The episode’s opening moments take place in the burnt-out ruins of a Skaro skyscraper, a sweeping shot of epic grandeur leading us to a hooded woman with a plea for the Doctor, begging him to save her daughter from the Dalek prison camps. It seems like the potential set-up for an entirely different story in its own right, but as usual with Moffat events rush on at light speed and the hood falls away to reveal a sinister and familiar eyestalk. Meanwhile, back on Earth, we find the Ponds in the middle of a marital crisis; they last just long enough to sign the divorce papers before they too are taken hostage by the Dalek slaves. The TARDIS trio are reunited in the midst of Dalek parliament, where they are greeted not with extermination, but with another plea for help. Save us. As the Doctor puts it - ‘Well, this is new!’
What unfolds as the episode progresses is not the grandiose action blockbuster many might have been expecting. There are certainly moments of that - the scenes with the parliament of the Daleks (sidenote: what an interesting concept, and such a shame it wasn’t explored further) are nothing if not bombastic, particularly when they’re all screaming in unison - but for the most part this is actually a very intimate, very intelligent series opener. Though not quite as complex as last year’s The Impossible Astronaut, which left many of the show’s more casual viewers scratching their heads, it still puts forward a lot of very clever ideas and doesn’t patronise its audience by slowing down whilst explaining them. Instead, it roars along at a rattling pace, as we watch the Doctor, Amy and Rory struggle to find a way out of the Asylum - a place for the broken and the battle-worn, the Daleks who are even madder (and quite possibly more dangerous for it) than most.
They are assisted in their escape by the spectacular Oswin Oswald, junior entertainment manager, stranded space explorer and total brilliant brainbox. Jenna-Louise Coleman’s surprise early arrival to the show is the highest point in an episode filled with high points. Her performance is at times hilarious, ingenious, self-assured and heartbreaking, and made all the more touching when the episode’s final big reveal rolls around. The whizz-bang wit of her dialogue with the Doctor (‘Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?’ ‘Doctor.’) is a testament both to the writing of the Moff and the performing skills of the pair involved, while her flirting with Rory provides more than one grin-worthy moment. It’s a pity that, Scotland one-liner aside, she doesn’t get much of a chance to interact with Amy, but you can’t have it all, and Amy does have her own problems to be getting on with - like the fact that she’s turning into a Dalek herself!
Speaking of which, it would be unfair to spend so much time praising the performance of the new Who girl without sparing a minute or two to talk about the Doctor’s present companions, Amy and Rory. Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill have been gracing our screens for more than two years now, and yet their characters still seem to be growing and evolving and covering new ground. Rory’s interactions with the half-broken Daleks (‘Eggs?’) were surely cause for deafening laughter amongst audiences everywhere, whilst their scene together on the teleporter, as Amy refuses to let her husband try to save her by being ‘cold and logical’, reveal that even now they are still learning about each other, still growing closer, and still falling ever further in love. Though the bickering and the divorce seem extremely abrupt - and this, I think, is the one weak link in an otherwise solid episode - the resolution is satisfying enough on an emotional level that it can be forgiven.
And if we’re talking about acting, how could we possibly forget the man himself; Matt Smith? The Doctor displays a wide spectrum of emotion in Asylum of the Daleks, and not once is his performance anything less than top notch. His hatred of the Daleks - and their recognition of that hatred - harks back to Eccleston’s Dalek, and his manipulation of the Ponds in his attempts to fix everything is very McCoy. Add to that a dash of hyperspeed dialogue, some subtle tweaks of his bow tie, and even a little bit of pure, uncontrollable terror (not an emotion I think we’ve ever seen Eleven really truly display before) and you have another excellent episode for Smith. And while we’re on the subject of terror, let me introduce you to Harvey’s crewmates…
Moffat’s been promising an episode that will make the Daleks fearful again, and I’ve got to hand it to him, I can’t ever remember being this afraid of any other Dalek story. Though the two stand out moments are Harvey’s escape pod and the intensive care unit (both of which are extremely claustrophobic and horror film-esque), the entire story has a feeling of palpable tension, a sense of danger and death lurking just out of sight, around the corner. And if Oswin’s big twist doesn’t give you a nightmare or two, I think you might be a tiny bit mad. Ultimately, the Asylum feels like the stage for a survival horror escapade, featuring a ragtag band of unwilling explorers on a mission to return home safely, against terrifying odds.
Though Asylum of the Daleks raises more than one question - the issue of the Doctor’s supposed demise at the climax of last series, and the impact it has and could have on the Daleks, is raised - it by and large feels very much like its own creature, a self-contained, handcrafted masterpiece of a Doctor Who story. The arc-heavy approach of series six is gone, replaced with a renewed appreciation of the standalone and the sensational. The episode ends with just a touch of optimism, as the Doctor spirals round the TARDIS console, off on another adventure in another time, on another world. Though we know there are dark and difficult days on the horizon - the end of the Ponds, Oswin’s return, and of course the First Question - right now, it seems like all is well in the world of the Doctor. He’s not a predator - he’s just a man with a plan.
PS: Hello everybody, I'm back! It's been a while since my last blog post - early April, I believe. What can I say? I warned way back in my first post that I've always been a very temperamental blogger, and I just sort of lost interest in writing reviews and the like over the summer months. I don't know whether it's the threat of college lurking on the horizon or (more likely) the return of my beloved Who, but something's pushed me to start writing these again, and here we are. I can't say if posts on this blog will become a regular thing again or if I'll vanish for another six months after this, but I suppose we'll find out. Thanks for reading!
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