1.6: Dalek
Synopsis: The TARDIS homes in on a distress call in Utah, 2012, and the Doctor and Rose find themselves in a sort of underground museum of alien artifacts. In short order, they are captured and hauled into the office of the collection's owner, Henry van Statten, a tycoon who claims, among other things, to own the internet. He also boasts of the "Metaltron," his one living specimen, and invites the Doctor to commune with it. The specimen is the last living Dalek, the last remnant of the Time War, and in its prison, the Doctor confronts it. Later, when Rose is taken into the cage, she touches its armour and her genetic material is extrapolated, allowing the Dalek to heal itself, escape and wreak havoc.
Meanwhile, Rose communes quasi-romantically with a fellow Brit named Adam.
Because it has extrapolated Rose's very human DNA, the Dalek begins to change, show mercy, experience emotion. Ultimately unable to cope, it destroys itself. The Doctor and Rose leave with Adam in tow.
Golden Comic Moment: Van Statten seems to represent everything the Europeans tend to dislike about Americans (at least from my humble American perspective). Assuming that he's supposed to be a caricature of the modern Yank, it is quite funny when he sarcastically refers to Adam, his only English employee, as Little Lord Fauntleroy. A bit later, he tells Adam, effectively, to babysit Rose, and to "go and canoodle or spoon or whatever you British do." Of course Van Statten's being a complete twit, but with the rapidfire, offhanded delivery, it's very entertaining.
And yes, I would still think it was funny if an American character got branded Little Ben Franklin, and was told to go lasso something.
Golden Fangirl Moment: Another wicked obvious one. The Dalek threatens to kill Rose if the Doctor does not open the bulkheads to let it out. It asks, "What good are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?" And though Rose had previously debunked Adam's assumption that she and the Doctor are in love, the Doctor doesn't deny the Dalek's assumption. We are still at a stage in the series when a moment like this is watershed, when the Doctor and Rose's relationship is still evolving, still coy, still a will they or won't they? One could be easily distracted from the plot for a few moments, focusing on the fact that this moment is a clear indicator that they will (sort of)!
Cringeworthy Moment: It's not any one moment, it's just some, not all, of the accents. Corey Johnson (Van Statten) is actually American, and Anne-Marie Plowman (Goddard) does all right. But some of the guards and random voices over intercoms have positively awful American accents, chewing on 'r's' and extending vowels comically. That doesn't even take into account the distinctly British phrasing used awkwardly with American accents. Captain Jack, later in the series, will be the living embodiment of this particular problem, except for him, it is forgivable...
Golden Moment: When Rose stands between the Doctor's blaster gun and the universe's last living Dalek, she says she will not permit him to destroy it, and insists that it's changing, evolving. Then she turns on the Doctor and asks, "What the hell are you changing into?" With these words, he softens and becomes visibly remorseful. This helps to define the template for the Doctor in the twenty-first century, the lonely traveller who detests genocide above all things. And in this moment, we see the epitome of Rose's role in the Ninth Doctor's life. He is a man filled with bitterness, broken by war, and the oh-so-ordinary Rose is there to help break the fall, soften his more jagged edges and bring comfort into his otherwise empty life. We see here how the character of Rose Tyler functions best, and how she was created as a companion specifically to this incarnation of the Doctor.
Why I Beg to Differ: DWM names the moment when the lights come on in the darkened room, and the Doctor realises that the "Metaltron" is actually a Dalek! This is actually one fairly compelling Golden Moment, and for the lifelong fans, even with the title card giving away the big surprise at the beginning, it was a jump-behind-your-sofa moment. And certainly the resurfacing of the Dalek has plenty of implications for the future of the Dalek race in the new series.
But so does Rose's thwarting of the Doctor's attack upon the Dalek. And bigger than that, it has implications for the Doctor's character in this incarnation and the next. Plus, it defines a major tenet of the Doctor's relationship to his companion, on a much loftier plane than the syrupy, crowd-pleasing romance brewing on the surface.
Meanwhile, Rose communes quasi-romantically with a fellow Brit named Adam.
Because it has extrapolated Rose's very human DNA, the Dalek begins to change, show mercy, experience emotion. Ultimately unable to cope, it destroys itself. The Doctor and Rose leave with Adam in tow.
Golden Comic Moment: Van Statten seems to represent everything the Europeans tend to dislike about Americans (at least from my humble American perspective). Assuming that he's supposed to be a caricature of the modern Yank, it is quite funny when he sarcastically refers to Adam, his only English employee, as Little Lord Fauntleroy. A bit later, he tells Adam, effectively, to babysit Rose, and to "go and canoodle or spoon or whatever you British do." Of course Van Statten's being a complete twit, but with the rapidfire, offhanded delivery, it's very entertaining.
And yes, I would still think it was funny if an American character got branded Little Ben Franklin, and was told to go lasso something.
Golden Fangirl Moment: Another wicked obvious one. The Dalek threatens to kill Rose if the Doctor does not open the bulkheads to let it out. It asks, "What good are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?" And though Rose had previously debunked Adam's assumption that she and the Doctor are in love, the Doctor doesn't deny the Dalek's assumption. We are still at a stage in the series when a moment like this is watershed, when the Doctor and Rose's relationship is still evolving, still coy, still a will they or won't they? One could be easily distracted from the plot for a few moments, focusing on the fact that this moment is a clear indicator that they will (sort of)!
Cringeworthy Moment: It's not any one moment, it's just some, not all, of the accents. Corey Johnson (Van Statten) is actually American, and Anne-Marie Plowman (Goddard) does all right. But some of the guards and random voices over intercoms have positively awful American accents, chewing on 'r's' and extending vowels comically. That doesn't even take into account the distinctly British phrasing used awkwardly with American accents. Captain Jack, later in the series, will be the living embodiment of this particular problem, except for him, it is forgivable...
Golden Moment: When Rose stands between the Doctor's blaster gun and the universe's last living Dalek, she says she will not permit him to destroy it, and insists that it's changing, evolving. Then she turns on the Doctor and asks, "What the hell are you changing into?" With these words, he softens and becomes visibly remorseful. This helps to define the template for the Doctor in the twenty-first century, the lonely traveller who detests genocide above all things. And in this moment, we see the epitome of Rose's role in the Ninth Doctor's life. He is a man filled with bitterness, broken by war, and the oh-so-ordinary Rose is there to help break the fall, soften his more jagged edges and bring comfort into his otherwise empty life. We see here how the character of Rose Tyler functions best, and how she was created as a companion specifically to this incarnation of the Doctor.
Why I Beg to Differ: DWM names the moment when the lights come on in the darkened room, and the Doctor realises that the "Metaltron" is actually a Dalek! This is actually one fairly compelling Golden Moment, and for the lifelong fans, even with the title card giving away the big surprise at the beginning, it was a jump-behind-your-sofa moment. And certainly the resurfacing of the Dalek has plenty of implications for the future of the Dalek race in the new series.
But so does Rose's thwarting of the Doctor's attack upon the Dalek. And bigger than that, it has implications for the Doctor's character in this incarnation and the next. Plus, it defines a major tenet of the Doctor's relationship to his companion, on a much loftier plane than the syrupy, crowd-pleasing romance brewing on the surface.