No one can accuse DOCTOR WHO of ever being original . Sydney Newman created the show by stealing the premise of a novel by HG Wells titled THE TIME MACHINE and the rest is history . Over the years the show has stolen homages from other influences . Pulp horror was a favourite of the mid Troughton and early Tom Baker periods while early Pertwee owed a lot to QUATERMASS and these eras was when the classic show was at its very best so it's not a complaint in any way
Certainly Into The Dalek can't be described as being original . It borrows a lot from FANTASTIC VOYAGE an enjoyable 1966 film featuring miniaturization in its central plot . This was remade by DOCTOR WHO eleven years later as The Invisible Enemy . In fact miniaturization had been done before in Carnival Of Monsters from 1973 . Add to this a lone Dalek prisoner from the NuWho story Dalek from 2005 and internecine Dalek warfare stretching back all the way to Evil Of The Daleks from 1967 and you've got something that gives deja vu a bad name . Some younger fans might enjoy all this because to them it will seem " new " and iconoclastic but to the older cynical eye some new ideas might be in order
Where the episode succeeds at is on two levels . First of all we have Daleks doing what they do best , moving forward screeching " EXTERMINATE " as they blast any human unfortunate enough to get in their way , devoid of any gimmickry as we've recently seen such as the Fatleks . Secondly we've got a new incarnation of the Doctor in the shape of Capaldi who is a million miles away from Matt Smith as it's possible to be . Capaldi is a superb cross between the alien fourth Doctor played by Tom Baker and the angst ridden eighth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston . This Doctor is instantly compelling . He may have human form but is far from human and his cold uncaring reaction to a death of a supporting character is somewhat shocking
The problem with this portrayal is that he's so good that the rest of the characters make little impression with this viewer . Worse still is that a lot of the running time is taken up by events at Coal Hill School . Watching these scenes play out with Danny and Clara with their possibly blooming romance feels like the channel has switched over to an early evening weekday soap opera and totally fails to gel and is totally jarring . As with last weeks episode with the dreadful Patermoster Gang my attention wandered when the Doctor wasn't on screen
Not to be too negative I did enjoy this episode for the most part and with this older and darker Doctor I find myself looking forward to Saturday evenings which isn't something that has happened since the RTD era , and yes I did get the " Rusty " joke . I do hope that Capaldi doesn't have to carry the show single handed and we get stronger material for him because he could be the best Doctor the show has ever had