Kilodalton - Asylum of the Daleks review/thoughts

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01 September 2012 @ 10:08 pm

Asylum of the Daleks review/thoughts

OK so since I haven't TOTALLY fallen off the face of the planet ....

[Spoiler (click to open)]

1. Daleks have prison camps???? Since when? The fake!Dalek is pretty cool, however ... Daleks are impenetrable master fighters. They survive basically anything. They don't need a Trojan horse, let alone one that looks like a human. Cool morphing tho. And the concept of "nanogenes for Daleks" is pretty cool.

2. So I WAS going to say: "RORY AND AMY BROKE UP!!! THANK GOD." And I thought it was going towards somehting cathartic when he said he loved her more than she loved him, but then they needed to go into all the whole "I cannot bear children for my man and therefore must be less of a woman, so I must allow you to go off and procreate with someone else" bullshit. If I didn't know I was watching a Moffat episode, I'd know I was watching a Moffat episode.

2a. Speaking of characterization-thingies: when we last saw Rory and Amy at the end of TWORS, weren't they over the moon about Eleven being alive? Yet now they seem a bit casual, over-it and snarky.

3. Does the music in this ep strike anyone else as rather ... cinematic? It's rather un-Murray-Gold-y ...

4. "Sorry there weren't any good questions left." Never change, Rory <3

5. Re Clara, I wrote: "Oooh look the new companion! It's funny that Eleven asked 'how do you get the milk' bc I was thinking the same thing. It would be funny if she ended up being a Dalek too. She is brilliant after all. And rather flirty". AND OMG SHE WAS A DALEK!!!!!!!!!

6. At this point my ~~former Whovian~~ husband walked in and was like "You watching that garbage?" and then left XD He came back tho.

7. The egg thing was cute XD I like thinking of it as a Dalek with a stutter XD

8. Cool that she wiped the minds of ALL the Daleks ... which sort of mind-wipes a lot of NuWho angst. Not sure how I feel about that.

Now ... Eleven never SAW Clara, so is her entire companion run going to be a time loop? Just a thought, since I seem to be on a roll, and Moffat LOVES his time loops =P

Tags: doctor who, reviews are fun and list-y

42 comments | Leave a comment

( 42 comments — Leave a comment )

seasight on September 2nd, 2012 02:13 am (UTC)

Yay we are mind twins again. And I'm just going off of spoilers.

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kilodalton on September 2nd, 2012 03:04 am (UTC)

That's really all you need to go off of in this case XD

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wake_the_dragon on September 2nd, 2012 02:24 am (UTC)

I'm not as sure where they're going with the new companion.

It's my theory that he is going to meet either her sister or other family member (possibly an ancestor) because her name wasn't Clara in this episode.

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seasight on September 2nd, 2012 02:31 am (UTC)

Or he's going to meet Clara and she's going to turn into a Dalek and it'll be typical Moffat OTT TRAAAAAAAAAGEDY.

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kilodalton on September 2nd, 2012 03:04 am (UTC)

Eh ... Mels = Melody = River so I'm not sold on the name difference being significant. Plus I googled it - Oswin is a surname, so her name could be something like "Clara Oswin" since they haven't released her surname yet.

Edited at 2012-09-02 03:17 am (UTC)

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ericadawn16 on September 2nd, 2012 02:50 am (UTC)

Did you see Pond Life?

There were at least five months in between his seeing them then and this episode. They're all covered to an extent in the shorts. It doesn't really allude to the baby thing, I'll have to see it again to be sure.

Usually, the baby thing does annoy me but Amy has proven time and again how stupid she is with communicating with Rory and we did see the episode with the duck pond and the old people and Amy being pregnant and how happy they were under normal circumstances...

Actually, I find it really interesting that for all their hatred of humans, Daleks come back to them time and again. It made me think about their Manhattan experiment except more successful. Plus, I'm very curious about this theme of forgetting and remembering going back to the crack in the wall...

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kilodalton on September 2nd, 2012 03:05 am (UTC)

It made me think about their Manhattan experiment except more successful.

That's a good point. I was thinking more of the Dalek/human hybrid things in "Dalek" and "Parting of the Ways" when they were so disgusted with themselves for being 'polluted.'

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thegrlwhowaited on September 2nd, 2012 03:11 am (UTC)

It didn't really occur to me that she might be a dalek. I'm a bit slow.

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kilodalton on September 2nd, 2012 03:18 am (UTC)

You're not slow, I'm just jaded as all heck and like to ~think like Moffat~ while watching his eps - which then makes it super easy to figure out his plot twists XD

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thegrlwhowaited on September 2nd, 2012 04:30 am (UTC)

lol. After watching S6 so many times, I understood so much more. I asked myself, why didn't I understand this before? :P

I gotcha. When we found out she was a dalek, I was like...ooo that makes sense...

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eloriekam on September 2nd, 2012 03:54 am (UTC)

Here because someone said you had a response post up and I think I've seen a couple of your other response posts.

but then they needed to go into all the whole "I cannot bear children for my man and therefore must be less of a woman, so I must allow you to go off and procreate with someone else" bullshit.

WHAAAAAAAT. Excuse me, need to ragequit. Is this DW or something else? Bring back SJ and Liz Shaw and Jo and Leela and Romana and we'll show you a real whole woman... grrr.

I'm concerned now that I won't be able to watch the episode without breaking whatever I'm using to watch it, because seriously? That takes the last Christmas special and turns it around to the other side and makes everything even more messed up.

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kilodalton on September 2nd, 2012 04:38 am (UTC)

Welcome!! =D

WHAAAAAAAT. Excuse me, need to ragequit. Is this DW or something else? Bring back SJ and Liz Shaw and Jo and Leela and Romana and we'll show you a real whole woman... grrr.

Yeeeeeeeah. It was a short segment, but therefore a totally and completely unnecessary one, and with something that backwards thrown in there, it just made it very nonsensical and detracted from the ep as a whole for no reason. Plus, as

amberfocus pointed out, there are other ways to have kids nowadays, especially when your BFF is an alien with loads of advanced technology at his disposal @.@

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eloriekam on September 4th, 2012 07:34 pm (UTC)

Is that BP with DT? Guhhhhh.

Welcome!! =D

Thanks! Someone else pointed me in the direction of your comments on Clockwise Man a while back, as well. :)

It was a short segment, but therefore a totally and completely unnecessary one, and with something that backwards thrown in there, it just made it very nonsensical and detracted from the ep as a whole for no reason.

Agreed, having now watched it. (There was also the thing with the wristbands and suddenly oh wait she has one again, but I like sleight of hand unless I've already had it shoved down my throat--LKH anyone...) Anyway, it was almost like there was an item in the ep outline that said "Item 5.A.2.b: Marriage angst between Amy and Rory so the episode doesn't completely ignore women's emotions and I don't get angry Twitters from those idiots who don't get my plots. Must make them happy somehow." It was more random than Christina de Souza's shovel and the Cybershades.

IF they wanted to go the route of Amy's reproductive system having been messed up by Madame Kovarian and her cohorts (which, since she apparently conceived 'naturally' prior to abduction, I think is stupid, but it might be my bias from other shows talking), the appropriate place in the storyline to handle it would have been post Demons' Run and pre-Pond departure. I can see Eleven wanting to make sure Amy's all right, and the resulting tableau in the medbay with the three of them upset could have made for one of the most magnificently angsty scenes in Eleven's run. For better or worse, things like the functionality of our ovaries, favorable conditions in the uterus, and existence of our ladyparts can tie in an awful lot with how 'much' of a woman we feel like.

But the way it was done is a horrible thing to say to young girls and women, and upsetting to a whole additional subset of women dealing with social/family expectations, etc.

Ooooh,

amberfocus does have a good point there. Among other possibilities, the Doctor couldn't reverse/repair the damage?

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giallarhorn on September 2nd, 2012 07:05 am (UTC)

I had always thought that Daleks were very much 'shoot first shoot later' but the Daleks in JE seemed to keep humans around for testing of weapons so maybe something like that?

IT STARTED ON SOMETHING CATHARTIC BUT THEN IT DID A MOFFAT.

Amy and Rory cannot talk to each other without the Doctor.

The music was...weird. It felt a lot like a movie, with the opera and the ballerina shots.

IDK ABOUT THE DALEK MIND WIPE.

I really want it so that Oswin/Clara managed to survive the planet blowing up, and in turn somehow managed to get a human form back (android maybe?) because then that'd make the Doctor travel with a former Dalek and how much room for stuff would that offer?

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bloose09 on September 2nd, 2012 06:56 pm (UTC)

Amy and Rory cannot talk to each other without the Doctor. I had this exact same thought.

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mrs_tribble on September 2nd, 2012 09:03 am (UTC)

The entire episode left me feeling... very flat. Mr. Tribble has stated that he doesn't *want* a super-brainy companion because then the Doctor isn't really that important because his companion will save them every time. I agree.

And that whole "I must let you go because I cannot bear your children and it must be my fault" bullcrap. Please Moffat, is this Doctor Who or Twishite? And did we all imagine River then, or was she an immaculate conception?

I won't be sorry to see Amy go because, until The Girl Who Waited, she was just a one-dimensional piece of eye candy with all the personality of a pet rock. Thanks to Moffat's totally cavemen approach to the not-being-able-to-have-kids thing I'm back to not liking her again! She never did deserve Rory, and she must be even more stupid than we thought if she honestly believes he'd love her any less for being infertile.

I don't want to lose Rory though. I wish he could stay and find someone who genuinely loves him :(

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 04:55 pm (UTC)

See I help but wonder in the face of all these people who don't want a super brainy companion exactly what you think the function of a companion should be?

Should they just stand there and coo about how super awesome the doctor is?

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mrs_tribble on September 13th, 2012 05:04 pm (UTC)

I like intelligent. I like clever. I like smart.

I don't like companions who make the Doctor look brainless though. The best companions I can think of at the moment - who have been the most perfect - are Polly/Ben/Jamie, Jo, Sarah Jane and Donna.

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 05:43 pm (UTC)

I'm only familiar with the last three and while I love all of them, I really hate in hind site what they did with Jo. And can't really stand SJ until we hit SJ Adventures.

Both of the earlier companions just kind of stood around waiting to be wowed by the Doctor, or rescued or trying to help and twisting their ankles. If that's the best I'm going to get from a companion I'd rather not have one.

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keep_counting on September 2nd, 2012 10:33 am (UTC)

'A Dalek with a stutter'. That's not supposed to be cute. Why is it cute to me??

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bloose09 on September 2nd, 2012 03:31 pm (UTC)

A Dalek mind wipe, really? Is this series going to be all about the Doctor's enemies forgetting who he is? What does that accomplish? He still remembers everything the Daleks have done. Why did Oswin make them full of love and compassion while she was at it? Then the Doctor could keep one as a pet.

I can't even begin to comment on Amy's "I am no good to you because I cannot bear your children" rant. How demeaning to women in general! So River doesn't count as their daughter anymore? Why, because Amy and Rory didn't raise her?

I am not interested in how Oswin becomes Clara in the slightest. The Moff is going to do whatever he wants whether it makes sense or not. Eleven has been over shadowed by his companions since the beginning and it seems to be headed in that direction again.

It can only get better, right? Oh yeah, dinosaurs on a spaceship... *head desk*

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six on September 2nd, 2012 04:44 pm (UTC)

Why did Oswin make them full of love and compassion while she was at it? This! Or told them to destroy each other so she could escape (as far as she knew, she was still human and trapped there, etc...)

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bloose09 on September 2nd, 2012 06:53 pm (UTC)

Or told them to destroy each other so she could escape (as far as she knew, she was still human and trapped there, etc...)You have a very good point there.

I guess Oswin was not as far sighted as the Bad Wolf.

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six on September 2nd, 2012 08:41 pm (UTC)

Or as progressive-thinking as Doctor-Donna and made them dance. I would've kept dalek Oswin as a pet. :3

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bloose09 on September 2nd, 2012 11:45 pm (UTC)

I would've kept dalek Oswin as a pet. :3 Now there's an idea!

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six on September 2nd, 2012 11:48 pm (UTC)

And ship her with that shippy dalek from Dalek! /shot

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bloose09 on September 3rd, 2012 02:25 am (UTC)

Yes! You are a genius!

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 04:58 pm (UTC)

You want to talk demeaning to women?
You don't keep them as pets.

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mrs_tribble on September 13th, 2012 05:06 pm (UTC)

Essentially, Oswin is no longer a woman. She is a Dalek - just a nice one.

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 05:47 pm (UTC)

Actually the entire point of the episode was that she WASN'T Essentially a Dalek. She was still very much a human woman trapped in that body. Unless you assume that the physical outside of a woman makes her what she is as opposed to her mind, heart and "soul".

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mrs_tribble on September 13th, 2012 05:59 pm (UTC)

I am most definitely a woman (as my name suggests). I am also a feminist.

On the other hand, I am looking at this from a sci-fi angle. Oswin didn't realise she'd been "modified" or "improved" or whatever the Daleks call it - but, unlike the Daleks, the Cybermen use chips to make their "upgrades" forget they were ever human.

It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that a human/Dalek clone will remember their past life and live in that bubble. She wasn't mind-wiped of her past, but it doesn't change the fact that she was a Dalek - even though she thought of herself as human.

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 06:29 pm (UTC)

Either way she has enough independent sentience that to try and turn her into a pet is messed up.

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mrs_tribble on September 13th, 2012 07:54 pm (UTC)

Okay. Well I'm very sorry that somebody's joke offended you, but I'm not getting into this. I shall walk away from this with my sense of humour intact :)

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 08:01 pm (UTC)

Calling a something a joke doesn't make it automatically funny or even ok.
But I'll walk away as well, no reason for this to get ugly.

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six on September 14th, 2012 01:32 am (UTC)

... okay? I don't know if you intentionally reached for that angle, or you honestly thought I was serious, or making some kind of misogynistic joke, idek. Obviously, humans (not only women) should never be kept as pets, and I meant it as a joke. Not in the Time Lord keeping humans as pets joke, but in the Time Lord keeping a Dalek as a companion joke.

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ogew on September 14th, 2012 01:39 am (UTC)

Sorry if I took that a bit too litterly... the Aspergers does that to me from time to time. The angle of a time lord keeping a dalek as a companion didn't really come through for me.

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 04:57 pm (UTC)

Actually I do think River doesn't really count because they didn't raise her. Most people who want kids want them so they can raise them - otherwise, what exactly was the point in the first place?

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six on September 2nd, 2012 04:40 pm (UTC)

I'm thinking it's either another Gwen-Gwenyth, or maybe her full name'll be Clara Oswin Oswald? Which would suck because it'd mean another last-first meeting ala River and she's already dead so I can't enjoy her storyline then. Have you seen Pond Life? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMdBsc5pQ1k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQZc9DzneUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm0dqb7rKpk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikv0QbubV7Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxXAY7LyjcM Five minisodes that would explain why the Ponds are so nonchalant about why Eleven's alive. Though the sudden they're-divorcing-because of (reproductive) reasons plot still doesn't make sense. I'm trying to find a reason for why the daleks and Skaro are existing again, when Gallifrey and the Time Lords are not. Maybe... the universe explosion back in season 5 did it? idk, like maybe Amy remembered back the daleks and not the Time Lords or something, WHICH WOULD SUCK.

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fogsblue on September 2nd, 2012 07:28 pm (UTC)

*Hugs your brain* I've missed you and your reviews!

2. So I WAS going to say: "RORY AND AMY BROKE UP!!! THANK GOD." And I thought it was going towards somehting cathartic when he said he loved her more than she loved him, but then they needed to go into all the whole "I cannot bear children for my man and therefore must be less of a woman, so I must allow you to go off and procreate with someone else" bullshit. If I didn't know I was watching a Moffat episode, I'd know I was watching a Moffat episode.

THIS THIS THIS!! I was hopeful for a minute here, but then... I should have remembered, in 'Doctor Moffat' there is no such thing as emotional consequences. On the other hand, there's serious repercussions for a woman who ~~doesn't want to be a house wife with 10 kids~~ can not or chooses not to have kids. Obviously she will never be happy or complete and should sacrifice herself to the greater good and let her husband go out and breed!!! It's important OK!!

(I'm fine, I swear).

4. "Sorry there weren't any good questions left." Never change, Rory <3

Possibly the best line in the whole episode.

8. Cool that she wiped the minds of ALL the Daleks ... which sort of mind-wipes a lot of NuWho angst. Not sure how I feel about that.

I'd suggest going to read

develish1's comments on that, cause she raises some good points about it.

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ogew on September 13th, 2012 05:00 pm (UTC)

You know if Moffat really felt that way then Rory wouldn't have called her on being stupid and they wouldn't have gotten back together.

Amy may have felt like that and you can find dozens of reasons why, wrong headed though it may have been, it makes sense in context of Amy... but as I said if Moffat felt that way things would have gone differently.

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develish1 on September 2nd, 2012 09:14 pm (UTC)

my hubby swore at the TV lot, but then so did I, lol

To be honest, I mainly came away from it yet again wanting to smack Moffat, and fearing how he's now going to do the whole timey-wimey thing he clearly has to to get Clara onboard

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wheatear on September 3rd, 2012 06:59 pm (UTC)

If I didn't know I was watching a Moffat episode, I'd know I was watching a Moffat episode.

Yep.

Eleven never SAW Clara, so is her entire companion run going to be a time loop?

This is my thought, yes. Moffat's done this before, but I can see it happening again.

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