Into Darkness
After a pretty okay season opener, the second outing of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor is no longer bound by the transition from silly to Capaldi. In other words, we now finally get to see an entire episode dedicated to what will be known as Capaldi's Doctor. Or as I like to call him, The Dark Doctor.
After saving soldier Journey Blue (Zawe Ashton), the Doctor gets recruited to be the doctor for a patient held in custody by the military Blue belongs to. That patient being a damaged Dalek. But why would The Doctor help a member of a race he has sworn to destroy since they first met? Simple. All it took was for "Rusty" the damaged Dalek to say, "The Daleks will be exterminated!" Of course, not wanting to take part of this strange event solo, he picks up Clara to bring her into the madness as well.
People may groan at having the Daleks return so soon. While yes, it would be fun to see new threats for the Doctor to face more often than his old ones, it is hard to deny that the Daleks are a huge part of Doctor Who. I don't see them going anywhere, and I am not one of those people who groans knowing that they're coming back. It wouldn't be Doctor Who without Daleks or Cybermen. What I was concerned about though was how this episode was presented. It pretty much reminded me of an episode from Christopher Eccelston's run as the Ninth Doctor, simply titled, "Dalek." Both are about captured Daleks suffering from some sort of damage and discovering something new. While the Dalek in the "Dalek" episode learned pity by absorbing human DNA, Rusty the Dalek in this episode discovers the meaning of life due to an internal malfunction. I can guarantee to you now that if you're expecting a repeat of the "Dalek" episode that you will not get that. After all the point of this episode is more of an examination of Capaldi's New Doctor.
The jokes are there, but they are not silly. They are not energetic, they are more subdued. And they are all still coming from The Doctor, but told very differently. The flair and dashing that David Tennant and Matt Smith brought to the Doctor is gone. When Capaldi was aiming for a more serious Doctor, he really meant it. In this episode we see this Doctor at full capacity. From how he handles people around him, to referring to Clara as his carer. To put it in his words, "She cares so that I don't have to." That is probably the best way to describe the new relationship between The Doctor and Clara. He is a dark, sarcastic mad man who only want to prove he's right, but also knows he needs Clara to remind him of what he refuses to see.
During the episode, which is pretty much a twisted homage to The Fantastic Voyage, when The Doctor feels he has proven that Daleks are evil and can only be evil, it is Clara who has to remind him that the real lesson to learn is that it is possible for a Dalek to be good. This ties in nicely with a question that the Doctor asks Clara before they go on this adventure. "Am I a good man?" A question that can easily be tied to Rusty the Dalek. Is he a good Dalek? Is such a thing possible? Is the Doctor a good man? Is that even really possible? These questions and parallels are handled nicely with the interaction between The Doctor and Rusty as they both try to understand each other while at the same time discovering there is after all very similar things to them. Traits that any previous Doctor would flat out deny, but Capaldi's seems to accept that he is no different from a Dalek. After all, archenemies need to see something of themselves in the other in order to be truly enemies.
Another recurring theme in this story is the military and The Doctor. Although the Doctor has been known to work with militant groups such as U.N.I.T. and various other militaries, for some reason in this one he outwardly hates the idea of a soldier. It almost becomes apparent with the Doctor's initial disregard to the death of a soldier under his command just for the sake of finding an escape route. Not only did it display the more calculating side of the Doctor, but also his disdain for anyone who follows orders without question. This idea of the current Doctor having a problem with the military will be explored even more due to the arrival of a new addition to the school Clara teaches at.
In this episode we meet Danny Pink played by Samuel Anderson. His introduction and final word in the episode serves as book ends for this well executed story. While it is known that he will eventually be joining Clara in the TARDIS, we discover a couple of things about him. For one he is a soldier who suffers from a great trauma and has crush on Clara, who fortunately likes him back. We already see a man who is completely different from previous male companions, Mickey and Rory. He is military but he is also a very introverted man who wants to be a little bit more outgoing. This could prove to be a more valuable male companion right off the bat rather than previous male companions who have to grow into someone like Pink. However because of Pink being a military man, and watching The Doctor's interaction with Blue, Clara seems to question whether or not being with Pink would be something The Doctor would approve of. And given what The Doctor learned of himself and his affirmation in wanting as little interaction with soldiers as possible, we can already see that Pink may become a capable companion but still has to grow to the Doctor's liking.
Time will tell. And from the looks of the next episode, we probably won't know till later. But right now, we are definitely seeing the Capaldi Doctor take shape. And that is a good thing. As we now know what this Doctor is. He is a Dark Mad Genius who needs Clara's light to keep him from completely descending into Darkness. And I am completely fine with that. The Older Doctor is back, and he's here to stay... for as long as Capaldi is on board.
SCORE: 8.5 - Vast improvement over the previous episode and Capaldi delivers
STATUS: Continue to Watch - I look forward to the confrontation between the Doctor and Pink
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