Which is why 'Into the Dalek' was such a surprising success, offering the double whammy of both a new physical and surreally spiritual look into an enemy Whovians have gotten to know all too well in the 50 years since their debut.After a zippy and sumptuously sci-fi-y pre-credits spaceship dogfight went awry, the Doctor was corralled by a troupe of space soldiers into fighting their Dalek enemy. Only this time, there was a difference. Not only did they have a Dalek captured and restrained aboard their ship, but its loving tendency towards hugs, puppies and rainbows prompted two very big questions - are the Daleks capable of more than just hatred? And can the Doctor trounce his own aeons-ingrained prejudice to believe they could be better?
One pleasingly meta-acknowledged shrink ray later ("fantastic idea for a movie, terrible idea for a proctologist"), and the Doctor, Clara and a couple of soldiers were miniaturised and sent into the belly of the beast. Antibodies, plot twists and moral squiffiness ensued, as a challenge thought physical became oddly soulful. Of all the things I was expecting from a Dalek episode, an exploration into the expansion of one’s moral consciousness was not one of them.
Kudos to writers Phil Ford and Steven Moffat first of all, for crafting a script that evolves along with its characters. The 'Honey I Shrunk the Doctor' elevator pitch is enough to immediately entertain, but it's the exploration of the capability for change that really succeeds, and paves further plot progress in establishing both the Season and Doctor's new darker, murkier status quo. While the Doctor’s new personality is still very much in flux, it’s both reassuring and impressive how quickly Capaldi’s embodied the role, throwing out sarcastic rejoinders and self-congratulatory puns as effortlessly as he engages his ‘Attack Eyebrows’ in the heavier emotional scenes.It’s the moral wonkiness that not only propels the plot, but reignites the show’s Doctor/Companion dynamic, too. And while the Doctor may be all too pragmatic in his rescuing tactics (how brutal but kinda brilliant was his radiation-imbibing of that soldier?), it’s clear that his relationship with Clara will be integral to him realigning his sense of humanity. The shift from spunky, manic flirt object to philosophy/morality tutor forces Jenna Coleman into a whole new performance space, and her character’s all the more appealing because of it.
Ben Wheatley impresses on directorial duties again, and while budgetary restrictions gave the Dalek vs Army gunfights more than a whiff of Laser Quest about them, the Abyss-style Dalek entry, sci-fi dogfights, and murky industrial Dalek anatomy felt fresh.
Despite a couple of niggling plot wobbles (the attack logic behind the antibodies felt conveniently haphazard, the full-scale Dalek attack all too quickly resolved), and some frustratingly unfleshed out supporting characters (Michael Smiley deserved a role more deserving of his general actor-ly awesomeness, while the third act speech and sacrifice of a soldier you’d barely even noticed felt dramatically forced), ‘Into the Dalek’ was a refreshing re-examination of both the Doctor and one of his oldest foes.