One of my favourite episodes is Into the Dalek where the Doctor tries to find out if he is a good man or not, and explores this through a malfunctioning Dalek, Rusty, who wishes only to battle other Daleks. Ultimately the Doctor declares defeat, as Rusty is motivated by the Doctor’s own hatred and rage against the Daleks, the very same resources that the Daleks are bred to use to fuel their domination over the universe.
The episode ties into the 9th Doctor’s episode “Dalek”, where another Dalek (as a compliment) says that the Doctor “would make a good Dalek”, clearly meaning that the Doctor would make a strong soldier, full of hatred and evil. I always interpreted Rusty’s comment “you are a good Dalek” to be the continuation of this, that not only would the Doctor make a good Dalek, he is one.
However, I just rewatched the clip where the Doctor and Rusty part ways and I wonder if perhaps the scene should be interpreted in another way. The Doctor admits his ultimate defeat and declares that “You looked into me and saw hatred. That’s not victory. Victory would’ve been a good Dalek”, clearly meaning a Dalek that is “good”, not one who is good at being a Dalek. To which Rusty replies, “I am not a good Dalek. You are a good Dalek”.
Did Rusty mean that the Doctor, even with his anger, flaws and hatred, making him the same as a Dalek, is able to be good and indeed is, or did Rusty (as I’ve long believed) mean that the Doctor is good at being a Dalek?
I think the opening question "am I a good man?" is asked because the Doctor knows that going into the Dalek will give him a unique position of power.
In all of his history, the question repeats: what happens when you give people power? And considers how the outcome varies based on whether they are "good" or "bad" people.
He can see things going terribly if he is a "bad" man given this position of power, and he's scared. Then it turns out he's right to be scared: his hatred empowers the Dalek to be "evil". If the Doctor was "good" enough to forgive the Daleks, sharing his mind would have had a different impact.
The specific question you ask about what that statement should mean? I don't know. I believe that, because of the events of the episode, the Doctor interprets it as a damnation - an attack on him for meeting all the ideological requirements of a race that prioritises the destruction of anything "other". If the statement were made at another time, when the Doctor was in a different mental state, he'd have heard it differently.
I really like that a lot. The Doctor uses the phrase "good dalek" to mean a dalek who has more goodness than badness, and Rusty is correcting him by telling him that that's what the Doctor is - someone with a lot of hate and rage who still does far more good than harm. But the Doctor probably interprets this as "good at being a Dalek", and the interplay of those two opposite interpretations encapsulates the Doctor's identity struggles throughout series 8.
Hard to say if this was the intention, but I really like it.
Isn’t that interpretation cemented in season 10 though when The Dalek tries to exterminate him because he’s against daleks and he thinks the doctor is a good dalek?
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Well, from Rusty’s perspective, aren’t these kind of the same thing? From looking at the script it looks like the only person who sees Rusty as good is the Doctor himself, but I’m not sure he is really— Rusty’s goal is just “Kill all the Daleks because I hate them.” If you’re a good Dalek, you kill all the Daleks, because you hate them. But isn’t that a questionable morality in itself?
If you thought that then you might read the episode as the Doctor having lost track of what good even is, and the fact he’s identified Rusty as good as troubling in itself. I think he’s referred to unambiguously as a Good Dalek in loads of ancillary material? But maybe it’s more interesting if that’s a questionable label in itself.
No, he explicitly doesn't recognize Rusty as a good. "That's not victory. Victory would've been a good Dalek"
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I think the Fantastic Voyage trope was ok but a silly concept wasted on the Daleks. I thought An Interview with a Dalek would have been way better for someone of Capaldi's caliber.
I see beauty, I see wonder, I see… hatred! I see your hatred of the Daleks and it is good! -Rusty
No there must be more than that, please! -The doctor pleading that he has more in him than hate.
The doctor had someone peer into his soul, and his worst fears about himself were confirmed.
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Cass: "Who can tell the difference anymore?!"
I won't do philosophy here, just storytelling.
Any good story leaves room for interpretation. That's one of the things that makes a good story, it doesn't spoon feed you the meaning. People are still arguing over what Frankenstein's monster meant in his final speech. .