Short lived though, because twist time, The Doctor slight of hands his LED protection bracelet onto Amy when he left to rescue Oswin. This whole episode we’ve heard nothing about but how hateful The Doctor is, so we’re supposed to be worried that he’ll turn all Dalek. Don’t bet on it.
Twenty feet from busting Oswin out of her hidey hole, The Doctor has to go through the ICU. But this ICU, children, is no ordinary ICU on a Dalek asylum planet, no this ICU is filled with Dalek survivors of the previous incarnations of The Doctor and let’s just say they have unresolved issues. Just as The Doctor is cornered and is about to get toilet plungered to death Oswin comes to the rescue by hacking into the Dalek telepathic life web, the pathweb for short, and deletes every bit of information of The Doctor from their memories. Let me say that again, she deletes every bit of information of The Doctor from their memories. How’s that for interesting?
Oswin, are you in there?
Now to further the twist: When The Doctor walks in to Oswin’s room, he doesn’t find cute little Jenna-Louise, he finds a Dalek all chained up. Yeah. The woman who’s been helping him out and exchanging playful banter, the girl we all know is going to be a companion later, is a Dalek?!
Yeah.
Turns out The Doctor was on to it because you can’t bake a soufflé without any milk. And where was she getting milk? Milk and Eggs, kids, that’s what this whole episode was about.
So pretty much The Doctor scurries off, uses the teleporter and the newly rekindled Ponds to his TARDIS and then arrives back to the Dalek mothership to confront those he was forced to save. Only this time, they have no idea who he is. No recollection of “The Oncoming Storm”, “Bringer of Darkness”, “Destroyer of Worlds”, “The Predator” or even that of “The Doctor”. Which leads the Daleks and Dalek-puppets asking “Doctor Who?” the First Question, over and over again in confusion, as he saunters off to his exit.
Fin.
So. Yeah. If any of you were like me, you sat in your soiled garments for a few moments as the credits rolled with its teaser for next week, walked off, changed, all the while quietly contemplating the episode. It wasn’t bad. No it wasn’t, it was good, yes. But … it wasn’t great.
I’ll tell you what I liked, Skaro, because that’s a neat idea but still confused about the effects of the Time War in this rebooted universe. I did like the very heart breaking moment between Rory and Amy over being able to conceive a child again, one they could raise. It really helped to bring a gravity, a realness to what it’s like to be a companion, how The Doctor’s adventures always have consequences on the lives of those around him. But it seemed to have gotten cleaned up rather fast. Maybe it will play out more in the season.
I also liked Oswin as a Dalek turn because we know that she’ll be a companion later so how the hell does he fix that? Does he? Will she be a Dalek that projects herself as a human woman into the minds of those looking at her? That would be very interesting. I also see how Moffat set up the whole “First Question” prophecy by deleting him from the Dalek history memory.
Everything else fell a bit flat, as interesting as it was to have the Daleks ask, see “force”, The Doctor for help saving them from themselves the plot was the same of, put Doctor into trap, throw in companions and impossible odds, toss in a game changer and then act surprised that he pulled it off. I also get that it was needed that one of the Ponds had to lose their LED protector bracelet, but did it have to be Amy? You still could have had the pay off if Rory lost his first. Also, I wasn’t sold on being worried that The Doctor would change into a Dalek without his bracelet, at least if we were expected to believe that, I didn’t. The dialog was more of the same, guess that just means I’m getting used to Moffat’s voice in all this.
As an opener, this wasn’t bad. It introduces some thoughts, but I’m wondering now how much of the new series will be more of the same escapism and not really dealing with issues head-on of The Doctor becoming too big and what that’s done to the universe. But I do loves me some Dalek and am hoping to see more in further episodes.
Onwards!
Ok, are Matt and I the only ones who think Oswin might not be the new companion? Like, we’re going to be meeting an ancestor of hers or something?
Also, I call foul on the Cast & Crew who thought Moffat made the Daleks scary again. I was not scared for one moment. That was disappointing.
Lastly, word is the title sequence is going to change each week now.
I hope not. I hope they explore the idea of a Dalek with a perception filter of a young Human woman.
I do agree with you on the foul. Not scary at all, more like codependent on the Doctor.
Also, I wasn’t sure, but I felt like Moffat was trying to inject social commentary on how we treat our PTSD Veterans the way the Daleks do. And with turning ourselves into machines because we’re always uploading memories onto cloud devices without saving them for ourselves.
But title sequence change for each week? *le sigh* That just seems like unnecessary work. Unless they do it like Batman: The Animated Series. Those had killer title cards.
It does seem like changing the title sequence each week is a waste of money. I’d rather they spent a little more on behind the scenes stuff, even though Confidential is gone forever.
It’d definitely be interesting to explore Oswin herself as a Dalek with a perception filter of a human, but didn’t Moffat actually say that Jenna-Louise’s character was from the present day, just like all the others? I swear I read that, though I can’t for the life of me remember where now.
Oh, I really like the idea that The Doctor doesn’t know what Oswin looks like as a human though. If they do go the ancestor route, that’d be an interesting way to play it – with us knowing, but him not.
So, I have watched it and now have a head full of wonderment and questions…? I thought the milk and eggs deal was pretty cool. As soon as he said it, I started obsessively thinking about it. As we watched, each of us started questioning why the nanocloud had not effected her and how she could be “protected.” When he came in the room, there was a gasp and I thought ‘she’s inside a Dalek!’ Yea I was wrong. And now for my speculations:
-I think the Doctor is going to go and find her and leave her to experience life as a companion without changing the specific events leading her to a full transition?
-She really is trapped in a dalek incasement?
-Moffatt just took all us companion guessers and said ‘psych!’
I think this one had a lot of potential to knock it totally out of the park but ended as a bit of a near miss, but those of us who love the doctor, we love it when its great and when its a space whale….right?
Erica….o, and new title sequence every week? like applicable to each episode maybe? weird. The theme song is usually when I run to grab a drink or visit the “facilities”
It definitely had a lot of potential that it felt like it didn’t live up to. I think it may have faltered because it was just trying to do way too much in such a short time. I love the idea that they’re trying to make them all epic and film-worthy now, but maybe it’s just not possible to do that and really make it work in a 43 minute episode. Maybe the specials are the only time that can really be accomplished. Then again, much as I loved RTD and Ten, those specials were almost all pretty terrible.