I don't have a girlfriend, but I've only just watched it on i-Player.

I liked it as well. I normally haven't liked the Dalek stories in the revived series, but that was probably the best one since 'Dalek'.

Yeah but the infiltrator daleks are shit aren't they?

Asylum of the Daleks - ****

For me, this was Stephen Moffat's Actung Baby or that Duran Duran song Come Undone or Run DMC's Down With The King. It was years after his best work, but absolutely solid and fun.

Like DCB said, the best Dalek episode since Dalek and while Mumpo's criticisms are absolutley valid (imagine how much fun they could've had with mad Daleks,) it at least had a gorgeous payoff.

I don't know what pro wrestling based its structure on (I suppose soap operas,) but I'm amazed at how it's infiltrated many top shows today. The Walking Dead comic makes no secret of its influence, with The Governor actually having pro wrestling matches in his compound.

The idea of the worst enemy becoming your friend is a common staple, and to have what Rogin said and a Dalek as a companion would be too brilliant to miss.

I just felt bad for the lame ducks of Amy and Rory. The show has passed them by, and here we are again, a brilliantly acted scene of them affirming their love that's been acted out innumerable times over the past few years. I can only hope they go out with some honor.

Loved the "Doctor Who" bit. Nice way of rebooting the series. Can't wait for the rest.

The bits with all of the "Eggs. Eggs. Eggs" was brilliant as well.

Perfect use of a dilapidated Dalek and poor old clueless Rory.

Mumpo wrote:


I think PG made a lot of the running on these threads.

Is Purves outta here these days ?

I don't think it's a policy decision on his part, or anything.

So did you see it WE ?

Yeah, I liked it. I do miss the days when the words "by Steven Moffatt" promised something of the calibre of Blink or The Empty Child, but this was good: dramatic, intriguing, quite witty.

He may be devoting too much attention to de-Rustification, though. It was necessary to find a way out of the Messianic bollocks, which had become a cul-de-sac, but this episode seemed to be largely about undoing the Daleks' "Oncoming Storm" mythology, and was perhaps a bit too elaborate, and at the same time a bit too pat, for the purpose. He needs to forget Rusty, lose the attitood, and move on with some good stories that work on their own terms.

Absolutely. The best way to make people forget about the mythical Doctor of the RTD days is not to write stories that allude to him in any way. Though of course Silence in the Library, with its "Look me up" denouement, was one of the original perpetrators of the Doctor as demigod theme.

I liked it too. Completely agree with Mumps that the idea of insane daleks from the psycho ward was a brilliant idea that wasn't developed to its full potential. But I suppose that's because children watch it and that.

There were a lot of ideas recycled from old Moffat stories in it, but all writers recycle the same ideas in one way or another, at least a lot of his ideas are good ones.

I thought the effect where the dalek eye-pieces came out of peoples heads was shite though. I thought it looked stoopid.

Moffat has that spooky "Oh yeah, I'm really dead" thing down pat. The bit with the guy who remembered his death was quite scary. I do hope the Cybermenification of the Daleks come to a quick end, however.

Not quite sure how I felt about it. The "twist" was obvious about five minutes after we'd met Oswin,and once again it did the whole "your brain was being irrevocably destroyed but now you're totally fine" thing, and as others have said they completely squandered the "too mad for the daleks" premise.
But it was still pretty entertaining, for all that. And now I'm tantalised about how they're going to make a human-turned-dalek into a companion. Though they'll probably fudge it an unsatisfying way.

Yeah, but dramatic potentail in DW is always a thorny one isn't it? I mean you always know from the start that the main character isn't going to die and that the villins are very, very unlikely to win.

JV wrote:



Thanks, and I'll add to this. She said , too, to the Doctor, "remember me". That was quite specific, before she made the rest of the Daleks forget him .

I can quite foresee a future episode where the Daleks "remember her" because the Doctor has, or something, even though they don't 'remember' the Doctor, and because the Daleks now want to exterminate her (as I'm sure they will for some reason), they become the baddies again (from our viewpoint) while the Doctor races around trying to save her, etc.

If he can and indeed does bring 'her' back from the asylum planet. I think a dalek companion would be one of the most off-the-wall and yet, most god-why-did-no-one-think-of-that-before things Doctor Who has ever done.

Did anyone else find Matt Smith's delivery a bit, well, Tennant?

And if the Doctor says "I'm so sorry" again I shall write to The Times.

Good episode, though.

I heard that the actress will be playing various characters before she becomes the companion, kind of like Martha portraying her cousin in Doomsday.

I wonder if Moffat will tie this into the series and storyline - and this will be very, very hard to put into words without sounding quite dumb - like either she has dopplegangers all throughtout the universe or somehow the different versions of her from other universes somehow keep ending up scattered through the Doctor's timeline. In other words, will the Doctor wonder why he keeps running into this lady, and if Moffat will acknowledge that it's the same actress in different parts.

And if she does die in each episode, if Moffat will have more fun with the You Killed Rory aspect.

Mat - True Dat, but the regeneration thing essentially kills off the character. It definitely kills the actor. (I have to wonder if in Matt Smith's rush to get off the show, if he's checked out the careers of Ecclestone and Tennant and Billie Piper lately.)

Well, Piper's on season 4 of Secret Diary, Tennant looks to have been relatively busy on stage and TV (as well as voicing the Ardman Pirate film) and Ecclestone is never off the box in gritty bleak dramas over here.
Even Smith had a lead in a TV drama about the double skulls in the 1948 Olympics.

They're working, (Tennant was brilliant in the new Fright Night,) but they're not at the same level as they were when they were the Doc.

Hmmm. Don't know. Perhaps it's because Doctor Who has exposure there, but perhaps of the 3 Tennant is the only one you see less of on the telly here.
Ecclestone is as regular as he was before really and Piper more so.