My review of Doctor Who Episode 2. in Rambling sane thoughts of the terminally me

Well I never a wandering poet who talks in rhyme and doesn’t know it.

Ok, we’ve had the first two episodes now, where do we stand?

Well let’s look at the plot of the episode and go from there. Oh, by the way…

When we last left the Doctor and Clara they were going for coffee in Glasgow. This episode is set a few weeks later and starts by setting up a battle between humans and Daleks. Apparently the Dalek empire has continued to grow even since we saw them last and are firing on a human ship where a soldier by the name of Blue is about to be killed. The Doctor rescues her at the last minute but is unable to save her brother.

This is where you get the first real glimpse of how much darker Capaldi and Moffat are planning on making this Doctor. There’s no apology or reassurance in his tone and he’s openly confrontational with the girl. It’s like when you saw Ecclestons or Tennants Doctor at their angriest? That’s this Doctor ALL THE TIME. This is something that they reinforce alot through the episode.

Having saved Blue, The Doctor returns her to her command ship where we meet the challenge of the week. There’s a Dalek that has developed a moral code and decided that his species needs to be wiped out. The commander of the ship, who is referred to as “Uncle” asks the Doctor to be shrunk down so he can climb inside the Dalek and find out what’s causing the problem.

So the Doctor goes and gets Clara who’s busy mid-flirt with Danny Pink. This is the main introduction to the guy who’s going to be joining the Doctor as his other companion later on in the series. Danny is an ex-soldier who seems to be suffering from PTSD and they seem to draw immediate parallels throughout this episode with the idea of an ex-soldier who is trying to redeem himself and our new Time Lord. Expect this trend to continue.

Danny does not join in any further on this adventure though and the Doctor and Clara head off to go get shrunk.

Heading into the Dalek via the eye socket we immediately meet the primary threat in the Dalek. Dalek antibodies. One of the soldiers “injures” the Dalek by trying to use a grapnel gun and the antibodies respond by killing him. Before he dies the Doctor has the doomed soldier eat a traceable substance so that he can track where they are dumping the bodies and the party escapes from the antibodies. On the way through this scene the Doctor also explains about the Daleks physiology and how there’s a maguffin that keeps them from learning and thus keeps them evil.

From here they move to the “heart” of the Dalek where they find the source of the problem. The Daleks power core is damaged so there’s not enough juice getting to the Daleks systems to power the maguffin. Sorry to keep referring to it as a maguffin. Can’t remember what it was actually called.

It’s also worked out that the damaged power source is leaking radiation into the Dalek and this is going to kill everybody so the Doctor repairs it. The Dalek reboots at full power and, surprise surprise, goes evil and starts killing everybody.

The eventual resolution to this episode is that Clara and Blue need make their way back to the maguffin whilst The Doctor goes and shows the Dalek what a lovely place the universe is and if you saw the twist coming from this point onwards I don’t think you’re anywhere near alone. I watched this episode with two other people and the universal chant of “called it” when the end came was not at all surprising.

Anyhow, so in order for Clara and Blue to get back up to the top of the Dalek the other soldier who has a name (seriously, they’re very forceful in making sure you understand this girl has a name, which she gives to the Doctor. Gretchin Alison Carlisle. Apparently the Doctor has to do something good and name it after her. Can’t help but feel this is another setup). Well, Gretchin has to sacrifice herself to use a grapnel gun to get the two plot centric characters back to the top of the Dalek so they can make it nice again.

This achieved the Doctor links minds with the Dalek and shows him the universe from his perspective and the Dalek comes to realise true beauty.

BUT WAIT! The Dalek sees what the Doctor thinks of the Daleks and comes to interpret this as beautiful as well so it goes on a massive rampage and kills all the Daleks on the humans ship. It then decides to go undercover and kill all the Daleks everywhere but not before letting the Doctor, Clara and Blue back to normal size so they can go about their way.

The episode rounds off with Blue trying to go along with the Doctor and him refusing her because she’s a soldier. Clearly, once again, setting up for the conflict between him and Danny when he joins the crew.

Ok, so that’s the episode. Was it any good?

Surprisingly yes. I have problems with it which I’ll get onto in a second but even when the episode fails it plays it so straight that it does not descend into silliness. The dark at the heart of the new Doctor keeps the tension throughout and the other characters are competently acted including a much better performance from Jenna Louise Coleman.

In addition Capaldi is doing a fantastic job of keeping the Doctor likable whilst making him darker. You get the feeling that he really is just looking at these little humans and trying to remember why he loved them so much in previous regenerations. The fact that no-one can keep up with him mentally comes across so when he metaphorically bumps into the people around him you can see the frustration bubbling beneath the surface. He does the right thing and makes no apologies about it which is really refreshing. There’s a particular scene where he lets one of the soldiers get vaporised by the antibodies after lying to him and saying he should trust him. You can just see it from the Doctors perspective. He just did the maths and realised what the best option was. Love it.

But I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t poke holes at the things I love so here goes.

My main gripe in this episode is there’s NOTHING new. I feel bad saying that but everything in this episode has been done. Recently. I’m not even talking back to Classic Who.

Let’s just look at it.
Shrunk down minaturised people get attacked by antibodies? It’s the Tesalector.
Dalek learns how to tell the difference between good and evil? Try the Chris Eccleston Episode “Dalek”.
Doctors hatred of the Daleks leads him to break personal codes and make an immoral choice? Oh, only EVERY EPISODE with the Daleks in since the New Who started.
Even small elements are replicated.
Land in a bunch of gunk that turns out to be bits of people? Space Whale from “The Beast Below”.
Female lead is falling for fairly gawky male character who stammers alot and keeps getting things wrong then is self-recriminatory? I’m not even going to have to point this one out am I?

You can also draw direct parallels to “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” and even to “The Name of the Doctor” as the characters make their way through a maze like environment to the “heart” of whatever thing they’re trying to resolve this week. It just feels done.

Now, as it happens I really love those episodes I mentioned and I get the feeling that Phil Ford does as well. I am by no means selling this guy short on his talents. He’s the same writer who did “Waters of Mars” from the David Tennant era and that’s one of my favourite episodes. You can almost feel that same iron at the core of the character in both of those episodes.

“The Doctor: Yes, because there are laws. There are laws of time. Once upon a time there were people in charge of those laws but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It’s taken me all these years to realize that the laws of time are mine and they will obey me!”

“Dalek: Help me.
The Doctor: Why would I do that? Why would any loving creature help you?
Dalek: Daleks will die.
The Doctor: Die all you like. Not my problem.

See? Love the writing of the Doctor in this episode and I do love the story but it just felt like it could have done more. Something new. Anything!

I tell a lie. The Maguffin is a new thing that we didn’t know about Daleks before. So I could say that was new. Even then, though, that’s all it is. A Maguffin. It’s a plot device to allow us to talk to a Dalek if they weren’t evil. It’s the good/ evil switch on every robot in every low budget SCI/FI since forever.

Now, I sound like I’m being terribly cruel to this episode and I probably am. I did enjoy it. Alot. These gripes that I have, though, kind of distracted me from the experience. Kept looking at it and thinking “where have I seen this before?”

Oh, and final points?

1:Beautiful CG of the ships at the beginning. Terrible composite shot of the Doctor in the Daleks control center.

2: I fricking HATE that stupid steam punk intro at the start. It clashes so badly with the direction they’re taking the Doctor. Wouldn’t have bothered me if Matt Smith had it but it does not work for Capaldi.

Ok. So that’s my rant over.

Later gang.

Ramblerambleramble.