7X01 Asylum Of The Daleks (Grading/Discussion) (SPOILERS!)

[davejames]

People think the Rory-Amy subplot had problems. It was the weakest part, but I found it a bit touching. Especially when Rory wants to give Amy his wristband.

Yeah I think that plot would have worked just as well (and been much more believable) if they were simply fighting and had gone their separate ways for a while.

To see them being super nasty to each other and signing divorce papers just felt way over the top.

 

[Brent]

I vote, Geronimo!

What a really strong opening for this new season, very strong indeed. One of the best Dalek episodes in nuWho yet. Had a nice eerie vibe to it that wasn't outright scary, but just creepy with all the ill-Daleks, loved that. And here I thought maybe they were doing too many Dalek episodes in nuWho, but when done well, it really isn't overdone at all.

I kinda suspected the woman at the end would be a Dalek, but I was thinking a human form Dalek, the fact she was made fully dalek was a surprise.

Still, even kinda knowing that little twist, the whole episode itself just came together real well. I loved seeing all the different Daleks. This felt like a nice ripe episode of the classic series, loved it!

Next week preview looks great. Finally some episodes that are away from Earth. We even got to see Skarro.

 

[Takeru]

Why are Amy and Rory still there? They were effectively written out as companions in The God Complex but they keep showing up ... will every episode of the first half of the series have a contrieved reason why they are part of the story? Why were they shown being dropped off at home this week when they're having another adventure next week anyway?
I didn't care for their divorce drama, I want them gone, but if Moffat insists on keeping them for a few more episodes he should just admit that they are still regular companions and not act like "the Doctor has a gazillion adventures alone or with other people, you just happen to see the ones involving Amy and Rory every 37 years from the Doctor's perspective", it's pointless, for all intents and purposes they are his companions, so stop pretending like they're not.

So is the Jenna Louise Coleman appearance an actress plays someone, we like her and bring her back thing, a River first appearance death thing or a Doctor totally dies for real and we pretend he can't cheat his way out of it until he cheats his way out of it at the end of the season and no one is surprised because the entire storyline was effing stupid and predictable from the start thing? Or maybe a combination of the above things?
I DID like Jenna Louise Coleman, but I'm not interested in what seems to be an ongoing storyline, Moffat's arcs suck, they really do, he should just do standalone episodes. RTD had arcs, but they were subtle and you didn't realize what connected the stories until the end, Moffat just shoves cracks, the doctor is dead/amy's pregnant screens in our faces every single episode. I expect Jenna Louise Coleman to show up several times before she becomes a companion and I bet she will be responsible for characters asking "Doctor Who?"

 

[MacLeod]

Unlikely I know, but perhaps the red herring is the new companions, name and we have been fed false information on that.

As for episodes not set on Earth (there has been around 91 new episodes aired thus far) and by my count

New Earth
The Impossible Planet
The Satan Pit
Gridlock
42
Utopia
Voyage of the Damned
Planet of the Ood
The Doctor's Daughter
Silence in the Library
Forrest of the Dead
Midnight
Planet of the Dead
The Waters of Mars
The Beast Below
The Time of Angels
Flesh and Stone
A Christmas Carol
The Doctor's Wife
A Good Man Goes to War
The Girl Who Waited
The God Complex
Asylum of the Daleks

Have all been set predominatly off Earth or about 25%, sure more could be set off Earth, I also didn't count the one's during CE era that where set on Satelite 5.

 

[Brent]

I find it real interesting that all the Daleks now do not know who the Doctor is, I wonder where they plan to go with that. It's like the Daleks got a reset, kinda.

 

[Cutter John]

Looking back, I'm still surprised we didn't pick up on Oswin's fate sooner. I mean the main view screen was a dead giveaway.

And again, I loved the Rory/Amy scenes. At the very least it made her seem a lot more sympathetic to me. To be honest, shes always struck me as kind of a self centered bitch.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Looking back, I'm still surprised we didn't pick up on Oswin's fate sooner. I mean the main view screen was a dead giveaway.

And again, I loved the Rory/Amy scenes. At the very least it made her seem a lot more sympathetic to me. To be honest, shes always struck me as kind of a self centered bitch.

I love Amy, but she is extremely self centered. It always seems to take a massive smack up the side of the head to get her to acknowledge and value Rory. He really is to self effacing for his own good. If it weren't for the travels with the Doctor, he'd likely never be more than the nice guy he started out as. Rory has matured far more than Amy, I think.

 

[Orac Zen]

Not bad at all. I've been fed up with the Daleks since (at least) the Davison era so to put it very mildly, I was not looking forward to yet another appearance, but aside from the weirdness of the existence of a Dalek asylum it wasn't unbearable to see them yet again. Not thrilled with the Ponds basically being reduced to namechecks (or with the divorce thing, which seemed ridiculously contrived; I liked that she signed the papers with "Williams", though) and I dunno if I'm going to like the new companion if she's anything like the person we saw here, but the episode basically worked for me - thanks almost entirely to Matt Smith. His Doctor has rapidly scaled the ranks to be among my favourite Doctors ever, and he's pretty much single-handedly revived my interest in the new series.

I'm hoping we don't see the Daleks again for a very long time (ever again would be even better), but this is an interesting thing to do with them.


Ben Browder in Who. I probably won't even care what the episode's like.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Jenna Louise Coleman was alright when she was serious at the end. All her forced and blatant attempts at being super sassy with the cutsey names was annoying. It was like a repeat of Mels all over again. It's trying to hard to be "kewl" and it takes me out of the story. Enough with that shit.

Yeah, that was exactly it. That's what I didn't like about her, and I couldn't put my finger on it- not letting it come naturally, but trying too hard.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Now, better questions would be how come nobody previously remembered (during the "all the Daleks are gone" days) that there's fucking millions of them over there, and how come the ones that supposedly were on Kembel, Spiridon, Vulcan, etc were RTD era Daleks and not the appropriate 60s and 70s versions which happened to be on set anyway...?

"Asylum" raises the question of what, exactly, the Doctor did during the Time War. Right now, it really looks like all he managed to do was to frag his own homeworld and a Dalek battlefleet nearby.

Yep. I've never been clear on why he'd think the Emperor's fleet was "every Dalek in existence"

 

[Australis]

One of the sad parts that no one has commented on was Amy not being to have any more children, after Demon's Run. That suddenly gives the marriage a different spin, which I suppose what the divorce thing was about.

 

[Skellington]

I find it real interesting that all the Daleks now do not know who the Doctor is, I wonder where they plan to go with that. It's like the Daleks got a reset, kinda.

That might not be the best situation for the Doctor, given that it's either their hatred for him, or their recognition of his hatred for them, that's been holding them back from just killing him.

Yep. I've never been clear on why he'd think the Emperor's fleet was "every Dalek in existence"

There seems to have been more to it than just a big explosion. The Time Lords were seemingly all but erased from time, so maybe the Daleks and other major participants were too. Jack does mention that from the Time Agents' point of view they vanished from all of space and time.

 

[Lonemagpie]

There seems to have been more to it than just a big explosion. The Time Lords were seemingly all but erased from time, so maybe the Daleks and other major participants were too. Jack does mention that from the Time Agents' point of view they vanished from all of space and time.

IIRC that was them going to fight in the war - join the fleet, presumably - rather than the outcome of it.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I thought it was great fun, having been a little disappointed in a few of the recent Moffat scripts.

I recognised JLC as being the new companion but I hadn't remembered the name of her character, so I thought that last night's character would end up joining the team - that in itself came as a surprise, as I thought she wouldn't become a companion until after Amy and Rory left. So yes, the twist whereby she was a Dalek did shock me.

I'm intrigued to see how she returns and whether or not her full-time character will be linked to this one.

All in all, a good start to the new series.

 

[Pindar]

I've been looking up some of JLC's past work. I was pleasantly surprised to see she played a lesbian character for a long time on Emmerdale.

I wonder if this will bring back cries of Oh Noes Teh Gay Agenda.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think you all must have just been without Doctor Who for too long. It was far from great. I thought the build up was too slow. Since when would the Daleks have a parliament? Why a Prime Minister and not the Emperor? The twist with Oswin was fairly obvious by about the half way mark. The sassy stuff got old quick. The DOC-TOR WHO? was annoying after the first couple of times. I'm sick of Amy, they've given her and Rory at least 3 good endings by this point, why keep bringing them back?

Though the end built up well. Amy's leaving Rory rather than discussing it with him was very much in character for her. Even in being noble she has to be selfish. There was enough to like about it to elevate it to "average" or "Decent" but wasn't good, certainly wasn't Great.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

I wasn't hiding behind the sofa, but I've not been so gripped by a Dalek story for some time as an adult.

Nice to see the story end without the destruction of all the Daleks again, they felt like a real menace to the Doctor, rather than an obstacle on the way to the end of the story.

Also a nice touch to have half Dalek Amy see other Daleks as dancers, seeing as how that was supposedly how their movement was envisaged when they were first created.

 

[Pindar]

Also a nice touch to have half Dalek Amy see other Daleks as dancers, seeing as how that was supposedly how their movement was envisaged when they were first created.

I had forgotten about that. The shot of the ballet dancer pirhouetting from above was great.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I wasn't so keen on the "OMG I canna have your bairns so I'm pushing you away!" deal but I forgave it. Oh how I forgave it.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I think you all must have just been without Doctor Who for too long. It was far from great.

Who knows? Maybe it's one of those situations where different people have different tastes, without any of them being delusional.