As the title suggests, this epiode sees the return of an old enemy. The oldest, in fact. As stated in the accompanying episode of "Doctor Who Extra", it's hard to come up with new Dalek episodes after fifty years, but what we have here really is something new. Echoes from the past may be present, but like Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS last year, Into The Dalek gives us plenty of new mysteries and does something that only dreams could conjure up before now. Like in Christopher Ecclestone's Dalek, the Doctor is presented with a captured and damaged Dalek and asked to fix it, only this time it seems to be a good Dalek. Captivated by this paradox, the Doctor wants to get inside its head to understand what has happened... and he explains to Clara that he's not talking metaphorically...
The episode takes on an interesting and slightly confusing structure to begin with. The pre-title sequence sees some kind of fighter ship being overwhelmed by a Dalek saucer and at the very moment of its destruction the Doctor materialises the TARDIS, or "Time capsule" as he refers to it as he did in the old days, around the pilot thus saving her life. Curiously, the pilot's name is Journey and she doesn't seem too pleased to have been saved this way. Still, the Doctor doesn't appreciate having a gun pointed at him while she demands to be taken to her mothership either (a mothership that appears to have been a hospital), so they're even on that score. When they arrive and exit the TARDIS, Journey is suddenly aware of its scale a declares "But it's smaller on the outside!", repeating Clara's twist on the classic line, but as the Doctor points out "It's more impressive going the other way" (ie stepping into the apparently small Police Box). Having breached the ship's security, the Doctor is practically ordered to tend to their patient which, to his horror turns out to be a Dalek.
So far, so normal, except there's no sign of Clara. We last saw her with the Doctor about to get coffee in Glasgow. After the titles, we meet Mr Pink, a soldier-turned-teacher at Coal Hill Secondary School and we see Clara is back at work there too. This scene unfolds with a time jump and self contained flashbacks as the two have an embarrassing first meeting, clearly hitting it off but unable to flirt comfortably. All this lays thick drama, including a suggestion that Danny Pink may have killed civilians in error and possibly left the army as a consequence, or at least become too emotional to stay as it has clearly upset him... but none of this bears any relevance to the episode in hand! Perhaps there is an underlying thread that will reveal itself as the series progresses.
The Doctor arrives to pick her up with a gag about fetching coffee, completely at odds with what was seen before the titles! However, we get a flash back to his initial meeting with the Dalek as he learnt that it wants to destroy all other Daleks, then cut back to the TARDIS to see that the Doctor is relaying the story to Clara. Then we are finally at a settled pace as they arrive on the ship and Journey is introduced as "Gun Girl", followed by various quips about the situation including the genius introduction of Clara to the others "This is Clara, not my assistant, she's my... some other word" "I'm his carer" "Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to"
The adventure-proper begins around fifteen minutes into the episode. The premise has been set, it's now time to shrink the boarding party and get them inside the Dalek... Miniaturisation and entering a patient to help them is not a new idea of course, the Doctor himself wryly acknowledges this by describing it as a "fantastic idea for a film" (Innerspace) but he has also done it before himself in The Invisible Enemy where he met K-9 and ventured inside his own head! I said it last time and I'll say it again, the visuals and special effects in this series are stunning. We get to see the team miniaturised including a long-shot/close-up as their tiny capsule is picked up by mechanical tweezers, then a shot from inside as they are carried through their giant surroundings (a shot that doesn't quite succeed in demonstrating the scale) and there is movement within even as the capsule is placed at the eye of the Dalek... how they get in through the eye is a question that doesn't really get answered but there is a strange warping effect as they step out of the capsule and we are distracted by a close-up of Clara's blouse which rather fittingly has eyes all over it! Then, as Journey tells the main lab that they are entering the cranial ledge, we hear the familiar throbbing sound of a Dalek environment...
There is a reworking of the 'antibodies' idea from Let's Kill Hitler and some more 'artistic' slo-mo. The Doctor has barely formed ideas, which everyone else has to fill in and the Dalek gets the nickname Rusty. My only problem with the plot is why anyone thinks fixing a Dalek is a good idea. It is sick and has some kind of fault that they might be able to fix... but the symptom is that the normally evil, moral-less creature is seeing the bad side of it's kind. From the moment the Doctor agrees to help, it is clear that the outcome will not be good. A fixed Dalek is always going to be an evil Dalek. That aside, the adventure within has some nice clever ideas, including the sloppy food store and the introduction of the idea that Daleks occasionally harvest their victims for protein. But we are also given another mind-meld moment with the Doctor, which is something I'm not too keen on and was introduced by Steven Moffat in
Into The Dalek isn't really a story about Daleks though. The real points is to highlight the victims. The Doctor may have saved Journey, but her brother was left behind, already too injured to save. Similarly, when one of the soldiers is consumed by antibodies, the Doctor does nothing to help him because it is too late but he uses his death to lead the party to the food store. A further soldier is left behind to fend off the antibodies later on and is also believed to have died... only viewers saw her saved by the mysterious Missy and told she was in heaven. So it is now clear what that thread is going to be about as the series progresses towards its finale! Also, of course, in contrast to the Doctor's cold acceptance of these victims' deaths, there is Danny's remorse. Underlying all this is the question of whether the Doctor is a good man but neither he nor Clara are sure any more. But I shall end this week with a humorous exchange between them... Clara has changed out of her goo-soaked clothes and is ready to go for a drink with Danny and she asks "How do I look" to which the Doctor replies "Sort of short and round-ish, but with a good personality"
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