Doctor Who Recap -- 10/25

Tonight's episode "In the Forest of the Night" begins with the Tardis landing in the middle of a forest. A little girl named Maebh approaches and asks the Doctor for help. She explains she was with Danny Pink, but someone told her to come here. Confused and a little irritated, the Doctor takes her into the Tardis, where she seems unimpressed at its dimensions. He complains he can't get to the center of London, but Maebh tells him they are in the center of London (Trafalgar Square, to be exact). But how can this be? It's a forest, not London.

Meanwhile, Clara, Danny and their students are leaving from a sleepover at the London Zoological Museum. They step outside and find the entire city overtaken by a forest that grew overnight. Turns out, it's not just London; it's the entire world. Clara calls the Doctor to tell him, but he already knows. He tells her he has Maebh, but when Danny asks, Clara lies to him about who she was talking with.

The group heads to the Tardis and seeks shelter inside. The Doctor doesn't appreciate all the kids poking around, but forgets about that when Maebh once again goes missing. Clara explains the girl's sister also went missing, causing Maebh to become borderline autistic and hear voices. Seeing a clue there, the Doctor decides Maebh holds the key to solving this mystery. He soon finds her homework, on which she has predicted a coming solar flare. How did she know about it?

The Doctor and Clara go outside to search for her, and they run into men in hazmat suits who are attempting to burn down the trees. However, the trees turn out to be fireproof. The two continue on, but are soon chased by wolves that have escaped from the London Zoo. They eventually run into Maebh, but things get much worse when a tiger shows up. Fortunately, Danny arrives and scares it off with a flashlight.

Maebh reveals she is the one who summoned the trees. Thoughts just come to her, she says, and she thought it would be nice to have a forest. Suddenly, an imposing voice begins speaking through her. Calling itself the Here, it says it has been on Earth long before everyone else, and it will be on Earth long after everyone else has died. Furthermore, it says the sun has called it. The Doctor declares that because of the impending solar flare, the planet is doomed. Clara suggests he use the Tardis to save the children. But it's just a trick to get him to save himself.

The Doctor takes off, leaving everyone to their fate. Upon further examination of the situation, though, he has an epiphany, and quickly returns. He tells everyone the trees are actually a defense mechanism meant to save the world. Sure enough, the massive supply of oxygen they've built up protects Earth from the solar flare, and the trees disappear. Watching this unfold is Missy, who seems impressed.

Everyone rejoices at their salvation. The Doctor reveals this has happened numerous times throughout human history. Mankind remembers the fear (which is why we're afraid of the forest), but not the cause. Finally, Danny tells Clara to stop lying to him about her adventures with the Doctor.

Oh, and Maebh's sister comes back.

Tonight's episode, like most of the ones this season, was solid. I thought the sudden forestation of the planet was an original storyline, and Peter Capaldi continues to impress with his gruff, snarky interpretation of the Doctor. Also, I like how Clara is an imperfect character; she continually lies to her friends, and it keeps getting her in trouble. I sense they're building up to something with her, and I look forward to finding out what.

Next week is the first of the two-part finale. 

Doctor Who Recap -- 10/18

Tonight's episode "Flatline" begins with a man disappearing from his home after announcing "They are everywhere." Later, the Doctor tries to get Clara home after another adventure, except they end up in Bristol, quite a ways from where she lives. More confusingly, the Tardis has shrunk and they have to squeeze through the doors to get out. The Doctor sends Clara away while he searches for the cause of this strange malady. She goes for a walk and encounters a graffiti artist doing community service named Rigsy. In a funny scene, she takes up the mantle of the Doctor and pokes fun at her traveling companion. Rigsy then comments on a number of people who have gone missing. Also painted on the wall are a bunch of people with their backs to them.

Clara returns to the Tardis and finds it's shrunk down down to about the size of a soda can. She thinks it's funny, but the Doctor--who's now trapped inside--isn't so amused. He reveals that something is leeching external dimensions, and its coming from the northwest. Clara puts the Tardis in her purse and meets up with Rigsy, and the two of them investigate a flat where one of the people disappeared. It's a locked room mystery, and they set about solving it. Soon Rigsy decides to return to his community service, but the Doctor finds him useful, so he has Clara show him the Tardis to get him to stick around. Suddenly, the Doctor announces that an unknown force is sucking the Tardis' energy.

Afterwards, Clara and Rigsy head to the site of another disappearance where they meet MI5 agent Forrest. The agent goes into another room, but a writhing something sucks her into the floor. Clara and Rigsy rush in to assist, but they're too late; Forrest's nervous system has been scaled down and flattened along the wall. The Doctor realizes they're dealing with two-dimensional life forms who are dissecting humans to understand three-dimensional organisms. The 2D entities move in to attack them, but they get on a chair suspended from the ceiling to avoid getting caught. Danny calls and asks if everything's all right. Clara lies to him and says yes, and they escape through the window.

They return to Rigsy's community service detail, only to find the people painted on the walls coming alive. The Doctor declares these are the missing people, and the 2D beings are wearing them like camoflage. The group escapes into a warehouse with the invaders in pursuit. The Doctor wants to try communicating with them because they may not realize they're doing humans harm with their experiments. Using the sonic screwdriver, they rig the building's PA system to transmit a message. The 2D beings respond using numbers, which the community service detail realizes are the numbers on their jackets. Are the invaders listing their past and future victims?

After another attack, one of the men bites it, and the group escapes into a tunnel system. However, they find all doors have been turned to 2D. The Doctor, still stuck in the Tardis, comes up with a device he calls a Toodis which can restore a door handle to 3D. They move deeper into the tunnels, but a giant hand reaches out and grabs another of the workers, revealing they're evolving into 3D. The group makes a run for it, but Clara gets bumped and drops the tiny Tardis into a hole, where it lands on subway tracks...and there's a train coming. There isn't enough power left in the Tardis to defend against this, and the Doctor seems doomed. But taking advice from Clara, he sticks his hand out and maneuvers the Tardis out of the way like Thing from the Addams Family. The Tardis then goes into siege mode, essentially turning it into an impregnable cube. Unfortunately, life support is failing, and it desperately needs a recharge.

No longer able to communicate with the Doctor, Clara has to find a way out of this on her own. So she has Rigsy draw a picture of a 2D door and places it along a wall in the tunnel, and she puts the Tardis behind that wall. The 2D beings poor energy into the faux door trying to get through it, unknowingly powering up the Tardis behind it. Now re-energized, the Tardis goes back to full size, and the Doctor comes out and condemns the 2D beings which he has dubbed Boneless. They knew exactly what they were doing, making them monsters. And if they insist on being monsters, then the Doctor must become "the man who stops the monsters." He banishes the Boneless back to their own dimension and then gets the workers back to the surface. Afterwards, Clara tells him to admit she made a pretty good Doctor. He admits she was a fine Doctor, but says goodness had nothing to do with it. She keeps lying to people throughout this episode, and he doesn't seem to approve.

Finally, Missy appears and has taken a keen interest in Clara. What's going on here? We'll just have to wait to find out.

I found this week's episode to be very imaginative. The 2D beings idea, while not wholly original, was executed very well. And the Doctor's subtle commentary on his own nature speaks to the quality writing this shown continues to display.

Doctor Who Recap -- 10/11

Tonight's episode "Mummy on the Orient Express" begins with an elderly woman being attacked on a train by a mummy that only she can see, resulting in her dying of a heart attack. Later, the Doctor takes Clara to that same train, the Orient Express. However, this is actually a space train! They've come here for Clara's last adventure with him; she decided to end their relationship following last week's episode.

Once aboard, they meet Maisie, the granddaughter of the woman who was just killed, and they find out about the alleged mummy. They also meet Quell, the ship's captain who's trying to keep a lid on things, along with Perkins, the chief engineer. The Doctor begins contemplating the mummy situation and seeks the knowledge of Moorhouse, an expert on myths who's also traveling on the Orient Express. They discuss the legend of the Foretold, a creature seen only by its victims who kills in 66 seconds. It is said to be immortal and cannot be harmed by conventional weapons. The Doctor believes this is the culprit behind the woman's death. As they are discussing this, one of the cooks aboard the train is killed by the Foretold.

Meanwhile, Clara and Maisie break into a storage compartment to see the woman's body. Maisie explains this is out of guilt because she often wished her grandmother dead (Granny wasn't such a nice person, apparently). However, they get locked in and are stuck.

The Doctor and Moorhouse investigate the recent deaths and discover the electricity faltered during each. The Doctor goes to find Clara but can't get through the locked door. Just then, Captain Quell arrives to arrest him on suspicion of being the murderer (the Doctor had been pretending to be a mystery shopper up to this point). But another death occurs, and Quell releases him. The Foretold then kills Moorhouse, and the Doctor tells the crew to bring him the background data on the victims. As it turns out, each of them was sick in either body or mind, causing the Doctor to conclude the mummy is targeting the weakest people first. The Doctor also realizes the passengers are experts in different fields, specifically chosen, and he demands to know who's pulling the strings.

At that moment, the train's upper-class facade is revealed to be a series of holograms (along with most of the passengers), and a lab takes its place. A mysterious man known only as Gus uses the PA system to announce he's brought them together to capture the Foretold so he can reverse-engineer its abilities. And to show he means business, he decompresses the kitchen, sucking the cooks into space.

The Foretold then kills Quell, and the Doctor discovers Maisie is the next victim. He urges Clara to bring her to him so he can watch the mummy attack her, instructing her to lie if necessary. Clara does lie, telling Maisie the Doctor can save her. They go to him, and the Foretold attacks. However, the Doctor manages to steal her negative emotions (the reason the mummy was targeting her), thus becoming the new target. He confronts the Foretold and determines the bandaged menace is actually a soldier who was equipped with a teleporter and cursed with immortality by having to suck the energy from the living. Knowing the soldier just wants his war to end, the Doctor surrenders. The Foretold disintegrates, and the Doctor acquires his teleporter. Unfortunately, Gus doesn't want witnesses, and shuts off oxygen to the car they're in. The Doctor manages to activate the teleporter and get them off the train.

He takes everyone to a nearby planet, and he and Clara have a talk. Her faith in him is restored following his rescue of Maisie, but he explains it's not that simple. Sometimes you have to make bad choices, he says. If Maisie had died, he would have simply moved onto the next victim and kept fighting the Foretold. Nevertheless, Clara decides to keep traveling with him.

Tonight's episode was another strong one. I especially liked the exploration of the Doctor's morality. He's not a clear-cut black-and-white figure. He has his flaws, but he keeps doing his best to do the right thing, and we are again reminded he needs an emotional anchor like Clara to keep him grounded. Also, as a fan of the anime Galaxy Express 999, I dig the space train concept. Finally, I'm intrigued by the mystery of Gus, and I hope he shows up again down the road.

Doctor Who Recap -- 10/04

Tonight's episode "Kill the Moon" begins with Clara in an undisclosed predicament. She says there is a terrible choice to be made: "An innocent life versus the future of all mankind." The episode then goes back in time to earlier when the Doctor and Clara are discussing Courtney, the girl from last week's episode who's a student at the school. The Doctor told her she wasn't special, and now she's upset at that. Rather than apologizing, he decides to make her special by having her become the first woman on the moon. So the three of them take a ride in the Tardis, but instead wind up on a space shuttle on its way to the moon in the year 2049. They are confronted by the shuttle's crew: Lundvick, Duke and Henry who have inexplicably brought nukes with them. The shuttle crashes, and although everyone is OK, they discover normal gravity on the moon caused by an additional 1.3 billion tons of mass. Lundvick explains the increased gravity is wreaking havoc on Earth, and they've been sent to put a stop to it by nuking the moon.

The group makes their way to the Minera San Pedro, a Mexican vessel that Earth lost contact with ten years ago. Inside they find the dead crew cocooned, and Lundvick sends Henry to arm the bombs. Unfortunately, he gets killed by something rather nasty. Back in the San Pedro, the group hears screeching and is attacked by a spider-like alien which gets Duke. It then goes after Courtney, but she manages to kill it with disinfectant, causing the Doctor to conclude the life form is actually a germ. Suddenly, earthquakes begin rocking the lunar surface, and they rush outside to see the shuttle fall into a fissure. The Doctor discovers amniotic fluid leaking from the surface, along with a crapload more spiders which he realizes are actually bacteria living on a massive organism growing inside the moon. Except it's not a moon; it's an egg! Clara wants to leave, but he declares the fate of the moon must be decided here and now, only not by him. Clara, Courtney and Lundvick must choose between killing the massive creature, and letting it hatch and possibly destroying all life on Earth. Refusing to be a part of the decision because he's not an Earthling, he gets back in the Tardis and leaves them to figure it out. 

Clara contacts the people of Earth and explains the situation. She implores them to vote on whether or not to kill the moon creature: Turn off all the lights for yes, or leave them on for no. They turn off all the lights, and Lundvick goes to press the button to set off the nukes. However, Clara stops her. Just then, the Doctor returns and brings them into the Tardis. Setting down on a beach, they witness the moon-egg hatch and disintegrate. The creature immediately lays a new egg, essentially replacing the moon, and the Doctor explains that this incident reignites mankind's interest in space travel, and is instrumental in getting us out into the stars. 

Back in the Tardis, Clara confronts him about his abandoning them. He tells her he had faith they would make the wrong decision. Nevertheless, she feels betrayed and storms off. When she gets back to the school, she meets up with Danny who recognizes her anger; he feels the same way about the army. Clara says she's done with the Doctor. However, he tells her that as long as you still feel anger, you're never done. She thanks him for his advice.

This was another solid episode. I felt the "moon as an egg" idea was pretty cool, and the execution was well-done, even if it does seem a little too convenient that a newly-hatched life form would immediately lay another egg and replace the moon. Since there were more deaths in this episode, I thought there would be another appearance by Missy, but that was not to be. Oh, well. 

Until next time.

Doctor Who Recap -- 09/27

In tonight's episode "The Caretaker," Clara is alternating between going on adventures with the Doctor and dates with Danny Pink. One day, though, the Doctor announces, "No trip today." Instead, he's going undercover somewhere. With more free time, Clara decides to focus on building her relationship with Danny. However, she goes to work and finds none other than the Doctor posing as the new caretaker at her school. She confronts him about this, but he won't tell her what's going on. She surmises there's an alien on the grounds and asks if the children are safe. He says no, but they will be.

Meanwhile, a police officer investigating an abandoned building gets killed by a robotic assailant. Aware of the danger, the Doctor goes around planting strange devices across school grounds and doing something weird with the Tardis. He also meets Danny, whom he takes a disliking to because the latter was a soldier, and the Doctor doesn't like soldiers. Clara asks him about his agenda on campus, and he explains he's scanning for alien technology and has found a cybernetic organism called a Skovox Blitzer which has enough firepower to destroy the entire planet, and so he must find it before anything bad happens. He's planted what he calls time mines to trap the alien.

The Doctor dons an invisibility watch and proceeds to bait the Skovox Blitzer into following him back to his trap. However, Danny finds the devices and starts deactivating them. He comes in to find the Doctor and Clara battling the Blitzer which gets sucked into a temporal rift. The Doctor is incensed that Danny sabotaged his trap, resulting in the Blitzer not being fully banished. It will return in about three days. Clara declares her love for Danny who realizes she has been lying to him about the Doctor, and wants her to tell him the truth. Danny also resents the Doctor's superior attitude and describes him as an officer giving orders.

Later, at the school's parent/teacher conference, the Blitzer reappears early, and the Doctor has Clara act as a decoy to lure it away from innocent bystanders. It follows her into a room where the Doctor is waiting with a jury-rigged contraption which allows him to fool the Blitzer into thinking he's its superior officer. He orders it to shut down, but it initiates its self-destruct sequence. The Doctor needs a moment to override the command, and Danny runs in and does an impressive flip over the Blitzer, distracting it and giving the Doctor the time he needs. The Blizter shuts down and the world is saved once again. The Doctor gives Danny credit for the assist, and the later sees that the Time Lord wants him to be good enough for Clara, and the two spend a happy evening alone together.

Finally, the police officer killed earlier finds himself in a strange room, apparently the afterlife, or Promised Land. The enigmatic Missy makes an appearance, and the mystery deepens. 

This was another quality Doctor Who episode. I especially like the growing relationship between Clara and Danny. She's not just the Doctor's companion; she has a life and desires of her own apart from his. Also, the growing mystery of Missy and the Promised Land continues to intrigue me.

Doctor Who Recap -- 09/20

In tonight's episode "Time Heist," Clara is preparing to go on a date with Danny when the Doctor drops by. Suddenly, the Tardis' telephone begins ringing. Only a handful of people in the entire universe have that number, so an intrigued Doctor answers. Suddenly, they find themselves in a room with two other people after having their memories wiped. A garbled voice belonging to someone known only as the Director informs them they have agreed to rob the Bank of Karabraxos, the most secure bank in existence. The Doctor and Clara then get acquainted with their new associates: Psi, a cybernetically augmented hacker/thief, and Saibra the mutant who assumes the form of anyone she touches. Each of them has agreed to rob the bank for their own reasons, but at the moment, none of them can remember.

They go into the bank and immediately see another man halted by Ms. Delphox, the chief of security. She sics an aquatic-looking alien called the Teller on him. The Teller telepathically searches for his guilt and then turns his brain to soup. Undaunted, the group uses a dimensional shift bomb to venture into the deeper sections of the bank. Down there, they find a gift from the Director. They open the case and find a series of hypos. The Doctor pretends not to know what they're for, but later reveals they're disintegrators in case of capture. Saibra gets attacked by the Teller and uses one on herself, leaving only three of the original group.

They make their way to the vault where Psi proceeds to hack the lock. However, the Teller arrives and begins chasing them. The Doctor and Clara split up, but the Teller soon finds her. Psi sacrifices himself to save her, but they still don't have a way into the vault. Suddenly, the planet is hit by a solar storm which disrupts the lock. The Doctor realizes this heist could only have been planned in the future by someone who knew the storm was coming. They enter the vault and find safe deposit boxes meant for the fallen members of the team. Inside them are a neophyte circuit which can retrieve Psi's lost memories he had to delete to protect his loved ones, and a gene suppressant for Saibra. They are then captured by the Teller and taken to Ms. Delphox who orders her flunkies to dispose of them. But the flunkies turn out to be Psi and Saibra. The disintegrators were actually teleporters!

The four of them make their way to the private vault where they find the bank's overseer, Madame Karabraxos. She looks just like Ms. Delphox, and the Doctor deduces they are clones. He also realizes he is the Director, and he just needs to recover his memory to put the last pieces in place. But the solar storm is about to destroy the bank. Karabraxos then leaves (after accepting the Tardis phone number) and the Teller arrives, and the Doctor lets the fishy alien accost him to get his memories back. He then remembers that it was Karabraxos who called him at the beginning to ask for his help correcting her greatest mistake. They open the final vault and find the Teller's mate; they are the last two of their species. Happy with this outcome, they free the two of them, and Clara goes off to her date.

I enjoyed tonight's episode. It was clever, touching, and makes me very hopeful for this season. It was also refreshing to see the ancillary companions survive. I've see too many Doctor Who's where the guests didn't make it.

Doctor Who Recap -- 09/13

In tonight's episode "Listen," the Doctor is talking to himself while alone in the Tardis when he poses a question: What if you're never alone? What if there's a lifeform that has adapted itself to be completely invisible and can never be seen? "What would such a creature want?" Suddenly, he notices a message on his chalkboard: "Listen."

Meanwhile, Clara is on a date with Danny Pink who first appeared two weeks ago in "Into the Dalek." Due to his insecurities, it goes badly and Clara returns home to find the Doctor and Tardis in her bedroom. He reveals to her that everyone has the same nightmare of a mysterious something lurking under the bed and links her to the Tardis in order to go back to the exact moment in time where she had that dream. However, she gets distracted thinking of her awful date, and they end up at a children's home in Gloucester. The Doctor tells her to wait in the Tardis while he has a look around because meeting yourself in the past is dangerous. She goes to do that but gets sidetracked when she meets Danny as a kid (but at this point his name is Rupert). She goes to his room and they hang out under the bed. Without warning, someone lays down on it. They get out from under it and see a mysterious, childlike figure hiding under the bedspread. The Doctor comes in and gives a speech about how fear is a superpower, before instructing them to turn away from the figure. He makes Rupert promise not to look at it, whereupon the figure leaves.

Afterwards, Clara goes back to try and fix her date. She fails and Danny leaves anyway. She returns to the Tardis and finds a man in a space suit which she assumes is the Doctor playing a joke. But when he removes his helmet, we find it's Danny! Not quite; it's actually Orson Pink from 500 years in the future. He's the first human time traveler, but he accidentally got sent to the end of the universe where the Doctor has just found him. The Doctor agrees to take him home, but lies and says the Tardis needs one night to recharge. In actuality, he wants to meet the invisible entities that he believes inhabit the universe at the end of time. He waits in Orson's space/time ship, and when the main door opens, explosive decompression occurs and he nearly gets sucked out. Fortunately, Orson saves him. Unfortunately, those same entities are now apparently trying to break into the Tardis. Clara attempts to pilot it out of there and they end up at a barn where a mysterious boy is hiding out. Clara discovers he's actually the Doctor as a child, and he's scared of everything. She hides underneath his bed and then gives him the same speech he gave Rupert. "Fear is a superpower," she tells him. "Fear makes companions of us all." Inspired, he goes onto become the Doctor, and Clara realizes she's the source of his belief in invisible entities. She explains this to him, and then they take Orson home. Finally, she seeks out Danny and they make up.

I really liked tonight's episode. It was exciting to see Clara as the source of the Doctor's strength and fears, and I'm interested in finding out what happens next. I think "Listen" is a cut above last week's "Robot of Sherwood" and I hope they can keep the show going at this quality.

Doctor Who Recap -- 09/06

In tonight's episode "Robot of Sherwood," the Doctor asks Clara where in all of time and space would she like to visit. She sheepishly tells him she wants to see Robin Hood. He scoffs and declares he's just a legend, but nonetheless agrees to take her to that time period. When they arrive, the Doctor is greeted by a man who claims to be none other than Robin Hood. Stunned, the Doctor refuses to believe it and proceeds to battle him with a spoon(?). Robin then takes Clara (complete in resplendent garb) to visit the Merry Men, whom the Doctor insists on getting DNA samples from to prove they're not who they say they are.

Robin reveals the Sheriff of Nottingham is holding a tournament to find the best archer in the land, with the prize being a golden arrow. This, along with the beautiful weather, seems too good to be true. They go to the tournament and Robin and the Doctor take turns one-upping one another with their archery. A fight soon breaks out, whereupon Robin severs a guard's arm, revealing it to be mechanical. The Sheriff's lackeys are robots! Undeterred by this revelation, the Sheriff has them thrown in the dungeon where the Doctor and Robin continue their rivalry with banter. Clara is taken to see the Sheriff, and she gets him to reveal the origins of the robots. The Sheriff says they crashed and have allied with him to repair their ship. He, in turn, wants to use their technology to conquer the world.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Robin break out of jail and discover the castle is actually the Promised Land, the very ship the mechanical man was trying to get to in the season premier. The Doctor realizes everyone around them is a robot, including the Sheriff who then arrives with Clara. Robin takes her hostage and makes his escape from the ship, while the Doctor confronts the Sheriff. The villain confesses to being a robot, and it turns out he was stealing gold from the people to be repair the ship (which has also been leaking radiation, accounting for the unusually warm temperatures in Sherwood). The Doctor tells him there isn't enough gold, but the Sheriff won't listen.

The Doctor leaves and recruits the other prisoners in the dungeon, including a mysterious woman, who proceed to fight the robots by using polished plates to reflect their lasers back at them. He again confronts the Sheriff, this time about Robin Hood being a robot. The Sheriff denies this, and the Doctor realizes Robin Hood is real. Robin then arrives with Clara and engages in a sword fight with the Sheriff. The battle ends when Robin knocks him into a cauldron of molten gold.

They escape the castle/ship, which lifts off, but still doesn't have enough gold to get it into orbit and is now threatening to explode, taking half of England with it. They take the golden arrow and fire it at the ship, giving it just enough gold to make it. Afterwards, the Doctor and Robin have a chat about being legends. Even if you don't plan on becoming a hero, Robin says, "perhaps others will be heroes in our names." The Doctor and Clara board the Tardis, and Robin is greeted by the mysterious woman from the dungeon, who turns out to be his love Marian.

This episode was entertaining, but I found the climax to be a tad absurd. They somehow hit the right spot on the ship a hundred feet in the air with a golden arrow, which just happens to give it just enough gold to get it into orbit, even though the ship was only at 85%? Whatever you say, Steven Moffat.

Doctor Who Recap -- 08/30

Today I'm starting a new segment in which I give a synopsis of this week's Doctor Who for those who missed it. Spoiler alert!

In tonight's episode "Into the Dalek," the Doctor saves an outer space soldier named Journey Blue from dying. He takes her back to her ship Aristotle to find it was a medical vessel but has now been militarized to battle the Daleks. The commander takes the Doctor to see the one remaining patient, and he finds it's a Dalek. However, the prisoner gives a surprising declaration: "Daleks must be destroyed." Somehow this one has realized the rest of its kind is evil. Intrigued, the Doctor and Clara, along with several soldiers including Journey, shrink themselves down and go inside its head, whereupon the Doctor names it Rusty. Rusty explains that even after many years of Dalek destruction, it witnessed the birth of a star and realized life would always prevail. The Doctor, excited about finally finding a good Dalek, proceeds to repair Rusty's radiation leak. Unfortunately, this causes Rusty to go back to normal, and it breaks free of its confinement and starts killing everyone on board the Aristotle.

In order to help the others escape, one of the soldiers named Gretchen sacrifices herself and ends up meeting Missy, the mysterious woman from the season premier. Meanwhile, the Doctor laments that all Daleks are irreversibly evil. However, Clara convinces him otherwise. She believes that Rusty has the potential to be good, and together they journey to its brain to retrieve its suppressed memories and remind it of what it has lost. They succeed, but Rusty looks inside the Doctor's mind and sees his hatred for the Daleks, which it then adopts. Once again convinced that all Daleks are evil, Rusty helps them fight off a Dalek boarding party which arrived when it sent a signal after being repaired by the Doctor. The Daleks are defeated, but the Doctor doesn't consider it a victory; it was achieved through hatred and not goodness. They go to leave, and Journey asks to accompany them on their journey. But the Doctor is through with soldiers after this experience, and refuses.

Afterwards, the Doctor and Clara discuss the question he posed earlier: "Am I a good man?" She replies she doesn't know, but he wants to be, and that's what matters.

I feel this week's episode is solid. It's always enjoyable when the Daleks come to visit, and we got a little more insight into their nature. Peter Capaldi continues to impress as the new Doctor and I think he's going to do repeat. Also, the continuing mystery of Missy is keeping me intrigued, and I can't wait to see where they're going with this.