I won’t make this long. Lemme just say that this episode was a mixture of some awesome moments and some clever writing, and yet some moments just felt like an attempt at revival of a toy merchandising. If you think I’m wrong, tell me what is the logical reasoning behind the regeneration of the Daleks to an upgraded version just to be revealed as if they are the current version of the new iPod Nano. Or maybe, just maybe they suddenly got fashion conscious to adapt the Power Rangers colour scheme.
Also Amy Pond. Now I do know a lot of you find her to be quite interesting to say the least. But I really can’t handle her saving the day yet again. It kinda feels like Steven Moffat is making a conscious decision to write in favour of making Amy Pond a fair contribution to the “saving of the day”. Why I have a problem with this – even I am not very sure about that, but I do. Also, she is a bit disobedient and does not listen to what the Doctor says her to do. She needs to play her cards right to please me.
Now that I have vented my disappointment, let’s talk about what I thought was brilliant about this episode. Hit the jump to see the list, and some awesome screencaps too.
1. I am the Doctor.
The Doctor and Amy go back in time to visit Sir Winston Churchill in the midst of the blitz of London. The Doctor gets to know about Churchill’s secret weapon to aid him win the war. Designed by his fellow Scottish scientist – Bracewell, the Daleks are the secret weapon who assist the soldiers with their attacks and even serve tea. But the Doctor knows who they are. The Doctor’s frustration and anger is very well portrayed by Matt Smith here again. And he instigates the Daleks to defend themselves by hitting them with a spanner. Ultimately, he speaks it out loud – I am the Doctor and you are the Daleks. Matt Smith is very credible and has very comfortably slipped into David Tennant’s shoes. And there is no single shade of uneasiness when I see him narrating the history behind how he sent the Daleks to the void.
2. Bracewell.
The second good thing about this episode was the revelation of Bracewell’s identity. The Daleks blow his hand off to reveal that he’s probably a cyborg, all machine or partly. He emotes and he imagines [or does he?] about his past and present. But again, he is infact the Dalek’s final trump card in the form of a Oblivion Continuum [ if I heard that right] to be used to blast the Earth. Bracewell’s past is another mystery yet to be revealed but I guess, the future episodes will tell us more on that. After all, he has a chest similar to Tony Stark 
3. Star Wars/ ID4.
Even though the space fight sequence was cringe-worthy with really unimpressive special effects, it did remind me of Independence Day and Star Wars. And when anything in the world does the same, it always features in my “Good List”. Although I am not sure what the pilot was breathing, but then there’s no sound in space either.
4. Hints and Questions.
There were a couple of hints thrown in which would probably be picked up in future episodes. One of the obvious ones is the crack, which the Doctor reminds Amy of – something which she should have noticed but she didn’t. Also, why can’t Amy remember the Daleks? Every human should remember the Daleks, but she doesn’t. Hmm, speculations, speculation !!!
And now that the Daleks have escaped, I think we will be seeing more of them in the near future. After all, they are the Doctor’s most loved/hated enemies.
The next episode to be aired next Saturday will feature the ‘Weeping Angels’ from “Blink”. That is one of my most favourite episodes from David Tennant’s Doctor series, and I seriously cannot wait for it. So what did you think about this episode? Shout it out in the comments. Cheerio!
Previous post: Britain’s Got Talent 2010 Auditions – Episode 1
Next post: Britain’s Got Talent 2010 – Auditions Week 2
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I think both instances that Amy Pond has saved the day have been with her “emotional intelligence”, which this doctor seems to lack a little bit – so it doesn't bother me.
The space spitfires did make me cringe a little bit, as did the different coloured daleks. I've never really liked them anyway to be honest though.
I really liked the Blink Angels the first time round, but am a little worried that a second outing won't work as well for them.
[Reply]
Sujoy Reply:
April 18th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Ever since I saw the preview of the new season with the weeping Angels, I have been waiting for them. I really hope their second outing is worth it.
I donno why I find it so hard to like Amy. IMO she really needs to tone down herself and LISTEN to what the Doctor says. She's just so disobedient.
[Reply]
I generally felt this episode was a complete waste of theirs and my time.
I don't feel there was anything in the episode that warranted it, oh yeah the Daleks are back… again. This whole resurrection malarkey is starting to wear a bit thin. At least they don't need to rerecord the lines “one ship fell through or survived or slipped through a crack”.
The cracks in time and space are a little I don't know, ummm dumb. I'm not going to get to the end of the series and go oh wow so that's what the cracks were – how shocking?! Unlike the previous extremely well seeded Bad Wolf references.
Also I'm so over the 'I am the Doctor!' routine, it was tedious towards the end of Tennant's reign and I really wish they hadn't carried it over.
Whilst I am extremely weary of the new Dalek designs, it's not the first time they have had different colours and even some of those design elements. But at the end of the day you can't beat the original and best design which I'm surprised wouldn't have been consider pure Dalek.
But then again the whole crap about Dalek DNA is rubbish anyhow, the exo-suits are machines, it's the Kelad mutants inside that have the DNA and frankly the idea of a pure specimen is silly consider Davros was the one who accelerated the Kelad mutation in the first place.
The less said about the World War 2 jets in space the better and how responsible of the Doctor to let a robot of Dalek origin set up shop in Earth history with only one hand. Stunningly stupid, drop him off on a planet that has other robots or a wide diversity of aliens where it wouldn't matter. Oh and that crap about being human *sigh* OR he is a robot programmed to think he's a human – Philip K Dick handled that story a hell of a lot better (of course he was a better write so…)
Finally we have next week's episode which is designed for us to associate the new Doctor even closer with the previous very popular one by returning a one off alien that should not extend past it's one brilliant appearance and River Song who should be back but not in conjunction with the weeping angels which as an alien species are a bit of a stretch already.
I hope this is but a bump on the road.
[Reply]
I could not agree more about Amy. She seems to have been written way too confident, way too fast, imho.
She's a little like Ace in The Curse of Fenric where the 7th Doctor was pushing her. However, Ace earned that respect from previous stories and ultimately you knew she was safe in the omnipotent Doctor's hands. Whereas Amy just seems to walk right on up and save the day. I don’t like what that says about my beloved Doctor. He's the belle of the ball for me.
Personally, I love the new Daleks. It's obviously a massive nod to the Movie type Daleks (where they were shown off in the 1960's 'glorious' techni-colour). It occurred to me that the big booty (ala Renault Megan) looked like an entrance and exit hatch for the operator, rather than needing to climb in and then have the top secured. I'd be very interested to take a peek in a cross-section often new design. I also love the additional height and the lower voices. Although, I don't know why they choose that low ceilinged room with that big air vent that only just cleared the White Dalek's dome.
What was that nonsense about needing the Doctor’s confession for the germination of a new species of Dalek??
Was there ever any doubt in them getting away… if Tom couldn’t finish them then I doubt Matt could.
[Reply]