| DALEK by Robert Shearman |
| Story 5 Synopsis: The TARDIS is drawn to Utah, 2012, by a distress call. The Doctor and Rose find themselves in a museum of alien artefacts, where they are taken to see its owner, Henry van Statten, and whilst Rose is dropped off with Adam, Henry's English assistant, the Doctor is shown to Henry's one live specimen, the Metaltron. The Doctor soon identifies it correctly as a Dalek. It is the last survivor of the Time War, having fallen backwards through time. Henry has been torturing it to get it to talk. Rose takes pity on it, and when she touches it, it absorbs her DNA, and begins to regenerate. After downloading information and energy, it breaks out, and starts killing. Henry insists it should live, but the Doctor wants it dead. To keep it sealed, the Doctor lowers a bulkhead system, but whilst Adam makes it, Rose doesn't. The Dalek uses Rose as a hostage to get the Doctor to raise the bulkhead. Adam has a supply of alien weaponry, and the Doctor finds something he takes to use on the Dalek. But Rose objects, insisting that the Dalek is not dangerous. The Doctor realises it has mutated, and will die. It asks Rose to command it to die, and she consents. Henry is usurped, and his treausre house is sealed. Adam joins Rose and the Doctor, and the TARDIS fades away. |
| Review:- The most dangerous force in the universe - thought dead, very much alive. Now restored and ready to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world. Yes, the Daleks are back, in the singular anyway (for now). In a plot with a hefty nod to Jubilee, this was the chance for the New Series to reintroduce the Daleks, and show them to be more impressive than even the most hardened sceptics thought. So, the audience finds the Dalek defenceless, and in much pain, as unthinking and brutal humans torture it - and then the Doctor comes along, raises its hopes, and promptly dashes them. RTD said this episode would make people weep for a Dalek - so did it? Not me, anyway. Perhaps I am too cynical, or perhaps I am paying too much heed to whisperings of future episodes, but if this was supposed to make an audience sympathise with the cold-blooded mass murderer - it didn't work for me. By itself, the story is actually quite good. The human characters are all nicely played and familiar, the artefact museum is an amusing locale (the interplay over the Cyber-head is touching), and the basic plot of the Dalek's slow renaissance is quite effective. There are many great lines (a trait of the whole series, so far), and it's sufficiently different to Jubilee for it not to feel like a complete retread. Van Statten makes a convincing villain, and his demise shows that good rarely triumphs completely. New companion Adam is given enough introduction to make him worth tolerating, for now. But overall, it doesn't seem like enough - there seems to be too many unanswered questions. If indeed, the Daleks are to return in a later story, and that this was just the set-up for that, then that's all very well, but this did not convince as a single story. Also, I find it rather pathetic that someone felt the need to make the audience sympathise with the Dalek. The most evil force in the universe, enfeebled by circumstance. Time and again, the audience is led to feel the Doctor is the villain, and Rose the only person able to stop him making a terrible mistake. Well, I'm sorry, but that's really a rubbish idea. Whether the eventual pay-off will show that the Doctor was right, and Rose was wrong, or not, this is a wholly regrettable creative moment, and endemic of the whole episode. It may turn out later that this episode makes acceptable sense as part of the whole. But that's not good enough - right now, it seems disappointingly wrong-headed. Then again, time will tell, eh? |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |