So here we are with series seven of Doctor Who, following on from the short five ‘Pond Life’ films, and we find the Doctor being called upon by the Daleks to save them from the breakout of dangerous, insane, Daleks from their asylum.
There have been a few changes since the end of series six. The Doctor Who titles have been tweaked slightly with a green tinge, nothing wrong there, but also have been given a change in logo which is, frankly, boring compared to the graphically clever previous one which was itself a vast, vast improvement on the RTD era logo.
Elsewhere Rory and Amy have split up – as hinted in the final ‘Pond Life’ short – and Amy has become a glamour model, which finally explains how she makes money and doesn’t just rely on Nurse Rory to bring home the bacon.
‘Asylum of the Daleks’ is a rip-roaring fifty minutes of sci-fi with many, many Daleks and many instances of danger and threat. The CGI used in the episode works well from the burnt out Skaro to the Dalek-human hybrids, and the twist of the Dalek’s in disguise as human’s works well, though whether it could become used in the same way as the Teselecta from series six remains to be seen. The opening scenes on Skaro were atmospheric and set the tone for a dramatic episode.
The Asylum planet of the Daleks was nicely realised with the snow as were the dingy, deteriorating corridors. Jenna-Louise Coleman was a surprise early appearance as a confused Dalek and unless she, like Karen Gillan and Freema Agyeman before her, is playing a different role, which I highly doubt, she obviously comes back in the Christmas special as a human. That was nicely weaved in though, to be honest, I didn’t realise it was her until the credits rolled so I missed that ‘ah’ moment and I’m not sure how many others would have twigged, or whether it would be better not twigging. To be honest, I hope her character adapts when she’s in properly as she was written like a younger River Song – though I like that character, we need something different – unless that’s intentional and I’m guessing future plot lines.
The erasing of the Daleks’ knowledge of the Doctor was a neat trick that, I’m assuming, leads into the big twist at some point of the oldest question in the Universe (Doctor Who?) or maybe it’s just another big reset switch; time will tell.
Overall it was an enjoyable, fast-paced re-introduction to the Doctor and his companions with highs lows and a cinematic break-neck speed. Matt Smith was on top form as always with his portrayal of the Doctor and Gillan and Darvill had their moments as the companions whose characters they seem comfortable now in portraying.
The break-up, potential divorce and re-connecting of Amy and Rory was emotionally done and the break-up of their relationship was handled as it would most likely play out, though the reunion was a little bit false but acted brilliantly considering, but was so quickly set-up, establishing and then dismissed it felt like an afterthought to the episode, unless it has further repercussions down the line. If you’re going to tackle something as serious and non-light-weight as a much-loved couple splitting up because the woman is infertile then you need to give it the justice of being properly built up. I know this is sci-fi and we don’t expect Alan Bennett levels of emotional drama, but neither is it Holby City.
The Daleks were given something interesting to do and the new Dalek-human hybrids were interesting, especially with the walking skeletons, though again these ideas have been recycled a little from previous stories and were a little underused in this episode. Moffat has said he is going for five big action-packed episodes and that they cram into one episode what the classic series would do in four, which is perfect for those with shorter attention spans, but I feel the ideas displayed would have had more breathing room in a two-parter.
But I am a big supporter of Moffat’s stories so far and it’s hard to judge a series on one episode, when he does have a tendency to weave threads in to come back later, but I enjoyed ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and am interested to see how it will connect with future episodes. It had emotional scenes, action scenes, suspense scenes and a neat little twist, though it was pretty obvious from the get-go that there was something about Oswin that wasn’t at face value, even if you didn’t get the actual twist, which I didn’t.
Not too shabby for a return episode and it had its fair share of comedy moments and emotional outpouring but could have been a better two-parter and, though the intention was this from what Moffat has said, it didn’t have the feel of a new series like the episodes that kicked off the last two had, rather more like the one-offs that David Tennant took part in in the twilight of his role.
(6.5/10)
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