Well, the good news is, this episode is nowhere near as bad as Victory of the Daleks. Sure, the Skittle Daleks show up but the old school Daleks outnumber them about a billion to one. It does not declaw the Daleks and instead it gives up a little peek into the Dalek’s closet to see how far Dalek’s science has evolved.
Let’s recap, when we last left our heroes, ya know what, let’s ignore Season 6 because it makes my head hurt and I think I’ve complained enough.
The Daleks return in grand form to where it all started: Skarro.
Ever so brief, the Doctor appears from his self imposed exile to help someone in need, but it’s all a ruse for the pepper shakers of doom to capture their predator.
Meanwhile, for those who missed Pond Life, Rory and Amy have settled down and stopped traveling with the Doctor even if elements are moving through their lives like the Ood Butler until things come to a point and it appears things are on the rocks for the Ponds, the plot line established towards the end of last season with Amy becoming a model comes back until the Daleks capture the Ponds, kidnap them onboard one of their ships and bring the Doctor, Amy and Rory to the Asylum of the Daleks.
It is here where they want the Doctor and Co to find out why there’s a signal coming the shielded planet, a planet where there should be only Dalek life and instead, classic music is playing.
The classic music is coming from Oswin played by Jenna-Louise Coleman of a ship called Alaska. Alaska crashed and she is the sole survivor. But once the Doctor and Co. land on planet they find everything is not what it seems.
The Daleks have created a field to change any human survivors into Daleks and begins with an eye stalk coming out of people’s heads. I imagine the cos-players are already designing their stalks now.
The episode on a whole actually made the pepper shakers of doomer scarier and slightly more comedic in spots. Polished and shiny enemies is one thing, when your enemies have taken a few licks and battle damaged then chained up and left alone to their own devices for years it reminds you why we love them so much. They are fracking creepy.
I’m going to keep this review lighter than most due to several spoilers. I enjoyed the Oswin’s arc better than most of the one off characters, she came across as believable for the amount of time she was on screen.
Unlike last year’s over arching plot, this episode was mostly free of foreshadowing, not counting the situation with the Ponds until they they come to an end in four episodes.
The one and only problem I had was the lazy CGI at the end with the rockets.
Givin’ it three regenerations out of four.
