4. 'Top Layer, If You Want To Say A Few Words...' - Into The Dalek
Before the series started, showrunner Steven Moffat described Capaldi's version of the character as the 'kick-up-the-a**e' Doctor. A rendition of the Time Lord who could shock and surprise us, after two, generally nice, 'boyfriend Doctors' in Messrs Tennant and Smith. What with the death of the Half-Face Man, it didn't take long for Moffat to be proved right. And an even better example came in the very next episode. When the Doctor, Clara and a team of soldiers venture inside a Dalek, they are cornered by the metal meanie's antibodies. Taking hold of the situation, the Doctor throws one of the soldiers, Ross, a capsule and tells him to swallow it. Ross does and is immediately killed by the anti-bodies, allowing the others to escape. The pill, the Doctor claims, was not to save the apparently already-doomed Ross but to track the signal to the place where the Dalek stores the protein it has 'hoovered' up. While this is still pretty callous, it gets worse when the group find the refuse disposal and the Doctor answers the question of whether Ross is here with 'yeah, top layer, if you want to say a few words.' It's a snappy line, sure, but a very cold thing for the Doctor to say. It's certainly a far cry from David Tennant's decree of 'I'm sorry' to every person he failed to save. This new Doctor here showed himself thoroughly unpredictable - something that has made the show all the more interesting to watch.
