Doctor Who Series 8 Episode 2: Into The Dalek Recap With Spoilers

The episode opens with a spaceship in distress, being followed and shot at by another, much larger shit. The pilot radioing “Aristotle” for help. Inside the larger ship we see a Dalek as the large ship hits and destroys the other one.

The pilot wakes up on the TARDIS. Her wounded brother, who was on the ship with her, is gone. The Doctor is there with two coffees in hand. The Doctor tries to calm her down, but she points a gun at him and orders to be brought back to the Aristotle. The Doctor talks her down until she asks nicely and then finds her ship and brings her there.

The Doctor asks where the hospital is, but a commanding officer tells him there is none because the Daleks don’t leave prisoners. The officer plans to kill The Doctor to keep the base secret, but the pilot, Journey, talks him out of it, saying that he’s a Doctor and they need a doctor. The officer agrees and begins showing the Dcotor around. The spot a machine that can miniaturize matter. They plan to shrink the Doctor and put him inside a captured Dalek.

We cut to a man running drills with some children. He dismisses them and goes inside the school. The man is a teacher named Mr. Pink. He chats with a secretary and teaches a class. A student asks him if he has ever killed anyone. Pink explains he was a soldier. The student asks if he’s ever killed anyone who wasn’t a soldier. Pink doesn’t answer and sheds a tear.

Danny Pink is introduced to Clara. They discuss the kids he was training. Pink says it’s just a bit about fun. Pink explains that there’s more to being a soldier than shooting people. Clara makes a joke about crying about it after, which unnerves Danny. Clara asks Danny if he’s going to a going away party for another teacher. Danny says no even though he wants to, despite Clara giving him an opportunity to change his mind. He is disappointed in himself and banging his head on his desk when he realizes Clara is behind him. They finally agree to have a drink.

Clara goes into a storage room and finds the Doctor with coffee. She hasn’t seen him in a while, since Glasgow. They go into the TARDIS. He notices her smiling and suggests that she’s in love. The Doctor says he needs something from her. They sit down to talk. The Doctor asks Clara if he’s a good man. She says she doesn’t know. He says he doesn’t either.

Back on the Aristotle, the Doctor is informed that they found the Dalek floating in space and brought it on board, promising medical attention. The Doctor is not interested in helping until he hears the Dalek say “Daleks must be destroyed.” The Dalek seems into on destroying his entire race. The Doctor is telling this story to Clara. He suggests that there is no good Dalek, and Clara calls him prejudice. The two of them go back to see the Dalek. The Doctor says he can’t resist a Dalek so damaged it has morality. The Doctor says they’re going to get into the Dalek’s head, then explains that wasn’t a metaphor.

Journey explains the details of the mission to Clara. She tells Clara her name in Journey Blue, and Clara laughs, having just met Danny Pink. Clara, the Doctor, Journey, and three other soldiers prepare for miniaturization. The group is placed inside the Dalek, crossing the membrane of the Dalek’s eye.

They survey the inside of the Dalek’s head. The Doctor explains a part of the Dalek’s brain that keep’s the Dalek’s hate pure. The Doctor says they need to movie. The soldiers begin shooting grapnels, which hurts the Dalek and triggers antibodies. The antibodies kill one of the soldiers after the Dcotor tosses him a tracker. He uses the tracker to find where they dump the remains. They slide down a tube into a pit of viscous protein. Journey is angry with the Doctor for being so callous about the soldier’s death.

The group travel’s through a bolt hole. The Doctor notices the sound of a Geiger counter on one of the soldiers getting louder as they travel down. The Dalek has a radiation leak. They decide to try to find out why the Dalek suddenly changed his point of view. The Dalek says he saw beauty in the birth of a star, and that resistance to life is futile.

The group reaches the Dalek’s heart. They find the radiation breach, about the blow. The Doctor seals it up. The Dalek stops responding, then comes back online saying the malfunction is corrected. Having been repaired, the Dalek reutrns to his previous morality and starts attacking the soldiers on the ship. The Dalek uses the ship’s  equipment to communicate the ship’s hidden location to the Dalek fleet.

Inside the Dalek, the Doctor is disappointed with the results of their expedition, but somewhat smug in pleased that his original suspicion – there’s no such thing as a good Dalek – was proven true. Clara slaps him for it. Clara insists that’s not what they’ve learned today. The soldiers are moving to destroy the Dalek form the inside, and the group inside with it. The Doctor finally comes to, thanks Clara, and stops the soldiers.

The group climbs back up the Dalek. The Doctor explains that the radiation allowed the Dalek to expand its consciousness, proving a good Dalek is possible. He thinks if they can get to his memory core and show him the star’s birth again, they can make it good again. Meanwhile, the Dalek fleet has reached the ship and begins boarding. A soldier asks Clara if the Doctor is mad or if he’s right. Clara says most days he’s both. The soldier tells the Doctor to do something good and name it after her, then sacrifices itself to distract the Dalek’s antibodies and let the rest move forward. She’s killed, but wakes up in heaven with Missy.

The soldiers on the ship try to fend off the Daleks, but with little success. The Doctor faces the Dalek’s organic eye. Clara and Journey are at the cortex, trying to trigger the memory of the star being born. The Doctor tells the Dalek about his first trip to Skaro and how it gave his name meaning. Meanwhile, the fight continues on the ship and the antibodies start moving towards Journey and Clara. Clara manages to reboot the Dalek’s system, diverting the antibodies and showing the Dalek the star being born again. With the Dalek’s mind open, the Doctor hooks his own mind into the Dalek’s to show him the beauty of the universe. The Dalek sees endless, divine perfection. The Dalek looks into the Doctor’s soul and sees the Doctor’s hatred of the Daleks. The Doctor is mortified, but the damaged Dalek turns on and starts killing the other Daleks.

With the Dalek’s defeated, the damaged Dalek, Rusty, tells the fleet the humans have triggered the self-destruct. Rusty notices the Doctor’s disappointment with his victory. He says he wouldn’t a good dalek finding only hatred in his soul a victory. Rusty says he is not a good Dalek, the Doctor is a good Dalek. The Doctor storms off back to his TARDIS. Clara follows, and so does Journey. Journey asks to go with the Doctor, but the Doctor turns her down because she’s a soldier.

The Doctor brings Clara back home, 30 seconds from when they left. Clara tells the Doctor that she doesn’t know if he’s a good man, but that he probably tries to be and that’s probably the point. Clara runs into Danny Pink, who notices she changed her clothes. Danny asks if she’s really going to go for a drink with him, wondering if she has a rule against soldiers. She says she will go with him, and to herself that it’s not her with the rule against soldiers.