"Would you still love me, if I were a worm?" - Albert Einstein, 1932

What is there to say about The Daleks Chase Walter the Worm? Some art speaks for itself. And yet despite this, it is only human nature to dissect and analyse art under a microscope. To break it down both into its component parts and its artistic merits. It's never enough for The Daleks to only just Chase Walter the Worm. We must understand why. We must understand how.

Before I delve into this further, what I appreciate here is the ambiguity of the piece. We know that The Daleks are bad guys, this has been established over the past 62 years of this show, and we know that Walter the Worm is a worm. And we know that the Daleks are Chasing him. But why? Why would all powerful, all hating creatures such as the Daleks go after one measly worm? What did he do to them? Did he do something to upset them? Also there are multiple Daleks after one worm. We know that only one alone is enough to destroy a world. So what did he do? How powerful is this worm to be a threat to more than one Dalek? Did he ally himself with The Doctor? Let's table this for now. I have a theory.

How evocative is this piece though? In only 10 seconds, it communicates this ambiguity and leaves you wondering these questions. It doesn't just start en media res. It ends that way too. And yet in this vertical slice, we understand that The Daleks are mad. They are yelling Exterminate. We understand that they are chasing Walter the Worm. We understand that he is a worm.

What's interesting though is that they are only chasing him. Despite yelling Exterminate, they are not shooting at him. Maybe Walter needs to be captured? Perhaps the Daleks are chasing not only He, but somebody else who is shown off screen?

There are so many ways to interpret this.

It fascinates me that the sun is smiling. It wants this chase. It wants Walter dead. Is it an ally to The Daleks? How did The Daleks get the sun on side? How can humanity survive if even the sun is against us? Frightening existential questions are raised.

I also appreciate that the 10s loop clues us, the viewers, into the fact that this is a time loop. Walter will never be caught. The Daleks will never exterminate him. There's a safety and comfort to that. I also interpret this as being a metaphor for the art of art itself. You can chase your dreams but you should never reach your final goal, if you want to keep your passion. The true passion is in the chase, the process, the improvement. Never stop chasing. Never stop improving. Never catch Walter the Worm.

On a more literal level though my theory is that Walter the Worm is the 17th Doctor, having regenerated from David Tennant.

I'll be thinking of this piece for a long time. There are so many layers to it. Will Walter ever escape? If he dies, will be turn into two worms? Was this foreshadowing for the bigeneration? What is art? Why do we analyse it? Who am I? Who are you? Why are you in my house?

All important questions raised by this pinnacle of the art form. The most important story in Doctor Who history.