Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks Review

So, me and my follow fans have had to wait exactly nine months and fifteen days for this episode, the longest fans have ever had to wait between episodes (save for that brief, 16 year hiatus a few decades ago). And was it worth the wait? Oh hell yeah!

Warning: Spoilers for the episode follow.

Something I should actually point out is that this is my first ever Doctor Who review. I started this website back in January, and the last episode was in December, so yeah.

The Doctor, the TARDIS, and the Ponds are all back. Things start off with a bang, or rather a pretty epic voice over, as the Daleks capture the Doctor and the soon-to-be-divorced Ponds, and bring them to their parliament. And we see a ridiculous amount of Daleks. Seriously, the sheer scale of the episode is obvious given the amount of Daleks we see at once, and it just felt epic. And then the Daleks tell the Doctor they want him to save them. All this before the opening credits even come on (love the new opening credits by the way, the vortex looks really cool).

Overall, this episode kicked ass. Moffat has said that his plan for the season was to "slut things up" with blockbuster of the week episodes, and if every episode this season is like this, think series 7 can be called a winner. The tone was really different then past episodes too; it was intense and kind of frightening, partly do to the introduction of new monsters the humanoid Dalek shell (and the Dalek zombies, those were awesome). And the entire time, you felt like you needed to feel: like (expletive removed) is going down. And it was.

Some have complained that Matt Smith's Doctor is too childish, and this episode is why they're all writing Mr. Smith formal apologies; Smith flawlessly transitions from the usually zany, playful, and very funny Chin-Boy Doctor to the menacing, powerful, and more then a tad scary Predator of the Daleks Doctor, and he sells all of his lines perfectly. The dialogue went up a step too, being appropriately snappy and wonderful. As for Amy and Rory's marital issues, there's some legit reasons behind those: because of what happened to Amy and Demon's Run, she can't have kids, and she kicked Rory out so he could one day, at which point we all said "Oh God." Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill once again, nail all there lines and mannerisms, and you felt for the two (more then usual, I mean).

But the real winner in this episode was the surprise appearance of future companion Jenna Louise Coleman as Oswin Oswald. She was smart, she was funny, she was sassy, she was crazy hot, she and the Doctor worked well together, heck, she stole the show. And she wasn't even supposed to show up until the Christmas Special! In a world of leaked spoilers, its nice to know that Moffat can keep one or two things under wraps. And then there's the real twist: she's a freaking converted Dalek! Nobody saw that one coming, and you really felt sorry for her when you found out she was made a Dalek against her will (apparently the evil pepper pots are taking a page from the Cybermen). So yeah, pretty amazing twist. Even more so when you take into account the fact that she'll be the Doctor's companion in a few months. The idea of the Doctor taking a self-aware Dalek as a companion might sound kind of awesome on paper, but Moffat isn't that crazy! Is he? My personal guess is that the Doctor will meet Oswin earlier in her own life, and her character arc will revolve around the Doctor knowing what's going to happen to her and knowing he can't prevent her becoming a Dalek and apparently dying. We'll find out.

The only real letdown of the episode was the Daleks themselves. Don't get me wrong, it was great to have them, especially when they were scarier here then they've been in awhile (and let's face it, it can be tough convincing new viewers that a bunch of evil R2D2's are frightening.) and the new way of saying their catchphrase was quite excellent, but the one of the parts of the episode that was advertised was "every Dalek ever", and that didn't happen. There were a lot of Daleks, but none of the Daleks of yore I was hoping for were present. But hey, at least there were no Mighty Morphin' Power Daleks. By the end of the episode, Oswin (gotta love that... girl?) has edited the Doctor out of all the Dalek's memories. It'll be interesting to see how that effects the ongoing struggle between the Predator and his prey in the future.

Final Rating: 95%

So, the Doctor Who season premier: What'd you think of it? Comment below, let me know!