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| The Doctor rescues Amy from a Dalek trap. |
1 episode. Approx. 45 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by Nick Hurran: Produced by: Marcus Wilson.
THE PLOT
The Doctor, Amy, and Rory have gone their separate ways - but a Dalek trap thrusts them back together. They are snatched from their daily lives and transported to a massive Dalek spaceship orbiting a planet used an asylum for Daleks too insane for even their society to control. Now they are receiving a transmission from inside the asylum: the Habanera Aria, played over and over by Oswin Oswald (Jenna Louise Coleman), a survivor of a starliner which crashed onto the planet a year ago.
The crash damaged to force field surrounding the Asylum, making escape by the inmates possible. The field isn't so badly damaged, however, for the Daleks to simply destroy the planet. A small team will need to be transported to the Asylum to deactivate the defenses from within... and that is where the Doctor comes in.
"You're going to fire me at a planet?" the Doctor realizes, aghast. "That's your plan? I get fired at a planet and expected to fix it?"
A fix that will be complicated not only by the Dalek inmates, but also by a nanogene cloud which transforms all organic tissue into Dalek life. The Doctor and his companions are protected by wrist-bands the Daleks provide them with - but what is protecting the apparently un-converted Oswin? And just where is she getting the milk and eggs for her series of failed souffles?
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Recognizes almost immediately that the distress call he is responding to is actually a trap - though "almost immediately" is still too late to actually avoid it. He is astonished that the Daleks regard him as their predator, though it makes sense given how many times he has destroyed both them and their plans. The Doctor continues to show a tendency to obsess about apparently irrelevent details - such as Oswin's souffles - only for those details to be the key to the major puzzle, and he seems to place as much importance on solving the problems with Amy and Rory's marriage as on solving the problems connected to the Daleks.
Amy: When the Doctor tells her not to be scared, she replies that she isn't - She's actually quite missed this! She seems to be having a genuinely good time at being reunited with him, which makes it karmically inevitable that she will be the one put in the greatest danger. It's clear early on that despite the impending divorce that was clearly her idea, she still has feelings for Rory. She is clearly hurt by his bruising words to her when they meet to sign divorce papers; and as soon as they are separated on the planet, her first thought is to search for him.
Rory: Though he gets less to do this episode than in many of last year's installments, Rory remains the most completely relatable character the new series has ever provided. He's a good man and very dependable, but also has a way of just finding himself in the worst possible place at the worst possible time. He does believe that a fundamental truth of his relationship with Amy is that he loves her more than she loves him - a belief which probably hasn't helped with their marriage difficulties.
Oswin: Jenna-Louise Coleman's introduction as Oswin, who will be the Doctor's next companion. Coleman makes a very positive first impression, showing a lively screen presence. She captures the quirkiness needed to make Steven Moffat's clever, rapid-fire dialogue feel like something that might actually come out of the mouth of a human being. The character is basically in template form here: pretty, young, computer genius... Think Wendy Padbury's Zoe without the innocence. There's nothing in this particular story to indicate that she's a future companion (quite the opposite), but since that decision had already been made when this was shot, I look forward to seeing exactly how she'll be re-integrated later.
Daleks: Have a Parliament, complete with a Prime Minister - a Dalek creature who is visible, rather than hidden behind a casing. The Daleks have not destroyed the inmates of the Asylum, because they find the pure hatred of the inmates "beautiful," a statement which earns renewed revulsion from the Doctor. They have grown stronger from fighting the Doctor - something he knows all too well, but he cannot stop battling them when he encounters them. What's he supposed to do? Leave them to wipe out a settlement to avoid strengthening them in conflict? The finale offers him a solution, at least for the time being... Though I suspect it will prove a temporary one.
THOUGHTS
I was not particularly looking forward to Asylum of the Daleks. Followers of my reviews may have noticed that I've not been a particular fan of most New Series Dalek stories. After a promising debut in Series One's Dalek,which re-established them as a true menace by showing a single Daleks as near-unstoppable, their follow-up appearances have grown steadily weaker and sillier, culminating in the disaster of Victory of the Daleks in Series Five. It was a relief to see them get a year off in Series Six.
As it turns out, I needn't have worried. With Steven Moffat in the writer's chair, and in the kind of top form that has marked the best of his Who work, this story turns out to be a terrific kickoff to the new season.
It starts with what's become a Moffat signature: A fast, clever, visually startling opening. We open with a fantastic visual of the war-torn Skaro, the Dalek homeworld, complete with a giant statue of a Dalek. The Doctor meets with Darla (Anamaria Marinca), who pleads with him to help free her daughter from a Dalek prison camp. We get all set for one episode - only to get a fast reversal, as it turns out this entire meeting is a trap. Quick cut to Amy and Rory, re-establishing them as characters and setting up the difficulties in their marriage, before they are also ensnared. Then a scene aboard the Dalek spaceship in which they all expect to be exterminated before the Daleks plead with the Doctor to "Save us... Save us!"
Smash to credits, and the story has been set up, complete with expectations subverted twice, all within a span of about six minutes.
The story retains a rapid, roller-coaster pace throughout. It's not free of silliness by any means... but a Moffat script is nothing if not self-aware, and the sillier moments are actually used to feed the energy and momentum, keeping this effortlessly entertaining from start to finish.
A superb season opener. If the rest of Series Seven can maintain this level, I will be a very happy viewer.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
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