Story 244 - Into The Dalek

 

In which the Doctor saves the life of a young space pilot named Journey Blue. She and her brother Kai were under attack by a Dalek saucer. Kai is killed but the Doctor brings Journey aboard the TARDIS. She demands to be taken to her command ship - the Aristotle - which is hidden in an asteroid field. The Doctor discovers that this is a hospital vessel, now commandeered by soldiers led by Journey's uncle - Colonel Morgan Blue. He commands a human resistance force which is at war with the Daleks.

As the Daleks are known to use humanoid agents the Doctor faces execution but, believing him to be a physician, Colonel Blue has another plan for him. There is a special patient on the Aristotle who needs medical help.

The Doctor is shocked to discover that this is a battered Dalek. Colonel Blue wants it saved as it appears to be an enemy of its own kind, seeking their destruction. The Doctor nicknames it "Rusty", and learns that it was found floating in space, deactivated.

At Coal Hill School, Clara finds herself attracted to new Maths teacher, Danny Pink. He is attracted to her in return, but is too embarrassed to let her know of his feelings. He was once a soldier, of which he has painful memories. When a pupil asks him if he has ever killed someone, he becomes quite upset. Clara overhears him berate himself for not accepting an invite for a drink, so she invites him again. He accepts.

The Doctor materialises the TARDIS in the stationery cupboard. He had last been seen by Clara going to fetch a coffee, but that had been three weeks ago, and he had left her in Glasgow.

He has come to get her help for his mission on the Aristotle. The prospect of dealing with a Dalek terrifies him, and so he needs her support.

They travel to the medical ship, where Colonel Blue explains that shrinking technology will enable them to be injected into the Dalek, to seek the reason for its hatred of its like. The Doctor is eager to take part as he would like to identify whatever has changed this Dalek's philosophy. It might be something which could be replicated to influence the entire race.

Clara joins the Doctor, Journey and troopers Ross and Gretchen in the capsule which will be shrunk, then inserted into the Dalek via the eyestalk. When Ross tampers with Rusty's internal systems they come under attack by spherical "antibodies". The Doctor gives Ross a pill to swallow, suggesting this will save him - but the trooper is disintegrated. The Doctor explains that the pill was a radioactive source, which will allow them to trace where his remains have been transported. Clara is horrified at the Doctor's lack of compassion. He had earlier been asking her if she thought he was a good man.

The Doctor and the others use Rusty's digestive system to travel to the lower sections of its casing. They discover that the Dalek has suffered damage, and there is a radiation leak coming from its power source. It is this which has affected the creature - causing it to develop a conscience and rebel against its own kind. When the Doctor stops the leak, Rusty reverts to being a normal Dalek again. It breaks free of its bonds and starts killing Colonel Blue's troopers.

Gretchen is also killed by the antibodies, whilst the Doctor goes to find the Dalek mutant itself. He discovers that it was the sight of a star being born which seems to have triggered Rusty's hatred of other Daleks. It thought the sight so beautiful that it hated anything which would harm such beauty. 

Clara and Journey are sent to the Dalek's memory centre to reactivate the memory of the star birth, whilst he continues to reason with Rusty, hoping to make it "good" again. Clara reactivates the memories, whilst the Doctor makes a psychic link with Rusty in order to show it the wonders of the universe.

Rusty stops attacking the troopers, but instead alerts the Dalek saucer - intent on luring them into a trap. When the Daleks invade the ship, Rusty attacks them. 

The Doctor has succeeded in changing its opinion of the other Daleks permanently. It sees them as an evil which must be destroyed. It elects to go with the saucer, pretending to have destroyed the Aristotle, so that the Daleks will depart. Rusty will then work undercover to bring about the destruction of its kind from within.

The Doctor, Clara and Journey are returned to normal size. Journey wants to leave with the Doctor and travel in the TARDIS, but he refuses to take her since she is a soldier. Clara is concerned about what the Doctor might think of Danny, if this is his attitude towards soldiers. She tells the Doctor that she doesn't know if he is a good man - but that she thinks that he does try to be one.

On her death, Gretchen had found herself in a grand house, overlooking a beautiful garden, being served tea by a woman dressed in Edwardian costume - who tells her that she is in heaven...

Into The Dalek was written by Phil Ford and Steven Moffat, and was first broadcast on Saturday 30th August 2014. Ford had been the lead writer on The Sarah Jane Adventures, and had also co-written The Waters of Mars with Russell T Davies.

The episode introduces the character of Danny Pink, who will become a second companion of sorts but - unlike Rory Williams - will not actually become a TARDIS traveller. He is played by Samuel Anderson.

Another character introduced is Mr Armitage, the Headmaster of Coal Hill School, who will feature occasionally through this series, before later joining the cast of Class. He is portrayed by Nigel Betts.

The starting point for this story was the idea Moffat had for a computer game, wherein players were shrunk and had to survive inside a Dalek. The lead writer then thought it a good enough idea for an episode.

As far as inspirations go, he obvious one is the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage. This saw a medical team being miniaturised and injected into a patient so that they could carry out microsurgery in his brain. One of the threats they faced was being consumed by antibodies. The name of the movie is refeenced in dialogue as the Doctor claims their mission would be a "fantastic journey".

The film had previously formed the principal inspiration for another Doctor Who story - 1977's The Invisible Enemy.

Once again Michelle Gomez featured briefly as the enigmatic woman, in a place which she identifies as heaven, or the promised land as it had been to the Half-Face Man in the previous episode.

Introduced is another arc - a character arc rather than a story arc. The new Doctor is still trying to work out who he is - and asks Clara if she thinks he is a good man.

Another character arc, associated with this one, will be the Doctor's relationship with Danny. The Doctor has had a troubled relationship with the military. He had grudgingly accepted their help in his first and second incarnations, but went on to join UNIT in his third. Later Doctors tolerated the military, but weren't necessarily totally opposed to it. The Tenth Doctor appeared to dislike UNIT, yet he had put Martha Jones forward as a member, and he later does the same with Nathan and Barclay, the two young men who had been transported to the planet San Helios with him on a London bus.

The Twelfth Doctor is very much opposed to the military, to the extent that he will have nothing to do with someone just because they are a soldier.

The soldier whom he rejects in this episode is Journey Blue, who is played by Zawe Ashton. Portraying her uncle, Colonel Morgan Blue, is Michael Smiley. Smiley is one of director Ben Wheatley's repertoire of regular actors - appearing in A Field in England and Kill List for him. Wheatley had been employed to make two stories for this season.

Another Wheatley actor is Ben Crompton, who plays Ross. He was also in Kill List, but is best known for Game of Thrones.

Gretchen is Laura Dos Santos.

Ellis George is back as schoolgirl Courtney.

Overall, despite its lack of originality it is a very good story for the Daleks, who haven't been handled very well of late. Fantastic slo-mo battle sequences. A great story for Peter Capaldi as well - giving us a darker, harder version of the Doctor.

Things you might like to know:

• This is the first story for some time to have a co-writer credit - the last just happening to be Phil Ford's other story.
• The Missy sequence was directed by Rachel Talalay rather than Ben Wheatley.
• Capaldi was not due on set the day that the Dalek battle scenes were being recorded, but just had to come to the studios to watch.
• The background to this conflict is never explained, so we don't know the time period, or in which of the many Dalek wars this takes place - at least not on screen. On paper it was supposed to be the 31st Century.
• There are flashbacks to Dalek, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.
• In Dalek, the lone Dalek told the Doctor that he would make a good Dalek. In this story Rusty tells the Doctor that he is a good Dalek.
• Danny Pink's career path mirrors that of Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart - quitting the military to take up teaching mathematics.