(759) Victory of the Daleks

It’s fair to say that the Daleks haven’t been exactly original since they came back. Dalek was quite good for being different but it seemed like Dalek stories afterwards have tended to rather middle of the road in terms of plot. It’s no secret that the Daleks are in this as Daleks is in the title and they were hinted at in the previous episode but the pre-title scene ends with the Dalek being revealed as the secret weapon that Winston Churchil uses and this is a good introduction for them.

This episode is rather controversial because Steven Moffat does the first thing that annoys certain Doctor Who fans. He tries to reinvent the wheel and redesign the Daleks. Not just a nip and tuck here and there but pretty much redesigns them by colour coding them. They look like a group of Teletubbies. Things start off so well when the Dalek makes its first appearance in army colours. It’s not just the colours but also the shape of them. They look completely odd looking from the back.

“I am your soldier” is Mark Gatiss’ nod to the Power of the Daleks when the Daleks say “I am your servant!”. The Doctor spends a while trying to convince Winston Churchill and Amy that the Daleks are bad and it doesn’t take too long for their true colours to show (forgive the pun). When the new Daleks are created the first thing that they do is to exterminate the old Daleks because they are not pure and are willing to be killed.

Ian McNeice plays Winston Churchill and does a great job. Not only does he look like Churchill but when he talks and the way he holds himself I believe that he is the former Prime Minister. It’s good how Churchill wants to use the TARDIS to help win the war. There is a nice bit of cheeky banter between Churchill and the Doctor. Bill Paterson plays Bracewell who seems like a nice scientist who ‘created’ the Ironsides but its soon revealed that they created him. He is used as a weapon by the Daleks and at the end the right thing happened when he survives and is pretty much given a new life. I thought that it was a nice bit of casting and worked in the episode’s favour.

Spitfires in Space is the sort of thing that TD would have come up with and I just think that it’s a step too far and doesn’t really work. That said it’s the only time that I got slightly frustrated with the story. The Doctor has to make a choice of saving humans or letting the Daleks go free. I think that this is a nice dilemma for the new Doctor and one that is handled well.

After being slightly disappointed with The Beast Below, I am happy that to report that things are back on track. Apart from the dodgy new Dalek design, this story is rather interesting and has some interesting moments. The performances are good from Matt Smith and Karen Gillan and the writing from Mark Gatiss is of the same calibre that we have had from his previous episodes. The NEXT TIME trailer reminds me that the Weeping Angels are set to make a return and that’s something to look forward to.