Doctor Who - Dalek (2005)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This Post spoils Doctor Who episode Dalek.

Fourth Doctor was most popular Doctor. Following Doctors weren't as popular and executives didn't trust the show. Series had delays and problems. It all ended 1989 with seventh Doctor. Next try was year 1996 with eighth Doctor, who only got one tv movie. Doctor continued his adventures in other media. Doctors from first to eighth are called classic Doctors. I don't know what Doctors from ninth onwards are called. We got our ninth Doctor year 2005. I am not sure was this new launch meant to be reboot or relaunch. You can't be sure watching the series and I didn't follow creative teams comment during that time. It was later established that new Doctor Who is same continuity as classic Doctor Who. If I don't remember totally wrong that happened first time in special episode after fourth season.

In story continuity lot had happened after eighth Doctor. There was The Last Great Time War between Daleks and Time Lords. The Doctor was only survivor of the both races. Or that is what we are told. Series drops more and more information about The Last Great Time War as it goes on. This is one of those episode that tells about it. Probably the 50th anniversary episode is another one.

This is episode that showed, what ninth Doctor's run could have been. Ninth's problem was that creative team didn't use Christopher Eccleston correctly. They tried to make him what they perfected with tenth Doctor, when they should have made ninth tougher man, who is trying to figure out that he had killed his race and Daleks to end The Last Great Time War. Man, who first takes a new companion to see destruction of companion's planet is not nice guy. When series progressed, creative started to change the tone of character into nice guy. Nice guy worked with next actor, but Christopher Eccleston wasn't like that.

Doctor enters to bunker, which contains the collection of alien artifact collector. Collection's crown jewel is living Dalek, who survived from The Last Great Time War. Doctor and Dalek meet as enemies but change during episode. Dalek makes Doctor to realize that they are both alone, because Doctor killed both races to end the war. Doctor reacts to this with anger and tries to kill Dalek. He blames Dalek for death of his people. Dalek is contaminated and starts to question what he is doing. Doctor comes more willing to kill than changed Dalek does.  Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler, stops Doctor killing Dalek. Dalek, who is used to following orders, finds his new freedom and questions too hard to bear. He ask Rose to order him to kill himself. Rose does that and Doctor wins The Last Great Time War, because is last one alive. I liked how two mortal enemies realized that they are last of their kind and how they reacted to that realization.

The scene I put as trailer showed how good Eccleston was at his best. It also shows the tone ninth Doctor should have had. Someone with power saw Doctor Who as kid's show and that tone is too dark for kid's show. Ninth's run was only one season long. Change between ninth and tenth wasn't as big as changes before. Tenth is almost what ninth was in last episodes. Now they had right actor for the role and Doctor Who started to have success of fourth Doctor's Doctor Who. Eccleston is good actor, but he wasn't used correctly. When he was, we got episodes like this one.

I am not sure, if I go to tenth Doctor next week. Ninth Doctor has episode that has same theme as next monday's movie. I might do that episode before going to tenth Doctor.