Rob Hull
Rob HullMonths of waiting pay off at last, as the Doctor, Amy and Rory get back in the TARDIS for new adventures. So, has Steven Moffat managed to do it again? The episode has aired, so it’s time for my verdict. Here’s my review.
FIGURES AND MORE EXCLUSIVE TV REVIEW
Show: Doctor Who
Episode #: 1
Title: Asylum of the Daleks
Writer: Steven Moffat
Cast:
Matt Smith (The Doctor)
Karen Gillan (Amy Pond)
Arthur Darvill (Rory Williams)
Anamaria Marinca (Darla)
Jenna-Louise Coleman (Oswin)
Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Daleks)
So, here it is. It’s been a long wait since Christmas, but at last the Doctor returns to our TV screens, at least for a little while. This series will again be split, with the first five episodes airing consecutively for the next five weeks, beginning this week. Then there will be a short break, followed by the Christmas Special. Following the Christmas Special, there will be another short break, followed by the transmission of the remaining eight episodes. This will mark the official start of the 50th Anniversary year. But, more on that later. For now, The Doctor is back! And, so are Amy and Rory, for now anyway, more on that later too. Also returning, after a brief rest, are the Doctor’s oldest and deadliest enemies, The Daleks. But, Steven Moffat has promised that this episode will make the Daleks scary again. And, boy does it ever, but maybe not in the way you expected.
The Episode begins with an extraordinary bit of fan service. with the Doctor attending a meeting with a mysterious woman inside of the head of a massive stone Dalek on SKARO! Yes, THAT Skaro. This is the first time in the new series that the original planet of the Daleks has been seen on screen. The woman, who is called Darla, asks the Doctor to help her daughter, who is supposedly in a Dalek prison camp. But, the Doctor smells a trap, and it turns out his suspicions are confirmed when Darla suddenly sprouts a Dalek eye stalk from her forehead and a Dalek gun from her hand, which looks as horrifying as it sounds. She fires at the Doctor and he falls unconscious as a Dalek saucer appears outside the window. Suddenly the familiar and chilling Dalek voice rings out “THE DOCTOR HAS BEEN ACQUIRED!)
The next shot we see is Amy doing a photo-shoot. She is a model now, remember? Her PA interrupts her to tell her that her husband is here. She replies that she doesn’t have a husband, which may come as a surprise to those of you who didn’t watch the “Pond Life” prequel. SO, you’re probably thinking “Where’s Rory?” And that question is quickly answered, as we go into the makeup room. Rory has come to get Amy’s signature on their Divorce Papers. She signs them and he leaves. Afterward the makeup lady comes in and tells Amy to sit in the chair for a touch-up. One light is flickering on the makeup table mirror to let us know something’s up. Amy doesn’t see it though. And, hey, guess what? The makeup lady? Yep, another Dalek Puppet. Same as the Doctor, we see and white light, and then that voice again “AMELIA POND HAS BEEN ACQUIRED.” Meanwhile, Rory has gotten onto a bus. An older gentleman turn around to look at him. Can you see where this is going? That’s right a flash of light and the voice: “RORY WILLIAMS HAS BEEN ACQUIRED.”
With all of the “acquiring” done, it’s time to see what this is all about. Rory wakes from`his stunning to find Amy standing next to him in a large circular room. Looking out the window, he can see several Dalek saucers. As he asking how much trouble they are in, the Doctor enters, accompanied by two of the “Bronze” Daleks This is the first time they have been seen since “Victory of the Daleks” in Series 5. The Doctor answers Rory’s question, with a typical “Doctor” line: “How much trouble? Out of ten? Eleven.”
Suddenly, the ceiling above them opens and the floor they are on begins to move. It is a platform that is raising them up. It stops in the center of a large room, where we see a VERY large collection of Daleks. We also see the TARDIS for the first time. The Daleks have brought it aboard the ship. And we meet up with Darla, the Dalek puppet from the beginning of the episode. the Doctor explains that this ship is the Parliament of the Daleks. In addition to the myriad Bronze Daleks, the Paradigm Daleks are also here, with the Dalek Supreme on a large dais along with a Dalek creature in a large tube, similar in look to Dalek Caan in the Series 4 finale “The Stolen Earth/ Journey’s End.” The Doctor, believing this is the end, strides forward and delivers the “Here I am” speech that has been part of every trailer. He closes his eyes and prepares for extermination, when he hears the voice of the Dalek creature in the tank, pleading with him to “SAVE US.” it goes on to tell the Doctor “YOU WILL SAVE THE DALEKS.” After which all of the Daleks begin chanting “SAVE THE DALEKS.” Smiling, the Doctor muses “This is new.” And, six minutes into the episode, we’re off to the NEW opening title sequence at last.
I’ll pause very briefly from the story here to talk about the new opening. I like the new opening. The color adjustment takes a little getting used to, but I am thrilled with the spooky new way that the actors’ names sort of “wave” in and out. I also love that the Main Title will be personalized for each story. I like the “Dalek Bump” version they have created for this Episode. That’s all I”m going to say about the title sequence. Now, back to the story.
The next thing we hear, is some soaring music from the Opera “Carmen.” Suddenly, a voice-over begins. It’s a fairly rambling monologue delivered by a surprising familiar face. Moffat’s biggest surprise of the episode turns out to have NOTHING to do with Daleks. This girl, in case you have been living under the Whoverse’s biggest rock, is Jenna Louise-Coleman, who is making her Doctor Who debut three months early. She is destined to become the Doctor’s newest companion, which will raise some really interesting questions when you get to the end of the episode. But, for now, just keep in mind that the most important part of this entire monologue is the souffle. Also, Daleks are at the door, insisting she let them in. In response, she turns up the music.
Back at the Parliament of the Daleks, the Doctor is trying to work out the situation. Amy explains all of his moves and actions to Rory, sounding every bit like the experienced traveler she is. Suddenly, the Supreme Dalek announces that they have arrived. Naturally, the Doctor asks where. Suddenly, a voice calls to the Doctor from behind him. The view shifts to show a Dalek in a large cylinder, who sounds a bit like Dalek Caan from Series 4. We are told this is the Dalek Prime Minister, which, quite honestly, sound pretty civilized for Daleks. Anyway, the Dalek Prime Minister asks the Doctor what he knows of the Asylum? It turns out it is a dumping ground for Daleks that have gone wrong. All the Daleks inside are either flawed or insane. Isn’t all this exposition wonderful? This s scene also really allows Matt Smith to play up the hatred the Doctor has for the Daleks. The Doctor is told that the Daleks think hatred is beautiful. How twisted is that? So, what do the Daleks need the Doctor for? AND NOW, THE PLOT!
It turns out there is a signal coming from the heart of the Asylum, which occupies an ENTIRE PLANET! The signal is put through on the Dalek saucer. It is the Carmen music we heard earlier. The Doctor decides to talk to the sender. Guess what? It’s the young lady from two paragraphs ago. Her name is Oswin Oswalt and she has been crashed for a year. She knows the lifeforms outside are Daleks. The Doctor asks her what she has been doing against them for a year, to which she replies “making souflees.” The Doctor asks her “where’d you get the milk?” Remember that he asked this, because in true Steven Moffat fashion, it will be important later. It turns out the Daleks need the Doctor to go down and turn off the force field so that they can obliterate the Asylum. All of the Daleks are scared to go down there, so the Daleks kidnapped the Doctor, whom they call “the Predator of the Daleks’, a term the Doctor bristles at. It turns out they kidnapped Amy and Rory because their records indicate the Doctor must have companions. The three of them will be transported to the Asylum using a gravity beam, which will essentially “fire them at a planet.” They are all fitted with special wristbands to protect them from the “nano-cloud”, which will also be important later. So, keep it in mind. Amy, by the way, seems more excited by this mission than both Rory and the Doctor COMBINED. Which kind of makes you wonder how boring her normal life really is. So, down the chute they go.
On the surface, which is covered in snow, by the way, a man is working on the outside of a ship, when he is interrupted by three separate screams, coming from three separate gravity beams. He lays down his tool to investigate. Amy wakes up first and finds the man staring at her. He tells her his name is Harvey. Startled, she starts to run away. Meanwhile, the Doctor wakes up just in time to see a Dalek “periscope” come up though the snow. Suddenly, some familiar music comes through the speaker, followed by a familiar voice. Oswin has managed to hack Dalek technology. The Doctor is reunited with Amy, and they go to try to find Rory.
Rory, of course has fallen down a hole and has landed inside the Asylum itself. Lucky devil. He gets to his feet and horror of horrors, he is surrounded by dormant Daleks.I am calling this scene EVERY DALEK EVER: PART 1. See how many you can spot. Anyway, Rory takes out his tiny torch and begins to look around.
Harvey takes the Doctor and Amy back to his escape pod, which came down 2 days ago, according to him, along with 12 others. They discover that the pod came from the same ship as Oswin, but the Doctor notes that she says that she has been here for a year. Down in the pod, as Harvey is looking for climbing rope, the Doctor and Amy notice the crew of the ship is still in their seats. When the Doctor examines the crew, he finds out that they are all dead, and have been for some time. Harvey suddenly remembers, he died outside and the cold preserved his body. Suddenly, Harvey begins to convulse. Guess what? That’s right. If you’ve been following along, you probably know what happens next. You guessed it. Harvey is now a Dalek puppet, eye stalk and all! The Doctor uses a fire extinguisher to disorient Harvey and he and Amy lock him in one of the escape pod’s rooms. Suddenly, the Doctor understands what the nano cloud is. As he’s explaining it to Amy, she hits on the “living or dead” portion of the explanation. As if on cue, the other crewmembers rise as one and all display their shiny new eye stalks. They manage to fight their way through to the cockpit and seal the door, but not before one of the Dalek zombies rips Amy’s wristband off, though she doesn’t know it yet. Once the cockpit door is sealed, Amy admits she has missed being in danger with the Doctor. Oswin interrupts to tell them that there is a breach in the floor she can see with her scanners. The Doctor is again mystified with her unnatural hacking prowess. As they are opening the hatch, the Doctor and Amy talk about her and Rory’s falling out. Amy tells him it’s not something he can fix. The get the hatch open and find a ladder, which leads down into the Asylum. The zombies start banging on the door showing them Amy’s bracelet, which she now relaizes is missing from her arm. As they face the newest development, we check back in on Rory.
Rory is still exploring the chamber full of decrepit Daleks. He absentmindedly turns the head of one of the Daleks, only to have it turn back on its own. Rory is now in a room full of Daleks that are WAKING UP! The one Rory was examining is keen to show him how well its gun works, which ti turns out is pretty well. I don’t know if there can be a more terrifying sound in the world of Doctor Who than the sound of a room full of dormant Daleks waking up, especially as they stutter towards their full battle cry: “EGGS, EGGS …EX ….. TER ……MI …..NATE! ….EX.TER.MI.NATE! ….EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” The bolts are flying fast and furious and Rory is trying to dodge as best he can, even executing a nifty little roll. Suddenly, he hears Oswin’s voice and she opens a door for him. he finds himself in a corridor, unsure of where to go. Rory’s fine for now, let’s check in on the Doctor and Amy.
On the way down the ladder, Amy asks the Doctor to describe what is going to happen now that she’s lost her wristband. He explains that the conversion begins with feelings and memory and that it has already started, because they have had the conversation four times. Amy says she’s scared, which the Doctor says is good, because it’s “not Dalek.”
Meanwhile after he wanders into another dimly lit corridor, Oswin directs Rory into a room with a large glowing white circular platform in the center, after she flirts with him a little. She tells him he’ll be safe there.
The Doctor and Amy have arrived at the door to the room Rory fell into from the Gravity beam. The Doctor opens the door, hears the numerous Dalek voices and closes it immediately, telling Amy not to open it.
As the Doctor speak with Oswin, Amy gets a headache. Oswin sends the Doctor a map and informs him that she has found Rory and has put him somewhere safe. The Doctor wonders why he can’t see Oswin. Meanwhile, Amy, suffering from hallucinations, disobeys the Doctor’s only instruction and opens the door. AS he hears the door open, the Doctor asks Oswin how many Daleks are directly ahead of him. Finding out the number is around 20, he rushes into the room to find Amy hallucinating. She thinks she is seeing people. When the Doctor asks her to look again, she sees clearly the ROOM FULL OF DALEKS! As they run from the room, a Dalek begins to follow. They reach the ladder , but discover that the zombie crew from the escape pod are making their way down. The Doctor and Any hide in the alcove where Oswin sent the Doctor the map. After listening to the Dalek and waiting a bit, the Doctor steps out to find that the Dalek’s gun doesn’t function and the sucker arm is broken. Confident, the Doctor emerges and asks the Dalek to identify him, which the Dalek does using the “Predator” designation. The Dosctor asks what the standing orders concerning the Predator are. The Dalek says he must be destroyed. The Doctor taunts the Dalek asking how the Dalek plans to do it. In response, the Dalek activates his self destruct sequence, which is exactly what the Doctor wants. The Doctor opens the casing and puts the Dalek into reverse. The Dalek skids backwards into the room full of Daleks and explodes, starting a chain reaction which takes them all out. Feeling the tremor from the explosion, Rory walks back into the Dalek room, which is now filled with smoldering Dalek shells. Now we have the other lines from the trailer that are destined to go down as some of the most quotable ever. Rory: “Who killed all the Daleks?” The Doctor: “Who do you think?”
Back in the “safe room”, The Doctor lays Amy down on the large white circular platform. She is asleep. She wakes up, and Rory asks her if she still remembers him. She slaps him, which he takes as a good sign. Oswin tells them that to make a human into a Dalek, they subtract love and add hate. The Doctor asks why she has not been converted, she says her room is shielded. He also asks about the asylum’s state of disrepair. Oswin says she has had a year to mess with them. The Doctor is amazed that she has been able to hack their systems. And, he again asks about the eggs for the souffles. Oswin has looked up the Doctor in the database and wonders about his designation as “Predator.” The Doctor replies that he is just a man with plan. He says they need to neutralize the Daleks, rescue Oswin, escape from the planet and fix Amy and Rory’s marriage. The Doctor tells Oswin about the Daleks in orbit and asks how fast she can drop the force field. The Doctor has worked out that this white round platform is a teleport which, if he boosts the power can transport them all to the Dalek ship. Oswin says she can drop the force field, as soon as the Doctor comes and gets her. The Doctor tells her to drop the force field and then come and join them. She doesn’t believe they will wait for her and insists he come and get her. The Doctor has no choice and he sets off to get Oswin, telling Amy and Rory to go without him if they have to. The Doctor tells Amy to not let the Daleks subtract love.
As the Doctor departs, Rory and Amy have the long-in-coming heart-to-heart. He tells her he will put his bracelet on her wrist since it will take them longer to convert hi. When Amy asks why he thinks that, he says that the basic premise of their relationship has always been that he loves her more than she loves him. To back this up, he cites his 200years waiting outside the Pandorica. She argues the point. He says that she kicked him out. She says he gave him up, because due to what happened at Demon’s Run when Melody was born, she can’t have anymore children. Rory tries to force his wristband onto Amy’s hand, but he discovers, to his surprise, that she is already wearing one. They both realize that it is the Doctor’s, and that he didn’t tell them because he need they would be forced to talk.
The Doctor tells Oswin he is getting close, and she informs him that he is about to enter Intensive Care. And, with that, it’s time for EVERY DALEK EVER: Part 2. The ones in this room are a bit worse off than the other ones. They are survivors of particular wars: Spiridon, Kempbell, Heridious. Vulcan and Exilon. The Doctor understands immediately, these are the Daleks that survived an encounter with him. Suddenly, one of the Daleks wakes up and recognizes him. “DOC TOR” the voice echoes around the chamber. At the sound, all of the Daleks begin waking up. The Doctor’s anxiety begins to rise as the Daleks begin to move and break their bonds. The Doctor finds a door, but Oswin can’t open it. The Daleks have him trapped and the Doctor begins to plead for Oswin to open the door. Suddenly, Oswin does something and all of the Daleks suddenly turn away. She tells the Doctor that she has hacked into the Daleks’ hive mind path web and deleted all information relating to him. In essence, she made them forget him. Then, she opens the door.
As the door opens, all of the pieces finally fall into place for the Doctor, unfortunately. The Doctor tell Oswin they have a problem. The Doctor asks Oswin if where she is looks real. He goes on to tell her that it is a dream, she created for herself, as the reality was too terrible to bear. She asks where she is. He unfortunately has to tell her that she is a DALEK! Show of hands, how many people saw this one coming? Anyway, Oswin vehemently denies that she is a Dalek, but the Doctor spells it out for her. She was human when she crashed, but the Daleks did a full conversion. The Doctor cites the milk and eggs for the souffle as the biggest clue. See, I told you it would be important. We see flashbacks of Oswin’s conversion as she continues to assert her humanity in the voice of a Dalek. Inevitably, the eggs turns into EXTERMINATE and as she corners the Doctor against the door, she breaks down. She asks the Doctor why the Daleks hate him. He says he’s fought them, but he’s trying to stop. She tells him that they have grown stronger in fear of him. She tells him to run, as she is bringing down the force field. She also tells him to remember her.
As soon as the force field is down, the Daleks above begin their attack. As the station is rocked by explosions, Rory asks Amy how long they can wait to use the teleport. “The rest of our lives” Amy answers. “Agreed” says Rory. They kiss and are still lip-locked when the Doctor enters. He hits the teleport button. Suddenly, a massive wave of missiles blows the planet sky high. Onboard the Dalek ship, the Supreme Dalek reports the Asylum destroyed. Suddenly a cry of alarm goes up as one of the bronze Daleks indicates an incoming teleport from the Asylum. The believe they are under attack. Suddenly, the Doctor’s voice fills the air. He tells the Daleks that he has pinpoint accurate aim with a teleport. He then emerges from the TARDIS. But, the Daleks do not recognize him. He rattles off their names for him: The Doctor, The Oncoming Storm, The Predator. But, the Daleks don’t recognize him. He realizes Oswin deleted him from the memory of EVERY DALEK! As the Doctor return to the controls and dematerializes the TARDIS, he leaves a ship full of Daleks asking “DOCTOR WHO?” This is how Moffat is making the Daleks scary again, and a true future threat. Because they don’t recognize him, the Daleks won’t be scared of the Doctor the next time they meet.
The Doctor drops Rory and Amy back at their house and Amy takes Rory back, which he is elated at. As the episode ends, the Doctor is mimicing the end of the last series asking three times the question which is on every Daleks mind and clearly enjoying his new-found anonymity: “Doctor Who?, Doctor Who? DOCTOR WHO?”
MY TAKE: Now THAT”s how you start a series. This is one of the best episodes of the since the revival. It is easily the best series opener. Matt Smith adds even more depth to his portrayal of the Doctor, as he shifts emotion from concern for Amy and Rory, to Anger when dealing with the Daleks on the ship, to abject terror when cornered by the Daleks in Intensive Care, to sadness and empathy when he discovers the truth about Oswin. It is also one of the few times we see the Doctor feeling helpless when he learns about Rory and Amy’s marital troubles. Speaking of Amy, Karen Gillan gives her strongest performance in this episode since “The Girl Who Waited.” Amy has clearly let herself get too used to life with the Doctor, and her “normal” life is suffering as result. She is getting addicted to the danger and that can only spell disaster in the end. Examples of her attachment to life include the practiced ease with which she describes the Doctor’s actions to Rory in the Dalek ship and the fact that when they are trapped in the escape pod she tells the Doctor that she has missed the danger. But, the biggest part of Karen’s performance in this episode comes from the emotional blowout between her and Arthur’s blowout scene in the teleport room, where we learn that Amy has suffered more than just having ehr baby taken from her at Demon’s Run. The fact that she can’t ever have kids again adds an additional emotional weight to Amy. One wonders if the Doctor knows? Also giving an amazing performance is Arthur Darvill. Rory has seen his idyllic life fall apart before his eyes, and now he has been kidnapped, along with the Doctor and Amy. Moments later he has traveled to an alien planet via gravity beam and has landed in a room full of Daleks. Moments later, he’s running for his life and Amy has been infected by a nanocloud and is being converted into a Dalek puppet. This situation forces a heart-to-heart about their relationship and what went wrong, which actually results, through the clever machinations of the Doctor, in their reconciliation. This episode for me, was really Rory coming into his own. He was more active in this episode than he has been in most, as he had a wide range of emotion. I am eager to see how Rory’s personality develop as we head towards the end of days for the Ponds. Also, a special note must be made of the job Nicholas Briggs did in voicing all of the Daleks in the episode. With a wide range of tones and inflections, he managed to give each version of the Dalek it’s own identity. It is not an easy job, but he makes it look effortless. Also, a very special welcome to Jenna-Louise Coleman, who nearly stole the episode as Oswin. Finally, thanks to Steven Moffat, for writing such a rip-roaring adventure and for delivering on his promises to include Every Dalek Ever and to make them scary again. I can’t wait to see, after the events of this episode, what the future holds for the Doctor’s greatest enemies, especially since they can’t remember that he is theirs.
SCORE: 5 out of 5
