Sunday, April 18, 2010

Doctor Who S05E03-Victory of the Daleks

The Doctor and Amy land in the middle of London during WWII to answer a call from PM Winston Churchill. Churchill reveals his newest hope to win the war, a new breed of iron men who look exactly like The Doctor’s old enemies, The Daleks. The Doctor knows something is wrong and that the whole world is playing right into the hands of the Daleks. And if The Doctor can’t stop them, he faces the horrific rebirth of one of the deadliest empires in the universe.

Victory of the Daleks had some very exciting action set pieces, cudos to the visual effects team for going all out on this one. But somehow I just felt it was more of a step back from the outstanding last two weeks of stories. This could be because it’s the first episode of the season not written by Steven Moffat. But the episode moved fast and even felt like it was leaving several loose plot threads along the way.

I always knew the Daleks were never gone for good, even when they were all seemingly destroyed in Series 4’s Journey’s End. It is a nice test for Matt Smith as The Doctor as I’m sure fans have been waiting for his oppourtunity to face off against classic Doctor Who villains. And while I felt that some of Mr. Smith’s acting was a bit over the top, particularly in the scenes where he is banging a Dalek with a wrench to expose its wickidness, The Doctor’s feelings are understandable. His worst enemy working along side a desperate human race during one of the darkest periods in human history, it does sound too good to be true. I felt that the plan was exposed too quickly and the appearance of “old school” color coded Daleks was both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because the new old look harkens back to how the Daleks first appeared way back when on Doctor Who. It’s a curse cause I just feel they could have done more to show how ruthless they are. Although I must admit their killing of their three non pure upgrades was pretty shocking and a nice close out to the Dalek model we’ve seen since 2005.

While the Dalek story moved at a rapid pace, some of the characters were still given plenty of attention. Ian McNiece was finely cast as Winston Churchill, the man who sheltered England from the Nazi’s during WWII. As aforementioned in my Dalek story analysis, his wanting the Daleks to be a true blessing is understandable considering what is going on around him. But even after he learns of the Daleks true intentions, Churchill is still a man of action rallying his troops to combat the new threat. It is a fine performance by Mr. McNiece I think. Also there is the Dalek built Dr. Bracewell, a man trying to deal with the revelation that he has been a tool for destruction all along, that he wasn’t even real. His scene with The Doctor and Amy as they try to disarm the bomb on his chest is a great scene with Bracewell finding his peace and humanity and Amy revealing some not so subtle hints towards a potential more than just friends liking to The Doctor.

Of course, we got some Top Gun esque action with WWII fighter jets going head to head with a Dalek battleship. It’s fast, it’s furious, it’s a ridiculous concept but nonetheless a fun Doctor Who ridiculous concept. I’m just curious how they got those fighter up and running so fast. Eh, oh well.

Overall, this episode had some great moments and great hints of stuff to come regarding Amy not remembering the Dalek invasion of Earth during Series 4’s The Stolen Earth and Journey’s End. Plus those pesky cracks in time are popping up at the end of every episode now and one can’t help but wonder how Amy is connected. Series 5 is doing a lot of this right, the most important being producing the need in our minds to see more and try to piece together whats coming. This wasn’t a truly fantastic episode like the last two weeks, but is was still fun and interesting nonetheless.

Next Week-Professor River Song returns to the TARDIS with a heart stopping warning…The Weeping Angels are back…don’t blink.

Rating-7/10

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