Doctor Who 7x01: Asylum of the Daleks
Sep. 22nd, 2012 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenNow that I've written the first draft of my ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
deeply_horrible ficathon story, I'm free to catch up on Doctor Who.
And whadda ya know, it was a Dalek episode that was actually decent for once.
I think the best Dalek episodes tend to focus on the nature of love and hate and what it means to be human. As this one did.
The very best lines in the episode:
Dalek: It is offensive to us to extinguish such divine hatred.
Doctor: Offensive?
Dalek: Does it surprise you to know the Daleks have a concept of beauty?
Doctor: I thought you'd run out of ways to make me sick, but hello again. You think hatred is beautiful?
Dalek: Perhaps that is why we have never been able to kill you.
Ouch. What a zinger!
Of course, a similar sentiment has been expressed before, in "Dalek", where the Dalek said to the Doctor that he would make a very good Dalek. But this goes one step further... that they hate the Doctor (gee, he's acquired yet another title, the Predator) but they also consider him to be... a work of art.(*)
Ouch.
Have the Daleks made such human-daleks before? I thought it was bad enough when the Cybermen would convert people into drones, but if the Daleks are doing it too, how can one trust anyone not to be a puppet-spy? Not to mention the Flesh-puppets employed by the Silence. Humph.
Ah well, this episode also proves that it can cut both ways.
There was enough disquieting oddness at the beginning that I wondered at the start whether Oswin was insane. (The title of the episode contributed to that also.) One thing I didn't notice that I ought to have noticed, was that Oswin's surroundings didn't stay the same through the episode. She had an old-fashioned oven in which she was cooking the soufflé, and a hammock. But then later she's in a control room. I guess subconsciously I just assumed that she was moving around into different rooms. But the room she was in at the start, it didn't look like the inside of a crashed spaceship at all, it looked like a survivor's cave.
I'll tell you the moment I realized that she wasn't human. It wasn't the question of the milk and eggs for soufflé - that could have been explained by mere insanity. It was when the Doctor asked why he couldn't get a visual on her, why he couldn't see her. Of course she brushed off the question... because she didn't dare think about it herself.
And there was something odd about her insisting that the Doctor come and get her rather than her coming to meet him. Of course she couldn't come, she was chained up.(**)
There were so many clues along the way...
How could a Junior Entertainment Manager be such a genius that she could hack into the Dalek system? Answer: she wasn't a genius at all; it was the Dalek part of her that was able to do that.
Her genius, if one could call it that, was in retaining her selfhood, her humanity, by basically going insane and rejecting reality.
Oh, Oswin. What strength of soul.
Something she has in common with Plastic Rory.
Poor Rory, he seems to be playing somewhat of a comic sidekick role this time.
"What colour? Sorry. There weren't any good questions left."
Silly fools, arguing about which one of them loves each other more. They've both had plenty of proving moments... though I think they show it differently. Rory shows it in patience and persistence, while Amy is given to dramatic gestures. Though both of them have done the dramatic gestures, and the endurance too.
A couple of things puzzle me:
- why is it that Amy said she couldn't have children?
- why is it that the Doctor didn't need the anti-nanogene bracelet?
It's interesting that Owin's voice through the radio was her own, rather than her Dalek voice. I guess the radio broadcast, like the hacking, was internal to her cybernetic connection as a Dalek, so she projected the voice she thought of as herself.
The Dalek part of the plot was surprisingly straightforward. I mean, sure, the Daleks tricked the Doctor initially, but they did actually want to blow up the planet, and they did need someone to turn off the forcefield from inside. I was expecting there to be some other twist, apart from the Oswin twist. It's kind of amusing, their logic: What do you do when it's too scary even for a Dalek? Get someone who is scarier and more dangerous than Daleks.
I love it that Oswin managed to delete all knowledge of the Doctor not only from the Daleks in that room, but ALL the Daleks. Love it. And rather giggly about how the Doctor is dancing and saying "Doctor Who?" to himself in the console room at the end.
(*) A thought. If the Daleks ever read fiction, they would probably love "In Conquest Born" by C. S. Friedman, because the central theme of the book is the all-consuming hatred between the two protagonists, and how it drives them to excel to heights they never would have otherwise.
(**) Mind you, all the chains on the Daleks there might as well have been pieces of string, for all the use they were in restraining any of them.
deeply_horrible ficathon story, I'm free to catch up on Doctor Who.And whadda ya know, it was a Dalek episode that was actually decent for once.
I think the best Dalek episodes tend to focus on the nature of love and hate and what it means to be human. As this one did.
The very best lines in the episode:
Dalek: It is offensive to us to extinguish such divine hatred.
Doctor: Offensive?
Dalek: Does it surprise you to know the Daleks have a concept of beauty?
Doctor: I thought you'd run out of ways to make me sick, but hello again. You think hatred is beautiful?
Dalek: Perhaps that is why we have never been able to kill you.
Ouch. What a zinger!
Of course, a similar sentiment has been expressed before, in "Dalek", where the Dalek said to the Doctor that he would make a very good Dalek. But this goes one step further... that they hate the Doctor (gee, he's acquired yet another title, the Predator) but they also consider him to be... a work of art.(*)
Ouch.
Have the Daleks made such human-daleks before? I thought it was bad enough when the Cybermen would convert people into drones, but if the Daleks are doing it too, how can one trust anyone not to be a puppet-spy? Not to mention the Flesh-puppets employed by the Silence. Humph.
Ah well, this episode also proves that it can cut both ways.
There was enough disquieting oddness at the beginning that I wondered at the start whether Oswin was insane. (The title of the episode contributed to that also.) One thing I didn't notice that I ought to have noticed, was that Oswin's surroundings didn't stay the same through the episode. She had an old-fashioned oven in which she was cooking the soufflé, and a hammock. But then later she's in a control room. I guess subconsciously I just assumed that she was moving around into different rooms. But the room she was in at the start, it didn't look like the inside of a crashed spaceship at all, it looked like a survivor's cave.
I'll tell you the moment I realized that she wasn't human. It wasn't the question of the milk and eggs for soufflé - that could have been explained by mere insanity. It was when the Doctor asked why he couldn't get a visual on her, why he couldn't see her. Of course she brushed off the question... because she didn't dare think about it herself.
And there was something odd about her insisting that the Doctor come and get her rather than her coming to meet him. Of course she couldn't come, she was chained up.(**)
There were so many clues along the way...
How could a Junior Entertainment Manager be such a genius that she could hack into the Dalek system? Answer: she wasn't a genius at all; it was the Dalek part of her that was able to do that.
Her genius, if one could call it that, was in retaining her selfhood, her humanity, by basically going insane and rejecting reality.
Oh, Oswin. What strength of soul.
Something she has in common with Plastic Rory.
Poor Rory, he seems to be playing somewhat of a comic sidekick role this time.
"What colour? Sorry. There weren't any good questions left."
Silly fools, arguing about which one of them loves each other more. They've both had plenty of proving moments... though I think they show it differently. Rory shows it in patience and persistence, while Amy is given to dramatic gestures. Though both of them have done the dramatic gestures, and the endurance too.
A couple of things puzzle me:
- why is it that Amy said she couldn't have children?
- why is it that the Doctor didn't need the anti-nanogene bracelet?
It's interesting that Owin's voice through the radio was her own, rather than her Dalek voice. I guess the radio broadcast, like the hacking, was internal to her cybernetic connection as a Dalek, so she projected the voice she thought of as herself.
The Dalek part of the plot was surprisingly straightforward. I mean, sure, the Daleks tricked the Doctor initially, but they did actually want to blow up the planet, and they did need someone to turn off the forcefield from inside. I was expecting there to be some other twist, apart from the Oswin twist. It's kind of amusing, their logic: What do you do when it's too scary even for a Dalek? Get someone who is scarier and more dangerous than Daleks.
I love it that Oswin managed to delete all knowledge of the Doctor not only from the Daleks in that room, but ALL the Daleks. Love it. And rather giggly about how the Doctor is dancing and saying "Doctor Who?" to himself in the console room at the end.
(*) A thought. If the Daleks ever read fiction, they would probably love "In Conquest Born" by C. S. Friedman, because the central theme of the book is the all-consuming hatred between the two protagonists, and how it drives them to excel to heights they never would have otherwise.
(**) Mind you, all the chains on the Daleks there might as well have been pieces of string, for all the use they were in restraining any of them.
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no subject
Date: 2012-09-22 09:53 am (UTC)- why is it that Amy said she couldn't have children?"
Presumably something has rendered her infertile. One solution that people have pointed out is that she and Rory could adopt.
"- why is it that the Doctor didn't need the anti-nanogene bracelet?"
Good question. Maybe it will become relevant in a subsequent episode? When you think that you've spotted a loose end, Steven Moffat often ties it up later on.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-22 10:39 pm (UTC)Amy said that whatever happened to her while kidnapped made her incapable of having children. So what's wrong with adoption or surrogacy?
I wonder who chained the Daleks up in the first place? After all Daleks aren't really designed to heft chains around.
Yes, the non picture of Oswin was rather a big hint.
I too loved the "Doctor Who?" bit.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-22 10:56 pm (UTC)Well, they wouldn't be very intelligent. Then again, the Cybermen used Cybermats as tools.
So what's wrong with adoption or surrogacy?
Let's just say that Amy wasn't behaving rationally, and was probably fixated on the fact that Melody was stolen from her, and was denying her grieving process.
Mind you, I still want to shake Amy because, for goodness' sake girl, why don't you COMMUNICATE with your husband?
no subject
Date: 2012-09-23 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-23 12:34 am (UTC)Yes, in the First Doctor story The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the Daleks made what they called robo-men, who had their minds wiped and were Dalek slaves.
why is it that the Doctor didn't need the anti-nanogene bracelet?
Amy was speculating it was because of his Time Lord DNA. Made him more immune or something.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-23 12:23 pm (UTC)Humans were turned into Daleks in the Sixth Doctor serial Revelation of the Daleks