History Recap / DoctorWhoS34E2IntoTheDalek

Co-written by [[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars}} Phil Ford]] and Creator/StevenMoffat, "Into the Dalek" marks the [[Creator/PeterCapaldi Twelfth Doctor]]'s first encounter with the Daleks.

** The Doctor accidentally left Sarah Jane behind in Scotland, at the end of "[[DoctorWhoS14E2TheHandOfFear The Hand of Fear]]".

** The Doctor accidentally left Sarah Jane behind in Scotland once before, as revealed in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion School Reunion]]".

** Averted with the soldiers themselves who, despite being justifiably paranoid and attempting to execute the Doctor for suspected espionage when they first meet, seem to be decent people. There seems to be a good deal of prejudice and misunderstanding on all sides.

* TheSoulSaver: The Doctor plans to do this metaphorically. After saving Rusty's life by repairing the radiation leak, he says that he will "go one better" and save his soul. In practice, this means curing him of his evil destructiveness.

-->'''Blue:''' "It's smaller on the outside?"
-->'''The Doctor:''' "It's a bit more exciting when you go the other way."

-->'''Journey:''' "Is Ross here?"\\
'''The Doctor:''' ''[points to liquefied flesh]'' "He's somewhere on the top layer if you want to say a few words."

-->'''The Doctor:''' "This is Clara. She's not my assistant, some other word."\\
'''Clara:''' "I'm his carer."\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to."

-->'''Journey Blue''': "''I thought you were saving him!''"\\
'''The Doctor''': "He was dead already, I was saving ''us''!"

-->'''The Doctor:''' "Aha! A bolt-hole!"\\
'''Clara:''' ''[to Journey]'' "He'll get us out of here, the problem is not killing him before he can."\\
'''The Doctor:''' "A ''bolt-hole''. Actually a ''hole'' for a ''bolt''. [[DontExplainTheJoke Does nobody get that]]?"\\
'''Clara:''' "There's also the [[{{Pun}} puns]]."

-->'''Clara:''' "How do I look?"\\
'''The Doctor:''' "Sort of short and round-ish, but with a good personality, which is the main thing."

-->'''The Doctor:''' "You looked inside me and saw hatred. That's no victory."

-->'''The Doctor:''' "This is [[BuffySpeak Gun Girl]]. She's got a gun, and she's a girl."

-->'''The Doctor:''' "A soldier takes orders."\\
'''Journey:''' "I ''am'' a soldier."\\
'''The Doctor:''' "A Dalek's a better soldier than you will ever be. You can't win this way!"

--->'''Rusty:''' [[AC:"''I'' am not a "good Dalek". '''[[NoYou You]]''' are a good Dalek."]]

-->'''Rusty:''' "[[AC:I am not a good Dalek. ''You'' are a good Dalek.]]"

The one that's [[StealthPun Pink and Blue]] and angst-ridden all over?

[[JustForFun/TheOneWith The one with]]''[[JustForFun/TheOneWith out]]'' lasagna.

What's [[StealthPun Pink and Blue]] and angst-ridden all over? This episode.

* ActionPrologue: Kicks off with an adrenaline-filled sequence where Journey's ship is being chased by a Dalek saucer.

* AllThereInTheManual: The book ''Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe'' (2017) claims that Rusty was later captured by the Daleks who, recognising the "beauty of his hatred for them, sent him to the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Dalek Asylum planet]]. As we [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime see later]], Rusty must have somehow made it out before the planet was destroyed.

** Like his last three incarnations, the Twelfth Doctor is a firm believer of this, and it is a fact certainly helped by the lousy first impression Journey and her compatriots make. He even rejects Journey as a companion based solely on the fact that she's a soldier. Given the multitude of companions who've served in uniform (Ben, the Brigadier, Benton, Yates, Harry Sullivan, etc.), this is a definite shift.

** When one of Danny's students just can't leave well enough alone and asks him if he's ever killed someone who's not a soldier, the question quietly but [[TearsOfRemorse very obviously]] hits him hard.
** The Doctor asks one of Clara, but it's a rare self-aimed one: whether she thinks he's a good man. She stammers and isn't certain.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: When Gretchen is killed, she wakes up in the Promised Land having tea with Missy from the previous episode.

-->'''Blue:''' It's smaller on the outside...
-->'''The Doctor:''' It's a bit more exciting when you go the other way.
* BittersweetEnding: The Dalek fleet is stopped and the possiblity that they could all HeelFaceTurn is confirmed, but at the cost of many lives on the ''Aristotle''; and while Rusty is now fighting the rest of the Daleks, it's clear that he's doing so not out of the genuine kindness he was developing in the first half of the story, but simply from having his hatred directed toward the other Daleks instead of all other life.

-->'''Journey:''' Is Ross here?\\
'''The Doctor:''' He's somewhere on the top layer ''[points to liquefied flesh]'' if you want to say a few words.

* BrickJoke: The Doctor brings that coffee Clara asked for in "Deep Breath". Only it's three weeks late and Clara has returned to her school teaching job in London. At least she didn't have to wait as long as Sarah Jane Smith.

* ColourfulThemeNaming: Lampshaded by Clara: having just met Danny Pink, she's then introduced to Journey Blue.

-->'''The Doctor:''' This is Clara. She's not my assistant, some other word.\\
'''Clara:''' I'm his carer.\\
'''The Doctor:''' Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to.

** A suppressed memory of Rusty's shows the Daleks [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth shooting down the]] ''Valiant'' during the Reality Bomb crisis.
*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Shots of exploding Daleks and the destruction of the Crucible are also shown.]]

--->'''Rusty:''' [[AC:''I'' am not a "good Dalek". '''[[NoYou You]]''' are a good Dalek.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow This is the second episode of a new Doctor written by Steven Moffat, also involving both the Doctor and his female companion inside a life form much bigger than them, falling down a tube, and landing in a pit of gunge, getting covered in disgusting bodily fluids.]] Only this time, it's even grosser. But once again, they wind up surprisingly squeaky clean and de-gunged afterwards.
** The Doctor does something to piss off his companion or a friendly associate and gets a BitchSlap, making him the fourth incarnation in a row to get himself slapped. But unlike the times it has been PlayedForLaughs, this slap ''is'' justified.

** The Doctor, in the first life of a regeneration cycle, is in an episode featuring two teachers from Coal Hill. Are we talking about Clara and Danny or Barbara and Ian?

** The Doctor accidentally left a companion behind in Scotland once before, as revealed in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion School Reunion]]".

* CoveredInGunge: The Doctor and his party escape from antibodies by diving into what turns out to be the Dalek's supply of protein ([[{{Squick}} i.e., the liquefied corpses of its victims]]).
* DarkAndTroubledPast: One of Danny's students decides to be an ass and ask if he killed anyone as a soldier. When he asks Danny if he killed anyone who ''wasn't'' a soldier... Cue SingleTear. The student promptly puts a cork in it, [[DudeNotFunny knowing he went too far]].
* DirtForcefield: As soon as everyone's left the pool of protein, they become completely dry with not so much as a hair out of place. It's justified in that they went through the Dalek's decontamination tubes off screen.

-->'''Journey Blue''': ''I thought you were saving him!''\\
'''The Doctor''':"He was dead already, I was saving ''us''!

** The Doctor speculates that if he can turn one Dalek, he can neutralise them all, and possibly even retire from adventuring (since his moniker is defined by being the Daleks' opposite). Unsurprisingly, this plan fails: the "reformed" Dalek merely shifts his crosshairs from humans to Daleks.

** The conflict between Danny and the Doctor is set up with the latter showing an anti-soldier prejudice at the same time Clara starts dating a former soldier.

* GoneHorriblyRight: After the Doctor links his mind with Rusty he manages to pacify it again, but it gains the Doctor's hatred for the Daleks in the process. In the end he creates a Dalek that wants to EXTERMINATE other Daleks.
** The mission to fix Rusty's initial malfunction is also this, since fixing the fault also reverts Rusty to the standard Dalek modus operandi.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: When the Doctor arrives on the ''Aristotle'', Colonel Blue wants him killed to keep the base secret.

* HeelFaceTurn: Rusty makes a permanent turn after his second HeelRealization. He saves the ''Aristotle'''s crew by convincing the other Daleks that the ship will self-destruct, and leaves peacefully.
* HeelRealization: Rusty realises that life persists, even after Daleks have destroyed so many worlds and stars every time. He returns to normal after the malfunction was repaired, and then has the same reaction after Clara and the Doctor reboot him.
* HeroicSacrifice: Gretchen sacrifices herself so Journey and Clara will have a way to reach the Cortex Vault.

* HunterOfHisOwnKind: Rusty is so horrified by his race's evilness that he singlehandily wipes out the ones that boarded ''Aristotle'' and then leaves because he feels compelled to wipe out the rest.

* IdiotBall: The Doctor insists after Rusty is "Fixed" that there are no good Daleks despite having seen two of them himself, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E5EvolutionOfTheDaleks Dalek Sec]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd Dalek Caan]]. Possibly justified by lingering post-regeneration memory lapses, or that Dalek Sec and Dalek Caan were incredibly unique cases.
** Everyone on the mission to fix Rusty's malfunction is seemingly under the impression that fixing the malfunction that turned Rusty 'good' would not have a chance of restoring him to the standard Dalek mindset, even after discovering that the casing is designed to normally prevent non-Dalek thoughts.
*** Journey Blue accuses the Doctor of betrayal for fixing Rusty, when that was the entire point of the mission. The Doctor even points this out.

* InsultBackfire: Danny Pink is playing DrillSergeantNasty, asking if his audience are a bunch of children. The camera then pans out to reveal that they are in fact a bunch of children, and one of them answers "Yes". Danny gets a good laugh out of this and sends them off.

* KidsAreCruel: Played with. While one of the kids [[{{Jerkass}} callously asks Danny if he's ever killed anyone]], the whole class groans in disapproval.

-->'''The Doctor:''' Aha! A bolt-hole!\\
'''Clara:''' ''[to Journey]'' He'll get us out of here, the problem is not killing him before he can.\\
'''The Doctor:''' A ''bolt-hole''. Actually a ''hole'' for a ''bolt''. [[DontExplainTheJoke Does nobody get that]]?\\
'''Clara:''' There's also the [[{{Pun}} puns]].

* LiteralMinded: Clara is dressed up for her date with Danny Pink.
-->'''Clara:''' How do I look?\\
'''The Doctor:''' Sort of short and round-ish, but with a good personality, which is the main thing.

* MoralMyopia: The Doctor spends the whole episode accusing the resistance (and soldiers in general) of being nothing more than mindless or bloodthirsty, and even writes off their newest Dalek recruit (who ''willingly'' throws in his lot with the rebels) as a failure. This is nothing new as the Doctor hasn't approved of soldiers (or guns) for a long time.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: In repairing Rusty's damaged power cell, the Doctor inadvertently reboots Rusty's MoralityDial, causing it to turn evil once again and go on a rampage, ultimately causing the deaths of dozens before the Doctor can set Rusty back to anti-Dalek.

* OhCrap: When the Doctor is coaxing Rusty to be good again, and the Dalek is beholding the universe the way the Doctor sees it... until Rusty sees the Doctor's ''hatred'' for the Daleks.

-->"You looked inside me and saw hatred. That's no victory."
** It's taken a step further with the leaked workprint, which contains a scene not in the finished episode. Rusty immediately self-destructs upon reaching the Dalek ship, destroying it. Hardly a decisive victory for humanity. However, this [[RevisedEnding Alternate Ending]] was officially overwritten by "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon a Time]]", in which Rusty is still around.

-->'''The Doctor:''' This is [[BuffySpeak Gun Girl]]. She's got a gun, and she's a girl.

-->'''The Doctor:''' A soldier takes orders.\\
'''Journey:''' I ''am'' a soldier.\\
'''The Doctor:''' A Dalek's a better soldier than you will ever be. You can't win this way!

** Danny has one when a student accidentally unearths a terrible memory from his days as a soldier without having any way of knowing what Danny went through.

* TookALevelInBadass: The Daleks are even more dangerous than usual in this episode. They emerge as a very organized killing force in the cover of darkness, menacingly inching forward and easily mowing down both soldiers and even ''themselves'' with terrifying ease.
* TookALevelInJerkass: The Doctor starts a RunningGag of insulting Clara's appearance, deliberately or otherwise. More importantly, he shows an overt dislike of soldiers, whereas before (especially during the UNIT years) he'd been entirely willing to work with them, merely snarking at their authoritarian nature and [[WeComeInPeaceShootToKill shoot-first-ask-questions-later]] approach.

** "Am I a good man?" "I... don't know."
** "[[AC:I am not a good Dalek. ''You'' are a good Dalek.]]"

** Journey and Clara chew out the Doctor for repairing Rusty, and Clara is ultimately left unsure of the Doctor's morality. He's thankful for this.

* YearOutsideHourInside: When the Doctor returns to Clara with the coffee he said he'd get [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath last episode]], she reveals he has been gone for three weeks. She then returns from this week's adventure in around 30 seconds, [[InstantCostumeChange to the confusion of Danny Pink]]. Also Journey Blue says, "That was quick" after the Doctor goes to fetch Clara, implying a very short time has passed.

-->'''Rusty:''' [[AC:I am not a good Dalek. ''You'' are a good Dalek.]]
* YouKnowTooMuch: The commander of the Aristotle is grateful to the Doctor for saving his niece Journey Blue, but then orders him shot in case he's a Dalek spy. Fortunately they need a doctor.

** The Doctor references the FantasticVoyagePlot by calling it a "fantastic" idea for a film.

** It's taken a step further with the leaked workprint, which contains a scene not in the finished episode. Rusty immediately self-destructs upon reaching the Dalek ship, destroying it. Hardly a decisive victory for humanity.

JustForFun/{{The one with}}out lasagna.

The one with''out'' lasagna.

* IncrediblyLamePun: Clara points out that the Doctor, [[Creator/MattSmith regardless of his incarnation]], makes these every now and then.
-->'''The Doctor:''' Aha! A bolt-hole!\\
'''Clara:''' ''[to Journey]'' He'll get us out of here, the problem is not killing him before he can.\\
'''The Doctor:''' A ''bolt-hole''. Actually a ''hole'' for a ''bolt''. [[DontExplainTheJoke Does nobody get that]]?\\
'''Clara:''' There's also the [[{{Pun}} puns]].

** The Doctor does something to piss off his companion or a friendly associate and gets an ArmourPiercingSlap, making him the fourth incarnation in a row to get himself slapped. But unlike the times it has been PlayedForLaughs, this slap ''is'' justified.

** Clara climbs up through a shaft and the Doctor, beneath her, makes a comment about her body, just like Toby did with Rose in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit The Satan Pit]]". Toby's comment to Rose was flattering in a naughty way, however, compared to the Doctor's unflattering one in response to Clara's own anticipation of a good look of her [[ShesGotLegs hips]]. Go further back, and it reflects an exchange between the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]", also the second full episode with a newly introduced Doctor.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Journey Blue wouldn't be out of place as a [[Film/PacificRim Jaeger]] designation. It's also not a bad ad-hoc description of the TARDIS.

[[caption-width-right:350:A "good" man versus a "good" Dalek.]]

* AsteroidThicket: The ''Aristotle'' is hiding in a cloud of asteroids from the dalek fleet.

* SpotOfTea: Explicitly offered by Missy to Gretchen upon her arrival. It's only polite when a lady has guests, you know?

* BadassBeard: Colonel Morgan Blue sports a full beard, and he handles himself very well during the battle against the Dalek boarding party.

** There are also a few from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]]", such as Rusty's parting quote, but the context is quite different. Where the Dalek in "Dalek" was referring to the fact that Nine's rage and wish to destroy it made them NotSoDifferent, Rusty sees Twelve as a Dalek that happens to be "good".

* NotSoDifferent: Again, the Doctor's hatred of all things Dalek is compared to the Daleks' hatred of everything else.
-->'''Rusty:''' [[AC:I am not a good Dalek. ''You'' are a good Dalek.]]