Admiral Valdemar wrote:After that, we get finales where The Doctor doesn't cut it. His dealing of The Master was terrible, and were it not for Martha, would've been totally useless.
That was the plan all along, the Doctor instructed Martha when the Master and his henchmen staged the coup onboard the
Valiant; she travelled around spreading tales about the Doctor amongst the crushed populace and the populace's belief imprinted upon the Master's Angel Network (which gave the Doctor a psychic boost). I felt the Doctor was more on the knife-edge in "Human Nature"-"The Family of Blood".
Then we get Doctor frakkin' Donna.
Cheesy and silly as all circles of hell, but there was still the essence and memories of the Doctor within Donna (a pleb with a voice like a foghorn that saved the Multiverse). But either way the Dalek stories in recent years have been very popular amongst most viewers; 7000 voters for the
Doctor Who Magazine put "The Stolen Earth"-"Journey's End" in at
Number 13 (in a list of all 200
DW stories), ahead of "Dalek" and "Remembrance of the Daleks", while "Bad Wolf"-"The Parting of the Ways" came in at
Number 10. Although we'll see if those episodes pass the test of time like "The Caves of Androzani" (which was voted in at Number 1, with Moffat's "Blink" taking second place).
"Victory of the Daleks" is certainly the weakest episode of Season Five yet, Mark Gatiss' best script remains to be "The Unquiet Dead" way back in Eccelston's season, but that doesn't stop "Victory of the Daleks" from being bad per-se and it's the best Dalek story in the last three years; I give it a
6/10 rating and voted a "3". The worst aspect of this episode was the insipid patriotism (when that Union Flag was being hoisted after the bombing run) and I'm still on the fence about the new Daleks. The Time War era Daleks are a better, more realistic looking design; I don't mind the new Dalek machines being bulkier and having a 1960s colour scheme, but they should straighten up the hulls, ditch the orange and lime colour schemes, put grooves in their bases, and give them more of a metalic finish.
Stark reminds me of
Lawrence Miles:
'You know, I'm really getting into the whole "commenting on this week's 'Doctor Who' without actually having to watch the bugger" thing.'