(I know I'm behind but I've decided to write the reviews for the first three episodes anyway on here!)
So for the opening episode of Series 7 Steven Moffat has decided to write for the Daleks for the first time.
I have to say that the hype for this episode was through the roof! Everyone who had seen it told us how wonderful it was and even though the big spoiler technically was given away I have to say it was pretty damn great!
*SPOILER WARNING* For those who are still yet to see it obviously don't look any further!
So how did The Moff cope with the Doctors arch-nemesis?
To be frank.... Pretty well!
I loved how the Daleks class the Doctor as their natural predator, in some ways it was fitting. In fact a lot of what the Daleks did/say in the episode for me possibly is the closest to old Daleks so far in NuWho. The Daleks finding beauty in hate and therefore not being able to destroy truly hate-filled Daleks (being driven crazy by the hate) was very fitting for how a race like them would behave.
As for the Daleks on the Asylum planet, it truly made Daleks a little bit scary again.
The actual story was very simple and to the point. Sometimes it felt like things where just happening for the sake of it. Amy and Rory are leaving at the end of this run of 5 episodes so I'm not sure why sticking a divorce mini-story into one episode was needed, if anything have it run through the episodes. I'm not the most ardent critic of that part of the story as I felt that the conclusion was actually rather nice, but I understand why people felt a bit "is that it" about the whole thing. It didn't make an impact and didn't really need to be there.
As for the "surprise" the moment Jenna Louise Coleman appeared on screen I was bouncing about like a fool! What a great surprise to have our brand new companion right there in episode 1, 5 episodes before we thought we'd see her!
And then to have the twist that actually she's been turned into a Dalek and the world she thinks she's living in is her mind trying to repress the Dalek... Brilliant! I really felt for the character. OK I hope when she comes back as Clara she doesn't flirt quite as much as she did in this episode, I'd like her to be more thoughtful and more this is what I have to do so lets do it. But for a first appearance she was awesome!
The Dalek people were also quite scary in a sense, seeing the plungers coming out of their heads took me back a little! And the whole atmosphere of the planet turning people into these things as a kind of fail safe was pretty cool as far as these things go.
Looking back at the story after the initial OMG DALEKS, DOCTOR WHO IS BACK WOOOO!!!! Moment I can see the drawbacks. I won't rewatch this episode till I remember every line in it. If it was half way through a season I might not have been as over joyed as I was. Not to say it was a bad episode but without a clear arch, and with these episodes being big blockbuster ideas condensed into 45 minutes you could see where some stories that could have been mild arcs (or at least themes going over more than one episode) got lumped up.
It flowed well, it looks spectacular and it was just a Dalek romp.
Altogether I thought it was brilliant. On second viewing it dropped into the mid-pack of Smith episodes but that means nothing really.
The acting was wonderful, Matt had such a range to play with and Karen and Arthur were as brilliant as ever. Rory is still without a doubt my favorite companion of the new series (second only to Jamie) and I will be sad to see him go!
Out of 10 I'd give it a 6.
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