It’s that time of year again…. the new series of ‘Doctor Who’ has started!
As always I will be sharing my humble opinions in the coming weeks. I’m going to try my best to be spoiler free but if the occasion calls for it I’ll flag it up by giving a “SPOILERS AHOY” notice at the start of each post.
Episode 1 of series 7 aired on Saturday 1st September at 20 past 7 and is called ‘Asylum of the Daleks’.
We re-join our favourite Timelord as he is lured into a trap on Skaro and beamed to the Parliament of the Daleks. There he is joined by the similarly captured and newly divorced Amy and Rory. It transpires that our beloved trio have been enlisted by the Daleks to help obliterate a planet facility called ‘The Asylum’ to which the Daleks banish those who go insane. The Dalek Prime Minister (who knew the Daleks had such an organised Governmental structure?!?!) explains that a ship has crashed into the Asylum and broken the force-field surrounding the planet. The Daleks wish to destroy the planet to stop any of the unhinged residents escaping but are too afraid of the of the aforementioned inhabitants to go down to the planet and turn off the force-field in order to do so. The Doctor and his companions have to travel to the Asylum in order to shut down the force-field.
I cannot begin to tell you how happy it makes me that ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ is awesome :-)
I loved last season’s, second half opener ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ but there was a lot of exposition in that episode due to the massive amount of loose threads that the series had yet to tie up. This series, however, is a fresh start and as such is unburdened by unanswered questions. What ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ does is set up what I think is going to be a bit of a puzzle that will keep Whovians guessing till Christmas.
I said no spoilers and I stand by that so all I’m going to sat is there is a surprise performance in this episode. It’s really good; in fact it’s heart-breakingly wonderful and has made me super excited about the rest of the series. I shall say no more on the subject :-)
You may remember my none too favourable look at ‘Closing Time’ from last series and my criticism of their use of the Cybermen, you’ll be pleased to know I have no such baddie qualms here. The Daleks have been used so much in the past that last series Steven Moffat made the conscious decision to “rest” them. That decision has paid off dividends. There is a nice twist at the end that means that they can go wherever they like with the Doctor’s greatest nemesis which I loved.
Arthur Darvill… GORGEOUS in this episode. Seriously, even my Mum said “when did he get so handsome”! He’s come a long way since he was Rory the Nurse… Incidentally there’s a sequence when he’s in a room with some seemingly dormant Daleks that is genuinely ‘hide behind a cushion’ scary. I held my breath for the whole scene.
The only place this episode falls down is the emotional aside of Amy and Rory’s marriage break-down. I won’t give away the reasons behind it but to me it doesn’t make any sense. I think they would have survived the issue that caused the break-up so the motives don’t really ring true. That said the scenes between those characters are sweet and I enjoyed them.
‘Asylum of the Daleks’ is a wonderful example of Doctor Who at its heart-string tugging best. One minor quibble aside I think it was a fantastic opening to the new series :-)
Now let’s seen if we can’t find some…
Reasons to be cheerful :-)
1. Catching Fire has started filming! There’s been lots of additions to the cast, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Clafin and Jena Malone are all new. I’m looking forward to it, it is my favourite of the books and with a cast like that it’s sure to be good :-)
2. New ‘Wreck it Ralph’ Trailer! I can’t wait, this looks like it’s going to be really special :-) One to look out for in 2013!
3. New pictures from 'Thor:The Dark World' (aka Thor 2)! Thor and the Lady Sif kick ass! I'm excited :-)
That’s all from me for today.
Goodbye till next time :-)
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