Into the Dalek (TV story)

 was the second episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales, and marked the Twelfth Doctor's first encounter with the Daleks. Danny Pink is also introduced in this episode, as well as his background of being an ex-soldier. However, he doesn't interact with the Doctor until The Caretaker. Also making his first appearance is Coal Hill School headmaster Mr. Armitage, who would be a recurring character in Doctor Who and its spin-off Class.

Featuring the Doctor and Clara leading a miniaturised team inside a Dalek, this story originated as a pitch by Steven Moffat for a Doctor Who video game before deciding to save the idea for an episode, handing it over to Phil Ford. (DOC: Into the Dalek)

The episode explores the Doctor questioning whether or not he is a "good man", which would be a recurring theme addressed in Series 8.

The episode also shows the Doctor's first encounter with the Daleks three weeks after he regenerated, but more importantly from the Doctor's point of view after the 900-year siege on Trenzalore, as the Doctor's hatred for the Daleks is shown to have intensified because of Trenzalore.

Synopsis
Surrounded by his greatest enemies, the newest Doctor will journey into the most dangerous place in all of the universe. With the limits of his compassion being tested, the Doctor will be forced to ask a question about himself that he doesn't know: "Am I a good man?"

Plot
Journey Blue's ship is being shot at by a Dalek ship, and her brother Kai is unconscious. As it explodes, she appears in the TARDIS console room. The Doctor explains that he materialised around her just at the instant of the explosion, saving her. Her brother, however, was already dead. She points her gun at the Doctor, demanding that he take her back to her command ship, the Aristotle. He waits for her to ask nicely before complying. The TARDIS materialises and they step outside.

The pair walk onto the Aristotle, a base for Combined Galactic Resistance, the Galaxy's united front against the Daleks. The other soldiers are grateful for the Doctor for saving journey, but plan to kill him regardless, to maintain the security of their location (out of paranoia that he may be a Dalek spy). Journey points out that they have need of a physician, however.

Journey's uncle, Colonel Morgan Blue, takes the Doctor to a dying Dalek — later nicknamed Rusty — that they have managed to capture. At first the Doctor is uninterested in helping the creature, until stunned when the Dalek voices its desire to slaughter the rest of its own kind!

Meanwhile, at Coal Hill School, a new Maths teacher, Danny Pink, a war veteran, meets with some students, the Coal Hill Cadet Squad, in the courtyard. Clara Oswald and he briefly catch each other's eye. Later, Danny is ending a class when one of his students asks if he has ever killed anyone. The rest of the students groan, and Danny implies that as a soldier, he may have killed enemy soldiers. The student persists by asking if he ever killed anyone who was not a soldier. Danny does not answer, but a lone tear appears in his eye as he dismisses class. Sometime later, Danny is introduced to Clara, one of his fellow teachers. She recalls having seen him in the yard earlier. She then asks if he is going to another colleague's event later, which he indicates that he is not. Having awkwardly turned down her subsequent invitation for a drink, he verbally berates himself later once he has returned to his classroom. Unbeknownst to him, Clara has overheard him. Given another chance, he now accepts her invitation to have a drink.

Returning to her office, Clara discovers the Doctor standing there with the takeaway coffee she sent him for three weeks ago. The Doctor claims he needs Clara's help urgently, explaining the situation on the way. He then takes the liberty of asking her to tell him — as honestly as she can — if she thinks he is a good man, to which she answers that she does not know.

Back on the Aristotle, the Doctor explains that a malfunction that is also killing it has given the Dalek a conscience and he, fascinated by the idea, has agreed to help it. The group, consisting of the Doctor, Clara, Journey and two other rebel soldiers (Ross and Gretchen), are shrunk down: they are inserted into the Dalek through its eyestalk and begin exploring the upper levels.

The Doctor takes the liberty of introducing the group to Rusty's artificial memory drive which filters out good memories and reinforces bad ones, calling it "evil refined and turned into a machine". The Doctor then asks Rusty what made it turn on its own kind. It turns out that it witnessed the birth of a star, which made it realise the futility of the Daleks' mission of destruction.

Realizing that they have to go down, Ross sets up a zip line which inadvertently damages Rusty's body and triggers the release of antibodies. Realizing that he cannot save Ross, the Doctor has him swallow a pill that allows him to track where the antibodies store his obliterated remains so that they can hide there. From there the group makes its way to the lower regions where they find the batteries.

Discovering a crack in one of the batteries that is leaking deadly radiation that is both killing Rusty and now them, the Doctor seals it off. Now that Rusty is fixed, it immediately returns to its programming and begins slaughtering the station's soldiers. Clara notes, however, that some part of the Doctor is actually pleased. She says that this has justified his belief that there is no such thing as a "good" Dalek.

Journey and Clara are furious with the Doctor's apathy, causing Clara to slap him hard — and points out to him that what they have learned is not that there is no such thing as a good Dalek, but that it is possible. Inspired by Clara's words, the Doctor instructs her, Gretchen, and Journey to make their way back to the memory drive and try to restore Rusty's memories of the star while he tries to reason with Rusty.

Gretchen sacrifices herself to set up a zipline to get Clara and Journey to the memory core while she fends off the antibodies coming after them. Dying from the antibodies, Gretchen finds herself in Heaven, where introduces herself and offers her tea. Meanwhile, Rusty calls for backup from the Dalek fleet and plots to join in their slaughter of the rebels.

Clara is able to deduce how Rusty's memory core works and reactivates all of his suppressed memories. The Doctor, meanwhile, is able to form a psychic link with Rusty and transfer memories to him. However, instead of simply reawakening its good side, Rusty is inspired by the Doctor's own "Divine Hatred" of the Daleks to instead try to wipe out the rest of its kind, whom it once again sees as evil.

Rusty destroys the rest of the Daleks on the station and the Doctor, Clara and Journey are returned to their proper size. Rusty has broadcast a retreat signal to the rest of the Daleks, falsely indicating the Humans' (completely fictional) intention to set the station to self-destruct. Rusty leaves to rejoin its kind, stating it will continue to work against them.

Before it goes Rusty disagrees with the Doctor's assessment that there is no such thing as a good Dalek: it says that the Doctor himself is a good Dalek. The Doctor also views it as something of a hollow victory: the Dalek looked into his soul and saw nothing but hatred.

Journey attempts to see the Doctor off when he abruptly begins to depart. She wishes to join him on the TARDIS as a companion, but the Doctor turns her down. While he recognises the good in her under the battle-hardened exterior, he just wishes that she wasn't a soldier. Journey watches with a subdued smile as the Doctor and Clara leave.

Clara is returned to Coal Hill School 30 seconds after the Doctor had picked her up, changing into new clothes in the meantime for her evening with Danny. As she leaves, she at last answers the Doctor's question about whether or not he is a good man — while she cannot say for sure that he is a good man, he tries to be one, which is the important thing. This somewhat reassures the Doctor. She joins Danny for their date, trying not to adopt the Doctor's policy against soldiers.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Journey Blue - Zawe Ashton
 * Colonel Morgan Blue - Michael Smiley
 * Danny Pink - Samuel Anderson
 * Gretchen - Laura Dos Santos
 * Ross - Ben Crompton
 * Fleming - Bradley Ford
 * School Secretary - Michelle Morris
 * Mr Armitage - Nigel Betts
 * Courtney - Ellis George
 * Dalek - Barnaby Edwards
 * Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

Uncredited cast

 * - Michelle Gomez

Story notes

 * The conclusion of this story is similar to the conclusion of the Big Finish audio story Jubilee, where a lone Dalek notices the error of its comrades and stops an invasion, and Journey's End, in which the time-warped Dalek Caan ensured that the defeat of Davros' Reality Bomb plot would always happen.
 * While this is the Twelfth Doctor's first proper encounter with the Daleks, he had previously appeared briefly in both the episodes The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor, which also featured the Daleks.
 * Footage of the extermination of security guard Bywater in Dalek and the Dalek attack on the Valiant in The Stolen Earth is seen in "Rusty's" Dalek memories, and the destruction of the Daleks and the Crucible in Journey's End is seen when Rusty looks into the Doctor's mind.
 * When the Dalek states, "Spare no humans", a rather obvious use of 12" RC asylum Daleks are seen to be in use. This is recognisable because their ears are of a different colour to the actual props (slightly blueish) and their backs don't look right. They are also seen emerging into the human ship on the bridge when they say, "Seek, locate, destroy, surrender is not accepted."
 * This is the first episode since The Waters of Mars to have two credited writers. Like The Waters of Mars, it is co-written by Phil Ford and the show's head writer (then Russell T Davies, now Steven Moffat).
 * This is the first full episode since part one of The End of Time in 2009 to not feature an appearance from Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, and the first episode since Nightmare in Silver to feature a single incarnation of the Doctor.
 * Rachel Talalay directed Missy's scene because Ben Wheatley was unavailable.
 * According to Lance Parkin's Whoniverse: An Unofficial Planet-By-Planet Guide to the Universe of the Doctor, from Gallifrey to Skaro, the script for Into the Dalek specifies that the story takes place in the 31st century.

Ratings
7.29 million (DWM 479)

Filming locations

 * Holton Primary School, Barry, Wales - Coal Hill School

Production errors

 * A bouncing cushion is visible inside the remains of an exploding Dalek.

Continuity

 * The Doctor greets Clara with the coffee he got in Glasgow, three weeks late; he claims to have been "distracted". (TV: Deep Breath)
 * Clara is still getting used to the new Doctor following his regeneration. (TV: The Time of the Doctor, Deep Breath)
 * The Doctor states that morgues are easy to break out of. The Eighth Doctor previously broke out of a morgue shortly after his regeneration. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Colonel Blue suspects the Doctor of being a Dalek duplicate. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
 * As revealed by the Doctor, Daleks feed on protein, occasionally harvesting it from their victims. Davros previously converted the bodies on Tranquil Repose which were not used to create loyal Daleks, into a synthetic protein food source. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) Conversely, the original Daleks of Skaro were also shown to subsist on vegetative matter that is pulped and transformed into a gas that is absorbed through their intake valves. (COMIC: City of the Daleks)
 * Inside the Dalek, the Doctor says he works better under pressure. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
 * "Rusty" tells the Doctor that he is a "good Dalek". The "Metaltron" encountered by the Ninth Doctor previously told him that he "would make a good Dalek." (TV: Dalek)
 * Rusty sees the destruction of numerous Daleks and also the Crucible when looking into the Doctor's mind. (TV: Journey's End)
 * This is not in fact the first time the Doctor has encountered the use of shrinking for medical purposes. At that time, clones of the Fourth Doctor and Leela were miniaturised and injected into the Doctor himself, where they also had to fight off antibodies. (TV: The Invisible Enemy)
 * The miniaturisation technique used to enter Rusty is not unlike that of the Teselecta. The Dalek also houses defensive antibodies just as the Teselecta did. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * The Sixth Doctor met a Dalek that notices an error in the Dalek race, with his then-companion Evelyn Smythe helping the Dalek to find this. (AUDIO: Jubilee)
 * Rusty's epiphany concerning his people and its adamance that the Daleks must be destroyed mirrors that of Dalek Caan after he lost his mind following his breaking of the time-lock. (TV: Journey's End)
 * The Second Doctor once made "good Daleks" by converting them with the Human Factor, even giving them names. Due to the introduction of human thought processes, they questioned the other Daleks, leading to a riot after which the Daleks were destroyed. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
 * The Doctor again expresses a dislike for soldiers. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, etc.)
 * Clara is still teaching at Coal Hill School. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, Deep Breath)
 * Journey refers to the TARDIS as being "smaller on the outside". The Victorian splinter of Clara was the first to make that remark. (TV: The Snowmen) The Doctor tells Journey it's much more exciting when experienced the other way around. (TV: An Unearthly Child, The Three Doctors, etc.) Donna Noble also first encountered the TARDIS from within, and then marvelled at its external dimensions. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * The Doctor recalls his first encounter with the Daleks on Skaro, (TV: The Daleks) and comments on how that experience shaped his identity. In his seventh incarnation, he believed in his darkest thoughts that he was responsible for the Daleks actions because they didn't know of other worlds before he came to Skaro. (AUDIO: the Lights of Skaro)
 * Rusty somewhat mingles the ideas of beauty and hatred, a similar comment having been made by the Prime Minister of the Daleks. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
 * After Gretchen is apparently killed by the Dalek antibodies, she encounters, who welcomes her to "Heaven". (TV: Deep Breath)
 * Despite her request, the Doctor refuses to allow Journey Blue to travel with him, much as he did when Lady Christina de Souza asked the same. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
 * Danny Pink retiring from the army and teaching maths mirrors what Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart did upon retiring from UNIT. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)
 * The Doctor berates Ross with, "You idiot!" after he uses a weapon to act without thinking and jeopardises everyone else's safety. The Eleventh Doctor did the same to when Lieutenant Stepashin used a cattle prod on Grand Marshall Skaldak. (TV: Cold War)
 * The "Break the Silence" poster about school bullying that appeared outside the headmaster's office in Leadworth also appears on the wall in the supply closet behind the Doctor. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
 * The recently regenerated Doctor is seen questioning his morality. Right before the Sixth Doctor's conscious identity of who he was and what he stood for faded out of existence after inducing his own regeneration, he decided to let go of his moral restraints and hesitations, giving rise to the much more manipulative Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: The Brink of Death, TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) The Eighth Doctor took this a step further and let go of the name of the Doctor to become a warrior, regenerating into the aggressive and uncompromising War Doctor (TV: The Night of the Doctor, PROSE: Engines of War, The Day of the Doctor) who no longer made promises to people. (COMIC: Four Doctors). After forgetting how he saved Gallifrey, the Ninth Doctor showed a higher level of aggression and darkness than his predecessors. (TV: Rose-The Parting of the Ways, COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction) Similarly, the Tenth Doctor turned unwilling to give anyone second chances shortly after regenerating. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
 * Rusty has access to memories experienced by other Daleks. All Dalek memories, knowledge and experiences are linked through Pathweb, the shared intelligence of the Daleks. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)

DVD releases

 * Doctor Who: Series 8 Boxset

Blu-ray releases

 * Doctor Who: Series 8 Blu-ray Boxset

Digital releases

 * The episode was released on Google Play, iTunes and Amazon Instant Video in HD or SD, also available as part of the Series 8 digital boxset. The digital boxset contains various features: trailer, interviews, The Ultimate Companion, The Ultimate Time Lord, Inside the World Tour and Doctor Who Extra episodes for each episode.
 * In the US, the series was released through digital streaming services Hulu and Netflix with a subscription.