Doctor Whoand the Deconstruction of the Daleks

Tonight ’s Doctor Who episode continues the show ’s late trend of deconstruct the Daleks , his armored “ space Nazi ” adversary . And just like with the recent “ Asylum of the Daleks ” and “ Into the Dalek , ” we discover that Dalek nature is both distressing and more complicated than we ’d previously consider .

Spoilers ahead …

At the kernel of “ The Witch ’s Familiar ” is two place we ’ve seen before : 1 ) The Doctor utter to Davros , the huffy scientist who created the Daleks , and they consider the ethic of survival and whether the Daleks are a force for good or evil . 2 ) The Doctor ’s comrade go up inside an empty Dalek casing to pose one of the metal prick , so as to pull in off some kind of captive - and - accompaniment ruse . But the episode turn both of these scenario sideways .

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In both scenario , the original estimate was more or less game - based . The Doctor attempt to shape Davros not to go forrad with the creation of the Daleks , or to put a stop to some other malevolent outline before it ’s too later . And the companion usually climb inside the Dalek to escape , or to rescue somebody . But this time around , these tropes are primarily used for their thematic note value . And the theme that ’s being explore , most of all , is compassionateness , the omit factor in Dalek psychological science .

Davros tempts the Doctor first with revenge, then with kindness

Davros , on the verge of death , seems to be fascinated by the Doctor ’s capacity for compassion , which work out to be the real reason why the Doctor has gone to see his old enemy . Yes , the Doctor feel badly about leaving Kid Davros on the Skaro battlefield to die out — to emphasise this , we see his nightmare / flashback of Kid Davros when he ’s knock unconscious at one point . But the main reason the Doctor settle to ( in essence ) shed his life away to go visit Davros was because “ you were queasy , and you asked , ” he says at one point . The Doctor ca n’t help oneself but care about someone who ’s in distress , even if it ’s the source of the greatest evil in the macrocosm .

And Davros plays on the Doctor ’s benignity , necessitate to see the Doctor with his existent eye ( the ones that have never open before , as long as we ’ve seen Davros ) . And he asks the Doctor if he ’s a good human beings , something the Doctor intelligibly ca n’t give an dependable answer to . Finally , Davros offers the Doctor a fortune to destroy all of the Daleks on Skaro , using the cables that keep Davros alert by connecting him to the lifeforce of every individual Dalek . This is distinctly a trap , but also Davros seems genuinely singular to see if the Dr. will choose to put genocide in insensate blood .

At this detail in the story , the Doctor still thinks the Daleks have exterminated Missy and Clara , and destroyed the TARDIS . He ’s even proceed on a desperate mission to confront the Daleks , in Davros ’ own chair , to try and hold them accountable or force them to disclose that Clara is somehow still alive . But he still never even seems to study Davros ’ offering of a opportunity to wipe out a whole planetfull of Daleks .

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But when Davros manipulates the Doctor into cerebrate that he ’s about to die out without seeing one last cockcrow , and this is tragical and awful , the Doctor does n’t even hesitate before prove to give Davros a jolt of his Time Lord regeneration energy , to pep him up so he can stay alive a picayune longer . ( lease ’s not get into how many other people have been at death ’s door over the old age , whom the Doctor chose not to help in this way . It ’s a story . Whatever . ) And then , of course , Davros leap his trap and the Doctor is suddenly being drained of all his regeneration push to plow the Daleks into top-notch Time Lord - Dalek hybrids . ( Did anybody else depict Klaus from Vampire Diaries and The master when Davros was speak about this ? It does n’t serve that Klaus always talks a act like old school day Michael Wisher Davros . )

So all the Daleks become top-notch - Daleks , and the Doctor is only bring through from being drained altogether by Missy ’s intervention . But then , not astonishingly , it turns out the Doctor has call on the table and Davros gets destroy by his own trap . Because under the Dalek city is a ton of “ sewers , ” where the rotting remains of honest-to-god Daleks are kept . Daleks are unable to die out , so even after they ’ve started to liquidize , they ’re still alive and angry . And the Doctor ’s regeneration energy also goes into those poopy previous Daleks , who decide to take their revenge on the rest of the Daleks , apparently destroy them all . ( Although at the end of the episode , Missy run into a few survivor and tells them she has a apt thought . )

So the Doctor was n’t uncoerced to put down all the Daleks directly — even if Davros ’ crack was n’t an obvious trap — but he ’s perfectly willing to trick them into destruct themselves . This is sort of a Doctor Who trope . He wo n’t commit slaying ( usually ) but he ’ll happily dress things up so that mass ’s own unsound conduct causes their destruction . He ’ll save citizenry , but he wo n’t save them from themselves . ( See : “ Remembrance of the Daleks , ” where he has admission to a fancy tops - weapon that could easy wipe out the Daleks in seconds , but he insist on setting up a complicated schema so that the Daleks will attempt to expend the super - weapon and ruin themselves . It has to be Their Own Fault . )

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And of form , this is also the Doctor ’s way of winning the usual “ compassionateness is a impuissance / no it ’s not ” argument , which he has originally in the installment with Davros . The Doctor ’s compassion ( with a huge pane of cunning sundry in ) wrench out to be a Brobdingnagian strength , if not a deadly artillery .

That this storyline work as well as it does is jolly much entirely down to Peter Capaldi , who is in rarefied form this time around . He portrays the Doctor ’s desperate grief over Clara ’s “ death ” and his willingness to open up to Davros with a fierce humanity , and he makes every conversation with Davros seem to count . Given some really off - kelter material , he basically represent his hearts out .

Inside the Dalek

And meanwhile , there ’s the Missy - Clara coupling , which is even more fun ( and interesting ) this time around than in last week ’s first part .

Clara spends almost the whole episode off her game , thanks to Missy first draw her up , then stuff her into a sewer , and finally maneuver her inside a Dalek . Missy taunts Clara with her pointy marijuana cigarette and her innuendo of quasi - cannibalism , but also teaches her and keeps using her as a kind of decipherer ring for the Doctor .

And the episode ’s opening chronological succession is all about Clara figuring out just why it is that the Doctor always survives mortal state of affairs ( like the one Missy describes , where he ’s being hunted by killer mechanical man and his teleporter is out of top executive . ) It ’s because the Doctor always knows he ’s run short to win — or more precisely , he always knows there ’s a way out of every berth .

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This is fairly much what the Doctor severalize Kid Davros at the beginning of last week ’s sequence — even if there ’s only a one - in - a - thousand chance , that one chance is all you need . The Doctor ’s main crime , the episode continue hinting , is not just that he abandoned Davros to his fate ( because Davros did survive ) , but that he offered Davros a vision of hope and resourcefulness , and then cruelly snatched it away . And now , Missy hints that the Doctor ( having deprived Kid Davros of this sense that there ’s always a means to win ) is now bereft of it himself , because he made a will and threw himself a auf wiedersehen party before belong to Skaro .

If that impression that there ’s always a room to survive is what makes the Doctor the Doctor , then their emotional limitations are what delineate the Daleks . We already see in last year ’s “ Into the Dalek ” that the kill machines have a machine inside them that forestall them from accessing all their memories or convey a full cooking stove of feeling . And now , when Clara gets inside a Dalek ( at full size of it this time ) , she get to experience what that ’s like .

or else of just impersonate a Dalek , Clara sort of becomes a Dalek , thanks to a kind of neuronic user interface . And she finds that when she say something like “ I love you , ” or “ You are different than me , ” it becomes “ Exterminate . ” Also , she ca n’t say her name — anything about her own identity she pronounce becomes “ I am a Dalek . ” And Missy joyously place out that all of Clara ’s rage and frustration is what fires her Dalek hit man — saying “ Exterminate ” is a way of reloading .

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It ’s nerveless that the Daleks are get back to their source as creatures of unadulterated hate and anger , after some stories over the geezerhood where they were plow a bit more like killer robots . ( front at you , “ Destiny of the Daleks . ” ) Where Russell T. Davies tended to fix on the racism inherent in their premise — the Daleks see all other live thing as inferior and pry the pureness of their own genome above all else — Steven Moffat has tended to fix on the Daleks as emotionally stunt mathematical product of war . ( Although the whimsey that “ You are unlike than me ” translate to “ Exterminate ” is kind of double-dyed . )

Clara is trapped inside this Dalek , being led around by Missy , and then she comes face to look with the Doctor , who ’s just triumph over Davros . And Missy tries to convert the Doctor that Clara is dead and that the Dalek in front of him ( which in reality is Clara ) is the one that killed her . The Doctor actually seems tempted to germinate Clara for a minute , because she keep shouting “ I am a Dalek ” and “ Exterminate , ” in a futile attack to communicate .

But , just as the Doctor triumphs over Davros by having pity ( that only becomes a Trojan horse when it ’s misused ) , Clara is saved because she ’s able to make the Dalek say “ Mercy . ” This is such an un - Dalek affair to say that it tips off the medico that something is messed up here , and then he helps Clara to get out of the Dalek . ( This scene sort of play like a mirror of the coming of 2005 ’s “ Dalek ” where the Doctor is quick to shoot a Dalek until Rose intervenes , and then it opens up its casing to look at the sun . )

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As with the Doctor have the opportunity to vote out Davros as a minor , and after to pass over out the Daleks in one go , the matter where the Clara - Dalek say “ Mercy ” is a callback to “ Genesis of the Daleks , ” the very first Davros story from 1975 .

In “ Genesis , ” the Daleks wrick against their creator , and just before they ( obviously ) kill him , he beg them , “ Have pity . ” To which they respond , “ Pi - ty ? I have no understanding of the news . It is not registered in my vocabulary bank . ” So this episode turns that approximation on its head — because Clara would n’t be able to make the Dalek say “ mercy ” if it did n’t already have that Son in its vocabulary money box .

This helps the Doctor to realize that just as compassion was the better choice than retaliation in that scenario with Davros , he can pick out to do something better than just bequeath Kid Davros alone in the minefield , back in the past . So the Doctor zips back to the time before the Daleks and helps Davros escape the minefield , so he can introduce the young Davros pointedly to the concept of mercy . And then Davros can somehow inculcate that concept into the Daleks , leading to Clara being able-bodied to say the intelligence and deliver herself . So it ’s a big timey wimey set — but also , it shows once again that kindness is more effective than hate .

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So now we know this season’s big idea

Last time of year , by now , we had a somewhat unspoiled mind that people close to the Doctor were dying and going to “ Heaven ” to meet Missy . And now , we have a passably good melodic theme what this yr ’s boastful over - arching mystery plot line will be , too .

The Doctor pointedly refuses to say what ’s on his “ Confession Dial , ” which is some form of mash - up of will - and - testament and final confessional . Is there another crime that the Doctor require to get off his chest , after the Time War ? Davros seems to think it ’s something to do with the real reason why the Doctor left Gallifrey , all those centuries ago . And it connects up , somehow , with this Gallifreyan vaticination that predicts the creation of a “ intercrossed ” combining two warrior race . So is the Doctor destined to institute Klaus Mikaelson to living ?

Probably whatever the Doctor is actually designate to do , it ’ll be something similar to the way he was destined to say his name on Trenzalore — i.e. , it ’ll be a destiny that he can worm out of . But maybe the fun will be in seeing how he deplume it off . And I ’m happy to see Klaus come to Doctor Who — as long as he brings Marcel with him .

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