Doctor Who 7.1. Asylum of the Daleks

[selenak]

Which was enjoyable, though I'm scratching my head as to several logistics. Also THANK YOU MOFFAT for not bringing the dreadful iDaleks from Victory of the Daleks back but giving us the genuine article. And I'm going back and thro as to whether this is the first New Who story since Dalek way back in s1 that was able to deliver some genuine creepy moments for the pepperpots.



To start with the nitpicking so I can end on a high note: I'm not sure whether Daleks (not Davros, not out-on-a-limb isolated offshots, but genuine Daleks) fully converting humans into Daleks (as opposed to using them as tools) works given the crazed racism and purity insistance is sort of a premise for the entire species. (Also, I was confused how the Doctor could be on Skaros at the start given that Seven blew it up and in Daleks in Manhattan did have a scene confirming in New Who, it's still blown up, but okay, time travel, it's Skaros before Seven blew it up.) In non-Dalek matters, the temporary Amy/Rory break-up is a bit dodgy in that it's classic misunderstanding by wrong communication and smacks of artificiality (hence also the easy resolution once they actually communicate), but while I'm sure Amy having infertility issues will be decried as another example of the Moff's sexism, I actually think it works as a delayed reaction to the kidnapping, birth and baby stealing that happened to her in s6. Since I had issues with s6 not giving us much Amy (and Rory) reaction to the whole stolen baby/Mels/River emotional mess at all, I'm all for getting it before the characters leave the show.

Moff, will you stop it with the "Doctor Who?" jokes? I still don't think they're cute.

On to the good stuff. Exxxxxcellent fake-out with Oswin; I genuinenly did not see the Dalek revelation coming, and this despite the fact Moffat did it before (or something very similar, with CAL in the Library episodes). Despite my earlier complaint re: full human-to-Dalek conversion (that's what we have the Cybermen for, surely?) , it made for genuine emotional horror when the realisation struck, it had been fairly prepared with the Doctor bringing up the soufflé logistics or lack of same repeatedly, as well as the question why Oswin wasn't converted by Nanotechnology. Given that the actress has been announced as the next Companion, of course, and given she didn't play a minor role (like Freema and Karen did before getting cast as Companions) but one showcased in this episode, I'm assuming she won't play another character. Which means that either the Doctor is going to meet Oswin in reverse order a la River, or Moffat has a new card up his sleeve. We'll see. Either way: I'm intrigued. And cautiously gratified we'll have, at long last and for the first time since Five's time, a main Companion who isn't from contemporary earth.

I really liked the reveal that the Doctor had given Amy his bracelet already when she and Rory ware arguing who gets to sacrifice themselves for the other. It was a beautiful show, not tell about his prioritizing his Companion over his own life, and done in an unpretentious way. Of course, "Time Lord biology" is a bit handwavy an explanation as to why the nano technology didn't work on him before they got off-Asylum, but fine.

The Dalek in charge (forget the newest title - Chancellor?) and his zinger about the Dalek's admiration for the purity of hatred being the reason why they never got around to killing the Doctor made for good Dalek-Doctor repartee.

Given the opening monologue by the tool-ized woman and Oswin's later log adressing her mother, I was expecting them to be mother and daughter though the ages of the actresses don't really match, and was surprised there was no further reference. Though maybe in true Moffat fashion there will be some in a later/earlier episode when the Doctor encounters Oswin again.

The ongoing Nina-Rory gag was a good way of establishing Oswin as, like River and Jack, another Moffat character swinging at the least two ways.

No "crack" or "little girl" annoyingness set up so far, thank you, by which I mean: nothing that requires ooc behaviour for the Doctor to ignore when it's not an arc episode and for the format to continue.

Okay then: next week, Nefertiti. My standards for DW taking on Egyptian queens has been set very high by Erinem and the audios. Let's see how tv does it!

Comments

[kalypso]

Thanks for a more plausible explanation of Amy's behaviour - trauma and guilt about losing Melody would give her some sort of motivation, which can then be grafted on to her record of expressing her love for Rory by taking drastic action without consultation (the "suicide" at the end of Amy's Choice) and her guilt about his various deaths and the two-thousand-year wait (expressed in the nightmare House creates for her in The Doctor's Wife). stoplookingup has managed to tie in the modelling, too...

There's a nice piece on the Radio Times site in which Katy Manning responds to the episode. I'm really pleased by her remarks about Davros - I liked his original appearance, and don't mind him as an occasional guest, but got very bored at the point where we couldn't have Daleks without Davros. I think part of what's going on is that they think Daleks can't act - it was noticeable last night that the puppet mother went on addressing the Doctor and giving him instructions at a point where it would have made more sense for a proper Dalek to do it. So they keep trying to get Dalek-humans into the story (culminating in the Manhattan hybrid which just looked silly). But I'm not sure why Moffat is doing it (except that, as you said, it made a great final twist here) when this piece suggests he does get Daleks: "They look like they're machines, and they're really, really cross. Cross machines! That's brilliant. When you see a Dalek its eye starts waggling, it's normally shaking backwards and forwards as it talks. It does things – and I can't think of any other robotic monster that you can have a reaction shot of."

[legionseagle]

I liked stoplookingup's analysis in general but I was pretty horrified by both her attitude to Amy modelling and that I've seen elsewhere on the blogosphere (probably reinforced by Rory's appalling "pouting at a camera" line). I may be being disproportionately influenced by the fact that O's girlfriend is hoping to use modelling to finance her way through University without a debt burden, but the casual assumptions not just about the industry - which is a worrying place, certainly, from everything I've heard - but about models which are being chucked about have caused a bit of eye-brow raising in these parts.

[selenak]

I haven't read the post in question yet, but I'm sadly unsurprised there is internet snobbery against modelling. As someone who modelled a bit as a child and teenager because my parents are friends with a photographer and she used me for some children's fashion assignements she got, I happen to know not just theoretically it's hard work. So boo, hiss on anyone looking down on models!

[selenak]

"Cross machines" is a marvelous way to describe the Daleks!

Thank you for linking the Katy Manning article, it was a delight to read. Re: Amy channelling her guilt(s) and trauma - I hadn't even thought there was another explanation, it seemed fairly self evident to me, but then I've been waiting for eons for the narrative to acknowledge outside of dvd extras that Amy between having her past and memories rewritten multiple times, having Rory and her parents in and out of her life said multiple times as well, the kidnapping, birth and Melody = Mels = River revelation really should be allowed to show some reaction.

[skywaterblue]

I still expect Oswin and the mother to be connected, I think.

I am now 100% convinced this season ends with Amy and Rory getting a time-rewritten Melody back.

[selenak]

Even though that would negate River's entire existence as River?

[skywaterblue]

Sometimes I believe that will be the tragic kick of the Moffat years, but then I remind myself that he can't even bring himself to keep the one-off dad character in the Christmas special dead.

So I think there must be a trick to it we're not seeing yet, like the Doctor gives a regeneration up to River's body in the Library and she regenerates into a baby who doesn't remember anything with her memories preserved in the Library.

[watervole]

I think they'll get to bring up their grandchild when River dies. The Doctor may have been a father before, but the Tardis is not a safe place for a small child.

[skywaterblue]

Susan! Now, that is timey-wimey.

[nenya_kanadka]

I was pretty meh on this episode overall (mostly because I felt like they were making Amy a damsel in distress (bleh!) and the breakup between her and Rory was so sudden and unexplained, given that they were happy the last time we saw them), but I was glad they let her have some reaction to what happened on Demon's Run. I mean, it still bugged me that it was framed as "having babies for your man is the most important thing," but Amy absolutely was due some onscreen emotional reaction to the River/Melody events. Just going home and having a happily ever after wouldn't be realistic.

And ooh, Oswin is played by the new companion's actress? I didn't know that! I liked her a lot. I will be so pissed off if that ends up being the end of her arc, though (like if she's the new companion and then ends up becoming a Dalek and dying). But hey, timey-wimey, things could be fixed I suppose. If this is the new companion, I have high hopes for enjoying her episodes. She's clever and cute without annoying me. And, indeed, not from modern London! And possibly bisexual (woohoo!).

I'm generally bored by Daleks of late--and do feel like if you want to go for the Borg angle, that's what Cybermen are for--but I gotta say that scene where Amy saw the Daleks as people, including the little girl twirling in a tutu, gave me chills up my spine.

Still annoyed at large bits of this episode (seriously, show, can you stop with traumatizing all the women? it's not The Doctor And Rory Save Amy Show, okay? *grumble*) but yours is the first positive review I've seen and it's pointed out some good sides of the episode. Thank you! :-)

[selenak]

And ooh, Oswin is played by the new companion's actress? I didn't know that!

Yes. I'm generally unspoiled for the season, but reading British papers means you had a photo of the actress and a subline reading "the new Companion" pretty much everywhere during one particular week. I didn't read the articles themselves, mind, but seeing the photo was inevitable.

yours is the first positive review I've seen

As I have both Moffat fans and Moffat enemies on my flist, I have read a good deal more by now. (I myself am Moff neutral, meaning I like some and dislike other elements of his oeuvre.) boji and andraste, for example.

[nenya_kanadka]

"Moff neutral" is a good way to put it. :D I like how he plays with time (the order in which the Doctor saw stuff, River saw stuff, and I saw stuff as the viewer: all different! was fantastic), but occasionally I'll facepalm hard.

I'd seen a picture of the new girl and thought her pretty, but forgot exactly what she looked like (dark hair was all that stuck) and it hadn't occurred to me that they'd bring her in at all before she actually officially joined up. So this is a pleasant surprise. :)