Doctor Who S34E2: "Into The Dalek" Spoilers

[Crazedwraith]

So a new week. A new episode. I so do not go in for the wacky quotes in my poll.

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I have mixed feelings on this one. The effects were superb. The new Doctor has a nice edge to him. And the inside the Dalek concept was at least an attempt to put a new spin on it. On the other hand, the 'I am a Good man?' stuff was a little on the nose for me. And Clara having to teach the Doctor doesn't seem like a great concept to me.

Tighter and more focused than last week though at least.

[Bedlam]

I'd say it was certainly a step in the right direction.

The main thing that got me at first was referring to the Dalek as 'Good', it never acted good, it acted psychotic just against other Daleks rather than anything that wasn't a Dalek. Now if at first it had actually acted good, expressing remorse for what it had done, looking for a way to save others that would have been better, then once it gets fixed it goes back to normal Dalek then when it reads the Doctors mind it becomes psychotic vs Daleks again, so it seems like he actually made it worse than before. It might have been hard to go with the 'good' Dalek but I think it would have been worth it if they could pull it off.

Other than that, the effects didn't really blow me away but I think they managed more practical Dalek's than before, or maybe just edited them better, there really did seem to be a squad of Daleks rolling through the defenders rather then the usual 1-3 (maybe 6 or even more this time! ). Although I'm a bit tired of Dalek's being totally invulnerable to human weapons, in that case why keep firing? I'd have liked at least one to be destroyed by concentrated fire or at least damaged, maybe loosing an eye stalk.

Not sure have I felt about the cole hill school scene's, will they keep going with this? Or just use it for this once?

[Crazedwraith]

Er... I actually noted that at least one or two Daleks. Did die to human weapons during the attack. Not very many but they did.

[Bedlam]

Er... I actually noted that at least one or two Daleks. Did die to human weapons during the attack. Not very many but they did.

Really? Huh, I didn't see any, but I did run in and out a few times to check on my cooking.

Retract my previous statement then.

[Iroscato]

Yeah I noticed that, good to see puny squishy humans at least giving them a decent fight this time
Very good episode overall, it had some nice meaty insights into the Doctor/Dalek dynamic and some clever ideas. So I guess the dalek is going to help the humans? Am I reading the ending right? It certainly wasn't the most upbeat ending, and I appreciate the fact that defeating the daleks wasn't really the main focus of the episode, helped give it a fresher feel.

[NecronLord]

I was vaguely irritated every time the Doctor claimed that non-evil daleks do not exist or are impossible.

Err, Dalek? Evil of the Daleks?

[Eternal_Freedom]

I would imagine that he doesn't consider either of those cases true "Daleks" since in both cases they were mixed with elements of humanity, either Rose's DNA or the Human Factor. So a good Dalek without some corrupting influence (from the Dalek perspective) is impossible.

Overall I enjoyed it. It wasn't omg amazing but it was definitely a solid episode. And another hint about "heaven." Maybe they're borrowing from the book about The City of the Saved.

[Bedlam]

I would imagine that he doesn't consider either of those cases true "Daleks" since in both cases they were mixed with elements of humanity, either Rose's DNA or the Human Factor. So a good Dalek without some corrupting influence (from the Dalek perspective) is impossible.

Overall I enjoyed it. It wasn't omg amazing but it was definitely a solid episode. And another hint about "heaven." Maybe they're borrowing from the book about The City of the Saved.

That would certainly be interesting, although it doesn't explain the Doctors apparent ex hanging around there greeting random people killed by him. Plus the City only held humans, I suppose the half faced man might just about count.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Maybe they aren't lifting it totally, just using the idea.

EDIT: Having watched the Doctor Who Extra bit, they had five Dalek props doing the attacking, possibly one more for the "good" one, unless they just redressed one.

[NecronLord]

I also find it interesting that the daleks have destroyed millions of stars, or as the doctor puts it "millions and millions."

Reminds me of the Apocalypse Element audio.

[Bedlam]

I also find it interesting that the daleks have destroyed millions of stars, or as the doctor puts it "millions and millions."

Reminds me of the Apocalypse Element audio.

How many stars in an average galaxy?

In the Element they mostly destroyed a galaxy, plus if you talk about the time war you might have to count stars that never came to exist due to temperal manipulation and he'd probably talking about the whole of time, still that's a lot of stars, particularly if they were mostly stars with life around them.

[Eternal_Freedom]

If we take the Milky Way as an average galaxy (which is about right, depending on how you draw the line between "dwarf galaxy" and "galaxy") then you could destroy "millions and millions" (call it 10 million at the high end) and reach somewhere between a quarter and a half of a percent of the total stars.

Blowing up a few million suns is a stunning thing, but on a galactic scale it's peanuts.

[Iroscato]

Well, maybe they focused mostly on planetary surface annihilation or simply exterminating every living thing on a planet. The blowing up of suns could just be their equivalent of breaking out the really nice scotch now and then

[Bedlam]

Well, maybe they focused mostly on planetary surface annihilation or simply exterminating every living thing on a planet. The blowing up of suns could just be their equivalent of breaking out the really nice scotch now and then

I'd think it might be the opposite, destroying a star and all the life in the solar system is a very efficient way of doing it. But going down to the surface of the planet and personally killing everything that isn't a Dalek, well that real enjoyment.

This is a race that were noted in one of the books (never really shown though) to set their guns to the lowest setting needed to kill an opponent so it would hurt more.

[NecronLord]

If we take the Milky Way as an average galaxy (which is about right, depending on how you draw the line between "dwarf galaxy" and "galaxy") then you could destroy "millions and millions" (call it 10 million at the high end) and reach somewhere between a quarter and a half of a percent of the total stars.

Blowing up a few million suns is a stunning thing, but on a galactic scale it's peanuts.

It depends, I originally heard it as "Millions of billions" which dwarfs a galaxy, but I am not sure if they meant that, "millions and millions" is the low end interpretation (millions of millions would be about right for a large galaxy, potentially). The one in Apocalypse Element (The Seriphia Galaxy) is stated to be a spiral bigger than the Milky Way though.

And hey, the Big Finish audios were talked about in the McGann regeneration clip, after all.

[Iroscato]

I wonder who gave it 0/5. Bit harsh isn't it? Come forward, coward!

[SpottedKitty]

I was vaguely irritated every time the Doctor claimed that non-evil daleks do not exist or are impossible.

Err, Dalek? Evil of the Daleks?

In Dalek, certainly, however much he tried to deny it. That was a few regenerations back, though, and maybe he doesn't want to admit, even to himself, remembering it.

Some more nice one-liners this week. Fantastic Voyage, anyone?

And, of course, what the aitch-eee-double-hockey-sticks is going on in "Heaven"? This bit's getting really weird, folks...

[DarkSilver]

The Dalek wasn't "Good", it simply....was damaged.

What I liked was that when the Doctor tried to show Rusty something else while it was rebooting - that Rusty latched onto the Doctor's hate, called it pure, and beautiful, and replaced it's hatred of everything not Dalek, with a hatred of everything Dalek.

Rusty's last line to the Doctor was biting - "I am not a good Dalek. You are a good Dalek."

Also, I think I figured out what's throwing me about this season so far - Smith's Doctor seemed more like a Fairy Tale/Fantasy thing, he cloaked himself in that, along with the silliness in order to hide his self hatred.

Capaldi's Doctor isn't doing that. Sure he still gets those moments of "Oh hey look at that!", but he has a total lack of the Fairy Tale quality to him - he so much so he's trying to figure out who he should be now.


It's interesting.

[Enigma]

I liked it and I am interested as to how Danny Pink fits in.

Again we see that the Doctor can easily fly the Tardis without a hiccup. It was becoming annoying all that bouncing around. How can he keep anything in place with all that bouncing and shaking?

[Iroscato]

Question: when they first entered the dalek, what was the weird blue goo-like substance that they had to push through? I thought maybe it was the glass of the eyepiece, and at their size glass behaves more like a liquid. Only that weren't that small were they? I thought they were only insect sized.

[SpottedKitty]

Question: when they first entered the dalek, what was the weird blue goo-like substance that they had to push through? I thought maybe it was the glass of the eyepiece, and at their size glass behaves more like a liquid. Only that weren't that small were they? I thought they were only insect sized.

That's pretty much what I thought as well. As for the gunge, maybe it's some sort of gel the Daleks use inside their eyestalks, chosen for its optical properties? Presumably this is what goes <splat> when we see a Dalek's "head" destroyed, since all the squishy organics are safely in the middle of the armoured body.

[J Ryan]

Seems there is quite a religious theme coming in with these episodes. We had a Dalek talking about seeing the Divine and beauty of a creator or something along those lines, then we are getting clearly killed people arriving in a place called Heaven. Wonder if that's a coincidence or these things are tied together somehow.

[InsaneTD]

They are tied together. We just don't know how yet.

I must admit that I like the darker side of this doctor. Though I'm not sure about this episode. I can't point to one thing I don't like, and I generally liked the Doctor and the way they all interacted. Maybe once we get a few more episodes and all the little plot points and hints start to gel?

I was glad to see the human weapons kill few daleks, pretty sure the human kill count was three from what I saw.

[SpottedKitty]

I must admit that I like the darker side of this doctor.

<nod> He's certainly got a lot less time for human niceties; e.g. I can't quite see either of the last couple of Doctors pulling off that thing with the power pack.

The repeat isn't on yet for another couple of hours, did he really say "fantastic idea for a movie, terrible idea for a proctologist"...?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yes, yes he did.