7 September 2012

Doctor Who - Asylum of the Daleks

I was in a good mood on Saturday evening.
The reason for my good mood was that Doctor Who had returned and the episode had been good fun.

I had been worried about a few things, but they didn't happen.
I didn't have to remember things that happened a year ago. I didn't find myself full of questions and wondering where this was going.

There was humour, and running away from stuff, and it worked emotionally. There was a new take on the Daleks (who I think are vastly overused) that actually worked pretty well. The new girl seems good, though I'm intrigued about how she'll be introduced.

The main thing I didn't like was the issues between Amy and Rory, which felt unnecessary. I'm told their marital issues make more sense after you see Pond Life. (Dear TV, it would be nice to see some more nuance in how characters deal with relationship issues.)



I was confused by the way the title of the show was put into the dialogue. Not just once or twice, as a sneaky reference, or a naturally occurring question. Characters repeat it over and over again, for no reason.
This started with the blue head guy last series. The twist with the Daleks asking the question worked well. Until the whole Parliament of Daleks repeated it over and over, rather than simply exterminating the strange intruder. Then the Doctor twirls around the TARDIS saying it to himself, and I don't know why. The repetitive shouting of the question makes the characters sound like rude Brits trying to buy booze from foreigners.
I assume "Doctor Who?" is going to be particularly significant, but the effect is so unsubtle that  I wonder if it's all a double bluff or smokescreen for something else. Frankly when I come home from work at the end of the week I don't want to think like this about the title of a programme.

2 comments:

  1. The Doctor celebrating about it is partly because the whole point of Wedding was that he was going to disappear from the universe, but it appears the Daleks could just nab him really easily, that's now gone. There's also the comments earlier in the episode about how trhe Daleks had always been getting more powerful/dangerous to counter him, putting lots of people at risk and dead, and now they won't have that motivation.

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    Replies
    1. I can understand the motivation, I guess it seemed a bit obvious and heavy-handed as I was watching.
      Though as Rob pointed out I might have not enjoyed that because I'm 26, whereas other viewers probably would've done, which is fair enough.
      It's becoming clear that his notoriety is going to be a Thing this series.

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