Day 709 - Dalek

So exciting! A Dalek makes its first appeance in the revamped series and its a fantastic episode!

Having landed in a secret underground space museum, the Doctor discovers that one of his greatest foes is being kept prisoner. It's in this episode that we find out a whole lot more about the Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks. In fact it's only in this episode that it is finally confirmed that It was the Daleks that the Time Lords were fighting.

Between the cancellation of the old series and this new series starting, the Daleks had never really gone away but were treated as comedy props pretty much. Therefore when we see the Doctor's sheer horror and anger at coming face to face with one it feels all the more powerful. Christopher Eccleston gives a brilliant performance as he angrily explains to the Dalek that he destroyed the entire Dalek race.

It doesn't taken long for the Dalek to get loose and then we see how dangerous they really are. Just one pretty much kills everyone in the base. The Dalek manages to escape from its confinement when Rose touches it and allows it to extrapolate the DNA of a time traveller to rejuvenate itself...or some bullshit like that anyway. The characterisation of the Dalek is pretty good. It's not just a ranting pepper pot but is actually quite sneaky. This is evident in the scene as mentioned when it acts in a way to make Rose pity it by telling her how he is the last of his kind and he shall die alone. It's really great stuff and its so unusual to hear a Dalek talk in such a way.

Throughout the episode the Dalek starts acting more and more peculiar due to absorbing Rose's DNA, it is becoming more human. Meanwhile the Doctor is changing too. Being around a Dalek has turned him psycho and by the end of the episode he is pointing a massive gun at both the Dalek and Rose. The effects of the Time War are still ver much being felt by both the Doctor and the Dalek and they share a quite touching scene at the end.

It was this episode that really turned me into a Doctor Who fan. I saw it for the first time in 2005 when I was at university. I'd had a pretty shitty few months and all of a sudden there was the Doctor. I clung to him then (not in a gay way!) and I've not let go since..