Alright, faithful viewer. let me just say this first. I’ve never tried to recap a Moffat episode before, and I’m feeling a bit…daunted by the prospect. Simply because there is so much interesting stuff going on in this episode, I can tell that this entry’s gonna be a big ‘un. I guess I’ll just try and cover as much as I can before the carpal tunnel sets in.
Whoo.
Alright.
Here I go.
First of all, let’s give a great big HUZZAH to the fact that DOCTOR WHO IS BACK FOR A NEW SERIES YEAH BUDDY WAHOOOOOO!!! We’ve been waiting, ever so patiently, for signs of life from across the pond. We’ve all seen the photos, the trailer, the teasing tweets, the five-part micro-series “Pond Life” that started out cute but ended up ripping our little hearts out, and we’ve all shook our fists in frustration and longing. And now at last, we only have to wait one week for each new installment. Sure, why not? Happy to do it! What’s waiting ’til next Saturday compared to waiting nine months? And I must say, if this first episode is anything to go by, we’re in for a cracking good time in the coming year. This was one cool episode, one that even the Moffat-bashers have to admit was really bloody good.
Okay, first things first. The Ponds. Our old buddy The Moff has been tormenting us for a good while now about the divorce and possible death of Rory and Amy Pond. Sure enough, our dynamic duo has succumbed to ennui and obtained a divorce. Of course, seeing as how the Doctor has been matchmaking for these two practically since they were kids, we all know that that nonsense can’t last long. I mean, come on! Not even the apocalypse could keep those crazy kids apart; I’d like to see basic human silliness accomplish it. So, we basically had to endure about half an episode of feeling like love had gone out of the world completely before we were reminded that there are some things that can never ever be torn asunder. Duct tape is one, and Amy and Rory is another.
Of course, should such a thing happen in the near future, I’ll have regretted saying those words. I don’t care; I choose to live in hope.
Now, on to something infinitely more chilling than our mad, glorious Ponds. The Daleks. The Daleks. The Daleks. Moffat said last year that he wanted to give the Daleks a bit of a rest, because they were becoming less and less scary every time they were used. He wanted to remind his viewers why it is that the Daleks used to make even the stoutest of heart hide behind the furniture. And I’d say he accomplishes that pretty thoroughly this time. The last time I was this terrified by a Dalek was in Russell T Davies’ Series One episode, “Dalek.” And the reasons I was terrified of the Daleks this time are remarkably similar to why I was terrified then.
The first reason is because this time, as with last time, the Daleks were cast as sympathetic characters. Most of the Daleks are battle-scarred, sick, and insane. Now, Daleks are harder to kill than cockroaches, and seeing them in such a pathetic state is quite disconcerting. However, the reason for the fear that these broken Daleks inspire goes deeper than that. It’s an instinct for every Whovian to feel a basic loathing for the Daleks. We hate them on principle, we don’t need to think about it. They stand against everything the Doctor stands for, and vice versa. There is nothing lovable about a Dalek. However, in the cases of both “Dalek” and this episode, we are forced to sympathize with unsympathetic characters, because they are placed in pathetic situations. We’re left off-balance, knowing that the Daleks, no matter what state of disrepair they’re in, are not to be trusted, and yet not able to help our uncontrollable urge to cuddle them and tell them everything’s going to be alright.
The second reason that the Daleks are more terrifying this time (as they were in “Dalek”) is because we can see that the Doctor is scared of them, too. We know that something’s truly gone wrong when the Doctor gets scared of something, and the Daleks have certainly been able to get under his skin like nothing else. It reminds us of their role in the Time War, and we can see a real depth to the Doctor’s relationship with them. The Doctor’s rather bodacious destruction of several Daleks via explosion is very telling of the depths of his revulsion of them, and his terrified yells as he is cornered by a swarm of Daleks speaks volumes. It’s sort of like someone who kills a spider, not because the spider’s poisonous and is going to kill someone, but simply because they hate spiders and a spider happens to be in the room.
I suppose I should provide a basic overview of the plot, even though it’s a bit late in the recap. So, in a further escalation of their creepiness, the Daleks have constructed human puppets to lure the Doctor and companions into a trap and bring them aboard a Dalek ship. I’ll tell you, faithful viewer, those human Dalek puppets were some of the freakiest things I’ve ever seen. The only thing more terrifying than Daleks being bad actors is Daleks being good actors. The Daleks want the Doctor to investigate their Asylum planet, which is the place where they put all their damaged and crazy compatriots. A spaceship has crashed through the force-field that guards the Asylum (piloted by the singular Oswin Oswald), which means that all the lunatic Daleks could potentially escape and wreak havoc on the Universe. The Daleks charge the Doctor with disabling the force-field completely, whereupon they will blow the Asylum to smithereens in order to prevent such an event. Of course, this would kill the Doctor and his companions as well (four birds with one very incendiary stone), so now they have to work out how to get the Asylum out of commission and get themselves out of danger, while avoiding nanogenes and Dalek puppets and trying to fix Amy and Rory’s marriage. Quite a tall order, but you may as well call the Doctor the Mailman. He always manages to deliver.
I should probably be shot for that joke, but I don’t care. I do what I want.
Side-note here: I want to see how well you, faithful viewer, have been doing your homework. When the Doctor walked through the ICU of the Asylum and Oswin rattled off that list of battles between the Doctor and the Daleks, how many of them did you recognize? You should have recognized at least three of the five, since they have been covered by…well, by little old heart-stopping me. I won’t provide links for them, because I want to see you show your work. If you can remember the circumstances of those three battles, please submit your answers in the comments section below. There may be a prize for correct answers!
Now, we’ve got a few more things left to cover, but I want to take a minute and talk about something that’s been niggling at me since I first saw this episode, and which I think I’ve just now figured out. For a good portion of the episode, Amy was suffering from the effects of the nanogenes floating around in the Asylum, working diligently at turning her into a Dalek puppet (she would be the hottest Dalek puppet the world had ever seen, for the record, but that’s neither here nor there). The first thing to go is her short-term memory, and then she began to hallucinate. Briefly, I wondered how her brain managed to heal after she left the asylum; perhaps that’s just what brains do? Much more interesting, from a metaphorical and psychological perspective, was Amy’s hallucination. Wandering into a room full of Daleks, she thought that the Daleks were instead a series of glamorous people in beautiful clothing, accompanied by a ballerina that bore a striking resemblance to our own Mrs. Pond. I wondered for a good deal of time, as I tapped my pencil in a distracted Charleston against my notebook, why she dreamed of what she dreamed. Knowing Moffat, he had to have a proper reason beyond “this will look really cool and creepy,” and I think I’ve got it sussed. Basically, she knew that she was turning into a Dalek, because the Doctor told her. She’s understandably stressed and frightened of that. When she looks at the Daleks and instead sees humans, that could be due to the fact that her brain is already starting to identify herself and the Daleks as members of the same species. Since Amy doesn’t even want to contemplate the possibility of becoming a Dalek, her brain tricks her into thinking she’s looking at a crowd of very elegant, very civilized human beings. In order to avoid madness at the prospect of becoming a Dalek, Amy’s brain begins spiraling into a different kind of madness in order to escape that unbearable truth. You’ll notice Oswin did a similar thing, in order to escape her own reality. She baked soufflés and listened to Carmen, a couple of the most cultured and civilized activities in which a person can engage. There was even a ballerina in each of their fantasies, if you’ll notice.
Very fascinating stuff, I think, faithful viewer. Also creepy, so let’s move on.
Let’s move on, in fact, to Oswin. Beautiful, brilliant, heart-breaking Oswin. Never did I ever dream I would hear a Dalek weep. A friend of mine, when we discussed this episode, said that it was cool that after all this time, the Doctor had finally encountered a “good” Dalek; that is, a moral, humane one. The rare exception to the rule. I’m not so sure about that, though, faithful viewer. Because the basic fact of Oswin was that she was good because she denied her Dalek nature. The only way to be a humane Dalek is to be human. Remember that Tennant episode, “Evolution of the Daleks?” Dalek Sec went under much the same transformation. Because of his borrowed human nature, he ceased to be a Dalek. The same thing has happened to Oswin. Dear heart.
On a slightly more fandom-based note: Jenna-Louise Coleman. We’ve known for some time that she is slated to play the Doctor’s new companion after Amy and Rory retire for good. We’ve also known that she wasn’t supposed to show up until Christmas, yet here she is, plain as day and with a rose in her hair. To be fair, the Doctor did say “It’s Christmas,” just before Oswin showed up for the first time. I must say, Moffat didn’t bluff; she is a fantastic actress and I can’t wait to see more of her, wherever her career may take her. Normally, I don’t engage in speculation about my shows; I simply wait for the story arc to take its course. However, this time I have a theory. I think that Oswin is going to be the Doctor’s new companion, come Christmas (real Christmas), but they’re going to have a River Song-style relationship. They’re going to meet in his future, but her past. I’m not positive, but I think it’d be a cool idea, and one we might expect from Moffat.
Finally, we have to have a brief talk about the Doctor’s name. A huge spot of contention on and off the telly, surely. Mostly known as the Doctor, occasionally (and apparently fallaciously) as “Doctor Who,” and most recently as “Doktor von Wer,” the Doctor is mainly known to the Daleks as “The Oncoming Storm” and “The Destroyer of Worlds.” In this episode, he gets a new Dalek name: “The Predator.” Jeez, this guy’s got more names than God! However, after this episode (I hate to say it) the Daleks have something in common with Donna Noble. I’m sorry. To both, the Doctor truly is “Doctor who?”
I must say, I’m glad that Moffat managed to sort of “reset” the Doctor’s relationship with the Daleks. That whole “archenemies” thing was getting a little overwrought. Now maybe we’ll be able to have some fun again, without the angst.
Stay tuned ’til next time, faithful viewer, when we get to enjoy two other good things that go great together: dinosaurs and spaceships…
An American Whovian in TV Land 