Doctor Who

Episode Report Card
Jacob Clifton: C | 1856 USERS: C+
YOU GRADE IT
K.B.O.

Ridiculous situation, descending into heavy-handed drama, for the illusion of story. Check: "Call them what you like, the Daleks are death!" They talk about how yes, that's true, but only insofar as they are death to our enemies, and the forces of darkness, and the Third Reich, and tile scum, and whatever else. It offers him tea again, and he screams at it some more, and they're like, "We just want to win the war!" Okay, now we're getting somewhere. "This war? Against the Nazis? Or your war? The war against the rest of the Universe? The war against all life-forms that are not Dalek?" It doesn't get it, and nobody else understands why he's being so weird. "You do not require tea?" it screams, in that voice, and he goes full-on.

The Doctor bashes the thing again and again, and yells at it to fight back, and everybody's freaking out, and there's spit flying all around, boom boom boom. "What are you waiting for? You hate me. You want to kill me. Well, go on! Kill me. Kill me!" It begs him to stop, promising it's only his soldier. "You are my enemy! And I am yours! You are everything I despise! The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again, I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void! I saved the whole of reality from you! I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks!"

Everything changes. "Correct. Review testimony." It plays his words back, and suddenly he gets very confused. His rage is replaced by fear. And up on the ship, the Dalek rejoice. "Receiving testimony now. I am the Doctor! And you are the Daleks! Progenitor activated. Testimony accepted! Testimony accepted! Testimony accepted!"

Okay, so essentially they were counting on the fact that his ongoing hate and fear -- deserved or not; which although that erases every story we've seen about them, when they were constantly showing they could be more, do more, think better, still does make sense -- would give them what they wanted. He defines himself against them, and thus defines them. He creates evil, or is the messenger/tool that allows evil to create itself. Very high-level, if treated in the most primary-color simplicity imaginable, but still smart. Which makes it suck worse that this is when the story really starts to get dumb.

Doctor Who

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