User:Sceptre/Dalek

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165 – "Dalek"
Doctor Who episode
Cast
Doctor Christopher Eccleston (Ninth Doctor)
Companions Billie Piper (Rose Tyler)
Bruno Langley (Adam Mitchell)
Guest stars
Production
Writer Robert Shearman
Director Joe Ahearne
Script editor Helen Raynor
Producer Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s) Russell T. Davies
Julie Gardner
Mal Young
Series Series 1
Length 45 minutes
Originally broadcast April 30, 2005
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
"World War Three" "The Long Game"
IMDb profile

"Dalek" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on April 30, 2005. It should not be confused with the first Dalek serial, The Daleks. This episode is the first appearance of Bruno Langley as companion Adam Mitchell.

The episode is set in Utah in the year 2012, in the underground bunker of Henry van Statten, a billionaire collector of alien artifacts. After one of his exhibits, the "Metaltron" escapes, the Doctor races against time to stop it from surfacing and wreaking havoc against humanity.

Contents

Plot

The TARDIS is drawn off course by a distress signal, and materialises in a bunker in Utah, 2012. The Doctor and Rose find that the bunker is a museum, full of alien artifacts. As the Doctor muses that he's getting old, he sets off an alarm and is immediately surrounded.

They are taken to see the owner of the Vault — Henry van Statten, a billionaire collector of alien artifacts. Impressed of the Doctor's ability to identify one such artifact, he invites the Doctor to see the "Metaltron", a creature he purports to be the last of its kind. The Doctor enters the Cage, where the creature is held, and begins to speak to it, until he realises to his horror that it is a Dalek. He then taunts the Dalek about it being the last of its kind, and attempts to kill him until van Statten's guards prevent him. The Doctor is told that it was found in a crater fifty years previously, and he subsequently concludes that Dalek fell through time.

Meanwhile, Adam is showing Rose around the base. Adam shows her the Dalek, and they see one of the technicians torturing the Dalek to force it to speak. Rose asks to be taken down to the Cage to stop him. There, Rose talks to the Dalek, which is feigning haplessness. In sympathy, Rose touches the Dalek casing, which immediately absorbs her DNA. It escapes from its cage and downloads the entire internet, draining electricity from the West Coast. In response, the area is evacuated, and guards focus fire upon it - however, the Dalek absorbs these bullets and exterminates everyone. Travelling upwards, it encounters another squad, which it takes care with two shots; one electrifies the water, the second collapses a walkway. It demands to speak to the Doctor, and tells it that it was able to regenerate its casing, but was unable to find any other Daleks or orders, and will therefore follow the default function: destruction.

Van Statten manages to restore power to the bulkheads temporarily. The Doctor tries to stall to save Adam and Rose, but the power fails. Adam manages to get over in time, but Rose does not, and over her "superphone", the Doctor hears the Dalek's cry. Disbelieving, he blames van Statten for everyone's deaths, including Rose. However, the Dalek has not killed Rose - it is hesitant due to absorbing Rose's DNA. It contacts the Doctor, saying that he will kill her if the bulkheads are not opened. Defeated, the Doctor opens the bulkhead, and follows Adam to a secret weapons cache. The Dalek reaches van Statten's office, and is about to kill him before Rose intervenes and offers the Dalek its wish; freedom.

On the highest level, the Dalek creates a hole and feels sunlight for the first time. The Doctor arrives, gun in hand, and orders Rose to move. Rose refuses - the Dalek is changing, as it could not kill her or van Statten. Appaled at his own actions, he lowers his weapon. Both he and the Dalek realise that the Dalek is mutating further, and is becoming unable to conform to the Dalek objective. It asks Rose to order its death, and after being given the order, annilihates itself.

After the crisis is averted, Goddard orders van Statten's mind wiped and the vault filled with cement. At the TARDIS, the Doctor ruefully observes that as the last survivor of the Time War, he "wins". Adam comes by, telling the Doctor that Goddard is sealing the base. Rose invites Adam aboard the TARDIS, which he enters with a puzzled expression before it dematerialises.

Continuity

The Dalek ability to fly or hover dates back to The Chase, where a Dalek was implied to have taken flight[1], while in Revelation of the Daleks, a Dalek hovered to exterminate two victims, and in Remembrance of the Daleks, a Dalek was clearly seen to hover up stairs[2]. Rose and Adam allude to a long-held fan joke about the Daleks inability to climb stairs, and are horrified when it does so.[3][4][5]

The call sign for van Statten's personal helicopter was "Bad Wolf One", a recurrent phrase throughout the first series. The scene at the start is used in "Bad Wolf", where Rose recalls where she had encountered the phrase before.[6]

Production

Rob Shearman's first encounter with the revived series of Doctor Who came in 2003 after he created the Sixth Doctor audio Jubilee. Executive producer Russell T Davies drew heavily on Jubilee to create "Return of the Daleks" for his pitch to the BBC, a story which Davies hoped to recreate the menace shown by the Daleks in their 1963 debut The Daleks. The adventure changed the setting from the alternate Earth in Jubilee to 2010 Utah, with the lone Dalek featured being held captive by a billionaire called Will Fences, a caricature of Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates.[7]

The script went through several changes. The story itself was initially called "Creature of Lies", and Van Statten was originally called Mr Duchesne. For a short period of time, Adam was van Statten's son, but Shearman decided against it. The most notable change to the script happened when the Nation estate, holders of the rights for the Daleks, blocked the use of the Daleks due to the BBC licensing them out too much. The changed story, named "Absence of the Daleks", contained an alien akin to a child who kills for pleasure, which eventually evolved into the the Toclafane from "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords".[8] Fortunately, the BBC were able to secure the rights from the Nation estate, and at the same time gave the episode its final name, "Dalek".[7]

The episode was placed in the third production block, along with "Father's Day" and "The Long Game", the latter taken out due to delays in special effects creation. The episode's placement in the series was intentional so as to stave off the inevitable mid-series drop in viewership, although the BBC suggested that the episode be the premiere. Filming of the episode began on 25 October 2004 at the National Museum Cardiff, before moving to the Millennium Stadium the following day, where most of the episode was filmed. Most of the filming finished on 3 November 2004, with pick-up shots completed at the show's studio space in Newport throughout the remainder of the month.[7]

Broadcast, reception and release

Before the broadcast, media watchdog organisation mediawatch-uk (the successor to Mary Whitehouse's National Viewers' and Listeners' Association) complained about certain elements of the episode, characterising Van Statten's chaining and invasive scan of the Doctor as a "sado-masochistic" torture scene. Mediawatch also objected to Van Statten's invitation to Adam and Rose to "canoodle or spoon, or whatever you Brits do" as inappropriate sexual language.[9]

Reception to the episode was positive. The episode's overnight ratings was 8.73 million viewers, 46% of the audience share, a figure that was finalised to 8.64 million viewers.[10][11] The Times stated that the episode was an "unqualified triumph". The London Evening Standard found the lack of surprise (namely, calling the episode "Dalek") the only disappointment, while The Mirror simply stated it was "for 30 pant shittingly wonderful minutes, BBC1's new Doctor Who was the best thing on telly. Ever."[12]

The episode was nominated for the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form; the episodes "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" won. "Dalek" topped the second place category in terms of votes.[13]

References

  1. ^ The Chase. Writer Terry Nation, Directors Richard Martin, Douglas Camfield, Producers Verity Lambert. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1965-05-22-1965-06-26.
  2. ^ Remembrance of the Daleks. Writer Ben Aaronovitch, Directors Andrew Morgan, John Nathan-Turner (uncredited), Producer John Nathan-Turner. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1988-10-05-1988-10-26.
  3. ^ Birkett, Peter. "Well, this certainly buggers our plan to conquer the Universe.", Punch, 1981-08-05. Retrieved on 2006-12-01. 
  4. ^ Dippold, Ron (1992-02-06). Federal Department of Transportation Bulletin #92–132 (USENET post). alt.fan.warlord. Google Groups. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
  5. ^ Heath, Ben (2005-12-08). Best records, 2001–2005. dtweekend. Daily Texan. Retrieved on 2007-01-15.
  6. ^ "Bad Wolf". Writer Russell T. Davies, Director Joe Ahearne, Producer Phil Collinson. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One, Cardiff. 2005-06-11.
  7. ^ a b c Sullivan, Shannon. "Dalek". Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel). Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
  8. ^ "Unspecified" (22 August 2007). Doctor Who Magazine (385). 
  9. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2005-04-25). Weekend Series Coverage. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.
  10. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2005-05-01). Dalek Overnight Ratings. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.
  11. ^ Lyon, Shaun (2005-05-13). Mid-week Series update. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.
  12. ^ Lyon, Shaun; et al. (2005-05-01). Saturday Series Press Roundup. Outpost Gallifrey. Retrieved on 2008-01-26.
  13. ^ Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. 2006 Hugo Award & Campbell Award Winners (2006-08-26). Retrieved on 2006-08-28.

External links

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First Doctor
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See also