Dalek by: Robert Shearman and directed by: Joe Ahearne

 

“Dalek” stars Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Corey Johnson as Henry van Statten, Anna-Louise Plowman as Diana Goddard, Bruno Langley as Adam Mitchell, Barnaby Edwards as the Dalek Operator, and Nicholas Briggs as the Voice of the Dalek.  It was written by: Robert Shearman and directed by: Joe Ahearne with Helen Raynor as Script Editor, Phil Collinson as Producer, and Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner, and Mal Young as Executive Producers.  It was originally broadcast on Saturday 30 April 2005 on BBC One.

 

Bringing the Daleks back into Doctor Who was something that Russell T. Davies always envisioned as an episode to occur in the middle of the series.  While it was only the second serial of the original thirteen episode order, The Daleks provided the show with the ratings boost to allow the BBC to extend its run to first 26 and then a full first season.  Whenever the Daleks reappeared in the original run, the ratings would take a significant increase which would ride the popularity, something Davies was keenly aware of when pitching the revival for Doctor Who.  “Return of the Daleks” was the original pitch, taking inspiration from the 2003 Big Finish audio play Jubilee by Robert Shearman.  Davies almost immediately approached Shearman for penning the adaptation, hoping it would skew fairly close to the original audio play with the addition of a male companion to join at the end of the episode.  Shearman, however, had different plans, only leaving the setup of a Dalek which has been captured and tortured by a madman that the Doctor is left alone with early in the episode.  This was through several drafts, initially being “Creature of Lies” before becoming “The Sphere” and “Absence of the Daleks” when negotiations with the Terry Nation estate saw the possibility of the Daleks being unable to be used in the revived Doctor Who.  Luckily, these issues would be resolved in the nick of time for Shearman, after several drafts, to reinstate the Dalek for the episode which would be filmed and aired under the title “Dalek”.

 

“Dalek” offers a unique opportunity: while certainly the audience in the UK would have been familiar with the Daleks, they would have several cliches going into the episode and Shearman is ready from the beginning of the episode to actively subvert those expectations.  The episode takes its time before introducing the Dalek, about ten minutes in total are spent first establishing the Doctor and Rose’s arrival, Henry van Statten and his collection, and the tortuous conditions the Metaltron (as van Statten has named it) is undergoing.  The Metaltron is shown through a point of view shot and its screams, with Nicholas Briggs giving an organic performance for these screams.  This makes the audience predisposed to sympathize with the Dalek, especially if you are new to Doctor Who and perhaps hadn’t heard of the Daleks before.  That certainly was what occurred when I first watched the episode over a decade ago.  Shearman also makes the decision to have the Dalek not show any real danger until the halfway point of the episode, the reveal of the Dalek being beautifully shot by Joe Ahearne, but its revival and restoration could have acted as an end of Part One cliffhanger.  Ahearne also shoots the destruction the Dalek wreaks perfectly, only showing a couple of on-screen deaths despite a high death count.  Cutaways from the deaths are strategic, using screams and the right moment to cut so the viewer can extrapolate the horror.  The Dalek is shot from low angles and treated like the unstoppable and powerful force that it is.  Letting the Dalek essentially be a background player helps lull the audience and the characters into a false sense of security, the Doctor revealing himself to be an alien and being tortured in turn.  Eccleston sadly was uncomfortable with shooting this scene in particular which is a shame as it is genuinely some of his best material.  The episode itself builds the rage of the Doctor, a man who has seen the extermination of his people and the responsible party will not be brought to justice in his mind until they are equally exterminated.

 

Billie Piper as Rose Tyler has to bring the humanity back to the episode and the Doctor.  As Rose would have no exposure to the Daleks, and when the Doctor is first in the cage she is with Adam Mitchell, played by Bruno Langley, so she doesn’t see his outbursts until the climax of the episode where the Dalek, revealing the mutant inside, has a gun to its tentacles wielded by the Doctor.  Rose shows the creature nothing but sympathy until the killing starts, yet once the killing starts and she has to survive, she and Adam run.  It’s also technically her fault for letting the Dalek out, the sympathy leading her to touch it exchanging the DNA of a time traveler, Piper’s performance as Rose has this subtle guilt culminating in self-sacrifice when the Doctor has to close van Statten’s bunker down, leaving her inside it with the Dalek.  There is this visual connection between Rose and the Dalek, the casing being designed by Mike Tucker, who had worked on Remembrance of the Daleks in 1988, to match Piper’s height.  Rose also makes one final plea to the Doctor to let the Dalek essentially live as it just wants to see the sun, the infection of Rose’s DNA adding humanity to the creature.  It’s a beautiful conclusion to a perfect episode only enhanced by Shearman’s charming side characters.  Corey Johnson as van Statten represents every billionaire (especially those that take root in American pop culture), owning the internet and cure for the common cold, but like an obsessed fanboy he bottles them up behind glass not to be used.  Anna-Louise Plowman as van Statten’s newest assistant Diana Goddard, the previous one being fired immediately after being introduced, is a very small part, but nevertheless memorable in her clipped delivery.  She provides a human element to van Statten’s operation subtly as van Statten is an over the top villain and Adam is a lackey.

 

Overall, “Dalek” is the episode of the first series of Doctor Who that becomes the standard for the revival to top.  It is a perfect 45-minute adventure that may borrow its premise from an earlier audio drama, but it clearly understands the Daleks allowing Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper to have tour de force performances.  This is the episode that names the Time War and the fact that the Daleks were who the Time Lords were fighting.  It quickly and deservedly takes its place among the best of both the revival and Doctor Who in its entirety.  10/10.