Our Doctor Who Series 5 coverage continues with Episode 3: Victory of the Daleks. So, does the first meeting between the 11th Doctor and his greatest enemies live up to the hype?

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A FULL PLOT SUMMARY AND IS SPOILER-HEAVY.  READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK!

SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD…SPOILERS AHEAD

DALEKS!!!!! IN WORLD WAR II!!!!! WITH WINSTON CHURCHILL!!!!!

Set your geek meters to 11 because here we go with one of the biggest fan service episodes in the history of Doctor Who. This episode continues immediately after the end of Episode 2. Having been called by Churchill, the Doctor arrives in World War II London.

The Doctor and Amy arrive in the TARDIS at the Cabinet War Rooms during The Blitz of the Second World War, one month after Winston Churchill requested the Doctor’s help in the war effort. As the Doctor arrived late, Churchill turned to the scientific advances of Professor Edwin Bracewell, including robotic devices they call “Ironsides” but recognized immediately by the Doctor as Daleks. The Doctor tries to understand their purpose in being on Earth at this time, but they continue to act as Bracewell’s inventions, ready to serve Britain’s war efforts. Angrily, the Doctor attempts to destroy the devices, shouting “I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks!” Unbeknown to the Doctor and the humans, a single Dalek ship is in orbit near the moon; upon hearing the Doctor’s “testimony”, the Dalek aboard uses it to activate a “Progenator Device” and alerts its comrades on Earth. The Daleks reveal their intent and turn hostile, killing several guards and exposing Bracewell as an android before transmatting to their ship. The Doctor follows in the TARDIS, leaving Amy behind for her protection.

The Doctor learns that the ship escaped the destruction of the Crucible (“Journey’s End”), but having traveled through time and nearly drained of energy, the Daleks sought to restart the Progenator containing pure Dalek DNA to recreate their race. They engineered the Bracewell android in order to bring the Daleks to Churchill as weapons of war, and thus eventually drawing the Doctor to them; the Progenator would only activate when the Doctor’s testimony proves to it that the impaired Daleks are of that race. The Doctor threatens to destroy the ship, including himself, before the Progenator completes, but the Daleks fire an energy ray at London that turns on all the lights in London during an air raid, leaving the Doctor’s allies vulnerable and creating a stalemate. Shortly, five new, more powerful Daleks emerge from the Progenator chamber, and disintegrate the older “inferior” models who were willing to allow this, knowing that they were not “pure” Dalek. At the same time, Amy convinces Churchill and Bracewell to use the technology know-how he has from the Daleks to modify three Spitfires to make them space-worthy; the pilots attack and destroy the beam on the Dalek ship keeping the lights on, blacking out London before the city is destroyed.

As the Spitfires continue their attack on the Dalek ship, the Daleks initiate an oblivion device embedded in Bracewell that will destroy the planet. The Doctor races to Earth and, with Amy’s help, is able to convince Bracewell that he is more human than machine, deactivating the bomb. Their plan foiled, the Dalek ship quickly departs. The Doctor and Amy remove all the advanced technology borrowed from the Daleks despite Churchill wanting to use it for the war, and convince Bracewell that he need not be deactivated as he helped saved the world. As they leave, the Doctor ponders why Amy had not seen the Daleks during the abduction of the Earth (“The Stolen Earth”).

I don’t think I need to tell anybody how great this Episode was. Matt gives a tremendous performance in his first encounter with the Daleks, perfectly channeling the 900+ years of rage and fury that The Doctor has built up towards the Daleks. And, the anguish over the impossible choice he is given of whether to stop the Daleks or save Earth is remarkable. I think the plot device of the Doctor being used to bring back the Daleks was brilliant, and it adds a much more personal feeling to their next inevitable confrontation, because now the Doctor feels responsible since he allowed them to escape.  Also, I must confess to loving the look of the new Daleks. In addition to the return to the old color scheme and paradigm, which each color having a role, the size increase makes them tower over the other actors. Their increase in height and bulk has served to make them truly imposing and terrifying. And, it seemed only fitting,  since the Tenth Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver and TARDIS were destroyed with the advent of the Eleventh Doctor, that the Dalek design made famous in his era, should be “Exterminated” as well. I must confess that it was truly hilarious to see a Dalek carrying a tea tray in this episode. I am thrilled, with all the changes to the Daleks, that they saw fit to keep the fantastic Nicholas Briggs on as the voice of the Daleks. I would be very hard pressed to accept anyone else in that role.

I would also like to applaud the job done by Ian McNeice, who had the vary difficult job of portraying one of the Britain’s biggest heroes: Winston Churchill. McNeice’s  portrayal is amazingly even-handed, never becoming too much of a character. McNeice’s Churchill is willing to use the Daleks to win the war, not for glory, but in an effort to halt the senseless deaths that the war will cause. Also appearing is this episode is Bill Paterson as Professor Bracewell, a scientist with a secret. He believes he created the Daleks, or “ironsides” as he calles them. In fact, however, he is an android created by them. Paterson gives an extremely emotional performance, after his true nature is discovered, wondering what purpose his life has since it has been fabricated. The scene where Amy and the Doctor coax his human memories out to stop the bomb is one of my favorite in the series so far.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Amy does not know what a Dalek is! This is important because it means something has made her forget the events of “The Stolen Earth” and “Journey’s End”, which everyone on Earth should remember. This is addressed in a future episode

SPOT THE CRACK: You have to wait till the end of the episode to see it, but the crack in time is on the wall behind the TARDIS. It is only visible when the TARDIS is almost completely dematerialized.

This is one of my favorite episodes of the new series. The Daleks have an exciting new status quo, and I can’t wait to see what happens when next they appear, which is rumored to be in the finale for this series. In any case, the Doctor is now aware that the menace of the Daleks may be deadlier than ever.

Victory of the Daleks gets a 5 out of 5.

For more information visit:    BBC (UK) Episode Page or BBC America Episode Page

Here is a gallery of images from the Episode.

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