Two episodes in, and my current opinion of Capaldi's Doctor (aka "Dozen") can best be summed up as follows: I don't like him, but I think that I like that I don't like him, as opposed to not liking that I don't like him.
Now you may need to re-read that opening statement (if it gets past the sub-editors), but hopefully you'll get the general sense of what I'm driving at.
Dozen has me on edge, like I'm standing on a plank of wood placed over a barrel and could topple at any moment. Twelve is not going to sweep me up in a bear hug like Ten or Eleven. He's not even going to give me a goofy grin after a stern talking-to like Nine.
There have been many calls for a darker Doctor for years, but it may very well be Stephen Moffat and co decided to respond with a shout of "Be careful what you wish for!" and an extended middle finger.
Season 8, Episode 2: Into the Dalek
The Doctor rescues a pilot named Journey Blue a split second before her craft is blown up by pursuing Daleks. He makes her ask him nicely to take her back to her base ship, the Aristotle, and he's recruited to provide medical assistance.
The patient is a sick Dalek, one that has somehow turned "good" and wants to exterminate the rest of his kind. Unable to resist a fantastic voyage, Dozen snatches Clara away from a charming new maths teacher at her school and has them all nano-compressed for the world's most impressive house call.
The Doctor proves himself coldly pragmatic when he not only lets the soldier Ross (Game of Thrones crossover alert: Night's Watchman Tollett) be killed by the Dalek's antibodies, but makes a tasteless joke about his leftovers being the top layer of goo in a protein larder "...if you want to say a few words."
But then, he had described Clara as his carer "so I don't have to", so sensitivity doesn't appear high on his priority list.
The Dalek's doo-lally demeanour is traced to a radiation leak, but once that's been repaired by sonic screwdriver, it flips right back to its human-focused genocidal tendencies.
Twelve seems angry-happy about this: it proves the Daleks are evil, they can't be changed, the Doctor is right again, QED. Thankfully Clara is there to slap some sense into him about what the real lesson is: a "good" Dalek is not impossible, because they've just been inside one.
Cue a mad dash for the Dalek's memory banks, where Clara does a "clever thing" and works out that its memories of anything "good" – such as a star being born – were not erased, merely blocked. Journey mostly complains that it won't be the right thing to do, but then it is.
Gosh, that whole scene irritated me. Why did they have to write Journey as a complaining Negative Nelly? "That won't work. That won't work." Yeah, well, how about bring your own idea to the table or STFU, Journey? And WTF is up with that first name? Was your brother called Travel? Are your parents Origin and Destination?
The Doctor mind-melds with the Dalek to show it the joys of a non-destroyed universe. But things take a turn when the Dalek goes deeper into the Doctor's mind, discovering a bezoar of Dalek hate and drawing on it to once again become a self-hating super villain.
One of the triumphs of the 2005 Christopher Eccleston reboot was its masterful introduction of the Doctor's chief enemy, the Daleks. In Dalek, the Doctor and Rose travel to Utah in 2012 (yep, 2012 was "the future", how old do you feel right now?) after intercepting an alien distress signal.
It turns out to be a lone Dalek, imprisoned by the billionaire collector Henry van Statten, who despite his riches and connections doesn't even have a smartphone. Using Rose's DNA, the Dalek repairs itself and embarks on a typical "kill all humans" murder-thon before all of Rose's transferred feels become too much.
By reducing a multitudinous enemy down to one pitiful unit, that episode painted both the Daleks and the Doctor in a different light. We were forced to consider the idea of the Doctor as a killer. Sure, it was one thing to press a button and destroy fleets of the buggers, but when you're picking on one rustbucket that looks like it was welded together by drunks, you're not automatically the good guy.
It led to a classic line that would haunt Christopher Eccleston's Doctor: "You would make a good Dalek."
Into the Dalek appears to have confirmed that proposition, with its eponymous machine declaring "You are a good Dalek, Doctor." Yeah, take that, Dozen. Get righteous all you like but the hate you're storing under those gorgeous attack eyebrows has more power over you than you'd care to admit. Have you ever tried yoga?
It's worth mentioning the B storyline about the dishy new teacher at Clara's school, Danny Pink. An ex-soldier, Hot Pink is initially too shy to respond to her advances, and berates himself in a charming meet-cute as Clara looks on.
But his past is going to make for interesting future run-ins, for how will the Doctor react if Clara starts dating an ex-soldier? He slapped down Journey when she asked to join them in the Tardis because she was a soldier (unless he was being polite and it was really because she was a whinger). Hot Pink got emotional when the kiddies asked him about whether he'd killed anyone, but Capaldi's Doctor doesn't seem to be easily moved by tears. I see conflict ahead – and I like it.
Highlights
Capaldi is delivering some beautiful quips, witty bon mots, clueless backhanded compliments and sarcastic passive-aggressions. "Your hips are fine, you're built like a man!" he tells Clara.
There is definitely an eye theme going on this season. I thought I might have been ... seeing things (groan) with the first episode, but this time Clara was wearing a shirt printed with eyes all over it, for crying out loud. The shrunken crew entered the Dalek through its eye stalk, and the Dalek's antibodies were floating metal eyeballs. Hot Pink's eye received a close up as it released a single manly tear, and the reappearance of Evil Mary Poppins (aka Missy) offering tea to a soldier added to the sense that Capaldi is being watched (Capaldi also ends with an "i" if you hadn't noticed. I call conspiracy. Bring me my tinfoil hat).
Lowlights
The proctologist gag. Really?
What was the scene with the school receptionist about? "I'll bet you had a good weekend. I'll bet you were reading." Was that just to show that Hot Pink is hot? Or are they setting her up as a weird dummy non-human? The Aristotle crew did talk about the Daleks having "duplicates" after all, which we can only assume are Dalek-controlled human clones. Either way, odd choice.
Next week: Robin Hood! I'm letting you know I'm a Robin Hood enthusiast from girlhood. Join me in the green tights for next week's Doctor Who recap!
