N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!

Robert Shearman’s recent novelisation of Dalek adds quite a bit of backstory to some of the supporting and minor characters in the episode. It’s an interesting way of fleshing out a one-part tale to Target novel length — perhaps not 100% successful — but still worth a read. Of course, this being a Dalek story, said supporting and minor characters still end up dead!

“You would make a good Dalek.”

Dalek, Dalek

What of the episode itself?

Well, it’s not the first time the Doctor has arrived at a “space” museum and so it’s not the first time he’s almost ended up ‘reduced to an exhibit’ himself.

But, obvious comparisons with The Space Museum aside, the Doctor here is a little bit, shall we say, fraught. Christopher Eccleston does an impressive job of conveying the Doctor’s fear and shock at finding a Dalek alive having thought them all dead — by his hand, no less. We get a real sense of how raw the trauma of the Time War is for him.

Seeing the Dalek through Rose’s eyes allows us a fresh perspective on the morality of the Doctor and the Daleks’ many battles. “It’s not the one pointing the gun at me,” she says when the Doctor tries to convince her the Dalek must be stopped. Indeed, the dialogue throughout is crisp; it’s nice to hear a Dalek have more to say than just the usual ‘Exterminate’, ‘Annihilate’, etc.

And, if nothing else, it’s great to see the Dalek’s plunger finally get a use. The ‘sucker me to death’ gag is both funny and gruesome at the same time (and wouldn’t have been out of place back in season twenty-two).

Dalek is perhaps the first time in the revived series that the show has been a bit edgier in tone like this and, as such, stands as another illustration of how flexible the show’s format remained.