I hope “uneven”
doesn’t turn out to be the theme for this season, but that’s what we have so
far. Now that the post-regeneration
wonkiness is out of the way, we get our first “regular” Twelve story, and it’s
a collection of fascinating ideas and some likeable one-shot characters, but it
doesn’t feel terribly cohesive.
I was
excited to see Phil Ford writing for Who
again – he co-penned the excellent “The Waters of Mars” with Russell T. Davies,
his episode of Torchwood is a good
romp, and I’m a fan of his fine work on The
Sarah Jane Adventures. So, I was
disappointed that I didn’t enjoy the episode as much as I’d expected. It was co-written with Moffat, however, and I’m
inclined to blame a good chunk of my issues with the writing on him. Now, I obviously don’t know who wrote what,
but sloppiness and odd pacing are problems that I tend to have with Moffat, not
Ford, so there we are. (I’m really not
trying to be a cranky Moffat-hater, but I think I’m close to hitting my limit
on this particular showrunner.)
Anyway… “Into the Dalek” brings the Doctor and
Clara (eventually – he has to go fetch her.
The whole part-time companion thing seems weird to me) to the middle of
a (presumably) human-Dalek war, and the humans have picked up an intriguing
prisoner/patient: a Dalek that wants to
exterminate its own kind. With the help
of a miniaturizer, the Doctor, Clara, and a military entourage literally get
inside the Dalek to find out what caused such a fundamental shift from the
Daleks’ usual MO.
I
absolutely adore the concept. I like
learning more about the inner workings of a Dalek, the balance between machine
and living thing, and the central issue – are all Daleks inflexibly evil, or
could they be made capable of good? – is a good one. There are echoes of tons of previous stories
here. The miniaturizer takes me all the
way back to Four, Leela, and K9 in “The Invisible Enemy,” and going inside a
Dalek reminds me visually of the Tessalecta in “Let’s Kill Hitler” and
thematically of “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS.” The heavier questions of morality and the
Daleks’ potential for good are variously reminiscent of “Genesis of the Daleks,”
“Dalek,” and “Asylum of the Daleks.”
Ultimately, I think it lands somewhere in the middle of all of these –
it bites off more than I think it can chew, and it never quite resonates the
way of these of these stories do.
The
Doctor isn’t in especially good form here, which is part of the problem. It’s worrying, since this is supposed to be a
“settled” look at Twelve, at who our new Doctor really is. However, he’s handicapped by two issues. First, this is a Dalek story, and the Doctor’s
long history with the Daleks has a tendency to impair his judgment, give him
tunnel vision, and make him react more ruthlessly than he ordinarily
would. Also, he’s working alongside a
group of soldiers, which unfortunately tends to bring out his sanctimonious
side. I get that he doesn’t like
violence, and he has additional Time War-related issues about combat, but he
tends to get so rude and dismissive of soldiers, and it leaves a bad taste in
my mouth. People join the military for
all kinds of reasons, and he doesn’t have to treat them like they’re all
warmongering Sontarans. Plus, Vastra eats people – it’s not like his other
associates are squeaky clean and nonviolent.
I’m hoping the Doctor we get next week will be more representative of
what we can expect.
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