Dr Who: An Englishman in LA

Our man in Los Angeles, ROBERT CAVE, takes a look at the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who in a new weekly review column

Doctor Who Series 9/ Season 35 episode 1

As the archetypal long-running family drama series, Doctor Who has always played to multiple audiences, pleasing viewers of widely different ages with varying levels of engagement to the shows narrative, and comfort levels regarding spoilers. It’s a juggling act and one that I feel the series just about carries off, even in an episode like this, packed with an eclectic mixture of references to various old stories you don’t need to have seen to follow the plot (although having done so definitely will enhance your viewing experience).

As a dyed-in-the-wool Doctor Who watcher myself, (I’ve not seen absolutely EVERY episode of Doctor Who ever made, but I have watched more than one story from every Doctor, and own a number of his adventures on DVD, VHS and in Target novelisations), I was eagerly guessing where we were from the opening scenes of this latest series/season.

As soon as we saw laser-firing biplanes shooting on soldiers in muddy fields, armed with bows and arrows I, and most probably the majority of other long-term viewers, (particularly those who have seen Genesis of the Daleks), knew they were on Skaro, the planet of the Daleks, during the centuries-long war that would lead to the Daleks’ creation. What we may not have been expecting was to see Davros, the Daleks’ eventual creator as a young boy and being forced to confront the question: “who created the creator of the Daleks?”

The rest of the episode has plenty of wonderful, greatly enjoyable moments: Michelle Gomez’s gloriously over-the-top Missy, a female version of the Doctor’s old friend/best enemy, is a wonderful presence and teaming her up with The Doctor’s companion Clara Oswald is a joy to behold, as is the image of The Doctor playing an electric guitar on a tank, and the daleks, many, many daleks, from across the history of the show, finally all together in a set that is lit well enough to appreciate the spectacle.

But these moments merely service the episode one central question, itself culled from the classic story Genesis of the Daleks: “If someone who knew the future pointed out a child to you, and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives, could you then kill that child?”

It remains as interesting a conjecture now in this episode as it was back in 1975 when that story first aired, but I think we already know the answer. I could be wrong, but haven’t we already seen that answer played out in a number of Doctor Who stories. We might be encouraged to think that some other choice might be possible, but in the end, there is no alternative, not for the Doctor, and I am happy with that.

So, yes, I loved this episode for its compelling central theme and all the little moments I outlined above. But I’ll leave you with a few predictions for the next episode: Firstly and most obviously, no-one we’ve seen exterminated this episode is really dead. Next, the Doctor’s will, delivered to his closest friend, will turn out to be significant later in the series. Lastly, Davros will be saved, hopefully in an unexpected and yet satisfying way. Come back next week to see how wrong I was.

Doctor Who – The Complete Series 8 [DVD] [2014]