Asylum of The DaleksRory: So, out of ten how much trouble are we in? The Doctor: Out of ten… Eleven.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are kidnapped by the Parliament of the Daleks and sent on a mission to deactivate the Asylum of the Daleks which

is the home of the most dangerous Daleks in history. However, something else is in the Asylum, something that needs The Doctor’s help.

Asylum of The Daleks starts off great. We experience the wasteland of Skaro; a massive Dalek statue and a mysterious woman talking about recent events (i.e. The Doctor’s “death” at the end of Series Six.) and hoping the mysterious man in the blue box can save her daughter.

Suddenly, things begin to go wrong. We realise that the woman is a puppet of the Daleks and has lured the Doctor there to kidnap him. This is not the part I have qualms about, no, it’s the bit where she grows a Dalek eyestalk out of the top of her head and a Dalek gun out of her hand. It is all too gimmicky for me.

However, things soon pick up when we finally get The Doctor, Amy and Rory into the Dalek Spaceship which features incredible CGI. The whole beginning of the scene is wonderful, particularly the bit where the Daleks scream “Save the Daleks!” It is almost like a massive chorus which resonates through the whole set. However, I do feel that although Asylum has a good beginning, it is one of a particular type of Dalek stories.

Sadly, it is a story where there are lots of Daleks and not a lot of plot. It is reminiscent of “Planet of the Daleks” which was a great idea but not executed as well as it could have been, rather like Asylum. The idea of an Asylum filled with insane Daleks is a fantastic one but when showed on screen it does not work. Disappointingly, the story gets clogged down with CGI spectacle.

The Doctor being introduced to his “new companion” cluttered the story even more. Is this meant to introduce the companion? Is this even the companion or another character played by the same actress?

Another reason the story does not work is that because these Daleks are utterly insane, all they do is trundle around trying to kill the Doctor. This may excite some fans, however, this reviewer feels more plot is needed. Why were certain Daleks in the Asylum? We aren’t given much explanation except that some of them had survived the Doctor and a mention of a few classic stories. Yet all the Daleks in the previous stories had been completely wiped out and they had different designs. This may seem like nit picking, but plot holes like these should not go unchallenged.

Karen Gillan shined in the scene set in the Asylum, in which she tells Rory the reason they

were separated. Gillan plays it excellently and really demonstrates her acting skills so that we feel real pain and sympathy for her. Gillan’s acting has slowly begun to shine through more and more as we have truly seen her develop as an actress through her time with the Doctor.

Asylum of The Daleks is an episode that goes up and down through watching it. Sometimes it’s incredible, sometimes it can rather drag. I hope, however, that Steven Moffat writes for the Daleks again as he has some good ideas about the Daleks origins even though with some of his work the pace is not right.

Dinosaurs on a SpaceshipBrian Williams: “What sort of man doesn’t carry a trowel?”

The Doctor, Amy, Rory, Queen Nefertiti, Ridell and Brian Williams, (Rory’s rather bemused father) depart on a mission to save planet

Earth from a spaceship flying towards the planet. They soon discover a cargo that is unique in the universe: living dinosaurs. Can the Doctor save Earth and save the dinosaurs before Earth defence forces destroy the ship?

A mixture between “Primeval” and “Indiana Jones”, “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” is in fact much better than I originally thought it would be. A mixture between good CGI and a rather nicely paced story means that “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” keeps you hooked to the end. My only two niggles are, firstly, that there were too many companions. We had not just the Ponds, but Rory’s father, Ridell the big game hunter (played excellently by Rupert Graves) and Queen Nefertiti. All the characters were played excellently by the actors but most of them were not needed. Indeed, it did feel that characters had been created simply for the sake of it; luckily for the actors, almost equal screen time was given to all the “gang”.

My other niggle was the robots. They did not at all seem necessary and though played well by David Mitchell and Robert Webb, again they seemed like pointless characters and were simply there for comic effect. Apart from that, the episode was very good and I look forward to more Chris Chibnall penned episodes.

David Bradley was fantastic as the villain of the

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Doctor Who Series 7 Part One Reviewed by Will Barber

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piece as Solomon. Although we were not really given any back story, Bradley plays to the strengths of the character making him slightly more sinister. This stems mainly from the scene where he first encounters the Doctor. Bradley plays the scene brilliantly, making sure that the character is not just a cardboard cut-out villain. Solomon is a true villain and does not want to seek redemption. However, the fact that the Doctor kills him rather cold bloodedly at the end is particularly out of character and did not fit in with the light heartedness of the rest of the episode.

All in all, “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” is a good episode with some nice twists and turns; however, this reviewer feels it would have been a lot better if some of those little darlings had been killed before it was broadcast.

A Town Called MercyThe Doctor: I see “keep out” signs as suggestions rather than orders. Like, “Dry Clean Only”.

The Doctor, Rory and Amy arrive in the mid-west of America in a town called Mercy. They soon discover that the town is under attack

from a gunslinger and that the local sheriff is protecting an alien doctor from harm. The man seems perfectly harmless until The Doctor discovers the truth of the alien doctor, Kahler-Jex’s past.

“A Town Called Mercy” is aired in the shadow of The Doctor’s previous outing to the Wild West, “The Gun Fighters” (1966); unfortunately, it was not so good. So, as you can imagine, this reviewer was not exactly about to jump up and down with joy at another western. However, I was proved very wrong.

Unlike “The Gun Fighters”, “A Town Called Mercy” was excellent. The writer, Toby Whitehouse wrote an episode which was far superior to the majority of Wild West stories. He offered us a Doctor Who story set on the American Frontier which did not have any clichés in it at all. Whitehouse had taken a period of history that has been awfully stereotyped and made it more real, less cardboard cut-out. We really do believe in the characters of The Marshall, Issac (Ben Browder) and Abraham, (Garrick Hagon). This means that the plot flies along quickly and at a good pace so as to keep the audience intrigued. The theme of mercy was demonstrated

almost as a dichotomy of how humans behave towards each other. We witnessed the Doctor when he does not give mercy in contrast to Issac showing us that every human being should show mercy. Indeed, the whole story is something we have not seen for a long time: a very moral story. Is this good or bad? Only time can tell. Should we follow the Doctor’s code or maybe just stick to our own idea of morality?

Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Doctor is central to this story. The anger he feels against Kahler-Jex is played very believably by Smith. In a way we almost feel compelled to agree with the Doctor, yet, as in the case with Solomon (Dinosaurs on A Spaceship, last week’s episode) this feels out of character for the Doctor. The scene where Amy has to remind the Doctor of his own moral code is played excellently both by Gillan and Smith and beautifully illuminates both their acting talents. The fact that, episode by episode, the Doctor is

getting darker is intriguing and could be leading up to the ultimate end of the Ponds.

“A Town Called Mercy” has been the best episode of series seven so far; it mixes morality with gun fights in a fun way but not in a flippant manner. The advice which we must take from this episode is that we should respect people’s ideas and beliefs, including horses called Susan.

The Power of ThreeAmy Pond: Because they pull at each other. Because they pull at me, and because the travelling is starting to feel like running away.

The Doctor arrives on Earth to find that the planet if filled with small, black cubes. Enlisting the help of the Ponds, Brian Williams

and UNIT, the Doctor must discover the truth of the cubes before time runs out.

As a huge Doctor Who fan, I found The Power of Three disappointing in comparison to the excellent A Town Called Mercy. Unlike Town it does not really have a plot, more like a bunch of good ideas thrown together. Sadly, the good ideas accumulate into a rather boring and shaky plot which is simply there to highlight the fact that Amy and Rory want to stop travelling.

When the reason for the cubes is eventually revealed it does seems a bit stupid. The Shakri (Steven Berkoff) is a bemused portrayal of a character who does not seem to know whether he is the villain of the piece or not. In fact, he is one of the oddest villains the show has ever produced. Hopefully, Berkoff will return but not as the Shakri.

Jemma Redgrave is excellent in this episode as Kate Stewart, the new leader of UNIT. Redgrave is truthful to the part, bouncing well off Matt Smith’s Doctor. Though, rather like Berkoff, she is very much under used. Redgrave gives depth to the character she is depicting and therefore is believable as the daughter of the Brigadier. Interestingly, Redgrave’s performance mirrors Nick Courtney’s, particularly the walk she uses. Hopefully, she will return and have much larger parts in future programmes.

All in all, The Power of Three was an interesting episode but not always for the right reasons. Hopefully, when Chibinall next writes for Doctor Who, he will write a more coherent plot rather than a bunch of very thinly connected scenes.

The Angels Take ManhattanThe Doctor: I’m sorry, Rory...but you just died.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory arrive in New York only to find that the whole city has been taken over by the Weeping Angels. Rory soon

gets zapped back in time to 1938, where he meets his daughter, River Song who is also investigating the Angels. The Doctor and Amy must race across time and space to find Rory before the Angels take Manhattan.

The Angels Take Manhattan opened excellently with lots of atmosphere building and the Angels were creepy for the first time since Blink. The idea of the detective seeing his older self was brilliant and slowly begins to set the scene, by building up the drama. The rather shocking appearance of the Statue of Liberty leads boldly into the title sequence. The picnic scene at the beginning was lovely and shows the chemistry between the Ponds and the Doctor. I felt, however that the cherubs, though very creepy seemed a bit too much, especially with the Statue of Liberty being an Angel as well. However, the beginning was mostly atmospheric, tense and absorbing then slowly, like a deflating balloon, the atmosphere farts off across the Manhattan skyline never to be recaptured until the very end of the episode.

The twist that River was Melody Malone was very good but a tad predictable. The scene in which Rory sees his older self-die was well played by both Darvill and Gillan. The scene with Rory and Amy on the rooftop about to jump was fantastically played though maybe not suited to a show which Moffat says the whole family watches. They jump off the roof and live?! This is not setting the best example, Moffat. The fact that Rory is sent back in time, again by a Weeping Angel that comes from nowhere seems terribly gimmicky because it is creating a twist for the sake of it. The scene after Rory is sent back in time and Amy wants to be with him is brilliantly played by Smith, Gillan and Kingston. The ending is rushed, though this is made up for by the tie in scene with The Eleventh Hour which neatly ends Amy and Rory’s arc.

Normally, I only look at one star performance in an episode but since this is the Ponds’ final episode, I feel that the two star performances should be Karen Gillan’s and Arthur Darvill’s. Even though, like I said the rooftop scene is inappropriate for Doctor Who because unlike the Doctor, Amy and Rory are mortals and it is difficult for children of a certain age to distinguish between reality and fantasy. When they see two human beings jump from a very high building and not even be hurt; it is irresponsible television. However, Gillan and Darvill play the scene to its maximum emotional level.

Gillan also excels in the scene where she wants to be with Rory again, even if it means being

sent back in time.All in all, The Angels Take

Manhattan had the potential to be a great

episode but unfortunately like Rory and Amy it dive bombed down but unlike them it recovered at the end. Although it

was Steven Moffat’s best

Doctor Who script since The

Eleventh Hour, next time I’m hoping

for an episode which reaches the

expectations I felt whilst watching the opening of The Angels Take Manhattan.

DOCTOR WHO returns on Christmas Day 2012

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