Alternate Title: I, Dalek
Brief Synopsis: The Doctor meets a soldier who fought on the other side of the war, and they try to kill each other in between talking out their survivor's guilt. Rose brings the compassion and forgiveness.
Five Words: Exposit. Exterminate. Elevate. Empathize. Euthanize.
REVIEW
The episode is called "Dalek." What more could you want? Honestly, all it has to do is deliver the gloriously violent title villain and some good scenery-chewing and it gets a free pass. And indeed this one is all about Eccleston and Piper exchanging melodramatic dialogue with a giant pepperpot and that stuff is all golden. Any scene lacking the motorized plunger Nazi shows how weak the episode is otherwise, though. Basically if this episode didn't feature a Dalek as the monster it wouldn't be much good at all.
Capitalist bad guy Van Statten is the standout flaw: A tremendously boring character who's just there to be wrong about everything. A lot of time is spent characterizing him through his amoral, culture-of-ownership style arrogance, but he's too shallow even to qualify as a strawman, because what really are his beliefs? "Internet entrepreneurs deserve to rule the world?" And how did being a patent troll make him ruler of a fascistic empire? Clearly a whole lot else would have to go wrong for this idiot to be dictator-for-life. Worse, whereas a proper bad guy is a foil to the hero, Van Statten and D9 hardly interact at all as characters. They just shout at each other without listening to what the other is saying.
Possibly even less effective than Van Statten is his aide, Diana Goddard, who we're supposed to like because she's less stupid than him and delivers his comeuppance in eye-for-an-eye style at the end. But all that indicates is that she uses power the same way he does and has learned nothing from his example. A cheap Ha-Ha ending for two useless characters.
Enough negativity. The really substantive aspect of "Dalek" is the survivor's guilt theme. If you keep in mind that Daleks are basically sci-fi Nazis, you can easily recognize what a serious vein of drama Mr. Eccleston and Mr. Pepperpot are tapping into. We learn a lot about how much D9's experiences in the time war have changed him, to the extent that he seems emotionally damaged. The Doctor has never been this dark before, and Eccleston makes it engrossing in a way that D1's misanthropy and D6's arrogance can't approach.
I have to point out that a lot of the dialogue here is kinda dumb if you think about it. "You would make a good Dalek" is not a line that a Dalek would ever say, for example. The most complimentary thing a Dalek can say to a non-Dalek is "You're exploitable." But it's still good material for the actors to tear up the screen with. (And maybe absorbing the internet exposed the Dalek to Godwin's Law.)
It's a key plot point that the Dalek is changed by Rose, due to a DNA transfer thingamajig(eyeroll) that immediately makes it start having emotions other than hate and shoutyness. This isn't a bad idea, but it's hampered by the regrettable technobabble, and more importantly, the fact that we don't learn anything about Rose here. A comparison is being drawn between them but really what we see is the Dalek becoming more emotional in a generic kind of way. It isn't well explained why it can't bring itself to kill Rose, nor why Rose would defend it after it went on a killing spree in front of her eyes. The script could easily have given up every scene with Van Statten in order to better develop the idea that the Dalek is bonding with Rose. This kind of thing was done better in the Trek episode "I, Borg," to give an example.
Oh well. In any case it would have made a whole lot more sense if the Dalek had just gotten distracted reading tvtropes.org and looking at funny cat videos.
IN RETROSPECT
This is an episode that, on the one hand, is a history-maker and a highlight of the first season, but on the other hand doesn't hold up to re-watching too well. The parts of it that aren't good stand out in stark contrast to the parts that are. It's also a bit of a shame, in a way, that this isn't the last ever episode with Daleks. It's a pretty good "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" kind of story for them. Of course, DC kept making Superman stories after that, so... Yeah.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
D9 is a lot more eager to kill Daleks than D4 was back on Skaro, but Rose talks him down. D7 was pretty cavalier about committing genocide on them, though, and Ace never called him on it. In the grand scheme of things it looks like the dilemma from Genesis of the Daleks remains unanswered.
Adam Mitchell debuts here and seems like a salvageable guy. There's a scene between him and Rose that we can tell is sweet because the music says so. And maybe he's infected by Van Statten's arrogance and self-interest but the simple fact that he goes to Rose and the Doctor at the end indicates that he knows who the real heroes are.
There's a lot of insight into the Dalek thought process here that's pretty interesting for a long-term fan. Even from the start, this Dalek seems to be capable of some deeper insight than we usually get from the little squidbrains. Presumably being isolated from peer pressure and space Nazi rhetoric will go some way toward freeing up even a Dalek mind. One interesting question to ask as you watch is: How much of what the Dalek says to Rose on their first meeting is just a heartless scheme to get a hit of her DNA?
FIRSTS
First new series Dalek with exciting swivel-shooting action.
NOT The First Elevation. They did that in some of the later episodes of the classic series, though without calling quite as much attention to the fact that stairs are a solved problem.
First Time The Plunger Kind of Makes Sense. ("This is Kev the Dalek, he has two plungers. Kev's not very dangerous." -Eddie Izzard)
First mention of the word "regeneration." Note also the question Rose puts to D9, "What the hell are you changing into?" It's a little too subtle to work as foreshadowing, especially if you're new to Doctor Who, but it's a nice touch nonetheless.
First Doctor Getting Seriously Dark. We've seen D9 cross some moral lines, as when he seemingly killed Cassandra in DW 1-2. But in "Dalek" he's holding a gun and ready to use it, which just feels wrong.
First The "L" Word: The Dalek knows that Rose is the woman D9 loves because it scanned her DNA and read the entire internet. It also found out that Kirk loves Spock and human females love sparkly vampires. Odd that in this episode where the Love bombshell is dropped, Rose seems to be sweeter on Adam.
SCOREKEEPING
Does the Doctor save the day? No. The Dalek probably would have quietly died if D9 hadn't come to investigate. And Rose was the one who put an end to the conflict.
Does the Doctor inspire someone else to save the day? No. It's not his best showing as far as results are concerned.
Semi-companion: Adam Mitchell.
Nice Person Who Talked to Rose and Died: This is a stretch, but I like this feature so I'm shoehorning it in. Anyways, the one soldier who tries to reason with the Dalek when they're in the stairwell is a nice touch.
WTF Factor: The Dalek x-ray lasergun is conducted like electricity through water, making it officially more confusing than phasers or light-sabers.
Personal Confuser: Being secret owner of the internet doesn't seem like that great of a business deal, and downloading the entire thing isn't much help if you don't also get a good search algorithm. I wonder if the Dalek has its own universal translator or if it just ran it all through Babelfish.
Old Who Reference: The Cyberman head, of course. In any other episode it would have seemed gratuitous but it makes sense here.
No Really, The Last of the Time Lords: Apparently the Doctor would know if there were any other Time Lords left. Even if they were hanging out in a different century or in another dimension. So don't get any ideas. This does help explain why Time Lords always seemed to be able to recognize each other despite changes of appearance.
Interesting little sidenote: The Doctor recognizes the spaceship from Roswell. I wonder if he would know how to drive it, too.
Bad Wolf: It's honestly a little too blatant here, and too pointless a throwaway line as well. In retrospect it seems like a tip-off that the whole Bad Wolf thing is not going to make sense.
Best Scene: The final confrontation.
Most Emotional Moment: This one's pretty harrowing all the way through. Take your pick, but I have to go with the initial reveal of the Dalek.
Funniest: "Hair dryer." I also love when Rose ducks the swiveling Dalek eye-stalk when they're in the elevator. It seems unrehearsed.
The Big List
1. The End of the World
2. Aliens of London / World War Three
3. Dalek
4. Rose
5. The Unquiet Dead
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