Doctor Who Asylum of the Daleks [spoilers]

[Broomstick]

I have no idea where you get that from.

[Gandalf]

Was that aimed at me?

[Broomstick]

Yep. Sorry, didn't realize mine would appear on a separate page from yours until after the fact.

[Gandalf]

Cool.

The Ponds leave in four episodes. They had previously had a baby stolen from them, and now cannot reproduce thanks to space magic. Assuming they don't die, why else raise the space infertility if not to have it triumphantly cured, so the Ponds can win a TV happy ending?

[Broomstick]

Does there have to be a happy ending? Despite all the ass-pull saves in Doctor Who it can be quite dark, and for many there is no happy ending.

[Alkaloid]

Yeah, the rant about Amy and Rorys marriage being something that can't be fixed, despite the fact that it was quite easily fixed, would indicate something else is going on. Given that the Silence don't really have a reason beyond spite to make Amy infertile I'd guess it's going to be more likely that birthing a quasi time lord just isn't good for a human.

[Broomstick]

Either that, or just the normal crap that can go wrong in a pregnancy.

[The Imperator]

Yeah, the rant about Amy and Rorys marriage being something that can't be fixed, despite the fact that it was quite easily fixed, would indicate something else is going on. Given that the Silence don't really have a reason beyond spite to make Amy infertile I'd guess it's going to be more likely that birthing a quasi time lord just isn't good for a human.

.... Wait, is Moffat implying that the EU thing about Time Lords being infertile is true? That'd be weird.

[Alkaloid]

Yeah, but normal crap that can go wrong with a pregnancy I would expect can be fixed. Inhuman time bending alien coming out of your nethers is more likely to be permanent, cat nun doctors or no.

[Broomstick]

The thing is, Amy and Rory haven't had access to anything but 21st Century human reproductive tech, and "normal bad stuff" during pregnancy isn't always fixable with our current tech. Maybe the Doctor will take them to a cat-nun hospital, or maybe not.

[Haruko]

So presumably when the Ponds leave, the Doctor will somehow give them the gift of fertility?

Yeah, he will discover that his TARDIS actually has worthwhile medical equipment.

[Batman]

Heck the damn thing allegededly has a pool, a library, and several wardrobes (that Rose needed directions to to boot). The whole bigger on the inside thing.
Most of the problems with the episode have already been mentioned, so I'll just add a few I noticed.
1) Rory apparently has no clue what a Dalek is. When he starts creeping around in the Asylum and runs into the derelict Daleks...he starts poking them, and when of them starts saying 'EX...' he thinks it's asking for eggs and offers one of the silver balls to it.
Just how believable is that? Even if Rory never ran into a Dalek before (and I'm reasonably certain he has) surely the Doctor or Amy would have mentioned them.
2) The Doctor being surprised the Daleks on the ship no longer knowing who he is. Yeah, it's not like sufflee girls explicitly said she did a 'master level' erasure of his name. Granted, that's not explicitely referring to the Daleks in their entirety, but it was a rather strong hint I think.
3) Mind you, this is NuWho, by now the Companion having to point out the bloody obvious is almost a running joke (see earlier in the episode when it is Amy who notices that the 'living AND dead' might be a problem while the Doctor is busy lecturing about how awesome the nanocloud is.)
All and all, an enjoyable episode if you didn't it being whacky and there being plotholes you could fly a Stardestroyer through. Not outstanding, but that goes either way. Reasonably solid nuWho food. 3/5

[Patrick Degan]

Is Skaro back now without any explanation?

It was destroyed in the classic episode "Rememberance of the Daleks".

Then in the EU John Peel's something something Daleks something, it turns out he didn't destroy Skaro. Which RTD seems to agree with because the sourcebooks state the Time Lords destroyed it.

Now its back because..because..

Yeah its back without any explanation.

On another note, who gave it a 5 on the poll? Please post your opinions. I may disagree, but I would be interested in why people liked it.

The less said about John Peel's nonsense, the better.

Skaro's "re-existance" can be explained in one of two ways (first in my normal voice, and second in a sort of silly high-pitched whine): the inevitable alterations of history resulting from the Time War, or —a pet theory I'm currently nursing— the current series of Doctor Who is actually our view into an alternative timeline that resulted when the Doctor, for whatever reason, decided not to go ahead with his plan to burn Skaro with the Hand of Omega as he did in "Remembrance Of The Daleks".

And Dalek nanites? Oh dear. Doctor Who is copying from Star Trek. That's just... sad.

[Parallax]

We saw the TARDIS medical bay/wing/room waaaaaay back in 'The Invasion of Time'.
It looked like an abandoned 1950s English hospital.






Which is what it was. Yay for lousy budgets!

[Patrick Degan]

Of course, there is a third and more uncomfortable theory but one which seems the most economical fit for all the facts at hand: the current creative team all have their heads up their asses and are turning Doctor Who into complete nonsensical crap before our very eyes.

[Stark]

I bet he's changed the theme by now. I'll miss the BBC backlot corridors.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Martha also used some fancy medical kit on Jack in Utopia.

As for how the Doctor might fix Amy, maybe he'll magically re-task the nanogene things.

[Batman]

I don't know about the Daleks but the nanogenes rebuilding your body idea was used in s1's Empty Child/The Doctor Dances so the concept is at least an established one in NuWho.

[The Imperator]

The less said about John Peel's nonsense, the better.

Skaro's "re-existance" can be explained in one of two ways (first in my normal voice, and second in a sort of silly high-pitched whine): the inevitable alterations of history resulting from the Time War, or —a pet theory I'm currently nursing— the current series of Doctor Who is actually our view into an alternative timeline that resulted when the Doctor, for whatever reason, decided not to go ahead with his plan to burn Skaro with the Hand of Omega as he did in "Remembrance Of The Daleks".

And Dalek nanites? Oh dear. Doctor Who is copying from Star Trek. That's just... sad.

I think that the Terry Nation estate actually asked for that book War of the Daleks. And it was rather good, all in all.

The nanite thing is from EU stuff, that I haven't read, from the 90s.

[Stark]

It was probably the worst licenced novel I've ever read, and I've read ST TNG novels. It features whole blocks of John Peel speaking directly to the reader to push his bizarre agenda contingent on reams of stupid crap and unnecessary anyway. 'Rather good' is probably going a bit far.

Since this is ep1, isnt all this guff setup for the 'amazing' finale anyway?

[The Imperator]

It was probably the worst licenced novel I've ever read, and I've read ST TNG novels. It features whole blocks of John Peel speaking directly to the reader to push his bizarre agenda contingent on reams of stupid crap and unnecessary anyway. 'Rather good' is probably going a bit far.

Since this is ep1, isnt all this guff setup for the 'amazing' finale anyway?

Eh, whatever man. to each his own. And, IIRC, this season is supposed to be 14 stand alone episodes that don't connect; so no, I don't think anything in this episode leads to the finale.

[Ahriman238]

I liked it.

Yes, it was contrived, silly, and even a bit stupid, but it had energy and enough drama to keep me from checking out. The scene with the Daleks not recognizing the Doctor was awesome, however contrived.

I liked that instead of the Doctor being oh so clever and badass and saving the day it was "souffle girl" who grabbed the Daleks by the metaphorical balls and squeezed. This was her victory.

It occurred to me that Oswind was a Dalek roughly 20 seconds after the Doctor explained that everyone on this planet, unless specifically protected, becomes a Dalek. Which was cinched for me when she insisted the Doctor retrieve her. On the other hand, I just figured she was luring the Doctor into an elaborate death trap (for Dr. Evil related purposes of respecting the Doctor too much to just shoot him.) So I was surprised that she genuinely didn't know.

You must admit, it would make more sense that the Daleks wanted to kill the Doctor in such a way he legitimately had a chance of escaping just to say they'd actually beaten him, then what we got.

I assumed that once they reached the TARDIS, the Doctor has all the equipment he needs to reverse a partial-Dalek transformation.

By the way, what is it with the show and all the creation of Dalek-human hybrids? "Parting of the Ways" "Daleks in Manhattan" "The Stolen Earth" and now "Asylum of the Daleks." The Daleks are not complicated. They want to kill everything that isn't them, not make it Dalek. How is this hard?

I wonder how much would have to be rmoved for the Daleks to forget the Doctor. I mean, is he just edited out of their histories, or can they literally recall nothing relating to the Doctor including Davros, Earth, the Time Lords? The fact they made no move to secure the TARDIS suggests they couldn't even remember what it was.

Another minor plot hole. Once the Daleks captured the Doctor for their 'Parliment,' why fetch the TARDIS? Why keep it in the same room with the Doctor, no matter how many Daleks were also there?

[Vaporous]

That episode was just a retread of things we've already seen a thousand times stitched together by handwavium. Yes, Amy is turning into a Thing, she and Rory are having relationship problems for stupid reasons and you know the doctor is badass because they invented yet another terrifying nickname for him. And why even have the Amy and Rory almost divorce thing if you're going to resolve it in twenty minutes? Whatever. I'll forgive it if they don't make the B plot in the next five episodes about it.

The "AI doesn't know its AI" thing has been done at least once before too. To be fair, the Oswin reveal was done well.

We should make a MoffatWho drinking game just to make this season bearable.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, I couldn't figure out why they called him "/thePredator" when they already had "The Oncoming Storm"

[Gandalf]

Does there have to be a happy ending? Despite all the ass-pull saves in Doctor Who it can be quite dark, and for many there is no happy ending.

There doesn't have to be a happy ending, but it would be strange to give them infertility, divorce, reconciliation and then a sad ending five episodes later.