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 |
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 |
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.