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

[Sci]

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.

I suspect that may have been intentional to the performance, though. A way of implying that there's something wrong with Oswin -- she's trying so hard to project this sass and flirtation... why? As in, maybe she's trying to hold onto a part of herself she would lose if she embraced her conversion -- and clinging desperately to it to avoid confronting what's really happened to her.

ETA:

On io9, Charlie Jane Anders argues that the episode could just as easily have been entitled "Codependency of the Daeks," and that the heart of the episode lies in the Doctor and Daleks discovering that they have an unhealthy relationship and need to get a divorce.

 

[The Badger]

The opening shot of Skaro was awesome, though I have to wonder, who built that Dalek statue? Are Daleks themselves so vain they have to build a building-sized statue of themselves?

Well, the Daleks are the ultimate fascists. And one thing fascists have always done is build monuments to themselves. Given that this episode brings up the notion that Daleks have a notion of beauty, that sort of self aggrandisement is not entirely out of keeping.

... I'd much rather assume that Skaro survived the detonation of the Skaro-Sun (which is possible), but the presence of a shining sun on Skaro makes that possibility unlikely.

In Remembrance itself, the line "home planet Skaro about to vaporise" is followed about 90 seconds later by the Doctor telling the Black Dalek that Skaro is "a burnt cinder circling a dead sun" so the level of its "destruction" has always been somewhat open to interpretation.

(I just watched it yesterday afternoon!)

Even with the Hand Of Omega kick starting the process, a star like our sun wouldn't have anywhere near enough fuel to go full supernova. Perhaps Skaro's sun had a massive solar flare, enough to seriously damage the planet without destroying it utterly.

 

[Saul]

Good: Daleks are scary again. Daleks can now look human. Skaro.

Bad: As an episode that heavily promoted bringing back ALL of the Daleks I could hardly see any of the old ones. Special weapons etc. They didn't even interact with the old Daleks from the looks of it.

Recognized Coleman and then wondered was it really her since her name wasn't Clara. Didn't like her character in this. Can we have a break from genius, witty, know it alls.

"Doctor Who": (Jack O Neill) "We've done this!". The "Doctor Who?" cliche was done once by RTD but the Moff keeps on throwing this one at us in each series. I got the joke the first time. Knock knock etc.

Rory and Amy: Have an argument and get back together again. Nothing new here.

Rest of the episode was cool though and of high quality.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I'm sure "Doctor who?" was done more than once by RTD.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

On the subject of Davros, do you think his third eye is a gun, or was the blue just kind of a nod to him?

I know that's what a lot of us were talking about when we saw the promo shots.

 

[Sci]

I'm sure "Doctor who?" was done more than once by RTD.

Excluding Moffat scripts during the RTD era, I can recall "Doctor who?" being used in "Rose" and "The Christmas Invasion." It was also used in Moffat's "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "The Doctor Dances."

 

[Saul]

I'm sure "Doctor who?" was done more than once by RTD.

You might be right. From memory I vividly remember the first Christmas special opening with that.
Might have been mentioned by Donna too. Don't remember the 9th or 10th Doctor ever saying "Doctor Who" though.

 

[Valin]

Easily the best Dalek story since "Dalek", as far as I'm concerned.

I agree. I also think that it is one of the best episodes of 21st Century Who so far.

Like the chemistry between Smith and the new girl. I will miss Amy and Rory though. Very good companions, and Karen G is one of the most attractive Who girls.

 

[Valin]

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.

Ah! That explains why she was calling Rory Nina, and the phase she said she had been going through.

 

[Sindatur]

Why are we pointing at Davison Era Classic Who and complaining about Skaro being destroyed? Didn't McGann's Doctr pick up The Master from Skaro (NuSkaro?). If so, Skaro's existence had already been overwritten/restablished

I don't recall ever knowing the Comapnion Clara's last name was Oswin, that definitely makes it seem part of the Arc, that Oswin was a Dalek. I wonder if maybe, they didn't use all of Clara to make Dalek Oswin, maybe they just used of her DNA, and the Clara who will be his new Companion is still intact somewhere?

I too wondered about The Dalek Prime Minister being Dalek Caan

 

[Iamnotspock]

I have to wonder how the original Skaro is still around since the entire solar system was destroyed in Rememberance Of The Daleks.

People...

The Earth was destroyed in The End of the World too...

 

[DWF]

Why are we pointing at Davison Era Classic Who and complaining about Skaro being destroyed? Didn't McGann's Doctr pick up The Master from Skaro (NuSkaro?). If so, Skaro's existence had already been overwritten/restablished

I don't recall ever knowing the Comapnion Clara's last name was Oswin, that definitely makes it seem part of the Arc, that Oswin was a Dalek. I wonder if maybe, they didn't use all of Clara to make Dalek Oswin, maybe they just used of her DNA, and the Clara who will be his new Companion is still intact somewhere?

I too wondered about The Dalek Prime Minister being Dalek Caan

Davison ere? Rememberance Of The Daleks was the last Dalek story of the classic series and it starred McCoy not Davison. And the Master was taken to Skaro to answer for his crimes, we have no idea that the Doctor took him from there.

 

[Methos]

everyone's complaining about Skaro being destroyed... Well Skaro was destroyed by The Hand of Omega in 1963 (set date for the episode, not air-date), that's fine, but in War of the Daleks we see that the Dalek's are quite happy to terraform other planets and call them 'Skaro', reclaiming them as their homeworld, as they did with Antalin...

We don't have a specific date for when this episode took place, so for all we know, it took place before the destruction of Skaro, or on another planet the Dalek's had claimed as Skaro... they're not the most imaginative bunch around lol

M

 

[Valin]

An evil part of me almost wants them to call him Doctor Who in every episode just to get people constantly upset.

Maybe in one episode an evil computer will state: "Doctor Who is required."

 

[DWF]

everyone's complaining about Skaro being destroyed... Well Skaro was destroyed by The Hand of Omega in 1963 (set date for the episode, not air-date), that's fine, but in War of the Daleks we see that the Dalek's are quite happy to terraform other planets and call them 'Skaro', reclaiming them as their homeworld, as they did with Antalin...

We don't have a specific date for when this episode took place, so for all we know, it took place before the destruction of Skaro, or on another planet the Dalek's had claimed as Skaro... they're not the most imaginative bunch around lol

M

The Doctor claimed it was the original Skaro and even if wasn't destroyed in Rememberance, I would like to think it was destroyed in the Time War or so I thought that's the Doctor claimed in Journey's End.

 

[Iamnotspock]

The Doctor claimed it was the original Skaro and even if wasn't destroyed in Rememberance, I would like to think it was destroyed in the Time War or so I thought that's the Doctor claimed in Journey's End.

"Destroyed" is open to interpretation. It's certainly devastated. This must have been at a point between its devastation in the all-out Time War and its ultimate destruction by the Hand of Omega?

 

[davejames]

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.

Well to be fair, Moffat slipped in some hints pretty early that Oswin probably wasn't who we thought she was. And the Doctor picked up on it right from the start as well. The only (slight) disappointment for me was that she turned out to be just a regular old Dalek in the end; after all the buildup, I was expecting something a bit more bizarre and unique.

And yeah, I'm a bit baffled by why Amy and Rory keep being brought back as well, but that didn't keep me from enjoying the episode.

I also don't know how anybody can say anything about this episode was slow. The story rushed around like crazy from start to finish and barely gave us time to take anything in!

 

[davejames]

The Doctor claimed it was the original Skaro and even if wasn't destroyed in Rememberance, I would like to think it was destroyed in the Time War or so I thought that's the Doctor claimed in Journey's End.

"Destroyed" is open to interpretation. It's certainly devastated. This must have been at a point between its devastation in the all-out Time War and its ultimate destruction by the Hand of Omega?

Yeah that's how I read it. I know in scifi we're used to "destroyed" meaning the entire planet gets blown up, but in the real world we would still consider what happened there to be total destruction.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

The only (slight) disappointment for me was that she turned out to be just a regular old Dalek in the end; after all the buildup, I was expecting something a bit more bizarre and unique.

In the end, she turned out to be a genius girl who got turned into a Dalek against her will and became so delusional about her predicament that she entered a dissociative fugue state. I think that qualifies as "a bit more bizarre" than "a regular old Dalek".

 

[davejames]

In the end, she turned out to be a genius girl who got turned into a Dalek against her will and became so delusional about her predicament that she entered a dissociative fugue state. I think that qualifies as "a bit more bizarre" than "a regular old Dalek".

True, but I was talking more about her physical appearance. Obviously it becomes something special the more we learn about it, but my initial impression was still "oh, it's just a regular Dalek who's been doing all this. Ho hum."