"At long last... it's Christmas!"
—The Doctor
The wait is finally over. Eleven months after last season's finale, we finally return... to five episodes of Doctor Who. Steven Moffat has decided that for the seventh season of the revived show, it will be split in two, straddling a Christmas episode right down the middle. So the first half of the series will air during the month of September, and the rest will air next spring.
When last we left our bowtied old bat, he was shot and killed on the shores of Lake Silencio by his kidnapped sort-of-wife, who would later show up because before the Doctor got there, he invited her future self, knowing she would be the one to kill him. It's complicated. Also, there was a cute, family-friendly Christmas special. It wasn't particularly important, with the exception that Amy and Rory are getting on swimmingly, like a normal, domesticated family.
Or are they? Let's back up one week, to this season's prequel miniseries, Pond Life. The Doctor has taken to making house calls to talk to his in-laws while he's off adventuring. Amy and Rory, married four years by this time, are having... an eventful summer. By April, the Doctor's clearly leaving only housecalls, but in May he starts making housecalls, showing up in the middle of the night and warning them that the world is in danger... arriving too early for them to have any idea what's going on. Some foreshadowing for the final Ponds episode coming September 29? Or perhaps something even further down the line? Maybe even a hint at next year's 50th anniversary special? Who knows, but I'm betting by the end of the month, we know what's going on. Anyway, come June he's leaving more than housecalls. As Amy put it, "Ood on the loo." Come July, the Ood is a butler for the very reluctant Ponds, and then August comes. And all we see is Rory walking out on a visibly upset Amy. Wuh oh.
The Doctor, presumed dead by all but three people in the entire universe, has become lore. A legend of the stars. So when the Doctor is suddenly contacted, naturally he is intrigued. Darla Von Karlsen leads the Doctor to Skaro, planet of the Daleks, and pleads for the Doctor to infiltrate a Dalek prison camp. He, however, sees through it immediately, just in time for Dalek parts to sort of grow out of her and shoot him.
Amy, meanwhile, has followed her actress's lead and gotten into modeling (which we saw a hint of in last season's "Closing Time"). On this particular shoot, she is told by an intern that her husband was there to see her, only for her to retort that she doesn't have a husband. Say quoi?
It's true, as moments later, we see Rory sitting in the green room, only there to have Amy sign their divorce papers. Damn. Humorously, this scene actually puts to bed definitively whether or not Amy took Rory's last name in marriage or not (she did), by having her sign a document that would effectively make the argument moot anyway. It even gets positioned next to an awkward Ponds reference in just a minute or two afterwards.
Amy and Rory are (separately) also kidnapped by Dalek puppets and wake up on a spaceship. The Doctor enters, led by Daleks, and tells Rory (awkwardly) just how bad the situation is.
This is bad because, as it turns out, those nanogenes from "The Empty Child" are back, and they're turning anything they come across... into Daleks. Well shit. What's worse, Amy keeps forgetting things. And the Doctor is forced to painfully describe what's happening to her over and over again. Meanwhile, Rory's having some difficulty with his own memory, as he has apparently forgotten what Daleks are, despite encountering one in "The Big Bang". He finds himself waking up in a room full to the brim with inactive Daleks. But after tripping on a giant... something, they all wake up, demanding eggs.
And now, Amy is just straight up losing her mind. Finding that same room of (now very much active) Daleks, she sees them as a number of mostly-charming people. There's even a little ballerina! That is, until the Doctor comes in and frantically warns her to look again. Oh, yeah, it's a bunch of Daleks. Whoops. That ballerina? An old Hartnell-era Dalek spinning in circles in the corner. And now the Daleks are angry. Cue the Doctor tricking one into self-destructing back in the room. Tons of dead Daleks. And a reunion! The gang's all here. Even the disembodied voice of cute, crazy Oswin. She can shut down the shielding on the planet, but then the Daleks will destroy it. So she wants the Doctor to come and get her so they can all leave together.
While the Doctor's gone, we see one of the most fantastically dark and emotionally-charged things this show has ever given us. Step aside, white wall from "Doomsday". Make way, Ten's tantrum. Here comes Rory and Amy's divorce talk. After discovering the nanogene M.O. is "subtract love, add anger", Rory insists that Amy wear his bracelet, as it will take longer for him to turn. Why? Because to Rory (and to a good portion of the audience) it seems apparent that Rory just loves Amy more than she loves him. He did wait outside a box for two thousand years, after all. Penny in the air... She, naturally, is furious. Not because he waited, but because he thinks that the fight is about who loves who more. Then the penny drops. Amy didn't kick Rory out because she didn't love him anymore, she let him go so he could have children someday... because she can't. Whatever Madame Kovarian did to her, it rendered her infertile. And Amy can't bear to drag Rory through life unable to have children of his own. Holy fuck. It's a scene that really does have to be seen to be fully appreciated.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has arrived at Intensive Care, where the Daleks from particular conflicts are held. Notably Spiridon, Kembel, Aridius, Vulcan, and Exxilon. Oh crap. These are Daleks who survived the Doctor. Many as far back as 1963. And they still remember him, even having never seen nine of his faces. See, it turns out that the Daleks share a sort of "hive mind" when it comes to data. They think independently, but they all have access to the same telepathic web database. So when the insane Daleks break out and start lurching and lumbering toward the Doctor, armed with only a plunger, while the Doctor is truly and honestly terrified perhaps for the first time ever, Oswin simply deletes him from their database. She deleted the Doctor from their database. DAMN. Well, now it's time to meet Oswin face to face, at last.
Oswin did crash into the Asylum in the Alaska a year ago. But she was not a survivor. Because of her genius, she had been captured and turned into a Dalek almost immediately, and has been screwing with the Daleks while spiraling into insanity. Meanwhile, she has been imagining herself a world with Carmen and hammocks and throw pillows and soufflés as a coping mechanism. The Doctor very calmly explains all this to her, how even the soufflés are just a part of her psyche. Where does she get the milk? Or the eggs?
Now that is interesting, right there. As she delivers the above line, she looks directly into the camera as seen to the left. Now, remember how the Doctor said "It's Christmas!" to the Daleks? Well the actress playing Oswin Oswald is none other than Jenna-Louise Coleman, the woman who will be playing the Doctor's next companion. Steven Moffat said we wouldn't get to see her "until Christmas". You cheeky bastard. And paired with the "and remember" quip, I get the feeling that this Oswin may have a lot more to do down the line. Should be noted, while I'm at it, that the room you see Oswin in does resemble what the inside of a Dalek helmet would look like. Very clever design. Anyway, run the Doctor does. Back to the teleport, where he zaps the now-fixed-up Ponds and himself into the TARDIS. And the Asylum is detonated. Goodbye, Oswin!
The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS to taunt the Daleks for a bit until they suddenly demand he identifies himself. Confused, the Doctor reminds them that he is, well... the Doctor. The Oncoming Storm. The Predator?
When last we left our bowtied old bat, he was shot and killed on the shores of Lake Silencio by his kidnapped sort-of-wife, who would later show up because before the Doctor got there, he invited her future self, knowing she would be the one to kill him. It's complicated. Also, there was a cute, family-friendly Christmas special. It wasn't particularly important, with the exception that Amy and Rory are getting on swimmingly, like a normal, domesticated family.
Or are they? Let's back up one week, to this season's prequel miniseries, Pond Life. The Doctor has taken to making house calls to talk to his in-laws while he's off adventuring. Amy and Rory, married four years by this time, are having... an eventful summer. By April, the Doctor's clearly leaving only housecalls, but in May he starts making housecalls, showing up in the middle of the night and warning them that the world is in danger... arriving too early for them to have any idea what's going on. Some foreshadowing for the final Ponds episode coming September 29? Or perhaps something even further down the line? Maybe even a hint at next year's 50th anniversary special? Who knows, but I'm betting by the end of the month, we know what's going on. Anyway, come June he's leaving more than housecalls. As Amy put it, "Ood on the loo." Come July, the Ood is a butler for the very reluctant Ponds, and then August comes. And all we see is Rory walking out on a visibly upset Amy. Wuh oh.
"First, there were the Daleks. Then, there was a man who fought them. And then, in time... he died. There are a few, of course, who believe this man somehow survived, and that one day he will return."
—Darla Von Karlsen
Amy, meanwhile, has followed her actress's lead and gotten into modeling (which we saw a hint of in last season's "Closing Time"). On this particular shoot, she is told by an intern that her husband was there to see her, only for her to retort that she doesn't have a husband. Say quoi?
It's true, as moments later, we see Rory sitting in the green room, only there to have Amy sign their divorce papers. Damn. Humorously, this scene actually puts to bed definitively whether or not Amy took Rory's last name in marriage or not (she did), by having her sign a document that would effectively make the argument moot anyway. It even gets positioned next to an awkward Ponds reference in just a minute or two afterwards.
Amy and Rory are (separately) also kidnapped by Dalek puppets and wake up on a spaceship. The Doctor enters, led by Daleks, and tells Rory (awkwardly) just how bad the situation is.
"How much trouble, Mr. Pond? Out of ten? Eleven."
—The Doctor
The Doctor addresses the Parliament of the Daleks and says it's Christmas (this is important), while waiting to be annihilated in front of his dearest friends. But they don't. No, as it turns out, they need the Doctor to save them from the ensuing escape of millions of completely insane Daleks. You know you're in trouble when the Daleks are afraid (even moreso when they describe something, especially one of their own, as "insane"). The Doctor, Amy, and Rory are given magic bracelets, and down to the Asylum they go.
Naturally, they don't land anywhere near each other. But let's back up a second. Before getting fired at the Asylum, the Doctor spoke to a lovely young woman named Oswin.
Hi, Oswin! She's a little loopy. For almost a year, she's been fighting off a Dalek attack while holed away in her command console. The spaceship Alaska crashed down on the Asylum and she's been on her own since then, making soufflés. Where does she get the milk? Anyway, when Amy and the Doctor wake up, they're greeted by Harvey, another Alaska survivor. Until they come upon the rest of the crew. Who have clearly been dead and decomposing for a year. Oh, and then Harvey remembers he's dead and turns into a Dalek puppet. Creepy. Worse still, one of the puppets nabs Amy's bracelet.
"EGGS... EGGS... EGGS... ZTIRM... IN ...NATE."
—Asylum Dalek
Uh oh. Now the shit's hit the fan. Rory barely gets out with the help of Oswin. Oh, didn't I mention? Oswin's been communicating with the TARDIS crew the whole time. She's spent her year hacking a number of the Asylum's systems, and seems to have near omnipresent control over the planet.
While the Doctor's gone, we see one of the most fantastically dark and emotionally-charged things this show has ever given us. Step aside, white wall from "Doomsday". Make way, Ten's tantrum. Here comes Rory and Amy's divorce talk. After discovering the nanogene M.O. is "subtract love, add anger", Rory insists that Amy wear his bracelet, as it will take longer for him to turn. Why? Because to Rory (and to a good portion of the audience) it seems apparent that Rory just loves Amy more than she loves him. He did wait outside a box for two thousand years, after all. Penny in the air... She, naturally, is furious. Not because he waited, but because he thinks that the fight is about who loves who more. Then the penny drops. Amy didn't kick Rory out because she didn't love him anymore, she let him go so he could have children someday... because she can't. Whatever Madame Kovarian did to her, it rendered her infertile. And Amy can't bear to drag Rory through life unable to have children of his own. Holy fuck. It's a scene that really does have to be seen to be fully appreciated.
Meanwhile, the Doctor has arrived at Intensive Care, where the Daleks from particular conflicts are held. Notably Spiridon, Kembel, Aridius, Vulcan, and Exxilon. Oh crap. These are Daleks who survived the Doctor. Many as far back as 1963. And they still remember him, even having never seen nine of his faces. See, it turns out that the Daleks share a sort of "hive mind" when it comes to data. They think independently, but they all have access to the same telepathic web database. So when the insane Daleks break out and start lurching and lumbering toward the Doctor, armed with only a plunger, while the Doctor is truly and honestly terrified perhaps for the first time ever, Oswin simply deletes him from their database. She deleted the Doctor from their database. DAMN. Well, now it's time to meet Oswin face to face, at last.
"Eggs? Eggs. Eggs... stir... MIN... NATE."
—Oswin Oswald
Fuck fuck fuck. The Doctor panics and backs up against the wall in a shot very reminiscent of the very first shot of a Dalek taken 49 years ago in the second serial of the original show, aptly titled "The Daleks". But Oswin regains herself just in time to break down crying and ask the Doctor why. Why the Daleks hate him so much. The Daleks have only grown stronger in fear of the Doctor, you see. So Oswin has a solution: run. She drops the shields, and tells the Doctor to run as fast as he can.
"Run, you clever boy... and remember."
—Oswin Oswald
The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS to taunt the Daleks for a bit until they suddenly demand he identifies himself. Confused, the Doctor reminds them that he is, well... the Doctor. The Oncoming Storm. The Predator?
"Titles are not meaningful in this context. Doctor who?"
—Darla Von Karlsen
You see, Oswin deleted the Doctor from the hive mind. The hive mind all Daleks share. Congratulations, Doctor. Your greatest enemy no longer know who you are. Although... you did just introduce yourself as the Oncoming Storm, and the Predator. That could come back to bite him in the ass.
"Asylum of the Daleks" is a magnificent episode, worthy of being a season premiere, and being far more involved in the mythos of the show at large than any other premiere thus far. The incredibly dark tones of divorce and infertility add a level of drama that the younger kids may not understand at all, but god damn did it hit me right in the heart while I watched it. The acting by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill were as good as we've ever seen, if not worlds better. That new series logo, at the top? Gonna change with each episode, much like the increasingly-broken titles of the previous two seasons (compare "The Eleventh Hour" to "The Wedding of River Song"). This episode was simply fantastic and, while it doesn't quite stand on the same level as last year's "The Impossible Astronaut", it most definitely rides high as one of the best premieres the show has seen yet. How to score it... out of eleven? Ten.
10/11
Here's hoping the rest of the season is as strong. Anxiously awaiting the mid-season finale in four weeks, and next week's "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" promises to be a romp like the good old days. 'Til next time!
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