June 17: "Pond Life" / "Asylum of the Daleks" Prequel / "Asylum of the Daleks"

2012 only gives us a short run of five episodes (I'm not sure an actual reason is given for splitting up the series across two years, but monetary issues seems like a likely candidate as this was a BBC decision, not a Steven Moffat one), so they've got to milk them for all they're worth.  And to help do that, before the broadcast of "Asylum of the Daleks" we're presented with five short scenes, all under the umbrella title "Pond Life" and all written by Chris Chibnall.  These five mini-episodes are designed to give us an idea of what it's like to have the Doctor continually popping into your life, leaving messages and temporarily misplacing Ood.  The first four are designed to be whimsical in nature, and at that they succeed marvelously, bringing a smile to the face.  The last one is much darker in tone, however, suggesting that something is seriously wrong between Amy and Rory (and something that didn't appear to be problematic just the previous month -- but more on that in a bit), which is setting us up for the start of "Asylum of the Daleks".

But then in addition to "Pond Life" we get another prequel teaser, showing the Doctor being confronted by a hooded figure who commands the Doctor via a dream (which resembles a sequence in the series 7 finale "The Name of the Doctor") to save the daughter of a woman named Darla von Karlsen, and to meet Darla on Skaro.²³⁸  And with that, it's now finally time for the main episode.

Let's get this out of the way right now: the divorce storyline between Amy and Rory might be one of the most ill-conceived misfires in the entire BBC Wales run, and possibly Doctor Who as a whole.  It's terribly implausible in terms of characterization -- Amy and Rory have both been through an awful lot and still stayed strong, and in fact felt like a genuinely loving relationship, so why would this suddenly change? -- and the timing seems really off: "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" suggested that Amy and Rory had been living together happily for two years, but by the time of this episode were on the outs -- and if you factor in "Pond Life", this change happens within the space of at most two months (if the July segment is at the beginning of the month and the August segment at the end).  But fine, this might not be such a big deal if it didn't feel completely irrelevant -- by the end of the episode Amy and Rory are back together and the divorce is never brought up again.  And what's worse, it's not relevant to the main storyline, either thematically or narratively -- the only time it really comes up is in the conversation about whose love is stronger (and thus will be able to withstand the transformational nanocloud longer), and while we learn that this is happening because Amy "gave [Rory] up" because he wanted kids and she can no longer have them (which is probably meant to demonstrate her love but comes off as selfish instead -- "I don't think you can handle my not having children so I'm going to make the decision for you"), it's not even a crucial reveal, as we see that the Doctor gave up his anti-nanocloud wristband to Amy anyway.  The whole thing instead feels like a calculated way to get viewers to tune in ("Amy and Rory have split!  Find out why!"), rather than a genuine story-based decision.

Right, with all that said...

The Daleks ask the Doctor to save them. ("Asylum of the
Daleks") ©BBC

"Asylum of the Daleks", barring the divorce stupidity, is a thrilling, well-plotted story, one that continually throws up surprises and excitement.  It starts with the Doctor and his friends being captured by Dalek puppets (people who've been taken over by Daleks and can conveniently sprout Dalek eyestalks from their foreheads to demonstrate that fact) and being taken to the Parliament of the Daleks (which is itself an utterly bizarre idea -- apparently they're fed up with all these Dalek emperors and have decided for a more democratic approach, but it just leads to the idea of Daleks debating bills and naming parks and things) so that the Daleks can ask the Doctor for help: something has crashed onto the Dalek asylum planet ("A planet where you lock up all the Daleks that go wrong.  The battle-scarred, the insane, the ones even you can't control") and the Daleks are worried that all these insane Daleks will get out, but none of them are willing to go down and switch off the forcefield stopping them from destroying the place.  So it's up to the Doctor, Amy, and Rory to save the day.  It's a strange idea, but it works well -- and it's a good excuse to get us down to the planet itself.  And man is that a lot of Daleks on screen.  Plus, interestingly, most of the Daleks we see here are the old Davies-era bronze Daleks, rather than the New Dalek Paradigm established in "Victory of the Daleks".  There are still some Paradigm Daleks around, but they're generally in the background; it seems the production team has (wisely) backpedaled on its new Dalek design.

I noted that this episode is full of surprises, but the best surprise at the time was the appearance of Jenna Coleman (then billed as "Jenna-Louise Coleman").  It had already been announced that Amy and Rory were leaving the show and that Coleman would be taking over as the new companion -- but that wasn't supposed to happen until Amy and Rory departed, so her appearance here was quite the surprise.  Coleman here is incredibly energetic, flirtatious, and fun -- but that's clearly as scripted, as Steven Moffat wants to establish her character, Oswin Oswald, as very much alive in order to make the big reveal about her have a greater impact.  It's to Coleman's credit, however, that she does such a good job with the character, in making it her own, that it's not until you think about it that you realize that Moffat essentially wrote Oswin as River Song.  She's also the driving force behind the episode; the Doctor might be going to shut down the forcefield around the asylum, but he's also going to rescue Oswin.

Amy realizes the people she saw are actually Daleks. ("Asylum
of the Daleks") ©BBC

But yes, this story is filled with all sorts of Daleks that our heroes have to get past to get to Oswin and the forcefield, which leads to lots of tense moments that director Nick Hurran exploits very well.  Watching old, dusty Daleks slowly wake up to start trying to exterminate the Doctor and company is an exercise in slowly mounting dread, as Hurran fills the frame with tons of menacing Daleks.  There's also a particular joy in spotting all the old-school Daleks in the background of shots -- original '60s grey and blue Daleks, '70s grey and black Daleks... even the Special Weapons Dalek from Remembrance of the Daleks is here (in the scene where Rory first wakes up the Daleks).  It's really nicely done, and the scenes of Amy slowly succumbing to the nanocloud are pleasingly trippy -- my favorite part being the girl who she's hallucinating twirling being revealed as a '60s Dalek spinning around in a circle, which is hilarious and unnerving at the same time.

So we get lots of creepy moments, but there's also the reveal about Oswin, as the Doctor learns (after making his way through the intensive care section, full of the Daleks who survived encounters with the Doctor²³⁹) that Oswin is in fact a Dalek, albeit one still desperately holding on to its humanity.  It makes the Doctor's offhand non sequitur question ("[Making] soufflés?  Against the Daleks?  Where'd you get the milk?") suddenly take on a greater significance, and it also throws up all sorts of questions regarding Jenna Coleman's character -- how can she die here if she's going to be the companion?  But if she was the companion earlier in her life, why doesn't she recognize the Doctor? -- that "Asylum of the Daleks" is happy to leave unanswered.  It's a clever reveal, and full credit to both Coleman and Dalek voice artist Nicholas Briggs, who manages to carry over much of Coleman's inflections in his Dalek performance -- "Why do they hate you?" being a particular success.  It's really nice -- and the way she erases knowledge of the Doctor from the minds of the Daleks is interesting (even if it'll be reversed in "The Time of the Doctor").

This is a really strong script, aided by some great acting and stunning direction.  If it weren't for the divorce nonsense, this would be one of the best stories ever -- as it is, it's merely very good.  "Asylum of the Daleks" provides us with an original and intriguing Dalek story with lots of flair and energy.







²³⁸ How can Skaro exist, given that we saw it destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks?  There seem to be three possible explanations, none of them particularly good.  Possibility one: Skaro was resurrected during the Time War (or possibly saved by rewriting history -- time war, after all) and then ruined, but for whatever reason is not part of the Time Lock that sets the rest of the Time War off from history (although that's actually a problem for all three possibilities).  Possibility two: War of the Daleks (the eighth Doctor novel that suggests that the Daleks went through a ludicrously elaborate plot to fool the Doctor and Davros into thinking that a planet named Antalin was actually Skaro so that it, not the real Skaro, would be destroyed) is canon, and Skaro survived to the time of "Asylum of the Daleks".  Possibility three: the Daleks found a new home planet and also called it Skaro (as Jean-Marc Lofficier suggested in The Terrestrial Index), and that's what we see in "Asylum".  (All that said, it's worth noting that this problem of Skaro's existence pops up as early as the pre-title sequence of the McGann movie, so it's not like it's a new issue...)
²³⁹ We're told that these Daleks include those from Spiridon (here mispronounced the same way McCoy did in Remembrance of the Daleks), Kembel, Aridius, Vulcan, and Exxilon.  Setting aside the fact that none of the Daleks shown in that scene resemble the Daleks from those stories (and they had some 20th-century props, so it's not like they couldn't have used them if they'd wanted), it's a nice little line, but there are some problems with it: namely, some of the events referenced shouldn't have had Dalek survivors in the first place.  Spiridon (Planet of the Daleks) makes sense, given that the Daleks at the end were entombed in ice rather than outright killed, so survivors should be easy enough to find (or I suppose it could be one of the Daleks trapped in that little room with the plague).   Only one Dalek seems to suffer any ill effects on Aridius (The Chase), and all it does is fall down a hole -- so the thought of a Dalek needing to go to intensive care for that is silly (albeit worryingly in keeping with the tone of that particular story...).
     Exxilon (Death to the Daleks) and Vulcan (The Power of the Daleks) are a lot harder to explain.  It sure looks like any remaining Daleks on Exxilon were on the spaceship that Galloway blew up, but maaaaaybe one of the Daleks in the City managed to survive.  (Or, as I suggested at the time, it could be the one that self-destructed after losing some prisoners -- maybe it wasn't successful at that either.)  The end of Power does have the eye-stalk twitching up at the end (reportedly), so that would seem to be a survivor too; fine, although that does suggest that the Daleks returned for their comrade and presumably exterminated the remaining members of the colony.  But this still leaves Kembel (The Daleks' Master Plan), where all the Daleks are unequivocally wiped out at the end, along with all life on the entire planet (and Sara Kingdom, don't forget).  So how could there possibly be any survivors?  Even if, let's say, a Dalek left before the Time Destructor did its work, there'd be no reason for it to end up in intensive care since nothing bad had happened to it.  Unless the knowledge that it only just escaped death at the hands of the Doctor was enough to drive it insane.  Which is frankly stupid, but it seems to be the best explanation we have.