Doctor Who - 'Asylum of the Daleks'.

So I got there in the end, watching this episode about three weeks after I should have seen it at the BFI premiere. After going all out to get a ticket (it really helped that I was working in the BFI box office that day...) I then took Hope to the park, on the day of the premiere and totally forgot that I had somewhere else that I needed to be... I did get to go on a really cool slide but even so...


Like I said though, I got there in the end :o) Hope is fascinated by Daleks right now so we both watched most of the episode together (in a rites of passage kind of way, both for me and her) and, on the whole, it rocked. Wait, what am I talking about? It rocked the whole way through :o) If you didn't know already, I am a big fan of Doctor Who but (bias to one side) 'Asylum of the Daleks' was still a great way to kick off the new series

The Daleks may have been used a little too much in recent seasons (and 'Victory of the Daleks' really didn't work for me at all) but there is still something awe inspiring about seeing so many Daleks on screen for the 'Parliament' scenes. Same deal with the premise for the episode; there have been too many trailers floating about, for it to really surprise us, but there's something about that sudden change in dynamic (between two enemies) that really gets you into things and fast.

What I really enjoyed about 'Asylum' was the element of horror that was employed. You hear a lot of talk about kids being scared by the monsters but this was a genuinely scary episode in other ways too. There's a whole facility full of insane Daleks, even more insane than normal, what could be scarier than that (especially when Rory meets one for the first time)? Well, since you're asking, seeing what the Daleks do their human slaves is pretty horrifying all by itself, especially when it leads to zombies...

I'd have to wonder how 'Asylum' fits in with all the other stuff we know about Dalel history and I will say that I felt a little short changed about being promised that we'd see Daleks from all incarnations of the show. Blink and you will miss them (I did, it took a second viewing to see them)...

These are really small niggles though when you have a plot that rockets along and promises at least one intriguing development to come in the rest of the series. The end revelation is a little obvious but like I said, the implications should make for interesting viewing in the near future.

Strong performances from the three leads (the 'intensive care' scene was pretty powerful stuff I thought) and more Daleks than you know what to do with. It doesn't get a lot better than that. Roll on the next episode (dinosaurs on a space ship!)

Before I hit 'Publish Post', have some more reviews that I found while googling an image for the post. Here's the Daily Telegraph review, Radio Times and one from Digital Spy.