So, who wants to talk about new Doctor Who (spoilers likely)

[Plane Sailing]

So, I recorded Doctor Who and kept off the whole internet until I'd watched it - and was glad that I did.

I felt it was a strong start to the new series, although one obvious question is this - where have all the daleks come from -this- time?

After all, originally I thought the point of the time war was that it finished off both the daleks and the time lords. Sure there was one old dalek on Earth, and a bunch of 'nearly-daleks' and then some others hidden in non-dimensional spaces. But rather foolishly in those circumstances they didn't really let them escape and rebuild at the end. Yet here they are!

Anyway, that's just a minor niggle. I loved the detailed elements of the story here.

What did you think?

 

[Thunderfoot]

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA--- plugs ears----

Airs in the US tonight...
LA LA LA LA LA!

 

[Nellisir]

I've stopped keeping track of how many times, and in what times, the Daleks themselves have been "exterminated". I don't find them scary, I don't find them interesting, I think they usually make crappy villains, and in case it's not clear, I just didn't care.

Well, I just checked the internet and saved myself from a gigantic case of foot-in-mouth, as Oswin will indeed be back in some form or another (personally, I'd really like it if she actually moved forward from this point, otherwise it's just another River Song sort of thing).

 

[RangerWickett]

Spoilers for series five.

[sblock]In series 5, there were a handful of Daleks on earth in World War II who needed the Doctor to validate their existence so they could create new Daleks from some sort of egg thingy.

Not that that mattered, of course, because the universe was recreated and shaped by Amy's recollections at the end of that series, which opens the door for any sort of ret-con they need.[/sblock]

Oh, and I think the Daleks can't ever be legitimately scary as a race because we know too much about them. You never fear things you know so thoroughly. So it was great to encounter some insane ones in an asylum, where you didn't know what to expect.

And Jenna-Louise Coleman -- Oswin -- is adorable.

I loved the episode. The show is not meant to be taken very seriously. You're supposed to revel in the campiness of hovering boxes with suction cups being the space stand-in for super-Nazis.

 

[Tonguez]

Starts here 13 September, I'll let you know then

and yeah I agree with RW, Daleks aren't scary anymore but they are fun in a campy nostalgia way

 

[horacethegrey]

Just watched this. Liked it. My impressions:







WARNING! SPOILERS BE AHEAD!







Episode 1: ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS

LIKES

- Daleks back in form. The last couple of Dalek stories have been kind of dissappointing, but leave it to the Moff to make em scary once more. I'm quite fond of the idea of the brand new Dalek agents. Pretty neat.

- The Asylum. The idea of an insane asylum for Daleks too crazy even for the regular ones, well that's quite a creepy idea when you think about it. And it was implemented quite well.

- Matt Smith. One of his better performances. Really liked the part where he expresses his disgust at the thought of Daleks having mercy for their own kind, hence the asylum.

- Jenna Louise Coleman. Wow. Quite a looker. And a delight to hear. But her appearance begs a lot of questions. Isn't she the new companion? But how can she be since we all saw her fate at the episode's end? Or is this another case of a patented Moffat Timey Wimey ball? I guess we won't know until the Christmas special.

- The Daleks forget the Doctor. Woohoo! Now even his greatest enemies don't know who he is! So glad that Moffat is getting rid of the oncoming storm stuff and returning him to his roots as a mysterious traveler.


DISLIKES

- Amy and Rory marriage troubles. Ugh. Enough of that Moffat! We don't need another roller coaster of emotions between these two! Let them be settled down for once! But it looks like it was resolved by episode's end.

 

[hopeless]

Okay...

Spoiler

The asylum has defences in the form of nanoclouds that in some cases turns any non-dalek in to an actual dalek which in itself would explain why the doctor has failed to wipe out all the daleks since Rose & the time vortex can't wipe out everything the dalek's created and all it would take is for one very stupid humanoid opening the wrong artefact and start creating new daleks again...

 

[delericho]

I thought it was okay. Not the best ever, not bad. Just okay.

I really wish the BBC would stop messing about with the format, though. Thirteen episodes in a sequence starting around Easter, plus the Christmas Special, is the right format. No breaks, no delays, no gaps. Leave it alone!

Oh, and I think the Daleks can't ever be legitimately scary as a race because we know too much about them.

That's not the problem. The problem is villain decay - they've shown up so many times, and been beaten so many times, that there's no question if The Doctor will win; just how he'll win.

If I were running the show, I would make it a rock solid rule, "if you use the Daleks, a 'named' character dies."

 

[Mercutio01]

The Asylum was cool.
Daleks forgetting the Doctor was an interesting development.
Oswin was fun.

I liked Pond at first, but I'm tired of her now. I'll be quite happy when she's done.
Never been a fan of Rory. And I'm still not.

Overall, I feel very meh.

 

[Nellisir]

The Asylum was cool.
Daleks forgetting the Doctor was an interesting development.
Oswin was fun.

I liked Pond at first, but I'm tired of her now. I'll be quite happy when she's done.
Never been a fan of Rory. And I'm still not.

Overall, I feel very meh.

I like Rory a lot more than I like Amy. Amy seems stuck in some kind of manic mood, and unable to converse in normal tones. Everything she says has a question mark or exclamation point!

 

[Tonguez]

Amy seems stuck in some kind of manic mood, and unable to converse in normal tones. Everything she says has a question mark or exclamation point!

That's because she's a red headed Glaswegian, they really do talk like that

plus Amy's had a few traumas in her life, she can justify being manic

 

[Remus Lupin]

By default, I like anything Dr. Who and anything involving Stephen Moffat, so I was predisposed to like this episode, and did!

Until I started to think about it a little bit, and then a few things began to sit poorly with me, not least was Oswin's transformation into a Dalek. Granting that you can always handwave this stuff, it seems as though the episode decided to treat Daleks as though they were Cybermen, able and interested in making other creatures into versions of themselves.

Yet the whole point is that a) Daleks are the little green critters in the suits, not the suits themselves. So how exactly is it that they can "transform" Oswin into a Dalek? They're not just putting her into the suit, they've got to make her a little green critter, or she's not really a Dalek. The "puppet" Daleks can at least be explained by the nano-transformation. They're not "really" Dalek, but have some Dalek features.

More importantly b) the whole point of Daleks is that they're genocidal psychopaths. They have no interest in enslaving or incorporating other races, they want to eliminate them. They are the Nazis of the Who universe, convinced of their own superiority above all other species. In that regard, neither their assimilation of Oswin nor their use of the puppets made much sense.

As for the Amy-Rory romance, it seems like that may have been too easily resolved, and from a character perspective, I hope that's not the last we hear of it. That said, Rory is right, he's always loved Amy more than she loved him.

 

[Nellisir]

As for the Amy-Rory romance, it seems like that may have been too easily resolved, and from a character perspective, I hope that's not the last we hear of it. That said, Rory is right, he's always loved Amy more than she loved him.

Too easily brought on, and too easily resolved. It's the old saw: if there's a gun in the first act, you must fire it in the third act. Or conversely, if there's a shooting in the third act, there must be a gun on the wall in the first act.

This was all shooting, no gun.

 

[Herschel]

I think I liked it. There was a whole lot of "WTF ARE YOU DOING MOFFAT?!?!?!?!?!?". I may need to re-watch it, ala "Let's Kill Hitler" to really appreciate it.

Oswin was fun, Moffat's a liar (as he likes to remind us) and there's a whole plethora of ways to use stuff from this episode if he decides to do so. I would expect him to want everyone to equate Oswin's demise with River's just so he can try and left-turn us with whatever he has in mind.

 

[elawai]

Some Daleks have the ability to use an emergency temporal shift as an escape (Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks). Perhaps Oswin emergency shifts to the Victorian era? How she manages to transfer to a human looking body is a still a mystery to be solved.

I doubt that they'll use the "meet her earlier in her timeline" again because we are still in middle of the River Song story.

 

[Richards]

Did I miss it, or did they somehow counter the nanocloud effects that should otherwise be well on its way to transforming Amy and the Doctor into puppet Daleks? Each one went for some time in the Asylum without the protection of those anti-nano bracelets.

Johnathan

 

[Herschel]

That's still likely to come in to play at some point. Moffat planting a seed. He likes messing with people who pay attention to details, especially the pedantic, "gotcha" crowd. Remember the coat bit from The Crash of the Byzantium/Time of Angels?

 

[lin_fusan]

More importantly b) the whole point of Daleks is that they're genocidal psychopaths. They have no interest in enslaving or incorporating other races, they want to eliminate them. They are the Nazis of the Who universe, convinced of their own superiority above all other species. In that regard, neither their assimilation of Oswin nor their use of the puppets made much sense./QUOTE]

There is a "history" of Daleks using and "assimilating" other species.

In the 1st Doctor episode, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the Daleks have enslaved humans to do heavy labor and mining.

In the 3rd Doctor episode, Day of the Daleks, the Daleks employ mercenaries called Ogrons.

In the 6th Doctor episode, Revelation of the Daleks, they use human corpses to create more Daleks.

In the 7th Doctor episode, Remembrance of the Daleks, one faction of the Daleks uses a human child to boost their combat computer.

In the 9th Doctor episode, The Parting of Ways, that faction of Daleks have been siphoning human beings to cull genetic material to make more Daleks.

I think Dalek motivations have changed to suit each episode.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Interesting. I suppose that the 6th doctor episode is most relevant here, since apprarently it means they can change the genetic material of other species to enable them to "become" Dalek, though I haven't seen the episode so maybe it doesn't apply.

I do however seem to remember that the other members of the Cult of Skaro were horrified by Dalek Sec's "Human Dalek."

 

[lin_fusan]

Too easily brought on, and too easily resolved. It's the old saw: if there's a gun in the first act, you must fire it in the third act. Or conversely, if there's a shooting in the third act, there must be a gun on the wall in the first act.

This was all shooting, no gun.

I think you are misusing Chekhov's Gun.

But if you mean the central conceit of their divorce completely 180s two seasons of constant reinforcing that Amy and Rory will go through anything, even the end of the universe and the end of time, in order to be together and thus prove their undying love, then I totally agree.

I would have been fine with them fighting or hitting a rough patch, but to have fallen so out of love to file for divorce stuck me as a little ham-handed.