Into the Dalek (TV story)

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Into the Dalek was the second episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales, and marked the Twelfth Doctor's first encounter with the Daleks.

Synopsis

A journey into themost dangerous place in the universe will test the limits of the Doctor's compassion and force him to ask the question: "Am I a good man?"

Plot

Journey Blue's ship is being shot at by a Dalek ship, and her brother Kai is unconscious. As it explodes, she appears in the TARDIS console room.

She points her gun at the Doctor, demanding that he take her back to her command ship, the Aristotle. He waits for her to ask nicely, then complies. The TARDIS materialises and they step outside.

The pair walk onto the the Aristotle, a base for Combined Galactic Resistance, the Galaxy's united front against the Daleks; while the other soldiers initially plan to kill the Doctor, Journey points out they have need of a physician.

Journey's uncle colonel Morgan Blue takes the Doctor to a dying Dalek later named Rusty that they have managed to capture. At first the Doctor is uninterested in helping the creature until it voices its desire to slaughter the rest of its kind. Meanwhile at Coal Hill School, a new Maths teacher Danny Pink, a war veteran, is introducing himself to his class.

Danny ends class early after one of his students asks if he has ever killed a civilian before, which visibly brings him to tears. Later Danny meets with Clara Oswald, one of his fellow teachers, who asks him out. Do to the awkwardness from the obvious connection between the two he initially declines, although she is able to ask him out for coffee.

Returning to her office, Clara discovers the Doctor standing there with the coffee she sent him for three weeks ago. The Doctor claims he needs Clara's help urgently and takes the liberty of asking her if she thinks he is a good man, a answer that she does not know. The Doctor takes her back to the Aristotle and introduces her to Rusty.

The Doctor explains that a malfunction that is also killing it has given the Dalek a conscious, and fascinated by the idea agrees to help it. The group consisting of the Doctor, Clara, Journey and two other rebel soldiers Ross and Gretchen are shrunk down and enter the Dalek through its Eye stalk and begin exploring the upper levels.

The Doctor takes the liberty of introducing the group to Rusty's artificial memory drive which filters out good memories and reinforces bad ones, calling it evil refined and turned into a machine. The Doctor takes the liberty of asking Rusty what made it turn on its own kind, to which it says that it saw a star being born and made it realise the futility of the Dalek's mission.

Realizing that they have to go down Ross sets up a zip line and inadvertently damages Rusty's body which triggers the release of antibodies. Realizing that he cannot save Ross, the Doctor has him swallow a pill that allows him to track where the antibodies store his obliterated remains so that they can hide there. From there the group makes its way to the lower regions where they find the batteries.

Discovering a crack in one of the batteries that is leaking deadly radiation that is both killing Rusty and now them, the Doctor seals it off. Now that the Rusty is fixed it immediately returns to its programming and begins slaughtering the station's soldiers. The Doctor however is ecstatic as his belief that there is no such thing as a good Dalek is restored.

Clara is enraged by the Doctor's apathy and points out to him that what they have learned is not that there is no such thing as a good Dalek but that it is indeed possible. Inspired by Clara's words the Doctor instructs her, Gretchen, and Journey to make their way to the Memory station and try to restore Rusty's memories of the star while he tries to reason with Rusty.

Gretchen sacrifices herself to set up a zipline to get Clara and Journey to the memory core while she fends off the antibodies coming after her. Dying from the antibodies, Gretchen meets Missy whom welcomes her to Heaven. Meanwhile Rusty calls for back up from the rest of the Daleks and plots to join in their slaughter of the rebels.

Clara is able to deduce how Rusty's memory core works and reactivates all of his suppressed memories. With this the Doctor is able to form a Psychic link with Rusty where he absorbs all of his memories. However instead of reawakening its good side Rusty is inspired by the Doctor's own "Divine Hatred" to instead try to wipe out the rest its kind, whom it once again sees as evil.

Rusty slaughters the rest of the Daleks on the station and everyone is returned to their proper size. Rusty has broadcasted a signal to the rest of the Daleks voicing the Humans completely fictional intention to set the station to self destruct, leading them to retreat. Rusty rejoins its kind stating it will continue to sabotage them.

Before it goes Rusty agrees with the Doctor's assessment that there is no such thing as a good Dalek, that said the Doctor would make a "Good Dalek." The Doctor also views it as something of a hollow victory: someone looked into his soul and saw nothing but hatred. Clara is returned to Coal Hill where, after she tells him that, while she cannot say for sure that he is a good man, he tries to be one, which is the important thing. She joins Danny for their date.

Cast

Uncredited cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

  • Journey says the TARDIS is "smaller on the outside.”
  • A molecular nanoscaler is used to shrink down the Doctor, Clara, Journey, Gretchen, and Ross.
  • The Doctor mentions that shrinking people in order for them to enter the human body would be a great idea for a movie. This is a possible reference to the movie Fantastic Voyage, of which this is the main plot.
  • 'Rusty' refers to the persistence of life using the phrase, "Resistance is futile", the catchphrase of the antagonistic Borg race of the Star Trek franchise.

Story notes

  • The conclusion of this story is similar to the conclusion of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories Jubilee, where a lone Dalek notices the error of its comrades and stops an invasion.
  • While this is the Twelfth Doctor's first proper encounter with the Daleks, he had previously appeared briefly in both the episodes The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor, which also featured the Daleks.
  • Footage of the extermination of security guard Bywater in Dalek and the Dalek attack on the Valiant in The Stolen Earth is seen in 'Rusty's' Dalek memories, and the destruction of the Daleks and the Crucible in Journey's End is seen when Rusty looks into the Doctor's mind.
  • This is the first episode since The Waters of Mars to have two credited writers. Like The Waters of Mars, it is co-written by Phil Ford and the show's head writer (then Russell T Davies, now Steven Moffat).
  • The Vent joke exchanged between The Doctor and Clara is a reference to the vent scenes from "The Ark in Space (TV story) between the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith.
  • This is the first episode since Part 1 of The End of Time in 2009 to not feature an appearance from Matt Smith and his respective Eleventh Doctor.

Ratings

5.2 million (overnight)[1]

Filming locations

Production errors

  • The Doctor answers Clara's request about don't talk about her hips when they are inside a tunnel, what indicates the Doctor was behind Clara, then the next scene shows he already outside the tunnel helping her.

Continuity

Home video releases

to be added

External links

to be added

Footnotes