've had the good fortune to see episodes of the new Doctor Who series (lots of squinting, though. Thank goodness I have a multi-region DVD player and DVDs are right around the corner). I have loved the good old mix of cheeky self-reference and adventure, wit and thrills I first enjoyed in Doctor Who mixed with a fresh new breakneck pace. And, boy! Am I enjoying Christopher Eccleston's Doctor Who! By the way, how sad a fanboy am I that I actually cheered when I saw him listed in the end credits as "Doctor Who"?

Jessica watched "Rose" over my shoulder at first, then found herself drawn right into the action. She really loves it, but is most taken with Rose Tyler. Billie Piper's Rose is just heroic enough to be a role model and just normal enough to be an everywoman.

And so we've watched most of the episodes together, when possible.

When the preview for Rob Shearman's frankly brilliant episode "Dalek" started, Jessica froze. "Daleks...", she hissed." I don't like Daleks..." When the Dalek began shouting "Exterminate!" , she began to shake. I told her that there was only one Dalek in the episode.

"oh....that's okay then..."

The Doctor and Rose land in an impressive alien archive, complete with the head of a Cyberman ("Hey! I've seen one of those!"). Suddenly, armed guards take our heroes to visit our villain Van Statton, who seems to have an alien fetish. Along with him, they meet Adam, working for Van Statton ("Ohh...he's british, too. Is that why he thinks they will like each other?") And The Doctor is taken to visit the prize of the collection ("uummmm..."), a living alien life form. All alone in the dark (At this point, Jessica begins to position herself closer to my chair). When The Doctor introduces himself, the lights come on and we see a lone Dalek. The Dalek goes mental at the sight of The Doctor and begins shouting "Exterminate!!" (At this point, Jessica screamed and hid behind my chair. It's true. Kids DO hide behind the sofa.)

When The Dalek realizes that he and The Doctor are the last survivors of a great war, he also realizes that he is all alone in the universe ("Aww", says Jessica. She was pants-wettingly scared of The Dalek and now she feels SORRY for it?) When The Doctor offers to free him from life by electrocuting him, Jessica went ballistic. "What? He can't do that! The Dalek's chained up! That's not fair!"

In the labs, Adam begins making goo-goo eyes at Rose ("They like each other....wonder what The Doctor will think?")

Angered by The Doctor's attempt to kill his prize, Van Statton begins a scan of The Doctor that seems like torture. "You have two hearts", Van Statton coos ("Cool!", Jessica exclaimed)

Thanks to Rose ("No! Rose! Get away from it!", Jessica shouts. This is followed by "I think that Dalek likes Rose. She feels sorry for him.")

Suddenly, The Dalek re-energizes and breaks free. Jessica screams. I cheer wildly.

"What are you gonna do," a doomed man asks, "Sucker me to death?"

It does. Jessica screams. I cheer wildly.

Over the next thirty minutes, we are treated to a massacre the likes of which Doctor Who has never seen. My jaw drops several times throughout as the production team do everything humanly possible to make that Dalek the coolest (or scariest) thing ever.

Jessica picks up the theme of the episode early on, noting that The Doctor is acting like a bigger monster than the monsters! She gasps every time that Rose is in danger (RTD, you've done quite a job with this one..) and cheers when Van Statton gets what's coming to him.

And she feels very sorry for The Dalek at the end.

And, hey! So do I.

She chuckles as Adam finds his way aboard The TARDIS ("Is he going with...ha! ha ha ha! He's only going because he likes Rose, y'know..")

And as the episode ends, she asks "Can we watch again?"

I loved the episode. I got action, suspense, and a great character study of the tenth Doctor. But I also got to see what the show looks like to a nine year old, non sci-fi fan.

I saw the Daleks as children see them. Behind the sofa scary.

RTD, you are on to a winner!

At last they’ve done it. After three entertaining but somewhat flawed stories and one unmitigated disaster, the series new production team have finally delivered an episode which lives up to the potential of Doctor Who in the 21st century, and gave us probably the best story since Remembrance of the Daleks back in 1988.

I have had many problems with this new series of Doctor Who, particularly the inherent silliness and the often middle of the road light entertainment feel that all of RTD’s stories have had, but Dalek is the first which would make me glad to get up and shout its praises from the rooftops. Overall it reminded me of why I was a fan and still sitting in front of the tv screen after almost twenty years of indignities have been inflicted on this series. It proved the old notion that all that is needed is a solid script, some conviction from the cast and the rest would take care of itself.

I must admit the concept of this story appealed greatly, the concept of a private alien museum with one living exhibit sounded a great premise, but I hadn’t dared get my hopes up too much after last weeks contender for worst episode of all time. But from the off, this story moved quickly and assuredly, no moments of camp silliness to jar you out of the reality of it, no problems with pacing or structure that the first three stories suffered from. In short we got 45 minutes of genuinely exciting, moving and well structured drama, in fact the sort of thing I had been hoping for from this series from the outset.

There were some nice surprises, particularly the Cyberman head which brought a smile to my face, and gave us our first direct link to the original series and the Doctor’s almost melancholy reaction to it was strangely moving.

The arrival of the supporting players I thought was slightly overdone and played a little clichйd, but I was glad to see both Corey Johnson’s Von Statten and Anna Louise Plowman’s Diane Goddard settled down within a few scenes and became very credible characters. Bruno Langley’s Adam I am somewhat undecided on, although I must admit being familiar with his character from Coronation Street made it harder to see Adam as a character in his own right. The last minute addition of him joining the Tardis crew however came as a nice surprise, and it will interesting to see how he develops in his role as a (presumably temporary) companion. Perhaps ironically though the best performance came from Nick Briggs as the voice of the Dalek.

While in lesser hands it could have been a disaster, here for probably the first time ever, a Dalek became a rounded character in its own right, rather than just shouting down a microphone, Briggs varied the intonation to the point where you believed there was a living being inside and that there was far more to a Dalek than anyone could have imagined . I had been dreading the humanised Dalek after hearing rumours about it, but to give everyone their credit, it always stayed on the right side of credible and by the end one found themselves almost siding with the Dalek.

Visually too, the creatures have never looked better, thankfully retaining the original design with just a few minor tweaks which bring them firmly into the 21st century.

Just as I moaned in my review of Aliens of London about doing Who villains badly, so Dalek illustrates perfectly how to do them right. The Dalek seen here is an unstoppable force and god if this is just one, think what a whole squadron would be like. Now we can see why they rule the universe. Every joke that everyone has made about Daleks will hopefully now be silenced. From the rotating midsection, to the leviatating, this machine will hopefully have left joe public with their jaws on the floor, and if the remote control Dalek toy isn’t a best seller this Christmas then there aint no justice. The revelation of the mutant was an unexpected surprise and full marks should go to the effects crew who made it look thoroughly realistic.

If I were to raise any quibbles with this story and they are only minor quibbles it would be that the levitating Dalek effect looked a little fake, also I found the Dalek’s revival just by Rose touching the head a little too convenient and lacking a full explanation. After 6 episodes I also still find myself sitting on the fence over Chris Ecclestons portrayal of the Doctor. I have found much to like in his performance, but ironically I still find him very undoctorly in a lot of his confrontational scenes, in moments of this story he came across a bit like Grant Mitchell in space, almost thuggish and too easily emotional. His scene against the Dalek was a masterclass of acting, but failed in the fact that I was never convinced that it was the Doctor actually saying these things . Saying that, I think part of the problem is the inevitable source of comparison, one cant help but compare him to Doctors one to eight, and certainly Eccleston’s Doctor is far removed from his predecessors and I applaud the production team for trying something different. Unfortunately this bold new take on the Doctor’s character which now seems to have developed into him being a shell shocked war veteran is, taking some get used to and with Eccleston leaving at the end of the season I can see him being remembered as the guy who didn’t quite pull it off.

I haven’t quite decided whether this story is a classic, opinion usually takes a while to settle on these things, but it was definitely close. Unfortunately it seems the two scripts most respectful of the old series this season have come from writers other than Russell T Davies, it is shameful that jobbing writers are doing a better job of getting this series right, than the man who was employed by the BBC to revive the show in the first place.

However regardless of what next week may bring, Doctor Who shone bright this Saturday, it may have took an eternity but Doctor Who has finally delivered on 16 years of expectations and promises and for that everyone involved in Dalek should feel very proud.

I come at this not as a hardened Who fan who follows every cough, spit and splutter of everyone who has ever written for, or of, the series and its predecessors, but as a non-nerdy lover of Doctor Who going back to when it began in the sixties. I rather hope it brings a different perspective to what I say about “Dalek”.

Yes, it was excellent, hence my being moved to write my first ever review of a Who episode. “Dalek” worked for me on a number of levels. It helped knowing something of the Daleks – and, I guess, having been one of the team who copy-edited many of the books for Virgin and the Beeb (I even helped to blow up Gallifrey). I realised, though, that, had I not known anything about them other than their cult status, my enjoyment would not have been diminished – it would merely have been made to work at a different level.

A friend thought the episode had sentimentality; I preferred the word “pathos”, not defined as arousing pity but going back to its Greek origin: “feeling”. I “felt” a lot for the Doctor and the Dalek while watching this episode, and could empathise with Rose, still very much an outsider to the Doctor’s world – universe – in spite of her show of being a little more “knowing” as the series has progressed.

We did not need legions of Daleks to summon the idea that this race was one of absolute monsters whose potential for destruction was Armageddon-like. Our minds could do that for us, thanks to the skilful writing of Robert Shearman and the direction of Joe Ahearne. The menace oozed from this understated creature because Messrs Shearman and Ahearne went only so far, and let us do the rest – surely the goal of any writer or director.

>From the single blue light when we were supposed not to know a Dalek was there (but did) to the lighting up of the room, revealing the carapaced creature bound like the Titan who tried to steal the fire (but bound for very different reasons), we were entranced. The wider emotional range Nicholas Briggs brings to the Dalek voice is apparent from the words, “The Doctor?”

Here was the centrepiece of the tableau, imbued somehow with an indefinable quality from the very fact that the episode was called “Dalek”, not “The Dalek”. Some subtlety there, on someone’s part. During this first confrontation between the creature and the Doctor, we found ourselves wanting to look for longer, wanting the dialogue to be more spare, wanting longer gaps between lines, so that we could witness this confrontation between – But wait a minute. It wasn’t between good and evil any more: it was between – well, between the Doctor and the last surviving member (as far as we know) of the Dalek race; between the complexity the Doctor was able to show in this episode and a balancing complexity brought to the Dalek by Briggs and the writer.

Yes, there were comic moments. One was when the Dalek realised its gun wasn’t working, and down went the eye stalk and up went the gun, simultaneously, in an anthropomorphic representation of someone who’s just been told that he’s holding a turd in his hand and can’t quite believe it. But the most telling thing to come from the Dalek was the line, addressed to the Doctor, “You would make a good Dalek.”

This was perhaps where knowing something of the Doctor’s past would have helped those viewers coming to Who for the first time, although perhaps having seen the first five episodes has given them enough of his character and backstory to work out that here we were seeing a “hero” who was not all that the heroes of drama are cracked up to be.

“Dalek” had claustrophobic menace, some classic creature features with much-needed enhancements thrown in, emotional complexity, the gorgeous Billie Piper and equally gorgeous Bruno Langley (Adam) and a Doctor who is forced to question himself. It worked on all these levels and, for this fan, was the best so far in the series.

Okay... now, how should I describe this episode? I have read everyone else’s reviews after I finally saw this episode on Saturday that has just passed. (Us poor deprieved people in Australia were five or six episodes behind the UK; I have been brave and not let myself look at any other reviews for future episodes).

While having watched the new Who every Saturday and the reruns of every all the old series (we are currently on the second series with Tom Baker) every weekday I thought the Daleks in the old Doctor Who weren't all that scary compared to the latest episode. I actually got really scared when the Dalek started to go one its killing spree because it showed many shots of the dead bodies. I did feel a lot of sympathy for it when Rose's DNA started to mutate it.

Actually coming to Rose I thought that Billie Piper acted brilliantly, especially all of her scenes with the Dalek and as usual all of her scenes with the Doctor were a joy to watch. The Doctor's reaction to thinking that Rose was actually dead and gone was extremely convincing but his reaction to seeing her alive was even better to watch. Christopher E's acting though stole the show when he first encounters the Dalek and his reaction and speech to the Dalek after he realises that it actually can't hurt him because his laser can't "Exterminate!" I did get a bit disturbed though when the Doctor threatened the Dalek with a massive gun, even though the Dalek had opened his casing and only was trying to feel the sun. Since when did the Doctor become a military man? Her reaction though was extremely well played and her asking the Doctor, "What about you Doctor? What the hell are you turning into?"

Excellent acting but the only thing that peeved me off was the introducing the character of Adam.

Why on earth did the Doctor take him? I can understand from Rose's point of view but why oh why Doctor? Hopefully he'll die or something in the next episode!

I also really hope that the Doctor and Rose get together in the end.

Overall I would give Dalek a 9/10.