Into the Dalek

The Daleks have grown fairly stale for me in recent years due to them constantly coming back over and over again at such frequent rates. "Into the Dalek" was far from one of my most anticipated episodes this season; and while this episode didn't make the Daleks my absolutely favorite monster it was still a fun ride.

The chemistry between Capaldi's Doctor and Coleman's Clara continues to develop wonderfully and entertain me in this episode. Both characters have very fun moments throughout the episode and I'm liking where their relationship is going.

The supporting cast, for the most part, was pretty forgettable aside from two standout characters: Journey Blue and Danny Pink. The Daleks, meanwhile, acted as much as I expected them to and held few surprises. However, it's the main Dalek of the episode, Rusty, that provides a lot of the intrigue that the episode has to offer. By the end of everything, I have to admit that I was fairly interested in seeing how the morals and behaviors of a Dalek actually worked.

Overall, "Into the Dalek" was an interesting, albeit by-the-numbers second entry in Capaldi's first series.

No one can accuse DOCTOR WHO of ever being original . Sydney Newman created the show by stealing the premise of a novel by HG Wells titled THE TIME MACHINE and the rest is history . Over the years the show has stolen homages from other influences . Pulp horror was a favourite of the mid Troughton and early Tom Baker periods while early Pertwee owed a lot to QUATERMASS and these eras was when the classic show was at its very best so it's not a complaint in any way

Certainly Into The Dalek can't be described as being original . It borrows a lot from FANTASTIC VOYAGE an enjoyable 1966 film featuring miniaturization in its central plot . This was remade by DOCTOR WHO eleven years later as The Invisible Enemy . In fact miniaturization had been done before in Carnival Of Monsters from 1973 . Add to this a lone Dalek prisoner from the NuWho story Dalek from 2005 and internecine Dalek warfare stretching back all the way to Evil Of The Daleks from 1967 and you've got something that gives deja vu a bad name . Some younger fans might enjoy all this because to them it will seem " new " and iconoclastic but to the older cynical eye some new ideas might be in order

Where the episode succeeds at is on two levels . First of all we have Daleks doing what they do best , moving forward screeching " EXTERMINATE " as they blast any human unfortunate enough to get in their way , devoid of any gimmickry as we've recently seen such as the Fatleks . Secondly we've got a new incarnation of the Doctor in the shape of Capaldi who is a million miles away from Matt Smith as it's possible to be . Capaldi is a superb cross between the alien fourth Doctor played by Tom Baker and the angst ridden eighth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston . This Doctor is instantly compelling . He may have human form but is far from human and his cold uncaring reaction to a death of a supporting character is somewhat shocking

The problem with this portrayal is that he's so good that the rest of the characters make little impression with this viewer . Worse still is that a lot of the running time is taken up by events at Coal Hill School . Watching these scenes play out with Danny and Clara with their possibly blooming romance feels like the channel has switched over to an early evening weekday soap opera and totally fails to gel and is totally jarring . As with last weeks episode with the dreadful Patermoster Gang my attention wandered when the Doctor wasn't on screen

Not to be too negative I did enjoy this episode for the most part and with this older and darker Doctor I find myself looking forward to Saturday evenings which isn't something that has happened since the RTD era , and yes I did get the " Rusty " joke . I do hope that Capaldi doesn't have to carry the show single handed and we get stronger material for him because he could be the best Doctor the show has ever had

I don't get all the hate that are in so many of these reviews.... I guess they hate because they are Daleks too? I thought this episode was absolutely amazing. There are a few things I don't agree with here and there, but as a whole it is a good watch.

Something I forgot to mention in my review of the previous episode is that Peter Capaldi's Doctor is much like Christopher Eccleston's Doctor , at least in the way of his darkness. We see more of that here in this episode and i very much enjoy it.

So it appears we are on the road for the darker stories of Doctor Who again, something I miss and will be glad to see more of again.

Some time in the future, during the Dalek-Human Wars, the Doctor finds an injured Dalek that may be good. Using the current medical technology, Clara, he and three soldiers are miniaturized and inserted into the Dalek to help cure it... with unexpected results.

The script, co-written by series runner and Phil Ford -- who spent several years working on THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES spin-off -- attempts to offer a vision of redemption for the Daleks. The only difference between good and evil is an understanding of the beauty of the universe. Yet what you may choose to do with that understanding is not what others may understand.

This is a very dark and not entirely successful story for DOCTOR WHO. Even so, it offers its viewers a clearer insight into the Twelfth Doctor's psyche. The revived series has offered us fairly simple versions of the Doctor. The Ninth Doctor was filled with regrets over the Last Great Time War; the Tenth was overtly human and the Eleventh bizarrely alien. The Twelfth seems to be shaping up as one seeking some morality to the Universe -- at least in this, his first season. It's an intriguing idea. We'll see if show runner Steven Moffat and his crew can manage to make it great television.

Encountering a Dalek with behavioural issues, the Doctor Et al. Are miniaturised and put into its tissues (inside it at least), in order to find out how this mutation evolved, and then subsequently and ever so naively resolved. It's a bit not like but very similar to Fantastic Voyage or Innerspace, though it's engaging enough to keep you in your place, and we can see that this Doctor's mind set is cantankerous, with extremely strong shades of being stubborn and quite rancorous. Hardly original though!