The Brilliant, Terrifying Fury of Doctor Who‘s Dalek Reunion

In many ways, Doctor Who‘s regenerated era has spent the entirety of the last two decades chasing the highs of April 30, 2005. In 45 minutes, and with an episode simply titled “Dalek” introduced a tender new audience of viewers, still reeling from Who‘s return, to the terrible, unflinching might of the Daleks. In the years since, the show has returned time and time again to the form and content of “Dalek” and its approach to the titular pepper pots; sometimes it’s eschewed its lessons for sweeping senses of scale, as if simple multiplication could match. But what has always remained true about “Dalek” in the last 20 years is that what makes it so utterly terrifying even now, arguably long after the Daleks have lost much of their bite once again for audiences, is less about the carnage its lone monster wreaked—and more about what the Dalek reflected back on Christopher Eccleston’s take on the Time Lord. “Dalek” is constantly about this mirror match between its titular protagonist and a ... Read full article.