(785) Asylum of the Daleks

Everyone was told that Jenna Coleman would be joining the show however no one expected her to join in this episode. It was something that was hidden from most of the internet and the TV guides. I think that more attention was given that the show was returning and so were the Daleks. Today is the 974th day for Matt Smith as Doctor and he overtaken Sylvester McCoy, Patrick Troughton and Peter Davison and is just fifteen days away from overtaking Colin Baker and become the fifth longest serving Doctor.

This is a season that is split over two years. The first run of episodes is five episodes long and finished at the end of September 2012. There is a Christmas Special and then the series resumes at the end of March where the show has traditionally being. This is the Amy/Rory part of the season although it is memorable for the introduction of Oswin Oswald.

The episode opens with a huge building that looks like a Dalek and it’s revealed to be Skaro and this is the first time we visit Skaro since 1979’s Destiny of the Daleks. The Doctor is lured to meet someone who has a eye stalk coming out of their head. When Amy and Rory appear they are on the brink of divorcing and both Amy and Rory suffer the same fate. They soon find themselves in the Parliament of the Daleks which I think is a wonderful idea. An even better idea is that the Daleks want the Doctor to help them instead of exterminating the Doctor. They want the Doctor to turn off the force field surrounding the Asylum so they can destroy it.

The Daleks in the Parliament are the pre-2010 Daleks but there are also a few of the 2010 versions which shows that they are slowly being wiped out of the shows history. One of the reasons I was looking forward to this episode was that it would feature all the different versions of the Daleks going right back to the 1963 version. My favourite is also in this story as it’s the 1988 Gold and White livery.  There is a room called intensive care and it features Daleks from Spiridon (Planet of the Daleks), Kembel (Daleks Master Plan), Aridius (The Chase), Vulcan (Power of the Daleks), Exxilon (Death to the Daleks). They are Daleks that survived an encounter from the Doctor.

This episode is a lot lighter in tone than the previous series but that doesn’t mean that the story doesn’t have creepy moments. The first being all the skeletons that have become Daleks. The next being rusty Daleks moving around which is helped by the low lighting. Dalek stories should always have this level of creepiness and one of the most creative Dalek stories of the new era.  

There is a nice mystery about Oswin because she seems to know everything and all the schematics of the underground Asylum. The revelation that she is actually a Dalek is one that I didn’t see coming although its rather clever. It was a great performance from Jenna Coleman (or Jenna Louise Coleman as she’s credited at this time). She takes the unexpectedness of her debut and shows us how good she can be. I remember thinking that it’s a shame that she wont appear until the Christmas Special because she has been so good. It seems like Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are halfway out of the door because they don’t seem entirely there in terms of their performances. There is definelty something different about them but it feels like they are slowly being phased out.

Nicholas Briggs does a good job in making the Dalek sound more human and he is the only one who could do it bearing in mind he’s being doing it for over a decade.

Amy and Rory’s situation isn’t explained until towards the end when it’s revealed that Amy can’t have kids because of whatever happened at Demons Run. The scene where they discuss this is one of the few good moments involving these two during this part of the series.

This episode did what it should do and that is start the series with a bang. It is also the best use of the Daleks for quite sometime. I think that when people are hating on Steven Moffat, they clearly conveniently forget stories like this. Ok so there is a horrible reminder of his Dalek mistake but he shows that this was a blip and the story is a great one. The NEXT TIME trailer shows Dinosaurs (which on previous experience doesn’t generate warm confidence) and also the First Doctor (sort of!).