Doctor Who - Into The Dalek Review

And so we are immediately catapulted into another week of high expectations. These high expectations, yet again, were met.

This week saw a Dalek story unlike any we've seen before - one which shows a morally self questioning monster. Well, two, actually. And that's what's looking so good about the new series - we are getting a Doctor whose character is more complicated than we've seen for a long time, and as he begins to explore that character, we see him partaking in morally complex and mature stories. This is something Doctor Who has needed for a long time and is finally getting. Capaldi's performance suits this perfectly and was yet again breath-taking.

This episode also included some brilliant visuals and music which gave it a feel of a "classic" story. This feel lead to the approaching Dalek army actually feeling slightly more intimidating than in some more recent episodes. I also discovered that I may have been wrong about "The Doctor's Theme" as to what it actually was as the only recurring new theme to occur was different. It was still very fitting to Capaldi's Doctor but we'll see how that develops.

Danny Pink made his debut in this episode and as of yet I am unsure what to think of him. I think episode 4, entitled "Listen" will show us enough of his character to make a proper judgement, but until then he has left a good enough impression.

Ok, so here's where I get to be nitpicky. Two minor issues that didn't really affect my enjoyment but may start to get annoying if they carry on happening.

1) 45 minutes isn't long enough - loads of shows get an hour, and that would be perfect for Doctor Who. 45 minutes means we compromise on nice little extra details which pad the world of the show out a bit more, and 45 minutes also means that we can only focus on one main theme or character development. This leads me onto my next point...

2) The show seems to be becoming slightly self-aware - I don't like it when this happens. It doesn't ruin anything, it just makes me think...well..."meh". We seem to have a "debate of the week" thing going on on twitter which I hope isn't an aim of the writers. Sherlock went in this direction last series. I hope Doctor Who doesn't.

That said, the ideas, themes, tone, characters, acting and overall story of this series is making these 12 weeks look like the best ever for Doctor Who, and I have been thoroughly reassured that this is the case by this week's excellent episode.

8.5/10

Next week Clara meets Robin Hood, whom the Doctor thinks can't exist...