S7E1: Asylum of the Daleks (SPOILERS)

From now on, ALL Daleks with missing pieces will be placed on ebay & advertised as "Asylum Daleks"

:P

This would've been so much better as a 2 parter.

Evil Monkey Pope wrote:

This would've been so much better as a 2 parter.

Possibly, but sometimes 2-parts get stuck with too much filler. What could they add, more running from classic Daleks?

Although the overall plot was extremely well-written and very clever, the Daleks were a bit pathetic. They're scared - whatever happened to "Daleks do not fear"? The messing with the Dalek's minds so they forgot the Doctor seems really really wrong.
I loved Jenna-Louise Coleman as Oswin, I spent the entire episode telling myself it couldn't be Jenna (even though I was 99% sure it was), so I'm glad I'm right, and we'll be seeing more of her.
Amy and Rory were very well done, I'm glad they didn't just get picked up by the Doctor and that they were unsuspecting. Their relationship has really developed which I'm glad of.
Overall, 9/10 - if the Daleks had been decently done, it would be an easy 10.

Oh, and the classic Daleks were pointless. If you're going to say "we're bringing back every Dalek ever", then I'd like them to be more than set dressing.

i wonder if there going to handle Clara the same way the Cylon Zoe character was handled on the Caprica tv series. as in they would shoot the same scene twice, one with the actual mechanical cylon and the other with the "human" zoe which is how she saw her herself.
so somehow she survives the events of this episode and is rebuilt and then at some point ends up being the 1st ever dalek companion. and maybe that's why moffat has been hyping her up so muich.

That. . . was. . .freakin. . .awesome!!!!!

A good story overall, but here what I'd have liked to have seen:

Spec Weap Dalek in action

More Classic daleks, because that was barely any classic daleks

And...


It would be weird if they did another dalek advenure where the Daleks don't remember the Doctor. I hope they regain their memories later.

Invisible Supreme wrote:

Spec Weap Dalek in action

Agreed.

Quote :

More Classic daleks, because that was barely any classic daleks

There wasn't going to be. The BBC isn't going to waste budget building brand new, HD friendly Classic Daleks that get used in a single episode. I've also heard the ones that were used were possibly museum pieces - likely why they weren't used outside the background.

Quote :

It would be weird if they did another dalek advenure where the Daleks don't remember the Doctor. I hope they regain their memories later.

I don't.

The Daleks knowing the Doctor has really hampered them as villains, in my opinion. The Dalek adventures of the first and second Doctors, as well as Genesis work so well - in my opinion - because of the fact the Daleks aren't busy looking over their shoulders for the Doctor. That lack of recognition will help the writing of future stories immensely, as the Daleks aren't going to see the Doctor as a special threat, meaning they aren't going to crap in their cans every time he pops in, drop everything, and try to kill him exclusively.



In any event, this part of the episode is bothering me.



Oswin Oswald's final scene - she looks dead at the camera with a knowing smirk. I can't believe this is not intentional. So what's the significance?

Hmm, Good points.

Rust:

I have three words for you:

Emerency. . .temporal. . .shift. . .

I'm not going to lie here guys.

I want a Friendly Dalek companion so bad.

0.0


That would be weird.

I suppose it COULD work. Like Kronos or whatever his name was, the cyberman that travelled with the.....eighth doctor?

thought it was great! good start to the new season!!

Invisible Supreme wrote:

0.0


That would be weird.

I suppose it COULD work. Like Kronos or whatever his name was, the cyberman that travelled with the.....eighth doctor?

Kroton.

Yes that would be cool, only problem would be entering and exiting the TARDIS

"Come in!"

"I CAN'T, MY FEN-DER IS TOO BIG!"

I must admit that I loved seeing a friendly Dalek actually helping the Doctor. But yes, Beep is right, how would a Dalek fit into the TARDIS?

Couldn't the mutant crawl around?

The little ballerina dalek cracks me up.

Heh, just realized - the Ballerina Dalek is a Classic Imperial.

I enjoyed that episode quite a bit and it really had some nice Dalek moments. Unfortunate that not many of the Classics featured prominently, but it is true that many of these were borrowed from the Doctor Who Experience and from fans so they did need to treated gingerly.

The bronze NSD Daleks are back as the default model and the hunchback Daleks have been relegated to set dressing. Hooray! The Daleks once again look like Daleks. Even with the slight reduction in the hump, the New Paradigm Daleks are still a funny shape and were mainly kept in the background. The word was that the BBC realized the New Paradigm wasn't a 100% success so they're quietly reverting to the last popular model. Eight new bronze NSD props means more of them for years to come.
BBC Behind the Scenes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmxKlUYjKuA

I liked the episode itself and its focus on the Dalek's hatred of the Doctor. Dalek zombies and Dalek agents were plenty scary. Waking up and finding yourself trapped in a Cyberman would be more "their thing", but it was done so well I'll overlook the whole Dalek genetic purity thing.

I'm now thinking that "Pond Life" could have focused more on the Rory/Amy troubles instead of just alluding to unspecified trouble in the 5th Part. But they were going for laughs and there's no way I'd have wanted to loose the Ood washing windows and packing Rory's lunchbox. The series opener actually works better if you haven't seen "Pond Life" and you're just ready to accept that a couple years have passed and Amy/Rory are having problems. Both "Life" and "Asylum" were good, but seem disjointed.

A Dalek as a companion? Logistically too tough for TV. The Dalek prop as pointed out above has trouble with the TARDIS doors. And Daleks are just all around difficult to maneuver everywhere else. I've been in a Dalek before and its a royal pain for the operator and a recipe for blind destruction on the sets (the big monsters really do accidently crush everything in their path). If the Dalek is really a good human who looks human 99% of the time then why bother with it really being a Dalek in disguise?

Is Jenna-Louise really going to be that sassy and clever once properly introduced? Almost as if she's being written as a female Matt Smith. Not sure how having two characters so similar is going to work out. Maybe the zaniness of one will get toned down?

Is it me or Karen Gillan looks Amazing better than usual wow.

I noticed the Usual OCD things they changed the intro Fonts in the Credits and a new Who logo.

Coming Soon: The Island of Misfit Toys is Attacked by the Island of Misfit Daleks

Spoiler:

Christmas 2012.

Rust wrote:

Heh, just realized - the Ballerina Dalek is a Classic Imperial.

you sure? Looks like the Evil of the Daleks emperor's guard to me.

beep wrote:

Rust wrote:

Heh, just realized - the Ballerina Dalek is a Classic Imperial.

you sure? Looks like the Evil of the Daleks emperor's guard to me.

I think Rust meant "Emperor's Guard" when typing "Imperial". Because that's certainly one of the Emperor's Guards from Evil of the Daleks used for the ballerina.

Either that or the Dalek was built using Imperial units instead of metric
Probably the first explanation. Anything to do with an emperor is often referred to as imperial.

rmlextreme wrote:

Is it me or Karen Gillan looks Amazing better than usual wow

Might be her having more make-up/better hair every season...you can really tell by looking at the past couple seasons, especially series 5.

I would've loiked a 2-parter to give it room to breathe. Much of it felt rushed & confusing. There were plenty of parts where it could've been expanded so that we could learn more about Dalek politics & their plans as well as up the spooky & suspensful.
I just didn't understand the Daleks here. What were they so afraid of that they needed the Doctor's help? None of the inmates seemed a threat because they were senile & Oswin only became dangerous to them once she started interacting with the Doctor. If the asylum planet has a forcefield made of nano-Dalek converters, they don't need to worry about the Alaska landing there. How'd the Alaska crash there if it has a forcefield? If they wanted to keep the crazy Daleks locked up, why'd they make it so the forcefield could only be opperated from the planet? Were the Daleks just lying to the Doctor about being afraid for theirspecies survival & respecting great hatred so they could kill all the demented Daleks?
It's problematic if the story doesn't make the motivations of one side clear & thinking about them later makes less sense. It would've worked better if the crazy Daleks of the asylum planet asked the Doctor to protect them from the Bastardry of the Moffat Daleks. This could've been a good opportunity to show to fans who hate the redesigns that the new Daleks are still imposing foes, but the RTD Daleks still get more screentime.
The other problem I had was the reason the Ponds split up. She can't have anymore babies so she kicks Rory out because he's always wanted babies? Why didn't they discuss that before escalating to divorce?
I'm not sure how I feel about Dalek -humans. At first I thought they were going to be Movellans. Converting people ws kind of the Cybermen's thing. Converting people to Daleks seems like it ought to be a more involved process than turning them into Cybermen but it was treated as no big deal. At least they're much better than Dalek Sec hybrid.
I liked the spooky atmosphere of this episode including the Fauvist colors of the title sequence. Amy waltzing with the Daleks was great. I didn't mind Skarro being a wasteland because this could be somepoint before the hand of Omega exploded it. I would've liked to see more of how the classic Daleks were insane rather than them just being broken. I wish the Doctor had used the SWD to open Oswin's door. Oswin erasing the Daleks' memories of the Doctor sets up an interesting new status quo. It makes sense with him hiding from the Silence (does being a time traveller make your death harder or easier to fake?) & will explain why they just don't execute him on sight next time they meet.

I thought this was a great episode, and I am NOT a huge fan of Daleks. I just find them somewhat boring. But they felt like a proper threat here, even though the ones in the Asylum were not in great shape and the ones in the Parliament were quaking with fear.

I was sad that I barely noticed the classic Daleks, though I'm sure they were kept in the background as they weren't HD ready. Still, it'd been nice to see a BIT more of them. Still, should be some fun "Where's Waldo" type watching later.

Having Clara appear through me for a loop. I kept thinking "wait, is that her? Isn't that her? It looks like her. Is this just an actress that looks similar to the other actress?" I was so confused! LOL. Having her look at the camera DOES make it seem that the line "don't forget me" will mean a lot later, for some reason. It does occur to me that neither the Doctor, Rory nor Amy ever saw what she looked like as a human. So it seems the Doctor won't recognize her right away once he meets her again.

I really liked her in her first appearance. She had a great sort of energy about her, though I do wonder about her zany-ness. I liked it, but Amy was already quirky. Matt is zany. Not sure if we need another zany companion. But who knows if she'll be exactly the same by the time she comes back?

The twist at the end was great and I didn't see it coming. I feel I should have. Something was obviously up... I just didn't see it.

So good to have new Who back! And this is quite a pleasant change from the decent, but often frothy and somewhat forgettable, openers we used to get.

I was a bit annoyed by the reason Amy and Rory broke up though. I kept wanting to scream.. Helloooo, adoption!